Board of Education, Regular Meeting transcript: FUTURE HUDSON

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0:24of the United States of America and to the republ which it stands under indivisible andice thank you.
0:47Okay lesle I'm going to go a little bit out of order today because I'm not up yet okay uh Willette Jones here Mark depace here Leia Walker here Kiren gustaffson Calvin Lewis Here Matt mackerer here and Amanda grubler here thank you.
1:16I make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
1:19Second all in favor okay student representative report hello hi hello think the microphone working hello hello hello hello.
1:36Hello hello like check one two hello think you just sing Thomas oh you to sing yes maybe if I had my saxophone not with my voice I'd rather not hello [Music] hello.
2:09Okay good afternoon everyone it's good to be back I missed a couple meetings due to uh mock trial but on that note our mock trial team is almost done with our regular County competitions we're having our last one today um our defense is going against Windam ashy JT um yep so once we finish this one we'll find out where we rank in the county and then we'll have our County finals and then hopefully we'll have our sectionals after that.
2:36Uh Environ is also working on their oral presentations um and are I think the beginning of May is when they start to have their competitions this Saturday uh we will be headed to Bard College for a model un conference um this will last all day um very excited Bard has been hosting a model un conference I think for the last two years um and it's a very unique one B put their own spin on it so we're very excited to see how it pans out there's a bunch of schools in the area invited and there's going to be a lot of people there so um recently got confirmation that our Multicultural uh clubs Festival will be on May 16th um in preparation for that they're selling Bunt Cakes right now now.
3:30Um recently Varsity Club collected pet supplies for the Humane Society and Hawks against cancer had an awareness panel during the school day which went very well we had staff and um a former staff member and a um professional within um cancer research come and talk to us.
3:51Um as for sports um we recently as of today have started our volleyball tournament during lunch ran by our gym Department which I'm participating in and a lot of other people are as well um student council recently hosted their dodgeball tournament um it was after school open to Spectators um was very fun we had a lot of uh good turnout and uh Mr Badillo and his team won.
4:19Um our spring Sports have are also in full swing now um we have a a boys tennis team for the first time in I think three to four years which is nice I'm a part of the team we're very excited uh we have our first game this this Friday so none of us have ever played tennis before on an official team but um we're hoping that uh we do pretty well so thank you you're welcome thank you Thomas.
4:51Okay policy committee update awesome all right hi all' um couple updates from the policy committee uh we have been meeting and will continue to meet before every Bo Board of Ed meeting so we meet um at 5:00 pm um we the last couple sessions have been working on the promotion and retention policy and have a completed draft of that that will go on next board meetings agenda as new business um for to have an opportunity to discuss and dig into that um.
5:23We uh the code of conduct also was had been sort of sent out to staff to get feedback um and so in the next meeting also we will re-engage with that to get that um you know up and running and get a completed draft of that and then we also have that will be on next week's board meeting the um just policy that's the org chart for the central office now that we have a fully staff central office so those are those are the three policy updates um yep thank you.
5:53Facility committee good evening everyone um so myself along along with uh uh facility uh committee members have been working uh diligently with Tyler uh and the crew to um initiate some capital projects uh for the district um that will apply to all three buildings um with various um uh renovations to the uh upkeep of the infrastructure um in addition to a uh energy project that uh Johnson Controls will be uh supporting us with.
6:26Um the committee has met uh routinely over um the past few months um to continue the implementation of these projects um between now and may uh we will uh put in place uh some public forums so that folks can uh be more uh involved um about uh these various projects um giving an opportunity to see some of the visuals on the layouts uh of these plans and so um again this will take place place prior to the upcoming vote in May and so uh for those who are interested in those matters please uh just stay tuned to your emails uh for those upcoming dates so that you can be a part of this process as well thank you.
7:17Community budget Workshop good evening board tonight I'm going to present to you a draft budget for the 2025 26 school year if you have any questions at the end of my presentation I will be calling Miss Cynthia Rome who has been working with myself on the budget um she has been our our consultant or inter after our interim business official left and she has consulted with us and helped us on this budget as well as um Anita Murphy who was here the last time.
8:18The tax levy history the maximum allowable tax rate for the 2526 school year is 26,3 62,5 this would be an increase of $94,700 55 increase if you go with a levy of 2% increase it would be an increase of 9,161 with the amount being collected from taxes to be2 5, 96789.
9:05The district has worked diligently to keep the tax levy low and has managed to keep it at or below 2% for the past 5 years however this can be impactful for the district if it does not utilize the maximum allowable tax levy going forward and thus can reduce the revenues to the District.
9:32Here's a budget scenario one with a tax levy at 2% this presentation offers two scenarios the first is applying a 2% tax levy increase and the second scenario is utilizing the maximum allowable rate of 3.55% increase the first scenario uses a 2% increase which sets the tax levy at$
10:122,967 189 which is an increase of $59,61 currently the projected state aid based on the governor's proposal is set at 26,800 84,4 the state aid the 2425 projected state aid of 26,998 to does include Universal prek in the amount of $528,500 $7,630 of the fund balance and2 200,000 of the workman's comp Reserve show that again if the tax rate increase is set at 2% it will leave a budget gap of 1.94 1,944 $556.
11:36Budget scenario 2 maximizes the tax levy rate of 3.55% this will provide the district an additional $394,161 of Revenue. In the second scenario everything Remains the Same as as the first scenario except the tax levy is increased to the maximum allowable tax rate again this provides the district an additional $394,161 in Revenue.
12:29In each scenario the state aid is based solely on the governor's proposal and could adjust once the final state budget is passed However unfortunately we may not know this amount until after the budget is adopted. As you can see based on the current information by going with the maximum tax levy it could save 4% so these are ways that we can manage the G.
13:04In either case the decision has to be made on either cutting positions to balance the budget or utilize additional fund balance to balance the budget. These are trying times and it is essential not to just balance a budget but to balance a budget that centers around the needs of our students students as well as being respectful to the taxpayers of our district. Thank you and now I'm just going to in case there are some wonderings about what causes a budget Gap I have a few frequently asked questions.
13:51Do you have any questions about the presentation that I just made does anyone have any questions before I going to the FAQs?
13:58Could you just go back to the last slide and just talk more about how we would decide um uh what positions to reduce and also how we would be uh repurposing the positions?
14:17So basically when you repurpose a position you look at what type where where the need is and then you look at the staff's certificate ation. So for example if we if if there's a hypothetically speaking a PE teacher that has a science certification and we didn't need a PE teacher we would then look at um the certification for that PE teacher and then repurpose the position and move them into a science position instead. Now when we if we have to eliminate positions of course we always look at tenure we look at need and so right now um we're also looking at our retirees and have looked at our retirees and so we are only basically looking at the areas that need that are critical right now and so we have Frozen spending and except in those critical areas so did I answer your question?
15:26Yeah and and so at what point in the process would we know what what types of positions we would need to reduce and how it would affect the services our students receive?
15:36So the next time we present um we will do that.
15:48Oh sorry um I just had a question about you said there was a gap between the budget would be proposed and when we know what the state's budget was and wondering what effect that could have on the budget that is accepted?
16:03So right now the only the fun this is based on state funding and like our tax levy and so and it so right now it you know it shouldn't have an effect on it because right now we don't know what we know we can only predict um what we're going to get so okay.
16:29Um and I guess my followup is is there any way to get around that Gap in time like is there any way to make preparations for a a a drop in potential budget or I mean what's the preparations for that look like?
16:43So this is the preparations for that and we we gave two scenarios of how to close the gap either going to the cap at 3.55% or if we only went to 2% tax levy so it's it's based on on that and then possibly looking at um repurposing positions Etc thank you.
17:03M can you talk a little bit about the fund balance so like if we ended up going with a 2% tax levy and we had a larger drain um on the appropriated reserves there can you talk a little bit about like what would be you know sort of like what what impact that could have on the district is that you know is it problematic to go below $4 million is there anything there that we like just unpack that a little more?
17:29Okay so I'm going to get Miss ROM to to talk to you about that Miss ROM are you here?
17:34Yes I am did you hear the question about the fund balance?
17:39I didn't the whole thing Sor okay okay so I'm just gonna have um have you repeat that question.
17:46Yeah can you talk about a little bit more about what the impact is on draining from the fund balance and at various levels so we see two scenarios here that take like in either scenario we're needing to take from the fund balance right to close this Gap but in one scenario we are taking significantly more than the other so can you talk a little bit about what that impact has on the district?
18:12Know what the impa the district as far as the fund balance can we hold this maybe up to the microphone so that everyone can hear it I'm just trying to think yeah totally I'm just trying to think of now how for her to respond I can hold that up to the microphone.
18:30Okay so I don't know if you can hear me can you hear me?
