Denise Harrington-Cohen

please. Okay. I'd like to introduce Terry Goure. He is the senior business consultant with Honeywell. Terry was involved in our last very successful EPC contract, and we're pleased to have him here tonight to share his perspective on our potential pl…

No. Not yet. We had reached out to other districts to gain their experience with the harbor works and necessary implements prior to installation. Installation. But, no. We this is we just finished the engineering piece and the planning piece this wee…

Established their assessments and equalization rate by the Department of Taxation and Finance. So now that we've received those numbers from each of the jurisdictions, it's the Board's responsibility to issue this. And that basically gives the green …

I will just add also that all of our kindergarten classrooms have an aid in each class. That is not the case in the office space. So

this is a grant that we applied for to provide us with the multi factor authentication tokens for staff. The staff have the option of using tokens to do multifactor verification, or they can use an app on their phone. So this just gives teachers and …

It did. It's a it's a little fob. Yep. Okay. It generates a code. Mhmm. Great.

So a part of our end of year fiscal cycle is the board approving reserve allocations for the end of year. So tonight, that is occurring. So this is a preliminary report just to show how that connects with our overall fiscal strategy. We'll begin by a…

Thank you, Neal. Okay. So this is basically a visual representation of fund balance. We have the big and I'm gonna go back to this. So just stay with me here. I do not take any responsibility for the names of these things because they are probably th…

The first column are all of our reserves. We're not gonna get too deep into that. You can look at them. Second column represents our beginning year balance. This was a beginning year balance, $18.03 $32.02 67. Second column rep and I'm not going too …

So, on the agenda this evening, we have we have the award for which is the uh uh equipment supplier that we've used and in creating the supplemental area of the playground. We're not replacing anything. We're adding additional equipment. Uh when we r…

>> Um and I just wanted to report now since we're in this um compendium. So, as Neal indicated, there was a ruling by the Appellate Division kind of banning the use of piggybacking and uh cooperative contracts. So, another pathway other than >> coope…

>> We've already um we've already pivoted with regard to the HVAC work. We issued the bid and we opened it shortly. But uh the work at CET on the lighting, uh which we were going to go to Musco. We did our Spencer Field lighting through the cooperati…

Work Session and Ceremony for Tenure, Retirement, 20 years of service, and National Board Certification recipients (Tuesday, May 19, 2026) Generated by Denise Bisaccia on Wednesday, May 27, 2026 Members present Anamika Bhatnagar, Sarah Carrier, Ne…

I will now go to item 4.1 and open the public budget hearing. I want to just make a note for the public. Our assistant superintendent in charge of business, Denise Harrington-Cohen, is dealing with a private matter tonight and unable to be here. She …

So at the last meeting, I think I had mentioned that LHEC had submitted a petition to the Public Service Commission. And for to do this informational proceeding to examine electric utility readiness to support the school bus fleet electrification. So…

Enhancements to Support Our Vision New Video to be launched 4/22 Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen reported on the following: 2026-27 Budget Presentation Schedule summary Budget Drivers NYS Budget (delayed) Anticipat…

So as negotiations continue in Albany, we are now on our fifth budget extender with another one probably to follow tomorrow. Some of the items on the table are looking to pause the bus electrification incentive mandate. Also some insurance, some non …

Yes, thank you. Our specialized programs are at a ratio in which there is about 40% of our students and that other 60%, those are big hits seats. These are quality programs that are both therapeutic and specialized in nature, so it is a program that …

Then we had transportation which is up 2.16% and then employee benefits, debt service and fringe benefits. So that accounts for about 29 or 30% of our budget. This is another look. So this is the same budget but with a different look. This looks at i…

If you have additional feedback to give us, so most of what we discussed in our meeting, we did we did have our meeting finally this week after being rescheduled, I think twice for so we met on the 4th. and what you will see in later on in tonight's …

The quilt also highlights the work of our transportation department and the district in general in bringing electric buses as well as believe it or not it also features our commitment to heat pumps. These are all illustrated on this quilt in quilt st…

Sure. So, this is am I on? Yes. Okay. this would enable school districts to establish a health insurance reserve fund to cover the rising costs of health insurance, district paid health insurance. Currently, self-insured districts in the region have …

Athletic Director Christine Drago will be monitoring this and they also discussed ways to keep athletes safe, healthy, and active. 2. Work Session Presentation: 2.1 2026-2027 Budget Presentation Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harring…

So, expense based aids. there have been no changes to those formulas which is great. They are based on they're expenditure driven though our aid ratios will change from year to year. there's no change to that formula. universal free meals will be fun…

We'll have our board event budget adoptions and property tax report card submission followed by the board event public budget hearing on May 7th which is a requirement by law followed by our budget annual vote on May 19th at the high school. So state…

