POSTS
March 25, 2025 Board of Education Budget Meeting
The Boquet Valley CSD Board of Education will hold a special budget meeting on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 6:00 PM in Room 106 at the Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown for the purpose of hosting 2025-2026 budget workshop #3 and any other business that may come before the Board. When the full meeting agenda is available, it will be shared on the Agendas and Minutes page.
The meeting is open to the public. Community members and interested others are welcome to attend.
Committee expected to finalize recommendation
At its next meeting, the Facilities Planning Committee plans to finalize a recommendation to the Board of Education on how to move forward with the district’s buildings.
The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 27, at Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown.
At the committee’s February meeting, members looked at cost estimates for updates to Mountain View Campus, which would include renovations to bring it up to code and an addition to move all elementary programming to the Elizabethtown campus.
Committee members reviewed estimates for a limited project that would address critical needs in the building condition survey done in the fall, as well as create basic space for elementary programs. This option would raise the tax levy by an estimated 5.7%. They also looked at numbers for a full renovation and addition, which would have an estimated 19.3% impact on the tax levy.
Committee Facilitator Joe Dragone, from Capital Region BOCES, estimated that if the district wants to bring a project to the public for a vote by spring 2026, the committee should bring a recommendation to the board for its meeting on April 10.
Dr. Dragone gave this estimated schedule:
- April 2025: BOE approval of project approach
- June to December 2025: Work through project approval and aid numbers with state Education Department
- January to February 2026: Bond financials finalized
- March 2026: BOE adopts resolution, project referendum
- May 2026: Public votes on the project
Extending the timeline could mean additional costs and a potential for lower state aid.
Also at the March meeting, the committee plans to re-review the space needs for all academic programs. Committee members say they have heard from the community that some think Pre-K through grade 12 can fit into Mountain View Campus as it currently is, without a building addition.
The Facilities Planning Committee was formed in fall 2024 after district residents voted in February 2024 against building a new school to replace both current campuses at a different location. After considering other options for moving forward with the district’s facilities over previous months, the committee has been focused on how to bring all programs to Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown.
While the committee has spent some time discussing new and/or upgraded bus garage and athletic fields, too much is still uncertain about those two areas. Because of that, the committee is likely to leave those areas out of their recommendation so the district can stay on the projected schedule.
For meeting notes and a full meeting recording, go to boquetvalleycsd.org/facilities.
Students spreading positivity
A new movement of positivity is spreading through Boquet Valley CSD’s schools, led by students who want to make an impact on their school community.
The High School Positive School Environment Team, or HSPSET, is a 10-member group of students grades 9 through 12 advised by Assistant Principal of Health and Wellness Kelly Zimmerman.
The team seeks to grow the positivity of the culture within our schools, creating a welcoming and warm environment where everyone feels comfortable and like they belong.
Besides making the day more pleasant for everyone, a positive environment has shown to be connected to data like better attendance and better performance in classes.
PSET Week
HSPSET kicked off its work with a whole week of positive activities at Mountain View Campus.
That Monday, the week started with an assembly led by Tom Bull, a motivational speaker who works with schools to strengthen community and inspire connections. Tom led students through several engaging activities that encouraged them to ditch negativity and connect with classmates.
Each day for the rest of the week, different uplifting actions were encouraged. Students were given a chance to write positive messages one day. PSET members invited their classmates to give out two compliments one day, they gave out stickers on other days, and they planned staff spirit nights for sports games that week.
Throughout the week, students were encouraged to write and submit RUTH Cards. RUTH stands for Respect, Understanding, Trust and Honesty. Students were encouraged to keep an eye out for these traits in their classmates. When they saw someone exhibiting one of the traits, they could fill out a card to recognize them for it. Cards were submitted to several central locations, then they were passed out to recipients the following week.
To put a cherry on top of a fun week, PSET members blew bubbles and cheered Friday afternoon as classmates left the building at the end of the school day.
PSET students spread positivity!
Setting an example
HSPSET visited Lake View Campus at the end of February, spreading positivity and smiles to their younger peers.
PSET members visited elementary classes and led them through some of the exercises that Tom Bull had done with older students at the PSET assembly. They had students write down toxic behaviors they had done or experienced in the past, then had them crumple up the paper and throw it out, symbolizing getting rid of negativity.
The older students also participated in the month’s PBIS assembly.
PSET students encouraged their younger counterparts to throw away negativity.
