At a glance
Hudson's Board of Education started its new year by swearing in its members and choosing officers, and the choice of president came with a public rebuke. A newly seated member used the nomination discussion to ask Willette Jones to refuse the nomination, saying the board had spent much of June on the Book Festival instead of on an elementary school targeted for improvement and a possible $3 million hit to next year's budget if the state aid formula changes. Another member answered that the dissent was welcome and pledged to support Jones if elected vice president. The board went on to swear Jones in as president and Mark DePace as vice president, filled its policy, facilities and audit committees, ran through the long list of annual appointments for 2024-25, and adopted several policies while holding the code of conduct and the athletic code of conduct for a third read. Members adjourned at 6:45 p.m. to seek legal advice from the school attorney on a matter made confidential by law.
Roll Call and the Loyalty Oath
The meeting opened with a roll call and with the loyalty oath administered to the board members for the new year.
Key points
- Voices answering the roll included Amanda, Willette Jones and Calvin Lewis, plus a first name the captions render only as Mar
- All members were asked to stand and raise their right hand for the loyalty oath
- One member said that as a member of the Religious Society of Friends they do not swear but affirm that what they say is the truth
- The oath committed members to support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New York and to faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board member
The recording carries no speech for its first seven minutes, so anything said before the roll call is absent from the record. The roll call itself is partly garbled, and the captions never record how many members answered, so this page does not state who was present or absent.
Nominating a President, and a Call to Refuse It
The floor opened for nominations for board president, Willette Jones was nominated and seconded, and the discussion that followed turned into a long statement from a member asking her to step aside.
Key points
- A motion opened the floor for nominations for Board of Education president, Willette Jones was nominated, and the nomination was seconded
- A member speaking in the discussion said the elementary school is targeted for improvement and that the district stands to lose $3 million in next year's budget if the state aid formula is adjusted
- He said that according to the former student representative, high schoolers do not feel safe in the bathrooms
- He said the superintendent was not comfortable serving as a liaison with the endowment fund, did not want school time used for festival preparation or a district email address used by the festival, and that he supports those decisions as within her purview
- He said he would have handled the Book Festival matter through a letter setting out the district's requirements, updating internal forms, removing the district address from the festival's listing on the district website, and adopting a resolution of support for the festival's work promoting children's literacy
- He said the board met for 1 hour and 16 minutes of public content during June and that nearly 40 minutes went to the Book Festival, which he called more than half of the board's public agenda for the month, while public content at the June 11 meeting ran only 4 minutes
- He said the board is not an investigative body and should delegate concerns of wrongdoing to the district's auditors and attorneys, and named things that time could have gone to instead, including a student council presentation on the school climate report and a presentation on the state aid formula
- He asked Jones to refuse the nomination to show accountability and, failing that, asked the board to vote no, saying the vice president's experience and the experience of the member leading the policy committee made both fit for leadership
The speaker is thanked as Matt in the reply that follows, and the roster spells that member Matt Mackerer, but several names inside his statement are garbled beyond recognition in the captions and are left out here. His sentence about June's meeting time is broken in the transcript, so the minutes and the claim about more than half the agenda are reported as he said them rather than reconciled.
Another member answered that the comments were appreciated and that many of them were right, said dissent is necessary for the board to do its job well, acknowledged that the board has not been perfect and neither has that member, and said that if elected vice president they would do everything in their power to ensure a successful presidency for Willette Jones.
Jones Sworn as President, DePace as Vice President
The board voted on the presidency, backtracked to close the nominations it had left open, then filled the vice presidency and administered the oath of office to both officers.
Key points
- Members realized the floor had never been closed, so they moved to close nominations for president and then moved to elect Willette Jones board president
- The floor was opened for vice president nominations, Mark DePace was nominated and seconded, nominations were closed, and a motion was made to elect him vice president
- The loyalty oath was then administered to the board president and to the board vice president in turn
- Later motions in the meeting refer to Willette Jones as board president and Mark DePace as board vice president
The captions record the call for all in favor on each motion but never the responses, so this page says the motions were put to a voice vote. The outcome is clear from what follows: both officers were sworn in and are addressed by those titles for the rest of the meeting.
Agenda, District Officers and Oaths for the Clerks
With officers in place, the board accepted its agenda, approved the district office appointments for the year, and swore in the board clerk and a clerk pro tem.
