001Good evening. I call this special meeting to order and note that all board members are present. We are joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and his administrative cabinet. Thank you to all those joining us and the special 10-year meeting in the audience, live stream, and via Zoom. And without further ado, I'll turn it over to Dr. Patrick. Thank you. Good evening to everyone here tonight. We welcome our colleagues, family members, friends, and those watching along at home. Since this is the first and only board meeting in May, I'd like to point out that in May we celebrate School Principals Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, and National School Nurse Week. I'd like to start this event by recognizing the incredible work of every one of our teachers, nurses, principals, and assistant principals. And, of course, alongside them are
002hundreds of colleagues working in and out of classrooms in supporting roles who complement the work of our educators to make the Scarsdale schools such special places for children to learn and grow. While Scarsdale is a community that holds high expectations, it's also one that deeply appreciates and respects the work of our educators. Thank you to our PTAs who generously expressed gratitude and appreciation for our faculty last week. Please know that those assembled around this table deeply appreciate you, our educators, what you do, how you go above and beyond to support your students, and the passion you bring to this pursuit. You are the ones who create a collaborative, future-oriented academic culture within school environments that promote well-being, belonging, and resilience. And you keep the whole child in mind by expressing care, challenging growth, providing support,
003sharing power, and expanding possibilities. For all of this and more, we salute you. Now, on to our main event. We're delighted to celebrate a very special milestone in the career of a public school educator the conferral of tenure 15 teachers one guidance counselor one school psychologist one social worker a school leader and three district administrators have been recommended for this achievement this evening This significant accomplishment only comes after the completion of a rigorous probationary period of employment Lasting either three or four years though. I will note we have two unique exceptions tonight Lauren's probationary journey came many years after her service as a youth outreach worker. And for Megan Troy, this is the third different position for which she's been recommended for tenure. The first two were successful, don't worry. With that said, each of
004these superb educators can attest that the rigors of the tenure process are commensurate with the importance of the achievement. I look forward to welcoming you into the ranks of the tenured faculty shortly, and am delighted to turn these celebratory proceedings over to Megan Troy. Good evening everyone. I'm so happy to be here tonight to celebrate our colleagues and the conferral of tenure. This evening we'll be recommending a total of 22 individuals, 18 teachers and four building and district administrators. These individuals work in five of our buildings and in district positions. Tonight is an important milestone in their Scarsdale careers as they have truly earned this distinction and recommendation. The process of earning tenure was one filled with hard work and effort, feedback and reflection. Over the past three or four years, faculty members have completed
005a trial or probationary period of employment. During this time, we gauge their performance against our professional standards. In Scarsdale, we use Charlotte Danielson's framework for teaching to guide our teacher evaluation process. The framework describes effective practice across the domains of planning and preparation, the classroom environment, instruction and professional responsibilities. We use a wide variety of inputs to help inform our decision to recommend tenure, including the following. Multiple formal clinical observations annually, inclusive of a discussion, reflection, written report, and rating conducted by supervisors. Numerous informal drop-in observations by supervisors and evaluators. formal and informal mentoring, a year-end conference, written appraisal, assessment of progress and rating annually, a portfolio of artifacts documenting professional practice with written commentary and reflection, feedback from other parts of the school community, and an administrative review panel attended by district administrators, building
006administrators, supervisors, and Board of Education members annually. It's a lot. The tenure process in Scarsdale is thoughtful, intentional, and collaborative. We believe the rigors of this process reflect the importance of this achievement. It is also in line with our belief that supervision and evaluation is an ongoing process and one that fosters the growth and development of our faculty. In a few minutes, we'll personally acknowledge each individual who's being recommended for tenure. All of you have added something unique and special to our district. From our art studios to our math classrooms to our business office, your impact is being felt by your students and colleagues. I was fortunate to visit all of your learning spaces this year, and while you all teach different levels and content areas, there are so many things you have in common.
007You all bring creative energy and passion for your subject areas, which motivates students to engage in their learning. You also all create a sense of belonging by knowing who your students are and showing that you care about them. In a middle school English classroom, this might be teachers enticing and exciting students through the use of food from around the world. In an elementary art classroom, it could be giving the students the chance to create shine and be heard through their art. And in a high school chemistry classroom, it might be creating a class holiday card while teaching how to find the center of massive objects. Ask Kevin about that one. While different, they all create a sense of belonging where students feel seen and valued. Beyond helping students to learn, you have all leaned into
008your own professional growth and have demonstrated a commitment to innovate, to take risks, and to learn. This was evident in so many of your portfolios. One teacher highlighted this commitment to growth beautifully, and she said, I've gained so much from Scarsdale in such a short period of time, and I can only imagine how much more I will learn and grow in the years to come. I'm eager to embrace the years ahead, and I'm committed to the continuous growth alongside my students in the hopes to expand my impact both in and out of the classroom. Later this evening, you'll receive a small candle with the following message. May you be proud of the work you do, the person you are, and the difference you make. I think one teacher spoke to this work best in her
009portfolio reflection about why she teaches, and she said this. Knowing that I'm helping to raise those who will eventually lead us in this world, I focus on raising students who always want to get better, who can take feedback with grace and offer it with compassion to elevate those around them. I teach to open receptive eyes to new perspectives, to help them build empathy and lead with understanding. I teach to offer those at such a responsive age the gifts of positive thinking and supported resilience so they can reap the benefits throughout their lifetimes when navigating alone. What an amazing gift and difference you are all making in the world around you. I would now like to invite up our principals to come and introduce our candidates, their tenure area, and a few words of recognition. So
010for our tenure candidates, please join your principal or administrator at the podium so that we can give you the recognition you deserve. After, please take a moment so that Honore can capture this special moment and take your photo and then make your way around the board table so that each board and district cabinet member can offer you their congratulations. And we'd start with Anish after that and move from there. After we've announced all candidates, the board will confer their tenure. So I'd like to start with Edgewood Principal Dr. Annette Keene. Thank you. I'd like to invite Lauren Drapek, our Assistant Principal. to join me over the past four years and through three principals Lauren Drapek has tirelessly provided the caring and consistent leadership that makes Edgewood School the finest place to be her rare blend
011of intelligence work ethic and common sense is truly exceptional and deeply valued by our school community we are grateful for all she has done and all she will continue to do for Edgewood congratulations Lauren Our second teacher this evening is Elise Kosky. I've heard there was a time when Elise Kosky worked elsewhere, but it's really hard for me to imagine Edgewood without her. Elise is an exceptional special education teacher who brings both incredible expertise and a great sense of humor to our work, inspiring everyone around her to provide the very best educational experience for our special class students. Elise, we look forward to learning and growing alongside you at Edgewood for many years to come. Congratulations. Our next teacher is Allie Lerner. Allie Lerner is truly a ray of sunshine, bringing warmth and positivity to
012everyone around her. Her joy and enthusiasm for teaching and special education are remarkable and help students develop a genuine love of learning while striving to meet and exceed expectations. We are so fortunate to have her energy and her dedication at Edgewood. Congratulations, Allie. I now invite up Trish Iasello for the Green Acres Principal. Good evening. I'd like to invite up Kristen Matija. Oh, you're here. I'm here. Okay, Kristen Matija is a skilled special education teacher who ensures that every student feels safe, supported, and cared for and is successful. Beyond the classroom, she fosters incredible school spirit and engagement through the Gator News and community initiatives like the Cereal Box Drive. By putting tools like the Wonder Books into the hands of students, Kristen makes sure that learning is truly fun. Congratulations, Kristen. I now invite
013up Heathcode Principal Maria Stile. Good evening. I am starting with Ms. Jen Duncan. Mrs. Jennifer Duncan is a master of building community both in her classroom and in our school. Through her dedication to the responsive classroom approach, she creates a space where every student feels seen and heard. Her creative investigative science lessons have a reputation for sparking genuine wonder, turning her classroom into a lab of discovery. Perhaps most impressively, she has navigated transitions between Scarsdale Elementary Schools, various grades and teams with absolute grace, proving herself a versatile and invaluable teammate. Beyond the classroom, she has brought a tangible sense of joy to our faculty with her many creative contributions to our celebrations. Congratulations, Mrs. Duncan. We are so lucky to have you on our faculty. I'd like to welcome Miss Mary Latin. Miss Mary Latin's
014journey with us began during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID pandemic, where she first joined us as our building substitute, always eager to learn, grow, and contribute during those extremely trying days. Over the past four years, we have had the privilege of watching her grow into an exceptional ICT teacher. Ms. Lattin is a creative educator who prioritizes the whole child. She builds inclusive, supportive communities where every student feels they belong. She too has moved among various grades and teams with remarkable grace, proving herself a highly valued collaborator. Her dedication to the broader community is evident in her work on numerous committees where her professional insights have always been valued. Congratulations, Ms. Lattin. We are thrilled to have you with us for many years to come. I'd like to welcome Mr. Terry Bentley. It's a true
015joy to recognize the upcoming tenure of our resident artist and extraordinary teacher, Mr. Terry Bentley. Only a special kind of educator can jump into a new role at the last minute and not just stay afloat, but truly make the program soar. It was no small feat, but he didn't just fill the art teacher's role, Mr. Bentley transformed it. From his very first day, Mr. Bentley has brought vibrant energy and amazing artwork to our hallways, turning our school into a living gallery of student creativity. Mr. Bentley's incredible talent makes him a teacher who can inspire even our youngest artists to see the world through a creative lens. He has proven that he's so much more than a last-minute addition. He is a cornerstone of the Heathcote community. We are so proud to have his artistry and
016his dedication as a part of our faculty. Congratulations, Mr. Bentley. The photo. I now invite up Chris Coghlan, middle school principal. Good evening. It's my honor to introduce six of the finest educators I've ever had the privilege of working with, and I have named them the Stellar Six. First, could I welcome up Kyle Davidson. As our Fountain House sixth grade math teacher, Kyle brings amazing energy, creativity, and care to sixth grade mathematics each and every day. Through performance tasks, meaningful student choice, and focus on individual growth, she makes math engaging, challenging, and joyful for students. Congratulations, Kyle. I'd like to welcome Frankie Hughes. As our Fountain House 7th grade English teacher, Frankie has a remarkable ability to connect with students through authenticity, humor, and care. By sharing his personal narrative, he helps students better understand
017resilience, identity, and belonging. Through his leadership of our very successful chess club, Frankie has also created another space where students feel connected and valued at SMS. Congratulations, Frankie. Can I welcome Jess Janicola up? As our psychologist for our SSP program, Jessica. is a steady and trusted advocate for students and their families. Her calm presence and ability to build meaningful partnerships with faculty and families alike are at the heart of her outstanding work every single day at SMS. Congratulations, Jessica. Congratulations. Can I welcome Anne-Marie Scalise? Welcome. As our Cooper House grade six English teacher, Anne-Marie brings creativity, purpose, and heart to everything she does. Her lessons go far beyond English skills, focusing equally on human skills and helping students think deeply about themselves, others, and the world around them. Congratulations, Anne Marie. Can I welcome Stephanie
018Schettini. As her Butler House grade eight science teacher, Stephanie brings hands-on science to life in ways that make students excited to learn. The culture she creates in her classroom is so strong that students consistently make a point to thank her at the end of every class, which is a reflection of the respect and appreciation that she inspires each and every day. Congratulations, Stephanie. And finally, I'd like to welcome Rebecca Streeter. As her Popham House 7th grade English teacher, Rebecca is a bright light in both Popham House and throughout SMS. She creates a classroom where students are fully immersed in learning and excited to engage with literature. When she reads aloud, Rebecca has a remarkable ability to completely transfix a classroom, bringing stories to life in ways that stay with students long after the lesson ends.
019Throughout her, through her outstanding work as a writer on the SMS News, Rebecca also helps to create, celebrate, and connect and strengthen our entire school and community. Congratulations, Rebecca. I now invite up Ken Bonamo, the high school principal. Thank you. I'll follow the middle school stellar six with the fabulous five at the high school, beginning with Kevin Anton. Kevin approaches teaching by focusing on the classroom environment. He is passionate about ensuring his lessons spark an excited curiosity among students and that every individual feels comfortable sharing their ideas and taking risks while learning. This approach translates well to his additional roles of robotics club advisor and soccer coach. The strong practices and habits of classroom instruction overlap significantly with successful coaching, and we're delighted to welcome Kevin to the tenured staff. Congratulations. Next, we have Jigar
020Jadhav. Jigar inspires his students in his computer science and STEAM courses to think creatively and approach learning with curiosity and enthusiasm while also extending his impact beyond the classroom through his dedicated club advising and mentorship. He teaches a wide range of courses reaching students across diverse learning experiences and demonstrating both instructional expertise and leadership within the department. As advisor to the AI club mentor to independent study students, and host to guest speakers, including former students and industry professionals. Jigar cultivates an intellectually vibrant environment where students explore emerging developments in computer science and pursue their interests with confidence and purpose. Jigar enriches learning and helps students envision meaningful pathways for applying their technical skills in the 21st century. I'd like to call Tim Letty. As an LRC teacher and one of the teachers who helped launch
021our new self-contained program, Tim Letty focuses on building strong relationships with his students and meeting them where they are in their high school journeys. When you walk by the LRC, you'll often find Tim working with small groups of students across a variety of subjects or collaborating with fellow LRC teachers as he continues to refine his practice. Many Friday nights in the fall you can also find Mr. Leddy supporting school spirit in another way, helping school government by firing up the grill at the football games. He knows his way around the grill just as well as he does the classroom. We are fortunate to have him on our faculty. Next we have Lauren Pomerantz. Lauren Pomerantz has served as a school social worker at Scars Hill High School for the past four years, establishing herself as
022a wonderful resource for the students and families in her care. She is incredibly student-centered, recognizes the dynamics of our school and community, and the impact she has made is widely felt and acknowledged. An integral member of the Psychology and Social Work Department, Lauren has been part of every major initiative at the PSW and is a leading proponent of the importance of mental health and well-being for our students. To that end, she is a co-leader of our faculty's wellness committee and is recognized by her students, parents, and colleagues as a go-to professional who is always there to listen and provide multifaceted support. Lauren is the embodiment of SHS as a place that not only provides wonderful academic opportunities, but more importantly, a caring and nurturing culture that supports students in every respect. Congratulations. Now we have
023Amanda Rios-Thomas. Amanda Rios-Thomas has served as Dean at Scarsdale High School for the past three years, having previously worked in New York City public schools for 12 years. Every individual that walks into her office is better for it, as the warmth and care that she demonstrates to her students and families is evident in each interaction. An invaluable member of the Counseling Department and the larger faculty, Amanda is a wonderful counselor in every respect, seen by all as a go-to person and the one they can approach with any issue, large or small. She has quickly established herself as a wonderful advocate for students and we are looking forward to having Amanda as a mainstay at Scarsdale for many years to come. Given her contributions to date, there is no doubt of the lasting impact she will
024make on all of our stakeholders. Congratulations. I now invite Dr. Edgar McIntosh. I'd like to invite Kerry Orgera up and I can do, yeah, and I can do alliteration too. She's a wonderful one. It is an honor to recommend Carrie Orgera for tenure. Her work as a math coordinator beautifully combines systems thinking, knowledge, vulnerability, and deep reflective practice. Through her innovative leadership in deep math learning and professional development, she has helped move our district towards a cohesive, equitable, and student-centered culture. Carrie's unwavering commitment to growth, both for herself and our learning community, makes her a wonderful asset and an essential architect. Think fractals. inside math joke for our district's future hi I'm drew I'd like to invite Jeannie Crowley Jeannie you have many talents and one is a gift for a good simile or turn
025of phrase I've been struggling for weeks to find one to describe you on this occasion and I'm certain I was unsuccessful but I'm gonna try anyway you're like fine embroidery Your individual stitches include deep technical expertise, a passion for learning, strong ethical principles, strategic and systemic thinking, and critically, an informed and persistent skepticism of educational technology. You weave these stitches into an inspiring and aspirational picture of student learning and teacher practice. You've taught us and guided us to think differently, and your impact is only growing. Thank you and congratulations. And I'd like to invite Andrew Lennon up. Yeah, yeah, he loves this stuff. Andrew, you've accomplished an astounding amount in your three years in Scarsdale, so much so that I feel compelled to list some of the key items. You've transitioned us from smarts to
026Envision, the auditorium bond, a successful budget vote to override the tax cap, long-range financial and fund balance and reserve plans, hiring a new treasurer, new assistant business manager, new director and assistant director of facilities, and a new transportation supervisor. He's in charge of food service, too, in case you didn't know. That is not to mention the development of a $101.7 million capital projects bond. Any one of these accomplishments would have been a significant achievement for someone transitioning into the district. You have a dozen such achievements in less than three years in the role. This speaks volumes not just about your work ethic, skills, and knowledge, which are formidable, but also about your caring, student-centered, collaborative leadership style. You've done this work while investing in understanding the Scarsdale way of doing things. which can sometimes be
027slow, but not by your track record. And I look forward to your continued responsible, forward-thinking fiscal stewardship and guidance for many years to come. Congratulations. See, he still has his radio on his belt. Good, good. And last but certainly not least, Megan Troy. So, Megan, I've had the privilege of being part of the process that resulted in your being hired twice, first as SMS principal and then for your current position. In each interview process, you describe being driven by core values, including striving for excellence, caring for the whole person, and promoting justice. I see evidence daily of these core values in action as you lead in Scarsdale. I see how they influence your decision making and how they influence your relationships. In three short and intense years, you've grown to both understand and master a
028very different sort of leadership position. You've imparted your values on the processes and procedures for which you are responsible while being guided by these same values when making very difficult decisions. It cannot be easy to enter the role your supervisor has previously occupied, but you've done it with grace, and you have built successfully on what was and wasn't in place before you, and you've made it your own. I look forward to our continued partnership and to seeing how your influence grows and keeps our district moving forward. Congratulations. Thank you all for your thoughtful words. I just want to extend a special thank you to our building principals, our assistant principals, department chairs, and district administrators who have helped these faculty members grow and learn during their probationary periods. Your guidance, your feedback, and support have
029led to this evening and the success of your colleagues. Let's give a round of applause to all those supporters, colleagues, and family members who are here. And now... For the conferral of tenure, if you're holding a candle, and Andrew, please stand up and I'll turn things over to Colleen. Thank you, Megan. On behalf of the board, I would also like to take a quick moment to recognize and celebrate our incredibly dedicated educators who are attaining tenure tonight. Receiving tenure is a significant achievement and reflects a lengthy process that is rigorous, comprehensive, and thoughtful. We are so fortunate to have so many talented and committed professionals who are passionate about education and who work tirelessly every day on behalf of our students. Teachers are true heroes with the remarkable ability to inspire, nurture growth and guide
030students towards success with knowledge, compassion and unwavering dedication. Thank you for your commitment to our students, to our schools and to the pursuit of excellence in education. Tonight, we proudly celebrate this well-earned milestone with all of you. So now to make it official, I would like to make the following motion. Be it resolved that upon satisfactory completion of the probationary period, the board approves the recommendation of the superintendent to confer tenure to the individuals listed below in the agenda. May I have a second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Thank you. The ayes have it, and the motion carries. Congratulations, everyone. Okay. So would we like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting? Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? Thank you, Bob. Any discussion? All those
031in favor, please say aye. The ayes have it, and the motion carries. Good night, everyone, and congratulations to all our tenure candidates. Good evening. I call the statutory budget meeting to order and note that all board members are present. We are also joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and his administrative cabinet. Thanks to all those joining us for the statutory budget meeting in the audience, the live stream, and via Zoom. Does that turn it to you? Okay, thank you very much. So the statutory budget hearing, we'll start with a brief overview of the budget as proposed. I'll turn that over to Andrew to review, and then I'll say a few things about the vote. Thank you, Dr. Patrick. So the 26-27 proposed budget is $197,098,000. $146 and that is a 2.92% increase budget to budget. The
032estimated Scarsdale tax rate is $18.65 per thousand and the estimated Maranac tax rate is $13.01 and that represents a 2.99% increase for residents in the village of Scarsdale and a decrease of four dollars and seven four point one seven percent for residents in the Mamaroneck Strip the um sorry my screen just went a little haywire there um the annual budget vote and board election is May 19th 2026 and should I go over the um the voter I'll do that stuff thank you um So as Andrew said, there are three things on the ballot. We have the budget vote, there's a bond resolution on the ballot, and the election of two board members, two board seats. And again, that is May 19th at Scarsdale Middle School. The deadline to register to vote is Thursday of this
033week, the 14th. The deadline for absentee and early mail applications, you have to submit an application if you want to vote early or absentee. That application gets filled out and then you get a ballot. The deadline for those by mail is tomorrow, the 12th, or in person, the deadline for a ballot application is Monday, the 18th, the day before the vote. The deadline for completing and having received absentee and early mail ballots is Tuesday the 19th, the day of the vote, by 5 p.m. Budget information and details can be found on our website at www.scarsdaleschools.org. voting information can also be found on our website go to that same URL and click on the voter information icon that's on the home page just below the main picture and we hope everyone who's eligible in our community
034will participate in this very important annual civic quick overview I'll turn it back to you now we will open it for public comment on the budget so if anyone in the audience has a public comment related to the budget we invite them to the podium at this time we have three attendees on zoom and one of them has their hand raised so i will promote them Hi, good evening. This is Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez, PTC Budget Study Chair. As PTC Budget Study Co-Chair, I just really wanted to thank Mr. Lennon and team for taking all the PTC questions about the budget, the bond, and long-term financial plan throughout the year, given that it was not only just a budget year, also a bond year. We're very cognizant that many district professionals had to organize numerous meetings.
