Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 3:33So that's coming up as well. Um, oh, and we are now entering the season of exams. AP exams are coming up in the next couple weeks. Um, as well as after that being, uh, SATs and, uh, regences. So just uh happy exam season everyone. That's all. Thank you.
2. 3:53Great. Thank you Thomas. Um next we have the uh seal of civic readiness presentation.
3. 4:32Thank you.
4. 4:34Good evening. My name is Megan Avataval. I'm a social studies teacher at the high school.
5. 4:37Good evening. I'm Rocky Payne. I'm the counselor department head and school counselor.
6. 4:44Okay. So, the seal of civic readiness is a program that we have had at Hudson High School. This is our third year. Um, and we'd like to share a little bit about it with you.
7. 4:58So, we look at the six keys for school improvement. One of the things I want to say is I have to give credit where credit is due. This actually came in part with um a lot of work from our past assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction, Dr. April Pino. She played an integral role with the social studies department of putting these things together. They actually had to put together all the paperwork um different milestones, different timelines to submit so Hudson High could really hit this seal of civic readiness.
8. 5:29Later we will talk about um parts of this but if you look at the six keys for school improvement it hits on a lot of them especially proven data practices which we'll talk more also about tiered approach support and intervention and increased moni monitoring accountability.
9. 5:49So what is civic readiness? um New York State um probably around 2017, it realized that we needed to do a better job promoting civic engagement in schools. Uh we attended a state social studies conference around that time and they the theme of the conference was civic engagement and how we needed to bring more of it into our curriculum especially at the high school level.
10. 6:14And so shortly after that, New York State um rolled out the seal of civic readiness and it's acknowledging that students um already are making a positive difference in our communities and it wanted to recognize them for some of the actions that they're currently taking and encourage them to do even more. Um so it's four components. civic knowledge, civic mindset, actions and skills and experiences.
11. 6:47So, what is the seal? It is literally a seal that goes on their diploma if they earn the seal of civic readiness. Um, it's an extra designation. It can go on their resumes. It's something that they can um use for letters of recommendation for job applications and it also can be a pathway for graduation for students who need it. So it can replace one of the social studies regions if the students are having a difficult time passing it.
12. 7:23So the timeline here at Hudson um the state offered this program as a pilot program for the 2001202 school year. Oh sorry 2122 school year. Uh we heard about this program. We weren't a pilot school. Uh most of the pilot schools were really large schools like Arlington and Shannindoa. But uh we were able to start our application process. So we started to develop our plan, our program, started to complete all the paperwork and we applied and were accepted to offer it for the 2022 23 school year. So that was our first cohort of students that could earn the seal and we'll talk a little bit more about the numbers.
13. 8:08So how do you earn the seal? You have to um earn points throughout your high school career to earn the seal of civic readiness.
14. 8:21We're going to hand out a a little placemat that we use with the students to help them keep track and plan for their strategy to earn the seal because every student is different individual and has different um activities that they've engaged in, community service that they have done that will help them earn the seal.
15. 8:40There are two sides to this placemat. The left side is civic knowledge. So students have to earn a minimum of two points from this side demonstrating that they have civic knowledge and they can do that uh by passing regions exams by taking advanced social studies courses um earning the four credits necessary for graduation in social studies and completing a a department approved research project.
16. 9:13They also must earn a minimum of two points from the right side of the chart, which is more of the civic participation and civic action side. This is where they demonstrate that they've completed community service, internships, um that they have engaged in extracurricular activities that promote civic engagement, um capstone projects, which we'll talk a little bit about them in a little bit as well. And um in order to earn the seal, they must have a minimum of six points total from this chart. They can earn these points in our school during 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade.
17. 9:57This is this is what the placemat looks like.
18. 10:03All right. So, we have at Hudson High created some supports to help enable students to earn the seal. Uh, the number one way that we have done this is by creating a civics's elective course that if a student takes a civics elective course, they could possibly earn three points towards the seal just from this one course. um they can earn a point and a half from the coursework that is um completed during the semester long course.
19. 10:34Um it's project based and one of the big projects that they complete is something called the student voices project where they work with a group to identify something that they'd like to improve here at Hudson High School and come up with a plan. They do research, they complete some qualitative research where they do interviews with key stakeholders. um they craft a plan and then they present it to Mr. Rearen to try to encourage him to make those changes. Um so it encourages leadership, critical thinking skills, collaboration.
20. 11:06Um and in addition to that, we get them started with their community service. Uh ideally the civics elective is taken in ninth grade. So they're starting to get exposed to community service early on in their high school career so that they can just continue on with it for the rest of the four years.
21. 11:25Um they also complete a research project during this elective course where they research ways that the 14th amendment have you been used in um Supreme Court cases throughout our country's history and they write a research paper so that they're accomplishing um the research component as well. So, at the end of this course, they're halfway towards the seal.
22. 11:54And also, we looked about the benefits to students. Um, again, about the love for community service. We also have some things up there that we hit on. They do like the extra distinction of a sealed diploma. As counselors, we do write this in their letters of recommendation. Um and if you look at develop critical thinking skills and we'll go into how that also goes into the profile of a graduate.
23. 12:17Um and again it also can increase volunteerism with different agencies. Hudson greater um promise neighborhood humane society. So if we when we talk to students if you think about it you're in high school for four years. I tell students is designed for you not to be here for a long time. So it's not only about what you do while you're here. what happens when you leave us, who we bring out to society.
24. 12:39And when we look at the seal of civic race, when we start talking about this, I said, Megan, this is key what these students are doing because it's getting them involved in their communities. Um, and again, we'll talk more about the pathway, but I think that is thing that helps too. If you look at this profile of a graduate, if you look at the different components around the circle, students who are engaging in this seal, they're actually hitting all of these different components by participating in this seal of by I mean on the seal of civic readiness.
25. 13:13And then we kind of looked at this and we were thinking when you look at the seal of civic readiness, what comes from it? What inspires? So we kind of said, "Imagine if we had a mission statement, and I will read this verbatim. The Hudson Senior High School engages our diverse learners by striving to instill a sense of curiosity and hope through robust exposure and experiences that will enable them to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for career readiness, contribute to the well-being of our community."
26. 13:41And we talk about well-being of our community. Um, I do want to tie in that today we had which we're getting to numbers. We had our college planning workshop today uh for the 11th graders and we're talking about when you're applying to colleges you are competing with people in the state and throughout the country and they like to see high grades like they see extracurricular activities they like to see people what they do above and beyond.
27. 14:04And I said, when you do things like the seal of civic readiness, colleges know that you're going above and beyond because when you go to a college campus, they also want to know what are you going to to to do to enrich their campus and their community. And there are some students as we go into these numbers. For example, the class of 23, 17 students earned the seal. No one used the pathway because back then there were exemptions with COVID.
28. 14:28Then you look at 24, 26 students earned this seal. three, use it as a pathway because the other the other ones didn't need it for the pathway, but they used it to graduate. For the class of 25, we're actually expecting more students to earn it because some students are still doing reflections, they're still doing projects. And out of those students, five we know will have to use it for a pathway to graduate.
29. 14:55So, if you look at these things, how it's going up and up, but each year more and more students are doing this. So, we really I think that Hudson is really making its mark and we talk about like the capstone project. Um I'll go into this a little bit more, but I will say it was very neat to sit on this to watch this and again this is above and beyond that what students are doing.
30. 15:20Um I will say that the committee your committee will consist of for the seal of an administrator and Miss Molly Zucker is a is a volunteer time school board president member Miss Willlette Jones social studies department head who's happen to be here Miss Sullivan and we have Miss Albatavo other social studies teacher and I'm the school counselor that sits on it as well.
31. 15:38Okay, we talk about if you notice on the right side of the chart um there at the very bottom there is an a possibility to earn four points for um a capstone project. And right now we don't have anything in place here at Hudson High to help facilitate um capstone projects as far as a class goes, but many of our students already do so many things outside of school that they can earn these capstone points from things that they're already doing.
32. 16:08An example of this is Deja Jones uh and Sebastian McDermott. They just um spent the last year and a half working on um the Unity Community Cabinet that is installed at Hudson Area Library. Um it was a whole process. They worked with multiple agencies in our community. They attended uh community meetings. They've built the cabinet themselves. and Deja presented to our committee about her her journey with this project and she earned the capstone points.
33. 16:44So we do have students earning the capstone through activities that they are doing outside of school and I do want to speak a little bit on the capstone. So we had a chance to talk to her. So we asked a question like do you see yourself you know doing more community service in in college? Her response was a little surprising but we understood it. She goes, "Well, not as much."
