At a glance
The district's student representative used his first report of the year to tell the Board of Education that the high school has struggled with follow through on its new cell phone rule, and that students' resistance to a rule should not decide whether it sticks. The superintendent's own report said the rule has been well received, and walked the board through the numbered pouches students use during class, a made-over high school cafeteria, and food service orders up 5%. Most of the evening went to Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School's comprehensive education plan for 2024-25, built around relationship building, a social and emotional learning approach called RULER, daily writing, attendance, and outreach to families the school has not reached. The board also welcomed a new agriculture teacher and a new social studies teacher, heard that third grade teacher Jill Hanley has been named associate principal at Montgomery C. Smith, and took public comment from the junior high PTO and from Hudson Hall. Motions on the agenda, personnel and the consent agenda were each put to a voice vote; the captions record the call for all in favor but not the responses.
Pledge, Roll Call and the Agenda
The recording opens with the Pledge of Allegiance and a roll call, followed by a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
Key points
- The captions pick up as the room recites the Pledge of Allegiance; the call to order itself is not in the record
- Names recorded at roll call: Mark DePace, Amanda, a name the captions render as 'K gusterson', Willette Jones, Calvin Lewis, Matthew Mackerer, and a name rendered as 'laia Walker'
- A motion to accept the agenda as presented was seconded and put to a voice vote
The auto captions clip first names and surnames. Where a garbled surname clearly matches the district's published spelling it is spelled out here; where it does not, the caption text is quoted as is. The captions record the call for all in favor but not the responses, so this page does not say how any vote came out.
The Student Representative's First Report
Thomas, the board's student representative, gave his first report of the school year: an introduction, a smooth start to classes, athletics, and a pointed comment on the high school's new cell phone rule.
Key points
- He introduced himself and listed his activities: president of mock trial, vice president of Model UN, president of the music honor society, playing in the musical pit bands, student tech crew, work in the technology office, and a summer internship
- He said the first days of school went well and that technology distribution went smoothly, with most students holding Chromebooks and ready to use them
- Athletics have kicked off, and he described a well attended first home football game that Hudson won
- On the new cell phone rule, he said he would not give an opinion but felt it was his duty to say the high school has struggled with follow through and with holding firm
- He added that if the district or the high school makes rules that change students' daily lives, students' resistance to those rules should not dictate whether the rules happen
- He invited board members to field day on September 25, part of that week's spirit week, and to the homecoming football game that Friday
- Asked how people are liking the food, he said the cafeteria has been fantastic and that he has not brought lunch from home once this year
The captions render the score of the first home football game as '180', which is not a readable score. The result is described here only as a win. The student representative's surname is also garbled, so only his first name appears.
Personnel Items and a Welcome for New Teachers
The board moved its personnel items and then welcomed two new teachers, with a long introduction for the district's new agriculture teacher.
Key points
- A member said there was no need for an early executive session and asked whether anyone had questions on the personnel agenda
- A motion to accept personnel items A through S was made, seconded and put to a voice vote
- Kathleen, the new agriculture teacher at the high school and junior high school, was introduced and asked to stand
- She studied biochemistry at Rutgers University in New Jersey with a focus on plant and microbial systems, and is in her final semester of a master's degree in agriculture education
- She spent the past seven years at Rondout High School as a greenhouse technician in its agriculture program, coached girls basketball and lacrosse, and advised the environmental club, where she spearheaded a schoolwide composting program
- She has grown organic fruit and vegetables for 15 years, and the presenter said she once rode her bicycle solo from San Francisco into Mexico
- Edward, a new social studies teacher at the high school, was introduced next
The captions garble both new teachers' surnames, the graduate program's campus, and the county and destination in the agriculture teacher's biography, so only the readable parts appear here.
Jill Hanley Named Associate Principal at Montgomery C. Smith
The board heard that Jill Hanley, a third grade teacher at Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School, has been named the school's associate principal.
