Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 0:28E, e, e, e, e, e, e e.
2. 4:04Aliance I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all. Thank you, missy.
3. 4:23A roll call please. Mark the case here. Here, kers Lauren Jones. Glette Jones, y, here. Here, thank you.
4. 4:45I would like to make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
5. 4:48Second.
6. 4:50All in favor. Now we'll have the student representative report.
7. 4:55Hi, so there are quite a few things ni to catch you guys up on. First, the Hudson student council will be hosting and moderating a meet the board night at Hudson High School on May 16th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. We welcome community members to attend our upcoming Forum as valued listeners um and we do appreciate diverse opinions, but the event is an informative session only so only the moderators will be asking the potential board members questions and they are going to be asked to refrain from speaking during during the Forum from um.
8. 5:29Varsity Club is hosting their basketball tournament this Friday and then a soccer tournament May 20th in viron one regionals and they're going on to States May 22nd and 23rd. AP exam season is in Full Throttle so lots of stress around that and the Multicultural Club is hosting their Festival 7th to 9th period on May 17th. By the way there will be a henna stand run by yours Julie so um.
9. 6:00Model un recently went to Dalton and the National Honor Society induction will be May 20 May 14th the upcoming Tuesday after this week and band is having a showcase as a fundraiser for the music department on May 21st. I think that's all for today. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
10. 6:36Presentations, that's a 2024 PR. [Music] Presentation.
11. 6:45Hi everyone, so I'm Angelina T and I'm representing the class of 2024 today. So so um our PR is going to be uh Saturday June 1st um so our location is going to be at the Falls um in green and our theme is going to be masquerade so that's really exciting. And so the prom walk is going to be held at 5: and it's going to be held at the fireman's home um.
12. 7:13The reason why we're switching it up this year is because there's U more events than normal at the waterfront so people are allowed to go down there and take pictures if they want to but the walk is going to be held at the iron home and that's going to be at 5 i% um. And our music is going to be by uh she's not up there but um DJ Maria I don't know if you've ever heard of her um and our food is going to be CED by in please uh she's local um which is cool and the tickets are $25 each um.
13. 7:48That's about it. Any questions about prom? No.
14. 7:51Okay so this is extra um our senior trip is going to be at Rocking Horse Ranch um. There's a lot of things included, there's going there's a water park as you can see in that picture over there, there's horse riding, there's laser tag uh there's a lot of cool things and we're excited for that to happen. That's going to be June 3rd so it's going to be a Monday.
15. 8:15And this is everything, this is all the um information on the buses and everything else. That's it, any questions? Okay. [Music]
16. 8:33Okay, open public budget here. All right, can everybody hear me if I talk over here instead of over here? Is that okay? That's better. Oh Lance says the microphone.
17. 9:02All right um so tonight I'm going to present the budget hearing with Dr pennyman and I'll let her introduce.
18. 9:09So um m is just going to go through the budget here and again at the budget here in information with you we have all been following or presenting up until this point so she will just let you know where we are from this point and going forward. Thank you.
19. 9:28So our budget's still focused around our vision and our mission and it's the um focal point of all we're doing. Additionally um the purpose of our budget has not changed, we're sticking in line with the six keys of school Success that were presented to or six keys to successful schools excuse me that Dr pennyman presented in 125-day plan um and observations so we want to make sure we're aligning our budget to meet the needs of the district and uh those findings.
20. 9:57We are containing all general fund educational programs and services for students where uh the Board of Education approved for us to present a 2% tax levy increase to support our Revenue stream and we're going to continue to invest in classroom technology and instruction to make sure we're staying student focused um in our budget planning.
21. 10:21Here's a historical chart of our budgets over the years as you can see um our budget increase for expenses this year is in line with the increase in our taxes so we have our expenses increasing by 2% in line with that tax levy increase um. Prior years last year we went out at a 0.71% tax levy or expense increase which was a 0% Levy increase so um we're increasing a little bit more um in line with what we have what we're seeing going to happen um for projected Revenue costs um loss in the future.
22. 10:55So um I'll talk about a little bit more later but some focused things that we need to think about when we're thinking about budgeting is not just about this year. When we budget we want to think about next year and the year after and the year after and how can we sustain what we do now through the future. So when we create a budget we're trying to keep it flat as you can see we've seen the increase, this dotted line is our percent increase over time and we have been decreasing those increases over time so um we will continue to try to work with that Trend.
