Board of Education, Regular Meeting

1. 3:38call the meeting to order. If we could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
2. 4:04And now I'll do a roll call. Mark Deace here. Amanda Grubler here. Kirsten Gustiffson here. Diana Howard here. Calvin Lewis here. Matthew Macker here. Moren Sheridan here.
3. 4:21Okay. And now we will do the um oath of board members. So if you could all raise your right hand and read aloud with me. Ready? One, two, three. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of State of New York State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the board of the office of board member according to my best ability.
4. 5:01Okay. If you could please sign and allegedly put your address that'd be great.
5. 5:16Do you have a pen you could pass around?
6. 5:24Leslie, I think I have yours. You have mine? Yeah. Oh, great. Thank you. Anybody else?
7. 5:48All right. Can I have it back? Pass them down.
8. 5:55Next, we're going to elect a um that one's missed. Board President Are there any nominations?
9. 6:14I nominate Mark to Pace.
10. 6:16Second.
11. 6:22All in favor?
12. 6:35And next we'll nominate a board vice president. Any nominations?
13. 6:43I nominate Matt Macker.
14. 6:46Any seconds? Second.
15. 6:50All in favor?
16. 6:57Okay. Um, next we will The oath of office for the board president and vice president. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board president to the best of my ability.
17. 7:46Yeah. seats.
18. 8:00We can hop down.
19. 8:06Yeah.
20. 8:12All right.
21. 8:14Thank you. uh honored to be elected to this position. Um congratulations to Matt and warm welcome to uh Moren and Diana. I look forward to serving alongside you. Um and before we start, I just want to say I know our community is looking for more transparency, more engagement from the board. I'm committing to committed to working with the rest of the board members here um to find new ways to bring our school community together and make our meetings more open, inclusive, and productive for everybody.
22. 8:46Um, and so now I'll make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
23. 8:51Second.
24. 8:51All in favor?
25. 8:59Um, now we're going to appoint uh school district officers. So, I make a motion to uh appoint the school district officers for the 2025 2026 school year uh as presented.
26. 9:27Second.
27. 9:27All in favor?
28. 9:38Sorry, one second. having a board dock issue.
29. 9:48All right, we'll now uh administer the loyalty oath to uh the district clerk and clerk of the board, Leslie Coons. I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and I will faithfully discharge the duties of board clerk according to the best of my ability.
30. 10:17All right. Uh and now we will administer the oath of office to the district clerk uh prom which is uh Dr. Pennyman.
31. 10:33I don't have any more oath cards for her.
32. 10:38So that's for the superender. That's for the superintendent. Yeah. Um we can still recite the um the oath.
33. 10:48I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of clerk prom of the board to the best of my ability.
34. 11:06Great. Uh so now we designate uh committee members. Uh we have policy committee uh facilities committee and audit committee. Um each each committee can have up to three board members. Um and we have discussed uh the possibility of adding a finance committee in the near future. Um but we need a charter to come from policy before we do that. Um so let's start with policy. Um I served on policy last year. I personally would love to stay on policy committee.
35. 11:44I would also like to stay on policy committee. I think we got the ball rolling with a new charter and I'd like to see that go through with the increased community members. Um, and then I would suggest that one of our new folks also join. So, we have I I don't know if I call myself veteran, but veteran and new perspective.
36. 12:02I would like to join the policy committee, but we didn't really talk about this. So, right, it's it's fine. I mean, I I I'm interested as well, but that's that's good. Go ahead, Diana.
37. 12:12Okay, great. Awesome. And we'll make sure that input on policy goes through every board member, not just those on the policy committee.
38. 12:17Yep. Absolutely.
39. 12:21Okay. Great.
40. 12:23Um so then I make a motion. Any other interest? Everybody good with those three? Okay. So then I make a motion to appoint um the following board members to the policy committee for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh Amanda Grubler, uh Diana Howard, and Mark Deace.
41. 12:42Second.
42. 12:42All in favor.
43. 12:46All right. And also make a motion to approve the 2025 2026 uh draft policy committee meeting schedule.