Key points
- The presenter said Hanley was appointed at that night's meeting and will transition slowly into the new role while the district finds a replacement for her third grade classroom
- Hanley has been part of the school community for many years as a third grade teacher and a member of many committees
- The presenter credited her with innovative teaching methods that engaged students, and with mentoring new teachers as a senior member of the teaching staff
- The presenter also credited her with advocating for students, including individualized learning plans and support programs
- The presenter said it is always great to be able to promote from within, and the announcement drew applause
- The presenter briefly used the wrong surname before correcting it to Jill Hanley
Public Comment: Junior High PTO Looks for Members and Runs a Taco Fundraiser
The board read its public comment ground rules, then heard from the president of the junior high PTO, who handed out a newsletter and described a restaurant fundraiser.
Key points
- A board member explained that state law does not require a public comment period, that the board holds one anyway because it believes hearing from the community matters, that the board is there to listen rather than to discuss, and that each speaker gets three minutes
- The PTO president handed out a newsletter recapping what the group accomplished last year and said it is trying to continue what Jill started
- The group is looking for members, particularly parents and teachers from the junior high
- The PTO is running a fundraiser with Coyote Flo, a restaurant owned by Christian Lopez, the father of a junior high student, selling a taco kit on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from now through December
- She asked whether flyers could be posted in student and teacher lounges and main offices, and whether a digital copy could go out through ParentSquare
- She said the junior high had already shared the flyer with junior high parents through ParentSquare, and that the group wants more members, donations and fun activities for the kids
The captions record only a fragment of the speaker's first name, so she is identified here by her role.
Public Comment: Hudson Hall Invites Students to a Frederick Douglass Show and the Jazz Festival
Sage, from Hudson Hall, described three fall programs open to district students: a performance about Frederick Douglass, a free jazz community day, and a master class for the band program.
Key points
- Hudson Hall will offer its show about the life of Frederick Douglass, which she referred to as No Cowards in Our Band, to Hudson High School students on Friday, November 1, ahead of a ticketed public performance on Saturday, November 2
- She said a jazz pianist has written a new score for the piece and described the actor playing Frederick Douglass and a soprano in the cast
- The jazz festival starts at the end of September, with a free community day on Saturday, September 28 featuring a band led by Melanie Charles playing a set and then opening a jam session to the audience; the district band program is invited
- On Saturday, October 5, a visiting trumpet player will lead a master class workshop for band students, something Hudson Hall has done during the festival for the past four or five years
- She said visiting musicians usually get down into the pit with the band, play with the students and talk about life as a touring professional
- A board member asked for digital copies of the flyers to post on the board's own social media, and she agreed to send them
Superintendent's Report: The First Week of School
The superintendent's report focused on the opening of school, beginning with the September 3 conference day and the first day of classes on September 4.
Key points
- The September 3, 2024 superintendent conference day opened with a keynote from a nationwide speaker who had been a principal and a teacher
- Two other presenters followed, one on district initiatives and one on a teaching and learning initiative
- Summer professional development for teachers, faculty and staff was built around what the superintendent called the district's six keys to school improvement
- On the first day of school, September 4, Hudson city police joined staff to greet students as they arrived
- A fraternity group from Albany reached out and asked to come down and welcome students back to school
- The superintendent said enrollment has increased this year and that students keep registering every day
The captions do not render the conference day presenters' names clearly, so they are described by role rather than named.
The New Cell Phone Rule and the Pouches
The superintendent explained that the high school's cell phone restriction is a rule rather than a board policy, and walked through how the numbered pouches work.
Key points
- She said it is a rule for the high school, not a policy, because policies are made by the board
- She said the rule has been well received so far and that no parents or guardians had raised concerns about it
- Students put their phones in numbered pouches assigned in the classroom and get them back at the end of the period; phones can be used during transitions and at lunch
- If a student does not place a phone in the pouch, the assumption is that it is in a locker or turned off
- If a phone is used or goes off in class, the teacher asks for it and it goes to the office for the rest of the day
- She said she did not want to simply take phones away, so students keep access while understanding the impact of phones on instruction
- The high school principal has told staff they all need to be on the same page, and she described finding him without his own phone because he was modeling what he expects
- Earlier in the same meeting, the student representative told the board the high school has struggled with follow through on this rule
The superintendent cited a number in connection with freshman orientation that the captions render as unreadable text, so it is left out here rather than guessed at. The high school principal's surname is also garbled, so he is identified by role.