34. 17:06And she said because with the capstone, she's still going to oversee this when she's away at college. And so she's still like going to be involved in this and then eventually turn it over to Sebastian who's going to be a senior next year. So, so she's literally going to help her community while she's while she's away at college, which I think is key.
35. 17:25Um, another thing I wanted to throw in about the sale, I have to say about the the work that the social studies department put in. When they were initially researching this, if you look at your um keys on improvement, you looked at um improved datadriven practices in tiered approach, they essentially looked and said, what can we do to help our students that need the most support? Because we also have we have a transient population. So we have students who come from different
36. 17:50districts who may be behind academically and we have a system in place where we can have a student come in like like Miss Megan said maybe ideally in ninth grade they take civics but we may have a student who maybe come in in 11th grade from a different situation where they're able to take civics to earn to start open up the doorway for this seal if they need it. And so that's also um an implication to help students.
37. 18:13The other part I do want to put that I know that she'll gloss over a bit was that when you look at the charts, they actually input this in. It's very labor intensive. So this information is put in our echool data management system. So as a counselor, I can look at one of my students and it seals the civic readiness and Mrs. Avat and the team have already inputed this information and it's really spelled out because now like like Tommy said we're in the the busy time of the year with testing AP then graduation some of these students again will use that as a pathway as a counselor it's very user friendly to say you know what this student earns six six points he or she could use this as a pathway that's very labor intensive and their whole department does that so I' I'd have to put that in
38. 19:02And another distinction for our school district is as far as we can tell, we're the only ones in Columbia County that offer this seal. So, you know, it's something that um Hudson High School graduates can earn that make them special.
39. 19:16Absolutely.
40. 19:21Yeah, here are some pictures. This is our the picture of the 2023 cohort that we could grab. Um, this is not all of them, but these were the ones that came down to take a picture. And these are some of the 2024 students. And if you notice the 2024, we upped our game a little bit and handed out medals. And that is a huge draw. These medals to wear, right, Thomas?
41. 19:47Yeah.
42. 19:54Okay. Um, any questions? Oh, thank you. All right. Thank you.
43. 20:00Thank you very much. Good job.
44. 20:05Um, next is uh Hudson City School District budget presentation.
45. 20:34Good evening. Uh, tonight Miss Perry and I will be presenting um a draft budget uh to the board.
46. 20:45The vision emphasizes creating an inclusive learning environment that values the diverse passions, cultures, and talents of students. It highlights a commitment from students, staff, and the community to learn, explore, and achieve collectively. Our mission uh this statement, what does it do? It emphasizes inclusivity and motivation for all students to reach their highest potential. as Blue Hawks and in their future endeavors.
47. 21:16Anything we do, we focus on the vision and the mission of the school district. Those are our foundation where we build from the six keys of success. This budget is also built around the six keys of success. And as you can see based on the last presentation, everything we do is built around the six keys of success which also ties into the state's portrait of a graduate.
48. 21:50So the first key I'm just going to briefly explain again um so that um we can always keep these first and foremost. Strengthening instructional leadership capacity. What does what does this involve? It involves enhancing skills and effectiveness of school leaders and administration in guiding teaching and learning practices. It provides professional development and support for our instructional leaders so that they can better influence curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve our student outcomes.
49. 22:25Strengthening the instructional core. This focuses on improving the interactions between teachers, students, and the content. By ensuring that all three elements are effectively aligned and supported, schools can create better learning experiences and outcomes for our students.
50. 22:45Improve datadriven practices. What does this entail? This entails utilizing data to inform decision making in schools and across the districts. Our educators and administrators will analyze student performance data to identify strengths and areas improvement which allows us to tailor instruction and interventions to meet the needs of all students.
51. 23:12Promote a positive inclusive school environment for all stakeholders. What this does is it fosters a school culture that values and ensures that every student, staff member, and parent feels welcome and supported. A positive environment will enhance student engagement and collaboration among all community members.
52. 23:38Increased monitoring and accountability. This approach involves implementing systems to regularly assess progress and hold educators and students accountable for performance by setting clear expectations and monitoring outcomes. Our schools can ensure that all stakeholders are committed to improvement.
53. 24:05And last but not least, a tiered approach to school support and interventions. This strategy provides varying levels of support based on the needs of all students. For instance, some students may require intensive interventions while others need targeted support. This tiered system allows our schools to allocate resources effectively and help all students to succeed.
54. 24:35the 202526 proposed budget. At a glance, we want to maintain general fund programs. We want to create efficient systems of support and we are proposing no reduction of workforce by layoffs.
55. 25:02So, here we're looking at our revenue sources. Um, in order to create a balanced budget, there needs to be an increase in revenue to align with the increase in expenses with an increase of 3.55% tax levy, an increase of $150,000 of interest income, $2,118,72 use of assigned fund balance, and an increase of 96 63,762 plan use of reserve. The total revenue is 58,544 I'm sorry 58,544,000
56. 25:57through an increase in proposed revenue along with a reduction of vacant positions and scaling back on underutilized services. The budget is structured to support all expenses without requiring any layoffs. Please note the increase in the employee benefits um include state retirement for the 2526 school year. Um this was not in the original budget for 2425 and then shows an increase in that allocation for this year.
57. 26:34So, we have done a lot of work on adjusting the budget um in the last two weeks. Um and these are um this is where we're at. Thank you.
58. 26:45Great. Um yes, thank you for all your work and for um making adjustments getting us to where we are now. Um any questions, comments from the board?
59. 26:57So on that last slide, I'm just curious uh where the uh decrease in instruction uh costs came from like what were some of the sorry underutilized something I didn't hear the last word. Sorry. Yeah.
60. 27:11So there's underutilized services. So some of this comes from um collaborating with building administrators and looking at the utilization of perhaps software. So looking at the total usage across the district of different programs that actually um we have purchased but or subscribed to and students and staff are not using them. So there creates a we're able to reduce those and not plan for those next year. That would be one example.
61. 27:39Is there a breakdown of that um decrease at all? Is that available or
62. 27:47I I can get it to you. Okay. Thank you. Y thank you.
63. 27:52Yeah, a full budget book will be published once we uh approve it. Um, but it also comes from not replacing some uh salary positions who that were losing due to retirement.
64. 28:06Do you I appreciate I mean one I appreciate all of the work to have a revised budget that doesn't have um layoffs like we saw in the last iteration. Um do you have a sense of how many instructional positions are reduced by um retirement recognizing that this is like a you know that we have a budget gap that we need to close but just you know so that we're fully transparent. Yeah.
65. 28:32So, the other thing that I did find as well is that there were vacant positions that we had still um with the work with the board actually just pointing out that there was some um money that was seen that was still left in in areas and then as we did more investigation there were positions that were budgeted for that we know have been vacant for the whole year. So, those are also a reduction. So, it wasn't only a retirement, but it was also just line items that with a closer look were able to be reduced.
66. 29:04And how and what's the like do we know what the number of positions are that are reduced in that way?
67. 29:09Those specifically, I can say two off the top of my head. I don't want to misspeak and give give a number, but I can get specifics for you for sure.
68. 29:17Well, sorry. What about in terms of retire retiring teachers? is do we have a number for how many teachers are retiring that we aren't replacing their position for?
69. 29:26I have that number but not off the top of my head. Okay.
70. 29:35So in the between the last two meetings the change in employee benefits is that change in employee retirement. So, it was a $1.3 million increase at the last meeting, and I believe the explanation then was the health insurance was going up significantly. Uh, it's now a $2 million increase, and that $600,000 is the ERS expenditure. That is a I guess I'll call it a change of presentation from last year's budget.
71. 30:12Yes. because last year's budget for employee benefits that line did not include this the state retirements. So you are correct. So that's why it looks like it's it's a larger increase than actually Y it is.
72. 30:33You said TRS just retirement state retirement. It it was just um there's a question coming.
73. 30:59Uh, so I guess the um with what we're looking at tonight, the $2 million increase in benefits, a third of it is something we spent last year or we're spending this year, I should say. Um, that's been changed. the million3 in additional health insurance. We're confident that we've got that nailed down based on current year expenditure and um in 2324 it looked like we were a little under spent on that. So I just want to make sure we've got a solid number there.
74. 31:50Sorry. Um, well, I guess I trailed off, but basically the 14.7 Sorry, I got the wrong one up. The 15.4 million we're budgeting for benefits at this point. We feel good about that. We feel it's affirmatively based on staffing levels currently, current estimates from RCG Trust.