Future plans
HSPSET will continue to spread positivity throughout the district. They are talking about sharing self-affirmation notes on lockers, and other activities that will encourage their peers to smile and be friendly to one another. Mrs. Zimmerman is helping the students come up with ideas and then carry them out.
Look for this group to share a smile with you soon!
The High School Positive School Environment Team:
- Colba Furman, grade 12
- Otis Wekin, grade 12
- Braden Liberi, grade 12
- Amara Brugman, grade 11
- Olive Stewart, grade 10
- Sadie Burgess, grade 10
- Keir Furman, grade 9
- Marguerite Hall, grade 9
- Olivia Hathaway, grade 9
- Lila Kullman, grade 9
PSET students blew bubbles as LVC students left school at the end of the day.
March 2025 District Newsletter
March 13, 2025 Board of Education Meeting
The Boquet Valley CSD Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM in Room 106 at the Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown.
Agenda items will include the 2025-26 academic calendar, public report on the Code of Conduct policies and protocols, 2025-26 budget discussion, monthly MVC Principal report and any other business that may come before the Board. When the full meeting agenda is available, it will be shared on the Agendas and Minutes page.
The meeting is open to the public. Community members and interested others are invited to attend.
4 school board seats up for election
SCHOOL BOARD PETITIONS
School Board Petitions are available in the District Office
The Boquet Valley Central School District is seeking candidates to fill three (3) three-year term vacancies (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2028) and one (1) unexpired vacancy (May 20, 2025-June 30, 2026) on the Board of Education. The seats are currently held by Tom Broderick, Heather Reynolds, Sue Russell and Evan George.
Candidates seeking a seat on the Board of Education must be a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old, qualified to vote in the school district and able to read and write. They must be residents of the district continuously for one year before the election. They cannot be employed by the board on which they shall serve or live in the same household as a family member who is also a member of the same school board.
Petitions are available in the District Office located at the Mountain View Campus, 7530 Court Street Elizabethtown, New York, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Those who would like to be considered as a candidate for one of the terms must submit a Petition for Nomination to the District Clerk signed by at least 25 qualified voters of the BVCS district. Petitions must be returned to the District Office no later than 4 p.m. on Monday, April 21, 2025.
The Board of Education Annual Meeting, Board Member Election and Budget Vote will be held on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at the Lake View Campus, 25 Sisco Street Westport, New York.
For further information, please contact Jana Atwell, District Clerk at 518-873-6371 or [email protected].
Facilities Committee looks for land
The Facilities Committee is searching for property within the school district that might work for athletic fields and a bus garage.
The property would need to be buildable and a minimum of 20 acres. Anyone who has property that they think might work should send information about it to Superintendent Josh Meyer at [email protected].
The committee is currently looking at options to renovate Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown to include space for elementary school programming. That would move all educational programming to one site, which would consolidate operational costs in the long run. Committee members have reviewed other available properties that could fit a new school building, but none of the sites have been viable options.
They are looking at two options for renovations at MVC, one that is a full upgrade that would bring the building to like-new functionality, and another that would do the bare minimum to bring the building up to code plus add the space needed to bring elementary programs into the building. The committee is leaning toward finding a compromise between the two options to present as a recommendation to the district’s Board of Education.
With moving all educational programs to the Elizabethtown site, the district would still need to find a place for sports fields and a bus garage. The committee is working with real estate professionals to identify potential properties that may work, but committee members also wanted to put out a public call for anyone who might own a space that would be a workable contender.
The committee explored the idea of using the Lake View Campus in Westport as a space for transportation and athletic needs. They found that it would cost too much, since the structures on site would need to be demolished before any fields or transpiration buildings could be installed.
At the committee’s next meeting, members plan to look at cost models, consider potential properties for the sports fields and transportation, look at parking counts at MVC, and check to see if the district has any updates from the state Education Department.
For more information on the committee’s work including meeting notes and recordings, go to boquetvalleycsd.org/facilities.
Click here for our printable meeting update.
Feb. 13, 2025 Board of Education Meeting
The Boquet Valley CSD Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM in the Library at the Lake View Campus in Westport.
Agenda items will include budget development workshop #1, a report on the Governor’s Executive Budget proposal, a status report on the facilities condition using the State-mandated building condition survey data, a winter report on the District’s fleet of school buses and forecasted near-future priorities, a status report on planning for next school year’s priorities for instructional program staffing, monthly LVC Principal report and any other business that may come before the Board. Click for the full agenda.