035surveys, feedback sessions, and town halls, many after working hours. So thank you very much for that. Moreover, I'm not sure that the community knows that Dr. Patrick and Mr. Lennon also met with members of the PTC and PTAs and certainly with Rachna Singh, my co-chair and I. So thank you very much. Given all the questions that we've been sending you throughout the year that we've collected from parents. from other PTA and PTC members, and of course our own questions. I actually only have four questions left for the moment. So I know it's hard to believe, and I'm sorry that I'm out there in person, but for four questions, I figured you would forgive me this one time, but rest assured I'll be back. So the first question is actually from the Community Budget Forum of
036March 23rd. And just loosely paraphrasing it, if you all recall, as PTC Executive Committee and I, the co-chair, we asked that please, now that the bond has been finalized and that the budget, of course, was finalized, if you would be able to update, yes, Mr. Lennon, the long-term financial plan. uh because clearly now that we actually have a budget number and that we have the bond number that would be very very different in terms of the projected operating deficit. Clearly, the inflationary expectations, other kinds of macro issues are constantly moving, very clearly aware of that. Geopolitical risk is at a heightened level, clearly understand all that. But if you could, at some point, preferably for the vote, but if not possible, but that's certainly our wish, it would be good to get a sense of
037that projected operating deficit in the long-term financial plan. My other three questions very quickly. Number two, this came from some parents. There was a marketing firm hired to create materials about the bond, possibly also for the budget. If you could kindly let us know what that cost was. Is that something that's already incorporated, I assume, in this budget or does it get passed on to the next one? Just let us know. Question number three, did you hire outside counsel for the proposed guidance on speech and clothing? uh which obviously that's a you know going to be discussed later but we're just asking about costs uh if you hired outside counsel and if so uh how much was that and lastly on the gifts listed on the agenda item number 12 would you be able to
038clarify at that stage when you get to that part of the agenda whether the amounts that are listed for the gifts are these the total cost Of the item, or are these just gifts that are coming from the various and organizations. And the cost is higher so, for example. In item number 12.15 in the agenda. There is a 75,000 dollar gift for a program called common circles. So the queries we've received are whether this is a program was discussed before the community. And then did the community decide that they wanted this program. How is it that the Scarborough Foundation decided to give $75,000 and is that the cost of the program or is it higher than that? And then where would that appear on the budget and what is the rationale for that program from
039a budgetary perspective? Lastly. We worked very hard this year to engage parents. We have written them, and Lord knows many of them are tired, no doubt, of seeing me on Scarsdale Buzz and every other Facebook page from which I haven't been booted yet, encouraging people to please pay attention, to please look at the very nice one-page summary that the district put out. So at this stage, really, voters, it's up to you. Participation in Scarsdale is shockingly low. less than 10 percent of registered voters so personally i implore you to make this the year that registered voters get off the couch and go vote on may 19th 7 a.m to 9 p.m at the scarsdale middle school thank you very much that's it for me thank you maida we have another hand raised hi everyone can
040you hear me yes Okay, perfect. Good evening. I'm speaking in my personal capacity as a taxpayer. I recently received this district mailer made for Scarsdale taxpayer, paid for by Scarsdale taxpayer. The district mailer highlights an average annual cost of just $84 for a typical Scarsdale homeowner. While this long-term average is mathematically correct, it significantly oversimplifies the real financial impact on taxpayers. The district is seeking approval to borrow $101.7 million in principal. Imagine taking out a 25- to 30-year mortgage on your house. Can you please keep the comments to the budget? So do you want me to come back? Because this affects the budget. It's not related to the 26-27 budget. okay all right i'll try on the second comment period okay thank you thank you there's no more hands raised at this moment no more
041hands raised at the moment so we'll close public comment follow up to public comment yeah i would just point out um the question about um The firm that's been doing communications related to the budget and bond was item 10.08 in the February 2nd Board of Ed meeting. So that was voted on by the board. It's in the current year budget and was part of the planning for this bond development. Do you want to say anything about the long-range financial plan? The plan is to, upon a successful passage of the budget, or? Not we would update financial plan and provide that to the Board of Education at that point and the other questions We can we can address during the gift part. Thank you Okay, great. So with that with that would someone like to make
042a motion to adjourn adjourn this statutory budget meeting Thank You amber. Can I have a second? Thank You Jim any discussion all those in favor, please say aye. Aye Great the ayes have it and the motion carries this part of the meeting is adjourned Okay, we're going to be rolling into the next part of the meeting. Good evening. I call this board succession meeting to order and note that all board members are present. We are also joined by Superintendent Dr. Patrick and his administrative cabinet. Thank you to all those joining us for this board succession meeting, either in the audience, the live stream, or via Zoom. This special meeting was added to the agenda to determine board leadership for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year. To start the conversation, at this time, I would
043like to nominate Susie Hahn to serve as president of the Board of Education for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year. After thoughtful reflection, I believe this moment calls for an approach grounded in stability, unity, and what is best for our students and our community. With just two months remaining in the school year, this is not the time for a broader transition in board leadership. Instead, it is a time to come together. maintain continuity, and ensure our focus remains where it belongs, on our students, our schools, and the important work still ahead of us. As a board, we have worked hard to develop a budget and bond proposal designed to support our students' learning, growth, and well-being. And it is important that we continue that work with steady leadership and a shared sense of purpose.
044I believe Suzy Hahn is exceptionally well-suited to provide that leadership at this time. Having served successfully as board president last year, she brings not only experience and institutional knowledge, but also a calm, thoughtful, and collaborative approach. She understands the responsibilities of the role, appreciates the sensitivity of this moment, and has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to our students, staff, and community. Most importantly, this approach allows us to move forward together in a way that minimizes disruption and keeps our attention centered on the needs of our students and our schools. It also preserves the opportunity for the full board to engage in a careful and thoughtful process consistent with our established practices when determining leadership for the 2026-2027 school year. For these reasons, I respectfully nominate Susie Hahn to serve as president of the Board of
045Education for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year. That being said, do we have any other nominations for president? If not, then we will close the discussion, and I would like to make a motion to nominate Susie Hahn as president of the Board of Education for the remainder of the 2025-26 school year. Can I have a second to that motion? Thank you, Leah. All those in favor, please say aye. The ayes have it and the motion passes. The motion carries and Susie Hahn is elected president of the board from May 11th, 2026 until the July 15th, 2026 organizational meeting of the board. I would now ask Susie to come forward to take the oath before the district clerk and then assume the role. Okay, Susie, repeat after me. Raise your right hand. I do solemnly
046swear. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of the President of the Board of Education of the Scarsdale Union Free School District. Congratulations, Susie. Thank you for your service. Thank you, Colleen, for your kind and generous words. And thank you to my fellow board members for your confidence and support. I want to acknowledge the unusual circumstances under which this transition is taking place. And I want to express my sincere appreciation for the exceptional leadership and dedication shown by Vice President Colleen Brown during this challenging period. Stepping up into the role of acting president these last few weeks required not only a deep commitment to the district, but also the
047ability to lead with professionalism, calm judgment, and a focus on students as well as the broader school community. Colleen's willingness to take on this additional responsibility has helped ensure thoughtful governance at a critical time for the board and district. We are incredibly grateful for the time, insight, and care she has devoted to supporting our schools, staff, students, and families. Colleen articulated something very important this evening. Our focus right now must remain on the important work before this board. Recent events have left all of us navigating a very challenging and emotional period. We are confronting serious issues that require not only thoughtful leadership, but also compassion, reflection, and a shared commitment to moving forward together. At the same time, and this happens in one week from tomorrow, the community will be voting on an annual budget
048and bond referendum, the outcomes of which will have a long lasting impact on the educational needs and well-being of every student in our district. Over the next two months, my goal will be to help ensure that this board continues to operate thoughtfully, transparently and steadily during this transition period I believe strongly in the importance of making continuity while also preserving the opportunity for the full board to engage in a deliberate and comprehensive leadership process and election for the 2026-27 school year in July most importantly I want our community to know that this board remains fully committed to the work ahead while there are difficult conversations and moments in front of us We will approach them with seriousness, integrity, and care for our students, this district, and every member of our community. Thank you again for
049your trust and confidence. I look forward to continuing this work together. At this time, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting? Is there a second? Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. The ayes have it and the motion carries. We will adjourn until 7.45 p.m. when we will reconvene for the business meeting, item five of the agenda. Thank you. Good evening. I call this meeting to order and note that all board members are in attendance. We are joined by Superintendent Drew Patrick, as well as all members of his administrative cabinet. Welcome to all those who made the time to join us this evening, either in person, on the live stream, or via Zoom. Before continuing with my own opening comments, given all that has transpired since our last board
050meeting, I would like to invite Dr. Patrick to make his superintendent comment at this time. Thank you very much, Susie. I appreciate it. And good evening to everyone who's joined us both in person and online. While we are here tonight to conduct the business of the Board of Education and the regular work of governance that keeps this district functioning, I know that's not the only matter on the minds of our community tonight. I want to take a few minutes to acknowledge the last several weeks in our community and to share some thoughts about how we move forward together. Our community is hurting deeply and is wondering what it means for the future and what comes next. I've served as superintendent for four years and in that time have been guided by two unwavering principles. Our
051work must be driven by the needs of our students and trust with our community requires honesty and transparency. As we gather tonight, I say to you honestly and transparently that moving forward will require the collective work of our entire school community. That means that we are listening, seeking to learn from all of the feedback that we are receiving, and putting our deepest, most concerted effort into promoting a safe, welcoming, positive school environment using the tools at our disposal, education, policy, and dialogue. We are living in divisive times. Our country is engaged in conflict on the other side of the world. Our domestic politics feel increasingly polarized. And members of our community are feeling the impact of these larger forces in very personal ways. When global issues reach into our schools, into our shared spaces, into
052our homes, we feel it deeply. Many of you are here tonight because you are carrying both what has happened here and what is unfolding in the broader world. It must be said clearly, we are also living through a moment in which concerns about anti-Jewish hate have intensified in ways that are deeply felt by Jewish families in our community, contributing to a palpable sense of fear, vulnerability, and destabilization. National data helps explain why. Although Jews make up roughly 2% of the U.S. population, they're the target of nearly 70% of religion-based hate crimes. Jews have been murdered in anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, in Washington, D.C., Colorado, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere, attacked physically in communities across the country, and targeted in violent incidents in places like London, Australia, France, Belgium, and Canada. At the same time, hate-fueled
053violence is not limited to any one community. Multiple minority communities are also experiencing heightened bias, hostility, and fear. Here in the United States, we've witnessed the shooting of Palestinian university students in Burlington, Vermont, and the murder of a six-year-old boy because he was Palestinian. It is not surprising that these broader dynamics cause members of our own community to carry their weight. Bias, hostility, violence, and fear, however, have no place in our country. As Viktor Frankl wrote after surviving the Holocaust, there is a space between what happens to us and how we respond. And in that space lies our freedom to choose what comes next. We are in that space right now, tonight, together. As an educational institution, we are holding closely to that idea. The students who are in our care and the adults in
054this community are being asked to navigate a difficult moment. Between events that have caused pain and the actions we take next, there's an opportunity to be deliberate and to act in alignment with our values. Kindness, respect, care, and empathy for all. It is true that in recent weeks some of those values have felt strained. The intersection of advocacy, politics, and bias in this moment can cloud our ability and at times our willingness to acknowledge when harm is happening, including in our own community. While that may be a human instinct, it cannot be where we stop. We remain responsible for engaging these realities with clarity, care, and accountability. In this community, we will not rank suffering. or turn away from one another. We stand with our Jewish neighbors and with anyone targeted by hate, bias, or
055harassment. That commitment to the safety and dignity of every member of our community is foundational to who we are. As an educational institution, we are guided by a core premise. When issues become difficult, we cannot avoid them. We turn toward them. We turn toward learning. Education gives us a framework for naming what we are seeing, understanding how bias operates, and building the skills required to respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. That includes being clear about how anti-Jewish bias manifests today, sometimes overtly, sometimes in more coded or distorted ways, and ensuring that our response strengthens. rather than fragments our broader commitment to the dignity and safety of all members of our community in the near term we will be putting forward a structured plan to move this work ahead one component of that includes new guidelines for
056student expression at school sponsored activities which appears in tonight's agenda these guidelines have been developed in consultation with experts and a link appears in item 12.01 of the agenda for members of our school community to share feedback. That may include the opportunities for input through surveys and small facilitated focus groups, as well as engagement with outside experts who can help us assess where we may have gaps in our knowledge and skills, particularly around civil dialogue and engaging across difference. This moment has surfaced the need to strengthen those capacities and we are actively considering how to ensure that our students, especially at the high school level, graduate with stronger skills in these areas as they prepare for college and beyond. In the median term, I'm honored to announce some important news. After many months of collaboration
057and preparation, we will be introducing a new program to our schools next year called the Common Circles Experience Scarsdale. The program features two connected parts. We are Scarsdale, bridging belonging and building community and Voices Against Hate, Lessons from the Holocaust. We're very excited about the opportunities for students, faculty, families and community members to help shape and become part of the experience itself through local stories, photography, art and many other ways of participation. The program itself is an immersive research-based experience that blends art, technology, and storytelling to explore our shared humanity, build community, and teach the lessons of the Holocaust. In a moment marked by growing polarization, rising anti-Semitism, and increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric, the exhibition celebrates identity and strengthens historical understanding while inviting reflection. Above all, these experiences encourage dialogue and foster a space where everyone
058is seen, heard, and valued. I'll be sharing more information and a message to the community tomorrow morning on that project. While these are important steps, we also need to continue to listen to our community. Tonight is part of that process, and your perspectives will help shape what comes next. We will share more details about those next steps in the coming weeks. I want you to know that we see you. We understand that this has been a challenging moment. Our goal tonight is to listen carefully, to learn, and to take responsibility for how we move forward. We are committed to doing that work with seriousness, with care, and with a clear sense of our responsibility to one another. The fact is, we can't do it alone, and we can't do it all in a matter of
059days. But we will move forward as a school community together. Students, teachers, administrators, staff, parents, and our Board of Education and broader community. I appreciate the opportunity to share these remarks. And Susie, thank you. I'll turn it back to you. Thank you so much, Drew. I would also like to address the last several weeks. I will be honest. This has been a challenging time. We care deeply about every member of this community and we have seen the genuine concern, pain, and worry that many of you are carrying. To reiterate a recent letter to the community from the board, the board condemns in absolute terms all forms of anti-Semitism, hate, and discrimination. We are committed to creating and sustaining learning environments in our schools. that reflect our values of dignity, respect, inclusion, and safety that we
060strive to uphold for every student. One of our board members recently shared that the Mandarin word for crisis describes a moment of danger and a critical turning point. And within that turning point, the opportunity to shape what comes next. We intend to meet this moment with that mindset, to engage it seriously, to learn from it, and to do the work required to emerge stronger as a community of students, faculty, and families. To that end, I would like to share that on April 22nd, members of the board participated in a full-day workshop at Purchase College entitled, Identifying and Addressing Antisemitism in Our Schools. Presented by Brandeis University's President's Initiative on Antisemitism and Boundless. partnership with Westchester Jewish Council and UJA Federation of New York. This training focused on how anti-Jewish bias and hate manifests in today's
061schools. Board members have also over the last few months experienced the Common Circles exhibit Drew mentioned in his earlier comment and have approved a transfer to allocate funds in our budget to help bring this exhibit to increase empathy, reduce bias and anti-Semitism to Scarsdale. These are important steps. but they are not sufficient. We are committed to continuing this work and to ensuring that we are educated about all forms of bias and hate so that none of them can take root or go unaddressed in our schools. And now to mention some other business of the board. Earlier this evening, the board held a special meeting with community volunteer and liaison groups. Thank you to the leaders of Maroon and White, the PT Council, PTC Child, the Scarsdale Action for Youth, or SAY, and Scarsdale Edgemont Family
062Counseling and the Safe Coalition for attending and sharing their organization's important work this year. Scarsdale is a community strong because of its volunteers, and the board is grateful for these community partnerships that care for the whole child and enrich the student experience in our schools. Also earlier this evening, the board awarded tenure to 22 faculty, staff, and administration members. Receiving tenure is a significant achievement and involves a thoughtful process that is rigorous and comprehensive. Granting tenure upon recommendation from the superintendent is among the most significant responsibilities of the Board of Education. In our continued commitment to oversight, board members have been attending tenure and probationary appointment reviews for the past few months. Tonight, the board extends our sincerest congratulations to all those who attended tenure this evening. Also, as a reminder, the bond, budget, and
063board vote is next week on Tuesday, May 19th. Voting will take place at the middle school gym from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Parking will be available throughout the day at the lower circle of the middle school, which can be accessed through the school road entrance on Kelvin Road. Information about the bond and budget is available on the district website, and community members should have received a copy of the district's Insight newsletter and other mailers, which include information about the bond and budget. I'd like to extend my gratitude to the PT Council, PTAs, PTC Child, League of Women Voters, the Scarsdale Senior Citizens Advisory Council, SNAP, and the Green Acres Parent Association for inviting board members and members of the administration to come speak on the bond and budget and answer questions for community members.