75. 32:13We do. Okay. All right.
76. 32:18And sorry, my question is about the state aid that we expect and is projected and I'm just curious about how confident that that number is.
77. 32:24So, unfortunately, at this time, the state has not passed the budget. We don't know, but that is our projection and we're we're always hopeful that that's that's where we'll be and so we Yep. Sorry. So we Yep. No, not at all. So we are very hopeful that that's where we will be. The state budget has not we don't have our final numbers yet from the state, but we're hopeful.
78. 32:54If we don't meet that number, uh if you know you know we get less state aid, what is the area that I mean we can expect to see a change in if we receive less state aid?
79. 33:06Yeah, that would be a collaborative discussion that wouldn't be directly from May, but that's a good question. Yeah, I would assume we would pull more from our fund balance or reserve, but the past few years, the trend that we've seen is when we budget that number conservatively, we get more.
80. 33:25So, knock on wood, it'll actually be more than that based on the current state aid formulas. Um, we should be due significantly more, the transportation aid, um, in particular. So unless the state budget is significantly changing those formulas, um I do expect we should exceed it. But until the state passes the budget, we don't know.
81. 33:50Yeah. Um and this number is the hold harmless figure, right?
82. 33:55Yeah. So um Okay. Um yeah, like I said, I appreciate all the work. Um I mean I think we all know and acknowledge that this um rate of growth is not sustainable from a budget figure moving forward. So looking forward to um following this budget season creating a plan um with Miss Ferry and Dr. Pennyman to come up with a long-term budget plan um that accounts for uh all of our expenses, the changes in our enrollment and population and you know making sure we provide the uh best services for the best costs. Um anybody else have any questions, comments?
83. 34:43No, I think the only other like comment I would make at this point is I know, you know, there's always buzz on social media or various places about going all the way to the tax cap and we haven't done that in years past. Um, and I guess I would just like say and advocate, right, that we know that COVID funding dried up. Um, we know that federal funding feels like a whole big question mark right now. Um, and I think we know that our kids still need teachers and aids and staff and instruction in front of them every single day. And so I just think I just want to put my plug in for for folks to not be naysayers out there about the 3.5 and to really just recognize that that's what our kids and our staff um and our families need.
84. 35:26Great. Thank you. Uh thank you, Miss Ferry. Thank you, Dr. Pennyman. Um next we have the MCSEs data presentation.
85. 35:57I think I have it right. I'm gonna actually hold this a little closer so everyone can hear me. I know sitting back there it was a struggle. Um but I actually have two presentations tonight and I don't know how my long long micers. Um I don't ever have a problem with volume but um I am here to present not only about our data but I also am here to present about the attendance task force.
86. 36:30So I do have two short presentations. I know following budget was not the position I wanted to be in but but this is where I am tonight. So um what we want to talk about is where are we right let's we're give the reality of where we are look at our other monitors and look at our you know whole student well-being including attendance and social emotional.
87. 36:51So I know Dr. Dr. Courtright Torres was going to be here to present this piece. So, I'm going to do my best, but unfortunately, she is not. So, there is New York State report card data within that. There's accountability. Um, and these are based on three assessments, regions assessments, and graduation rates.
88. 37:13Um, our accountability status currently is a target district, and MC Smith is targeted support and improvement. We are targeted in support improvement for our Hispanic students. Um, as a school, we have spent a lot of time creating our with our school leadership team, with our school comprehensive education plan, looking at what can we do to target our students who have struggled.
89. 37:38Um, these are the other Questar um districts. As you can see, there are a few within the um Questar that are target districts like we are. Um this presentation will be shared with you by Miss Coons after after the meeting. Um but you can see there are other districts that are target good standing is now referred to as local support and improvement. They took away the term good standing and call it local support and improvement.
90. 38:09So you can see each building. As you look at MCES, you can see our Hispanic or Latino population is our targeted population. Um we are working diligently um to implement um some interventions. Some of the things that we've talked about is writing for those students, vocabulary um because it's not just an English as a new language problem.
91. 38:36It is not just students who don't who don't speak English. It is a variety of students. Actually, it's a larger percentage of students whose native language is English. So, as we try to drill into that core, we're looking at a lot of different things trying to um you know, look at attendance, look at socioeconomic, and a lot of pieces to help us to help inform our instruction and inform what we can do to better support our students here in Hudson.
92. 39:04Um, I'm just going to go right beyond that one. Um, there are weighted averages by the state. And so it gives you a number in there that talks about each subgroup. As you can see, um, it's between 1, two, and three. Um, and that is how New York State makes its determination. It is not exactly fully transparent as it once was, but um this is all based on your comparison to other school districts.
93. 39:41Oh, please be there. Okay, so our 3 through eight, this would be um and I'm so sorry for the color, but this was the only way. It was a blue originally and the blue on blue you couldn't tell once we put it up on a board and what was initially shared with me. So being colorb blind as well this was the best way that we could see this.
94. 40:03Um as you can see we have we we are trailing Questar in New York State. Um we have looked at what is impacting this what are the reasons and one of the things within our comprehensive education plan. We've talked a lot about writing because what we've seen from our students is they struggle on the second part of New York State tests. they are struggling with the writing pieces, take information and synthesizing it. Um, our testing participation only pulls by 3 through 8, but I will tell you for the elementary school, we only had four kids opt out last year over grades 3, four, and five. So, we have had really good participation over the time of students.
95. 40:47our math scores. Um you can see we are at um you know we we saw we've seen a jump in fourth grade um last year and we plan we're hoping to see that continue as we've implemented a new math curriculum. Similar on the participation here is our science testing performance. Um last year was the first year of a New York State science test and I will say 13 does not it is a stark number.
96. 41:16Um but this is not uncommon for some school districts to see as we went to the new science. We are predicting dramatic improvement this year which is what New York generally will happen with New York state as we become more familiar with the testing as the teachers are more familiar with it. Um we utilize something within the district called FastBridge. FastBridge is a way that we can benchmark students three times a year. So I pulled up these scores as well because they should be predictive as we look towards New York State.
97. 41:54So what this means is a math is taken by grades 2, three, and four. You can see the median score for the fall and then the winter and the predicted score for the end of the year. So if we take second grade, we're predicting our median to be 207 and the benchmark is 205. So we are predicting our students in grades two, three um two and three to be above um our students in four and five. We've been looking closely at the data and looking how to put more interventions in place and more supportive instruction so that those students can continue their math growth. And if I'm going too fast, please tell me.
98. 42:43Um, a reading is very much a reading comprehension measure. And similar similarly, we have seen some real growth in students. Um, as the year has gone on, the fifth grade with with um with this measure, for whatever reason, that seems to happen on a regular basis. the fifth grade number goes down in the winter and then goes dramatically up again in the spring. I don't know if it's something within the testing software. I really could not give you a strong answer on that, but we do see that number generally rise and generally we've beaten our predicted score.
99. 43:22So, you know, in a lot of ways I'm hopeful. I am keeping a close eye on fourth grade. We are meeting regularly in our um PLC's which are professional learning communities to meet and discuss instructionally what is happening with happening with it with our students. Auto reading takes um the decoding as well as um comprehension for the students. It takes a little more thinking for the students. It's not just straight comprehension. They they need to take the information and analyze it. And so once again um we are seeing our students making growth. Um we are seeing them you know steadily moving up and and we hope that this trend you know we're sure that this trend is going to continue and we are looking forward to next week um we'll start our New York State tests.
100. 44:16CBM reading this is called oral reading fluency. It's how many words does a student read um in a minute. And you know, I'm I'm very happy with our our growth for students. You can see that in every grade level, we're predicted to be above benchmark. By the end of second grade, students should be reading 101 words per minute. In third grade, 125 words per minute. So, this as you look at correlational research can can show is is tied to student growth and performance. It's one of the um nationally recognized measures to show that students are growing and performing that is easily given when we look at our early math.
101. 45:01Early math is those concepts of math. These are you know the beginning number sense. Um and so you know we have seen great growth in both kindergarten and first grade. Our first grade teachers are very proud of that number from going 24 to 48. Um that those student they've put a lot of work and time into it in those grade levels and we are very happy. Um and we credit a lot of that to our new math program that we implemented last year that has really given students a strong number sense and that that is helping them. The Eureka Eureka squared program early reading is similar.
102. 45:39Um we are seeing growth among those students. Um we are closely monitoring first grade as we are predicted to be somewhat below um our benchmark score but those kindergarten numbers are some of the best that we've had um over the years.
