Board of Ed Congratulates Regeneron Semi-Finalist, Names District Architects and Offers Update on Puberty Education

The first Board of Education Meeting of 2025, was short and sweet but still managed to cover a lot of important topics. Some of the matters discussed included a congratulations to an SHS Regeneron Science semifinalist, an overview of the District’s budget planning process, appointments of an architect and engineering firm, and construction management firm, and the Board’s decision on the NYSED Regionalization Initiative, just to name a few.

Regeneron Science Talent Search Semifinalist

After a warm welcome from BOE president Suzie Hahn, Superintendent Drew Patrick kicked off the meeting by recognizing Scarsdale High School Kelly Deng, who was recently named a semifinalist in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Deng is one of 17 semifinalists in Westchester and only 300 across the nation. According to the Society for Science “The Regeneron Science Talent Search provides students a national stage to present original research and celebrates the hard work and novel discoveries of young scientists who are bringing a fresh perspective to significant global challenges. The 300 scholars and their schools will be awarded $2,000 each.”

The website also makes clear that, “Scholars were chosen based on their outstanding research, leadership skills, community involvement, commitment to academics, creativity in asking scientific questions and exceptional promise as STEM leaders demonstrated through the submission of their original, independent research projects, essays and recommendations.”

Deng was recognized for her project on Macrophage-Stimulating Protein/RON (MST1R) Sensitivity Underlies the Pathogenesis of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder: Potential for Novel Pharmacological Interventions via Transcriptomic Imputation. Patrick called Deng’s work “fantastic” and offered a heartfelt congratulations.

Budget Development Process

With budget season right around the corner, Patrick also made note of the very detailed budget development process and highlighted some upcoming meetings. These budget meetings actually started on November 18th when the BOE invited community members to provide input on 2025/26 budget priorities. Other meeting dates include:

The Board will hold a Business Meeting on January 27th to discuss the initial budget development and staffing recommendations for the 25/26 school year. Following this meeting, the BOE will hold Budget Study Session number one, where they will discuss current year end projections and the various budget drivers and budget components such as debt service and transportation.

Then on March 3rd, at Budget Study Session Two, an updated Draft Budget Plan will be provided and will focus on budget components and instruction, special education, facilities, safety and security and technology.

A week after that on March 10, the BOE will host Budget Study Session Three, where they will provide an update based on the prior meeting and then a full budget presentation.

At the business meeting on March 24th, there will be another Public Forum for comments related to the budget and a review of the draft budget plan.

Then the Board will hold a Business Meeting on April 7th, where Patrick expects that the BOE will act to adopt a budget. Patrick explained, “That timing is important because there's a number of benchmarks that follow after that, that are statutorily required prior to the ultimate budget vote.” Patrick went on to say, “We submit a tax report card to the State Education Department and after that the budget is adopted by the Board.”

After they distribute a Budget Insight mailer that goes to every home in the community, the Board will hold a Statutory Budget Hearing that will take place on May 12th.

The budget vote, which will occur on Tuesday, May 20th in the middle school gymnasium.

Puberty Education

During the meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Edgar McIntosh gave a brief Cabinet Update outlining some of the recent work he and Director of Physical Education and Health, Ray Pappalardi have done with the District’s fifth grade puberty education. In an effort to provide the community with full transparency of what can be a sensitive subject for some, McIntosh explained that he and Papplardi hosted a webinar on Tuesday, January 7th for kindergarten through fifth grade parents and guardians.

About the webinar McIntosh said, “The purpose was to explain recent and upcoming changes to the elementary health program. Ray described his work gathering information, aligning standards and collecting resources. This includes expanding lessons required by Aaron's Law and personal body safety.”

McIntosh went on to say that on the webinar, “I reviewed the updates to the fifth grade puberty education, incorporating recent student questions and educator feedback. Participants could submit questions during the webinar and it was recorded for those unable to attend live and the recording will be available in the coming days.”

The following morning, McIntosh and Pappalardi hosted a well attended elementary coffee session, for families with current fifth graders, allowing them to review curriculum materials and ask follow up questions in person. McIntosh indicated that he plans “to make this an annual event to reflect the ongoing refinement to our resources, and regarding puberty education.”