064Thank you to Drew, Andrew, and Eric, our building principals, facility staff, as well as my fellow board members for participating in these many, many community and school events the last few weeks, including three town halls complete with building tours of Fox Meadow and Edgewood. We also appreciate the feedback of those who attended our statutory budget hearing and to all those who have provided input into this year's budget process. And finally, I would like to echo Drew's early remarks from the tenure meeting with a thank you to our dedicated faculty, staff, and administrators. May 1st was principals day and on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to extend thanks to all of our building principals and assistant principals. Their vision guides our schools and we appreciate their strong leadership and commitment to our
065students, parents, and faculty and staff. This past week, May 4th through May 8th, was teacher and staff appreciation week. The dedication, creativity, and commitment shown by our teachers and staff have a profound impact on our students, and we express our gratitude for the transformative power of their work. This week, we also recognize Nurses Week. We thank them for the work they do every day to protect and promote student health. Thank you to all of our administrators, faculty, staff, and nurses for all that you do. Next on the agenda we will go to board member updates item 5.04 as Drew has already given his superintendent comment. Do we have any board updates at this time? Thank you, Leah. Thank you, Susie. I have three updates. On April 21st, Susie and I attended the third Health Care
066Committee meeting of the year. The group included district and building administrators, representatives from UMR, risk strategies, pharmacy reps, care consultants, teachers, retirees, and staff representatives. We looked at the PACE report, an overview of our medical costs year to date, and compared those to the prior year period. We looked at trends in claims and pharmacy. Our stop-loss insurance renews on September 1st. strategy says that they will look for different thresholds to present us this year. The final health care committee meeting of the year is at the end of June. My second report. On April 24th, I attended Scarsdale Middle School's Human Rights Day. Health teacher and event organizer Kara Foray showed me the various afternoon service learning opportunities for students. Activities included a session on service therapy dogs, garden bed prep for planting, and workshops with
067the Prospector Theater. We also saw students baking cookies to be donated in meal bags to Midnight Run, candle making for a donation to patients at White Plains Hospital, and a Keith Haring inspired art project to raise awareness of the serious harm caused by all acts of hate. Earlier in the day, grade level speakers included for the sixth graders. Dina Zuckerberg from an organization called My Face spoke to the children about bullying and the challenges of looking different. For seventh graders, Robert Levin, music and drumming enthusiast, spoke about starting a small school in a rural village in Ghana and led a drumming session. For the eighth grade, Danielle Boutin. SHS graduates spoke about capturing waste from healthcare and matching items to places in need around the world and for disaster relief. As we were finishing the
068tour, we saw an exercise called Empathy Immersion in the Great Hall during which students were seeing what simple tasks may be like if they were differently abled. Overall, it is incredible that our teachers and students set aside time to have these conversations and learning experiences to build empathy and to help those in need. And then my last report. is from the village. In addition to the village's annual Memorial Day traditions, there will be a new element to the parade this year in honor of America's 250th and Scarsdale's 325th anniversaries. The village has developed a children's float competition and I encourage residents to participate. The Memorial Day ceremony will be held on Monday, May 25th at 10 a.m. at Chase Park, immediately followed by the parade. Those interested in participating in the float competition may sign
069up via online form by May 15th. As per the village, floats should focus on patriotic themes. They must not be motorized and must be able to be pulled by hand, wagon, or cart. Please also join us for the village's 325th birthday bash on Sunday, May 31st, 9 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. in Chase Park. There will be activities and festivities for the whole family. Thank you. Thank you, Leah. Laura? Thank you, Suzy. I have one report. On Tuesday, April 28th, I attended the Take Back the Night rally in Chase Park, organized by the Scarsdale Safe Coalition, a task force of the Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Services. The event's sponsors and partners include Hope's Door, Junior League of Central Westchester, Scarsdale Public Library, Scarsdale Police Department, and other organizations. The program included welcome remarks, a reading of
070resilience, student musical performances provided by Friends of Music and the Arts, and by the Scarsdale High School Capella Group for good measure. There's also a very educational and inspiring keynote speech by local author, lawyer, and advocate Lauren Tentenbaum. Take Back the Night is a global movement dedicated to ending sexual violence in all its forms, including assault, abuse, trafficking, stalking, and relationship violence, while educating about consent and supporting survivors in their healing. As the evening fell, the organizers led audience members in a march around downtown, chanting messages of empowerment, support, and healing. We thank the organizers for this important and meaningful annual event and encourage everyone to learn more about sexual violence prevention on the Scarsdale-Edgmont Family Counseling Services website. Thank you, Laura. Colleen? Thank you, Susie. On Wednesday, April 29th, our community participated in Denim
071Day. Denim Day serves as a visible way to raise awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and the challenge harmful misconceptions surrounding sexual violence. Denim Day originated in response to a ruling by the Italian Supreme Court in which a rape conviction was overturned based on the belief that the victim's tight jeans implied consent. In response, the organization Peace Over Violence launched the Denim Day campaign, which has since become a global symbol of protests against destructive attitudes about sexual assault. Everyone has a role to play in preventing sexual violence in our community. Tonight, you will see our board members in denim to support this cause. Thank you to the Scarsdale-Edgemont Family Youth Outreach Workers and the SAFE Coalition for bringing awareness to such an important issue. My last... board update is a special one this year
072we've had the honor of welcoming two student board members to our team it has been such a pleasure working alongside them and gaining their valuable perspective anish our senior student board member will be graduating this june and attending john hopkins university this fall I'm getting emotional. You're not even my child. Anish, being able to share your final year in Scarsdale with you has been such a wonderful experience for all of us. We do this work so our students can learn, grow, and thrive, and you are exactly why we are here. I speak for the entire board when I say congratulations on your acceptance to Johns Hopkins. You worked incredibly hard, and that hard work has truly paid off. you should be so proud of yourself and all that you have accomplished. Moments like these deserve
073to be celebrated, so we wanted to take a moment to recognize you and your achievements. We have a little something from the board for you to take with you next year. We hope that whenever you use these items, it will remind you that the pride that your community has in you and that you will always have a home here in Scarsdale. Please come back and share all the amazing things we know you will accomplish in the future. Congratulations, Anish. We cannot wait to see all that lies ahead of you. And next actually on the agenda is Anish. Thank you, thank you. On April 14th, Lucy, who unfortunately wasn't able to attend today's meeting, and I held a presentation for the student body discussing the bond and its inner workings. We're glad to have had this
074opportunity to improve student perspectives on the bond, especially coupled with our senior voting registration initiatives for the 19th, as discussed in our report last meeting. Additionally, this past Wednesday, May 6th, we had the Student Awards Ceremony hosted by the Scarsdale High School administration, which was a great way to celebrate our peers with their variety of individual as well as community-inspired accomplishments involving academics, service, personal character, and more. For upcoming news, this Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 7 p.m., the Scarsdale High School Drama Club will be hosting the senior production of Grease. It would be great for all of you guys to attend. You can catch me in the pit orchestra. And on May 19th, the high school will be hosting the class elections for grades 10 through 12, as well as the ex-officio elections to replace
075me next year. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Anish. Next on the agenda, number six, cabinet updates. We're going to go a little out of order. I'm going to ask Megan to start with new hires. That's great. Yes, I'm excited this evening to welcome some new faces to Scarsdale. And if you don't mind standing, if you have a seat, and if you don't have a seat, if you can just, when I call your name, just put your hand up so we can fully recognize you. So first, I'd like to welcome Catherine Kate Beck, who will be the next Director of Counseling at Scarsdale High School. Kate holds an M.E.D. in school counseling and mental health counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University, an M.A. in secondary English from Seton Hall University, and a B.A. in
076English and visual arts from Union College. She's currently the director of college and post-secondary counseling at New York City iSchool. Over the course of her career, Kate has been both a leader in the field and a strong advocate for her students. This, combined with her high level of approachability and empathy, make her the right person to take on this role at Scarsdale High School. Congratulations, Kate. We're happy to welcome Megan, Maggie Donovan, as Scarsdale High School as an English teacher. Maggie? Maggie holds an MA in Teaching of English from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a BA in History from Boston College. She's currently teaching at CIS 303 Leadership and Community Service Academy in the Bronx. Maggie knows the Scarsdale School as well as an alumna who used to write sonnets in the chalk on our
077sidewalks. Alongside her former teachers, she'll be returning to share her love of English and her passion for immersive learning experiences. Congratulations and welcome home, Maggie. Welcome to Sophia Estevez who will join the middle school as a special education teacher. Sophia holds a master's in childhood and special education from Manhattanville University and a BS in integrative neuroscience from Binghamton University. Sophia is currently a leave replacement at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Scarsdale, and she has served as a leave replacement and teacher aide at Scarsdale Middle School for five years. During that time, Sophia has immersed herself in the Scarsdale community, looking to learn and to lead. She's looking forward to continuing that same path as a full-time special education teacher. Congratulations, Sophia. We welcome Brian Galdarisi who will be an art teacher at Scarsdale High School.
078Brian holds an MA in Visual Arts Education from CUNY Hunter College, an MFA in Photography from Yale University School of Art, and a BFA in Painting from Montserrat College of Art. He's currently teaching at the Master School in Dobbs Ferry. Brian values an inclusive environment and looks forward to supporting and inspiring the next generation of Scarsdale student artists. As a talented artist himself, he'll be an excellent role model for our students. Congratulations, Brian. A familiar face at Scarsdale Middle School, Brad Magnuson will become a probationary special education teacher. Dr. Magnuson recently earned his Ed.D. in educational leadership from the University of Bridgeport. He also holds an M.S. in special education from Quinnipiac University. Brad is currently teaching as a leave replacement special educator at the middle school. In a short period of time, he has
079earned a high level of respect from his colleagues, families, and students. Brad fosters a growth mindset among his students and himself as he seeks out both practical and scholarly learning. We are happy to have Brad continue on in this role. Congratulations, Brad. Welcome to Jason Weinstein, who will be an instrumental band teacher at the elementary level. Jason holds an MA in music education and a BA in music education from Montclair State University. He's currently teaching at Edith Bogart Elementary School at Upper Saddle, New Jersey. Beyond his many years of experience teaching music to students, Jason brings a positive and joyful energy to the classroom. This energy is truly contagious, even for adults sitting in a room with him. I look forward to seeing Jason in action with his students and colleagues next year. Welcome, Jason.
080And finally, we're also excited to announce that Scarsdale Middle School science teacher and department chair, Dr. Christy Brown, is on the agenda this evening to be appointed the next assistant principal of Scarsdale Middle School. She's unable to attend this evening, but we will attend our June meeting where we can fully welcome her to the new role. So congratulations, Christy, if you're watching. And while you are welcome to stay, all of our newly appointed faculty... Now is your time to exit as well. We know you have early mornings, and we appreciate you being here this evening, and thank you, and we look forward to seeing you next year. Have a great night. So while folks are leaving, I'll turn to the second cabinet update, which is a note that... We've identified the December and March elementary
081parent-teacher conference dates for next year. The calendars on the calendar page have been updated to reflect those dates, and we'll be pushing those dates out in this week's Friday 5, so there's an easy access to get to those new conference dates. And now I'll turn it over to Edgar. May 21st, 7 p.m., math scholar John San Giovanni will be presenting an elementary parent-facing webinar focusing on the science of math learning. He is a distinguished mathematics supervisor and National Council Teachers of Mathematics board member with extensive experience overseeing curriculum, assessment, and professional development, a best-selling author and graduate program coordinator and professor at McDaniel College. He is a recognized national leader in elementary mathematics instruction. He'll be with us to share the expert insights gained from his multifaceted career as a consultant, researcher, instructor, and frequent
082speaker at national conferences. An invitation and webinar link will be sent out to all the elementary families in the days ahead, including the Friday Five. And finally, Andrew. So the high school turf practice field is well underway. Weather has been on our side. We have installed all of the under drainage, and actually this afternoon they were paving the sidewalk. So we are about halfway through with the leveling stone installed, and on Monday we anticipate seeing the carpet starting to be installed. So weather really has been on our side, and the contractors are moving well in that project, so we're excited about that. In the south courtyard of the high school, on the east side of the courtyard, we've been actively doing our masonry restoration work. brick repointing that progress is also going well we've been
083coordinating closely with the high school administration to get some of that work done during the school day and it's been mostly not disruptive to any of the work of the building and we've made accommodations where we needed to so that contractor is gonna be moving to the middle school to address some drainage issues in their contract and then back here to the high school to do the asphalt stamped asphalt paving in the breezeway so we're excited about these these various improvements that are happening on schedule thank you so much are there any questions from the board actually i do have one quick question drew i was just wondering um have do we have a graduation date set for next year for uh 2027 yeah uh i believe we do i just don't have it off
084the top of my head um okay we'll get back asking for parents that might be curious about that for next year since we have the conference i know we do but yep thank you Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the board? Okay. And with that, we will be moving to hearing from those present, the first of two public comment sessions for this evening. Before we move into public comment, I'd like to be clear about how we will hold this space tonight. We are committed to holding space and making space for as many of you as possible. We welcome your comments and care about you. We know there are strong feelings in this room. Our goal is to make space for those feelings without allowing the public comments to be a cause of further
085fracture. Our work tonight is to listen to one another without allowing that hearing to become counterproductive. It is possible you may hear something that you disagree with profoundly, and that is okay and to be expected. We ask that you not speak out unless it is your turn to comment. and refrain from outbursts whether of support or disapproval that disrupt the order of the meeting or interrupt those who have the floor. We invite you to share what's in your heart and in your mind as opposed to responding to each other. As a reminder, we do not allow language that targets or demeans any individual or group. There will be no ad hominem attacks. Mentioning individual faculty members or students is not permitted. Any names of personnel or minor children mentioned will be deleted from the video
086recording of this meeting. These boundaries are in place to protect the integrity of this space and the people in it. Per our regulations, when it is your turn to speak, please state your name, address, and if you are speaking on behalf of an institution or organization. Each speaker will have a total of four minutes with a warning at the three-minute mark to ensure that as many voices as possible can be heard. We will hold firmly to that time limit. When time is up, the alarm will sound and we will not allow for extended time. For those joining on Zoom, if you exceed the four minute limit, we will use the mute function. The first of two business meeting comment periods will have a 90 minute overall limit. A second comment period later in the meeting
087will also have a four minute individual speaker limit, but have no overall time limit. All are also invited to email the board at boardofed at scarsdaleschools.org. We encourage you as much as possible to speak from your own experience, from the I perspective. Each of you is the expert in your own lived experience, and that is what we most want to hear. We also encourage constructive suggestions that will inform how we move forward together. I'm going to pause for a moment and ask for your agreement, whether here in the room or on Zoom. to honor that time so that everyone has the opportunity to be heard. We are one community doing our best to educate our students to be successful and contributing members of society. There is tremendous wisdom in this room and our hope is
088to leverage that wisdom for the benefit of our children. This is an opportunity for all of us to model civil dialogue, thoughtful engagement, and respect even and especially when we disagree. Together we can build the community we want to model for our children. Our students are watching and I am confident we can meet this moment with grace and compassion for each other. And to our students who are here tonight, a special thank you to you. We know it is not easy to be here, especially on a Monday evening, and we are genuinely eager to hear your voices. You are also subject to the four minute time limit. So to begin our first public comment period of this meeting, would anyone from the audience like to come up to the podium and speak? Gabriel Green, 24th
089Stonehouse. Good evening. My name is Gabriel Green, and I am the president and founder of the Scarsdale High School Israeli Culture Club. There is a myth circulating in our community that the recent anti-Semitic incident at the high school was an isolated event. It was not. It simply was the loudest, most visible version of a pattern that has been minimized for years, dismissed as nothing more than students making poor choices. Over the past three years, I have written letters, stood at this very podium, and met district leaders to highlight the rising hostility toward Jewish and Israeli students. Each time, I offered a warning. If you treat anti-Semitism as something too complicated or uncomfortable, it will get worse. And it did. We are told that anti-Zionism is a just political expression, but that theory collapses when it
090is used to target students. Look at the facts. Posters for the Israeli Culture Club, official, approved materials for an approved event, weren't just removed. They were vandalized, discarded, and shoved into a urinal. There is no political expression in a urinal. There is only intent, and that intent was to humiliate. It was a message to every Jewish and Israeli student in Scarsdale. Your identity is dirty. Your identity is disposable. You can be ripped down, defaced, and thrown away. And yet, in a bitter twist of logic, it wasn't the vandals who were held to account. It was the Israeli culture club that became the focus of the blame. This isn't just a failure of policy. It is a failure of moral duty. There were comments about the map on our flyer, as if a graphic could somehow
091explain or excuse such a disgusting act. Let me be very clear. You cannot condemn an anti-Semitic act and then immediately gut that combination by suggesting that the targeted students invited it. The flyer featured the official map of the state of Israel. But we know the truth. If it hadn't been the map, it would have been the word Israel. If not the word, then our Independence Day, and if not that, then the mere existence of our club. Because the issue? It was never the flyer. The issue is that a culture has taken root here. One where Jewish identity is fair game for harassment, and where Jewish students are expected to absorb that hate in silence. That is the culture we must confront. Our club was founded to do the opposite. We didn't create this group to
092divide. We created it to build bridges. We share food, music, history, and pride. We worked with every administrator and followed every rule. And still our identity ended up in a urinal. So I asked this board, what does it tell students when those who follow the rules are the ones forced to defend themselves? When other groups feel unsafe, this district knows how to speak with moral clarity. But when Jewish students feel unsafe, the language becomes careful. When Israeli students are targeted, the outrage becomes political. And when anti-Semitism hides behind anti-Zionism, the resolve of this administration suddenly falters. That hesitation... is part of the problem. I must also ask, why did this board never seek to hear from us directly? We were the ones walking those hallways in the aftermath and carrying the weight of that hostility.
093This brings me to the upcoming budget. I'm looking for more than an acknowledgement that a problem exists. I want to understand exactly how this budget will fund initiatives to directly combat anti-Semitism and provide education on Jewish history using accurate, factual, and uncompromising materials. We need a plan delivered with clarity and courage. We need a clear message that Jewish and Israeli students are not a complicated exception to this district's promise of safety. We are part of this community. We are your students, and we deserve to be protected without hesitation, just like every other group in this district. It is time for this board to show us, through your budget, your words, and your actions, that all students actually means all students. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm Asa Afzal, and I'm a Scarce jail resident
094for close to 20 years at 72 Palmer Avenue. I was deeply disappointed to see Mr. Duggan stepping down as president. It has taken me some days to collect my thoughts on recent events as the social media commentary has taken a life of its own. I'm very concerned that he had been forced to step down in his role without any due process being followed. I was under the impression that under the New York education law, a board member cannot be removed from their role simply because of a petition or a community outcry. Mr. Dugan himself has done no violation and neglect of duty, to my knowledge. It's a prime example of guilt by association. That too because of something a child liked on someone else's social media account. If we all had to pay for what
095our teenagers do, none of us will have a job. I cannot understand why he is being made to be responsible and liable personally for a teenager's action. A minor's social media post is not official misconduct by a parent in their official capacity, and more pressure should not bypass these rules. Secondly, I have real concerns over the board and school's ability to protect the children affected under DASA and 2026 cyberbullying laws. The vitriol that I have seen online directed at Mr. Duggan and his children and indeed the children involved in the actual incident had concerned me greatly. Scarstale District is legally mandated to protect all children from a hostile environment. If adults in the community are lambasting a minor online in a way that interferes with their education or mental well-being, then the District DASA Commissioner
096must investigate without implicit bias all such events. Even today. I see us using a generic against all hate speech without addressing the Islamophobic events and microaggressions that have happened over the last few years in Scarsdale schools. It is our role as caregivers to provide the support and guidance to all our children, not just press some into submission. Students are permitted to have differing views and be taught how to communicate those in a civil and respectful manner. I'm amazed that adults who pride themselves on belonging to a liberal democratic society and stand for personal freedoms are all for vilifying free speech by cyberbullying and doxing children when it does not agree with their worldview. When we suppress others' freedoms, we pay with our own very soon. We should teach ourselves and our children how to discuss
097those views in a civil manner and respectful manner without fear of reprisal. What seems to be lacking are options for students to discuss these issues and form their opinions without being labeled and vilified in the community. There should be some avenues for teaching all staff and students alike on how to share contrary positions and encourage the ability to listen to those positions. Free speech rights should not be extinguished and only one view being publicly permitted. The politics behind the issues are divisive, but the social media bullying that has happened in this and previous instances has been quite frankly shocking and extraordinary. I believe more needs to be done to remind the wider community what is and isn't permitted behavior when minors are involved. Those behaviors should be applied consistently no matter what the viewpoint is.
098If an expression of an ethnicity and a wish for equality creates fear instead of introspection, maybe our moral compass needs to be fixed. Finally, I wish to end my remarks with my personal thanks and expression of concern to Mr. Dugan directly. He and his family do not deserve the comments I have seen. His apology was wonderfully written, apt, and struck exactly the right note. I am sad and disheartened to see him step down in these circumstances. I hope he continues to see out the reminder of his time in good stead. Thank you. Can we please refrain from clapping after a comment? Thank you. That goes for everybody. Sorry I didn't hear that. Good evening. My name is Tuskeen Hamidullah Ball. I live at 26 Ridgecrest East and I'm the mother of a school middle schooler.