103. 45:59And I think our trend as we've looked at the younger grades we've seen a strong trend forward of those students. Here is our chronic absentee numbers. Sorry this populated this way but this was the only way I could capture it. Um this is where we were at the same number of days today this this year and last year. So you can see we have made approximately a 2% jump um or we have 2% less chronic absenteeism.
104. 46:31Um the really good news is generally we've seen that number from this point the last two years go down another 12% on average as we've finished out the year because as we get into field day and and those fun activities at the end of the year we find that our attendance improves. So this is based on so 18 absences is considered chronically absent right that's our red students. So this is if school ended today, what students have missed 10% of school? So we this does not mean they are already chronically absent. This means based on the 10% and the other percentages, this is where we are today. I pulled this this morning um just so we would have the most accurate picture of where we were for the elementary school.
105. 47:23Sabers. So, Sabers is a rating scale of students that teachers and students complete that is a social emotional. Students talk about if they feel safe. Teachers talk about if the students seem engaged, if they seem withdrawn. Um, and it's a way for us to in our behavior and counseling meetings, our students who we see in that tier that need intervention, we're able to pull them and provide supports whether you know a variety of reasons. Students are struggling to make friendships. Students are struggling with the academics. Students are struggling to just stay engaged. Students are having struggles at home. You know, those things we are able to closely monitor.
106. 48:05And as you can see, we have seen a steady rise. Um, and that's a that's a good rise. That is that blue piece would be 74% of our students are in what would um, you know, our green range or our normal range. So, we've seen we went from 50% of our students were requiring some level of intervention um or monitoring to 26% of our students. So, you know, I credit that to our teachers. I credit that to, you know, a lot of the the things that we put in place. I put a lot of credit that to Ruler. Um we really are are proud of the Ruler program and the way that that helps kids identify their feelings and um look at how they can change that.
107. 48:46developing a blueprint to help them um as they work through emotions. And that's one of the things that you know I joke with people all the time like when I was a child it was stuff those emotions down and now we want the kids to label them and understand what they are and then be able to work through them. I think that's a really valuable tool for our students and I think just in two years um the ruler program has shown some really significant um progress for our students.
108. 49:20So that is a really quick run through of our data. Um you know one of the things that I will say is you know um throughout this year we have created PLC's professional learning communities and our teachers have done a lot of work of talking about writing talking about how we're monitoring writing and problem solving what we're seeing the students are struggling with this what can we do how can we build more science into what we're doing which is always a struggle you you know you you have competing variables as we look and we're looking to problem solve and figure our be best ways to instruct um students provide intervention provide extension activities so that all of our learners are a are able to excel you know we value our band program we value our programs within the school and finding the times for students is something that we're continuing to work on so that we can continue to um you know move our performance forward.
109. 50:26So I will open it up to questions.
110. 50:28Yeah. Uh one fast question. How does the how do the benchmarks in fastbridge correlate to uh proficiency on state exams? Like how are those generated?
111. 50:39So the proficiency is generated from them on a national level. It's on a national percentile. So it's not a direct correlation. But you would make the assumption that a student who is in the 50th percentile above 85% of the time they are going to score within that um 3 to four range on New York State assessments.
112. 51:01Gotcha. Okay. Thank you.
113. 51:06Thomas, I remember when I was in uh the now uh elementary school or inter intermediate school before um students uh opting in for the state test was actually kind of a bigger problem than it seems now. Um, I remember my mom being very passionate about it. Um, trying to get people to opt in and I'm curious uh how it has improved so much like what has changed?
114. 51:26I I think our messaging I think the message the change in testing um I think those things I mean yes it was a huge thing you know people were I got called by people and put on websites because we were making kids take the test allegedly. It was and it is kind of lost that momentum. I mean, at this point, I have one student who's not going to take the ELA because the parent told me they don't like to take ELA. So, beyond that, our students are taking test. I I don't have a great answer, Thomas, because it just has evolved.
115. 51:58But I think it's a lot of the work that we've been doing. We're having those conversations with parents. We're talking about why it is. One of the messages that I give is your child is gonna have to take a regence. you know, if if the first time a child sits down to take a high stakes test is when they're taking a regent, that that that has some real peril in it to me. And you're, you know, whether we like it or not, students are going to take SATs.
116. 52:22Students are going to take tests in their life. And I think when they have the support of a teacher and teachers and staff that they have strong relationships with, I think it's important for them to learn that there so that they can make the mistakes or feel that stress with a higher level of support. Thank you.
117. 52:41Um I had another question about the uh Boseies and state numbers for or for that were measured against our schools. Um, I'm curious if those numbers are statewide numbers or if they're specific for we think Hudson should be at this.
118. 52:57They're not they're they're not comparative. I do my comparatives when I when I look at state, but when I come here, I'm going to present where we are compared to the entire state and then compared to the Quest Starbosis. Okay.
119. 53:08Okay. That that's what those numbers were. All right. Thank you.
120. 53:14Um, and one more question. Sorry. Uh, are we going to have a follow-up on this data um with the predicted scoring? Are we going to have a follow-up?
121. 53:25So, um, yes, but New York State um, next November in the fall. We Yes, in the fall. Last year, we got the data towards the end of October. Okay. Okay. Sorry. So unfortunately I wish I had the data the next day because that would really be great in planning and looking at what we're doing but there has just due to some psychometric pieces that New York State does with the testing there generally is a 3 to four month delay.
122. 53:49Okay. Thank you. I remember that.
123. 53:49Which is why you would get your results in like December and your mom would be like why am I getting them so late? I I remember that if I remember. Yes indeed.
124. 54:01Do you feel confident or can you just talk briefly about the switch to computer-based testing especially for our elementary school kids and kind of like what how you're feeling going into third and fourth graders doing math on the computer for the test.
125. 54:13So I I think we've put them in a good place. We've been utilizing a program throughout the year. I think there's going to be a dip between what they would do and you know I advocated two years ago to just I don't want to say it the wrong way but that we should go in and and that's what we should have the students prepared for because it's coming right. Um so I think that we will see our fifth graders and fourth graders doing well. I think our third graders some of those keyboarding skills. I actually have more concern with ELA than math because of those keyboarding skills because our students are not always using their typing skills. They're more using their thumbs a lot of times. Um, so that's more of my concern than being able to get that information down in ELA. I think in math they're well prepared. We use a program called Think Tech where every classroom every day is presenting a problem and the students are using the equation editor because that was our biggest struggle last year in fifth grade was the use of the equation editor because kids just wanted to draw like the plus sign or whatever and they need to use the editor or they don't not get the points.
126. 55:24Thanks. I just remembered something from the beginning of the school year, one of the earlier board meetings, but um there was discussion and I think it was put into action, but putting I think it was the 11th grade regents uh te English tests, putting that rubric on students desks or putting a certain rubric on students desks and I'm curious if that went into place or
127. 55:43so um with for the elementary I can speak to that. Right. So, the New York State rubrics, our students have utilized them. They actually take writing samples and the students have the rubric and they evaluate them and look at where they are. They do have it, but it's in their binder. It's not necessarily on their desk because the New York State test uh you know, writing rubric is somewhat complex at the elementary level. It's you know, it it it's a lot for a third grader to have on their desk. So, we probably have done, I would say, between 15 and 25 lessons at each grade level um working with that rubric so students have an understanding of what a one, two, or three point um answer looks like.
128. 56:29Is that is that new or is that something we've been doing?
129. 56:32We've been doing that for a couple years, but we've not always given the students that much access to understand the questions. Okay, thank you.
130. 56:44Thank you.
131. 56:45Great. Part two. Part two. This is the exciting part. Um, we have been working on attendance. Um, and thankfully the board has uh put me in charge, I guess, if you will, of our attend Dr. Pennyman, you know, asked me to, um, chair the attendance task force. And so, um, we have met a lot. Um our objectives were to create practices and procedures within the district to impact student attendance. Um I have been attending the attendance meetings in every building so that we have some collaboration across the buildings as well as some um similar practices. Um we have provided supports to students and families. We've had what we had call family success plan meetings and in those family success plan meetings we talk about what are the barriers and how can we help you. Um for some parents they've come in and felt you know they feel like they're they're being called into the principal's office and you know Mr. Collins who's our attendance monitor and myself and the other administrators try to try to make sure the parents understand we want you here so we can help you. what what's what's causing you to not be able to come to school? What barrier is there?