A Made-Over Cafeteria and Food Orders Up 5%
The superintendent described the high school cafeteria's makeover and said meal orders are already running ahead of last year.
Key points
- The cafeteria was reimagined and upgraded with high tables, booths along the windows and flexible seating
- She said she and a team worked on the redesign over the past year, starting with brainstorming last year
- Food service orders are up 5% so far, a figure she attributed to Lisa
- She said she would ask for a fuller food service update for the board in October
- She said students are talking to each other in the space and that the cafeteria is doing just what the district expected it to do
The captions render the renamed cafeteria as 'blue HW' and 'bluea', so the exact spelling of the new name is not readable from the transcript.
Montgomery C. Smith's School Comprehensive Education Plan
Most of the evening went to the superintendent's walk through Montgomery C. Smith Elementary School's comprehensive education plan for 2024-25, which she said was on that night's agenda for board approval.
Key points
- The plan was created in response to state data, with parents working on it alongside the school team last year
- Commitment one is to build relationships between adults and students so students feel they have advocates; a survey of a random selection of students found they wanted connection with staff, acceptance by staff and peers, their voices heard and a sense of safety, and raised concerns about bullying in the building
- The school will use RULER, a social and emotional learning approach built on recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing and regulating emotions, in daily morning meetings of roughly 20 minutes
- Other commitment one strategies: house community days tied to character education, a 10% expansion of the staff pool doing check in and check out and check and connect, three behavioral goals set in a 3 to 5 minute morning meeting and reviewed at day's end, and a classroom audit aiming for the mood meter posted in 95% of rooms
- Commitment two is a multi-tiered system of support, which the superintendent called a proactive model rather than a wait to fail model, covering academics, attendance and social emotional learning
- Commitment two strategies include daily writing instruction of at least one sentence across subjects, students in grades 2 to 5 writing at least 15 minutes a day in a variety of content areas, AVID strategies in core instruction, and an attendance monitor
- Family outreach runs through the plan: families the school has not connected with, specifically Hispanic families, are to be contacted by the beginning of October and invited to family success planning meetings, with targeted plans for students chronically absent 18 or more days
- The superintendent said the repeated focus on Hispanic students reflects data showing the district needs to do a better job of serving them
The superintendent said the plan was on that night's agenda for the board to approve. The transcript shows a later motion on consent agenda items A through G put to a voice vote, but it does not say what the consent agenda contained or how the vote came out.
Board Questions on the State Writing Rubric
Board members responded to the plan, with one asking why the state English assessment rubric is being used with such young students.
Key points
- One member said they appreciated that the plan interweaves academic performance with the socio-emotional components underneath it
- Another member asked why the New York State English assessment rubric is used starting so young, rather than leaving it up to the teacher
- The superintendent answered that the district begins with the end in mind, that its story is told in large part by state assessment data, and that New York requires students to pass the assessment
- She said putting the rubric on students' desks lets a student who was scored a one on an informational writing piece see what was missing and what a two, three or four would require
- She pointed to the item analysis and exemplar writing on the state website as material teachers should look at, while saying she is not asking anyone to teach from it
- She said the district has to improve how it teaches writing across the district, not only at the elementary school
- A member asked whether there are barriers to executing the plan and whether staffing is spelled out and in place
Consent Agenda, Fall Meeting Dates and Executive Session
The board moved its consent agenda, read out the fall meeting calendar, and then went into executive session to review employee history.
Key points
- A motion to approve consent agenda items A through G was made and put to a voice vote
- Board of Education policy committee meeting September 24, 2024, 5 to 6 p.m., with a board meeting the same night at 6 p.m. in the high school library
- Board of Education meeting October 8, 2024 at 6 p.m. in the high school library
- Policy committee meeting October 22, 2024, 5 to 6 p.m., with a board meeting the same night at 6 p.m. in the high school library
- At 6:49 a motion was made to go into executive session for the purpose of reviewing the employee history of particular persons; it was seconded and put to a voice vote
- The meeting closed with no further business and thanks to everyone for being there
The captions capture the call for all in favor but not the responses, so every motion on this page is reported as put to a voice vote rather than as passed.
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.