099I would like to address the recently published guidelines for student expression at school sponsored events and ask the board for some clarifications. While parts of the guideline are consistent with rules generally followed by public schools restricting obscenity, libel, discriminatory language, sections of the sections of the policy raise potential First Amendment concerns. In particular, the language around political advocacy and messaging raises First Amendment concerns for several reasons. Firstly, the term political advocacy is open to interpretation. My daughter regularly wears a keffiyeh hijab to school. This is not inherently a political symbol. It's a cultural garment with deep roots in Arab life, worn for generations by people all over the Middle East. Yet several Scarsdale residents have weaponized this garment, treating it as a political tool and even going so far as to offensively characterize it as
100a symbol of terrorism. Within the context of a school-sponsored event, who decides if wearing a keffiyeh is a form of political advocacy versus what it actually symbolizes, appreciation of Middle Eastern culture and Muslim culture? Secondly, Political advocacy encompasses a very wide range of student expressions, everything from I stand with Ukraine to I stand with Israel to free Palestine. It would include the recent anti-ICE protest held at Scarsdale High School. It would also include the Liberty in North Korea student club at the high school. Are you planning on banning all such expressions held on school premises, as surely these fall within the description of school-sponsored? Will you allow some political speech because it's convenient or popular while banning other types? What standards will be applied to what kind of speech and where will you draw the
101line? Finally, how will you define disruption? Just because a point of view is controversial or unpopular does not mean it is also disruptive. My daughter wearing a sweatshirt with a watermelon, a dove, and the statement, no one is free until everyone is free, was not disruptive. The school play continued and ended peacefully. No one in the audience shouted. There was no commotion during the event. In fact, after the fact, a group of residents complained, but none of this actually disrupted the actual event that all students took part in and completed successfully, nor did it impede any student's educational pursuit or experience. I'd like to end on a personal note. My middle schooler has been the subject of cyberbullying for the last year and a half. She has been photographed, her picture widely circulated on social
102media without consent by adults in this town. There have been calls on Facebook to deport her, an American citizen who has the same rights as every person in this room. Threats have been made to find out where she lives so that her family can be taught a lesson. She has been shamefully called out in a district-wide email saying she has caused harm to her community. By sending this email, the administration has put a target on her back, threatening her safety, her well-being, and her educational experience. The primary responsibility of this administration is to protect the physical and emotional well-being of all students. By failing to stand up for my daughter, the school administration has failed not only our family, but its broader duty to safeguard all the students entrusted to this care. This failure reflects
103a deeply troubling lack of urgency, accountability, and attention to student safety. It is time for this district to stop prioritizing the comfort of adults over the protection of children and to fulfill the fundamental obligation to create a safe, supportive, and equitable educational environment for all students. Thank you. Thank you. Let's please refrain from the clapping. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Hila Sevier and I'm speaking tonight as a student who cares deeply about the climate of our school and the way Jewish and Israeli students are treated in this community. I live at 31 Rugby Lane. When approved Israeli Culture Club posters were torn down, vandalized, and thrown into urinals, that was not just a piece of paper being destroyed. It was a message. It was a message that Jewish and Israeli students, that our
104identity can be mocked. That our culture can be degraded. That something connected to Israel can be treated as dirty, disposable, and shameful. And that is why this incident hurt so much. The Israeli Culture Club was not created to divide people. It was created to share culture, food, music, language, community, and pride. It was created so students could learn about Israel as a real place with real people and real culture, not just a headline or a conflict. So when posters for that kind of event end up in urinals, students understand what that means. The humiliation was the point. And after something like that happens, students notice everything. We notice whether adults name it clearly. We notice whether people minimize it. We notice whether the conversation shifts from harm done to the students to whether the students
105somehow caused the harm. That is one of the most painful parts because instead of only asking how did the Jewish and Israeli students feel when they saw this, people started asking questions about the fire, the map, and how it may have been perceived. But no student group should have to defend its existence after being targeted. No student group should have to prove that its culture is acceptable enough to be protected. And no student should walk through school wondering whether their identity is something the district will protect clearly or something that becomes complicated the moment it involves Israel. When hate is not named clearly, students learn from that. They learn what is tolerated. They learn what gets excused. They learn which students are protected immediately and which students are asked to wait while adults find the
106perfect language. Jewish and Israeli students should not have to shrink ourselves to make other people comfortable. We should not have to hide our pride. We should not have to explain why humiliation hurts. We should not have to wonder whether our pain will be treated as political. This incident was not only about posters, it was about dignity. It was about whether Jewish and Israeli students are allowed to feel fully safe, fully seen, and fully included in our school community. And the district's response now matters because students, we are watching. We are watching to see whether this becomes another incident that people talk about for a few weeks and then move on from. Or whether this becomes the moment when the district finally says clearly and without hesitation that Jewish and Israeli students are not a complicated
107exception to the values this school claims to stand for. So tonight, I'm asking the board and the district to respond with clarity. Not just sympathy, not just statements, not just carefully chosen perfect words, but actions that show students that our dignity matters. Because if this happened to another student group, I believe the response would be immediate and unmistakable. Jewish and Israeli students deserve that same clarity. We are part of this non-Sibi community, and we deserve to feel safe. respected and protected in it. Thank you. Good evening my name is Alia Hamidullah Ball I'm an 8th grader and I live at 26 Ridgecrest East. Today I'd like to address the new school policy around clothing for school sponsored events. I understand that schools have responsibility to maintain order and ensure that students feel safe but this
108policy goes beyond maintaining order. It restricts peaceful political expression and that raises serious concerns about students First Amendment rights. If schools ban political speech selectively, it creates a dangerous double standard. Would clothing supporting another country or cause also be banned? Would shorts supporting Ukraine, climate action, or women's rights be prohibited too? If not, then this policy is not about neutrality. It's about restricting a specific viewpoint. I find it especially interesting that after teaching us in the seventh grade about the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, where it was ruled that students do not, quote, shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate, you expect us not to apply these lessons to real life. It's illogical, considering we're a whole year older and truly unfair. A keffiyeh is not
109a weapon. A shirt that says Free Palestine is not violence. These are forms of expression, and for many students, including myself, They represent identity, culture, human right concerns, or political beliefs, all things we as students are encouraged to speak about. Students should not be punished simply because their message is controversial or unpopular. Schools should be a place where students learn how to think critically and engage respectfully with difficult issues, not places where students are taught to stay silent about them. We should be able to talk about complex issues in schools without worrying about censorship. For me personally, school is not just about learning from a textbook. It's about dealing with day-to-day issues, finding yourself, and forming your beliefs. As a young girl who wears hijab, I'm already the odd one out and often feel very
110insecure about it. But clothing has allowed me to express myself and gain confidence. While the staff and teachers have always been super supportive of my First Amendment right, by calling me out and putting this policy in place, the school board has now, once again, made me feel all alone. I asked the school to reconsider this policy and create guidelines that protect both safety and free expression equally for everyone. Students should not have to hide their identity, culture, or political beliefs to participate in school events. Thank you. Hi, my name is Tia Mukamal. I'm a senior at Scarsdale High School, and I also live in Scarsdale. Good evening. My name is Tia, and I'm a Jewish student at Scarsdale High School with many friends and family members who live in Israel. I'm speaking tonight because I
111want to talk about what it feels like when Israeli students are targeted, but the response becomes careful, cautious, or political. As a Jewish student, this issue is not abstract to me. Israel is not just a topic in the news. It's not just something people debate in classrooms or argue about online. It's a part of my identity, my family, my culture, my language, and my story. So when Israeli identity is mocked, erased, or humiliated in school, It does not feel like a political disagreement. It feels personal. And that is why the way the district speaks about this incident matters so much. When other students feel unsafe, the district usually knows how to speak clearly. The language is direct. The harm is named. The message is simple. This is not acceptable. But when Jewish students feel unsafe,
112the language often becomes careful. When Israeli students are targeted, the issue suddenly becomes political. When anti-Semitism appears through anti-Zionism, people hesitate. That hesitation sends a message. It tells Jewish and Israeli students that our pain needs extra explanation. It tells us that our identity is somehow more controversial than other identities. It tells us that before people can fully stand with us, they first need to debate whether our hurt is valid. That's not fair. No student should have to prove that their identity deserves respect. The Israeli Culture Club event was approved. The students planning it followed every rule, and still, posters connected to Israeli culture were ripped down, vandalized, and thrown into urinals. That was not just about paper. It was a message to Israeli students. It said their identity could be treated as dirty, disposable, and
113unwelcome. And what hurt even more was watching people shift conversation towards the flyer, the map, or how it might have been perceived. But Israeli students should not have to defend the existence of Israel every time we try and celebrate Israeli culture. We should be able to share our food, music, language, history, and traditions without people treating our identity as provocation. That is the double standard I want the district to understand. If another culture club had its thruster thrown into urinals, no one would begin debating whether the postal was too controversial. They would name the harm, they would support the students, and they would act clearly. Jewish and Israeli students deserve that same clarity. We are not asking the district to take a political side. We are asking the district to protect the students. We are
114asking the district to understand that when anti-Zionism becomes a way to target, shame, or isolate Jewish and Israeli students, it becomes anti-Semitism. We are asking the district not to hesitate when it happens because hesitation is not neutral. Hesitation teaches students that this kind of behavior is complicated instead of wrong. It teaches students that Israeli identity is something that can be questioned, mocked, or punished. It teaches Jewish and Israeli students that we may be protected only after everyone feels comfortable naming what happened. That has to change. I want to feel that when Israeli students are targeted, the district will speak with the same strength and clarity it would use for any other group of students. I want to feel that my identity is not treated as a political problem. I want to feel that being Israeli
115at Scarstow High School does not mean having to explain, defend, or shrink a part of myself. The district has a responsibility to make that clear, not carefully, not hesitantly, not vaguely, not only after public pressure, clearly and immediately. because Israeli and Jewish students are part of this community and our dignity, safety, and identity deserve to be protected without hesitation. My name is Zaid Balbalay and I live at 48 Taunton Road. I'm in 8th grade and found in house at SMS. I'm part of the Compact Committee, Community Council, and SMS Press. I'm here because I have questions about the new guidelines for student speech at school-sponsored events. Throughout my years at Scarsdale School District, I have learned about many controversial things, from our mock presidential election at Edgewood in 5th grade, to conversations in 7th grade
116social studies about past Supreme Court cases. Today in social studies, we are learning about the importance of dissent. We have been taught to work with historical sources, to evaluate new sources critically, to develop opinions and defend them, and to think for ourselves, and not to succumb to herd mentality. We have also been taught that we should not work for ourselves alone, but for the benefit of those around us and less fortunate than us, and to stand up for those moral beliefs and defend the defenseless. The new guidelines state that their goal is to maintain school-sponsored activities as inclusive, respectful experiences. This is a great goal, but the guidelines raise several questions for me. Number one, what counts as a school-sponsored event? Is a club meeting after school one? A club meeting during lunch period at
117school? A classroom lesson? Does being in the audience of a sporting event or performance require the following dress code? What count does political advocacy in messaging? Would a student wearing a pride pin be told to remove it or face sanctions? How about a t-shirt for a political candidate or a relating social issue, like one that says no one is illegal or ban bigots, not books? Are any clothes or symbols that relate to nations not allowed? American flags? Those of any other country? Can we express criticism of the U.S. government and its policies? How about the policies of any other country? Who decides what counts as political and what counts as controversial? If a teacher or administrator decides that something a student says or wears is divisive, does the student have any appeal to this decision?
118As you might guess from these questions, I am worried that by creating these new guidelines with such vague ideas at their center, the school is limiting our ability as students to do what you have taught us to do. Can we read about controversial topics in history or in the world today and come up with and express our opinions? Can we stand up for the issues we believe in? Or are the lessons you have taught us only for us to use in the privacy of our own homes? It seems awfully sad if Scarsdale schools now say only topics everyone agrees on can be discussed in school. Thank you. Please. Jake, my name is Jake Knell, 121 Carthage Road in Heathcote. I grew up in Scarsdale, attended Scarsdale High School, and moved back to town in 2006.
119I have to say that I'm shocked and disappointed by the recent number of anti-Semitic events in the high school. Growing up in Scarsdale, I can't recall any anti-Semitic incidents in Scarsdale or any school that I attended. And although we now live in different times, I can't believe that I'm seeing this here. While I understand that at least some of these incidents have been addressed by disciplinary actions, my concern again is the number of incidents that have occurred in a short period of time. Aside from the recent episode, I heard from a number of students and saw a video of a disturbing situation at Jabberwocky where one of the students mocked and yelled, Excuse me, we do not talk about specific students. If I'm wrong about this fact, I'm sorry. But it seems that the general
120consensus around town Finally, I also was told of a number of teachers in the A school that have been defending this recent action by free speech. Excuse me, we do not talk about personality either. Thank you. Please limit your comments. So my concern and the reason why I stand here today is to make sure that you're doing enough to put an end to these anti-Semitic acts at Scarcell High School. From a communication that I believe came from the BOE, there's been some talk about teaching or further educating the students about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Holocaust, which although may help, may just not do enough to stop this type of behavior. Unfortunately, some of this behavior is learned at home, and much of it is from lies shared on the Internet. And while I don't
121stand here with any recommendations for you, I really believe that you must think long and hard to make some serious changes that are actually going to do something to stop this heinous behavior. And the punishments must be more severe and handled in the same way that it would be handled if it were done to other minorities in the communities and not just the Jewish community. Keep order, please. Good evening. My name is Sophia Khan. I live at 54 Butler Road. I'd like to preface by saying that none of this is about teachers. It's about curriculum and materials. I am here tonight to express concern about the curriculum and classroom environment at our high school and in particular at the A school and the impact it's having on Jewish students. I believe that education should expose
122students to different perspectives and encourage critical thinking. Accordingly, I am not advocating a pro-Israel point of view, but rather am taking issue with unopposed anti-Israel points of view espoused by some people. In one set of materials I reviewed, There was curriculum that characterized Jews and Israelis as colonizers, presenting the complex historical and political issue through a singular ideological lens, with little acknowledgement of the history of anti-Semitism and genocide that shaped the creation of the modern state of Israel, nor of Jewish indigeneity. Instead of encouraging students to grapple with complexity, the curriculum reductively presented the conflict through an oppressor versus oppressed mindset. Such teaching sows division and does not create informed young citizens. Indeed, we have begun to see the consequences of this, and we should change course as soon as possible. As I discussed at
123the last meeting, our Israel Fest posters celebrating Jewish and Israeli culture were torn down. In another instance, a student stated that Jews just want to get rich and kill Palestinians, invoking one of the oldest anti-Semitic stereotypes in history. And reportedly, nothing happened. Later, the same person wore a makeshift KKK-style mask. Excuse me, please redirect your comments. No one believes that this is the culture that we aspire to, but it is arguably a direct consequence of classroom rhetoric that frames Jewish identity through oppression and colonialism. If students learn to attach terms like colonizer, settler, apartheid, or oppressor to Israel without learning about Jewish history, Jewish displacement from the various countries in the Middle East, terrorism against Israeli citizens, or centuries of anti-Semitism, it cannot be surprising that they sometimes come away with negative feelings towards Israel
124and indeed Jews. I advocate teaching about the Middle East with nuance, that Israelis and Palestinians both have histories, traumas, and humanity. that disagreement is acceptable, and that no political discussion should ever justify hatred toward Jews or Muslims. Let us do what we can to foster an environment that promotes peace and goodwill. Having thought about it further, I am asking this board to conduct a full review of classroom materials and instruction related to Israel and the Middle East. We should develop standards to ensure that controversial topics are taught with balance, historical context, and intellectual diversity, not activism disguised as education. On sensitive topics, there should be transparency about what is taught so that Scarsdale citizens with differing perspectives can at least know what is being taught to their children. As of now, it is nearly impossible
125to audit perspectives taught in our classrooms and to hold the faculty accountable for how topics are presented and for meeting minimum Holocaust education standards. Also, I submit that non-history teachers should not be discussing these sensitive topics. I know of instances where science and English teachers have espoused adverse perspectives about Israel. That is not right. Jewish students deserve to feel safe and express their identity, culture, and connection to Israel without fear of ridicule, hostility, or isolation. Thank you for your time. Good evening. My name is Emma Bedell, and I live at 140 Fox Meadow Road. I'm speaking tonight because I want to talk about what it felt like as a student to see what happened to the Israeli Culture Club posters. Personally, I am a proud Jew, and I am an unapologetic supporter of Israel. When
126I first heard and saw that the posters had been ripped down, vandalized, and thrown into urinals, I felt horrified. Not just disappointed, not just uncomfortable, horrified. Because those posters were not just pieces of paper. They represented students. They represented a club. They represented Jewish and Israeli classmates who were trying to create something positive in our school community. And seeing them treated that way sends a painful message. It made it feel like Israeli identity could be mocked, degraded, and thrown away. It made it feel like Jewish students could follow the rules, get approval, plan an event, and still have their identity taken away in one of the most disgusting ways possible. That should disturb every person in this room. This was not just vandalism. It was not just students making a bad decision. It was an
127act that made students feel targeted, unsafe, and unwelcome in their own school. And as a student, what scares me is not only the incident itself, it is the question of what happens afterward. Because if something like this happens and the response is not clear, strong, and immediate, then students notice. They notice whether adults name it directly. They notice when there are consequences. They notice whether the students who were hurt are supported. they notice whether the school treats this as a serious act of hate or just another disciplinary issue. And that matters because the way the district responds teaches the entire student body what is acceptable. If the response is vague, students learn that anti-Semitism can be minimized. If the response is slow, students learn that Jewish and Israeli students have to wait to be protected.