23. 11:28But the state government has also talked about changing the way they're funding our state aid, we'll get to a chart about our revenue and state aid in a minute but just keep that in mind when we start talking about those things.
24. 11:41Here's our expenses by category and this chart is the categories as we present them to the state and as we present them in the budget newsletter and as we present them in the budget book. On this side is a little bit different of a breakdown of the different expenses that we're talking about here but either chart will equal that 2% increase year-over-year. It's about a million dollar I'll draw your attention to payroll as our biggest
25. 12:07chunk of our pie which is integrated within all of those categories so payroll is not just in general support or instruction but it's also in transportation and um and employee benefits debt Services Debt Service that's our loans that we owe to the for bonds we've toen out for um taken out excuse me for um projects on Capital Improvements.
26. 12:32here's the tax levy history we're in line with what the percent Levy was in 2223 I'll draw your attention to that in 2223 the the district was able the blue column is how much we are allowed to Levy based on a calculation formulation by the New York State uh com controller the yellow um line is our bar is what we're actually leving each year so as you can see the district has never levied the entire amount of what they're allowed right the cap versus the levy.
27. 13:06what is the impact of this 2% tax levy increase so we took the uh tax rates or the mill rates that are posted on the Columbia County website for each of the counties and we multiplied that I think it's a nine-digit number by the amount 200,000 and that's how you get how much your taxes will be just so everybody understands where I came up that calculation.
28. 13:30um we chose 200,000 as kind of a median way point I will point out that it's a fully assess home value not your market value so the assessed value is what the county assessor says your house is worth versus the market value which is what you would see on Zillow or or if you were to sell your house so that's what you get taxed on is your assessed value not your market value.
29. 13:55we also included a $300,000 home because we want to stay in line with what's actually happening in our different jurisdictions so in both categories you can see that the annual difference is about $60 to $70 or if you break it down on a monthly basis you're talking about an increase of about $6 on a monthly basis a um a $5 meal at McDonald's plus tax.
30. 14:20at the $300 $300,000 range you're looking at a little bit larger because you're at a larger uh value home but you're still Within about $10.
31. 14:33here's that Revenue I was uh alluding to earlier so the tax levy is about um 46% of our total revenue stream how we pay for our expenses so that 55 m622 in expenses is supported by three basic categories or four revenue streams as you see on the other side or this line you see on the other side.
32. 14:57um I will Point your attention to two things the state revenue is our biggest as you could see that's our other mod so both our state revenue our state aid is 48% of our Revenue Stream So when that if you tuned in when we were first presenting the budget in um February we were afraid of losing uh $2.8 million that was in that state aid category that the governor is looking at.
33. 15:25so there's a Aid category that's not based on anything except for our wealth our enrollment and our Census Data from 2008 compared to the CPI cut in half so the foundation a formula is a very complicated calculation that the state comes up with and is evaluating and redistributing in this next year.
34. 15:45so we have to keep in mind these things as we're looking at and that's why we're looking at a 2% tax levy increase so we have to take the pressure off the budget Revenue budget from the state aid and have the taxpayers supporting us just a little bit more.
35. 15:59uh additionally uh you'll notice the assigned fund balance what that means is we save money from not spending in a year and we're going to um project to save the same amount we did last year and this coming year and we're going to invest it in next year that decreases our need for taxpayer dollars in the future year right so we're taking a million dollars and applying it from savings from this year into next year.
36. 16:27what happens if the budget doesn't pass this is um important to note as well so um it's important that everybody come out and vote whether you're a yes or a no because if you're yes and you think you don't need to vote because it's going to be fine and nobody comes out and vote it's not a yes vote.
37. 16:45it's not a yes vote unless you yes vote it's not a no vote unless you no vote and we need everybody to come out and vote if we are not able to pass the budget and the Board of Education decides they don't want to go out for a second vote we would have to go to a contingency budget.
38. 17:01contingency budget takes out all of the fun things kids enjoy uh Sports Arts Library music those types of things that are non-c contractually required for educational programming so we we don't want to go to a contingency budget um it means that the levy will not increase year-over-year but it also means we have to decrease our expenses to cover that loss in Revenue.