18:32Yeah we can hear you now.
18:34Okay so what will happen is the fund balance is extra money that the district has basically set aside to help um offset budgets going forward. Now if the more you use into those into the coffers and use up those fund balances that additional funding would no longer be there and basically you would only have what you receive from the state and what you actually collect in taxes and what other Revenue you have to run your budgets you would not have anything extra. So you would have to base your budget going forward only on the actual money you're receiving because you'll have nothing else to pull from there'll be no savings to pull from to help offset the budget going forward. So eventually if you're using if you use your fund balance and you continue to use your fund balance you
19:23will run out there because you're not now adding back into any of your reserves nor are you adding back into the fund balance and once that money is gone it's gone unless you can replenish it some way and the odds of that happening are very slim unless something drastically happens either with the getting more money from the state which is probably not a good sign that we'll get more money from the state going forward got it thank you
19:53is there concern that we should save money in the fund balance right now given the uncertainty of federal funding I know that's a real speculative question but is that a question for us or for the board is that a is that a
20:13I don't know I can take it back I guess I a wonder I have is just like with uncert with what we see with uncertainty around the Department of Education is there anything that we need to be thinking through more proactively to make sure that we're protecting our district I guess with the UNC maybe it's a rhetorical question with the uncertainty of what's going on with the Department of Education and not knowing is there anything that we need to be doing proactively to protect ourselves
20:41so keeping that in mind in knowing that grants can be cut those people that are currently being funded through the grants would need to be reabsorbed by the general fund and so that means you're going to end up if you end up keeping all of those people and all of that Staffing and it rolls back into the general fund that means you're going to use up even more of your fund ballots quicker and I don't know if you have enough actually in your uh fund balance to be able to manage that and if you can manage it for a year you'd be you'd be lucky but you would not be able to manage it probably for two
21:21and unfortunately you're not going to know the answer to some of these Grant problems or whether the funding is going to be reduced because I did hear that some of the federal grants were at least going to be reduced by 20% whether that comes to attrition or not I do not know but you're not going to know that until probably um late into August early September whether some of these grants are going to be cut especially your title grants and they could cut the mid year at this point no one knows the answers to those yet thank you
21:56and there also and I don't know your school district is the c um School District where you get free lunch and breakfast that is something else that is part partly on The Chopping Block
22:11any other questions
22:14when can the board expect to see the budget presented as uh by expenditure when can the board expect the budget to to see the budget by expenditure when can we expect to give them a budget by expenditure
22:34um great I'm going to hope that maybe next week we can do that you know Pro right now I'm currently trying to just work on getting your stuff done so that we can actually get the state aid for rolling back in the district which I I think needs to take a priority because you run out of cash if you don't and I'm hoping to have that done tonight and then we can start working more more direct ly on the budget
23:10any other questions
23:14thank you Miss R
23:16okay are you all set with me I have to yeah yeah I'm I'm good I'm good thank you
23:22very well thank you
23:31so to complete the presentation I'm going to just read a few FAQs in case there's some questions on a budget Gap so what are the primary reasons for the current budget Gap the budget Gap can be attributed to several factors which includes unexpect unexpected expenses in operational costs small or flat funding from state and federal sources and lower than anticipated student and enrollment numbers Rising costs for salaries benefits and essential Services have also contributed
24:05how does declining enrollment impact our budget declining enrollment leads to flat or small increase in funding from the state and federal sources that are allocated based on student count fewer students can mean lower allocation of resources impact in programs and overall Financial Health
24:29have any significant changes occurred in the state or federal funding there have been changes in funding formulas and allocations recent budget cuts or shifts in priorities at the state or federal level can drastically reduce our funding leading to a budget Gap that needs to be addressed
24:49are any unexpected expenses contributing to the budget Gap yes we we Face unexpected expenses such as increased utilities maintenance transportation and special education services costs additionally emergency expenditures due to unforeseen events such as facility repairs or health related costs add to the financial strain
25:14what steps are we currently taking to address the budget cap we are reviewing expenditures critically and have Frozen spending and hiring at all all but critical positions and services and in addition we're looking for areas where we can make Cuts without sacrifice sacrificing our educational quality we are also exploring options for increased Revenue such as grants fundraising efforts and potential Partnerships with local businesses
25:49how can we ensure this situation does not repeat in the future to prevent future budget gaps we can Implement better forecasting and budge in practices develop a more Diversified funding strategy closely consider the tax levy and establish reserves to absorb unexpected Financial shocks regular reviews and adjustments to our financial plans will also be crucial
26:14what are the potential impacts of the budget gap on our students and programs the budget Gap would result in cuts to essential programs increase class size reduce Staffing levels and limited extracurricular activities
26:29how will we engage a community in addressing the budget Gap Community engagement is vital we will hold informational sessions for input and involve parents and local organizations to discuss around the potential solution both now and in the future transparency about the budget process and its challenges will Foster community support and participation thank you
26:59you're welcome thank you
27:05this time we have presentations Hudson Hall
27:27I'm driv and to play a video of pictures into this is it okay to take the clicker out movie we can just make it
28:44hi everybody um oh the microphone um I should know better uh thank you so much for having us we over the winter break we ran another one of our Workforce Development programs focused on live arts and media and we've run we started running these in 2018 they've been focused on different things but we've run this live arts and media program three times now and um it was fantastic I'm going to let
29:13U Mr Mosley say a few words about it and then I'll give you a rundown on what we accomplished okay thank you slage good evening everybody my name is Greg Mosley um and I'm happy to be here this program my role in the program it's not a technical one my role is to work with the students and help them on team building um responsibility to a job they get the children young people get paid to be there it's a job and we and I Ask of them three things can they show up one time can they work hard can they listen and learn those are my only three requirements of these young people.
29:56Unfortunately there are some who can't fulfill those three tasks and those are ones we need to work with we work on I work on timeliness with them making sure they report on time fill up their time sheets on time things that come with a job to help them be prepared to go out into the world. We um we I work with them to to work with others to learn to work with others even when you don't agree you need to learn to work with people and understand them and listen to them these are some of the things I work on with them brainstorming understanding what is to sit around a table and bring it bring your thoughts together and come out with a solution to go forward uh to take responsibility for a task and get it done and be responsible get it done on time.
30:42To for the young people to be an intricate part a piece of a very complex puzzle when you think about all the pieces to go into make creating a production if you watch a movie at the end of the movie they run the credits when the credits roll hundreds of credits roll those are all jobs every one of those credits is somebody's job so we want to stress to these young people that there is a career in this field doesn't matter what the career is there's a lot of things they could do and when I say that then that puts me on to where Sage comes into play and that she introduces the the young people to the the technical side of what can be done to make a production uh a success in it Sage.
31:30Thank you um so just quickly about our most recent graduating group we had 15 15 students we did have a two kids on a waiting list but we really could had to cap out at 15 because it's a lot um we had one student who had recently graduated from high school we had six seniors we had four GED students we had one Junior we had three eighth graders we had five or maybe six of our students were in the Hudson City School District Band program um we had five different teacher teaching artists we had four guest speakers uh representing film and television event production one of whom was a Hudson City uh high school graduate who is now in Albany running out his own production company which is really cool um representing fashion he does a ton of fashion shows.
32:26Um we had a diversity life coach who works with the NBA and the NFL and we had a historian and playwright to help um the students formulate what it was they wanted to create so we dropped them in uh pretty fast we really quickly we hand them the sound equipment so they learn all about mics cabling how to operate the sound board um the purpose of all of the equipment in the room they actually had to break down a show that we had done the day before and build the show that we were doing the following weekend and then they also got to especially a lot of our performers got to be in there and utilize that equipment and see how it actually works in practice so that was very exciting.
33:10On the second day we did media and video production we gave the kids at we have a four camera video system that they learned how to operate they we taught them all about framing a shot lighting a shot the purpose of different media and how you might use it how to edit it um and then on the third day we Dro them in on lighting so lighting is great it teaches you all about physics geometry you're using a ton of science you're doing color mixing you can see what different colors of Lights do on your body from the front from the side from the back what are colors do you can see the kids in the photographs hanging lights they were operating we have a lot well there they are posing we have a lot of um different types of lighting so they learn the purposes of all the different types of equipment um that we have and I just want to point out this is all equipment that this High School also has so um anyway so we Dro them in on that.
34:09And then on the fourth day we basically say okay take all of this knowledge and you guys as a team create something so they have to negotiate and that's where Mr Mosley comes in too to help really building that teamwork and uh everyone working together together and overcoming some disagreements and trying to decide what it is you're going to build and then on the final day everyone breaks out and they become different parts of the production so we had students build and run everything.