128If the response focuses more on controversy than on harm done, students learn that the victims are the ones who have to explain themselves. That cannot be the message. No student should walk into school and wonder whether their identity will be respected. No student should have to see a part of their culture or community thrown into a urinal. No student should feel that their pain is being debated instead of addressed. Scarsdale High School is supposed to be a place where students feel safe to learn, lead, and express who they are. But safety is not something the district can promise after an incident. It has to be something students actually feel every day. That requires proper action. It requires a response that is clear enough for students to understand and strong enough for students to believe. It
129requires real consequences, real education, and real support for the students who are affected. It requires teachers and administrators to know exactly what to do when anti-Semitism appears, not only after it has become public, but the moment it happens. I'm asking the board and the district to treat this with the seriousness it deserves. Not because Jewish and Israeli students are asking for special treatment, but because they deserve the same protection, dignity, and respect as every other student. What happened was horrifying, but what happens next will show students what this district truly stands for. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Scarlett Doerr. I live at 7 Lenox Place, and I'm a senior at Scarsdale High School. I'm speaking tonight because I want to focus on something that has made this entire situation with the Israeli Culture
130Club five year even more painful, the qualifiers. After the Israeli Culture Club posters were torn down, vandalized, and thrown into urinals, the response should have been simple and clear, that it was wrong, it was hateful, it was anti-Semitic, and it targeted Jewish and Israeli students. But instead, the conversation became qualified. people began talking about the flyer, people began talking about the map, talking about how the poster may have been perceived. And I want to say clearly, that kind of qualification is dangerous. Because when an act of anti-Semitism is immediately followed by a but, the message to Jewish and Israeli students is that our pain is conditional. It tells us that people... That before people can fully condemn what happened, they first need to debate whether somehow we caused it. That is not how hate should
131be addressed. If posters for any other cultural club had been thrown into urinals, I don't think the first conversation would be whether the poster was designed too controversial. The first conversation would have been about the students who were targeted and the harm that was done. Jewish and Israeli students deserve that same clarity. The map on the flyer was an official map of the state of Israel, but the larger issue is that it should not matter. A map does not justify vandalism. A student club poster does not justify humiliation. Israeli identity does not justify harassment. And honestly, if it had not been the map, it would have been something else. It would have been the word Israel, or Israeli Independence Day, or it would have been the flag. It could have simply been the existence of
132the club itself. That is why the district needs to understand anti-Semitism. anti-Zionism more clearly. Criticism of a government or policy is one thing, but when anti-Zionism becomes a way to target Jewish students, shame Israeli students, reject Israeli identity, or treat the existence of Israel as something uniquely offensive, it crosses the line. At that point, it's not just political expression. It becomes anti-Semitism. And when adults hesitate to say that, students notice. They notice when anti-Semitism is treated as complicated. They notice when Israeli students are treated as controversial. They notice when the harm done to Jewish students is softened, explained around, or qualified. That hesitation teaches students the wrong lesson. It teaches them that anti-Semitism can be excused if it is framed as anti-Zionism. It teaches them that Israeli identity is not protected the same way other
133identities are. It teaches Jewish and Israeli students that we have to defend ourselves even after we are the ones targeted. That is not acceptable. The district does not need to take a political position to protect students. It needs to take a moral one. It needs to say that Jewish and Israeli students deserve safety, dignity, and respect. It needs to say that anti-Zionism becomes anti-Semitism when it is used to harass, isolate, shame, or intimidate Jewish and Israeli students. It needs to say that no student's identity should be treated as an excuse for hate. So my ask tonight is simple. Stop qualifying anti-Semitism. Name it clearly. Respond to it directly. Protect Jewish and Israeli students consistently. And make sure the district's language, guidelines, and actions reflect that understanding. Because when response to hate comes with hesitation, the
134harm continues. And Jewish and Israeli students deserve way better of a response than with a but. Thank you. Hello, my name is Sam Weston. I live on 26 Taunton Road, and I'm speaking on behalf of the alternative school seniors. I'd like to preface by saying I'm not a very good public speaker, so bear with me. And also, we've been talking about a lot of tense things for about 40 minutes now, so I'd like every, or I'd encourage everybody to take a deep breath because I applaud everybody for being able to do this. I'm a student at SHS, a member of the alternative school, Jewish, and... Friend of the individual involved in this issue as some of you may know the student actually no I'm not gonna say that I'm standing here. Sorry The rules and
135guidelines. I don't want to say that I'm standing here on my own free will in order to speak on behalf of all of our community members and teachers Above all else we as a community do not have never and will never condone these actions Our teachers do everything in their power to make the alternative school the best possible environment for every everybody involved in the program The point being is our teachers and community members have done all that we can to help this student and it is completely unfair to shift any blame onto our community or the teachers we all cherish dearly. Excuse me, let's not talk about... The best way I can describe how valuable the A school is in helping students and teachers alike is process these raw and complex emotions is by
136telling you that in a single class period we spent openly discussing the incident. We had a more positive effect on all of our community than the countless conversations that I've either taken part in or read online. I believe that these calm discussions is where everyone is on equal grounds and allow us to truly understand what impacts our actions have on others. The only reason we had this opportunity to discuss the incident is because of the incredible environment that we as a community have created and the faculty have allowed for. During our humanities classes, our teachers generously scrapped their lessons plans in order to give us the time to talk about this issue, an opportunity which us as students were very grateful to have. We, with the help of our teachers, have created a space where
137people are able to express their feelings, opinions, and critiques of others without the fear of being lashed out against. And as a quick side note, during these conversations... Normally in the A school we snap to agree with people, but during conversations where we talk about things that are tense, we motion to not snap or in this case clap. I would motion everybody to please stop clapping at the end of comments because it can be hard if you don't get claps or something like that, but it's also been said a bunch of times. So please guys stop clapping. Anyways, I have the utmost gratitude for all that I've received from the alternative school and the teachers in it, and this does not change that fact. This incident does not change that fact. All I can ask
138is that everyone in the larger community that is Scarsdale not tie the alternative school to the reasoning behind this truly awful act. This community has benefited hundreds of students like myself in indescribable ways over the years of its existence, and I would truly be devastated if this issue were the reason for its demise. I personally am a second generation a-schooler and I'm on top of that filling as many leadership roles as I can in the community and would be happy to respond to any questions about the program and how we handle conversations like the one I discussed. Finally, I would like to extend thanks to all the board members and administration for all that you have done to assist both the high school and the alternative school throughout this issue. Thank you. Don't clap. I'm
139Michael Krasner, grandfather to Zaid and Kareem 48 Taunton. In addition to my personal connection, I bring the concerns of a long-time educator to the recent developments in Scarsdale's superb public schools. The current controversy over alleged incidents of anti-Semitism raises many of the same issues I encountered during 50 years of teaching political science at Queens College. and 30 years of working with high school teachers as the director of the Taft Institute for Government and Civic Education. The great danger in the current situation is conflating criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism. This indiscriminate usage threatens our freedom of speech, inflames passions, and polarizes and divides communities. Considering a couple of examples will show you that this conflation is absurd. In the days before October 7th, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews protested the policies of the
140Netanyahu government. Were they anti-Semites? Or consider the thousands of American Jews like myself who oppose the Netanyahu government's criminal attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Are we also anti-Semites? The answer is obvious. Applying this label to incidents in Scarsdale schools deemed anti-Semitic is also highly problematic. The incident that's been referred to several times tonight, where posters were torn down and thrown into a urinal, is a case in point. Was this offensive? Absolutely. Was it wrong? Definitely. Was it reprehensible? Of course. Was it anti-Semitic? Not so clear because the map on that poster was itself provocative. It included in Israel the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and parts of Lebanon, all denied to Israel by international law. So we can say for sure that the actions of throwing those posters into the toilets,
141into the urinals. were the actions of angry teenagers. But were they anti-Semitic? I doubt it. Anti-Semitism means a pervasive hatred of Jews. We can't know what the motivation of those students were unless we do an in-depth investigation, but my hunch is that they are not that kind of anti-Semite. Similar points apply to other incidents. They show the difficulty and the danger of this conflation. I would add one personal example to illustrate how my own experience has offered me firsthand examples of antisemitism. I grew up during the Cold War in a small city with an extreme right-wing atmosphere. fostered by the most virulently anti-communist daily newspaper in the United States. They actually called President Eisenhower an active, knowing agent of the communist conspiracy. In high school, I organized a protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee,
142which led to carloads of students driving by me and saying, we'll get you, you effing kike. This is by way of saying... I think I know anti-Semitism when I see it. And none of the actions so far in Scarsgale seems even close to me. Thank you. Please refrain from clapping. Thank you. Hi, my name is Eli Zargari. I am a junior at Scarsgale High School. I'm going to have to just go a little impromptu for a second. The actions and the scenarios that happened in the past weeks. were anti-semitic because they were taking a poster of the Jewish state of an event where we were celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut, the independence of our nation, and pissing on it in the urinal. That is anti-semitic. The one state that was built for the Jewish people and you
143piss on a map of it, whether the map is disputed or not, that is anti-Semitic. It is anti-Semitic because it was targeting Jews. It was anti-Semitic not because there's a war going on right there and people have different opinions, but it is anti-Semitic because they are targeting a people. Right? That's our homeland. If in the Chinese culture club, someone took... You know, like someone took a picture of China, a map of China, and they put it in the urinal and they pissed on it. Would that not be anti-Chinese? Would that not be anti-Chinese? Just because there are debates about the Chinese government, would that still not be anti-Chinese sentiment? Would that still not be bigoted and racist? That is what it feels like to us. Now, continuing on my speech. From comments I overhear in
144the hallway to jokes people dismiss as harmless, One remark can turn into something much, much larger at Scarsdale High School. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment isn't just expressed on social media or in the events we witnessed a couple of weeks ago, but it has a very, very large but soft presence in our halls. The climate we are living in makes me, a proud Jew with much love for our country, feel unsafe. I shouldn't have to be careful. Careful about what I say, what I repost, what symbol I wear around my neck, what opinions I express to my own teachers. No student at Scarsdale High School should feel unsafe, whether they're wearing hijab or Magen David. That's where we are right now, and it's, quite frankly, disappointing. The Israeli Culture Club is meant to be a normal
145student club, a place where students can celebrate culture, food, music. But instead the club has been treated by some people as if its existence is automatically political or provocative. This is quite honestly exhausting. As someone who transferred from LaFelle in 10th grade, a private Jewish day school, to Scarsdale in 10th grade, the past couple of weeks have been so incredibly disappointing for me. I came to this district wanting to have a safe community, wanting to experience the public school life. And as a Jew, This is disgusting. I trusted this community not just to be reactive, but also be preventative. I didn't come to Scarsdale to convince people over and over and over again that my people deserve to have their own state or that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, all this. I didn't come here to do
146this. I came here to learn. I came here to make friends. I came here to prepare for college. We shouldn't have to do this. I shouldn't have to be here. Adults, not students, need to recognize the warning signs before an incident becomes public. Teachers need to know how to respond. When comments are made in classrooms, hallways, or online. Teachers need to be taught how to be unbiased. The district must treat anti-Semitism with the same clarity and urgency as every other hate. We are asking to be just as respected and safe as any other group. I sincerely hope that next year, students won't have to come back and talk about this, because people will understand that it's so obvious, that it's so obviously anti-Semitic to piss on a map of Israel and throw it in the
147urinal and then post about it on social media. I hope the school environment moves forward and makes the changes necessary so that every student feels safe in this building. I really must say that if we have this clapping continue, I will halt the public session. Please don't make me do that. Because I do want to hear, we all want to hear everything that everybody has to say. Thank you. Hi, good evening. We're Alyssa Baum and Lloyd Katz, residing at 27 Lane. We're here tonight as individuals and not representing any group, and we're going to change the tone a little bit. First of all, Lloyd and I are now empty nesters and just wanted to first express our strong support for the school budget and capital bond. We are truly grateful for the quality education our
148daughter received in Scarsdale. She is just now completing her freshman year in college and is thriving. The excellent teaching and range of courses offered gave her the grounding to excel academically. Equally important were school programs, science research, global opportunities, and after-school clubs, which taught our how to manage time, communicate in writing, speak confidently in public, and collaborate with others. We appreciate your work to ensure that our schools are meeting the challenges we face now and in the future, and we are pleased to have the opportunity on May 19th to vote yes. Secondly, we are here tonight to express our concern about the recent events at Scarsdale High School. Like just about everyone of the Jewish faith, we have experienced anti-Semitism firsthand in the form of negative comments and concern long-term for our personal safety and
149security. Anti-Semitism is a threat to us, and we believe the board and other governmental institutions need to take harsh action against this and other forms of racism and prejudice. I'm now a senior citizen, and the current events do not feel unfamiliar to me. I remember vividly growing up the nightly news from Vietnam and the persistent protests against that war. And then, as now, many of those protests quickly crossed the line to become offensive. Actions such as the burning of American flags and draft cards led some of their fellow citizens to deem all protesters to be anti-American. I think the passage of time has shown that the overwhelming majority were instead patriotic American citizens who simply disagreed with the actions of our government. I am not so naive as to believe that there is not some
150number of people whose criticism of Israel derives from their personal anti-Semitism. However, it is also wrong to believe that any and all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Sometimes criticism of Israel is just that. People have a right to criticize Israel even if I don't agree. And most importantly, when it comes to young people, people in high school and college, hyperbole, intemperate remarks, foolish actions, and a certain moral certitude of the correctness of their positions are to be expected. We've been here before. We owe it to our future to make clear to condemn their excesses or certainly their bigotry. but not take away their right to make a statement or their ability to learn from their mistakes. And lastly, we're concerned that the proposed guidelines for student expression drafted to address recent events may improperly limit
151student free speech rights. I have a couple questions. Does singling out political speech, considered the type of speech most worthy of protection, raise any constitutional concerns? Two. Who determines what political speech is disruptive or controversial, and does that raise the specter of selective enforcement? Three, the guidelines supposedly apply to all school-sponsored activities. Surely this cannot limit political discussion at after-school clubs such as debate. or limit all conversation at off-campus field trips or sporting events. We urge you to review the policy closely and make needed revisions so students have a safe place for honest discussion and then learn how to engage in constitutionally protected civil discourse. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, my name is Dylan Lemberg. I reside at 39 Cambridge Road, and I'm a senior at Scarzell High School. I'm speaking to the board and
152everyone in the community today. For those of you who don't know me, I have spent the last three years traveling around the state meeting with many of you, meeting with students, teachers, administrators, community members, state officials in education. And it all started back in October 7th, shortly after October 7th in 2023. And I had noticed that there was a problem with how our school had talked. We had noticed, me among several others, including faculty, that we had a problem with how we converse with one another. And I noticed in my time over the three years that this was something that could be solved. And it was something that community members, the students, the teachers wanted to be solved. And we worked on proposals, and I spread those across the state, of how to practice civil
153discourse. And, you know, that was three years ago, and I feel that three years... Later, we are in the same place and that we have not made the progress that we have promised ourselves to or that we deserve to. You know, we have witnessed a lot of tension here tonight between so many different groups, and it is so clear that not only in our community are we divided and fractured, but that we are paralyzed by our polarization. I mean, it exists across the country. You can see it at Thanksgiving dinners or in presidential debates. We have witnessed it here today and we have witnessed the effects of not talking about civil discourse, of not teaching our students and preparing them to be citizens of our community, of New York, of the United States where we
154focus so heavily on accepting each other, on practicing freedom of speech. And what that means is, as a school, and I think this is a really important inflection point, that moving forward, we focus on implementing civil discourse policies so that we don't end up in the same scenario where we are yelling at each other that we are witnessing despicable acts like the bathroom or calling out each other on social media, because it is solvable through civil discourse, and it starts with our students. I think that is something that we really should focus on as a solution to everything we have seen here today. Thank you. Hi, I am Rokhaya Hassaballah. I live at 35 Bright Avenue, and I am speaking in my personal capacity. I am speaking today in support of Jim Dugan. As a
155longtime volunteer in this community, I feel a responsibility to speak when something does not reflect who we are. I have known the Dugan family for many years. Our children have grown up together. attended the same classes, went to each other's birthdays, and shaped in the everyday moments that define a community. I know them to be kind, inclusive, and deeply respectful people who welcome everyone. It is deeply troubling to see a dedicated volunteer who has given countless hours of service to this district being judged in a way that is not fair, measured, or consistent with who we aspire to be. It is certainly not neighborly or proportional. The level of reaction extends beyond the initial situation and it is affecting an entire family, a person's professional life, and their ability to continue serving. There were even
156calls to his daughter's school to have her expelled. This raises serious concerns about perspectives and fairness. We are also talking about a situation involving a young person who has already taken responsibility and apologized. As a community, we should be asking ourselves, what is the purpose of our response? Is it to teach, guide, and improve? Or is it to punish beyond measure and destroy the person for doing a mistake? We have to respect that teenagers need space for learning and growth, not escalation to the point where consequences extend far beyond what is reasonable. This is about who we are as a community and what we choose to model for our children. Will we allow moments like this to divide us and push us towards extremes, or will we live by the philosophy that it takes a
157village to raise a child? Jim, I am truly sorry for what you Jim, I am truly sorry for what you and your family are going through. Please address the board and I will not tolerate outbursts from the audience. I am truly sorry for what you and your family are going through. You have given so much to this community and that should not be forgotten. I wish I had heard similar sentiment from our Board of Education and from our administration. I understand the difficult position they were put in, but these are exactly the moments where moral courage matters the most. I hope that we can reflect on this moment and choose to respond in a way that aligns with the values we want to uphold. Compassion, forgiveness, and growth. not revenge, anger, and destruction. Thank you.
158Hello, everyone. I'm Jacob Zuckerman, and I live at 59 Greenacres Avenue. I'm currently a junior, and I will be, for the remainder of this year and much of next year, Israeli Culture Club's junior president. I'm speaking tonight because, as we've heard from many people so far... There are serious issues the Israeli Culture Club wanted to address, and with many seniors graduating who represent our club, I want to talk about what is the future of our club. We plan to continue to work hard, have fun events, and share our Israeli culture with the SHS community, and I'm proud and excited to help lead this culture club next year with our future officers. But I also want to be clear that next year cannot look like this year. Our club should not need extra security just to
159hold a cultural event. We should not need numerous faculty members standing around to help ensure everything goes to plan simply because we are celebrating Israeli culture. We should not have to plan every event as if something might go wrong. We want our clubs to be treated like any other student club. Along with being a member of the Israeli Culture Club, I also have attended Eastern European Culture Club meetings and Chinese Culture Club meetings. Both culture clubs represent a culture that exists in a very complex geopolitical region. And in the Eastern European Culture Club, for example, we've had discussions about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. In neither club, or in any club for that matter, have I seen any outburst, any treatment of the club similar to what we have seen in the Israeli Culture Club. There is
160not a threat to any of these events. We should have that standard applied to our club. The Israeli Culture Club is not a threat or a provocation. It is a student club built around culture, education, pride, and community. We want students to learn about Israel through real people, real stories, food, music, language, history, and connection. How can we do that if we feel threatened as a club? The feeling of being unsafe in Scarsdale schools has intensified with recent events. Specifically, Jewish and Israeli students have felt that our identity is watched differently and judged differently. That is not how any student should feel in this district. I am very proud of our club because even after everything that has happened, we are still choosing to build something positive. We had the event that was advertised on
161the flyers and it was a great success. We are choosing education over fear. We are choosing community over science. We are choosing pride over shame. But pride alone is not enough. As students, we cannot fix this climate by ourselves. That is why, looking ahead to next year, I'd like to see the district take real steps to address anti-Semitism clearly and consistently. I'd hope to see the district's effort to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism. This specific definition does allow for criticisms of the Israeli state, but it does not allow for any criticisms that are targeted at the state simply because it is a Jewish state. That is the clear distinction you should have when referring to anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, is when it is clearly targeted and Israel is an exception to this
162standard. This definition has already been adopted by the Westchester County. Having a clear definition matters. It gives students, teachers, administrators, and families a shared understanding of what anti-Semitism can look like, including where anti-Semitism crosses into the lines and overlaps with anti-Zionism. Next year, I hope we do not need extra security. I hope we don't need to wonder if our posters will stay up. We should not have to explain why Israeli culture deserves the same respect as every other culture in the school. And I hope that when Jewish and Israeli students say they feel unsafe, the district listens before another event happens. But I'm asking the board and the district to make sure that next year, we're not just continuing the club, we are continuing it in a school where Jewish and Israeli students are protected,
163respected, and treated like every other part of this community. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Jordan Copeland, 45 Woods Lane. Regarding the guidelines for student expression at school sponsored activities, I really appreciate the board's effort to ensure a safe and respectful environment for all students. The district has both the authority and the responsibility to preserve order, prevent harassment and threats, and ensure that school sponsored activities remain focused on their intended purpose. My concern is that the proposed guidelines as written permit and even encourage infringement of students First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has made it clear since the landmark Tinker case in 1969 that schools may not restrict student expression, particularly political speech, because it's uncontroversial, unpopular, or uncomfortable. And the proposed guidelines, however, specifically seek to keep school sponsored activities quote free from controversy and
164explicitly restrict political messages that may create division or controversy. This creates First Amendment concerns and places administrators in a risky and difficult situation. Determining which political or social messages are controversial is obviously subjective and it's likely to result in inconsistent or viewpoint based enforcement. And the guidelines, these guidelines give authority to limit student speech not just to administrators but to quote, adults responsible for supervising school sponsored activities. So whether a student's message is protected by the First Amendment could be decided on the fly by teachers or coaches or staff, any of whom could unconstitutionally restrict student expression and open the district up to liability. So is a student football player kneeling during the national anthem too controversial or divisive? Or a student wearing a Black Lives Matter button or a Blue Lives Matter button? Ice
165out, protect trans kids. My body, my choice. Free Palestine. I stand with Israel. District employees will have to look at the content of the messages and then try to gauge community sentiment to decide what political messages are permitted in school. I share the administration's desire to promote activities that bring the student body together as a cohesive community. That important goal should be pursued within First Amendment limits. So I urge the board to revise the guidelines to focus on the categories of student expression that schools may lawfully regulate material and substantial disruption targeted harassment threats conduct that infringes on the rights of others and Where school sponsored speech is involved? unauthorized use of time equipment or official materials This approach would avoid suppressing protected student expression and exposing the district to legal risk, and it would
166still preserve the district's ability to promote positive and respectful student activities. I thank you for starting this important work. Good evening. My name is Neely, and I'm a student at Scarzell High School, as well as a player in Israel's women's national lacrosse team. I'm speaking tonight because I care deeply about the kind of school community we are creating and because I believe that what happened to the Israeli Culture Club posters should concern every student, parent, teacher, and administrator in this district. When posters for a student club are approved, put up in school, torn down, vandalized, and thrown in urinals, that is not just disrespectful, that is degrading. It sends a message that the students connected to the club do not fully belong. It tells Jewish and Israeli students that their identity, their culture, and their
167community can be treated as something disgusting or shameful. That is not the kind of school Scarsdale should be. Scarsdale High School teaches students to be thoughtful, respectful, globally aware, and engaged. We are told to listen to one another, to learn from one another, and to value different identities and experiences. But those values only matter if they are applied consistently. If we say we support diversity, then Israeli culture must be included in that diversity. If we say students should feel safe, then Jewish and Israeli students must feel safe too. If we say hate has no place in our schools, then anti-Semitism cannot be treated as a special case that is too complicated to name clearly. What happened was not just about posters. It was about the climate that allowed students to think this was acceptable. That
168is why your response matters so much. Students are watching. We notice what adults say. We notice what adults avoid saying. We notice whether an incident is treated seriously or quietly minimized. We noticed whether the students who were hurt are supported or whether they need to feel like they're causing a problem by speaking up. And when the response is unclear, the message to students becomes unclear too. No student should have to wonder whether their school will protect them when their identity is targeted. No student should feel that their pain needs to be debated before it is believed. No student should have to explain why throwing cultural club posters into urinals is hateful. The Israeli Culture Club was created to share culture, not conflict. It gives students a chance to learn about Israel's diversity through food, music,
169language, history, and community. That should be welcomed in our school, not treated as controversial. I also think it is important to remember that this issue affects the whole school, not only Jewish and Israeli students. When anti-Semitism is ignored or minimized, it teaches all students the wrong lesson. It teaches students that some forms of hate can be handled carefully while others are named directly. It teaches students that certain identities can be mocked if people call it political. It teaches students that silence is acceptable, but silence is not neutral, and hesitation is not leadership. The district has an opportunity now to show students what real leadership looks like. That means clear communication, real education, consistent consequences, and direct support for the students affected. It means making sure teachers and administrators know how to respond when anti-Semitism appears,
170whether it happens in a hallway, online, in a classroom, or through vandalism. It means making sure Jewish and Israeli students are not only protected after something terrible happens, but respected every day. I'm asking the board to treat this moment seriously, not as an isolated incident, but as a sign that more work needs to be done. Because the goal should not just be to respond after an incident occurs. The goal should be to create a school environment where this kind of harm is not allowed to grow in the first place. Jewish and Israeli students are part of this community. Their culture belongs here. Their voices belong here. their safety and dignity should be protected clearly consistently and without hesitation thank you my name is May Bansal and I'm a student a sophomore at Scarborough High School
171a few weeks ago the administration announced the school or addressed the school in an email where they outlined what they considered a degradation in civil discourse that had been occurring in the school I would like my time back then. The same email labeled two incidents of students criticizing the policies of the US and Israeli governments as hateful messaging. This administration has been quick to brand any criticism of Israeli state policies as anti-Semitic and bigoted. They decry the collapse of civil discourse and in the same breath shut down positions they find controversial with baseless accusations of bigotry. It is universally accepted that this is dangerous and downright un-American. Justice Breyer famously said that America's public schools are, quote, the nurseries of democracy, which only work if we protect the marketplace of ideas. That protection must include
172the protection of unpopular ideas for popular ideas have less need for protection end quote. This is the following a long tradition of justices going back to Justice Brandeis' favorite statement that schools must expose falsehoods under a policy of more speech rather than enforced silence end quote. But whether I like it or not the school however retains a policy or a right to limit political speech at certain events and students are allowed to be upset when they hear political views they don't agree with and they are allowed to feel hurt by them and we should take that seriously. But there is a world of difference between criticizing governments for actions they have been formally, unilaterally, and internationally condemned for and actual real hate speech. The administration has continuously chosen to blur this line and that is
173the real death of civil discourse. An email from the district branded a student anti-Semitic for making a speech criticizing the United States support of the military action by the Israeli government. Another student was declared in violation of the dress code for wearing a shirt that simply read, no one is free until everyone is free. I ask you, would you have the same reaction to a student with a shirt that said, free Ukraine, free Taiwan? I doubt you would. It is this dress policy that I find the most egregious because it easily fails the test established in Tinker v. Des Moines. Schools cannot limit free expression unless it creates a, quote, material and substantial disruption, end quote. In what world is a t-shirt with a message as simple as free Palestine a material and substantial disruption?
