Board President Ana Teague devoted most of her president's report Thursday to the fallout from the Feb. 12 appointment of Dr. Laura Dubak as assistant superintendent — a lengthy discourse on governance, an apology, and the disclosure that the district's lawyers reviewed the disputed hire after the fact. The promotion of Dubak, the high school principal, had drawn Trustee Allison Samuels' objection that the district's hiring procedures weren't followed. At the earlier meeting Samuels read from Policy 9230, the recruiting-and-hiring policy, said she did not feel Superintendent Stephen Walker had adhered to it, and abstained as the appointment carried, 4-0. Dubak was appointed at $238,000 on a three-year probationary term beginning July 1. Trustees sign a code of ethics embracing a "no surprises" norm — guidance Teague said appears in the New York State School Boards Association's handbook — and she argued it was broken when Policy 9230 surfaced without warning. "Had I been aware that policy 9230 would be raised at the meeting, I would have taken the opportunity to prepare to discuss that policy and I would have asked my colleagues to do the same," Read 5:00▶ Teague said. Every trustee met with Dubak individually, and she presented a 13-point transition plan in meetings that ran for hours. The aims, Teague said: overlap with the outgoing assistant superintendent, institutional knowledge, avoiding a costly search, and keeping Dubak in the district. After the Feb. 12 meeting, she said, the district asked legal counsel whether Policy 9230 requires interviewing multiple candidates. Counsel — the firm Keane & Beane, according to the minutes — concluded that hiring an internal candidate without a wider search does not violate the policy, an opinion Teague said could have been shared earlier had the concern been raised in advance. "Having now done so, it is my opinion that under policy 9230, the district is not required to conduct an external search, but rather the district is charged to implement and maintain a high quality recruiting and hiring program to attract, secure, and retain the best qualified staff," Read 7:10▶ Teague said. The district has long mixed internal promotions with external hires, she noted, including an external principal search now underway. Still, she said, "what should have been a celebratory moment of appointing a devoted longtime building leader to a district level position was overshadowed," Read 9:20▶ and "I want to apologize to Dr. Laura Dubak who was here with her young family for not having advanced notice." Read 10:40▶

Three seats on the May ballot

Three trustee seats will be filled in the May 19 school board election and budget vote, and all three incumbents whose seats are up said they will run again: Vice President Anamika Bhatnagar, completing her first term; Trustee Sarah Carrier, at nine years on the board; and Trustee Neal Haber, who will mark his 28th year on the board in May.

A budget year of 'not yet'

Then came the first full look at the 2026-27 budget. Walker called this "by far the most challenging" Read 22:40▶ of five budget cycles in the district — a year with "so many competing, well-intended, wonderful ideas, and you can't say yes to all of them. And in fact, in years like this, you have to say not yet to almost all of them." Read 23:40▶ Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen and Assistant Business Manager Kelly Lent outlined general support, benefits and debt service. The employee retirement system contribution rate rises from 16.5% to 17.6%, Lent said; the teachers' retirement rate falls, though that line still grows with salaries; and health premiums are estimated up 5% through a self-insured cooperative. The wildcard is insurance: with the capital project complete, "we're going to be bringing on approximately between 35 and $40 million of additional equipment and buildings and grounds enhancements," Read 30:15▶ Harrington-Cohen said — an estimate that could rise.