The meeting is open to the public. Community members and interested others are invited to attend.
LVC Griffins learn about leadership through student council
Elementary students are developing leadership skills, gaining confidence and learning about school processes with the new Student Council at Lake View Campus.
LVC Principal Lee Kyler decided he wanted his students to have a student council this year because he’s a big believer in shared ownership and shared decision making.
He asked teachers to recommend students from their homeroom to join the council. For grades 4-5, homeroom teachers recommended two students, and one student was chosen from each homeroom in grades 2 and 3. The younger cohort doesn’t have a vote and only observes meetings, while the older students are each given a vote to make decisions.
When he first gathered the council, Mr. Kyler asked the students what they would like to focus on. They came up with three priorities: the cafeteria, the playground, and supporting the school’s PBIS efforts. At that first meeting, Zoe Glanda was voted president of the council, and Daniel DiBartolomeo was voted vice president.
Students said that being a part of the Student Council made them feel proud and important. They said they feel mature when given the chance to help make decisions, advise adults, and find ways to compromise.
Student Council work so far
With the cafeteria, the council was hoping to explore some additional options for school breakfasts and lunches. They met with Cook Manager Stevi McCann and then School Lunch Manager Julie Holbrook to request some new food and drink items be added to cafeteria menus. They talked about all that goes into making decisions about feeding students, from nutrition needs – protein and fresh veggies and fruits help students’ brains work at their best – to the resources involved, like the availability of ingredients and the amount of time it will take staff to prepare, cook and serve. In the end, they compromised, with the students seeing some of their requests approved – notably, Tillie Kullman and Levi Worrell had the idea to ask for poutine, and that’s now an option added to the mix for school lunches. Everyone on the Student Council was excited about this success.
Ms. Holbrook was excited about the opportunity to meet with students, and she said it was nice to see young students so engaged and interested in learning.
The council has also been working with Jason Fiegl on plans for the playground. They gave him some ideas, and he helped them talk through what options wouldn’t be doable and which ones might be possible.
The school is holding monthly Positive Behavior Interventions and Support assemblies this year, and student council members have started helping out with those in various ways. At the last assembly, they put on a skit to encourage students to think about empathy in which Kayson Simpson played a kid who got bullied because he kept carrots in his pocket to snack on. Then Adelyn Drummond and Lucy Wilson told the students gathered about iReady testing. Student Council members are also using the assembly to give updates to their classmates about what they’ve been working on.
Spreading out the experience
Members of Student Council have attended Board of Education meetings to give updates about what they’ve been working on, and Mr. Kyler expects these updates to continue regularly throughout the school year.
Mr. Kyler spreads out the work, making sure each member of the council gets to try out various tasks like public speaking, meeting with adults, and getting creative.
LVC Student Council 2024-25
Levi Worrell, grade 5
Lucy Wilson, grade 5
Kayson Simpson, grade 5
Arianna Crandall-Otis, grade 5
Finley Markwica, grade 4
Tillie Kullman, grade 4
Zoe Glanda, grade 4, President
Daniel DiBartolomeo, grade 4, Vice President
Daphne Adamson-Dwyer, grade 3
Aria Goff, grade 3
Forrest Cockerline, grade 3
Adelyn Drummond, grade 3
Adelynn Mitchell, grade 2
Scarlett Ostroski-Hanley, grade 2
February 2025 District Newsletter
Congrats to spelling bee winners!
January 2025 Newsletter
Committee narrows options to consider
Please note: We are striving to provide recordings of each Facilities Planning Committee meeting, but we do not have one to share from the December meeting due to technical difficulties. We have new equipment that we hope will ensure all future meetings will be recorded so we can provide them for public review.
At their December meeting, the Facilities Planning Committee made several decisions to focus their work and start to move forward toward a plan for the district’s facilities.
Committee members decided to focus on a single site for Pre-K through 12 classrooms moving forward rather than considering schools at multiple sites. The committee felt that there is value in the unity that can be gained by having all staff and students at a single physical location. They also felt that the potential operating efficiencies, such as streamlining maintenance and food operations, and logistical flexibility of a single site would be worthwhile.
The committee also decided that they will not consider using the Thrall Dam site, which was the location included with the last capital proposal. The exit poll done after the vote in early 2024 showed that the public did not approve of using this site.
Committee members decided that it would cost too much to renovate the Lake View Campus in Westport to house all classrooms. It is still being considered to house athletic fields and transportation facilities. Members are still exploring the idea of full or partial renovations at Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown to move elementary programs there.
