At a glance
Staff from all three Hudson City School District buildings walked the Board of Education through RULER, the Yale social and emotional learning program the district is rolling out from prekindergarten through twelfth grade. The high school guidance team followed with Advanced Placement, honors and college course offerings, including one recent graduate who transferred 21 college credits and another who left with 33. Director of Student Services Kim Carnegie gave a special education overview, reported 303 classified students, and mentioned that she is retiring in a couple of months. Two residents used public comment to ask the board to divest school tax money from companies that make weapons. The board took no recorded roll call votes in public: it accepted the agenda, the personnel agenda and the consent agenda on voice votes the captions do not capture, then resolved to enter executive session at 8:22.
Roll Call, Agenda and the Student Representative's Report
After the pledge and roll call, the board accepted its agenda, then heard the student representative run through what is happening at the high school.
Key points
- A motion to accept the agenda as presented was made and seconded, and the chair called for all in favor
- The student representative reported that senior photos and quotes are collected and the yearbook club is in full swing
- The class of 2025 is selling cakes to bring down prom ticket and senior trip costs, and the music department is selling cinnamon buns across the district
- Winter sports tryouts have started in volleyball, basketball, bowling and swimming
- The Environmental Club heads to a citizens climate lobby Thursday, auditions for the musical Annie run today and the 21st, and the Varsity Club and National Honor Society host a volleyball tournament Saturday
- Coming in December: a mini Model UN on the 9th and a Varsity Club blood drive during the school day on the 10th, the same day as the next board meeting
- The mock trial team holds its first practice case the following Monday
The captions record the roll call as broken fragments, so this page does not list who answered. A student representative also takes part in the board's meetings and is not a board member.
The student representative said the student council would work with Hudson's mayor on the comprehensive plan at its Thursday meeting, and that he would come in, speak to students and ask for their input. That is the only point in the meeting where a city plan came up.
RULER at the Elementary School
A team from MC Smith presented year three of RULER, an evidence based social and emotional learning program out of Yale, and answered board questions about whether it is working.
Key points
- RULER stands for recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing and regulating emotions
- The anchor tools are a classroom charter, the mood meter, the meta moment and the blueprint, and staff built a faculty charter before classrooms built their own
- A life skills teacher described students signing in each morning on a mood quadrant and a student with autism moving from repeating one sentence to naming specific reasons for his feelings
- The school social worker said embedding the work across the building beats a curriculum one person delivers and leaves
- About 70 percent of classrooms have built a classroom charter this year, on top of a schoolwide charter
- Asked how success gets measured, staff pointed to attendance, discipline data, playground conflicts, informal office referrals and a social and emotional behavior rating scale that students and teachers both fill out
- Referrals are down this year: excluding a run of bus referrals from last year, staff put the drop at 15 to 18 percent, and said honest trend data will take a couple more years
Only one presenter's full name is clearly spoken in the captions. The others are identified here by role, or by first name where that is all the transcript gives. The auto captions also drop several board questions in this stretch, including one around 37:41 that goes unheard before the answer begins.
RULER at the Junior High
The junior high's interim principal said implementing a social emotional program was one of his first objectives, and that year one is about training every adult in the building.
Key points
- The focus this year is training staff rather than students, and that means custodial staff, clerical staff, teachers, teaching assistants and aides, not only classroom teachers
- Two staff members attended in person training on October 13 and 14, one of which was Columbus Day
- More training is scheduled in person December 2 and 3, online from January 13 to February 21, and again March 3 and April 11
- The goal is 100 percent of junior high staff trained by June, whether in person, online or through turnkey training from colleagues
- The mood meter would start with sixth grade, since those students arrive already knowing it from the elementary school, then extend to seventh and eighth
- The junior high will also build a staff charter, not just classroom charters
- Board members asked how check ins would work in a building where students change rooms all day; the principal said homeroom is the likely slot and the staff has not settled it
Large parts of this presentation survive only as fragments in the auto captions, roughly from 44:47 to 47:04 and again around 50:05, so slides on classroom impact and RULER tools are not fully in the record.