39. 17:26budget considerations I was talking talking about that Foundation Aid formula that's a really big one um that's about $17 million we get in total state aid 14 million of that is foundation Aid so um it's a big number um we're going to need to look at replenishing our Reserve balances.
40. 17:44um in that chart it talked about using reserves we have saved money in the past and put in reserves that's being fiduciary responsible we're putting money aside to cover expenses that we may not be able to cover uh because we don't have enough money to to Levy from the taxpayers.
41. 18:00so we take that savings and we apply it to an expense for example our retirement expense um for um Employee Retirement expenses so anybody who's a non-teacher we pay a percentage of their income in a lumps some payment um it's a very big payment and so uh we are allocating from the reserve to pay for that bill instead of putting it in our expense lines.
42. 18:24additionally we have a large workers compensation budget line um we do pay a lot of money out in a year for workers compensation um it's not just the current years bills it's years from years prior um we're also using some of that Reserve money to cover those expenses.
43. 18:40long range financial planning as I told you we don't want to look at a budget as a one-year thing we want to look at four or five years ahead what are we doing now that's going to affect us later what contract negotiations are going to have a problem for us in the
44. 18:55future um out of District placements that's one of our biggest budget lines we spend about $2 million in private placements for students with special needs in our budget um in addition our transportation line is $4 million probably about 70 I'll say 30% of that is out of District placements we have to travel to bring students for example um we bring a student to pypy because that's where the place of lease resistance for that particular students needs is so uh we send them we have another student we bring to Massachusetts that trans transportation is on the district to provide um and isn't cheap and then we also have to keep an eye on those changes in enrollment how can we be more
45. 19:36fiscally responsible in our classrooms um how can we look at our buildings more fiscally responsibly so those are things we need to look at when we're looking at long range financial planning this is what's on the ballot there's one correction um the second person in line is just Amanda gr grubler she does not go by Bo anymore so that will be corrected on the ballot you won't see that hyphen name um I had bad data um but these are all of our candidates we'll also have two right in spots and here's our locations uh same locations we've had before for polling polling starts at 11:00 on May 21st and goes till 8:00 p.m. absentee ballots are being accepted uh currently
46. 20:17and I think believe they were going to be accepted until the 7th so we're on today which is our public hearing for the budget started just a little while ago um and on May 21st that's a big day that's I I implore you to please come out and vote however you feel you need to vote but vote um make sure your voice is heard make sure that the school is feeling um supported by the district in one way or another June 18th would be that revote date if our budget doesn't pass which I'm going to pretend won't happen and then July 1st will be when our implemented school budget will be and that's it for the budget hearing
47. 20:57presentation and now now we could take back there everybody heard me back there any questions there's no there's no Cuts in this budget as far as stamping right there are no Cuts but let's just be clear that if teachers are retiring they may not be replaced unless the numbers in the build are telling us that we need that okay thank you that close the public budget hearing for 20242 school year okay at this time we do need to have an executive session for the purpose of reviewing the employment history of particular person or persons e [… repeated text trimmed] e e exective session at 6:38 second all in favor I would like to make a motion to accept
48. 41:03Personnel GMS item a through M second all in favor uh ladies and gentlemen we're about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it's crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight this is because we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be we will
49. 42:02however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting where have the proper staff member get back to you at the appropriate time also want to point out that under state and federal privacy laws we're unable to entertain any comments or questions about school Personnel uh ask that speakers address the comments of the board directly rather than the audience um and each speaker is given three minutes CLA cin hi friends um I'm here to ask the board for some support with my son who is in the Intermediate School um I've been advocating for his special ed Journey since he's been in Pre prek um and I would love some support in going to the state level and asking them to look at
50. 42:51um their specialed policies and procedures um just to give you a little bit of a story time you know he has mood disorders he's on the Spectrum um he's really struggling with emotional regulation he's his teachers are doing an amazing job at trying to meet him where he's at um we're working with the special ed Department hand inand we're implementing as many things as possible um I have asked for him to be placed out of District because we have tried all of these things and because of the way that the system is set up he has to continue to fail upwards I don't want my 8-year-old to be depleted in second grade and feel like there is no help for
51. 43:31him he is involved in promis neighborhood he goes to mental health he has a counselor he has a psychiatrist he has another counselor that he just talks to he has all of the services in place and he's still failing in school um we've Stripped Away his education goals just so that he can be functional in school and I'm just not sure how much more the state is expecting children to struggle before their act their needs are actually met um and I think that this is a perfect opportunity for the board to work with parents to really have our voices be heard at the state level about um your budget presentation um you know placing students out of
52. 44:13district is expensive but it's necessary for cases like this I think you know we can't afford to lose staff members because some of the issues that he has could be addressed by having a one toone aid but there's not enough money in the budget to employ extra people to fill that position um and I hate to tie him to budgetary issues cuz it's way bigger than that but there are parents who are advocating for their children there are staff that are doing everything that they absolutely can um and I don't think this the state is getting a full picture of how bad decisions and wraparound approaches um are actually trickling down and affecting young people um so
53. 44:53hopefully somebody can get back to me and we can do something before the end of the year because I'm strongly considering not having him return to District because I just don't feel like it's conducive for his mental health or his um view of success or what ability he has to be
54. 45:10successful if he has to continue to show more and more bad behavior um before his needs are actually met thank you thank you for sharing Sandra greetings.