34:40The first year that we ran this they made a music video last year they made a podcast and this year they did more of a variety show um where they performed a whole bunch of songs we had a poet we had um a bunch dancers so it was really varied and the kids ran everything um I won't say kids cuz a lot of them are adults but um it was fantastic and the students really um got a lot out of it.
35:11So we'll continue Hudson Hall will continue to run this program uh budgeting permitting as we fund raise for it every year um but we also want you all to be aware of it because we're considering whether there's a possibility to bring it here and run it in this Auditorium and teach the students of the Hudson City School District how to operate your equipment because they could be working here tonight um they also could work on all the drama programs the musicals but it also almost all of this equipment is driven by computers and all of what I do is grounded in math and science so it also is a great opportunity to take those
35:51skills they're learning in the classroom and put them into action in the field and finally I would just say a lot of kids don't don't know that there are jobs outside of being a teacher which is a fantastic job but also to work in um the hospital I know we have a really strong connection with the local hospital for employment there are a ton of film and television uh productions being shot in our region and there are entrylevel jobs that pay really really well that you do not need a high school uh I mean you do not need a college education to get you need to show up on time work hard and you can really quickly move up the ladder so we're using this as an opportunity to try to um show folks what you know this huge world of opportunity that exists for them so thanks.
36:40um does anyone have any questions for me or Mr Mosley we also do have one student here who finished the program this year hiding out hiding out in the back so H oh yeah he did it last year um but uh yeah does anyone have any questions
36:59no questions it sounds like a great program thank you for involving our students and yeah we'd love to have you here in the future
37:05yeah we love it it's they really oh I will say I just wanted to note that um we had uh a lot of help within the school district for recruiting our students we are beginning to have a bit of Word of Mouth um which is great so that's why I think why we had a waiting list this year um but also Darren Collins has been instrumental in helping us recruit as has Scott Scott voral wal and greater Hudson promise neighborhood we also work closely with um so I just wanted to give them a shout out and finally this program has been funded for the last three years by Burkshire tonic Community Foundation so we are incredibly thankful for their support to make it work so thank you Sage anything anything okay
37:50[Applause] now we have the grants update for to Je
40:12good evening everyone good evening board public um I'm Dr Elsa cour rores executive director for teaching and learning here in the Hudson City School District and on behalf of our superintendent I'm here to along with some of my colleagues who will be joining me shortly to um update you on our grants um so without further Ado as you know we um continue to strive for school improvement in our in all three schools right and we are doing that by following our six key principles um for school Improvement and strengthening the instructional core improve datadriven practices promote a positive inclusive School environment for all stakeholders strengthen instructional leadership capacity tiered approach to school support and intervention and increase monitoring and accountability and you will see throughout the grants that we are currently um utilizing funds from that our decisions are based on all of these so that's important to know.
41:26I will start you off with the Essa grants um Essa stands for the every student succeeds act and these are all your title grants so Title One Two 3 four and five and I have the distinct honor of kind of overseeing the expenditures for these grants and um it really depends the the allocation for each of these grants depends on a lot of factors as you we'll see in a few minutes um and I will go through this very quickly because we don't want to bore you with all the information you have it in front of you if you would like to refer to it.
42:09so Title One is our biggest Grant um this one is to improve the basic programming academic programs within our school district and it provides um leas so you know all the local um agen um in this case the Hudson City school district for the purpose of educating our students in a fair Equitable and high quality environment um where all students can achieve success and so the funds are allocated to um ensure that that happens um and it's done through formulas that the New York State education department has for for the allocation based on census information poverty levels um the cost in general of education so um you will see that the allocations vary depending on the different formulas.
43:08so Title One Part A is um like I said basic um the largest amount that we receive and it's um basically dependent upon poverty levels and the students that we serve um ages 5 through 17 it bases is um data on the census and um what what we get is an allocation that will um help us in having programs for our students to be able to succeed and I will show you some examples of that. um it is also based on how many students are in foster care how many students receive temporary assistance um and so on and so forth so um we in the Hudson City School District in Hudson um we are at a child um the school year uh child count data which is um basically the N the percentage of students that are considered lowincome is at 20.4% so um that was in 232 before school year we still don't know um based on Census Data what that would be for this Academic School year so whatever we have whatever data is provided for us that's what we use and whatever the state provides um as their formula and data that's that's exactly what we use.
44:49so basically and you heard Miss rayome State before that there are some um positions that are supported by Grant funds and these are AIS teachers Avid coaches summer program teachers expanded Learning Time teachers professional learning for our um expanded learning teachers and this kindergarten Summer Academy and the cost associated with that so as you can see the allocation for the for this Academic School year was $635,000 964 and and last year it was 629-7603 [Music]
45:57so um it's based on the formulas that they utilize for um the percentage of low-income families minority students within our district um AIS students those kinds of um numbers go into this and it is basically the purpose is to like I said improve the quality of instruction but that goes also for principals and other school leaders as well um in terms of the determination process the New York State education department must distribute T title 2 part A funds based on an Lea's share of the census population ages 5 through 17 20% of funds and share of census poverty population ages 5 through 17 80% of funds and here are some of the salaries that are title two allocations pay for um in in um our
46:58elementary school we have a math instructional coach it does it pays for part of her salary not the entire salary um students support community members these are um community community members that um serve on a particular team uh a committee chaired by Dr pressy and it pays for their stiens it pays also for teacher stiens for planning for facil itation of PD um participating in professional development for new teachers outside of the school time so as you know by contract we must um compensate teachers when they participate in PD outside of the normal um hours of the day.
47:47title three when you think of title three English language Learners come to your should come to your mind and this is based on part 154 CR part 154 is the regulation according to the New York State Department that we must provide our mult multilingual students our English English language Learners um opportunities for them to advance in their goals linguistically and academically so we want to make sure that our students um who are El's multilingual Learners have equal access to opportunities that any other student student may have.
48:29and so the allocation for that currently I should say that we have 153 students that are considered El's in our district and it goes by um their progress on the nest slot and nital these are acronyms for very long names of Assessments um but basically you have it in front of you and um it takes into consideration what is there rate of progress in those examinations.
49:01the salaries that are paid for or parts of the salary or and or activities that teachers May engage in are also funded through this um allocation and it would be student support Community member stiens again this is part of that um committee chaired by Dr pressie and there are I believe 12 Dr pressie community members there um Lexia English learning program this is a digital computerized program so that our students who are El's could practice their vocabulary reading comprehension Etc using Lexia um teachers have received training on how to use Lexia within their classrooms and um it's a great tool for our English language Learners it also provides um for um the expenditures of supplemental language instructional materials.
50:03part a title four part A is um basically students uh support and academic enrichment these are the programs that will enrich our students so for instance any type of um programs that have to do with stem studies um improving the conditions of our um student learning opportunities within the district so providing more opportunities it would fall under this this category um improve the use of technology and as you know we have various sources of um funding for technology but this is one also that um I should say that and I should have started by saying the expenditures and the um allowable expenses are very strict um that come from the New York State ad department and so we we can't say oh let's just buy X you know number of things by using these funds there are non-allowable expenses under each of these title um grants.
51:10so um activities that would fall under this category would be College and Career learning program costs associated with accelerated learning exam fees and dual enrollment programs this is um part of the high school and the opportunities that they provide for students to be duly enrolled um well-rounded educational opportunities for music and art of education so um there are monies in there for that ruler you all have heard about ruler so some of the um expenses um are paid through this uh for ruler are paid through this title for Grant and um the Hudson Police Department resource officer that we have in our um on our premises is also paid through this grant.
52:00this is Title Five and it has to do with rural lowincome students um this was established uh to provide additional resources to assist rural districts so we're still even though we're a city school district we have some rural areas right and um it it it meets the definition of what a rural district is and um in terms of accountability what um types of funding it might receive and these are some of the activities that are associated and allocated um and the expenditures for that are paid by this allocation which would be Project based learning stem programs um Lexia English language again development so as you can see some of these um activities we can pay under particular grants and we can also pay they are allowed under other grants as well as well Elementary enrichment programs.
52:58we also had a keynote speaker at the middle school this year um to uh welcome the students I believe he did and Mr um bear is here he did a um uh a welcome message for our middle schoolers so that was really um really great that we were able to do that.
53:20our school Improvement Grant this this really has to do with um um as you all know the designation of our district right now it is a targeted School District so that means that one or more than one of our buildings is um uh designated as a school in need of improvement or t TSI School uh a school that needs support in this case it would be the elementary school and for next year um we will receive the 125 here that you see is for the elementary school and the district uh for next year you will see that number increase because now the junior high school was newly designated as a TSI school.
