At a glance
The Hudson City School District Board of Education got its first full look at how the district wants to spend its share of New York's 2014 Smart Schools Bond: a bigger security camera system, a replacement phone system, new PA and clock units, more wireless coverage and the cabling to carry all of it. Cheryl Rabinowitz, the district's manager of instructional technology, walked the board through the technology repairs made since the pandemic, a district staff member presented the camera and door access plan, and two consultants from Core BTS presented the wireless, phone and paging proposals. Nothing was bought and nothing was approved: the plan still has to go into the state portal, sit on the district website for 30 days and go through a public hearing before it is submitted. In public comment, parent Jill Turner told the board that locked high school bathrooms are costing students class time and asked where the school aides have gone. The board also put personnel and consensus items to voice votes and went into executive session on a possible real property deal.
A Student Report on Clubs, a Musical and Passports
The recording opens in the middle of a student's report on school activities. The student ran through music, clubs, a passport program and a field trip.
Key points
- A recent performance went over well with the middle schoolers, who sang along loudly
- Rehearsals for the school musical, Annie, are underway, with the performance expected in March
- Mock trial has assigned its roles, and the student accepted Mark's offer to have the district's clubs presented at a future meeting
- Model UN is hosting a mini Model UN at the end of January
- Registration closed that night for Project Passport, which helps students get passports and grew out of the social studies enrichment fund that supports the end of year Europe trip; it is also open to the community and is happening at Spark of Hudson
- A bowling field trip set up by the gym teachers was scheduled for the next day
The transcript begins mid-sentence, partway into this report. The call to order, any roll call and the opening of the student report are not in the record, so who was present cannot be determined from it. The captions also carry no speaker labels, so names appear below only where someone was named out loud.
What the District Fixed, and What It Owns
Cheryl Rabinowitz, the manager of instructional technology, gave the board a tour of the district's technology work since the pandemic and an inventory of its devices, software and staff.
Key points
- Earlier work included new network switches, an upgraded server room, two in-house computer service specialists and centralizing the district's software so it could be checked against state student data privacy rules
- Later years brought upgraded cabling and network closets, a cyber security plan, an upgraded security camera system, the Wordly language translation program and the student tech crew
- This school year the district connected programs including Branching Minds, Atlas and ClassLink to its eSchool student data, and bought a cyber security awareness training program called Cyber Nut that can be used by students as well as staff
- The Verizon program provided Chromebooks with cellular data and helped pay for two instructional technology coaches, with the rest coming from district funds
- A student and family technology handbook is done and a staff technology handbook is being written, both meant to be electronic and one stop
- The district has about 230 staff laptops bought in 2020, and about 130 software programs plus free ones; a consultant later put the Chromebook count at more than 3,000, citing a slide
- Technology funding comes from the general fund, E-rate, donations and grants
- The district is one to one on Chromebooks from pre-K up; younger students keep them in the classroom until about grade five, and grades three and four can take them home for special projects
- A board member said the digital signage and screens around the schools make a big difference
Student Tech Crew Grows to Three Cohorts
The student tech crew has gone from a single group of about 20 students to three cohorts, and students in the program can earn the same computer repair certification the district's own technicians hold.
Key points
- The first cohort is made up of grade 9 through 12 students in their second and third year, who can earn a computer repair certification matching the one district technicians hold
- The second cohort is first year students who work in the IT department and do the work an IT department does
- The first two cohorts work with the teacher who advises them, Mrs. Bender, and with instructional technology coach Mr. Lynch
- A third cohort, new this year, is grade eight students producing digital media announcements, and the district may extend it to grades six and seven
- Students find the program through the fall club fair, the Verizon kickoff event, the guidance department, the teacher's recruiting and word of mouth, and it appears as an option in course signups
- A student in the room said the requirements are showing up at least once a week during a free period, that participants now get a grade rather than pass or fail, and that the teacher assigns work and tests alongside the certification steps
- Technicians are teaching students to repair the Verizon Chromebooks, made by CTL, which differ slightly from the district's other devices
Technology Committee Starts the Next Three Year Plan
Rabinowitz described the volunteer district technology committee, where the current three year technology plan stands against its four goals, and what the committee will take on this year.
Key points
- The committee convened in 2020 and includes students, parents, community members, faculty and administrators, meeting a few times a year on a volunteer basis
- It wrote the district's current three year technology plan, which is on the district website, and is now starting work on the next one
- The plan was built from an audit, surveys of students, staff and community, New York State digital equity surveys and assessments by the IT department and BOCES partners
- Goal one, putting instructional technology tools in the hands of the school community, is complete; goals two and three, professional development and student proficiency, are in progress with help from the instructional technology coaches
- Goal four, upgrading the wireless network, the security camera system and the phone system, is what the district wants to spend its Smart Schools money on
- This year the committee will recommend policies, finish a software request form being drafted so technology and curriculum purchases line up, send new district technology surveys to staff, families and students next month, and update the cyber security incident response plan
The Smart Schools Bond and Hudson's Share
Rabinowitz explained where the Smart Schools money comes from, why the district took years to get to this point, and what it proposes to spend the money on.