55. 45:35my name is Cassandra Shores and I'm the parent of an eighth Sixth and fourth grader at the Hudson City school district for the last three years many of our dinner table discussions have centered around the four classroom behavior my children have witnessed and how it has impacted their education and that of their peers. I have provided you with an email correspondence that I sent to principal Cooper and superintend Penman on the heels of the incident in the sixth grade band room um along with a brief and unhelpful reply that I received.
56. 46:01I shared this email on social media and of over the 50 comments positive comments that I received um I wanted to share just one with you. this woman wrote if the school doesn't smell like weed children aren't oding on fentel in the bathrooms and you're not seeing weapons I'd call that a good day not to trivialize this Behavior but it could be worse and perhaps it will become worse if the people aren't stepping up to the plate.
57. 46:27that was the worst most negative comment I received and if that is what the public thinks of this Hudson City School District that's deplorable and this is what our school district has become. board member depat in your bio it states that you want to quote create a school district all residents can be proud of and board member Graham you stated you quote love helping to make the school more enjoyable for everyone and that you quote didn't like the culture when you then meaning when you attended the Hudson City School District.
58. 46:54so far I don't see any of these goals being achieved by the current Administration. we have some of the lowest test scores and graduation rates we can't keep good Educators and the ones that manage to stay are handcuffed by our Administration unable to create any real change. I have inquired with the New York State Department of Education to acquire the most recent Vader and SS reports and if needed I'm planning to speak to Regional superintendent of V glat Cruz.
59. 47:19this isn't a matter to be ignored and I'm not going away. no one has ever made an impact by just Towing the line to the members of the board either you need to rethink the current Administration or we the parents need to go back to the drawing board with you. this isn't an easy issue and it will not be solved in one meeting but I'm hoping to open the door for further discussion and change. I look forward to your thoughts and reply thank you thank you.
60. 47:45Jill Turner hi I'm Jill Turner I'm a parent uh I was at the conversations with the superintendent uh meeting a few Tuesdays ago and I'd come with a couple other moms to just question the disclaimer surrounding the Book Festival um and while that didn't get resolved in my mind uh at at one point during the conversation um board member Graham said that the teacher volunteers at the festival were being paid $250 $500 $750 to work at the festival and we were all surprised by that.
61. 48:31and the unfortunately two other board members uh who were there aren't here but I was I was shocked because I was thinking wow that I've never heard of a volunteer being paid to work at the festival. so afterwards I followed up with some people who are here just to ask are you being paid to work by the Festival to work at the festival and all of them said no no volun none of the volunteers have ever been paid no volunteers are being paid.
62. 49:05um I wrote a letter to everyone who was in attendance at that uh conversations with the superintendent including Dr pennyman uh board member Graham uh board member goson Jones and the two mothers who were there. I did not get any kind of acknowledgement so or response to it but I just wanted to make sure that it is is on record that these volunteers are not being paid to work at the festival.
