001Okay. (hammer slamming) Good evening. I call this business meeting to order, and note that all board members are present, except for Jim Dugan. Jessica Resnick-Ault is attending remotely. We are also joined by Dr. Patrick in the administrative cabinet. Thank you to those in the audience, or watching the live stream for joining us this evening. Earlier this evening, the board met with the Scarsdale Principals Association, including all of the building principals and assistant principals. We hold this meeting annually, and is a wonderful opportunity for the board to meet with our building principals and assistant principals, and hear from them about how the school year is going. We appreciate the hard work of our principals and our assistant principals, and thank them for taking the time to meet with this board to share the details of their
002important work this year. Since our last business meeting, board members have attended a number of events throughout the community, including the SHS and SMS Thanksgiving potluck, organized by the SMS and SHS PTA Multicultural Committees, the district share out series organized jointly by the PTC, the SMS PTA and SHS PTA, where we heard from Dr. Patrick and Dr. McIntosh about the upcoming climate and belonging survey, and from Ms. Crowley about the district technology survey, board members also had the opportunity to attend the Scarsdale High School Community Dinner organized by the high school student government. Thank you to the many volunteers, students, parents, faculty and staff members and administrators for helping to organize these events, as well as attend and presented some of them. Following the community dinner the other night, the board held its annual board
003retreat. These retreats allow the board to build relationships, and discuss how our board can work together, best work together, as a board, and also with the superintendent. This year's retreat focused on our process for goal setting, team building, and interpersonal relationships among board members through the lens of the strategic planning process. Those are all my comments tonight, I'll pass it over to Drew. Thank you. I'm gonna take a second to pull up a few slides ... Bear with me for one second. Okay, thank you. Well, good evening and welcome to everyone attending tonight. Thank you for joining us, and I wanna reiterate President Schulhof's words of thanks to the Scarsdale Principals Association, and my thanks to everybody who participated in tonight's public budget forum. We appreciate that. I'm gonna start my comments tonight by taking
004us back to last Tuesday, November 7th, Election Day, which was our Superintendents' Conference Day, where our faculty and staff gathered for some learning opportunities. The day afforded us the opportunity to engage in learning, and to collaborate around some important priorities. I'm gonna share a few of those, but leave other aspects of the day to Edgar to cover during his cabinet update. As you know, we've embarked on the development of a multi-year strategic plan that will provide a focus for our work and guide us when weighing alternatives, and making important decisions about how to best prepare our students for their future. As part of this process, we've created a number of opportunities for dialogue using the World Cafe Protocol. On Tuesday, our entire faculty, 530 plus educators, convened in the high school gym, this is just
005one picture from that gathering to consider our future together. In this session, faculty were split into groups with people from other disciplines and other schools to engage in a dialogue about how to best prepare our students and our schools for the future. It was a really exciting morning of conversation with lots of feedback collected that is just in the beginning stages of being synthesized. We've invited all members of the community to join us in a similar dialogue at one of our three upcoming World Cafe events, these sessions will be nearly identical to the one our faculty engaged in, and the feedback will contribute to the aforementioned plan. Events will take place the first one this Wednesday in the SMS Great Hall at Scarsdale Middle School on the 29th -- I'm sorry, on the 15th, get
006my dates right, at 7:00 PM, another one, Wednesday, November 29th at Green Acres, and then on Wednesday, December 6th via Zoom. People may register by scanning the QR code here on the screen or by visiting Bitly, bit.ly/scarsdalefuture. On election day, we also spent some time with faculty in dialogue about our special role as educators to support student wellbeing. As a full faculty, we reflected on how to meet students where they are, and what we can continue to do to support them, especially during this particularly challenging time. Both experiences moved us ahead in terms of our understanding and ability to provide our students with what they need to feel safe, supported, and to remain engaged. In a similar vein, a critical next step in our work around wellbeing, inclusion, diversity and equity is our belonging survey.
