At a glance
The Board of Education welcomed Dr. Elsa Courtright Torres as the district's new executive director of teaching and learning, then suspended the meeting for close to an hour to wait on returns from the annual budget vote and board election. When the board came back, the highest board election totals read aloud were 430 votes for Matthew Mackerer and 382 for Amanda Grubler, and a motion went forward to accept the results of Proposition 1 on the 2024-25 budget, whose dollar amount the captions garbled. A long facilities committee report covered 37 pool parties, a fried elevator motherboard at the junior high, 14 new cameras outside the junior and senior high schools, and a phone system original to the building in 1969. Board members also picked up New York State School Boards Association achievement awards, read out letter by letter at the table. The captions record almost nothing between roughly 28 and 84 minutes, so the student representative report and anything else in that stretch are missing from this record.
Call to Order, Roll Call and Personnel Items
After about six minutes of silent captions, the meeting was called to order for the Pledge of Allegiance, a roll call, and motions on the agenda and personnel items.
Key points
- The captions record roll call replies for names captured as Tracy, Lauren Jones, Willette Jones, Calvin Lewis and Walker, plus a name captured as Kiren Guston
- A motion to accept the agenda as presented drew a second and went to a voice vote
- The chair said no executive session was needed
- A motion on personnel agenda items A through I drew a second and went to a voice vote
- The captions record the call for all in favor but none of the responses, so no outcome is in the record
YouTube auto-captions do not label speakers and garble names badly. The archive cannot say from this transcript who was present or in what role, and a student representative answers roll call at these meetings alongside board members. The line introducing the personnel motion is also broken in the captions, which first say personnel items are not needed and then move a block of them.
A New Executive Director of Teaching and Learning
The board welcomed Dr. Elsa Courtright Torres to the district as executive director of teaching and learning, with a long introduction of her background read into the record.
Key points
- Dr. Courtright Torres comes to the district with 30 years of experience as an educator
- She spent six and a half years as a director in the office of school quality for the New York City public schools, running qualitative reviews using the city's school quality rubric
- Before that she was interim assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Pauling Central School District and principal of the Gidney Avenue Memorial School in Newburgh for eight years
- She began her career as a first grade bilingual teacher and later held teaching and administrative assignments serving grades K through 12
- The introduction credited her with closing the achievement gap for English language learners and historically marginalized students at Gidney Avenue, which became a turnaround school
- Her degrees include a bachelor of arts from CUNY Hunter College, a master of science in bilingual education, an advanced certificate in school district administration from Mercy College, and a doctorate in educational leadership from North Central University
- The welcome ended in applause
Names of places and institutions in this introduction, including the district in Pauling and the school in Newburgh, are spelled as the captions rendered them and have not been verified.
State School Boards Association Awards for Board Members
A letter from the New York State School Boards Association was read into the record, followed by individual award letters for board members who had earned achievement recognition.
Key points
- The association letter, addressed to Dr. Pennyman, explained a program that recognizes board members through four achievement levels
- Points are accumulated through association training workshops, events and activities, and through roles such as board president and advocacy liaison
- The annual cutoff date for point accumulation is March 31
- A level two Lifetime Achievement Award letter was read for a member the captions call Graham, which carries recognition in the association's newspaper plus a certificate
- A second level two Lifetime Achievement Award letter was read for Mark DePace
- A level one Board Achievement Award letter, carrying a certificate of recognition, was read for a member the captions call Walker, and a fourth letter at level one was read again in DePace's name
- The presenter thanked members for continuing to be a board that learns
The captions render the surname in the second and fourth award letters the same broken way, so the transcript cannot settle whether the level one letter went to the same member as the level two letter or to someone else. The first name in the Graham letter is also garbled.
Consent Agenda
The board took the consent agenda as a single block with no discussion in the transcript.
Key points
- A motion to accept the consent agenda, rendered in the captions as items A through G, drew a second and went to a voice vote
- The captions record the call for all in favor without the responses
- No individual consent item is discussed anywhere in the transcript
Facilities Report: Pool Parties, Fees and Staffing
A committee member read out notes from the facilities meeting, starting with the pool and the maintenance department.
Key points
- Two to four lifeguards are being trained now to come online for the school year, according to a pool update attributed in the notes to Matthew Leonard
- 37 pool parties have taken place, and the fees for lifeguards and for open room use need review for the upcoming school year
- The district website needs updated pool information, a QR code and PayPal details so swimmers can pay without cash
- The member described staff finding a box full of money and change in an office by the pool, which is part of why they want payments going straight into the district account
- The committee wants to sort out who receives courtesy cards and senior discounts, and how, because more seniors want to swim
- The maintenance department is currently fully staffed
- Over the summer the department will keep working with a workforce summer youth program the captions call CGCC, typically about five to seven students who help with projects around the buildings and learn the work
The captions render the student fee as 150 and the parent fee as $2, and the speaker's point was that the amounts are specific enough that swimmers need exact change. The actual student fee cannot be read from this transcript, so it is left out here rather than repaired.
Building Repairs: Boilers, Chillers and a Fried Elevator Board
The facilities notes moved through building repairs across the district, including an elevator out of service at the junior high.