63. 49:31what also bothered me about that conversation was then it was implied that when Dr um Spindler was starting the Saturday Academy you weren't getting the amount of volunteers you thought you would but then when you saw how much the volunteers were being paid for the festival then you were like oh that's why they're not volunteering for the Saturday account Academy.
64. 49:56and to that for me that implied that our teachers aren't volunteering unless they're being paid which again I just wanted to come here and put it on the record uh I have been the junior high PTO president for the past year every single time we have tried to put we have put on an event whether it's an activity night or a dance or any kind of thing for these kids teachers come out in droves and I and thank you all but like teachers are coming out in droves.
65. 50:29they're donating their money they're coming late at night they're they're closing up the school they're bringing games they're they're baking cookies they're buying food and juice and stuff like that and so I just wanted to put it on the record that I I love the teachers here I think that that I I just didn't want that kind of misinformation going around that one that they are being to be on this festival and to that they wouldn't volte thank you thank Ken.
66. 51:09good evening uh for those who don't know me my name maining I'm a science teacher of high school but I'm speaking tonight as the president of Hudson Teachers Association. uh previous board meetings the the district presented the tenative budget with no Cuts any staff including including re ing a positions of those who were retiring even though the state aid was eliminated by roughly $3 million dollar at that time.
67. 51:35uh now that the budget's set and all the Aid's been returned uh my members informed me yesterday my members not Administration uh that we're cutting two elementary teacher positions to attrition. I don't care if it's retirees it's a cut you're cutting staff with a full budget.
68. 51:52um and so my question on that point is why now the budget hasn't been cut State AIDS back increased in the tax levy we shouldn't be losing anybody. uh Elementary buildings is school building has been targeted as a school in need of improvement cutting to element to teachers at this point will only result in increased class size which means students are going to get less individual instruction time by the teachers and it will increase I looked at the numbers today I went through that
69. 52:20the numbers I got they're not going down and I was told by building principal that oh I keep those two positions we're going to have class size 12 you're not you're going to be led if you get it back to 17 it's ridiculous. On top of that we recently hired two new clerks for human resources and are still looking for a human resource director. When I started here 24 years ago we had at least twice as much staff as we do right now across the district and we only had one clerk doing personnel and none of it was on the computer at the time it was all done by paper. So my next question is where is the district's priority? Are we more interested in hiring more staff to sit in the district office to look at a screen? Is that more important than the needs of our students in the classroom that are going to get hurt by cutting two positions? I really thinkk you your priorities.
70. 53:19Alissa Moore, hello, I'm Melissa Moore. I'm a first grade teacher here in Hudson and I started my journey in Hudson by being a Hudson student. I just want to talk about the importance of the Book Festival. My senior year was the first year I volunteered for the Book Festival and it was amazing, and now to be a teacher here it's really comfortable Circle. I really see the benefits of the Book Festival. I use the Book Festival books throughout the year to teach black history women's history Pride history and not just once a month throughout the entire year I've used using these Book Festival books.
71. 53:57I also organize the community room so I'm making the connections between school and the community organizations like mental health co-work college recruitment Hudson Youth Department. All these connections and and resources are free to our students. They can come to that community room and be provided with free resources another free book in addition to the free book they get in the author room. It's such an important thing and I think that our district should be supporting it fully and completely. Thank you.
72. 54:39Donna Co, hi um I'm also talking about the Hudson children's book Festival um I'm coming at it from a different angle um so just so that you know anybody who doesn't know me I have pretty deep ties to Columbia County and to Hudson specifically um. I'm Hudson taxpayer I've lived most of my adult life in this area my husband went to Hudson K through 12 my child went to Hudson K through 12 and is a graduate um.
73. 55:03I started volunteering for the Hudson um Book Festival never been paid um volunteering for the Hudson Book Festival um prior to my working here at Hudson and I never really considered School social work before that. And when I came here and I saw the the the way the district came together and from the superintendent down to every single person in the putting on of this like amazing event and their dedication to Children's liter um literacy and literature um I was like wow this is really really impressive.
74. 55:33And at that point a position opened up at the school and I applied and I remember at my second interview I was interviewing with um Dr Zer and she had said you know if you don't get chosen for this position there's a couple of other social work positions within the county within schools that you know I could refer you to. And I said I'm I'm not applying to change jobs I have a job I worked for coor for 25 years I'm I'm applying because I believe in Hudson And I want to work here and if I don't get this job I'm not going to apply for another job because I'm okay. So I feel like the Book Festival is a big reason why I work here um.