Before moving on, McIntosh took the opportunity to highlight a PTC presentation featuring Vanessa Kroll Bennett, who is the coauthor of This Is So Awkward, Modern Puberty Explained and cohost of the podcast by the same name. The presentation will take place at the middle school auditorium on Wednesday, January 22nd at 7 PM. An invitation from the PTC reads:

"The PTC is excited to invite you to a special event featuring Vanessa Kroll Bennett, a renowned writer, speaker, and advocate for supporting children and teens as they navigate life’s challenges. Vanessa brings her expertise in parenting, education, and adolescent development to provide practical, compassionate strategies for fostering resilience, connection, and growth in our kids. She will cover modern realities for today's adolescents, managing kids' mood swings, understanding tween and teen brain development, and framing burgeoning identity formation.

Whether you're navigating the ups and downs of parenting or looking for tools to strengthen family dynamics, this lecture promises to be insightful and empowering. Check out her podcast This Is So Awkward to get a preview of her approachable and entertaining approach."

District Architects

An update from Andrew Lennon, Assistant Superintendent for Business, included information on his recommendation that the BOE award the RFP for BBS Architects and Arris Contracting Company allowing the District to move forward with their capital planning process. After an exhaustive search and thorough due diligence, in a report Lennon said of his decision to recommend BBS Architects:

“In the end, two primary factors influenced our recommendation. First, BBS convincingly demonstrated to us that they center their work on the activity of learning in a public school environment in NYS, and they conceptualize those ideas in a process coordinated with the practical needs of schools and NYSED. Second, they have successfully demonstrated what it takes to shepherd a large number of diverse projects such as the renovation and new construction of Greenacres Elementary School, as well as more mundane infrastructure improvements that are important though less visible. Furthermore, they have done this by successfully navigating both community engagement and regulatory processes, and delivered projects on time and within budget.”

No to Regionalization Initiative

Another highlight of the meeting was Dr. Patrick’s announcement that he and the BOE have decided not to participate in the New York State Education Department's (NYSED) Regionalization initiative. At a BOE meeting on December 16th Patrick related:

“Earlier this year, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) launched an initiative known as Regionalization. According to NYSED, "The Regionalization Initiative is a collaborative regional planning approach for local districts to communicate what they need in order to ensure equitable educational opportunities for all students, leveraging the state’s existing capabilities, talent, and infrastructure. By engaging in regional conversations, schools and districts may identify, explore, and choose whether to pursue a variety of possible solutions to the academic and operational challenges they face by tapping into the full span of resources that already exist in their larger region." The initiative outlines five steps Districts are to follow over a period of two years to develop a plan that identifies shared "activities" between school districts within a BOCES region that support successful outcomes for students. The regulations require this process to occur every 10 years.”

The NYSED received a lot of pushback from many districts across the state prompting them to share a November 26, 2024 letter to stakeholders, where the “Commission of Education addressed concerns about mandatory participation in Regionalization by indicating that a new provision (Section 1242.8) will be added, which allows districts in consultation with their school boards, to elect not to participate in the regionalization planning process by submitting written notification by January 15, 2025.”

After noting that several neighboring districts have already opted out of participating, several boards members expressed their concerns with the unknown and the lack of clarity with the initiative with one member saying, “I don't think it's clear enough to be compelling and as we discussed in December, there are many ways that as a district we already liaison, collaborate and are open to partnerships. Also concerning, I think that we have a lot of complex, compelling work at the local level that already requires a lot of our time and attention as it is.

Demonstrating further support of opting out, Ron Schulhof added, “I've thought about this a lot since our last discussion and I more firmly believe we should opt out. I think for three reasons, one is the amount of work we have here at the local level both for our students and our community. Two, the uncertainty of the initiative. And three, as I think about some of the liaison assignments, we [already] have collaboration at the board level, at the administrative level of the superintendent level, and at the building level. I can't speak for the rest of the state, but it seems like Westchester and Putnam are doing it pretty well.”

Schulhof believes that our region is already collaborating so well that he suggested when telling the state that the District is opting out, he “would even love for us to go a little further and say back to NYSED, this is why we are opting out and maybe our region can be a model if there's a sense that this isn't happening in other parts of the state.

More information about the Regionalization initiative and all of the other meeting highlights, can be found in the Board of Education’s Board Docs here.