44. 12:56Second. All in favor. Great. Um and like Amanda mentioned, uh we will uh be opening up policy committee um to other members of the community. um we'll discuss at the next policy meeting and um make sure everybody's aware of uh the mechanism for how to um submit interest if you'd like to be a part of that committee.
45. 13:18Uh facilities committee
46. 13:24I'd like to get to be on the facilities committee again this year. Great. Yeah.
47. 13:29I also would like to remain on the facilities committee.
48. 13:35I I can I can join the Okay, great.
49. 13:41Um, everybody good with uh those three selections? Great. So, I make a motion to appoint the following board members to the facilities committee for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh, Kirstston Gustoson, Calvin Lewis, and Moren Sheridan.
50. 13:58Second. All in favor?
51. 14:02Um, audit committee. Um, as the board president, I uh must be one of the members, but so that means there's room for two other members on audit committee. Any interest?
52. 14:12Uh, I'd like to continue on the audit committee. Great.
53. 14:20Can we be on two? Absolutely. All right.
54. 14:22So, I'd like to join. Awesome. Great.
55. 14:24All right. Everybody good with uh those three members? All right. Uh so make a motion um to appoint the following board members to the audit committee for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh Mark Deace, Matthew Macker, and Diana Howard.
56. 14:40Second. All in favor?
57. 14:44Okay, great. Now, so we have one more oath. Yes.
58. 14:52Uh so this is the oath for just the audit committee members.
59. 14:59Where are your
60. 15:10Thank you.
61. 15:16I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of Audit Committee according to the best of my
62. 15:44Okay. Now we will be uh appointing school district uh dignity act coordinators. Um make a motion to appoint uh district level dignity act coordinator for the 2025 2026 school year. Um as Dr. Tia Pressie.
63. 16:00Second. All in favor?
64. 16:09um and make a motion uh to appoint building level dignity coordinators for the 2025 2026 school year as listed.
65. 16:19Second. All in favor?
66. 16:24Uh now we'll appoint uh district title 9 compliance coordinators uh investigators and decision makers. uh make a motion to appoint Title 9 compliance coordinators and investigators for the 2025 2026 school year as listed.
67. 16:41Second. All in favor.
68. 16:50Um and now we're in uh school district attorneys.
69. 16:54Um, make a motion to appoint Whip Beck, Benedict, and Smith LLP as school district attorneys for the 2526 school year.
70. 17:03Second. All in favor.
71. 17:08Make a motion to appoint Rodenhousen Chale and Polydoro LLP as bond attorney for the 2526 school year.
72. 17:14Second.
73. 17:18All in favor?
74. 17:20Sorry, I could let other people talk. I just figured we get it done. reason saying second really stresses me out. So do it. Okay.
75. 17:28All right. Um and make a motion uh to appoint Keenan Bean PC as general legal counsel for the 2526 school year.
76. 17:39Second.
77. 17:41All in favor?
78. 17:44For those watching, there have been no changes to our district attorneys. These are all the same attorneys we had last year. Um same thing for auditors. Um, make a motion to appoint Raymond Pressure, CPA PC, as the independent external auditor for the 2526 school year to audit the 2425 school year finances.
79. 18:03Second. All in favor
80. 18:07and make a motion to appoint Michael T. Wolf, CIA Advisory Services, as the internal auditor for the 2526 school year.
81. 18:15Second. All in favor?
82. 18:20Um, next are school district level independent evaluators. These are approved partners uh to make um uh evaluations for parents who choose. So um so make a motion to appoint the following district level independent evaluators for the 2526 school year as listed.
83. 18:40Second.
84. 18:42All in favor?
85. 18:47Um,
86. 18:49now we are appointing uh school district consultants.
87. 18:54Um,
88. 18:56make a motion to appoint Metswood Insurance as the district broker and Udica National as a district insurance consultant carrier for the 2526 school year.
89. 19:07Second. All in favor?
90. 19:11Um, make a motion to appoint Philadelphia Insurance as the school district student accident insurance carrier for the 2526 school year.
91. 19:20Second. All in favor?
92. 19:25Um,
93. 19:26make a motion to appoint Weston and Samson, formerly Rybeck Architect, as the district architect for the 2526 school year.
94. 19:34Second. All in favor?