174This brings me to a double standard that I feel obligated to call out. While the school has spared no expense in consoling students who feel hurt by criticism of foreign governments, they have done nothing, not even a basic inquiry, into how Scarsdale's vulnerable and small Arab community has been affected by these recent events. Have any of you wondered how it would feel for a Palestinian student to see people who support their simple right to freedom and self-determination branded as bigots? Have you even given that a single thought? I wondered that and I got an answer after speaking at the last board meeting about the same issue I received several emails from members of the Scarsdale Arab community detailing how they were scared to speak up for fear of the exact ostracism that students who have
175voiced support for Palestinian freedom have faced for fear that another email will be sent to the whole district detailing how their support of Palestinian freedom is hateful. The school administration further showed its bias when they completely ignored concerns about the student clubs flyer for their celebration of Israeli Independence Day. The club decided to display a flyer with a map. A map that included all Palestinian land as well as regions of Syria and Lebanon as parts of Israel. Even the government of Israel, which is notably far right, does not take this stance, nor does any international body, nor does the United States. I am not condoning students taking down these flyers, that is wrong, but understand how inflammatory this is. Imagine if a Russian culture club displayed a map that put all of Ukraine in their
176borders, or if the Indian club decided to commemorate the day of partition with a map that declared Pakistan part of India. The administration belittled these concerns, calling the Palestinian land disputed territory. This is not disputed territory. We are talking about this is a this is not a couple of cities. It's not a couple of provinces. This is an entire nation, a UN member state, sorry, observer state with seven and a half million people that this club chose to completely erase. No action whatsoever was taken to discipline or even. address this hateful action. I would like my time back from when they corrected me. This is what I mean when I say they have created a double standard. If you choose to ignore the advice of Justice Brandeis, Breyer, and many other great American statesmen and
177crack down on free expression, at least be even-handed with your measures. Good evening. My name is Leora Wexler. I reside at 142 Lee Road. And I want to start by first thanking you, Dr. Patrick and Ms. Hahn, for your very thoughtful words at the start of the meeting tonight. I remember the first time I was the target of anti-Semitism. I was in second grade. There was a dispute over when President's Day fell that year. The boy who disagreed with me told me that I couldn't possibly know when it was because I was Jewish. Those words are something that even now I will never forget. Not that it matters, but I happen to be correct. What our children are facing and have faced over the past few years is much larger and much scarier. And whether
178it is anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, or any other form of discrimination, it will stay with each of them too. The breadth of anti-Semitic events that have occurred in Scarsdale this year are, as apparent, terrifying. It is all really unsettling that, especially because when we moved to Scarsdale, We anticipate a certain level of cultural safety no matter who we are and a welcoming of diversity, diversity of thought, diversity of background, ethnicity, religion, and culture. Maybe not socioeconomic diversity, hopefully some of that too. Teenagers are young, and they're the targets of so much groupthink, especially in the time of social media, and anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, as we all know, are very trendy right now online. It is not lost on me that screen time plays a tremendous role in this, although that is a whole separate issue for a
179whole separate dialogue. I think back again to when I was a seven-year-old in second grade facing anti-Semitism for the first time. What if my administration's response had presented the same justification for the discrimination I had faced? What if the Board of Education members put their own families ahead of me as a seven-year-old? that's what our students in scarsdale tonight and throughout our district received in response to the events this past month the actions words and inactions of our administration and our board of education make clear that these incidents are not being addressed with the severity required to mitigate anything further instead they are only ramping up All of our children have an absolute right to feel physically and emotionally safe in school. The student handbook and the First Amendment guarantee them those protections. Their rights
180start and end with the Board of Education and our administration, and I call upon each of you to make your constituents an absolute priority. I implore you to think back to the first time you faced discrimination in school. Think about how each... child has been the target of some marginalization at some point in Scarsdale this year and ask yourself are we doing enough this community needs more thank you hi I'm Reverend dr. Callie Huff Rogers co-chair of the scars L Hartsell interfaith clergy Association and resident at to Heathcote I'm also speaking on behalf of rabbi John Blake the senior rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple My name is Rabbi Adam Baldachin. I live at 23 Kent Road, and I'm the rabbi of Shari Tikva in Scarsdale. As clergy, parents, and community leaders, we believe deeply in
181the value of public education and in the importance of our students' learning in diverse environments where they encounter different cultures, histories, and perspectives. That learning is essential to fostering empathy, civic responsibility, and understanding of both other stories and experiences and our own. What has transpired in the Scarsdale School District is not an isolated incident. confined to one classroom or one school. Rather, it reflects a series of events and situations that have created a growing sense of unease among students, parents, and faculty, and a concerning erosion of trust between families and district leadership. Jewish students and their families in particular have good reason to feel concerned these days given the alarming rise in anti-semitism across the world and a widespread hostility to Israel which is often cloaked in the language of social justice but whose proponents
182too often seem blind to every other conflict zone in the world and focus their outrage predominantly or exclusively against the Jewish state. Our classrooms are for learning. They are safe spaces where trust must be built between educators and students. Families must feel confident that complex and sensitive subjects are taught with professionalism, viewpoint diversity, and intellectual rigor grounded in facts rather than activism or political ideology. Teachers must foster critical thinking and civil discourse while recognizing that the responsibility that comes with the inherent imbalance of power in the classroom. Students are young and impressionable while teachers hold authority. Given the challenges that concern us, curriculum and supporting materials must be assessed and training conducted for our educators. Repairing damaged trust will require thoughtful, courageous, and sustained work, but it can and must be done. As we expressed
183in our interfaith clergy letter signed by religious leaders across Westchester County, this includes ensuring that educators receive appropriate guidance and training on how to navigate difficult topics responsibly and constructively. It also requires school and district leadership to speak clearly and consistently when anti-Semitism surfaces, just as with any other form of hate, bias, or conspiracy theory. Silence, inconsistency, or ambiguity undermines our community's confidence and leaves students feeling unseen and unsupported. Equally important is ensuring that students uphold the values of our Scarsdale schools and our broader Westchester community, not only in classrooms but at all school events and activities. Expectations for respectful conduct and inclusive behavior must be clearly communicated to the students, faculty, and volunteers alike so that school gatherings provide opportunities for community building rather than division. Our goal should be for these events to
184be non-events in the safest and most respectful and reflective way. Every parent wants their student to become informed, empathetic, and engaged citizens, and achieving that goal requires an educational environment in which all students, including Jewish students, and I will say students of all faiths and non-faiths, feel safe with bringing their authentic selves into the classroom and broader community without the fear of marginalization or hostility. This especially includes students who relate to Israel not primarily as a foreign country or an abstract political entity, but as a physical and spiritual home for their people and spiritual heritage. We offer these thoughts not only out of concern, but also in partnership. and we stand ready as the interfaith community, as clergy and parents of students here in the community to work together with district leadership to help restore
185trust in Scarsdale Schools. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Christine Weston. I live at 26 Taunton Road. In addition to being the proud mom to Sam and his younger brother Miles, I'm also speaking as someone with a longstanding connection to this place. Both my husband and I attended the alternative school when we were both students at Scarsdale High School. I wanted to speak tonight in support of the alternative school faculty and community as a whole and also to reflect a bit on about a bit on how we as adults respond during these difficult moments. Over the past several weeks, I've been struck by the contrast between the way many adults reacted publicly. and the way the alternative school community approached these conversations internally. On social media, many of us adults were reactive, angry, and
186at many times, deeply unkind. Conversations quickly became accusatory and divisive. I think it's important that we acknowledge that honestly, because our children are watching us. They learn not only from what we teach them, but from how we behave. What impressed me so deeply was hearing from my son about how the about the way the alternative school handled these conversations Teachers created space for students to talk openly Listen to one another ask difficult questions and process complicated emotions respectfully the focus was on dialogue accountability empathy and Understanding to me that should be the model not just for students, but for all of us adults as well as both parent and a former student of this program of end of this school i've seen firsthand how much care and humanity the a school teachers bring to their
187work the community has positively shaped so many students including our own family and i'm so deeply grateful to all of the educators in that program as well as to everyone here thank you My name is Sakina Nackvey. I live at 7th Sylvan Lane. I have a sophomore and my daughter graduated last year. Thank you so much for listening to all of us and for all of your service. I just wanted to address the issues, guidances concerning the student expression. at the school sponsored events. My concern is about the broader implications of the policy itself. Public schools are places for student engagement and citizenship and to teach the younger generation how to participate in diverse democracy. The current language of political advocacy seems vague to me and I feel like it can just be too easily,
188like it's just too broad of an interpretation. Like nearly every major social issue can be characterized as political depending on who's interpreting it. So I'm concerned with like who's gonna actually do all of that evaluating, you know, right down to. What what the event is about what the students are going to wear? So I would I really think that that needs to be evaluated. I think we should be careful not to teach the students that controversy itself is you know grounds for restriction or condemnation So I guess I just also wanted to say that I'm concerned by the tendency to respond to the controversies with like calls for expulsion and resignation, whether that's directed at our students or administration and faculty. I just don't think that that really shows the core values of our community.
189So thank you. Hi, my name is Jessie Lee. I'm the resident of Winnow-Simon Potter Road. Before I start my written speech, I want to share a little bit of feeling. since I joined the meeting. I've joined a few Board of Educators meetings, but this is the first time I've seen so many people that a lot of people have standing here without a seat. That really sort of shows people really care about the community, care about different, like, identity groups, care about our views, care about First Amendment. In the past 10 minutes, I hear a lot of anger, a lot of emotion. And also a lot of critical thinking from our high school students. I really see the promise here because I do believe the first step to solve any conflicts is dialogue. And I'm seeing
190that today. And I hope everyone can expect, sort of extend the respect to each other because I really think that's sort of the first step to solve any of the conflicts. And this is the first step to develop a more consistent guidelines among our high school students. Now, as a parent in this community, I want to begin by saying clearly that no student should feel targeted, intimidated, or welcome, unwelcome because of their identity, religion, or viewpoint. The recent incident at high school affect real students and real families, and they should concern all of us. At the same time, I hope we remember that high school students are still in one of those most formative stages of their lives. Adolescence is exactly the period when young people are developing judgment, empathy, critical thinking, and understanding of
191consequence. The fact that this incident occurred does not only reveal misconduct, it also reminds us how much work we still have to do as a community in guiding our children. Teenagers can act impulsively, thoughtlessly, or emotionally, especially in today's social media-driven environment. This doesn't excuse harmful behavior, but it does mean our response should prioritize education, dialogue, and growth, not simply labels and punishments. Schools are not only places where students learn math and history. They are places where students learn how to live in a diverse society, how to disagree without dehumanizing one another, how to engage difficult global issues thoughtfully, and how to understand the impact their actions have on others. I hope we can approach this moment in a way that lowers fear and division rather than dampening it. We should create space for honest
192conversations, for accountability with learning, and for the belief that young people are capable of growth when guided with both firmness and humanity. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, our 90-minute public ‑‑ I'm so sorry. Our public ‑‑ Can I just ask one quick question? I know it's the end of the 90 minutes no I'm so sorry we have to stick with the rules the public comment is generally reserved for comments only the board does not engage in dialogue I we do have a second public that would be wonderful thank you so much I would like to say that we do appreciate the diverse perspectives and feedback presented to the board this evening especially those of our students We hear you and thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. Thank you to those who
193were able to follow the guidelines. For those who would still like the opportunity to speak, there is a second public comment session later in this meeting with no time limit. Thank you for your thoughtful participation in our civic process. And with that, we can go to, I guess I'm going to let people go out. Would you like to take a, I'm sorry? Would we like to take a five-minute break? Okay. Would somebody like to make a motion? Amber, a second? Thank you, Leah. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. We're going to take five minutes. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you for rejoining our meeting. We will continue where we left off. Next on the agenda is written communications, and I believe this is Colleen. Thank you, Susie. Please note that the Board of Education
194email is also viewed by the superintendent and district clerk. Open meetings law requires all board deliberations that may lead to action or policy changes to occur in public. Therefore, your written communications and emails will be reported at an upcoming public board meeting. A board member will respond at the earliest convenience. A formal response requires that you include your full name, address, and if you are writing on behalf of an organization in the communication. More detailed information regarding written communication received by the Board of Education may be found in today's meeting agenda located on the board docs on the Scarsdale Schools District website. And since our last meeting, we've had 98 emails on district matters and 11 emails on board matters meetings, board highlights, and invitations. Thank you, Colleen, and thank you for all of those
195written communications that you've been sending us. Okay, next on the agenda is the consent agenda and I believe this is Amber. Do you want me to read the consent? No, you. I think you read the preamble. Okay, thanks. I'm out of practice, sorry, thank you. I will read the preamble to the consent agenda. The board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency at board meetings. A consent agenda condenses some of the routine business of the board of education into a single motion. The consent agenda is prepared by the superintendent of schools in consultation with the president and or the vice president of the board. Items are selected for the consent agenda when the officers of the board and the superintendent believe there is no controversy
196regarding them. The items on the consent agenda will have the same background material as ordinary items on the board agenda. If any member of the board feels that any item on the consent agenda requires discussion prior to action, that board member may remove that item from the consent agenda merely by requesting same at the meeting. The exempted item then moves to the regular agenda. However, all non-exempted items would be moved, seconded, and voted upon without discussion in order to provide greater efficiency to conducting the routine items of business of the school district. At this time, I'd like to ask if anybody on the board would like to remove an item from the consent agenda. Thank you. And then I'll... pass it on to amber then thank you susie there are 15 items on tonight's consent
197agenda item 11.01 minutes education report business meeting april 13th 2026. item 11.02 minutes special meeting southwest boces vote april 21st 2026. item 11.03 minutes special meeting business special meeting executive session april 21st 2026. Item 11.04, special meeting executive session May 5th, 2026. Item 11.05, personnel certified. Item 11.06, personnel non-certified. Item 11.07, claims audit report April 2026. item 11.08 chair of the budget vote and election item 11.09 quarterly report student activities fund item 11.10 contracts over 20,000 special education item 11.11 contracts over $20,000 facilities item 11.12 budget amendment elementary teaching position item 11.13 budget amendment tax certiorari reserve appropriation item 11.14 secret determination capital projects item 11.15 accept the consent agenda i move we accept the consent agenda as presented thank you amber is there a second thank you jim any discussion would somebody like to
198thank you all those in favor sorry it's been a long night please say aye aye thank you the motion passes next on the agenda is information items for discussion item 12.01 guidelines on students speech and dress thank you very much Susie we've heard in public comment a number of questions concerns suggestions about this so while the code of conduct which is board policy 5300 outlines and defines expectations for school conduct that reflect qualities of character school sponsored student activities are a distinct subset of school functions the district has determined that it would be to the benefit of students parents activity advisors and administrators to have clear guidelines with respect to dress and speech specific to those activities The kinds of activities we're talking about, I think this was a question that I heard thematically in
199comment, the kind of things we're talking about are school publications, like school newspapers and yearbooks over which administration maintains review, theatrical productions, school plays, speeches at graduation or school assemblies. assignments or projects created for a grade those really are the broad categories that would be described in this set of guidelines the rationale for us bringing these forward now was because these are practices we already engage in so an example we engage in prior review of graduation speeches We have events at which students perform and are expected to uphold a set of sometimes articulated and sometimes not articulated guidelines and expectations. So what we were trying to do was to put forward sort of a more commonly understood standard that we will need to review collaboratively with faculty and advisors. discuss and engage in norming ourselves
200around. Again, I want to emphasize this is not new. There were a number of commenters tonight who referenced Tinker. This is not the Tinker standard that we're talking about. This is the Hazelwood standard in which administration under those limited sets of school activities that I described has an interest in and the ability to regulate more strictly in terms of speech. We have the right to address quality control, so a publication. Make sure it's well written and grammatically correct. We have that that right protecting the privacy of individuals Making sure that content is at the right maturity level for the for the student audience and then viewpoint neutrality those are things that we have an interest in and at these limited sets of student activities that we're trying to you know have some clarity around that
201we already engage in setting boundaries and setting expectations these are called guidelines I want to be clear that we're not proposing a new policy it's articulating what we think is in policy and describing it with respect to this narrow set of what so-called school sponsored activities Our goal would be to include these guidelines in school student handbooks. And so they would be disseminated that way next year. And then the idea that we thought made sense at this moment was to provide an opportunity for the board, of course, and the public and faculty and staff to give feedback on this and ask questions that would help us make this. more clear and more useful in its intent so as part of the board agenda there's a link to a just a one question survey for people
202to give feedback and we will bring that feed share that feedback with the board and bring that feedback to our next public meeting as in summary form thematic form it's not my intent to read through the guidelines they appear they appear in the agenda but happy to take questions Sometimes I've noticed in the past that like when you talk about publications like Maroon for example I think towards the beginning of the year they ran a piece about the phone ban and in that they took a bunch of different opinions about the phone ban. Under these guidelines would these sort of like labeled to be opinion or like op-ed pieces would those be under scrutiny or is it fine if it's like labeled as an opinion piece? It's okay if it's labeled as opinion I don't
203see this changing that though those go through a review process so that would maintain good question thank you That was a really good question Anish and I have a sort of a follow-up question then so yearbook quotes the seniors put in yearbook quotes so those could presumably be their opinions as well something that they think frames what they believe in we review those also so those might be subject to this yeah I don't see the this changing anything about our current procedure with respect to that I mean I think we heard you know I I'm struggling a little bit with this because I'm not an attorney so I don't quite know the where the rules fall but I heard some concerns tonight about know political speech and and where we might be limiting it and
204even how we're defining what controversial speech is and who's defining it so I think maybe if you have some thoughts about you know how for example how a coach would define What might be considered controversial how they're going to feel empowered to make that decision? And I I don't know if you have all the answers right now I'm just sharing some of the concerns that I have with with the policy right now I think the thing that comes to mind there is the interest that the district has in maintaining viewpoint neutrality so preventing the school from appearing to endorse a specific political or religious view and so if we're you know if it's a platform an activity is a speech at graduation in which the audience is captive example that it's in our interest to
205maintain that that viewpoint neutrality to be able to engage in the education of our students with credibility so I find the list you just described performances school publications I find that very helpful would it be helpful to actually include that in the guidelines So from my understanding, regular club meetings, this doesn't apply to regular club meetings or regular sports events. When you said we're not proposing new policy, these are guidelines. So is this not a formal part of the code of conduct? Is this just like an attachment that's for reference? Student handbook. So student handbook. Okay. So it's not like we're amending the code of conduct to include this language anywhere. That's correct. Okay. I was also concerned a little about, I know you talked about norming, you know, the faculty and staff, and I
206know some community members brought this up too. It just seems very complex, right? You know, people have different viewpoints. Oh, yes. Right? And I really was thinking a lot about when I was reading how would the teachers and faculty be trained or informed on how to identify something that interferes with learning or the purpose of a given activity. as well as to address it in the complexity of the moment. I think that's all kind of very fraught, and I don't know, honestly, how you even approach that, but that's the big issue for me is who's deciding what's controversial and how, and how are they empowered to do so, and how can you ensure that it's viewpoint neutral? All of which is a challenge in the absence of these guidelines as well, right? the guidelines are
207an attempt to make a step toward providing some clarity around that those interests that the district has that schools have existed before these guidelines and will exist whether these guidelines get integrated into our practice or not I think what these guidelines do is elevate the conversation to a point where we can attempt to have a shared understanding of what they mean and then over time work through areas where we're maybe not as clear about what they mean or a situation that we did not anticipate which is part of just the regular ongoing work in a complex facet of our work as educators. Did you say that it also pertains to assignments or projects created for a grade? I mean that's an area where the school has some control. We can say yeah you know we
208can give parameters. It's the parameters of the assignment. It seems to me that certainly for me part of the message I heard tonight is There needs to be a sincere and clear attempt to get our arms around the issue. And I think this to me is starting to do that with all its flaws of, you know, how do I know I could make a mistake. Along the lines of, let's say, a judgmental misstep, I guess my question is, I think trying to avoid it at all costs would be wrong, yet I understand the concern as a district to make a legal misstep, that someone could open us up to some sort of legal exposure for doing something wrong. And I guess I'm just struggling with how you... approach it sensibly like there probably will be
209missteps right there will be a teacher that maybe is on the fence and they're not sure so they err on the conservative side to shut down a conversation I guess this is where we need to be you know I guess in step with our legal counsel to make sure that we don't you know expose the district to someone saying, you know, you've broken our First Amendment, even though, because it is murky, right, as we're sitting here thinking about, I mean, just the conversation tonight about someone saying that's not anti-Semitism, that someone feels is anti-Semitism. And, you know, if you read the books, you can debate that back and forth probably for days. Yet, I think we have an obligation to try, and I think that's what I'm hearing. So, again, I don't know how, you
210know, maybe as we come up with examples, we keep recording them so it becomes clear, oh, okay, you know, to help prompt our educators and ourselves on what those... situations are that fall into hate speech or anti-Semitism or anti-Jew or however we want to refer to it which in and of itself is being debated what to call it if you read the books about anti-Jew versus anti-Zionism versus anti-Israel there are pros and cons to all of those choices of words It's just really challenging to feel how to train someone to do this properly. I'm just trying to think that. I would reiterate a couple of things. One is to say to your question about is there risk and would council help? Well, council, of course, reviewed this, these guidelines, and is in agreement with their.