Electric buses: a pause

Transportation Supervisor Joseph Bernardi's presentation became a candid post-mortem on one of the state's most electrified school fleets. The transportation budget rises 2.83%; next year's vehicle buys — a 66-passenger diesel bus, a 30-passenger bus and a hybrid SUV, roughly $400,000, from fund balance rather than taxes — include no electric bus. Fast chargers at the garage can't run at full speed because of limited electrical capacity, and cold-weather heating drains batteries faster than they recharge. The district's first electric bus, delivered in October 2022, has been off the road about 380 days in four years; the rest of the electric fleet has logged roughly 600 days down. Bernardi read one driver's email aloud: "So, I just wanted to let you know, when I got in the bus this morning, it was absolutely freezing." Read 66:35▶ Meanwhile the district keeps paying to keep aging diesels on the road: "we're spending an exorbitant amount of money on older vehicles that are more reliable. we're talking about 11, 12, 13 year old vehicles that should have been replaced in the past, that we haven't replaced. And we're just putting more and more money into these vehicles," Read 56:40▶ Bernardi said. Bernardi's bottom line on ownership costs: "the total cost of ownership for EV buses at this point is negative." Read 59:00▶ Harrington-Cohen was blunt about the change of course — "we're going to just pause for a moment with regard to purchasing another electric vehicle because of our capacity requirements" Read 48:50▶ — and noted a state zero-emission waiver is expected to push the electric-purchase deadline out two years, to 2029-30.

Facilities: solar, heat pumps and snow

Director of Facilities Brad Kennedy proposed a 2.4% operations increase for nine buildings on three campuses — nearly 400,000 square feet on 50 acres. From the two big storms alone, crews cleared nearly a million cubic feet of snow: "if you covered Spencer football field with all that snow evenly, it would be covering the entire field 20 ft tall," Read 96:40▶ Kennedy said. The district's 350-kilowatt rooftop solar arrays could roughly double on newly replaced roofs, and administrators want a new energy performance contract with Honeywell while federal incentives last. "The viability of this project is almost solely contingent on those incentives, those federal incentives that are running out in the next year or so," Read 119:50▶ Harrington-Cohen said. A final construction phase this summer adds air conditioning to 10 or 11 Pierre Van Cortlandt classrooms — completing the hottest, fourth floor — plus tennis-court lighting at Carrie E. Tompkins and new playground equipment. The board approved a seventh task order with KG+D for that work; Haber said the capital project — $45 million, Kennedy noted — has come in on time and within budget, with the additions funded by its savings.

Policies, scholarships and seats for 4-year-olds

The board adopted two policies on second reading. One rewrites the ex-officio student trustee rule: officers of the Student Faculty Congress and class presidents are excluded from also serving as student trustee, and junior and senior trustees may now attend simultaneously. The board's student ex-officio trustee said the senior class supports the change and welcomed the clearer selection process; Teague urged that the policy go back to the student congress quickly so the next trustees are chosen on time. The other policy extends the bar on staff soliciting support for candidates or causes to times when they are performing district duties, and drops the words "as citizens." The board accepted the resignation of high school science teacher Raymond Ferrara, effective Feb. 24. "He is a very valued educator in the science department. I'm sorry he won't be returning, but I certainly understand why," Read 160:58▶ said Haber, whose son took Ferrara's AP environmental science course. A new Mr. Casey Memorial Scholarship honors a beloved Pierre Van Cortlandt social studies teacher who retired a few years ago and has since died. A $5,000 donation from the David Edward Cohen Scholarship Foundation establishes an award in memory of David Cohen, a 2007 graduate and son of longtime district employee Judy Cohen, who Haber said died of bladder cancer at 34 or 35. A $54 gift went to the Billy Shea Athletic Scholarship, and the proposed Laura Martinez Legacy Scholarship was tabled until March 12 after Bhatnagar flagged that a senior can't yet be a "first or second generation college student" — wording trustees agreed should say the recipient has "committed to attend college." The board also chose next year's Universal Pre-K providers: Childrenspace North and A Rising Star Children's Center, which tied in scoring, for the district's 64 seats — about 54 at Childrenspace North and 10 at A Rising Star, pending the state budget. Mayyasi caught a typo in the resolution: "Do we need to amend the resolution because it's saying child space north?" Read 164:30▶ Bhatnagar also reported that the district and village are exploring a return to composting, a program that lapsed during COVID. "There's definitely been interest on both the part of the village community members and the district and students as well to bring back some of our sustainability efforts," Read 17:35▶ she said, with details expected in coming weeks. The budget presentation continues March 12, with a public hearing May 7 and the budget vote — alongside those three trustee seats — on May 19.