At a glance
The Hudson City School District Board of Education spent most of Tuesday night on two questions: how the junior high climbs out of its state improvement designation, and who will lead the district next. Junior high administrators laid out three goals for the year (cut chronic absenteeism by 17 students or 5%, grow proficiency by 5%, and cut referrals for uncooperative behaviors by 5%), and interim superintendent Dr. Bailey followed with a hand-drawn chart, telling the board that 85% of students should be proficient just by going to class and that right now 30% are. He called it a crisis, and a board member said nobody had used that word here in a long time. Dr. Kawita Adams of the search firm HYA, whom the board selected the week before from three consultants, walked through her four-stage search process; the board is aiming to have a permanent superintendent in place by July 1. The board also approved its personnel and consent agendas, pulled three contracts for discussion, adopted a bundle of records policies, and sent its own draft goals back for revision. Two executive sessions on employment history are not part of the public record.
Roll Call, the Agenda, and the Student Report
The board opened at 6 p.m. with the pledge and a roll call, briefly started the student report before accepting the agenda, then backed up and did it properly.
Key points
- The board president called the meeting to order at 6 p.m. and asked everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance
- The clerk called the roll for seven board members and the student representative; the transcript records a response to every name except Kjirsten Gustavson's
- The student report started early, a member called out that the agenda had not been accepted, and the board then moved, seconded and approved the agenda as presented
- The class of 2028 is selling hot chocolate and pizza, the National Honor Society is running a food drive with collection points in the junior high and high school lobbies, and the class of 2027 holds a bake sale every Monday
- The varsity club hosted a blood drive on November 17 and is hosting a volleyball tournament on December 6; the winter concert is December 18
- Model UN has a competition at Hudson Valley Community College on December 6
- New hallway TVs carry school information, though the student representative said the slides sometimes switch before you can finish reading them
The captions begin at 5:32, partway through the sentence calling the meeting to order, so the very first moments of the meeting are not in the transcript.
Junior High Sets Three Goals: Attendance, Proficiency, Behavior
Junior high administrators presented the building's priorities for the year, framed as a roadmap out of its targeted support and improvement designation.
Key points
- The junior high is designated for targeted support and improvement based on the academic performance of Black, Hispanic, multi-racial and economically disadvantaged students; presenters said the data was given to them by the state, not compiled by the building
- Priority one is decreasing chronic absenteeism by 17 students, or 5%, on the view that nothing else works if students are not in the building
- Priority two is growing student proficiency in ELA, math and science on the sixth through eighth grade state assessments by 5%
- Priority three is improving climate and culture, measured as a 5% decrease in referrals for uncooperative behaviors such as insubordination and disrespect; tardies are deliberately left out of that target
- The building holds weekly attendance meetings and takes part in a monthly district attendance task force that includes the DA and community partners; Mr. Darren Collins, the district's attendance monitor, visits families and arranges rides
- Perfect attendance is being recognized monthly, and staff want to start recognizing students with the biggest gains, not just perfect records
- NWEA screening has replaced FastBridge for beginning, middle and end of year benchmarks, with FastBridge kept as a progress monitoring tool
- The building is rolling out the RULER social emotional learning program, starting with sixth grade, with a goal that 100% of teachers display a mood meter
The captions render the screening tool as "NWA" throughout. It is written here as NWEA, which is how the spoken name is normally spelled, but the transcript itself does not spell it out.
Board Questions: Tiers, Data, and How the District Got Here
Board members and the student representative questioned the junior high team for more than half an hour, asking for counts, for year over year comparisons, and for the root cause behind the designation.