54:06and the activities that are associated with this particular Grant are grade level leader stiens um the grade level leader stiens this is crucial to the work of the plc's that we're conducting right now that that we're doing in every building so making sure that there are great grade level leaders that can support collaboration um and facilitate meetings um per grade level or subject areas um our SE um member stiens our mtss PD that we have had our literacy PD that we will continue to have um our pbl or Project based learning our ruler program and also the purchase seeing of decodable texts at the elementary school.
55:00and now I will present Dr pressy who will continue with the other grants that we um also have in our district good evening.
55:14all right good evening board so I will present the myig grants that I have the responsibility for um sorry I'm not using my outdoor voice.
55:29the 21st century after school Grant has been within our district for a number of years we have an incredible director of that Grant her name is Joanne Ally and we have an incredible data manager in the person of Lindsay Ponder and I'm very proud of the
55:56Work we have had a wonderful experience with New York State Ed and you already saw my presentation last year when I January when I told you all about how they recognize our students Etc so I'm just going to go through the basics. This grant provides $179,700 some of the things one is the salaries obviously of Joanne um and stiens for Lindsay and other people um The Writing Center there's a stien for that position staff who work with students for the NASA design thinking challenge project or activity they completed a lunar Water Challenge which was phenomenal and enriching trips you saw the listing of things that we offer our students when I presented the initiatives.
57:04We do an awful lot with $179,700 is really spent on the children mostly and the Staffing we have or the staff we truly need to make sure that the programs run successfully. We have a site at the elementary school the junior high school as well as the high school. So you heard tons about this one this is the leaps Grant learning enrichment after school program support.
57:59This is in collaboration with the Mental Health Association Colombia green I worked with the team there were three of us and we were able to secure $1.1 million for five years that's $5.5 million. We're doing a lot with that grant funding as well I shared that with you and I shared all the activities it pays for mostly the activities and we do have some staffing that we pay uh stiens for but here's some of the things that we're able to offer.
58:42For example we're beginning you know with a mental health clinic we have to get the clinician that's the only thing keeping us right now so that's being worked on but it's not costing our district. So what's good about this particular Grant the IV Le college tours that we're going to be going on um The Counselor we will have providing support to families and students after school and on weekends all of this is going to come from this grant so we don't have to pull from The District in addition to 21st cury.
59:26This particular Grant is specific to students in K through 8 whereas 21st century is for like all the grades so this particular Grant allows a ton of activities that we pay for materials that we pay for we spend on the students we need them to have as many learning activities as possible. So I shared with you that that very comprehensive schedule of events that we have for our students and a lot of that comes directly from this grant.
1:00:06So we only hire the staff we actually need but we do make sure we spend the majority of the monies on our students and by the way I want to reiterate to everyone we cannot take the funding and just apply it anywhere for every Grant there are goals. We have a proposal we have goals in that proposal and everything we do has to line up with that so we can't just say oh there's a need over here we just need to switch funds we can't do that they're very strict.
1:00:49So when people say well you can just take a th here a th there no you can't it has to align with what was approved by the New York State education department when you applied for the grant so I just want to make sure that's abundantly clear.
1:01:08MBK fellows the amount is 11,900 because of our district size we can only have two students they have to be seniors and they participate in a book study they go to Albany and they participate in what's known as Stand and Deliver where they give speeches in front of their peers and their hundreds of peers in the room. They also participate in a symposium which is incredible there are like a thousand students from all over the state there and they their mentors are there sometimes their superintendents are there it's just an incredible experience.
1:01:51They have a speaker who comes to inspire the students they serve them an incredible meal and part of this money also goes towards purchasing suits for those particular students so that they can be dressed appropriately for the Symposium. So we have two graduating students and then we'll have two inductees who go to the Symposium and we celebrate those who were moving on but we induct those who are going to begin in over the summer so that's what that Grant pays for and there is a mentor um that receives a stipend and students receive a stien from that Grant.
1:02:40MBK family and Community engagement program that Grant amount is $125,000 and it pays for it pays stiens for coordinators and we have Summer Staff we have staff during the school year that accompanies students support students throughout the school year. We have the flying classroom part of the money for that program comes from this grant because we have students who are part of MBK fep and there are 19 of them who participate in the flying classroom.
1:03:22And remember when I told you about the flying classroom and I said that students will be going on trips that align with what they're learning in the classroom the weather is better and we're going because we need to ensure students have real world connections to what they're learning stronger connections.
1:03:50This was the grant you remember um three-year Grant $1.98 million so this grant we get about $684,000 is each year for three years. There are a lot of things that come from this grant as you can see mtss the Panorama survey PBIS differentiated instruction from Cornell University the PLC building teams we have 15 Meers members in each team on each team at the buildings and building level coordinators.
1:04:30And I would like to give a shout out to my colleague Dr Elsa Courtright Torres because she's done a lot of work to bring the teams together and they are doing some good work collaborating so silos down tella Health. We've got cartwheel tella Health which provides support for our students after school hours and on weekends and it's virtual counseling sensory rooms oh my goodness they look incredible.
1:05:04We've got three sensory rooms they just finished the elementary school sensory room that comes from this grant part of the flying classroom comes from this grant as well and those students who are part of this section of the flying classroom obviously are students from grades six through 8.
1:05:37Restorative practices Specialists comes from stronger connections we have our consultant who's done amazing work and is pretty popular in the district and staff really love her trainings Miss Bennett. We've got social workers that facilitate transition and engagement we've got our summer Institute and Academy that's going to be very very very good for our students.
1:06:10enrichment and they're going to grow We Believe they'll learn lots of skills that they will be able to use when they go into the next grade so that's stronger connections Ida 611 and 619 individuals with disabilities Education Act so we've got Part B you could read these things I don't want to bore you with reading all of it but it's very important to note $599,990 for 611 and 619 we use $3 39,42 to provide support for our students related Services speech otpt materials and supplies you know how students will have augmentative communication devices that will support those devices we also have funds that are expended in the provision of students uh services for students Age 3 to
1:07:19five we have our Universal pre kindergarten and upk expansion grants so Universal prek $328,800 th000 so again State and federally funded program offered to families free of charge you just have to have a New York state residency and the child's age has to qualify let's take a look at this law we should re This Together section 362e of Education law defines an eligible child as a resident child who is four years old on or before December 1st that's the key because that's a qualifier of the school year in which they are enrolled or who will otherwise be first eligible to enter Public School kindergarten the following school year so you know that the expansion grants do
1:08:26provide full day prek for students we have the special education teacher who receives funding and of course there are School visits involved and now I will turn this over to Miss Cheryl Rabinowitz than you good evening so the first grant that I'm going to speak about is the local government records management Grant that's a grant that helps us with our student records and staff records primarily we're focusing on Student Records you may be aware the district has lots of Records in paper format dating back from the 1900s and so this grant the purpose of this grant was to kind of go through it be trained and then eventually digitize the records so this grant covers and
1:09:21it's um after school hours it's not full-time people it's a project coordinator project staff Consultants from the capitol region bosis who trained the project staff as well as some supplies storage boxes and also once the records are purged they are legally shred in a certain format um the purpose was to focus on student inactive records like I said and we have tons we also have other types of Records staff records personnel records business office records and we'll be looking to do that in the future this is funded by New York State and it's finished by June 30th and this is considered phase one the project coordinator which is myself I'm going to be working with uh
1:10:16Miss chrisy we're going to be she's the records manage officer and we're going to be developing protocols so as we move forward how will records be taken care of and we'll be applying for phase two which is the digitization and that Grant is due next week I want to just take a moment to thank New York state for providing this to the district as well as all the project staff who've been working going through those files purging them um I also want to thank our cabinet members and the buildings as well we had a and our records Grant committee who gave input and our GR gr writer you know everyone worked very collaboratively to get this Grant and
1:10:59the next phase two is also 75,000 so our fingers are crusted the next program is actually they don't Verizon doesn't like to call it a grant it's a program so it's the Verizon Innovative learning schools program that provided equipment as well as funding towards staff so we were the firsttime applicant we are part of the league of innovative schools we applied for it it was over a year process to apply for the grant it's definitely aligned with the keys for school Improvement and also our technology plan goals I won't read them they're listed there and um you may have heard me say this before but just so that we're clear what this program and the value is over $2 million for the
1:11:55District it's for two years and it provided Chromebooks with built-in cellular data for students teachers and teaching assistance in the junior high and high schools SCH it also provided funding towards two instructional technology coaches not their whole salary but money towards their salary it also fund funded towards a computer service specialist it provides virtual learning experiences for teachers teaching assistants and administrators uh it also provided some digital media equipment and podcasting equipment to the district it provided conferences for the district lead which is Dr pennyman the district it lead which is myself and the junior high and High School principles we went to a conference last year and that was all covered by the grant it provides ongoing
1:12:50professional development coaching and technical support from digital promise which is really the I would say the main piece Verizon is funding the money but it's all through digital promise we also have had some on-site visits recently uh they come a few times a year last week the district office teachers building principls we worked with the Verizon team they visited the classrooms and then we worked on revisioning like what do we really want this to look like we did this a year ago but what do we want it to look like now and they'll be back in the fall um I mentioned that it was a two-year program and if we're successful they'll evaluate us and if the district
1:13:38wants to continue we will continue for another two years so we're very excited about that program as well so those are the two pieces and do you guys have any questions about those two yes so I had a question regarding the files um sure is that program based out of like the jle building because I remember like when I did the work over the summer we talked about um like redundant technology being sent there and like how is where is it based in sure so the records right now the paper records are all over they're in a high school records room they're at JL so when we wrote this grant that's part of it I actually was there today counting