RULER at the High School
The high school team said it had just finished its own training and is at an earlier phase than the other buildings, with staff first and students next year.
Key points
- The high school RULER team is three people: the presenter, a science teacher named Michelle and a school psychologist named Katherine
- The team finished online training the week before the meeting, meeting two and a half hours a week
- The rollout starts with the mood meter, then a staff built charter, with lessons to follow once the team figures out when they fit the high school schedule
- Students will be brought into the team so the program reflects what they say they need, and the team plans to work with students whose first language is not English
- Reflection meetings are built into the year to see what is working before a full rollout
- A team member said the high school has also started running more restorative circles, with staff who have been trained in restorative practices
- Asked how the school will track impact, staff pointed to a social emotional evaluation students already take and to attendance and grades
Stretches of this presentation come through as disconnected words, including around 54:02 to 56:03, so some of what was said is missing from the record this summary was written from.
Advanced Placement, Honors and College Courses
The high school's guidance department head and a colleague presented the school profile and walked the board through what advanced courses Hudson offers and how students get into them.
Key points
- Students need 22 credits to graduate, and the presenter said all Hudson students receive free lunch and that 72 percent are economically disadvantaged
- AP offerings are world history in ninth grade, world history in tenth grade, US history, biology and environmental science, with biology and environmental science alternating years
- Honors offerings are English 9, 10 and 11, Global 9, Global 10, US history and living environment
- College courses run through Columbia-Greene (precalculus, calculus, composition and literature, critical issues in health, composition, general psychology and introduction to sociology) and SUNY Cobleskill (college algebra, concert band, American Sign Language 3 and 4, and drawing)
- College courses are taught in the Hudson building by district faculty serving as adjunct instructors, not on a college campus
- A student needs an 80 average across English classes for a college course, and Columbia-Greene makes the final admission call
- Honors placement is fluid: a student whose grades climb can be considered the next year, and staff said students interested in AP should just sign up
- Guidance staff will go into English classes the following week to start course requests, earlier than the usual end of January
The presenter said the slide on screen was an older version of the SAT results and that the board's printed copy was newer. Figures from that slide are not reported here. He said the number of test takers has declined partly because many schools are test optional.
What College Credit Costs, and Who Is Earning It
The guidance department head laid out what families pay for college credit earned in high school and how many students in recent graduating classes took an advanced course.
Key points
- Students on free or reduced lunch pay nothing for Columbia-Greene or SUNY Cobleskill credit earned through the high school
- Full pay families pay $73 per credit through Columbia-Greene, which the presenter put at about $292 for a four credit course, against roughly $700 to $800 for a three credit course taken on the college campus
- SUNY Cobleskill reduced rates were given as $25 per credit or $50 per credit
- The guidance head called a Hudson Valley grant a game changer: it covers up to eight college credits free in the summer regardless of family income
- One recent graduate transferred 21 college credits and is finishing college a year early; another left Hudson with 33 college credits
- Of the class of 2022, 113 students in total, 70 completed a college, AP or honors course at some point in high school; of 86 students in the class of 2023, 63 did; of 110 students in the class of 2024, 66 did
- Last year 35 students took AP exams and 25 received a fee reduction, which the presenter noted is 71.4 percent against a 72 percent economically disadvantaged student body
The captions render the three credit Columbia-Greene total and the SUNY Cobleskill totals in ways that do not match the per credit rates the presenter gave in the same breath. Those totals are left out here rather than repaired. The number of AP exam enrollments this year is also garbled and is omitted; the presenter did say 42 students are taking AP exams and that some take more than one.
AP Versus College Credit, and the Case for Rigor
A board member asked what AP still offers when college courses give credit more easily, and the answer turned into a conversation about pushing students toward the harder option.