Key points
- New York State voters in 2014 authorized a $2 billion general obligation bond for educational technology improvements in schools
- Hudson has an allocation of roughly $1.8 million; the exact figure was garbled in the captions (see the note below)
- The district had started exploring the money before the pandemic, then had to write a technology plan first, since a plan is required, and waited through an administration change
- Over the past year a team from the technology committee, the buildings, the staff and the community sat through vendor demonstrations and used the district's own assessment data to decide what to propose
- The focus areas are high tech security features and school connectivity
- The recommendation is to expand the security camera system, replace the phone system, update the PA systems and pay for the structured cabling the rest of it needs
- Pricing was deliberately left out of this presentation and will come back to the board later
The captions render Hudson's Smart Schools allocation as "1,771 $233", with the digits broken across a dollar sign. The figure above is described only in round terms because the exact number cannot be read from the transcript.
The presenter said a Smart Schools plan must be aligned with the district's technology plan, and pointed to goal four of that plan, the wireless, camera and phone upgrades, as what the bond money would pay for.
Cameras, Locked Front Doors and Who Is Watching
A district staff member walked the board through the camera work already done and the much larger second phase the bond money would pay for, including tying door access badges into the camera software.
Key points
- The district did a week long assessment with its camera vendor, Day Automation, walking every building and checking what each camera could and could not see
- Phase one, already paid for, included new software, a server, converting the existing cameras and installing 16 new ones, mostly in high traffic areas of the high school, the cafeteria and the fronts of the junior and senior high
- Front doors were not locked when the presenter arrived; greeters now lock them and have camera access so they can see who is at the door before approaching the window
- Phase two would be about 90% covered by Smart Schools money and includes 58 new camera placements and 113 replacements; the presenter said the 58 are not additions on top of the 150 cameras already there, since dual head cameras can replace two units and count as one license
- A second server at the elementary building would ease bandwidth problems there, where older cameras cannot take the new firmware
- The swipe badge door access system would move onto the same software, so a forced door starts the cameras rolling and sends snapshots by email or text
- The plan counts 53 door licenses, which are a one time purchase rather than annual, plus three new access control doors and 43 newly monitored doors
- In a lockdown, door access shuts off automatically so no one can come or go
- Asked whether anyone watches the cameras, the presenter said no: staff and security officers look when they are free, and nobody is paid to sit and monitor them
The presenter connected the software, server and 16 cameras the district already bought to the larger replacement the bond would fund, saying the committee specifically checked that anything new would be compatible with what the district has already spent money on.
Wireless, Phones and a Combined PA and Clock System
Two consultants from Core BTS presented the cabling, wireless, phone and paging pieces of the plan, and answered board questions about volume control, redundancy and licensing.
Key points
- The cabling piece is about 380 new drops, plus patch panels and hardware, with three drops per classroom at the elementary school for an access point, a teacher computer and a new PA and clock unit
- The wireless proposal is about 235 new Meraki access points for classrooms, 12 for high density spaces like auditoriums and cafeterias, outdoor access points and a security appliance, on a cloud managed, subscription model the consultants said would spare the district expensive controller replacements
- The phone replacement is Cisco WebEx Calling, also cloud based, with texting, call recording and features aimed at cutting down swatting calls
- The PA and clock work upgrades the existing junior and senior high systems and adds combination clock and PA units with strobes and scrolling displays, tied into the phone system so a page or a lockdown can be triggered from anywhere in the district
- The consultants said the budget did not cover a new unit in every classroom, which they described as a possible later phase
- One consultant said New York State now requires schools to consider silent lockdown and silent alerting, and that the proposed phones carry a dedicated button to trigger whatever sequence the district decides on
- A board member linked that to the technology committee's policy work this year, noting that the district still has to decide what happens when the button is pushed
- Asked about spots in the buildings where announcements and bells cannot be heard, the presenters said every location was reviewed and the new system has volume controls; district staff added that the current PA hubs are obsolete and cannot be turned up any higher
- Bell schedules, currently changed by hand about six times a year, would move into software
- Asked what happens if the network goes down, the consultants said there are on site backups and local resiliency so calls can still be made within the district, with LTE backup as an option, and offered to walk through each failure scenario
- Licensing can be bought in three, five or seven year terms; the district budgeted three years, after which it becomes an annual cost
The wireless standard the consultants named and the name of the state law on silent alerting both come through garbled in the transcript, so neither is given here.
What Happens Next With the Smart Schools Plan
Rabinowitz laid out the approval path, which runs through a state portal, a public posting and a hearing before anything is submitted, and answered a board question about what the new systems cost year to year.