1:14:21the boxes for the records so those records will be digitized so it does include those thank you you're welcome I had another question about um the Verizon Grant and that value for over $2 million um is I'm I'm assuming a large portion of that was the technology we were given and I'm I'm assum I'm wondering how the continuation of that money and the
1:14:48technology works like if we demonstrate a need for more Chromebooks does that also fall under this program as well
1:14:54that's an excellent question and yes it does and actually they do that ongoing so when our student enrollment increases we put in it's called a gap order for students and staff and we've already been sent Chromebooks for this year this this school year and then we'll do it again in the summer so they continue to do that and support us and um everything that's under warranty is covered and then whatever is not covered our computer technicians and our student tech crew we purchase the parts and then they repair them
1:15:26I guess ask away sure um is there a I guess a fear of being too dependent on Verizon like is this guaranteed that we will be like I don't know given what we need for a certain amount of time
1:15:39so that's an excellent question too no there's really no fear because we really over the last few years have built our technology and our infrastructure that if we for some reason weren't going to continue we would be able to sustain and that's really what Verizon's message is hiring the instructional technology coaches having them work with the teachers having us provide equipment so that we're like in a good place and then we continue if that makes sense
1:16:08thank you thank you anything else
1:16:10all right I had a question for Dr Dr cour
1:16:13okay we'll switch thank you
1:16:22yes I just wanted to understand understand a little bit the difference between how um students who qualify for free lunch is calculated versus how uh US Census Data calculates poverty like there's a big disparity between 65 and 70% of our students who qualify for free lunch versus the US government saying only 20% of our students are um considered lwi income like why would there be such a big gap between those numbers
1:16:56that's a very good question um so if I'm understanding your question correctly the if we go by free and reduced lunch we essentially have a free and reduced we have a free lunch program in our district so all students receive free and reduced lunch um however they consider these numbers by Census Data um and at this point the what you see in front of you are the calculations for the 2324 the discrepancy between that and the 20% um is also part of their calculation what they calculate is okay how what's the percentage of students that are in free reduced lunch and also what is the percentage of students that qualify under um poverty the poverty threshold if you will um so I I don't know what exact formula they use but I do know that they to take those two things into account
1:18:01is it possible that the difference is that the Census Data is are every every child in our district versus the kids who actually attend the Hudson schools like is it is it possible that because we have wealthier families who send their children to private schools instead that that that difference is what explains those numbers
1:18:26it could be I don't know Miss Ferry do you have any information about that
1:18:37hello nope nope not yet not yet there you go hello
1:18:48do you want to use this one you want to come
1:18:58so that's a really good question so really how we determine um our rate or how many students are counted is a through a formula we put in actually into the New York State Ed business portal and so some of this is done behind the scenes in terms of being able to figure out the formula ourselves like they we we're able to get our numbers and then we put them in and they give us our rate our per pupil allocation is determined by the state based on those numbers so it's not like we're doing sitting here doing math to try to figure out their formula it's we're Gathering the information that they're asking for what the Census Data is what our um lowincome student rate is and then they're giving us a per pupil allocation based on those numbers and it's you're putting it into a portal and they're giving us that rate
1:19:50yeah that that part I understand I think I was wondering if there's a difference the poverty rate of the Hudson like Hudson as a City versus Hudson as the schools
1:20:04it would it would be every student that lives within the Hudson City School District and you're right some of the some of this allocation does go to students that live within the district but attend nonpublic schools so yes so we we would not get our full allocation there's would be also some of the allocation goes to those those students as well
1:20:33thank you any other questions
1:20:33yes I I had a question regarding the title grants um so for the fund for the programs that are partially or entirely funded by the title grants um are those do we demonstrate the need for those programs or do do we receive the money and then determine what programs we use that money for
1:20:58so are you talking about the actual activities
1:21:00yes so the things within the lists that were provided um I'm curious if we demonstrate the need for that specific program or if um we're given the money and then are like we'll put this money towards this thing
1:21:14it's a little bit of both so we determine what's our need right so depending on how many students we have that need academic intervention services for example um and we don't have funding from the general fund to pay for it we might pay part of their salary from the title Grant so that allows us this additional funding allows us to have more support for our students because that's what the grant is is intended for
1:21:46I I guess what um the I'm trying to ask is could we um if we demonstrated the need for either a more expensive program or an additional program would we received uh money through the title grants to help with that or um is are we set with the money that we get
1:22:05so the money that we get is based again on what Miss Ferry St stated it's a it's a formula that is that the New York State education department um has and so yeah we we do not have any control over that um it is a Federal Grant and also it might change we may get less come next year um it all depend so when we get the allocation we decide based on the allocation what have we paid for in the past that has been supported by this Grant and then what can we continue to support through this Grant and what are our actual needs
1:22:48right now so if we have a need for something else we might change our course right but as long as it's allowable by this grant thank you you're welcome um I guess the the million dooll question is if there are material changes to the Department of Education and federal funding the majority of these programs would be affected by that that's correct
1:23:14I had some questions for Dr pressie if possible um so my first question is I think I think it was Dr press you talked about the leaps Grant am I correct so that sum was for over a million dollars I think and I'm curious if we're using all of that money currently
1:23:37so the amount is 1.98 million and we are using it over a three-year period And yes we're spending a lot of money to support our students now you were here when I did the presentation in January and I showed those wonderful schedules of events and things we've got we pay for a boxer for boxing we've got you know they're doing nails they're doing hair a lot of the various things that they're able to do it's because of this Grant and these are things that our students want and we canvased and we found the individuals who could provide them with those wonderful opportunities
1:24:25so I'd like to thank you for that seriously um my next question is about the Ida uh 611 and 619 um so if I understood it correctly we currently use 39,000 out of that almost $600,000 is that correct
1:24:43no those are two different things you got Ida 611 and if you look at idea Part B sections 611 and 619 they're used to pay for sped or special education and related services that students need these are students with disabilities so the speech OT PT that's paid through this grant also special education teachers so you would you know it's all there 66,000 64,000
1:25:21all right thank you I guess so that doesn't my my question is for the the excess costs um is that like um fluid if I mean if there's demonstrated need for more costs is that are we able to get that
1:25:36that's what we're going to have what is allocated to us is right there
1:25:42okay got it thank you
1:25:42you've got it any other questions no thank you all very much I should stay up here because the next presentation aome see thank you Thomas I think it's other one as well there's one more feel thank you Marissa Isn't She Wonderful technolog is great
1:28:03all right so I'm going to be joined by um shortly by Mr bear our interim principal at the High um Hudson Junior High School and um I will start these this presentation with basically just giving you an overview of the data for the um junior high school and why it was determined to be a TSI school
1:28:32so the indicators the accountability status indicators for the 2324 school year are the following student acade academic achievement the progress of our English language Learners chronic absenteeism and graduation rates for if it was a high school so this does not apply for the um Junior High School
1:28:55for the 2526 school year just for your knowledge it's going to change a little bit okay you are going to have for the elementary and middle school this is important to note since we also have a TSI school that is uh our elementary school is designated as a TSI school um it's going to uh be calculated using a weighted average uh for uh achievement student achievement core subject performance English language proficiency attendance and student growth and for the high school weighted average achievement core subject performance again English language proficiency attendance graduation rate and new um this year the college career and Civic Readiness
1:29:42um so this is what they take into account when they um designate a school as in need of support
1:29:52so this is what what really our status is okay our district the Hudson City school district has been designated as a Target District what does that mean it means that one or more of our school buildings was designated as a targeted support and Improvement building a TSI School in this case the elementary school has been designated as a targeted support and Improvement school for two years this is year two for the um Junior High School this will be year one for Hudson Senior High School is still an LSI school which is a local support and Improvement and you will see um in another slide that we do still need to look at the performance at our high school because it will be determined in the near future whether it will be a TSI school or not
1:30:54these are the multiple entry support models um for each um designation so if it's a local support that would be the bottom of the triangle and basically that's something that we do on a normal basis we provide support for any of the school buildings by having programs for our students however when we um a school is designated as a this uh TSI school it rises up to the middle which is a district Le sep implementation support school and that's when the New York State education department deems it appropriate to give us additional funding toward the implementation of a plan called the set
1:31:40before that the orange part of the um triangle is when they give you sort of like a warning okay you're not there yet you're a potential TSI meaning these are some red flags you need to correct okay so if you go up to all the way up to the top um at the receivership level is when um the superintendent independent receiver Authority takes over and um it it it is also designated as a CSI support but even before that the New York State Ed department will then um help us and support us in coming in and and really looking at our plan there's obviously more accountability as you go up the triangle okay more documentation that is needed more supports that are needed for our students and for our teachers
1:32:44so this is the breakdown by subgroup so um as I said before the indicators that we talked about before are taken into account but also the the performance of our subgroups and these are the subgroups on the left hand side um as you can see the junior high school was designated as a TSI school for our Hispanic population it is also designated for year one as a potential TSI for our black African-American students and for our multi-racial students so come next G here if that doesn't change for the better it will be a TSI school for those other subgroups as well as you can see this um the
1:33:34elementary school is still at a TSI for Hispanic students and then the senior high school is um designated as a local support also and um the entire district is on the right hand column and as you can see that there is a potential um for our some of our subgroups. Um as I stated before the black African-American population um student subgroup the um multi-racial and also the economically disadvantage at the bottom as you can see so this this is how our school district fairs in comparison to other um local districts in the area.