007We've partnered with the Search Institute to develop and implement the survey to students in grades four through 12, and all of our parents and caregivers, faculty and staff. The survey is built around Search's developmental relationships framework, and was deployed to our faculty and staff last week as part of our professional learning. Last Wednesday, as Ron mentioned, Dr. McIntosh and I also presented an overview of the survey to parents at the PTC and SMS and SHS PTA event, and later this week, we will be sending an email out to our parents and caregivers explaining the student survey along with the timeline for that we will use to engage students and parents to complete the survey. We really hope that our parents and caregivers will take the time to share their views about their sense of belonging
008within the Scarsdale Schools community. Next, let me just play a video while we talk through this, at Scarsdale Middle School, students were treated to a lecture and performances by dancers who demonstrated how and why the Festival of Diwali is celebrated. The Hindu Festival of Lights, which celebrates the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance after the harvest was a great opportunity for our students to learn and be engaged, and we wish everyone who celebrates this five-day festival, a home filled with happiness, a heart filled with love, and life filled with light. I also wanna let the board and community know that our facilities department has posted the 2023 results of our lead in water testing, the screen here shows how anyone in the community can access those results, on
009the facilities page of the district website, there's a link called reports and documents, and once there, there's a link for current year water testing, and those results can be found there, the community can address questions to our facilities department as outlined in the letters for each building. So we wanted to call your attention to that. And finally, just a few calendar reminders, in addition to the World Cafe Dialogues I just described, President Schulhoff and I will be guests at the Scarsdale Forum this Wednesday evening at 7:30 PM at the Scarsdale Public Library, and of course, the Thanksgiving recess begins next week with an early dismissal on Wednesday, and school's closed on Thursday the 23rd and Friday the 24th. Thank you, Drew, are there any board member comments? Bob. Yeah, I just wanted to briefly report
010on a school tour, one of the, I guess, fun and interesting things board members get to do is to tour the schools, particularly those that are not in the neighborhood where we grew up and our kids grew up. So in this case, on November 3rd, I got to visit and tour Edgewood School, and Principal Eldon, Assistant Principal Drapek, and two very charming fifth graders were our tour guides, which was just a lot of fun, and just really interesting to see our kids in action. And you know, just to let everybody understand we're there, it's really a sort of a facilities review, we're not there to analyze anything beyond, you know, the physical infrastructure, and we toured really the whole school, which was great. One interesting kind of point that I would like to mention is
011that this year, Edgewood is focusing on kindness, and they're using the theme of kindness throughout the whole school, and it's just really, really comforting and delightful to walk around, and see all different examples of how the kids are expressing kindness, and they're even having an election coming up, it may have already happened, now that I think about it, where they're gonna pick I guess, the most, the favorite tagline on kindness, and all the kids participated, it was just great. Things that need to be improved, I think, you know, one of the takeaways for me was that the school is, most of the rooms are being used, and should there be a lot of growth, I think there'll need to be some careful thinking about where conference rooms and specialists may have to go, so I
012think the administration is on top of it, so I don't think it's necessarily a long-term issue, but it's something that everybody's thinking about, and they're also, like any of the schools that are of that vintage, the outdoor spaces are also part of our agenda, and there are things that are being analyzed, and reviewed, and repaired, but I think we all left with really a good, pleasant feeling that our schools are, it's a beautiful school in all ways, and I know we all really enjoyed the time that the whole school took out for it. So it's good for the community to know that's the situation. Thank you, Bob. Any other board reports? Amber. Thanks, Ron. I also have a board tour to report. On Monday, October 30th, Ron, Jim, and I toured Quaker Ridge with Principal
013Dr. Felix Gil. We had the opportunity to view the entire building, and also to view specific learning spaces. The halls were busy with activity as students moved between specials, and staff welcomed us into their spaces when classes were not in progress. I'd like to provide just a few highlights from our visit with the new distribution of the ICT classes around the district, space pressures at Quaker Ridge have been alleviated, some multi-use spaces are no longer being used as classrooms and have returned to common use space. This year, they have been able to repurpose a few spaces within the building for a NLRC room and testing. We also had the opportunity to view both interior courtyards. The smaller courtyard has been updated with new pavers from the PTA gift, and we reiterate our thanks to the
014Quaker Ridge PTA for their gift, last year. And Dr. Gil reported minimal issues with flooding in the Quaker Ridge fields. We thank Dr. Gil and the Quaker Ridge community for welcoming us into their building. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to visit our schools, and see how our spaces help enable the amazing teaching and learning happening throughout the district. Thank you, Amber. Any other board reports? Colleen. We too toured. We were busy touring during our break from the board meetings. On Friday, October 27th, Ron, Jim, and I toured Scarsdale Middle School with Interim Principal Coghlan. Principal Coghlan shared with us that things were running smoothly, and everyone was getting into a routine, now that the school year is well underway. Here are some highlights from our tour. We were able to see