Key points
- The district has submitted a letter of intent and is waiting on a project number from the state
- Once the number arrives, the details and costs go into the state portal as a draft, and the district comes back to the board with the full plan
- The plan then gets posted on the district website for 30 days, with an email address for community responses, followed by a public hearing
- After any changes the plan is submitted, and approval can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months; the presenter said reviewers routinely send plans back with questions
- The district worked with its architect on the submission, and the presenter said nothing can be purchased until the plan is approved
- Asked how much more the district would have to budget each year once the bond covered years run out, staff said the subscriptions would be budgeted like other software, and argued the district already pays a great deal to keep its obsolete phone system running, so the new system should be cheaper in the end
- Exact annual costs were not given and were promised at the next presentation
No vote was taken on the Smart Schools plan. The board received it as a presentation, and the district said it would return with the plan and its costs before anything goes to the state.
Personnel Items, Split for a Recusal
The board took up the personnel agenda and split it in two so one member could step aside on a single item.
Key points
- A member first moved to accept personnel agenda items A1 through A5 and B1 through B5
- Another member recused on item A5, citing a conflict of interest
- The motion was reworked to cover items A1 through A4 and B1 through B5, was seconded and was put to a voice vote
- Item A5 was then moved separately, seconded and put to its own voice vote
The captions record the chair calling for all in favor but do not capture any responses, so the transcript shows only that each motion was put to a voice vote. The outcome is not in the record.
Public Comment: Locked Bathrooms and Missing Aides
One resident spoke. Jill Turner told the board that locked high school bathrooms are pulling students out of class time, and connected it to a shortage of aides.
Key points
- The board read its public comment rules first: the period is not required by state law, each speaker gets three minutes, members do not respond that night, and comments about school personnel cannot be taken
- Turner said the issue came from her own two children at the high school and that, as she understands it, the administration responded to earlier fights, vaping and vandalism by locking the bathrooms
- Students cannot use bathrooms between classes or during the first or last five minutes of class, which she said pushes them out in the middle of instruction
- Students must come down to the first floor; there is one unlocked ladies room because an aide monitors it, while a student needing the men's room has to go to the main office so someone can be raised on a walkie-talkie to unlock it
- She said she had asked the superintendent and the diversity, equity and inclusion manager about it weeks earlier, and that the DEI manager told her the new sensory rooms would be staffed with the Mental Health Association and would not pull school aides, but she got no answer on the bathrooms
- She served on the School Safety Committee and said the fix most people there favored was more aides monitoring halls and bathrooms, and she read the districtwide safety plan's language on aides and monitors
- She asked what the district is doing to recruit and retain aides, whether anyone conducts exit interviews with departing employees, and said agendas from the past year show money for consultants alongside a steady stream of resignations, including what she believed were two aides and a payroll person on that night's personnel agenda
- She left her email address and her questions with the board clerk and said she looked forward to a response
- No one else came forward to speak
Superintendent's Report: Concerts, a Commended Student and Community Forums
The superintendent opened the new year with a run of December concerts, recognition for a Hudson student and a reminder about the monthly community forums.
Key points
- Students and staff returned January 2 with what the superintendent described as fresh energy for the year
- MCSS held its grades 3 to 5 winter concert on Friday, December 6 and its kindergarten through grade 2 concerts on Friday, December 13
- Hudson Junior High held its winter concert December 12 and Hudson Senior High held its concert December 19
- A Hudson student named Logan was named a commended student on the strength of his PSAT scores
- The superintendent explained that commended students must score in the top 3 to 4% of test takers nationwide, and that the recognition comes from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation
- A Conversation with the Superintendent session on December 19 at the Hudson City Department of Youth covered prekindergarten slot availability, early intervention services, summer school curriculum and the Blue Hawk Academy
- The next session is January 16 at 6 p.m.; the superintendent said the forums are always on the third Thursday of the month and open to everyone
The recognized student's surname comes through garbled in the captions, so only the first name the superintendent spoke clearly is used here.
Consensus Items, Upcoming Dates and Executive Session
The board closed with a motion on its consensus agenda, a reading of upcoming meeting dates and an executive session on real property.
Key points
- A member moved to approve consensus items A through K, the motion was seconded and the chair called for a voice vote
- Upcoming dates read into the record: a facility committee meeting January 21 at 4 p.m. in the district office conference room, a policy committee meeting January 21 at 5 p.m. in the high school library, a Board of Education meeting January 21 at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium, and a Board of Education meeting February 11 at 6 p.m. in the high school auditorium
- The board then moved into executive session for the proposed acquisition, sale or lease of real property, with a second and a call for a voice vote
- The chair noted there was no further business and thanked those who attended
The transcript ends here. If the board returned to open session or took any action afterward, it is not in this record.
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.