1:34:21As as you can see in red um there are some um other targeted uh Target districts in the um local areas here in the county um in the counties of Colombia um green renier and so on and then the the actual District names I won't say it in public. Um the indicator levels This Is How They calculate uh the percentage or how is it that we calc how is it that they calculate the TSI designation so basically if we are at a one level one which is the red at the bottom left so 10% or our um it it would be an English language proficiency between zero to 49%.
1:35:19So when taken into account the weighted proficiency our academic achievement of our students our core subject performance in the um State assessments our ELP as you can see we are at a level one okay and The Chronic absente absm of course. So um these are the junior high school indicators and you can see that all the ones are in Red so that's what we need to really make sure that we um show growth and if we show growth in each of these um subgroups then um we we have the possibility of getting a two which would get us out of the designation.
1:36:12And now I will present Mr bear who will continue with the data presentation.
1:36:20Hi good evening everyone nice to see everyone again. Before we take a look into the data I would just like to inform everyone if you're not aware Proficiency in regards to New York State Testing is any student who scored a level three or a level four on the state test um so if you take a look at our 232 24 data we're going to start off with Ela 7. Um our seventh graders who are now currently in eth they scored 30% last year when they were in sixth grade they scored 2 8% so we saw 2% growth in that category.
1:36:56Our eighth grade students who are at 35% the previous year they were 34% so they showed a 1% growth. Our sixth graders who scored 29% the previous year when they were in fifth grade they scored 23% of 6% growth so while that growth may seem minimal at the end of the day it is still positive growth it is something we will still build upon um but again it is positive growth so that means we were better than the year before so it's something we look to improve upon.
1:37:36If you look here uh this is our 3 to8 testing participation by subgroup. New York state would like us to have 95 participation perc participation rate across the board obviously due to the fact that students have the ability to opt out this is rather difficult to to to keep up with to at 90 95%. We've taken a few strides at the Junior High in order to hopefully increase participation this year um I have been reaching out to families of anyone who did not participate last year whether it was due to absences or opt out um I simply expressed how important it is to participate in the state test just due to data it really helps us get an idea of where our students are being successful where we need where we have areas of opportunity.
1:38:27Um if anyone at home is watching and is any questions they can feel free to reach me at the junior high I'd be more than happy to discuss anything with them. Um one other thing we're going to do at the junior high this year is we're going to designate an an individual to help with the state test for a twoe period so if they do miss you know the first day where two the testing window will remain open for two weeks so we are going to try and and get each and every one of our students who is absent to take the test.
1:39:05If we take a look at our math if we look at our seventh grade math students last year they scored 26% the previous year they scored a 133% proficiency so we saw 133% growth with that grade level. If we take a look at our eighth grade 38% were proficient the previous year there were 26% so we saw 12% growth so we've really started to see some improvements in the math area once again this is something we're going to build upon um we have put in other steps other processes to hopefully other programs as well to hopefully really build upon it but it is a great starting point as far as we all believe.
1:40:02Same thing goes with the participation here so we're going to take the same steps um I just I can't stress enough we are focusing in regards to participation on all students um we have an enrollment last year was 376 students so the more students we hit obviously the percentages will go up will increase uh much quicker.
1:40:25If you take a look here this is the first year for the science test last year um 41% of our students scored proficient on the state test um we are only 6% below the average of all the districts in the Questar so I I really commend our our science department I think they did a great job um I'm looking forward to see what this year brings but I'm I'm very proud of this as a first year stat.
1:40:54This is probably the statistic I'm I'm most proud of this year um chronic absenteeism last year we were at 32.7% this year as of yesterday we were at 22.67% um so it's a really you know big decrease in the number um I owe a lot of this to our attendance team. We meet every Friday Mr Collins our attendance officer part of the team we also have many members who come from outside organization um my school counselors we all meet we really discuss right now we're really focusing on the at risk chronically at risk students um so we are hoping to bring down that number even more but I'm a big believer you know obviously if students are not in the building it's really hard to bring up those the proficiency levels so this has
1:41:46been a main focus of myself and my team this year and so far so good it's a number we still you know 22% still not happy with that I would like to bring it down a lot more so where do we go from here um you know we are still looking to go up obviously you know we we know we want the best for all of our students. Um we are configuring the master schedule we're trying to configure it to so we have more PLC opportunities for our staff this year we're conducting plc's after school um next year the goal is to have all of our staff have a common planning time period. Um we're also looking to increase AIS Services whether it's push in or pull out um we're really hoping to give each student the AIS Service that they need and deserve.
1:42:39Um we are also working in collaboration with our Questar coaches and arburn um the Questar coaches are in the process now of conducting a assessment for all of our Hispanic subgroup students um again just based off the TSI designation. We are also going to specifically tailor these programs to meet the needs of both Hispanic and black African-American student subgroup based upon the fact that they are a potential Target um subgroup. So how can we increase instructional time for our students that is the way we will increase our proficiency.
1:43:19These are some just ideas just thinking outside the box um possibly Extended Learning time you know if we can secure a grant in some aspect or other avenues after school tutoring is a is a way a few years ago I was told that helped increase scores um again just ideas thinking outside the box I think we do need to get creative in our in our thinking. Um but I do believe with the team that we have we definitely can all put our heads together and really look to improve upon the the scores and the success that we're starting to have.
1:43:57With that being said do you have any questions for Dr cor tours or myself?
1:44:04Do we know the in terms of the test participation do we know the breakdown between absentee cause versus opt out?
1:44:12We we do have that information um roughly as roughly was I want to say last year sixth grade was roughly 10 students when we got up to seventh and eth grade it got a little bit more it was about 40 students per grade. Um we did see a lot last year of students who decided the day of the test to opt out that is another um measure we're going to put in place this year I'm going to put a deadline of three days prior to have an opt out letter on file um for numerous reasons you know that will allow me to contact parents you know Express concerns of opting out obviously it's every family's right but the data really helps us in our um you know to find out where we can really support our students.
1:45:03Yeah I think I'm just going to say this and you can tell me if I'm if I'm wrong but you know this these State exams aren't really grading the kids they're grading the school um and so I wouldn't want you know the kids or the families to take it too much to heart it's just it's you know it's really about how the school is doing as a whole.
1:45:23Oh ABS absolutely and that's you know I do stress we're trying to keep it as least stressful as possible for our for our kids and our families um you know again it is there right but the state does look at us you know as at all districts at 95%. So it's it's really just trying to relay the the message to our families that you know there's no negative no negative reason to take it um not take it I'm sorry and um just stress the positive and the importance of how it will only benefit not only their their uh child but moving forward really everyone else in the district.
1:46:03What does the state measure Civic Readiness as?
1:46:07The Civic Readiness was one of the criteria I guess how that's a that's a new one okay yeah um so the number of I believe that the number of college um um credits offerings at the high school School level um AP classes Etc preparing students for college and careers. Um that is something that the state is also you know trying to come uh to some sort of conclusion and and and figure out um we are still getting information about that it has also something to do with the portrait of a graduate. Um and I have I I don't know if we have presented on that before I believe the Strategic plan had the portra of a graduate.
1:46:56Any other questions?