132. 58:03And finally, collaborate with the greater community um to look at outside the box ideas to improve um attendance. So, we have really used the six keys there. We've looked at our data practices. We've looked at inclusion um and you know that tiered approach with monitoring and accountability. Um we were very privileged to be a part of the center for inclusive innovation the digital promise network. They did um a chronic absc absenteeism insights and innovations and this was six modules. They were about an hour and a half where we would sit down as a group um and it started it's within the district it started with administrators.
133. 58:44We also added counselors and other members of our attendance teams. And you know an example of one of them was unpacking the complexity of chronic absenteeism with attendance works. There is so much information out there about attendance attendance works and free stuff and but how do you bring it and make it impactful within a district because every district is different.
134. 59:09So we created an attendance task force coming out of this um that meant met monthly to review practices, documents and policies. Um this committee included the administrators within the district, a counselor from each building, um Dr. Pennyman um the mayor of Hudson Kamal Johnson um Joan Hunt who is Promised Neighborhood um Jenda Pew who I think she's the assistant director if I got the title correct of DSS and then Chris uh Liberty Kat who is the DA for Columbia County. So these we reached out to a variety of people to ask to try to get some community members so we could think what what what's causing our attendance because I will tell you when you when you look at our numbers we we have some kids who really are struggling over the years to come to school. How do we help get them to school?
135. 1:00:09Um we talk about a few things, right? We talk about an attendance procedure and so we've worked to create a procedure when students are absent. It takes everyone within the community and these are our proposed changes from this group. If a student's ab absent for three consecutive days periods the home room first period teacher will contact and communicate with the parents. We provide a script to say hey we were worried about Thomas. We wanted to see you know when he's coming back to school. what can we do to support you? Cuz one of the things that the research would clearly indicate is kids who know that the school cares and their teachers care have better attendance.
136. 1:00:50They want to come to school. I mean, chronic absenteeism has a lot of factors. There's poverty, there's illness, there's all kinds of things, but some of it is how they feel about coming to school. Um, so we want to get that call to the parent. What can we do to help you? um you know when we talk about contacting parents they can use parent square they can you know utilize calls but I think it's really important that they say don't ask why the student's absent but say we're checking in on you know we we we want we want the student back in school and we are providing scripts that can help to guide the conversation that are positive we want to focus on removing barriers because one thing that's clear in the research on attendance is that if you call and you try to be punitive with it, it it is not effective.
137. 1:01:48I talked about the um family success plans earlier, right? And we got there at the elementary level. We've worked on this for a lot of years. And so this is the sc this is what we put in front of the parents. And I changed it a little bit just so that you could read it. But we say to the parents, what can you commit to? What can you sit at the table and commit to and what can we support you with?
138. 1:02:13Because I mean, we have, you know, we'll sit with parents and we'll have them tell us that their first graders go to bed at 10:00 at night and we'll we'll ask, you know, that's really hard for them to be able to sleep that amount. Can you commit to getting them to bed by 8:00? What can you commit to? Can you have someone as a backup in case you can't get your kid to school? um you know, is there a relative, a neighbor? Can you set up those medical appointments outside of the school day as much as possible? We a lot of times will say, you know, for the kid who's out a lot and the parent says they're ill, bring them in and send them to the nurse. If they're throwing up, if they have a fever, the nurse will check them out and we will get them back home. But we need students at school.
139. 1:02:55So, we look for parents to make these commitments and um we have the parent sign them, we share them with the teacher and this is something we're looking to to take across all the buildings. Um so, as we looked at increasing monitoring accountability, right? Um we I attended all those meetings and we as a each group created questions for students so we could sit down and ask the student what are those barriers to you coming? Do you feel comfortable at school? Do you feel safe at school? Who's your favorite person at school? What do you like most at school?
140. 1:03:41What do you you know a a a bank of questions and we did them differently at each level because each level of student is developmentally different. The questions we're going to ask a first grader are not the same questions we're going to ask an 11th grader. We also created parent question um a parent questionnaire to interview parents and we've asked parents you know it it's really about how can we help you? What is preventing Thomas from coming to school? what is, you know, what is the, you know, what is the thing you like most about school or your child likes most about school and really making those positive.
141. 1:04:14Um, I talked about the family success process and um, we've also talked a lot about the consistency of letters to parents about attendance and medical documentation because I don't we as we looked at it, we're not having consistent practices across all the districts. We've always had letters that would go to parents based on five days of absence, 10 days of absence, and 16 days of absence. Does anyone know why 16 days of absence? Two days from chronic absenteeism because that's when you used to have to audit a high school class. So at 16, that was what we always sent because that meant at the high school level you had to audit the class. Well, those pieces have changed as time has gone on.
142. 1:05:00So we are we have drafted some policy that will be shared with the policy committee. Some edits that we believe should go along with the district policy. Um one of them is that every school event should have an attendance blurb. We should talk about something. When I say to parents, if your kid misses two days of school a month, that's the equivalent by the time they're a senior of a year and a half of school. Parents are blown away by that. It It's inconceivable. But that's a lot of school for a kid to miss.
143. 1:05:29Um, moving concerts and events to late in the day. Anyone who's ever been at an elementary school concert at 8:30 in the morning, I don't know where they're going, but half the kids go home. Um, and so we are looking at how can we make sure to schedule that or how can we schedule events like when we do our round of award ceremonies and concerts that are coming, we have our um we have a fun activity for K through two in that afternoon to keep those kids at school because if kids aren't at school, they can't learn.
144. 1:06:05Um we are in the process of creating an attendance hotline. So student a parent can call and they type in you know 5555 and it rings to one of our um attendance monitors um or the people who sit at the door and they will direct it to the building administration and will we utilize a district van utilize community agencies? How can we help to get kids to school? Because we do have families who lack transportation and you know up until now we've had times where I I think that they have been hesitant to contact the school.
145. 1:06:39We don't want to become a transportation service but we also want to give resources because ultimately if the kids aren't here we can't teach them. So as a district with an attendance issue we need to look and think outside the box of what we can do. um talking about our letters going to we create letters when a student's absent for 5 days and 12 days um and a doctor's note to be required after 12 days at the discretion of the building committee. We know kids are going to have a surgery. We know kids may have a familial obligation. That's not what we're talking about.
146. 1:07:13But 12 days for a student is um about 8% of the school year. That's a lot of school to miss. So at that point we're going to ask for documentation from families and at um 12 days we will be um convening a building success a family success plan to talk about how can we support to keep your student in school and that they are not falling into that chronically absent category because why is that 10% important? The research would say that is where it dramatically increases a kid's probability of dropping out of high school and being a non-completer.
147. 1:07:50And that's ultimately what this journey is about. Graduating students who are ready to be, you know, vibrant part of our society and who are ready to move on to better and you great things in life. So we from from my group, we're convening one more time on the 20th and then I would be sharing with Dr. Pennyman, some um verbiage and drafts with some changes that that we as a committee have talked about and think could help to be impactful for the district. Do you have any questions?
148. 1:08:25This is a question that I don't actually expect you know the answer to, but since you are on the uh committees for each building, I'm a little curious. So, the Blue Academy, to my knowledge, was was originally created to help deal with chronic absenteeism and students not in risk of not graduating due to that following COVID.
149. 1:08:48That's what I that's what I thought the original mission was. And I'm curious if uh if we've seen successes in that with dealing with chronic absenteeism and um and whether or not I mean that's still the main goal with that.
150. 1:09:00So, I know um that Miss Zucker is here, but yes, I can speak to the fact that there's been successes in the Blue Hawk Academy. Um Miss Zucker, did you present already? Oh, so she'll be presenting, but we've had great successes within the Blue Hawk Academy and you'll be hearing more about that.
151. 1:09:22Thank you. As far as the actual data, they've really been rolled into the high school conversations. So, when we're meeting Miss Zucker, Mrs. Zucker's there and Mr. Rearen and Mr. Campbell and so those students because they're really registered in the high school as well, they appear on there. So, we've had a lot of conversations, but I'd be lying to you if I gave a percentage, but I can tell you we've seen some some real improvement with students as we've targeted them to give higher levels of support.
152. 1:09:49And I do want to say I want to make sure I throw in this caveat that we do not separate the Blue Hawk Academy from the high school because they are the high school. Just Thank you.
153. 1:10:02Thank you everyone. Thank you for being here.
154. 1:10:07Uh next we have board reports. Uh policy committee.
155. 1:10:12Yeah. Um all right. We've got a few policies that are going to be sent off to lawyers for final review so that then we can then put them up for the full board approval. Um so those are um an official policy to have an exeicio student member of the board. We have obviously had a student member of the board for many years but we haven't codified that in policy and New York uh state ed law now requires us to do so.