211legality authority and substance okay the but the idea that we some employee of the district might be in some supervisory role in which they inadvertently stifle students allowed speech that could happen right now right without any of this yeah that you know those cases have been tested right so what what council reviewed this for is consistency with Hazelwood okay and which is the current standard standard might change we'd have to change accordingly every school public school the country would have to change but that's what you know what this is sort of connected to at the moment And I'd say as a regular part of our practice as educators, we bring problems of practice to one another. I don't know of a single principal, assistant principal, administrator, department chair, teacher leader, who is not actively engaging
212their peers, colleagues, one of us, in those thorny moments about a wide range of things, not just. just these topics so obviously that's those practices aren't visible to the public generally because this is our daily work but but there are thoughtful people every day kind of saying what would you do in this situation what's your advice where we think about it together so that would apply to this too sorry if I could just are you done yeah okay My view of this is I do applaud the district taking affirmative steps to address What's obviously a pressing issue, you know, I am an attorney, but not really a first amendment specialist. But I'd say the thing about precedence is that every new case is always a test of the precedent. And so the fact that there's
213a case we can point to and say we think that case applies to this doesn't mean that when it's actually tested, someone else, like a judge, will agree that that case applied to this. So it is always an element of. uncertainty when you put something in writing and let people shoot at it, how that's going to go. But all that being said, I think it's a good faith effort to try to walk that path which is difficult to walk. I think it will be, hopefully it will approach us in the spirit of revisiting it as necessary as it's put into practice and practice teaches us how it can be improved. I hope that's the spirit we approached that. The great advantage of guidelines over policy. Yes. So with that, I do see the advantage of
214it. Yeah. Jim said kind of what I was thinking was I appreciate. what brought this to light you know given the recent um events and the feedback we've heard from the community i just wanted to thank the district for taking steps to address this i also appreciate your openness to receive dialogue back from the community on this maybe we've heard some great suggestions tonight that have me kind of thinking about this and trying to process it so for me i just really appreciate this as being actionable step that shows that we are taking the feedback we're hearing from the community seriously and we're working to kind of create an environment to guide everyone in the right direction so I just wanted to reiterate my thanks for that I appreciate what my fellow board members have
215said on this. I certainly appreciate the goal of this exercise. When we have a school sponsored event, we want it to be joyful and accomplish. the purpose of the event and not have it be derailed and have disruption. I do have some questions also, some that we've heard tonight. Where's the line? Because always there's a line, right? But in general, as we saw tonight, I'm into order and not disruption. I guess my one question that... had you said that this is not going to be a change in practice having this in writing would this as a possible consequence even if it's not intended affect discipline like if somebody were to go against it sure yes so there I mean it's stated in the guidelines at the end in accordance with district policy which is the
216code of conduct that's the policy referring to I guess it could also be our non-discrimination policy or harassment policy which have additional components to them beyond the code of conduct but a student may be required to do something to be asked to do something to conform with the expectations of the school sponsored activity and their refusal to do that could have a further consequence mean that we've tried to I just want to I'm I may have said this I don't still if I did I'll read modify it or retract it but I I wouldn't say this is this is exactly it just codifies how we are doing things right now I think we've had clear examples where we are putting there's a structure very clear structure in place for that school sponsored activity an example
217I gave is the high school reviews all graduation speeches in advance that is not new there are other instances where maybe it was more of a norm or it's assumed that everybody knows what the what the guidelines are but maybe they're not expressly stated and this would help us be more consistent in those instances where most people would believe there are guidelines and but maybe not everyone is aware we should if there are guidelines we should state them to you know if we're if we're holding students to an expectation at a school sponsored activity but we haven't told them that that's our expectation that's a setup and we don't want to do that i appreciate that and i also appreciate um you know colleen's point of getting feedback from the community we did hear a
218lot of you know smart things you know articulate things i'm not a lawyer so i i look forward to hearing the feedback from the community on this and it's not you know obviously it has to it can't break the law but it's also about trying to create the environment that we envision so that student activities can come off and and be what they're intended to be from an educational purpose. So is the expectation that the adults involved in the student, the school-sponsored activity would be responsible for communicating these guidelines in addition to whatever we share now? Yeah, with support from administration. Okay, because I think that's, as Bob was saying, sort of some of the things are, I liked that word, murky. I worry about students that may not understand what could be considered controversial
219might do something that seems controversial and then be subject to consequences because we're saying now that this is a deliberate act. I think we have to make sure that those students are aware in advance that there's intent there. It seems along those lines that that's why the educational component is so key because, you know, I have to say, sort of an epiphany for me when we did that eight hours of anti-Semitism. You know, I'm Jewish and I thought I kind of understood it, but I actually left feeling very differently about it after eight hours. Granted, it was eight hours, but, you know, that people... what doesn't feel like a microaggression or even a major aggression, once you kind of, someone explains it to you and the connotation of what certain words and certain phrases mean,
220you become just more aware of it. And, you know, when someone says, I don't think someone was anti-Semitic, well... It could be that they sincerely didn't feel that they were doing anything anti-Semitic, but that doesn't mean it wasn't anti-Semitic. I mean, they maybe, they weren't intending, they weren't thinking, I want to do something anti-Semitic, but within the context or the culture we live in, certain things, and I think about... things I've done myself that I didn't think were, you know, to a woman or to a black person that in hindsight were basically kind of stereotyping behavior that I just wasn't aware of or thinking about. So, you know, I think this common circles is going to be so, could be so profoundly impactful in a very major way about opening your eyes to being sensitive
221to people's perspective on what words mean, you know. I think that's sort of what we were somewhat hearing, that you don't think that sounds so bad, but it actually to a Jewish person is, or to a Indian person or a black person, that phrase, you know, really has great impact. So I think it sounds like we're, I don't know, moving in the right direction, the way I'm seeing it. I just have a question about the process and the timeline. We have like one more board meeting after this, right, of the board year. And we're taking community feedback now. So in terms of... you know we don't really have to like do we have to formally approve this because these are guidelines right and the code is usually reviewed right before our July meeting yep so
222is this gonna be something that's reviewed with the code by that group yeah I think or no no not necessarily no okay but we will we will take all that feedback that comes in including what we heard tonight and we'll talk about it again in June and then potentially again when we yeah we talked about it again in july when when uh readopts policies including the code and any changes that have come to the code okay i think you know the the hope is to have it included in student handbooks in september anything else or should we move on can i just um have one more quick question so this document seems to um to define a range of events that are most restrictive, kind of. But I'm not a lawyer, so it seems to
223me that if we imply certain occasions at the school are more restrictive than others, that seems kind of problematic, maybe, because consistency is always the easiest, right? So I'm just posing this question. Sort of, if there's special events and like regular even classroom environment or just, you know, in the hallways. So where, we talked about the line, like where do we draw the line? So I know it's super complicated, but just would like to. yeah I think it connects to your previous question about can we articulate as clearly as possible what school sponsored is yes I'm understanding yes yes but walking in the hallway that's not what we're talking about you know coming to school is not that's not what we're talking about right but even if we make that definition I guess we can
224consult lawyer but is that an issue if we create this when you start naming things you're gonna leave things off there are yeah that's that's a risk reward you know thank you for bringing this to this board and for soliciting feedback on it to be continued I guess we're ready to move on agenda item 12.0 to policy update I believe this is you as well true yes so this is Policy 8635, which is information and data privacy security breach and notification. I'm going to just pause. There's also a regulation connected to this. There's just a very simple change to the policy. The policy observes the change to the National Institute of Technology Standards Cybersecurity Framework has been updated to version 2.0. the acronym is NIST so the actual change in the policy is a change
225to communicating it as from version 1.1 to 2.2 this 2.0 that's it just a It's a very simple change to the policy. The regulation is new. You're seeing the draft regulation with commentary. This is from NISBA with the sort of options and commentary that we have. So this is the first time you've seen that. Again, just as a reminder, boards do not have to adopt regulations, but it's been our practice here for a long time to do that. We're sharing that with you and the regulation is to try to help describe what define and describe what happens. It's unfortunately we're spend more and more time in this realm right and having to think about this and But Jeannie's on top of it and she brought this forward move on item 12.03 treasurer's report and schedule
226of investments so I'm gonna stand in for Lisa who has a much-deserved night off lucky her the treasurer report reflects the financial activity for the month of March 2026 the highlights for this month are the state aid receipts equal about 1.25 million including the largest payments from Excess cost aid, which is special education aid, of $622,000. Instructional material aids, which are textbooks, software, and computer hardware, of about $335,000. And BOCES aid for $159,000. So they're all lumped into that $1.26 million of state aid. We received tax payments just under $623,000 from the Village of Scarsdale and Town of Maranac of $441,000 and $182,000, respectively. At the end of March, where about 95.2% of our levy has been received from the villages and they will make us whole in the month of April, or they did.
227little preview of the next month's agenda some of the other notable revenue receipts are two hundred three thousand dollars in refunds from BOCES for prior year services where there was a surplus at the BOCES level so those could return to us proportionately with other districts that subscribe to those services and two hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars in interest earnings the bulk of those interest earnings came from our night class account which is a cooperative liquid asset account where the average monthly interest rate for March was 3.533%, which is just off the February number, which was 2. Sorry, 3.56%. In total, we started the month with $105,752,639 on our books, and we ended the month at $94,069,149, which is the net result of our receipts and our disbursements for the month of March. We'll continue
228to see our cash balance decline over the next several months as we will not see another property tax receipt until the October timeframe, so we should anticipate that cash balance declining. With that, I'll answer any questions I can answer. Any questions? I'll tell Lisa that you missed her very much. And we do miss her. Item 12.04, budget transfers. That's me again. So we're presenting several budget transfers this evening that address both known and projected expenses throughout the year end. Before going over the details, I just want to highlight for the board that the number of budget codes that we are using or tapping into to cover these transfers are significantly larger than we typically see. And that really is kind of... closely aligned with the fact that our budgets are getting tighter and tighter and
229we're having more difficulty being flexible in our spending. So we are really scraping many codes at this time to really cover some of our projected. expenses for the rest of this year I say that not to be an alarmist but rather to simply just demonstrate that the ongoing budget challenges we face are not merely theoretical conversations but for some future budget but they really are present challenges that we are that are pretty impacting us today so just want to make sure that I point that out that way The first transfer is a transfer to cover the increase in the annual sewer bills. Late last year, after the 25-26 budget had been adopted, we identified this as an issue. The county tax rates for sewer had gone up, so we knew that there was going to
230be an increase this year. We waited until the actual tax bills came in, which they did in March, and we processed them in April. So you'll see the increase here reflecting those increases. Our budget for 26-27 is reflecting a higher line item for that. We'll continue to track that and see if it's sufficient for 26-27. The second transfer reflects the actual anticipated cost for related services and tuitions for students with disabilities that are placed outside the district. These expenses reflect an increase above budget as a result of either IEPs or 504. required services and additionally overall rise in our per student out of district tuition costs are continuing to rise as inflation goes up for all of us the cost of education educating students is rising so you'll see some of those expenses there The
231third transfer is an increase for unemployment expenses for former employees who have separated from the district. We do not pay into an insurance fund for unemployment expenses. As those expenses are presented to us for separated employees, we must reimburse the state for those payments. So there has been an increase in that line, so we're covering that here through this transfer. The fourth transfer is to have an increase in the Medicare Part B reimbursements for eligible retirees. This cost is driven by both the personal income levels of many of our retirees, which drives up their... really their earned income Medicare contribution rates. There's a staggered approach based on your retirement income, what the federal government withholds from your Social Security payments. We are obligated under our health plan to add a tiered method, reimburse those Medicare
232premiums. So we're seeing an increase both in the premium for Medicare and the number of employees that are qualifying for those. And then the fifth transfer is for custodial overtime. This is resulting primarily from covering staff who are in vacant positions or who are injured or out sick. We've been using overtime to cover those expenses, so that's more expensive than having the staff member there. We also had significant snow removal costs this year, so there's an implication for that as well. The sixth transfer is to cover the transportation fuel and vehicle maintenance expenses that are over budget through our village garage agreement. This is largely driven by fuel costs for the current year, which we had a shortfall on the budget, a known shortfall on the budget this year that we're covering. There is an
233increased projected and extra budget that accounts for that. And then the final transfer is the return of Social Security benefits to the Social Security code. These funds were previously moved to cover an additional elementary teaching position. However, based on the latest projection, we anticipate needing those funds. This transfer is connected to the appropriation of fund balance for the elementary teaching position. That was in the consent agenda item number 11.12 where we appropriated those funds for that position that we added last July when we had to break a section over the summer. Those are the budget transfers. Thanks, Andrew. You did a pretty good job answering a lot of my questions. You knew I was going to ask. So I wonder, and I didn't ask this in advance, so I apologize, but in terms of the
234village overtime, so first of all, these are 75,000 for our custodial overtime is over the course of the year. Yes, and those are our staff. And that's our staff. And then the village overtime is for mechanics or people that work on our buses and the fuel costs. It's the fuel and the parts and materials that the mechanics used to repair those vehicles are all included in those transfers that we. Do you have a sense as to how much within that $310,000? The largest piece is fuel. We had a budget error where we underestimated our fuel cost this year. It was a known error in the 25-26 budget. We've addressed that in 26-27. account for that now going forward okay great and I guess in terms of the special education services so again this is for
235all students over the course of the year yeah you know there's there's a combination of costs going on here one the behavioral costs is really a function of increasing price per hour and just your behavioral technician small group of students but even a small group of students that gets slightly larger has a an extreme effect on the on the budget when we look at the tuition there's two things at play here one is the per per student cost not the number of students who are out but what they're doing there's also a cost in that budget for pendency placement and then speech Italy about there are more speech Okay that's why I was wondering too if there's there's more students that are needing these services. We've had an increase in behavioral. I just wanted to
236comment again on the tight budgeting I mean when you look at those budget transfers you know your eyes kind of pop out because it is you know very illuminating and I just want to I know we talked about it during our budget process about how every year year over year we've been able to replenish the 1.1 million dollars you know into our fund balance to then include you know kind of offset the tax levy in a given budget year. and how it's going to get harder and harder to do that because now we're like pulling from different budget lines just to cover these expenses at the end of the year so just highlighting that a little for the community yeah thank you for bringing that up so so these smaller codes that we keep transferring
237these little dollar amounts from those are codes that would have money left over at the end of the year because we wouldn't need to transfer them That is the fund balance that we would have generated. That's becoming harder and harder to do because we need that money to cover other expenses. I also have to just be very clear, too, that our health plan is still volatile. And while three months ago I might have been more optimistic about where we're going to end the year, perhaps this would be the good year. We've continued to see additional expenses there. what was at one point thought to be a good health year and therefore some surplus generated out of the health plan, it looks like it's not going to be so. So we're going to have to continue
238to look at that through the month of April and May and see what the final results are going to be in June. We might have to tap into the health reserve for that as well. So in June, that's when we'll know kind of how our year was for health. Yeah, probably by the second week of July, actually. Hopefully we can give an update maybe at the July board meeting since it's a little bit later this year. lot of the June expenses will come in the month of July and we'll process those kind of accruals at the end of the year. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you Andrew. Okay next item on the agenda is the superintendent evaluation process item 12.05. So I'd like to start with an overview of the evaluation process that the board
239undertook this year as part of the board's responsibility to review the superintendent. This process began last summer and early fall with Dr. Patrick developing his goals for the school year. The board and Dr. Patrick also determined which evaluation template we wish to use and this year we are again utilizing the NISQIS rubric, a copy of which is available on the district website. Throughout the entire school year, the board continually provides feedback to Dr. Patrick. In addition, there are two formal evaluation and feedback structures in place. The board conducts a mid-year evaluation of the superintendent to provide interim feedback during the school year. The board also conducts an end-of-year evaluation of the superintendent, which is just getting underway. As of last year, we have adopted SuperEval as our software platform for conducting our evaluation, which we
240will be continuing to use again this year. Trick for his partnership in this process. Okay. Question or it's just an information item, I guess, for the community. Item 12.06, Board Leadership Succession Planning. I guess that's also me. Each year around this time, we begin discussion about board succession so that the community is aware of how the process works. Policy 2220, entitled Board Officers, reads as follows. The president and vice president of the Board of Education shall be elected by members of the board from its membership at the annual reorganizational meeting. Candidates for each office shall be nominated and voted openly in public. The President and Vice President shall serve for one year or until a successor is elected. The new board will have its reorganization meeting this year on July 15th. Nominations for President and
241Vice President shall be entertained and then voted upon at that time. Nominations may be made by board members. There can also be self-nominations. The purpose of tonight's information item is to begin this process. Any board member that is interested in serving as president or vice president next school year can let me know sometime after tonight's meeting, and we will provide an update at an upcoming board meeting prior to the reorganization meeting in July. Item 12.07, the West Putt Administrative Budget and Board of Directors Slate 2026-27. Okay. So we are a member district of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association. And we recently met and approved a budget and a slate for officers next year. The quick and dirty on the budget is that it's a 3% dues increase. They do scale it based on the
242tax levy. Some of the things that we face as a budget they face as well in terms of increases, you know health insurance was a discussion at that budget table and also Let's see what else can I tell you? It's basically a 3% dues increase to us as far as the directors slate you can see there that I'm I was nominated to be vice president next year and I have found the work at Westpac to be very rewarding. The vice president actually traditionally is in charge of advocacy so I'm actually looking for should I be. Are there any questions? Yes. Are they gonna change the meeting date from Monday night so that you can attend? They really should, right? I mean if you're vice president I would think that at some point they might consider
243changing that meeting date or at least aligning with board calendar so that you could go on off days like maybe they could at least look at that and not schedule it the same Mondays yeah I think the advocacy Monday's meetings are on Thursday but yeah they do have a lot of other meetings on Monday so yes I mean as vice president you should have a little pull on the schedule right I don't know just just saying we have no power the Tetris of member district board meetings I know well that but you know we we don't meet every Monday right we don't meet every Monday so if they held their meet Monday meetings on days when we did not have scheduled business meetings that might at least help you to attend and I feel like
244that's not as big of an ask especially given your role so it actually try to do that this year more and I did go to some more meetings than I had been in the past good I appreciate that is going to be an action item later on in the meeting. Okay, item 12.08, NISPA Area 10 Director. I think that's also me. So we've been asked by Cheryl Brady, who currently serves as our NSPA Area 10 Director, to write a letter of, you know, nominating her to, she'd like to run again for this office. She is in the second year of a second two-year term, which will end on December 31st. She is a member of the White Plains Board of Education and the Southern Westchester BOCES Board of Education. serves as an ex officio member