1:46:59No the the science scores are great great to see and also great to hear about all the increases in uh math across all the grades sure and attendance.
1:47:08Yes in attendance yes big Improvement in attendance we part of that is also we have an attendance task force in our district. Um and uh the work of the task force has really helped us in determining what are the factors contributing to Chronic absenteeism. Um and you know if we know what what are the reasons and the factors then we could um put some resources into helping students so yes that that has helped tremendously.
1:47:45Thank you great thank you very much thank you.
1:47:55Jle proposal um I believe they actually left yeah yeah okay yeah SP her.
1:48:51So tonight superintendent report I'll begin with the spotlight on excellence and these awards are given to spotlighting whether they be community members or staff members on things that they're doing that are extra special for Hudson or just spotlighting the great work they're doing. So first I'd like to call Miss Gail wheeler if you're in the audience okay okay you can stand right here because you're next.
1:49:32All right so we we have Miss Gail wheeler and Mr omir Muffy they're both work with our students on helping to in The Writing Center they have done excellent work but they're just not working with our students in The Writing Center they're going above and beyond for our students. Um there's some great things um that they have done with making sure that our students are getting where they need to get if they're accepted in colleges Etc and Mr Muffy is a Hudson grad who um loves Hudson and is giving back his his time to us making sure that um as an alumni that the students are sucessful. So I'll give these two Awards I'll give here's yours and then miss Wheeler's is there and what we usually
1:50:30do is once we give all the awards everyone comes up front and take a picture with the boards. we we also have Timothy call or Tim as we call him call are you here perfect Mr call as you know our our buildings are are are spotless I mean they're our our crew our maintenance crew and mechanic crew have done an exceptional job throughout our district and I just always want to Spotlight them for the excellent work that they do on a daily basis so we have these offices with the with the old systems and so sometimes I'm freezing sometimes I'm hot and just and but they're always there at our second call so I strongly believe that um just spotlighting all the great things that you guys do and I just want to say thanks.
1:51:33[Applause]
1:51:38right next we have Miss Joan hunt Miss Hunt is one of our community part partners that goes above and beyond for our students uh she is a Hudson grad also and um one of the things that she many things um she has done this year is we had a student uh preas student and we found out that you know this student did not have a way to come to school but someone noticed one morning that her mother was pushing a stroller with her baby sibling and walking for several I guess like I don't at least a mile or so or more to get her child to school so we were in a meeting one day in the attendance meeting and Miss hunt jumped right in and now this family's been provided with a right to school every day so I just want to say thank you and just a spotlight the excellent work that you are doing to partner with us in the district.
1:52:55these are all our spot um light on Excellence um recipients tonight and if you would like to just stand over here we'll go ahead and get a picture with the Board of Education.
1:53:39[Applause]
1:53:47also I just want to spot uh talk a little bit about uh a work based learning program that's in conjunction with um the high school kitchen and um Miss Smith's class as you can see one of our students is gaining valuable experience just working um learning about food service Etc so this is a great opportunity for our students in Miss Schmid's class where they can gain this experience and take their skills Beyond High School.
1:54:19M Rabinowitz talked a little bit about um the visitation from the Verizon Innovative um learning team and um they were here last week we worked together as a team and we forecast what's next for our district um in using all the great resources they gave us so they visited classrooms Etc and Miss rabina already touched on it so I don't want to repeat what she said earlier but it was a great opportunity and for the fact that they um supplied us with the device Cris they were very impressed with our team they were very impressed about what's happening across the district and um overall we were able to plan together and one of the as you know my Mantra is together we can so together we can continue um to to get the best from our Verizon resources.
1:55:16I had a chance to attend Annie on Friday night it was a great success uh our students are very talented here in Hudson and it's great that we're able to Showcase them and uh kudos to um all of the team members who were a part of making sure that this production um was and it was such a great hit. kindergarten screening is happening now prek applications is there and then we have the suso musical that's coming up on March 28th at 7 p.m. and now you'll get a report from our athletic director Mr Brisco.
1:56:13good evening everybody um so just to kind of touch base on some I know you guys got an update I believe two meetings ago um about the majority of the winter season but this is just a couple of things just to touch based on that happened since then um our boys Vol varsity volleyball team made it to the class B sectional finals um they lost to kabad but we're Runners up in the section it's a nice achievement uh the boys varsity basketball team made it to the class a sectional semi-finals and lost to Glenn Falls who has been undefeated for two straight years they won another state championship uh this past weekend actually.
1:56:53um a couple of highlights individual highlights uh we had uh League MVP for boys basketball um in Keith Robinson as well as a first team All-Star selection uh in Ganon log our uh bowling team had a second team Allstar Tyler finle um we had two second team Allstars for boys volleyball which was Griffin Foster and Anthony Florio and we did have um three students who were chosen to participate in their exceptional senior All-Star games for basketball um we had one from our girls basketball team Tessa Goldstein and then two boys uh from the boys basketball team which was Joan Morrison and Jason Francis um so they got uh unfortunately the girls game got cancelled because the other team that we participated in didn't have enough girls but our boys uh did get to participate in that last week um with their fellow seniors from the betroom conference and they competed against the waser and League which is uh up north.
1:57:53um one other thing that I wanted to to touch base on which I um didn't have the data on when I had sent this in was our winter scholar athletes um we had three scholar athlete teams in order to be considered a scholar athlete team the average GPA of your top 75% of your roster um has to be 90% or higher and we did have three of those boys volleyball girls uh swimming and our girls basketball team we're all scholar athlete teams for the winter and along with that we had 23 individual scholar athletes so their team was not um a scholar athlete team but those individual students had a 90 uh percent average or higher for the second quarter um so I thought that was nice.
1:58:36uh spring Sports uh are underway High School sports uh started last week our mod Sports started yesterday um so for the spring we have varsity baseball um we we have varsity boys and girls track and field and we also have a varsity boys tennis team which is the first time we've had that in about five years um so I was going to actually give uh Thomas some some props if he was was still here he's one of the members of the team um him and we got him and a few
1:59:11other uh seniors actually were very senior heavy but we've been able to go the last couple years down to the tennis courts uh for part of our PE class so I think that's kind of kind of what kind of jump started that for us being able to kind of see as a PE Department who we thought would be a good fit on our tennis team with those skills and we do a couple other racket Sports throughout the year. um our modified programs we will have baseball softball and track and field um unfortunately we were not able to field uh Varsity Softball JV softball due to numbers um we didn't have the uh the proper numbers so with that um a couple things that I wanted to bring up that I'm going to be doing moving forward here in the next hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'm going to be putting together a survey for all of our um students in grade 7 through 12.
2:00:03um I need I'm going to try to talk to the uh junior high PE staff to see if they'll be on board with what we're going to how we're going to implement giving this to our students in the high school um but I'm going to put together kind of a comprehensive survey and just try to see what we can do as a school district to get more kids involved. um softball is not the only sport that we do not offer all three levels um it's not just a Hudson issue um other teams in our league are having the same issues uh but I would try to let would like to kind of try and find some sort of data on what is holding back some of our kids whether it is transportation issues whether it is um you know do they have other obligations after school maybe they have to have a job maybe they you know watch a sibling or something like that that doesn't allow them to to participate in our um Athletics.
2:00:57so I'm hoping to have this ready and done before Spring Break um if not it'll be done shortly after in the high school I already talked to my fellow PE staff we're going to take the first five minutes of a class one day and ask the students to do it that way we're not just asking them to email it to him do it and you know I get low numbers back in terms of participation so I'm hoping that we'll get a large number and just try to really hammer down what some of these issues are and maybe it's some things we can help with some things we may not be able to help with. um you know but I do think there may be some factors that you know maybe there's something we can do with transportation and how we align practice times and things like that to be able to get some more participation um because that is you know I'm a sports guy obviously um so I I just know the value of it and you know how much it can really teach our kids and and help our kids with a lot of things even after After High School.
2:01:53um so with that said if you know depending on what we get back um you know on the horizon could be us potentially looking at merging for certain sports with local school districts um with that obviously could come in some increase in in budget because there would be some Transportation um but that is something that you know we may have to look at as a District if we want to try and offer as many opportunities for our students as we can. um so that is something that you know we may have to look at down the road in terms of some of our Sports not saying we need to fully merge with other schools like some are um but I think some of our Sports you know it could benefit um for us doing that.
2:02:38uh let's see right now I'm currently working on um getting our fall and winter coaches uh board approved um and finding any coaches that we we have vacancies for in the fall um that's kind of my next list of things to do is make sure we have all of our fall definitely fall coaches um established before the end of the school year so that way any summer workouts that they want to do with their fall teams we are you know all set and all teams can have you know equal opportunities with that.