So the tax based growth factor which I'll talk a little bit about more later measures quantity change growth and development within the community if there are enhancements to properties if there are new developments etc. The problem is is that there'…

Yes. so the purp the purpose of tonight's hearing is to present two projects related to repairs in our building. the hearing is required in order for the board to authorize it an expenditure payment out of the reserve. the repair reserve is currently…

Okay. So, the business office conducted a study of our natural gas usage. I would credit to Kelly Lent who did a lot of the the heavy lifting on that. So, with regard to natural gas there, to put it simply, there's supply cost and there's a delivery …

thank you so as we shared with the community last week we have officially begun installing the stop arm cameras we're about a third of the way through we've got 16 buses as are equipped with full exterior stoparm cameras as each bus is completed, tha…

Good evening. Thank you, Greg. The things always do Yes, it It's on. Yeah, okay. So, good evening. So, tonight we're going to review the give you a budget development update for 2026-27. We'll review the current timeline, preliminary revenue and expe…

The tax base growth factor, which was reviewed this morning, so we have rates from December, and that rate remains the same, which is 1.004%. So, that's what we're using in our allowable tax levy projections. That number can change as late as March o…

In the state and now we're going to take a look and see the effectiveness of what we've done so far and make some decisions about how we want to proceed at this point. and then again assessing our current year budget performance and preparing our fun…

Action: 4.1 Donation - CHEF - Learning How to Ride a Bike RESOLVED: That the Board of Education gratefully accepts a grant from the Croton-Harmon Education Foundation (CHEF) in the amount of $5,478.00 for the purchase of bicycles for Kindergarten an…

On the question:  Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen noted that item 9.9 (Change Order) represents work not completed by original contractor, now awarded to 2nd contractor. Final Resolution: Motion Carried Yes: Anamika Bh…

Discussion: 2.1 Croton Free Library Budget Presentation Jesse Bourdon, Director of the Croton Free Library, presented the library's proposed budget. 3. Public Budget Hearing Action, Discussion: 3.1 Open Public Budget Hearing The public budget hea…

Communication: Communication Committee Chair Sarah Carrier reported that the committee has not met since last meeting.  The next meeting is to be scheduled.  She thanked Assistant Superintendent Denise Harrington-Cohen, Technology/Communications Spec…

Advocacy: Advocacy Committee Chair Theo Oshiro reported that the committee met 3/17, discussed state budgets from senate & assembly and cell phone policy updates. He asked about meetings with legislators, in that WPSBA typically puts together these m…

Motion by Sarah Carrier, second by Anamika Bhatnagar. On the question:  Board President Ana Teague thanked Asst. Supt. for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen for her explanation of change orders provided to the Board prior to the meeting. Final Resol…

Denise Harrington-Cohen, Assistant Superintendent for Business, introduced the 2025-2026 Budget presentation Superintendent Stephen Walker presented the budget as it relates to the Vision Map. Kelly Lent, Assistant Business Manager, presented the 2…

Board President Ana Teague registered for the 3/14 SuperEval workshop, hosted by NYSSBA, and gave a shout out to winter sports athletes celebrating senior games. Discussion: 8.4 Items Needed for Next Board of Education Meeting Assistant Superintend…

Report: 2.4 2025-2026 Budget Presentation (Revenues) Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen gave an update on the budget development focusing on Revenues: Governor’s Executive Budget & State Aid Proposal State Aid Comparison…

Concerns are not minimized, dealing with bias of any form will continue to be discussed. Discussion: 6.3 Polling of the Board Board Trustee Sarah Carrier spoke about upcoming LHEC & WestPut SBA meetings on regionalization and the governors' budget.…

RESOLVED: That the Board of Education hereby approves the proposed settlement for the Tax Certiorari of Matter of South Riverside Croton, LLC v. Assessor of the Town of Cortlandt, et al. (Sup. Ct. West. Co. Index No. 65153/22) as presented. Motion b…

Assistant Superintendent for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen gave a 2025-26 budget development update including: Budget Timeline Revenue Assumptions Expenditure Assumptions Next Steps Budget Presentation Schedule Board Trustee Neal Haber a…

Assistant Superintendent Denise Harrington-Cohen added that the 30-day comment period was opened.  No questions were received. Action: 3.3 Adjourn the Public Hearing on the District Wide Safety & Emergency Management Plan Public hearing adjourned a…

Student Trustee Ex-Officio Isabelle McLoughlin asked if the clubs raise money themselves or does the school finance? Asst. Supt. for Business Denise Harrington-Cohen responded that clubs raise money.  Board Trustee Josh Diamond added that stipends a…