156. 1:10:38So we make sure that we get that. Um we also uh Leslie updated our voting procedures just to make sure that they are updated for 2025 and uh reflect the way that current voting systems work. Um, so we've got that ready to go.
157. 1:10:52We've got um the policy development and adoption policy, which is like the policy on creating policies. Um, that also is getting sent off to the attorney just to make sure that the language of that these all just have like updates to make sure that they represent truly sort of like where we're at with the district, what we need to be doing. Um, and then did I miss any there?
158. 1:11:14Those are the ones that I think are ready. Um the organizational chart we've we're holding on for a minute just to look into like a couple additional things. Um and similarly the promotion and retention policy. I know we had the first reading on that. We got one more round of feedback back from the lawyers that centered around really being clear on the language of what happens after summer school for kids.
159. 1:11:39And so we're just um taking one final look and making sure that that language is uh is tight and ready and then that will get put back onto the agendas and shared out with everybody. And I think that was everything. Oh, the other one, sorry.
160. 1:11:58And then the other thing that we did was we um created a draft of an official charter for our policy committee today to really like hone in on that. Um, and so we've got a draft of that that's also going to go off to the lawyers. Um, and one thing to be aware of is we spent a good amount of time today discussing the fact that the policy committee is a great committee to get teachers, family members, additional community members involved.
161. 1:12:22This is not a committee that has to be solely the people that are sitting here. Um, so if there are folks in the community that are interested to like stay tuned for uh updates on being able to join that committee.
162. 1:12:36Great. Thank you. Thank you for uh spearheading all that. Sounds like you guys got a lot done. I assume we want to pass the voting policy or revise adopt the revised voting policy prior to the election May 20th.
163. 1:12:50Um the training is May 12th. So hopefully we can adopt it at the next meeting. Perfect. Thank you.
164. 1:13:04You guys good? Yeah. Okay. Um facilities, there was no facilities committee meetings. Um wanted to point out that Calvin did mention there would be uh community meetings where public could hear more about um the planned capital projects which will be on the ballot later in May. Um those meetings are listed uh in our upcoming meeting dates which will be read uh at the end of the meeting.
165. 1:13:32Um audit committee uh audit committee has not met um since the last report uh but we'll target a May meeting to review the corrective action plan. Awesome. Thank you.
166. 1:13:43Um at this time there is no need for an early executive session. Uh brings us to the personnel agenda. I'd like to make a motion to accept personnel agenda items A 1 through 5 and B 1 through three.
167. 1:14:01Second. All in favor.
168. 1:14:04Um, brings us to public forum.
169. 1:14:15We have Peter Myers. Peter Myers. Um, ladies and gentlemen, we're 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 is 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.
170. 1:14:40We take your questions and concerns seriously. Want to have sufficient time to process and research issues if need be. We will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member get back to you. Under state and federal privacy laws, we're unable to entertain any comments or questions about school personnel. uh on these matters we actually go through the appropriate administrative channels.
171. 1:15:00Um please ask the board uh ask speakers to uh comment to direct their comments to the board directly. Uh each speaker gets three minutes. Mr. Myers.
172. 1:15:19Good evening. Um I think I'm all right with this. Um, one I I wish you could change that uh the reading you do before public session. It sounds like a Saddam Hussein speech before a legislative session. It's very anti-public. Um, and I care a lot about the public. I would appreciate if you you looked at that.
173. 1:15:41Um, I'm here really to just talk about the audit report, um, which came in March 27th and to me seems like an argument for not doing this budget because, uh, if I may, it's 60 70 pages long and I'll just jump to page 60. I don't know if you want to follow along, but um they this this audit report makes a point of uh changes from payroll to payroll in the internal control procedures for payroll. Not a good thing.
174. 1:16:14Um they talk about the uh during the audit we noted that the general fund checking account at year end had a negative reconciled balance. Not a good thing. transfers to cover the payments ma made were not done until July. Not a good thing. Uh moving on to the reserve plan. The district has not updated the written plan for the reserve. This would include the fund balance um and for developing a written plan for use of the reserves.
175. 1:16:44The board is responsible for having an annual review of the report in the activity and once approved by the board, the report should be posted on the district website. I'm not following it all of this minutely, but that doesn't seem to have happened. And the current law um the law establishes the maximum unassigned fund balance that can be retained by a school district. And the current law limits this amount to 4% of the ensuing year's budget. I'm not sure if that's being followed, but it's at least that's what the auditor says we've got to check on.
176. 1:17:21Um let me go to some of the other Uh sorry. So something we all know um that there were significant changes in the business office personnel during this year. Um and this is significant um from an audit point of view. The business office in capital letters manual was based off the previous staffing assignment which is not a good thing. you should be basing um the budget processes on the manual. So apparently we don't have a manual.
177. 1:18:01The risk to the district is that as compliance regulations change, which they do, um complexities place task burdens on the district employees. Welcome to Welcome to Hudson. Uh new employees in in the budget office is serious business. And I'm not even an accountant, but I know that from being on the board for five years.
178. 1:18:25Thank you, Mr. Myers. That's uh that's your three minutes.
179. 1:18:28So, three minutes.
180. 1:18:28Yes. Thank you. Yes.
181. 1:18:31Uh may I make a recommendation that the that the board uh Well, I'll make two recommendations. Uh think three minutes. That seems to be a new policy. So, uh, I recommend that this board immediately based on this audit, which is has all kinds of stuff in it, that the board immediately conduct a forensic audit that would take care of the many things that this audit clearly says it didn't do.
182. 1:19:02We we mentioned we're having a audit committee meeting where we'll construct a corrective action plan. So, we're we're on top of it.
183. 1:19:08That's good. So, uh, and and then Mr. Myers, your three minutes is up.
184. 1:19:15I'm going to say it anyway. You're going to have to carry me out of here. I'm sorry.
185. 1:19:18Go ahead.
186. 1:19:18Except for basic, this is my second recommendation. Except for basic votes required by law, including there are other people who are here to including this budget. Uh Mr. Uh this I recommended the board I recommended the board this board take no significant changes votes that would impact a contract or renewal of a contract uh and and until it gets its uh until it gets its forensic audit done. Thank you very much.
187. 1:19:50Thank you.
188. 1:19:50And change the threeminute rule. Crazy.
189. 1:19:57Next we have Nikki Geneito.
190. 1:20:03Hello everybody. Um, in case somebody doesn't know who I am, my name is Nikki Janito. I'm the president of the age unit. I've also been employee for the Hudson School District for 25 years. Um, I just I want to speak quickly about the budget and I'm kind of disappointed in how the whole thing has has come about this year. And the last budget that we saw in my unit caused mass hysteria because there was no communication from anybody about what was going to be on that screen. As I talked to the teachers union, they were told, but we were not.
191. 1:20:39Not a word. Now we come today, everything's going to take care of, but that doesn't help. What has already helped? I I actually did lose a member because when they saw that on the screen, they decided they had to go find another job because they could not wait around to be fired. So, we really got to work on the communication. Um, lots of things has happened to my unit. Um, we're no longer on interview committees like we used to be. We're no longer on calendar committees like we used to be. I don't know what's happening, but we kind of need to work this out and work together. because it's it's just very disappointing.
192. 1:21:19Thank you.
193. 1:21:19Understood. Thank you for being here.
194. 1:21:25Next, we have Shannon Sullivan.
195. 1:21:36So, I want to piggyback on what Nikki was talking about. I've been here a couple of times over the past couple of weeks. You've seen me here and I was here that day when that slide came up and all of those positions were listed. We watch these at home. We do our laundry. We have this on in the background. This is live streamed into people's houses. And for us to see the actual positions listed was really shocking, especially in the case that you very carefully delineate that during public speaking times, nothing regarding personnel should or can be discussed, yet people's job positions were listed on that slide.
196. 1:22:16And the other thing that happened that day was that as you all saw those job positions on that slide and you looked at those jobs that were being eliminated, specifics, reading, psychology, eight teaching aids. There was no push back at all to see if there were other cuts from other places. There was no mention of cuts to administration, nor has that happened again tonight. There was no mention of cuts to central admission ad ad I'm sorry administration nor was there any discussion of that tonight.
197. 1:22:49We talk about retirements as though they're not layoffs. We talk about vacant positions as though these are things that aren't significant. And as a teacher who sits in this meeting and listens to that and sees that the feeling it gives is a feeling of disregard for the people who are the people who work with the children. Education started as a one room schoolhouse. a teacher and students. And to see teachers being repeatedly put up there and aids put up there without cuts to other branches makes it really feel like we're the solution to the budget problem and nothing else is being discussed. And it makes me as someone who's worked here for a really long time really upset to see my colleagues treated that way and it makes me feel like we're not valued honestly. So thank you for your time.