The committee asked for the following information to be shared for discussion at their next meeting, which will be held Jan. 23 at Lake View Campus:
- A program review that includes the constraints used to determine the needs for the options that were previously proposed.
- A breakdown of what would be included in the full renovations at the Mountain View Campus (approximately $25 million, as discussed).
- A breakdown of what would be included in limited renovations up to the Maximum Cost Allowance (MCA; $15 million +/-) at the Mountain View Campus.
- A site sketch of locating transportation and the athletic fields at the Lake View Campus.
For more information on the committee’s decisions and work, please visit boquetvalleycsd.org/facilities-committee.
Jan. 9, 2025 Board of Education Meeting
The Boquet Valley CSD Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, January 9 at 6:00 PM in Room 106 at the Mountain View Campus in Elizabethtown.
Agenda items will include a presentation by the District Superintendent Dr. Mark Davey, State of the District mid-year report from the Superintendent, preliminary forecast of significant budget factors for the next
school year, benchmark report on administrative, instructional and operations staffing, monthly MVC Principal report and any other business that may come before the Board.
The meeting is open to the public. Community members and interested others are invited to attend.
Facilities Committee building a vision
The group that has been organized to figure out how the district should move with its facilities held its second meeting in November.
Led by Capital Region BOCES Facilitator Joe Dragone, the Facilities Planning Committee spent its first two meetings gathering information about the past, present and potential future of the district’s buildings. The September meeting was held at the Mountain View Campus, and the November meeting was held at Lake View Campus. Both meetings started with a building tour to let committee members observe building conditions and ask questions.
Building Condition Survey
At the November meeting, BCA Architects & Engineers shared information about a Building Condition Survey they did this fall. School districts are required by the state to do a BCS every five years. Boquet wasn’t due for one until next year, but the district decided to go through the process early to have a clear understanding of the current status of all of its facilities.
Taylor Woolf and Mike Harris detailed the bare minimum needed at both campuses to keep them open and operating safely. The total cost associated with the immediate needs is $20.5 million for both campuses, with incidentals, contingency and inflation figured in. The architects stressed that other costly immediate needs would likely turn up soon if this bare minimum is all that is done.
To explore details of the Building Condition Survey, review the presentation slideshow from the meeting.
Other topics
A range of other topics were also discussed at the November meeting. A few of the considerations to be taken into account include:
- The district’s athletic fields are in need of work, and state aid would not be available for upgrades or moving them to a new site unless the fields are moved to a property that also has school buildings on it.
- The district’s bus garage also has some needs, and much more work would be needed if the state moves forward with requiring all districts to move fully to electric buses in the coming years. A bus garage not on a site with a school building would likely not get as much state aid but will be eligible for some.
- There’s a 10-year window for extra state aid on construction due to the school district merger in 2019-2020. That money will be gone if it isn’t used by then.
- There would be savings associated with operating at a single site rather than two different sites.
- Committee members not employed by the district or with students in the district expressed surprise at the space in school buildings needed for counselors or partnerships with other community organizations and programs.
Informing the public
The district is seeking to prioritize communication about the committee as its work develops, because the results will have a major impact on everyone in the community.
- Updated web page: A new landing page has been created to share information about the committee and act as a place to gather documentation and other information. It can be found at https://boquetvalleycsd.org/facilities-committee/
- Meeting recordings: Starting with the November meeting, all committee meetings will be recorded on video and will be shared on the committee’s landing page, https://boquetvalleycsd.org/facilities-committee/. Presentation slides and notes from the meetings will be shared there as well for anyone who wants to review them.
- Physical fliers: Printable fliers with overviews of the committee’s work will be shared after each meeting. These fliers will be printed out and shared in community gathering spaces throughout the district.
The committee also discussed getting more of the public involved in the discussion using surveys and other means in the future.
Next meeting
The next committee meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at Mountain View Campus.
Mr. Dragone’s team plans to bring to that meeting information about potential land parcels that would be big enough to hold any new potential facilities. They will review previous parcels that were considered in the last round of facilities work, and they are looking into any new parcels that may have become available since then.
With this information and everything else they’ve learned so far, Mr. Dragone intends to help the team start narrowing down options to consider moving forward. He also mentioned encouraging them to start developing a timeline. The first decision he is encouraging the committee to make centers on whether it will be a priority for the district to have both schools on one campus or to keep operating on multiple sites.