Key points
- A roof leak at MC Smith is being worked on
- Water meters have been purchased and will be replaced in July
- Boiler repairs have been completed, though leaks remain and are being worked on
- One chiller pump has been sent out for rebuild and install and a second is out for rebuild, with the member explaining that the constantly running chiller at MC Smith means one unit covers while the other is repaired
- The elevator motherboard at the junior high fried and is being repaired, taking about three weeks at a cost of $3,000
- Students who have difficulty with stairs are using MC Smith's ramps, with assistance, or getting support downstairs while the elevator is out
- A vendor contract the captions call MDS is out in June, and new requests for proposals will go out for next year
- On a separate project the captions call halfback, all 20 units are installed, the electrician punch list is done and the mechanical punch list is scheduled
The wing of MC Smith with the roof leak, the vendor name behind the expiring contract, the name of the 20 unit project and the date of its mechanical punch list are all broken in the captions and are described here only as far as the transcript supports.
Cameras, Bathroom Damage and the Smart Schools Grant
Security work made up a large part of the facilities report, alongside damage in the high school bathrooms.
Key points
- Cameras have been added to the stairwells
- 14 new cameras have gone into high traffic areas in front of the junior and senior high school, which the member said will help greatly with safety
- An order has been placed for two cameras on Paddock Street, where the member said something occurred
- New software servers have been installed, and Tyler spent two days walking through every camera and location in the district with the automation vendor
- A quote is still pending and would be paid through the smart schools grant
- Bathrooms will be repainted over Memorial Day break, and the district will encourage keeping bathroom doors locked, which has helped after destruction in the high school bathrooms
- Doors will be added to four high school restrooms and will remain locked through the day, and no issues were reported with HVAC
Equipment, Radios and a Phone System From 1969
The report listed equipment being replaced this year and updates on the district's radios and telephones.
Key points
- Replacements this year include two vehicles, zero turn mowers, a golf cart, a welder, weed whackers, pole saws, side by side vehicles, two ride on machines, rotor tillers, push mowers, two sanders, and a washer and dryer
- Sensors were purchased to collect flow rate data in the junior high and tech wing, EV car chargers have been installed, and a new gas pump has been ordered for installation on Memorial Day weekend
- Pool staff will move to badges instead of written sign-in sheets so the district can see who is in the building from a computer
- The junior high received 10 radios, with another 10 for the high school and MC Smith and 10 more on order expected to arrive in the fall
- The new repeater is working well and gives the elementary, middle and high schools their own channels instead of one shared frequency, and the district is waiting on its own FCC license while borrowing another
- The phone system is original to the building in 1969, and the district is moving to voice over IP and cloud based service
- No vendor has been chosen yet for the phones, with companies including Verizon and Comcast among those that pitched
The captions read the radio numbers as a string of tens without separating which building got which delivery, so the split between the junior high, the high school and MC Smith is uncertain.
Safety Plans, Recess and Inspections
The report closed with updated safety plans, a relocated lunchtime recess, and building inspections.
Key points
- A consultant the captions call Alteris, who ran the district's safety walkthroughs, has updated the district wide safety plan and the building level emergency plan
- The plans will be posted for 30 days of review and come up for adoption at the organizational board meeting in July
- The member recalled the consultant's suggestion of a remote site where parents could pick up children instead of everyone driving to the school in an emergency
- Lunchtime recess has been relocated off the front parking lot area to the back and side turfs, which the member said has drawn really good feedback and lets students play without worrying about hitting cars
- Inspections have been completed on sprinklers, fire systems and elevators
- The MC Smith track drew no complaints except about garbage pickup, which was addressed
- Quotes are being gathered for MC Smith fire doors, with hopes of a grant to support the purchase, and exit signs and lighting at MC Smith have been replaced and repaired
Meeting Suspended for Election Returns
The board suspended the meeting to wait for polling locations to report, and the captions go nearly silent for the next hour.
Key points
- A motion to suspend the meeting until all polling locations had reported drew a second and went to a voice vote
- A member pointed out that the student report had been skipped, and the board moved to come back so the student representative could give it
- The captions capture no student report and only stray fragments for the next stretch of the meeting
From about 28 minutes to about 84 minutes the transcript contains only single stray characters and a few unrelated snatches of conversation. The student representative report and any other business handled in that stretch are not in this record.
Budget Proposition and Board Election Results
With the polls reported, the board took up the results of the budget proposition and read the board election tallies into the record.
Key points
- A motion was made to accept the results of Proposition 1, the 2024-25 budget for the Hudson City School District in Columbia County, and it drew a second and a voice vote
- The budget amount read aloud is garbled in the captions and is not reproduced here
- The captions do not record yes and no totals for the proposition, so this transcript does not show the outcome of the budget vote
- Board election totals read aloud were 430 votes for Matthew Mackerer, 382 for Amanda Grubler, 300 for Daryl Blanks, 96 for an incumbent named as Graham, and 91 for Michaela McLinton
- Write-ins included 2 votes for a name captioned as Waren Jones and various others with one vote each
- The clerk's reading said the two candidates with the most votes will serve three-year terms from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027, and that results will be certified by the district clerk
The captions render the proposition amount as a broken string of digits beginning 55,66. The true figure is roughly 55 million dollars but the exact number is unreadable, so it is left out rather than repaired. Candidate surnames here are also caption spellings and may be off.
Upcoming Meetings and Adjournment
The board read its June meeting dates into the record and adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
Key points
- Tuesday, June 11, 2024: regular Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m. in the high school library
- Tuesday, June 25, 2024: policy committee meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the high school library
- Tuesday, June 25, 2024: regular Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m. in the high school library
- The chair said there was no need for a second executive session
- A motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:25 p.m. drew a second and went to a voice vote
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.