95. 19:38and make a motion to appoint Bernard P. Donigan, Inc. for district financial consulting services for the 2526 school year.
96. 19:48Second. All in favor?
97. 19:53And these are additional school district design uh required by New York State. Um make a motion to appoint Dr. Tia Pressy to the following designations for the 2526 school year. section 504 compliance officer, Medicaid compliance officer, liaison for the education of homeless children and youth, opioid program director, director of school health services, and HIPPA compliance officer.
98. 20:18Second. All in favor?
99. 20:22Make a motion to appoint Dr. Juliet Pennyman as uh the chief emergency officer for the 2526 school year.
100. 20:30Second. All in favor?
101. 20:34Um, and I make a motion to appoint Tyler Kitzman to the following designations for the 2526 school year program administrator for bloodborne pathogens exposure control plan. Health and safety designate, asbesus designate, public access defibrillation coordinator, EPA leadbased renovation repair and painting program coordinator, integrated pest management coordinator, American with Disabilities Act coordinator.
102. 20:58Second.
103. 21:01All in favor? Um and now designated official depositories. These are uh bank accounts that the school is authorized to utilize. Um so make a motion to designate Bank of Green County TD uh Bank of Green County TD Bank and NY class as the official depositories for the school funds for the 2526 school year.
104. 21:29Second. All in favor
105. 21:33make a motion to designate Bank of Green County for the deposit accounts for the 2526 school year as listed.
106. 21:38Second. All in favor?
107. 21:44Uh make a motion to designate TD Bank as the following deposit accounts for the 2526 school year. Extra classroom activity fund Hudson High School and Extra Classroom Activity Fund Hudson Junior High School.
108. 21:55Second. All in favor
109. 22:00make a motion to designate New York class for the following uh for the deposit accounts for the 2526 school year as listed.
110. 22:07Second. All in favor
111. 22:13and make a motion to designate TD Bank, Community Bank, Key Bank, Bank of New York, US Bank, Berser Bank, Municipal Commercial Bank, and Mnt Bank uh to be used from time to time for investing and farming p purposes depending on the rates for the 2526 school year.
112. 22:27Second. All in favor?
113. 22:34All right. Next, we have annual policy review and adoption. Um these are all policies that we are required to adopt annually. Um there have been no uh material changes to any of these policies. Um as Amanda has noted, we are working on a revised version of policy 5300. Um it is not ready at this time. So we're readopting the existing code of conduct. Um and at a later date we'll uh adopt a revised code of conduct. Um any questions?
114. 23:09Okay. Um, so make a motion to adopt policy uh 115 and 115R, student bullying prevention and intervention.
115. 23:17Second. All in favor?
116. 23:22Make a motion to adopt policy 1900, parent engagement.
117. 23:28Second. All in favor?
118. 23:33Make a motion to read policy 5100.
119. 23:37Second. All in favor
120. 23:41make a motion to read policy 5300 code of conduct and 5300.26 athletic code of conduct for the 2526 school year.
121. 23:49Second. All in favor
122. 23:53and make a motion to read policies 6240 and 6240R investments for the 2526 school year.
123. 23:59Second. All in favor?
124. 24:04Um and make a motion to readopt policy 67006700R uh for the 2526 school year.
125. 24:15Second. All in favor?
126. 24:19Um now we need a brief uh executive session. Um I make a motion to enter executive session at 6:20 p.m. for the purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons.
127. 24:34Second. All in favor? Great. All right. We'll be back as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
128. 34:36Oh no.
129. 34:40Keep that in mind.
130. 34:43Oops. I know I can't get into my computer. Um disabled. Make a motion to exit executive session at 6:31 p.m.
131. 34:52Second. All in favor?
132. 34:56All right. Brings us to uh personnel agenda. Um make a motion to accept personnel agenda items A 1 through 8 and B 1-9.
133. 35:09Second that. Oh, I think 11 1 through 11. Oh, yeah. It is, isn't it? Ah, yes. Okay. So, make a motion to accept personnel agenda items A 1 through 8 and B 1 through 11.
134. 35:22Now second. All in favor?