75. 56:11I have like really like come together with the students I've done a lot of different Student Activities I absolutely love my job. And on another note I want to talk about my own child because again I said that my own child went here K through 12 and during Middle School I really struggled. I'm a reader my family's a reader and I really struggled because you know young people sometimes don't like to read and I was trying to get her to read and the Book Festival was really pivotal and helping her because she made connections with specific authors like met these people met Jerry craft met Nick Brule and said oh my gosh she.
76. 56:46My my my child did a correspondent with Jerry craft for three years over um over email about graphic novels because she also o drot wrote graphic novels and so it it inspired her for a love of reading and it and it inspires a lot of kids for a love of reading. And I think that this is the one event that I'm so passionate about and it makes me proud to be a member of this school community and in the community of Hudson um and that's what I have to say thank you.
77. 57:18[Applause]
78. 57:24Thank hi um I'm Melissa Brown and I'm here to talk a bit about what the book festival means to me. As a veteran educator of over 26 years I've always loved children's literature both for the beauty of the illustrations and the messages that good quality literature imparts to children. But more importantly study after study have shown that reading aloud to Children is the number one indicator of school Success. Reading aloud to Children cannot be overestimated study after study have shown this.
79. 57:57Children who are read to are usually the very best readers in the classroom. They acquire large vocabularies they write well and they do better in other subject areas. Moreover literacy is the great equalizer. Being read to Narrows the information gap between children. It provides access to vocabulary comprehension understanding of history science important leaders and world events. Literacy Bridges the gap between different experiences.
80. 58:22Reading aloud complements any curriculum it can supplement and support and fill in gaps in information and representation. One thing that Drew me to the Book Festival was it its commitment to diversity and representation. Access to diverse literature especially for children proi provides a mirror a window and sliding glass doors, a mirror to see themselves in literature a window to see others experiences and a sliding glass door to access new ideas and build understanding and empathy.
81. 58:52A big part of the mission of the Book Festival is to Showcase diverse authors that represent our diverse population. In summary reading aloud diverse literature as provided by The Book Festival is educationally invaluable provides social emotional learning opportunities and provides diversity equity and inclusion. There is no downside to promoting books and
82. 59:15literacy in a time where some states and school districts are wrongly limiting access to books and erroneously blaming Dei. I think it's concerning to the district to distance itself from a well-loved popular and important event that showcases literature literacy and diversity. Thank you, thank you.
83. 59:40Jen Nixon. So I, I am one of the directors along with Melissa of the Book Festival. So since its Inception in 2009 by Lisa Dolan and Maria STM the Hudson children's book Festival has been a collaborative effort with the Hudson City School District designed to enrich our community's cultural and educational landscape. Melissa Brown and I alongside a dedicated team of teachers AIDS secretaries uh teaching assistants parents and Community Partners have always prioritized the needs and interests of Hudson students.
84. 1:00:16Our mission is to foster a lifelong love of reading among students by providing access to a diverse array of books and authors that reflect the experiences and cultures of our student body. Okay, um over the past 13 years the festival has invested significantly in our schools, purchasing hundreds of books for our school libraries in every building and thousands more for classroom use.
85. 1:00:44These resources support instructional activities and personal exploration helping students broaden their understanding and see themselves represented in literature. We have been privileged to host School visits by by distinguished authors such as Walter Dean Meers Nick Brule Selena Yun Ellen Hopkins Tory Maldonado Valerie bowling um Jason Reynolds Jerry craft Hudson talbet among scores of others. These visits Inspire and engage our students opening doors to new ideas and perspectives.
86. 1:01:14Furthermore the festival is a vital part of our community outreach providing all students with a good for coupon courtesy of the Hudson literacy fund. Our students are given purchasing power with that coupon on Festival day and the festival is committed to organizing transportation to ensure that every single one of our kids can get here to the festival. Our high school students also gained valuable community service experience by volunteering at our event.