198. 1:23:40Understood. Thank you for sharing.
199. 1:23:46Next we have Wayne Kenny.
200. 1:24:02Good evening. For those who don't know me by now, Wayne Kenny, science teacher, president of the Hudson Teacher Association. Um, a couple things with budget that I think are important. Um, I have had these conversations with superintendent. Um, I been trying to get a hold of Miss Ferry. Is that am I saying that right? Um, because I wanted to talk to her about some of the insurance stuff.
201. 1:24:32Um, first of all, I think I I know it would take some time. I think researching how much pilots are affecting our school budget would be important. Um, I know the board has no say in pilots. They are done by the town boards or the city board, but how are those decisions impacting our budget? Because we do most likely have a bigger budget than the towns and the cities do. We have more employees, more supplies to buy.
202. 1:25:00Um, a couple years ago, the previous superintendent pointed out that the reason our instruction was so high is because we had a lot more senior level teachers in our district than other districts around us. Therefore, we were paying higher salaries because we had more experienced teachers. I don't know if that's still the case. I know there are around 60 to 65 non-tenured teachers right now in the district, but that does not mean they're not at a higher salary because they may have worked somewhere else before coming here, but that also impacts it.
203. 1:25:34The insurance, the consortium is a mess. Um, for those who don't know, we are part of the Renellor Columbia Green Healthcare Consortium. how the consortium works, each district that belongs to it is still its own entity. So even though our percentages don't look that great because I know they're going up a lot, I know the percentages, there are districts that are going up more than us. Everybody doesn't get the same percentage increase by district.
204. 1:26:10The other thing is with the one prescription plan that we have, if we have a lot of employees in the district that are taking a high-end prescription, okay, that cost doesn't get spread equally throughout the healthcare consortium. That comes back to us. So our prescription plan will sometimes increase more greatly than other prescription the same prescription plan in other districts. So it is very difficult from year to year to predict or budget ahead of time for those health care stuff. We usually have the numbers by now. Um you know I I know each plan's going up on average about 10%.
205. 1:26:58um the CVS plan last night CVS card mark is going up a lot more than that. So that does have an effect on the budget and I think people need to know and understand that because that's part of the budget that even you as a board cannot control. So thank you. Thank you. That's it.
206. 1:27:25Thank you all for speaking. Um, next we have the superintendent report and the spotlight on excellence in education. Do you want to do your report first?
207. 1:27:59We're going to do the superintendent report first.
208. 1:28:03So, tonight I'd like to say congratulations to our students who are embarking um on college next year. um our students in Hudson are going to college or other places, but our students are being successful and I want to continue to highlight the successes of our students. So from left to right, we have Jake Peterson, then Joan Morrison, Caitlyn Novak, and Lynn Carr. They are have recently been accepted to one or more universities. So that is something worth celebrating.
209. 1:28:46So, the faculty and staff were treated to a delicious barbecue lunch on April 9th. This was an initiative that was solely promoted, proposed by our students of my brother's keeper program and Bluehawk Academy. So, I want to thank a great big thank you to the MBK scholars as well as our Blue Hawk Academy students. The teachers and staff were treated to a delicious lunch. They were served by the students and um it was just a wonderful day and I will always say it's not the program to quote Todd Whitaker, but it's the people. It's the people that make our district become successful.
210. 1:29:34So, It's Ivy League day tours Harvard University. So during our spring break last week, Dr. Courtright Torres took a group of students on Monday to Yale to visit and we're starting this where we'll be um visiting Ivy League schools every year. And then on Tuesday during our spring break, I took over 21 students to Harvard. The students had a magnificent time and yes I said to our students see yourselves here. You can attend Harvard and you can attend Yale if you would like to. So I don't ever want our students to think that there's nothing that they can't attain. and they had a fantastic visit and it was great for me as the superintendent just to be able to have that up close and personal time with our students and I'm hoping that we get more of a turnout next year.
211. 1:30:47Operation Safe Stop. So, on Thursday the 24th, um, Operation Safe Stop will take place. And what this is, it's a statewide initiative. Um, it's aimed at improving the safety of children as they board and disembark from school buses. So, what happens each year, numerous children face serious dangers um when motorists illegally pass or stop a stop school bus. So this can result in injuries and fatalities.
212. 1:31:22And so to address this problem, the initiative brings together the Hudson City School District, bus contractors, law enforcement. And what will happen? They'll monitor specific routes during the school bus operations to enforce the safety laws. And then um there's a slogan that comes out of operation safe safe stop. The slogan is every time every child every stop so and every day. So the initiative underscores the importance of the school bus safety and highlights the need for the community and collaboration in create creating a secure environment for our students. So, we want to continue to partner with our community in ways and this is uh a great great venture that will be happening on Thursday.
213. 1:32:16Now, I'm going to go back to our spotlight on excellence. Yes, Dr. KT is not here tonight and Dr. Press is not here tonight because they're both not feeling their best right now. their vote. However, I want to give a spotlight on excellence to Dr. KT for going above and beyond. Yes, it was spring break and yes, she could have taken her vacation time, but she used her time uh that day to accompany our students to the trip to Yale. And that's going above and beyond. So, I'm going to spotlight and uh spotlight Dr. KT and I I think it's important to spotlight my exec team from time to time and what they do above and beyond.
214. 1:33:07Next, I'd like to spotlight Dr. Pressie. So, Dr. Pressie has been spotlighted for just setting up our field trips, getting the bus. She was sick last week, but even though she was sick, she was still wanting to be text. What's happening? She made sure that we had our buses there. She made sure that she found funding through our collaboration with our LEAPS grant to pay for the buses. So, none of this really came out of our district funds. These were grant funded. Mental health helped us and supported us and paid um for us to be able to um have those wonderful coach buses um to take us um on the trip.
215. 1:33:53And then um Dr. Press is also a part of the My Brother's Keepers staff. So, she's also been spotlight for that. And overall, I'd like to give a spotlight of e on excellence to our My Brothers Keeper staff overall just for working with our students, working with those young men.
216. 1:34:13There's been several young men that I'm hoping later on this year can come in and talk about how being in my brother's keeper have changed. I have witnessed the metamorphosis and the change in one or two of our students that I knew where they were last year and where they are now based on their experiences from being in the program. So, my brother's keeper staff, we want to thank them for the delicious lunch last week and for just the students really wanted to do something for their teachers and they were very passionate about that and just for for them doing that and and for the staff to be there to supporting them um along the way.
217. 1:34:53And last but not least, Mrs. Zucker is here. So, I also want to spotlight the Bluehawk Academy staff. they were an intricate part of this and for making sure that um the lunch was also provided to the students um to our staff and faculty last week. So everything went well and the Blue Hawk um academy staff went above and beyond to make this happen. They had a whole plan going. They collaborated with Blue Hawk and my brother's keeper staff. So Miss Zucker, um you deserve to be spotlighted along with your whole staff. So thank you.
218. 1:35:37And so if the board would come up and have a picture with um Miss Zucker for the rest of our spotlight on excellence um honores, we'll get them at one of the board meetings going forward. This ends my superintendent report for tonight. Thank you.
219. 1:36:23Um, next we have new business. Uh, we do have policy 4750, promotion, retention, uh, policy for second reading. Still waiting on um more revisions from our legal team. But anybody have any notes, questions, comments?
220. 1:36:43No.
221. 1:36:43Okay, great. Um brings us to the uh 2025 2026 Quest Rar 3 administrative budget vote. um make a motion to accept the board of cooperative educational services of Renolier, Columbia, and Green County's uh budget set forth in the 2025 2026 tenative administrative budget document in the amount of 7,400,641,09.
222. 1:37:18Second. All in favor?
223. 1:37:23Um, next we have Quest RAR 3 board member vote for Edund Brooks. Uh, make a motion to cast a vote for the election of Mr. Brooks of Columbia County, New York, uh, in the Icabad Crane Central School District as a member of the board of cooperative educational services, Winsler, Columbia, Green Counties.
224. 1:37:45Second. All in favor?
225. 1:37:52uh make a motion to uh cast a vote for the election of Mr. David Finch, Green County District of Residents, Greenville Central School District, as a member of the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Renselier, Columbia, Green Counties.
226. 1:38:08Second. All in favor?
227. 1:38:13I make a motion uh to cast a vote for the election of Miss De Naen Gazola, Columbia County District of Residents to Kanek Hill Central School District as a member of the board of cooperation educational services, Renolier, Columbia Green counties.