135. 35:26Okay, now we have some uh retirement recognitions. Uh the board of education would like to recognize um Darlene Clark for her 18 plus years of service and Diana Olmstead for 33 plus year services uh years of service. Um, thank you for your time in your district and we welcome we wish you uh health and happiness in retirement. We can give him a round of applause.
136. 36:12Uh, that brings us to public forum. Leslie, nobody. Nobody. Okay, great. Uh, sign up and I'll get you in the second one. It'll be a few minutes. Um, so that brings us to um the district safety plan. Um, so I make a motion to open the 30-day comment period for the 2526 district safety plan beginning July 3rd um through August 25th with a public hearing scheduled for August 5th, 2025.
137. 36:58The hearing says it's scheduled for August 5th. That's when the special meeting is.
138. 37:04I have a question about this one. Yes. Um, where did the document come from? Who's on the safety team? It says it's a district-wide safety team.
139. 37:17Yes. Who's on that team?
140. 37:20There's a district-wide safety team. We have meetings. U Mr. Kitzman and I lead the team. The names of the members should be listed in the document. I can find it. However, we do have meetings. Yes. And it it's comprised of teachers and administrators etc. And we did have a couple of parents on there too.
141. 37:51My computer's disabled so I can't look at the document. There's a chart that has the district safety team but it looks like some of the names have been crossed out. So I wonder if we
142. 38:03Thank you.
143. 38:09This is a draft. However, um some of the members may may be cross crossed out. Do they still work here?
144. 38:19I can't see because my computer is um I think that this is uh those are required members. um on the so this is page nine. Um and I think the um the advice from Questar was to remove the names of the members and list their positions instead. Um so that when if say an administrator changes um that we don't need to go and readopt the whole entire uh safety plan.
145. 38:54You're correct, Mr. Depace. I couldn't see which page he was talking about, but we do have a district safety team and we have minutes from each meeting. So, Mr.
146. 39:09Kitzman's office holds the minutes from all of the meetings if there's a need to see them. And what we're doing tonight is just opening the 30-day public comment period, not approving this document.
147. 39:24Exactly. Yeah. I just saw that it said that there was a team, but I didn't see any names. That was my question.
148. 39:33Um, okay, great. Yeah, right now we're just opening up the comment period. So hopefully at the we can get an update on who the team members are for the next uh actual team members are for the next board meeting. Okay.
149. 39:48So, can I have a second?
150. 39:50Second. All in favor?
151. 39:56Um brings us to the uh consensus agenda. Um I make a motion to accept consensus agenda items uh A through Y.
152. 40:05Second. All in favor.
153. 40:14Um so new business. Um there is a NISBA convention uh in New York City. Um in October um most of the board members um undergo professional development throughout the year. Uh there's also a conference in August. Um so this is just posted there for as an information item. Um and encouraging all board members who can attend uh to go.
154. 40:41Um I've been to two of them in the past. Um there's opportunities to learn about everything from uh you know contracts to scheduling to transportation uh to budgeting all the handy things for school board members to know. Anybody have any questions about the conference? Okay, great.
155. 41:09Um Nikki, do you want to sign up to speak or a public form again? Okay. I just want to be fair to everybody and have everybody follow the same uh same protocol. Um okay, old business.
156. 41:25Um this is our uh policy 3230 organizational chart. Uh any comments or questions about the org chart as it's presented? Okay, great. Uh make an op make a motion to adopt policy 3230 organizational chart.
157. 42:01Second. All in favor?
158. 42:06That brings us to uh upcoming meeting dates. The following meetings are scheduled. July 15, 2025, policy committee meeting, high school library, 5:00 pm. July 22nd, 2025, regular board of education meeting, high school auditorium, 6 p.m.
159. 42:21August 5th, 2025, special board of education meeting, high school auditorium, 6 p.m. August 12th, 2025, policy committee meeting, high school library, 5:00 pm. August 19th, 2025, regular board of education meeting, high school auditorium, 6 pm.
160. 42:42Um, at this time, we do have a need for a second executive session for the purpose of discussing real estate transactions and the employment history of a particular person or persons. Uh, make a motion to enter executive session at 6:39 p.m.
161. 42:55Second. All in favor?
162. 43:00There'll be no further business after this executive session. Thank you all for being here.

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