015the updated SMS news desk that was worked on over the summer, kids record the news twice a week, students are involved in all aspects from writing, anchoring and recording to edit and production. We saw the library updated with the new furniture gifted by the Scarsdale Education Foundation. It is clear that the furniture has really allowed the library to be a multifunctional space all students benefit from, and I would like to take a moment to thank the Education Foundation for all their support in creating such a beautiful space for our students. We also visited a new science classroom, where they took out those old, heavy lab tables, and replaced them with more flexible furniture, allowing teachers to easily change the configuration of the classroom based on the needs for that day. Currently, the old Choice building
016is being used primarily for storage, the goal is they want to take that building in the future to house the janitorial maintenance staff, but they're hindered by the lack of a restroom, in that building and that would have to be addressed. The cafeteria and kitchen situation continues to not be ideal with the kitchen located in Butler and food transported to the four cafeteria areas in each house. The library is used as a means to get the food to Cooper and Popham House and can be disruptive at times. Ideally, the middle school would love one central cafeteria kitchen in the middle of the school, perhaps in the area outside of the library that is not well-utilized. There is also not a good functional lunch area for teaching staff, partly due to the fact that the staff
017kitchen is not currently being utilized. These are all upgrades that could be beneficial in the future. I would like to thank Principal Coghlan for taking the time to show us around. We look forward to future visits and possibly even a cameo on the SMS news. Thank you, Colleen. Susie. Thank you, Ron. I do not have a school tour report, unfortunately. On Monday, October 30th, I attended a Westchester Putnam School Board Association Advocacy meeting via Zoom. At this meeting, we discussed West Putt advocacy priorities, and the Lower Hudson Education Coalition's Advocacy Priority Survey results. Topics discussed included the sustainability of student mental health programming, safety, security, and emergency management issues, including a discussion on SROs, possible advocacy proposals regarding school budget funding, whether it be state aid-related or common sense revisions to the tax cap formula,
018and other issues related to student growth and success. As a note, the electric bus mandate and cybersecurity concerns were highlighted as new and growing concerns by districts in the area. Westput will finalize its list of legislative priorities at its next meeting, which will be held on December 4th. Thank you, Susie. And now I'll pass it over to Drew for item 4.01, cabinet updates. Okay, and we'll start tonight's cabinet updates with Edgar. Great, thank you Drew. So while the strategic planning work was being done in the gymnasium, Dr. Derek Gay was launching and framing the belonging survey in the high school auditorium for staff. His presentation included a description of the survey, the importance of their participation, and the key role that a sense of belonging plays in the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion. After
019the strategic plan launch, and staff belonging survey introduction, the day continued with rich and responsive learning opportunities. Dr. Gay moved his work into the ILab to offer a workshop geared towards using courageous conversations, protocols and strategies to address difficult classroom topics. The Courageous Conversations tools are familiar to our faculty from a training last year, but the responsive focus on this session was how to purposefully use the tool to navigate discussions in the high school environment in relation to the impact and after-effects of the Hamas attack on Israel, including rising incidents of local and global antisemitism and Islamophobia. In addition to members of our cabinet, participants included high school educators, librarians, and the entire high school administrative team. The feedback was positive, educators found revisiting the tool in this context to be helpful guiding and responsive
020to our students' and the educators' immediate needs. Next slide. Meanwhile, elementary classroom educators made their way up to the little theater to join a lively and interactive workshop with nationally-recognized math educator and advocate, Dan Finkel. Dr. Finkel is the co-founder of the nonprofit Math for Love and has devoted much of his life to understanding and teaching the motivation, history, aesthetics, and deep structure of mathematics. Following his inspirational presentation, the elementary folks traveled back to their schools to engage in a variety of math-related projects, carefully curated by our math coordinators, Carrie and Vivian, all based on the described needs of the classroom teachers. Dan Finkel returned to the little theater in the afternoon to spend time with our middle and high school math teachers, sharing strategies for meaningful and joyful engagement at the highest levels of
021mathematics. Next slide. High school and middle school educators found great use of the time to meet and cross-curricular or department teams to focus on timely and important articulation and curriculum work. Special area ENL teachers, psychologists, and language teachers found great opportunities here too. Superintendents' Conference Day gives us a rare opportunity to meet, discuss, and coordinate how student learning builds on itself up and across the grades. For example, our elementary PE teachers had a meaningful block of time to meet with our middle school health teachers to review and discuss the updates to the fifth grade health curriculum. Incidentally, Monday, January 29th, we will be giving a parent presentation on these revisions at 7:00 PM in this room, the PTC has included it on their calendar, and an announcement will be communicated as we get closer to