Key points
- Asked to explain the tiers, staff said tier one is the roughly 80 to 85% of students served by the core curriculum, tier two is 10 to 15% needing repeated instruction or differentiation, and tier three is the other 5% needing AIS or smaller group work
- A member asked how many students are currently in tier two and tier three; staff said they had the data but not with them, and agreed to send it, along with monthly attendance and monthly referral counts
- Staff said this fall's benchmark used a different tool than last year's, so January's NWEA results will be the first real look at growth
- A member relayed a point made at an earlier meeting that attendance work has to reach classrooms, not just the building, and staff said they plan to spend part of each attendance meeting on tardies
- On restorative practices, staff described Mr. Walker running morning circles in one classroom five days a week, then three, now one, with referrals in that class going down
- Asked what the root cause was, administrators said turnover in central administration left them without older data, and pointed to COVID, the shift of state tests from paper to computer, and self-reported demographic data; a member added that the district was also targeted in 2011 and 2012
- Junior high attendance rose about 8% last year, and staff said they believed September and October were above 90%, while noting they did not have the figures in front of them
- About 16 eighth graders opted out of the math and ELA state tests last year, which staff described as a strong result after a push on participation
- A member asked whether athletic tutoring still exists and whether general tutoring could be offered; staff said they were not aware of athletic tutoring this year and would find out
"This Is the Crisis": The Interim Superintendent's Chart
Dr. Bailey drew the tier pyramid as it is supposed to look, then drew the district's, and told the board the gap between them is a crisis.
Key points
- He said 85% of students should be proficient just by going to class, and that right now 30% are
- He said a score of one means being in the bottom 10% of schools in New York State, and that the aim is simply to move off that floor
- He said the biggest gains come from the students who are close: almost proficient, almost not chronically absent, almost not in trouble, and that moving them builds momentum
- He noted the district is over 66% poverty rate and said poverty is directly linked to academic outcomes, while adding that the district has capable staff and resources
- He said the same story will run through the elementary and high school presentations, and that academic data will be shared with the board three times a year
- A board member said "crisis" is a word nobody here has used in a long time, and said the board should be comfortable with the truth about what students need
- He tied it to graduation, saying students who do not graduate are deprived of income and of choices over a lifetime
Superintendent Search: HYA Walks Through Its Process
Dr. Kawita Adams of HYA, selected by the board the week before, introduced herself and described how the search would run.
Key points
- She described herself as a 37-year educator, twice retired, and said she is not currently working on another superintendent search, so her attention would be on Hudson
- The process runs in four stages: engage, recruit, select and transition, starting with a planning meeting, individual meetings with each board member, focus groups and a community survey
- Focus group and survey results feed a leadership profile, which drives who the firm recruits; she said some districts also hold a student forum
- She said HYA has a 94% rate of superintendents completing their first contract, and that the 93, 90 and 88 on one slide are comparison percentages for other firms
- The board decides how wide to cast the net and whether to run an open or closed search; she said a closed search typically draws a larger candidate pool because sitting superintendents can apply confidentially, and that finalists become public either way
- The firm also helps build a public dashboard of district priorities and progress, and runs a transition period after the hire
- She described work with the district about two years ago on school improvement plans, saying each school wrote its own plan first and the district plan was built from the common threads, and that RULER was agreed to run across all three schools
- Asked about location, she said she came to the region from Las Vegas, contrasting Clark County's 327,000 students with a district of 10,000, and said candidates do move
- A board member said Dr. Adams's familiarity with the Capital area talent pool and with Hudson itself was what made her a strong fit
Dr. Adams said the firm has over 130 associates. Later in the meeting the board president said, attributing it to her, that the firm has over a thousand associates. Both figures are in the transcript and they do not match.
Committee Reports and the President's Update on the Search
Committee chairs reported in, and the board president covered the November 13 referendum and how the board picked its search firm.
Key points
- The audit committee met November 13, where Scott Puser, the district's external auditor, presented results of the 2024-25 audit and recommendations for improvement; he is tentatively set to present to the full board December 16
- The facilities committee meeting scheduled that day was canceled because of staff vacations, and the committee meets next on December 16
- The policy committee began two large pieces of work: a policy covering booster clubs and PTOs, with a draft due at the next board meeting, and a process for revising the code of conduct through a subcommittee including community members, administrators and teaching staff
- The finance committee holds its inaugural meeting December 1
- The president reported that the special meeting and referendum vote were held Thursday, November 13, thanked voters, and said the district can move forward with the Penrose Group toward a new life for JLE
- The board met with three search consultants the week before and selected Dr. Adams; the next steps are finalizing the agreement with HYA and holding a special board workshop to plan the process and timeline
- The president said the board has worked with HYA before but that Dr. Adams was not part of that earlier search, and that community engagement is meant to be a significant part of this one
- Michael Zibella and Dr. Bailey attended a New York State School Boards Association conference in New York City; he described another district's ask-the-superintendent feature with a 48 hour response guarantee, and a mentor-paired sports program for students with disabilities, noting Columbia County has an adaptive sports association
Executive Session and the Personnel Agenda
The board went into an early executive session on employment history, came back at 7:46 p.m., and approved the personnel agenda.