2:03:08um one last thing I would like to to bring up I know around this time last year may have been closer to the end of the year um I did meet I did come and do a presentation um on potentially starting in athletic hall of fame um I would like to revisit that um and kind of gauge what approval I would have from you guys in terms of looking at doing that. um I do know we also have some interest in from a couple of parents in getting our booster club re-engaged and restarted which could be something that we could collaborate with if that's something that gets off the ground and and running because obviously there is a cost with this but I think it would be a great positive for our school district.
2:03:48uh we have a ton of of athletes that have had great careers here ton of coaches that have great careers here that it would be great to be able to recognize them in some way rather than you know their legacies kind of just sometimes get forgotten um so I would like to revisit that at some point um whoever I can sit down with to kind of re re revisit it and see if it's something that we can get up and running and do for our past athletes and our current ones in the future. so anyone have any questions
2:04:25uh sounds like a great idea I love the hall of fame um what's the status of the waight room how do we get more kids in there
2:04:34um that's a that's that's another great question um so I know like the football team right now currently has to wait room open a couple days a week um that they've you know voiced to their own players not necessarily to everyone um that's the you know the football coaches have have that open. um I would love to be able to get it open again it some of this comes down to budget and you know someone would have to staff it and they have to be trained and certified first aid CPR all of those things someone has to make sure it's staff you know you need some
2:05:07sort of supervisor um you know I think it's a great idea to look into uh I would you know I think our kids can benefit benefit from that I know we have you know plan of Fitness right across the street but again not everyone has the financial you know means to to to do that or get there versus if it's right here kids can walk right down the hall work out till 4:30 parent gets out of work they come and pick them up um so I'd be happy to again kind of sit down and see what that would look like I have no problem uh doing that.
2:05:36I think the weight room is invaluable um we are looking at uh myself and the football coach are looking at piloting a program that I just looked into uh we're kind of in the beginning stages of getting it we're working with Cheryl to see if it's covered under Ed law 2D because it's a it's a uh web- based program um but it is it's a workout program and basically the program is set for the kids they we sign the kids up as users they get the it's an app they go on the app and they can do their workout whether it be here whether it be on their own but we're just trying to you know I know and as a coach here you know one of the things we lack here is our kidss in in the weight room getting bigger getting stronger getting faster um compared to some other school districts.
2:06:28so myself and the football team we're kind of piloting this to see what it will look like um vers before we dive in and look at getting it as an entire District program for our athletes um and if we went districtwide it could be also for you know somehow we can tie it into our PE programs and things like that so uh a lot of kids would be able to use it.
2:06:48we began a convers ation last year about using the weit room for the students so we can just continue that conversation this year that's one of the things I looked into last year and not only the students we thought that it would be a good incentive for teachers trying to come into the district to see that you have this free workout spot so looking into next year we can get a team together and continue that conversation.
2:07:15right yeah that sounds great I think it's you know I do think it's valuable for our kids even even our non-athletes you know lifelong Fitness and things like that just to be able to get them in there and find some people that would be willing to stay after school and and man it anything else no no thank you thank you thank you thank you.
2:07:38lastly public form um we have one I believe G msk read my uh Spiel.
2:07:52ladies and gentlemen about to convene into the public comment period of our meeting although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we' have chosen to do so because we believe it's crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues having said that please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight uh we will have the appropriate administrator uh get back to you at the right time.
2:08:24under state and federal privacy laws were unable to entertain any comments or questions about school Personnel uh on these matters we actually go through the proper administrative channels um each speaker is allotted three minutes.
2:08:36all right G molinsky um the grants I was wondering can we get a grant to like WD40 the chair is in here it's so noisy and distracting um but also I did want to ask about the Grant um that talked about the Hudson police officer safety officer is that whole salary covered by a grant and would we lose that if we lose that Grant that's and that can be answered.
2:09:05so it's covered by a grant right now um if we lose the grant it mean we would have to look to see if there are other places that we could um you know either move it into the general fund or find another grant that would support that we're actually trying to write another grant that um we have tried a couple of times to write a grant in conjunction with the Hudson police uh department and that would would fund the resource officer but um we haven't been sucess successful so we're going to go at it again.
2:09:43okay and hopefully it's it's a nice big Grant so hopefully we'll get it but it would have to be a decision made that we would have to bring that position into the general fund and right now I do believe that position pays mid-50s um the other reason why I'm here is I'm here as a member of the board of the Hudson children's book Festival um so I just wanted to share our flyer for this year and ask everybody to share yeah thank you.
2:10:33we have a ton of the youth center as well Alysa some ala deliv some to the youth centeral but I will hang it up.
2:10:48so it'll have the same um layout we're going to have a huge authors's room which is going to have 75 plus authors and illustrators there will also be the community room with a lot of community businesses and organizations that come and set up tables um and they provide free books in there that are not from the authors but they'll have other free books for kids um there's talk of having cotton candy and popcorn which gets like and there will be food trucks and food available for purchase um and they will have transportation provided still so if you want to see the map to show all of the stops for the free Transportation it is on our website.
2:11:30great thank you thank you J lizie anybody else nope that's it right yeah we had a presentation from Sheron L Roa on the agenda no okay um you can uh can you just sign this sheet here um and then we'll uh the board yeah sign up yeah just sign this first and then um or give me the stack and we'll pass it down okay great if you can sign up here on this sheet with your contact information can I have a.
2:13:17to my attention recently about the school I there might be someone I'm waiting to hear from that might also be interested in the school as well okay uh this is strictly for the 10 acres of
2:13:32land that sits behind John L Edwards um I spoke with DEC today uh I'm waiting to hear back from the local person the idea of actually taking the lower lands which are considered a flood plane and actually making that into a Wetlands which I thought also for students would be interesting because it's right here at the school so yeah thank you yeah that's a great idea and um yeah we we'll close the loop with Dan sorry about the confusion no that's fine um but yeah love this idea and you appreciate you coming and I I've met with the city as well awesome try to thank you very much thank you very much
2:14:28um so new business these are all of our uh resolutions pertaining to the Seeker um uh and uh Seeker resolutions and capital projects uh each one requires an individual vote to be recorded um so start with a um uh make a motion um to approve the resolution determining the proposed 2025 Capital project um and confirm it constitutes a type two action under secra second all in favor
2:15:09uh Item B uh make a motion to um accept the resolution determining the proposed energy performance project and confirm it constitutes a type two action under CRA second all in favor um number c uh make a motion to accept the resolution of necessity res regarding School District improvements second all in favor
2:15:42um and make a motion to accept the bond resolution dated March 25th 2025 set all in favor uh make a motion to accept the resolution authorizing the submission of a proposition for the approval of a bond resolution second all in favor
2:16:06uh make a motion to approve the resolution uh that approves a proposition for energy performance contract second all in favor and make a motion to to accept the resolution to authorize energy audit by Johnson Controls second all in favor great thank you Tyler and your team thanks for getting us this far uh look forward to uh hearing more thank you
2:16:44make a motion to approve consistent items a through L second all in favor board discussion the one el signed up for
2:17:02board discussion anything I think it's just worth mentioning the the things we just approved um presentations were at the last meeting yes uh you know the capital project that we're proposing to go on ballot um you know is really a very small scale repair in the grand scheme of things um and the state provides a lot of funding for it so I think it's uh just important for all of us to understand that um you know it's uh it's needed it's necessary uh and it's you know relatively low burden on the on the district financially we'll get rid of the squeaky seats yeah that's in there it is part of it yeah and and I appreciate um Calvin's notes earlier um just about there being further discussion you know I think my goal would be to make sure that we're um choosing and continuing to identify alternate items that would could be a part of the capital project making sure that um as much of the work that we do improves the daily lives of our students and makes their experience going to school here um as as uh rich as it can be if any board member would like to or even a Community member would like to take a tour of the areas listed in the capital project please contact Miss Coons and um we'll get it set up with um facilities department so you can tour the district and see what the items are that are listed in the capital project that we're proposing thanks okay thank you important dates
2:18:55policy committee meeting Tuesday April 8th 2025 at 5 to 5:45 p.m. in the high school library for Education meeting including Community budget Workshop Tuesday April 8th 2025 at 6 PM in the High School auditorium policy committee meeting Tuesday April 22nd 2025 at 5 to 5:45 in the high school library Board of Education meeting Tuesday April 22nd at 6:00 p.m. in the high school auditori okay
2:19:43be it resolved the Board of Education will enter into executive session at 808 20 for the purpose of the proposed acquisition selling leads of real property to discuss the employment history of particular persons our Corporation second all in favor there be no further meeting thank you for coming thank you e

Timestamps link to the corresponding moment on YouTube. Auto-transcribed, contains speech-recognition errors. Not an official record.