Key points
- A motion to accept the agenda as presented was made, seconded and put to a voice vote
- A motion was made to approve the 2024-25 district office appointments as listed
- The oath of office was administered to the board clerk
- A member noted that the clerk pro tem is usually the superintendent, and that oath was administered as well
Committees for the Year Ahead
The board filled its policy, facilities and audit committees for 2024-25, and said a curriculum committee is on the way.
Key points
- Policy committee: Leia Walker, Amanda Grubler and Mark DePace, with Walker staying on and a third seat taken during the discussion
- Facilities committee: Calvin Lewis, Kjirsten Gustavson and Willette Jones
- Audit committee: Matt Mackerer, Willette Jones and Mark DePace
- Audit committee members were sworn in with an oath to faithfully discharge the duties of the office of audit committee member
- The board said it is in the process of forming a curriculum committee and will name members once a resolution sets it up
The Annual Appointments List
The board worked through the yearly slate of appointments and designations, most of them read as listed rather than described aloud.
Key points
- District level and building level coordinators were appointed for the year, including associate principals at the elementary schools, the Hudson Junior High School and Hudson High School
- Separate motions covered the Title 5 and Title 9 coordinator and investigator, the school district attorney, the bond attorney and the labor relations attorney
- Further motions covered the independent external auditor, a district level independent evaluator, district insurance counsel, the student accident insurance carrier, the district architect and financial consulting services
- The board also appointed a director of student services, a chief emergency officer and a head maintenance worker for 2024-25
- A motion named Dr. Kia Presley as the district's HIPAA compliance officer
- Designations included the official depository, the Bank of Greene County, a second bank whose name the captions garble, a state cooperative investment program, and an investment and borrowing item
Most of these motions were read as listed on paper, and the captions mangle the personal names and several of the titles, including the district level coordinator role. Names that could not be recovered cleanly are left out rather than guessed at, and the firms and individuals behind most of the appointments are not in the transcript at all.
Organizational Chart and Policy Readings
The board took a first read of the district organizational chart and adopted it the same night, adopted four policy items on second read, and held the code of conduct for a third read.
Key points
- The district organizational chart for 2024-25 came as a first read and was moved for adoption the same evening after a member said it looked good
- Second read and adoption of policy 0115, 0115 E and 0115 R, student bullying prevention and intervention
- Second read and adoption of policy 1900, parent engagement
- Second read and adoption of policy 5100, the attendance policy
- Second read and adoption of policy 6240 and 6240 R, investments, and of policy 6700 and 6700 R, purchasing
- Policy 5300, the code of conduct, and policy 5300.26, the athletic code of conduct, were held for a third read while the athletic director finishes reviewing the revisions
- A member said the revised athletic code had been posted and circulated but wanted confirmation that building administrators had actually read it before adoption
The board's next meeting, on July 23, 2024, took up motions to adopt policy 5300 and policy 5300.26 for the 2024-2025 school year, with a member noting the code of conduct remained under review by administration and the policy committee.
Personnel and Consensus Agendas
Two omnibus motions moved the evening's personnel and consensus items.
Key points
- A motion was made to accept personnel agenda items a through n
- A motion was made to approve consensus agenda items a through AA
- Both were seconded and put to a voice vote, with no discussion captured on either
- The individual items behind both agendas are not read aloud, so they are not in the transcript
State Convention and Upcoming Dates
The board heard about the state school boards association's annual convention and ran through its own summer meeting calendar.
Key points
- The annual convention is scheduled for New York City, October 20 through 22, 2024
- Registration opens July 30 at 9 a.m., and members interested in going were asked to let Tracy know so rooms can be held ahead of time
- Rooms will be booked in advance and the conference rate requested once the registration window opens, which was described as what a lot of schools are doing
- July 23, 2024: policy committee, 5 to 6 p.m., high school library, followed by a Board of Education meeting at 6 p.m.
- August 13, 2024: Board of Education meeting, high school library, 6 p.m.
- August 27, 2024: policy committee, 5 to 6 p.m., high school library, followed by a Board of Education meeting in the high school library
Adjournment to Seek Legal Advice
The board closed the public meeting to consult the school attorney.
Key points
- A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 6:45 p.m. and close it to seek legal advice from the school attorney on a matter made confidential by law
- The motion was seconded and put to a voice vote
- The presiding officer thanked everyone for being there, and the public record ends
The recording runs roughly another half hour past adjournment with no speech captured at all, so nothing from the closed session is in the transcript and nothing appears to have happened in public afterward.
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.