Key points
- The AP coordinator said the benefits are national recognition, help in competing for college admission, the rigor itself and the chance to be named an AP Scholar, which means scoring three or more on an exam
- He gave AP Scholar counts by year: 3 of 8 were students of color in the earliest year shown, 6 of 15 the next year, and 5 of 7 in the most recent year
- He said students are able to get college credit more easily through a college course than through AP, and that AP enrollment has been falling nationally
- Three students this year are challenging AP exams in psychology, government and politics, and microeconomics by self study, because the district has no teacher in those subjects
- A board member said they chose college credits over AP in high school because it was easier, and asked that the district keep pushing students toward the most rigorous option available
- A speaker relayed a question about how AP courses square with Regents exams, and said the AP material transfers completely to the Regents material and in their opinion prepares students better
- AP exams go digital this year, delivered on Chromebooks, and the presenter said the recent digital PSAT ran without problems
The captions garble the year attached to the most recent AP Scholar count, so the counts are given here in order rather than by school year.
Special Education 101 and the District's Numbers
Director of Student Services Kim Carnegie gave the board a ground up overview of special education law and what the district's own caseload looks like.
Key points
- The district is bound by the federal IDEA law, New York State commissioner regulations and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and must provide a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment
- Students are entitled to services until they turn 22, or in Hudson through the end of the school year in which they turn 22, unless they earn a regular high school diploma first
- About 98 percent of classified students are expected to work toward a regular diploma
- Classified enrollment rose from 285 last October to 303 in November
- The district runs the full continuum of services, from related service only through consultant teacher services, integrated co-teaching and self-contained classes
- For the first time the district is an out of district placement for other schools: three districts are paying tuition to send five students to Hudson, and Carnegie declined two more whose needs she felt the district could not meet
- There are 63 classified third through fifth graders, 90 classified high school students, and only five students in the elementary behavior class, which Carnegie offered as one argument that RULER is working
- A dually certified special education and math teacher left mid year and has not been replaced, so 13 of those students moved into a co-taught math model
The captions render the count of four year olds heading to kindergarten and the junior high classified count as numbers that cannot be right, so both are left out here rather than guessed at.
Where Classified Students Go, and What Is Getting Harder
Carnegie broke down where the district's 303 classified students attend school, then walked through the state reviews Hudson is under and the shortages squeezing placements.
Key points
- Of the 303, 266 attend district schools, 2 are parentally placed in other districts, 8 are in BOCES programs, 19 are in approved private schools, 4 are residentially placed and 4 are on home instruction, with three more in district waiting for placements
- BOCES enrollment has fallen from nearly 50 students 15 years ago to 8, which Carnegie called a reflection of BOCES turning students down rather than of Hudson keeping them; she said BOCES was rejecting about 70 percent of the students Hudson refers
- A state special education official told superintendents the target for out of district placement is 10 percent or lower; Carnegie said she thought Hudson was at 11.5 percent
- The district has been identified as needing focused intervention in two areas: alternate assessment participation, which sits around 3 percent against a 2 percent ceiling because of a bubble of students moving up together, and least restrictive environment, because too many in district students are self-contained more than 40 percent of the day
- This year the district must report on timely evaluations, which must go from consent to a committee meeting within 60 calendar days, and it fell short of the 78 parent involvement surveys it needed last year
- Special education schools are sitting on empty classrooms because they cannot hire staff, and BOCES waiting lists run three to five deep
- There are no preschool special education providers under contract in Columbia County, so children found eligible are going without services and arriving at kindergarten; Carnegie floated making one universal pre-K class an integrated program with six slots for classified four year olds
- Carnegie told the board she is retiring in a couple of months
Asked whether there had been movement on declassifying students since her last presentation, Carnegie said about two students have been declassified while more have been classified, so the declassification rate remains low.
Personnel Agenda and Two New Hires
The board moved the personnel agenda, then met a returning third grade teacher and the district's new restorative practices specialist.