Key points
- The board moved and seconded entering executive session at 7:29 p.m. to discuss the employment history of a particular person or persons
- The board voted to exit executive session at 7:46 p.m.
- After returning, the board approved personnel agenda items A 1 through 6 and B 1 through 12 with no questions or comments
The captions jump from 95:05 to 111:40, the length of the executive session. Executive sessions are closed, so nothing said there is in the public record, and the transcript carries no text for that stretch.
Public Comment: Laura Bender on the Search and the Code of Conduct
One speaker signed up for the first public forum, and used her three minutes on the superintendent search and the code of conduct rewrite.
Key points
- The president noted each speaker gets three minutes and that comments about staff or students cannot be entertained
- Laura Bender thanked the board for explaining how this HYA search differs from the last one, saying people who saw the agenda had been worried and that the explanation settled some of it
- She thanked Mr. Zibella for pointing out that the district is one of six districts nearby currently searching for a superintendent, and asked whether there is a timeline; the answer from the board was that it is trying to have someone in place by July 1, described as ambitious
- She asked that stakeholder groups stay involved past the initial round of defining what the district wants in a superintendent, saying staff know the culture of the buildings and the community
- On the code of conduct, she recalled that at the end of 2019 the board asked the high school student council to review a proposed code and that the work stopped when COVID closed schools in 2020, and suggested involving students again
- Later in the meeting, the clerk reported that nobody had signed up for the second public forum
Superintendent's Report: Telling the Story, a Police Rifle Proposal, a New Position
Dr. Bailey's report ran from communications to a police request to store a rifle in school buildings to the reasoning behind a new special education position.
Key points
- He said the glaring missing piece is that students, staff and families do not know what the district is working on or how it is doing, and that goals and data should be on every building TV, the website, the Facebook page and family communications
- The Hudson City Police Department has proposed storing a rifle in the buildings, which he described as part of a statewide initiative with safety guard rails, and he asked whether the board would hear a presentation in December or January
- Members said they were willing to hear it out; one said guns have no place in a school and that the proposal makes her uncomfortable but that she would listen
- Members noted there is one school resource officer, Officer Ralph, covering all three buildings, and that the district used to also have a sheriff's deputy
- On the new secondary special education teaching position, he said the state sets a limit on the age span within a classroom, which he believed is 36 months, and that the director of student services found students in a large combined class who are not being served well
- He argued that boards should formally create and abolish positions rather than leaving vacancies to linger, so the budget reflects the real staffing picture, and that appointments with a known end date should say so
- A member asked for a districtwide count of unfilled positions including aides, teaching assistants, substitutes and clerical staff; he said this year has to serve as the baseline because grant money and general fund money have been intermingled and are hard to untangle
- The new communication advisory committee drew 11 volunteers, seven staff members and four parents, with four major meetings planned, held virtually from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m.
- The district's communications person from BOCES had her last day the previous day after taking a state job; her BOCES supervisor will cover in the short term
Three Contracts Pulled From the Consent Agenda
The board pulled three items for discussion, approved the rest of the consent agenda, and added a treasurer appointment it realized had expired.
Key points
- Items C, D and J were pulled; the board approved consent agenda items A, B, E through I, and K through U
- Item C is a memorandum of agreement with BRRI Consultancy to audit the district's 21st Century Community Learning Centers after school grant, required by state law, at about $10,000, plus a stipend for a clerical staff member doing data entry, which staff said brings the total to only $20,000
- Staff said earlier firms doing this work cost over $80,000, and that the district has used this consultancy since 2003; the grant itself was described as worth millions, with one speaker offering 1.9 as a rough figure
- Item C was approved, and a member asked afterward whether everybody had approved it and was told yes
- Item D is a treasurer services agreement with Management Advisory Group, which is acting as district treasurer for $4,000 a month; the president said the district is getting its reports on time and saving money
- The board realized the treasurer's appointment had run through November 30, so it added item V to appoint Amy Skiff as district treasurer through June 30, 2026
- Item J, 2025-26 transportation contract extensions, was taken up after Matthew Mackerer recused himself citing a conflict of interest
On item D the transcript records a count reaching five in favor and then an exchange about who was opposed and who was abstaining, including a first name that matches nobody at roll call. On the treasurer appointment it records two members as opposed but no clear tally. The transcript does not support a precise vote count on either item.