245of the Westchester Putnam School Boards Association and the Rockland County School Boards Association we have in the past nominated to miss Brady for this position in 2022 and 2024 she does regularly attend our West Putnam board meetings where she provides reports of nisba activities and issues just to clarify the position requires five districts yes we could be one Thank you. Any questions or comments? I find her to be, yes, engaged and helpful, and she's been an excellent leader. If you have questions, you know, you can feel free to write her. I think she wrote to the board as a whole. I don't think that one comes back until June. I think I looked into this too because she did ask us to nominate her before and at least my understanding is that a district can
246nominate more than one candidate so all we're being asked to do at this point is to nominate her to get her on the ballot not to actually vote for her yes that's correct and because the time the deadline hasn't come up yet I believe it's in July it's not clear who else might be running as well moving right along item 12.09 a resolution for the lower Hudson Education Coalition yep I'll take this one so this is an organization that the board pays dues to it's an organization that represents both superintendents and school boards in Westchester Putnam Rocklin Orange and Dutchess and they take advocacy positions. In this particular one, we worked to file a petition with the New York State Public Service Commission requesting that they engage in a procedure that they have called an
247informational proceeding to answer the question about whether the utilities would be able to deliver the infrastructure and power necessary to fulfill the school EV bus mandate. it seemed like it was a question we couldn't get the answer to and figured we would use that tool that's available in government to try to get the answer so LHEC initiated the petition it was accepted for a period of public comment they haven't determined yet whether they're going to hold the proceeding I sent a letter as a superintendent and then this is a resolution for the board to further support that action it would be up to the board if you're interested in doing that that this comes back as 13.0 Any questions? I'm comfortable with that I'm glad that you did that advocacy that's really important a very
248important piece to the EV bus mandate that we're actually working on right yeah I can't see a reason not to support that seems like a pretty important piece of advocacy and necessary Yeah, I agree. I'm just curious, obviously Con Ed down here, are there other utilities further north that have said they have capabilities, or is this a problem statewide? Do you know? So I can't speak beyond Lower Hudson. I haven't studied it, but I think there was a feeling, there's sort of an understanding that it's a question that hasn't been answered, that the utilities haven't answered that question. we're in a period where we've lost more generation capacity than is planned to come online within the time period of the EV bus transition as it currently stands. So there's a real legitimate, what seems to
249be an apparent mismatch. I think this is great then. Thank you. Thank you, Drew. Item 1210. This is another resolution and this this pertains to public school state sports championship tournaments This has also been a point of advocacy for my network for this entire year. It's actually been years, but We've made some significant headway this year There this seeks to create a separate postseason state tournament for non-public schools who participate in NISVA, which is the New York State Public High School Athletic Association. I obviously emphasize the word public intentionally there. There are a variety of schools without boundaries that take tuition students and compete against public schools. And one of the notable sort of, this is not the only case, but one of the state football championships this year was CBA, Christian Brothers Academy, Syracuse
250versus CBA Albany. There was not a single public high school in the state championship game. and you know our role is not to decrease opportunity for anybody else but to make sure our public school students have the opportunities that they're afforded and for some of our kids we've been fortunate to have state championships most recently in tennis and girls flag football and in softball soccer I can't imagine having a season like any of those teams had and getting to the penultimate competition and losing your chance to play in a state final to a school that can effectively recruit. just we're working hard on that so asking the board to consider a resolution but that supports this idea of separate tournament and also supports legislation that has been introduced by our local assemblywoman Amy Paulin and
251Senator Shelley Mayer any questions so this will be an action item okay next gift proposal to Edgewood school okay this is a gift proposal for basically you've seen a series of field trip I'm gonna call it catch up as we've changed our our approach so this is for four thousand six hundred and forty four dollars with gratitude to Edgewood PTA for transportation and support of various field trips that occurred through the year item 1212 proposal to Greenacres okay this is to support an artist in residence program at Greenacres to host what's called path to rhythm it's a group drumming program rooted in African culture they spend a week and build you know opportunities for kids in workshops to learn their practice and craft The next one is another catch-up as we sort of normed our
252practices. So this is just shy of $22,000 from the Green Acres PTA, covering a number of items that happen throughout the year. This is our chance to see the total spending that's going on. it does include path to rhythm which was started in November and this is a follow-up that is there any difference this came up a PTC and maybe they discussed it with you after I was there but with teacher grants you know some of them do teacher grants you know for the whole year like I think Quaker Ridge will do it for this you know in the summer and that's for next year we still see all those right at the board table or is there they wanted to know if there's any distinction between teacher grants and everything else that we see
253we typically see those we had a discussion we had was about procedure it was really about how what is the lowest friction way to enable teachers to access the approved grant I just have one quick question on this for this gift there it says gardening program for all grades during the school day and the summer I thought the district paid for the program during the school day I'll let Edgar take that one gardening gift during school day in summer I three the gift in Green Acres is gardening program for all grades during the school day and the summer $3,000 gift I thought that was just the summer yeah I thought summers PTA but this is during the school day is that is that a mistake right that's what I thought that the district paid for
254the garden I think I think it's an oversight okay yeah is it an all grade thing because I thought some schools the district paid for certain grades and maybe the PTA might The PTA is not paying for anything during the school day but the summer that's all Thank you yep the next gift is from the high school PTA for $5,000 a combination of donations the replace the red carpet the famous red carpet for pre prom replacement of seating in the Learning Commons and entryway carpets at Brewster Road entrance with logos to provide a safe and attractive environment when people arrive at the school. Any questions on that one? proposal to the district okay and this was referred to earlier in my opening comments but and tomorrow morning at 9 a post will go out to
255our community describing in more detail and with a way to access further information about this program common circles moving to understand ourselves and others this has been in the works for we were introduced to this actually almost a year ago now I think Susie you and I went along with some principal and assistant principal a couple of teachers this this exhibit was at Rye Country Day School where we first learned about it the exhibit moved to southern Westchester BOCES over the summer and I held our leadership team retreat there and we spent half of half of the day experiencing the exhibit and it it create it's a really innovative research-based learning experience which offers it's very much in line with work we've done around DEI and belonging but also has this focus on learning lessons
256from the Holocaust through this incredibly engaging interactive technology where hours and days of of interview recordings from a Holocaust survivor, Anita Lasker-Wallfish, and a liberator, you can ask them questions and the technology finds the closest answer from their many, many, many hours of interview and presents that. And it's like you're having a conversation with these people. And it's just incredibly powerful. We started a conversation in the fall with the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation to see if this was something they might be interested in providing support for. It's expensive. The exhibit costs $150,000. So SSEF, tonight's donation is for half of that cost. It's an exhibit that we get to keep. It doesn't come and then go. It's ours to have and use in perpetuity and also expand upon. Other part twos that have other concepts,
257civil rights and other types of concepts are ideas. The other $75,000 we've identified within the current year budget and have encumbered that money. so we'll work toward June toward a memorandum of understanding with common circles and their founders Sue Spiegel and Marla Felton and that will put us instead to begin the work this summer it will take quite a bit of time to develop including engaging our community to be part of the exhibit literally in images and pictures and stories It becomes a very personal to Scarsdale and not just the schools but the community, the Scarsdale community. We envision this being starting its life at Scarsdale Middle School but having opportunities for all students to experience it in the district and the community. A number of you have had a chance to see the exhibit
258when it was in Stanford. And there's a version called We Are New York, Common Circles New York now open at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Colleen and I were able to go to the ribbon cutting of that. We really, and even some of our teachers and principals have said, not just the content and approach of the exhibit, but the ideas it generates around what teaching and learning can look like. in a larger space, a three-dimensional space, spaces that we're gonna air condition that could hold different types of learning than we're doing right now. It's really a future-forward thinking idea. So we're grateful to the foundation for their willingness to partner on this with such a cost, but we think it's gonna be just really powerful for our students and our community. Thank you, Drew. I
259just wanted to say a few comments because, you know, I've had the opportunity to view this space now in two separate spaces. And, you know, as an educator, it's really inspiring. I was inspired because I feel like there are so many different layers that our teachers are going to be able to dive into with so many different age groups of students to talk about who we are, what makes us unique, how we're all. so many different layers but in the same way common because we live in the same community. It's really inspiring and I'm really excited for our community members to come together and be part of this exhibit because it isn't just students that is in this exhibit. Our whole community will be part of this. And I think this is just another opportunity
260for us to continue the work of bringing us together so that we can all appreciate what makes us different but what makes us the same in being one Scarsdale community together. I just want to thank you for finding this and bringing this and thinking ahead about what we would need in the future because we need it. And I just am excited to see what our teachers are going to do with it. And I think the AI concept, the kids are just going to dive into being able to go back and forth in a conversation with a Holocaust survivor. and a liberator it really is a very powerful experience and i'm i'm really excited for the community to see it and experience it and i'm really grateful for the scars dell education foundation to partner with
261us in this work and support it so i just wanted to thank you and thank the the foundation for for making this possible it's going to be really powerful i think part of part of what um i think it'll really help facilitate dialogue across difference which what Dylan Dylan Lemberg spoke about tonight and the work that he had done this seeing each other as multifaceted multi-layered individuals with complex identities is a step toward being able to have dialogue across difference well the founders are they involved at all once it comes to Scarsdale yeah yeah okay because I think they were incredible the way they let us through when we went on our kind of private tour and I wonder if yeah they'll be they'll be part of being able to provide some of that they're
262this is growing so they're being stretched a little bit but I know they are deeply invested they they mentioned Scarsdale on the ribbon-cutting in New York City a couple of weeks ago they specifically identified us as willing partners in helping to improve access The other thing that you're leaving out is that you are part of the exhibit in the museum. So if you are able to go down and experience it, which is so powerful, it was so wonderful to see your face on that wall. So I thank you for that. Thank you for this. I unfortunately didn't get to tour it. I think it was a snow day and then I couldn't make the makeup day. So I'm excited to see it come to Scarsdale. I do have some more pragmatic questions. So when do
263we anticipate this exhibit being up? running is it next fall or will there be like later winter winter okay and work underway throughout and the community will be aware because we will be asking for volunteers for input for stories but all that goes into creating the actual exhibit great and it sounds like it's semi-permanent exhibit is it a permanent exhibit like how no it can be deconstructed and moved okay but we would probably keep it up for at least a year I mean it's a fairly sizable you know effort okay that's great you know that's I'm I'm looking forward to seeing it Thank you, Drew. It was about a year ago that I saw it, and I'm still inspired and moved by what I saw. I don't want to give too much away to the
264community, but it's incredibly moving. It's incredibly inspirational. And I do think that our community will, you know, the empathy and the sense of belonging that is created, I don't think that it can be delivered any better, to be honest with you. There's so much creativity that's involved, history involved. It combines so many elements. And we will be, we're getting there, everybody. Item 13, action items, 13.01, the West Putt Administrative Budget. And I believe this one is Jim. Thank you, Suzy. I'd like to move the following. Resolve the board cast its vote on the ratification of the 2026-27 WPSBA budget as presented in the attachments. Thank you, Jim. Is there a second? Thank you, Bob. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. The ayes have it, and the motion carries. Item 13.03, the Westpac
265Board of Directors slate. I believe this is Leah. Thank you, Susie. I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolve that the board cast its vote on the slate of 2026-27 officers and members of the board of directors as presented on the attachments. Thank you, Leah. Is there a second? Thank you, Laura. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. I guess I'm abstaining. But the ayes have it and the motion carries. Thank you. Item 13.04, budget transfers. Amber. Yes. Thank you, Susie. I move that the board adopt the following resolution, resolve that the Board of Education approves the attached budget transfers in excess of $25,000 as presented. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? thank you leah any discussion all those in favor please say aye aye the eyes have it and
266motion carries um next item 13.05 the lhec petition the resolution bob sure i move that the board adopt the following resolution resolve that the Board of Education adopts the attached resolution to support in support of the petition of the Lower Hudson Education Coalition case 26-00643 as presented Thank you Bob is there a second? Thank you Jim any discussion all those in favor please say aye Item 13.06, the resolution to support public school state sports tournaments. Leah. Thank you. I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolve that the Board of Education adopts the attached resolution as presented. Is there a second? Thank you, Laura. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye's have it and the motion carries. Next, gifts. Item 14.01, Edgewood. Laura. Thank you, Susie. I move that the
267board adopt the following resolution. Resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gift of $15,199 to purchase the book nook vending machine as described in the attached letters. Thank you, Laura. Is there a second? Thank you, Jim. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. The ayes have it and the motion carries with thanks to the Edgewood PTA. Item 14.02, Quaker Ridge. Bob? I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolve that the board accepts with thanks the gift of $8,466 to support field trips and transportation costs for third and. fifth grade students as described in the attached letters Thank you Bob. Is there a second? Any discussion? All those in favor please say aye Aye. Ayes have it and the motion carries with thanks to the Quaker Ridge PTA and last
268gift of the evening item 14.03 the middle school. Leah. Thank you. I move that the board adopt the... Oh not the last one. I move that the board adopt the following resolution. Resolved that the board accepts with thanks the gift of $238 for Feast of the Gods, Greek mythology literary celebration for Cooper 6 English classes as presented. Thank you, Leah. Is there a second? Thank you, Laura. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Ayes have it. And the motion carries with thanks. Oh, we have another public comment now. I won't go through all of the language in the preamble from earlier this evening. The guidelines still apply. The only difference this time around is that there is no total cap on time, time limit. And so we might as well start. Would
269anybody like to make a public comment? Hi. Michael Levinson, 16 Corlin Road. I wish we were talking about AstroTurf again, and I haven't forgotten your very kind offer to meet with me, and I would like to do that. Oh, I don't see the clock thing. Do I have four minutes, I assume? Okay. Somebody go like this if I get to three. I grew up in Scarsdale, and I recently moved back here to raise my son because I had such a wonderful experience growing up here and an amazing education. I went on from Scarsdale High School to study at Columbia University, where I majored in Middle Eastern studies. And with the optimism of a Scarsdale High School graduate, my goal was to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I
270did not. And I don't think you guys will either. And I don't think the administration will or the staff will. It is equally as perplexing a topic as to what is anti-Semitism and what is anti-Zionism and all of it. And we heard a lot of very impassioned opinions about that topic tonight. And I would just like to try and say something very simple to everybody. Hatred of any country, it doesn't matter what the country is. It doesn't matter what the reason is. Hatred of a country is bigotry. I think that we all agree with that. And I think that I was heartened to hear that actually despite all of the differing opinions tonight, I didn't hear anybody say that they supported this urinal incident. I don't want to bring that up again. I think everybody
271agreed that that was bad. And I think what people get confused about or what get lost in the details about is, is it anti-Semitism? Is it not anti-Semitism? It doesn't matter. If there are Israelis, if there's one Israeli student, and if that's my son because my husband is Israeli, so my son is half Israeli, who walks these halls and feels that there are students that think it's okay to throw a map of his country or a flyer for his country's independence in a urinal, and the immediate response is not. a swift condemnation of just that with no qualification and no context required about what the content of said flyer may or may not have been. How would any of you feel if that was done to your son about because of the country of origin
272that he comes from? And that's what I'm very, very worried about with this incident. And while I am very heartened, thank you, to hear about all of the steps you guys have taken and are continuing to take, and I think you're all headed in a good direction, I really just want to make it very clear, it doesn't matter if it's anti-Semitic. It is not okay to express hatred towards Israelis. It is not okay to express hatred towards any country on the planet or any group of people. I think we all know that. And I would just like to see that clarity however you move forward in figuring out the very difficult tasks you have ahead of you. And I'm available if any, I have a great library from all my college books if anybody wants
273to discuss it more. 16 Coraline Road. Thank you so much. Would anybody else like to make a public comment? Being nobody else from the audience, we'll be going to Zoom. We have one attendee on Zoom with their hand raised. I will... Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Perfect. Good evening. Rachna Singh, Griffin Avenue. Still speaking in my personal capacity as a taxpayer. I feel a little silly talking about bond and finances after hearing experiences that the kids had to go through at SHS lately. But nonetheless, I recently received this district mailer made for Scarseal taxpayer, paid by for Scarseal taxpayer. The district's mailer highlights an average annual cost of just under $84 for a typical Scarseal homeowner. While this long-term average... mathematically correct it is significantly oversimplifies the real financial impact
274on taxpayers the district is seeking approval to borrow 101.7 million in principle imagine taking out a 25 to a 30 year old mortgage on your house or a hundred and one point seven five million in principle you understand that you'll pay back a lot more than that in interest But now, picture that every single year, the bank, or in this case, the Scarcisco District, has to include that year's mortgage payment in the household budget. And the only way to pay it is by raising the amount taken from everyone's checking account through their property taxes. Now, because of New York State tax cap levy rules, that mortgage payment is excluded from the normal 2% limit. so it can push the total tax levy higher each year as the payments ramp up, even while the district says
275it's staying within the cap. And unlike your personal mortgage, this one affects all homeowners for decades, overlapping with regular operating budget pressures and reserve usage. This district's own projections show that these combined principal and interest payments ramping up and peaking in 2033 and 34, at approximately $406 to $440 per year for average Scar sale home, nearly five times the advertised average. Scar sale does not have significant revenue for investment incomes, barely have any interest income. As Assistant Superintendent Andrew Lennon has explained, after state building aid, the remaining local share comes primarily from property taxes. I respectfully urge the Board to provide a much clearer communications that prominently show both long-term average and year-by-year impacts, particularly during the peak years, so all taxpayers can fully understand the long-term commitment before the May 19 referendum. I do
276realize it's kind of late in the process, but maybe for the future budgets when you're considering future capital projects, that would be the better way to go. Thank you. Good night. And thank you for staying up so late. Thank you. Thank you, Colleen. With that, we will close public comment. Next item on the agenda, follow up to public comment. Thank you all for commenting and sharing. And I think at this point, maybe we can just take a breath. It was tough tonight, but we got through this together. Thank you to all those who spoke and for sharing, even when it was hard. Thank you to Dr. Patrick for inspiring us with integrity and thoughtfulness. I know we all do not have agency to change much of what is happening in the world, but we do
277have agency over the type of school community we build here in Scarsdale together. We will continue to work to make this place our place, look like the world we all wish for. Thank you for all for being here. We look forward to being in continued dialogue with you. Can we move to the item 18 meeting date for the coming month? Thank you, Susie. Tuesday, May 19th, is our public budget vote and bond election from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the middle school gym for everyone still listening. I hope you'll vote. We'll be there on Monday, June 1st. We have a special meeting executive session at 6 p.m. in this room. On Monday, June 8th, we have the retirement recognition ceremony at 5.30. and the biz followed by a business meeting in this room. And
278on Wednesday, July 15th is our organizational business meeting at 9 a.m. in this room. Thank you so much, Colleen. And with that, would someone like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting tonight? Thank you, Amber. A second? Thank you, Leah. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Ayes have it. Motion carries. We are adjourned.