Key points
- A member moved to accept personnel agenda items A1 to A10 and B1 to B5; the motion was seconded and put to a voice vote
- Lisa Small joins as a third grade teacher; she grew up in Columbia County, graduated from Hudson High School, and holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from SUNY Plattsburgh and a master's in reading from Adelphi University
- Small began her career in Hudson as a reading teacher, spent years teaching fifth grade, and taught fifth grade for two years at the Singapore American School
- She later worked as a teaching assistant in a self-contained K through 2 special education classroom and returned to full time teaching in the Troy City School District in 2021
- Malachi Walker, the district's restorative practices specialist, was approved at the previous board meeting and was introduced in person this night
- Walker was born and raised in Hudson and is a Hudson alumnus; he volunteered with the Hudson Youth Department and coached Pop Warner football
- He has spent more than a decade with the state Office of Children and Family Services in a classroom setting, 19 years with MHA as a mentor and skill builder, and 24 years at Columbia Opportunities, and he and his wife have been foster parents for almost two decades
The captions record the call for all in favor but none of the responses, so what this page can say is that the motion was put to a voice vote.
Public Comment: Two Residents Ask the Board to Divest
The board read its public comment ground rules, then heard two speakers ask it to pull school money out of companies that make weapons.
Key points
- The board explained that state law does not require a public comment period, that it is there to listen rather than respond, that it cannot discuss school personnel, and that each speaker gets three minutes
- A speaker who gave his name as Wayne said his school taxes are being used to kill children in Palestine and asked the board to hold divestment meetings
- He cited his own figures for the superintendent's salary, average teacher pay with benefits, per student spending and the share of district money he said flows to banks and defense contractors, and named an Israeli bank and a cluster munitions manufacturer
- He offered the board a card and asked for ten minutes with audio visual at a future meeting to present on the issue, and said his family is indigenous and that he connects the district's finances to erasure
- He also encouraged the student representative to keep asking questions
- A second speaker, who referred to a Peace church and to Quakers leading on socially responsible investing, said the New York State Teachers' Retirement System invests in companies that make implements of war
- The speaker raised Gaza and Ukraine and told the board that now is the time to speak up and that we can do better
The salary, pay, per student spending and casualty numbers in the first comment were asserted by the speaker. The board did not respond to them, consistent with the ground rules it read first, and several of the figures come through the captions in rough shape, so they are described here rather than repeated. The second speaker's name is not audible in the captions.
Superintendent's Report, Policy Review and Executive Session
The superintendent ran through food service, community forums, veterans events and a new recognition award, and the board closed with policy review, upcoming dates and executive session.
Key points
- November's Harvest of the Month was New York dairy: on November 13 food service served flavored yogurt cups at MC Smith and yogurt parfaits at the junior and senior high, and the farm to table class held a yogurt making class led by the school food director
- A Conversations with the Superintendent forum on November 14 drew several students and covered student behavior standards, buses, career tracks into politics and law, and the evolution of the Blue Hawk Academy mission; the next one is December 19 at the Hudson Youth Center, 8 South Third Street
- A resilience educator with a doctorate in social psychology spoke at all three schools on Wednesday the 13th and held an evening session for staff, faculty and community
- The high school Kindness Club, directed by Miss Smith, teamed up with a local therapeutic center and the Columbia County Veterans Service Agency peer to peer program for a fourth annual veterans appreciation event, and the senior high band performed on Veterans Day, November 11
- The Flying Classroom, a Saturday STEM pilot program for junior and senior high students, launched October 26, 2024, with slots still open for the rest of the year through building principals
- The first Spotlight on Excellence awards went to two people from a local bike and board shop, Noah and Victor, who assembled bikes the junior high received through a grant
- New business was a set of NYSSBA recommended and required policy updates, with changes marked in red; the board was asked to review them and move to adopt at the next meeting, and one open question is whether policy 0115's bullying prevention task force language matches the teams that actually exist in the buildings
- The board resolved to enter executive session at 8:22 for collective negotiations under Article 14 of the Civil Service Law and to review the employment history of particular persons, with no further business to follow
The captions garble the visiting speaker's name, the yogurt and milk brands, and the surnames of the two Spotlight on Excellence recipients, so those are described generally or given by first name only here. The consent agenda motion just before the superintendent's report was seconded and put to a voice vote whose responses the captions do not record.
The board listed its next meetings: December 10, 2024 in the high school library at 6:00 p.m., January 7, 2025 in the high school auditorium at 6:00 p.m., and January 21, 2025, with a policy committee meeting in the library at 5:00 p.m. followed by the board meeting in the auditorium at 6:00 p.m.
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.