Draft Board Goals Go Back for Revision
The president walked through a draft of four board goals for the year. Three drew little comment; the second one sent the board into a long conversation about where its job ends and the superintendent's begins.
Key points
- The board did not adopt the goals; it agreed to clean up goal two, take the feedback, and circulate a new draft for the next meeting
- Goal one, leadership and governance, includes completing the search and appointment of a permanent superintendent by July 1, 2026, a board member communication handbook and training workshop, a board activity calendar, a mid-year review in January 2026, and an annual self-evaluation by June 1, 2026
- Goal two, student achievement and well-being, includes quarterly review of academic and climate data; members questioned whether reviewing curriculum maps is the board's role rather than the superintendent's
- Dr. Bailey agreed the board's lane is asking whether the work is being done and seeing a report on it, and said the cabinet has been considering returning the director of teaching and learning title to director of curriculum and instruction, which he will bring to the board in December
- Asked about the goal's reference to an annual wellness plan, staff said there is a wellness committee and a policy in progress but no written plan, and that one could be created
- Members debated the goal of recognizing students and staff at every monthly meeting, suggesting quarterly instead, rotating among the three schools, or tying recognition to each school's own benchmarks on the night that school presents
- Goal three, community engagement, asks each member to attend at least one school or community event a month, to investigate digital public comment, to invite three new local businesses, nonprofits or higher education institutions to present, and to hold at least one board meeting off district property
- A member said Teresa Hayes presented about the booster club at the policy meeting and that an email about booster events is coming so members can show up
- Goal four, policy planning and accountability, includes partnering with the state school boards association on a full policy manual update as part of a three-year review cycle and broadening policy committee membership to staff, families and community members
Records Policies Adopted, Bathrooms Raised, and the Calendar Ahead
The board adopted a bundle of records policies, a member raised soap and locked bathrooms, and the meeting closed with the calendar and a second executive session.
Key points
- The board adopted policies 1120, 1120R, 1120E1, 1120E2 and 1120E, described as one bundle of student and district records work, with 1120R carrying language changes suggested at the last meeting
- Policies that had a first read last month were pulled from second read because the attorney sent wording updates; they move to the next agenda
- A member raised bathrooms: missing soap at the high school, and locked restrooms and graffiti at the junior high, and asked for a general review; the soap issue was sent to the facilities committee
- Staff said a resident who spoke at an earlier meeting was directed to Tyler Kitzman, the district safety officer, and that the safety committee discussed chaperone coverage and training around the event entrance restrooms between the junior high and high school
- A member said they are glad the bathrooms are part of the construction project in the referendum
- Members said they were pleased with turnout and support for the General Edwards School referendum; the Penrose Group expects to hear from the state about funding in early spring, and if funding comes the sale would move toward closing, otherwise the group would apply in the next round
- The district still owns the building, still insures it, and members said a different buyer would have to start the same multi-year funding process over
- The president read out the December and January meeting calendar and asked members to watch for an email about December availability for a special superintendent search workshop
- The board voted to enter a second executive session at 8:43 p.m. on the employment history of a person, with no further business scheduled afterward
The transcript ends as the board enters its second executive session at 8:43 p.m. The president said there would be no further business after it, so nothing appears to be missing from the public portion, but the closed discussion itself is not in the record.
About this page
FUTURE HUDSON is an experiment in civic engagement: every public meeting of the City of Hudson since January 2026, transcribed and made readable, so any resident can follow what the city is deciding without attending every meeting. This page covers one meeting; see the full archive.
How it was made
The meeting video was transcribed automatically; the transcript was then organized into sections and summarized. The raw transcript is above, every claim can be checked against it.
What to be skeptical of
The transcript is automated and contains speech-recognition errors; names and numbers may be wrong. This page has not been reviewed by a human. Nothing here is an official record, the school district's official minutes are authoritative.
About coverage of this body
Board of Education meetings are livestreamed by the Hudson City School District to its own YouTube channel. The school district is a separate government from the City of Hudson. If a meeting is missing from the archive, the recording was likely not posted. See the archive index for the full coverage note.