87. 1:01:41The festival's ability to provide these enriching experiences is largely due to the generosity of Our Community Partners and sponsors. This year significant contributions have come from the spark of Hudson the Galvin Foundation uh HT a high Mark Blue Shield HRBT and several more as highlighted on our website. Additionally the Hudson literacy fund which I mentioned earlier a nonprofit entity not affiliated with the school district has been a key supporter helping to finance the purchase of books for so many of our students both past and present.
88. 1:02:13The school district's contribution has been crucial providing a familiar venue that enhances the students connection to the event making it a personal and communal highlight of the year. Recently there have been misunderstandings and misstatements regarding the operational aspects of the festival. To set the record straight I want to clarify that no organizers or volunteers are compensated financially. Our team is driven by a commitment to literacy and education not personal gain.
89. 1:02:45The notion of separating the festival from the school district is concerning as such a move could undermine an event that has become a highlight of the Academic Year and a source of pride for the community. Melissa and I are eager to discuss anything you'd like with the superintendent and the Board of Education regarding the festival whenever you're available. Thank you.
90. 1:03:13[Applause] congratulations super [Music]
91. 1:03:31So good evening everyone. We have some great things going on in the district and the first thing I'd like to talk about is that our food service department was featured in the New York State Department of Education Surfs Up which is a publication that they put out about um what's happening across the state and Hudson City school was mentioned several times. So board members I'd like to just pass this around so you can see but this is also on the New York State Department of Education under their food service section food and nutrition section.
92. 1:04:07This is teacher appreciation week and I would like to continue to let the teachers know how much we appreciate them everything they do for our students on a daily basis um. It was also principal's appreciation day last week so I also want to let our principes know how much um we appreciate everything they do for our students our district and the committee.
93. 1:04:33Our school Improvement uh sessions and and working sessions and planning sessions are moving forward in a positive manner and so tomorrow we will be Distributing the Chromebooks to the junior high and Senior High teachers. Those are the free Chromebooks that we receive um from Verizon. So we're going to have a really fun roll out session at the high school tomorrow afternoon for the junior high and Senior High teachers.
94. 1:05:04However coupled with that we' have been finding ways to show our appreciation to our teachers and so today every building received um an assortment of cookies and soft drinks from the central office from from the district and also tomorrow um to ro roll out um our achievement in the and uh the achieving the Verizon Innovative learning program which is as you have heard is a very tough compe competition. This did not come easy we are very privileged and honored to be a part of such a distinguished group of schools Across the Nation um in Hudson.
95. 1:05:46So tomorrow we're going to roll out um free devices that our teachers are getting and with that we're also going to have an ice cream social but it just won't be for the senior high and the junior high teachers. We are celebrating across the district um so the elementary school will also be able to receive that ice cream social and this is also a part of our Novo Grant. So I want to thank uh Teresa Hayes and uh Tracy Gaffney for getting the ice cream uh together all I said was we need to roll out and have some fun while doing it and I'd like to probably have some ice cream and they took it away and they ran with it so thank you.
96. 1:06:32Um also um the batting cages are up on both baseball fields I don't know if you've noticed that and then I will be sending out through um Austin kroer probably sometime next week um some volunteers asking for U volunteers um to begin reviewing our strategic plan process.
97. 1:06:57And then um last week I had the opportunity I was invited by um uh legislature um Dee Barrett um to attend a conversation about an electric buses um. I attended with other superintendents I'm not saying that we're going to get electric buses because we're all just exploring this and trying to find ways um to improve our transportation costs but a lot of superintendent attend ended and we began the the conversation around this um. So thank you so much for listening and thank you for coming.
98. 1:07:33tonight thank you be resolve that the Board of Education approves consistent item legitim one a through D all in favor thank you important dates May 14 2024 facility committee meeting 4 a.m. 400 p.m in the high school library May 22nd 2024 policy committee meeting 7 p.m. in the high school library May 22nd 2024 annual budget vote in Ed um election board of education meeting 8:00 p.m. High School library June 11th 2024 regular board Ed meeting at 600 p.m. in the high school library same the first one.
99. 1:08:52so at this time we do have the leave for another executive session for the purpose of employment history of particular person particular and persons yeah particular persons personal persons at that time we end our at 7:07 and enter into executive session thank you there'll be no further uh business after this thank you all for being here e e e e e e e for

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