228. 1:38:27Second. All in favor
229. 1:38:31and make a motion to cast a vote for the election of Miss Melanie Spock, Columbia County, New York, District of Residents, Chattam Central School District as a member of the board of cooperative educational services, Renelier, Columbia Green counties.
230. 1:38:47Second. All in favor.
231. 1:38:50Uh brings us to um consensus agenda. Um, I'd like to request that we pull A, B, C, and E for further discussion.
232. 1:39:04Great. Uh, so then we'll make a motion to accept consensus agenda items uh B, D, and F through I.
233. 1:39:16Can you say that again? So then you said A, you said. Yeah, ABC and E. ABC and E. Okay.
234. 1:39:20Okay. So then I make a motion to accept consensus agenda items D, F, G, H, and I.
235. 1:39:26Second. All in favor.
236. 1:39:33Um, so I uh I certainly applaud any effort to, you know, show our students uh opportunities for the future. Um, I'm glad they got to go attend some colleges and and get some experience. Uh, I don't know if all the board members here know when we approve those field trips.
237. 1:39:53Um they were approved at the last board meeting. Correct.
238. 1:39:56My recollection is they were on on the agenda. I'm not sure if the um so attachments were there. So this is why I asked the question at the top of the meeting because they seem to have been added to the agenda after it was delivered to the board. Uh and we didn't really get notice for it. Since it wasn't a separate agenda item, it wasn't clear that we had additional items to approve. Um, so I just want to reiterate and make sure we understand when we're approving the minutes, it's what happened at the meeting, when we're approving the agenda, when we're voting on the agenda, that it's clear that anything's been added for a meeting. Um, just reemphasize that.
239. 1:40:29Yes. For the future. Absolutely. Yeah. Working with Leslie to make sure all the agenda notes are clear um beforehand and that we we're getting uh notifications as things are are added.
240. 1:40:41Yeah, we should all be on top of that for sure.
241. 1:40:46Um, regarding item C, uh, we have a budget transfer for $12,000. Um, I think we've received a total of about $35,000 of budget transfers this year. I I guess I'm just curious as to uh, with all of the negative accounts we have in our chart of accounts, what was the priority for this? And I I applaud doing this correctly, but why are we only getting this?
242. 1:41:19You mean item D, right? Yeah, the budget transfer.
243. 1:41:21Sorry, I heard you say C.
244. 1:41:21No, no, it's I'm sorry. It's C. Budget transfer.
245. 1:41:25No, it's No, it's D.
246. 1:41:25Uh, it's C now because the agenda got changed. We pulled something.
247. 1:41:32Thank you.
248. 1:41:39Um, no. No, it's the budget transfer. So, clarification. The agenda was changed at the top of the meeting or right before the meeting. We talked about it at the agenda.
249. 1:41:50Uh, when can we expect more budget transfers, I guess, is my real question.
250. 1:41:58as soon as Miss Ferry and I get together and give them to you once we look at where we need to trans why and where and when the money will come. So we've been working a lot on trying to get this budget draft budget to you and so um and we're working on on that and looking working with um the rest of the business office team. So once we have time to sit down together between now and next, you'll have more at the next board meeting.
251. 1:42:32Um I I think this form is one that's been used by the district for years and I would just ask that there's a purpose added to it as well as some sign off from the business office that there's sufficient budget that we're you know some sort of certification to the board so that we can you know rely upon it.
252. 1:42:52Yeah. We also need to revisit the policy on budget transfers which can outline a lot of these um processes and procedures.
253. 1:42:59Um regarding E, uh I'm going to ask that we don't approve this report. Uh this is the budget status report for March. Um there's a number of items on it that I've requested via email get addressed. Uh there is an adjustment uh to principal and interest debt service payments of $630,000. I don't believe there's any support in any documentation for that adjustment. It's been there all year.
254. 1:43:28Um I believe the audit identified it as incumbrances that weren't properly relieved in the 2324 school year. So we need to get those out of there. Uh in addition on debt service, we are going to pay our bonds in June. I'm confident of that. Uh I'd like to see them encumbered. And when that happens, the unencumbered balance for debt service is going to go from 5.1 million to zero.
255. 1:43:52Teachers retirement system, it's showing an uncovered balance of $ 1.9 million. I'm confident we're going to pay that as well. I'd like to see an encumbrance for it. Those two adjustments alone are $7 million. And when you take $7 million and subtract it from the 5.8 million that shows as unencumbered right now, it's going to show as negative.
256. 1:44:10Now, I think there are other adjustments that need to be made here, but I don't think we're going to be able to do our financial governance role very well if we're not getting updates to these. So, I'm asking again, please get those updates to us. I don't want to approve these statements until we get those. So, if the next meeting we can have those, I would appreciate it.
257. 1:44:36Um, okay. So that's just uh just item E that we will have to pull.
258. 1:44:40Um which item E the budget status report. Yeah.
259. 1:44:52Yeah. So I guess given all of that, are we still comfortable with having a budget approval on the agenda tonight? Um you know the options would be approving it tonight or um holding a uh the alternative would be holding a special meeting on Thursday um to vote on a revised budget um so uh you know certainly open to opinions from the rest of the board.
260. 1:45:27I would be in support of holding a revised budget meeting on Thursday, a meeting to to review the revised budget on Thursday or vote on.
261. 1:45:37I agree. I think we got these recent numbers like a couple hours before the board meeting and to be able to dig in more deeply.
262. 1:45:42Okay. Uh and just to clarify um your main concern request, Matt, you want to uh see a revised budget status report at the same time as we see um the new budget so that we're confident in that it's based on real uh real figures.
263. 1:46:03It couldn't hurt.
264. 1:46:08Okay. Um so do you You want to schedule a special meeting on Thursday?
265. 1:46:16Yes, I believe we do.
266. 1:46:19What time?
267. 1:46:226 p.m. Go a little early. What's up? Can we Can we do it a little early? 5 5 p.m.
268. 1:46:31Okay. Um All right. So, we'll hold a special meeting on Thursday at 5:00 PM. Um, but we will make a motion to accept consensus agenda items uh A A and C. I think A and C. Yeah.
269. 1:46:52I'll make a motion to approve consensus items A and C. Draft board meeting minutes and budget transfers.
270. 1:46:57Great.
271. 1:46:59Second.
272. 1:46:59All in favor?
273. 1:47:02All right.
274. 1:47:06Um, brings us to public forum. Nobody else signed up.
275. 1:47:11Nobody else signed up.
276. 1:47:12Uh, nothing for old business. Um, does bring up uh board discussion. Anybody else have anything to add?
277. 1:47:24No.
278. 1:47:24All right. Well, uh, in light of, uh, you know, making, uh, making a special meeting on on Thursday, uh, one of my favorite adjectives is measure twice, cut once. So, uh, we'll do it again then. Um, we have no uh, executive session um, uh, upcoming dates. Sorry, I skipped that. Following meetings are scheduled.
279. 1:47:53Um, there is a uh community proposed 2526 budget presentation Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. in the MCES auditorium. Uh, voter registration day is Thursday, April 24th, 2025 from 4 to 8:00 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. Um there is a uh facilities committee community capital project energy performance contract and proposed 2025 2026 budget presentation on Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.
280. 1:48:35Uh a community proposed 2025 2026 budget uh meeting Monday, May 5th, 2025 at 5:00 pm in the Hudson area library in the community room. There is a policy committee meeting Tuesday, May 6th, 2025 at 5:00 pm in the high school library. Um there's another special board of education meeting uh on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 6 PM budget hearing in the high school auditorium. There is a community proposed 2025 2026 budget presentation Monday May 12th 2025 at 5:00 PM in the ABH Shaw firehouse.
281. 1:49:12There is a facilities committee community capital project entity performance contract and proposed 2025 2026 budget presentation Tuesday May 135 at 5:00 pm in the high school cafeteria. And there is a policy committee meeting Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 5:00 PM in the high school library. Um, also a uh special board of education. Yes. We we changed that time to 7 because the meeting starts at 8. Ah, correct. Yes.
282. 1:49:42So, there's a policy committee meeting Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 7 p.m. in the high school library. Uh, special board of education meeting Tuesday, May 20th, 2025 at 800 PM in the high school library. annual budget vote and board member election. And again, there is a special meet uh budget meeting uh Thursday, April 24th at uh 5:00 p.m.
283. 1:50:10Um so at this time, we make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:52.
284. 1:50:17Second. All in favor? Great. Thank you all for being here.

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