022the day. It is on these Superintendents' Conference Days that we truly appreciate that time is one of our greatest resource, and appreciate the board and community support for these days, and trust in the flexibility and finding the most meaningful and impactful use of the structure, so thank you. Thank you very much, Edgar, and now Megan will give an update on principal searches. Thank you. I wanted to give a brief update on the development of our leadership profiles for both the middle school principal and Edgewood Principal. This past week, I met with parents at the middle school to gather their input around three questions, the first being, what hopes and aspirations do we have for our students and schools community, the second, what skills and experiences do you see as important for the next school principal,
023and then finally, what leadership qualities and attributes do you see as important for the next school principal. And I'll be engaging in a similar process with the parents at the Edgewood School this Thursday evening, so all are welcome to attend, all of this feedback will inform the profile and the survey that will be sent to families of both current, future, and former students, and we're on track to have the profile, both profiles written, and the positions posted before the December break. This will allow us time to review the resumes during the month of January with three rounds of interviews scheduled for the month of February. So really six, I guess, overall, if all goes well and as planned, few snow days, we'll be in a position to announce the next Principal of the middle school
024in Edgewood in early March. Thank you very much, Megan, appreciate that. And I'm gonna invite Ray to the podium to share a fall season recap for our really incredible and some state champion athletic teams. Thank you, Drew. So just some recent highlights, we'll go over a little bit about each team, for the first time in recent memory, cheerleaders have has produced five all league and two all section athletes in the fall game day season, which isn't a typical competitive season for them. But with her best race this season, Rachel Rakower in Girls Cross Country finished third in the Class A, championship race, becoming the first Scarsdale girl to qualify for the New York State Championship since 2002. This past weekend, Rachel played 63rd at the New York State Championships. Football and girls volleyball completed their
025seasons as sectional quarterfinalists. Field hockey had a strong year finishing as sectional semi-finalists. Girls soccer performed well, sharing a league title, and ending their season as actual semi-finalists, as well. Girls swimming and diving has four swimmers going to the states this coming weekend, Sonny Kang will compete in the individual medley. Lori Jang and the individual medley and the backstroke, and Joy Kang and Katherine Foley will join Sonny and Lori in the 400 Relay. Boys volleyball completed their season with league and sectional titles, losing in a sub-regional championship to the likely state champion. Boy soccer secured the league section region and New York State Championship for the second year in a row. And then girls tennis, Emma Ha and Kate Catrell earned the sectional title, and were state runners up as a doubles team, in the
026team competition, the girls tennis team won their league, their section, the region, and the state for the third consecutive year. So it's been an outstanding season. Thank you very much, Ray, and that concludes our cabinet updates. Any questions or comments from the board? Okay. We will move to item five, hearing from those present. I will begin with the preamble that applies to both this public comment period, and the one later in the meeting. Members of the public are cordially invited to speak on district-related items or other non-personnel-related matters during two separate public comment periods. When it is your turn to speak, please state your name, address, and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization. For those commenting remotely, please mute the live stream, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. Speakers will
027be asked to conclude the remarks after four minutes, and will be given a verbal cue at the three-minute-mark. If at this point a speaker has additional comments, they may send them in writing to the board via email at [email protected]. The public comment period is reserved for comments only, the board will not engage in dialogue. The board reserves the right to respond to comments and questions at its discretion, either during response to public comment, or at a later time and place. Response to public comment will take place after the first and second public comment periods. And with that, is there anyone in the audience that would like to make a public comment? Okay, oh, there is one. Yes. Good evening, members of the Scarsdale Board of Education. My name is Bob Harrison, I live at 65
028Fox Meadow Road, and I'd just like to, having been involved in youth sports over 40 years, basically, I've run the summer youth tennis league, we completed our 39th summer this past summer, and for girls and boys, I'd like to congratulate the girls tennis team, hopefully our program had some influence, I don't have the names of all the players, but perhaps a few of them did participate in our summer program, which we completed our 39th summer this past summer. So I congratulate Ray, and the great accomplishments of our athletes, and not only do we have great education, but we have also great athletes, so congratulations to Scarsdale. Thank you for those comments. Is there anyone else in the audience? Okay, I see no one else, we will turn to Zoom. Susie? There are no attendees on
029Zoom. Okay, well we will close this public comment period, there is a second opportunity later in the meeting, and move to item six, follow-up to public comment, I don't believe there's any follow-up, just to agree that we have great athletics, as well as great academics. We will move to item seven, written communications. Susie. First, I will read the preamble. Please note that the Board of Education email is also viewed by the superintendent and district clerk. Open meetings law requires all board deliberations, which 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 their earliest convenience. Okay, and since the last board meeting, there were 44 emails received by the board regarding district matters,
030and 11 communications regarding board meetings, highlights, board invitations, or correspondence. Thank you, Susie. We move to item eight, the consent agenda. The full preamble is in the board doc's agenda, but just an overview, the consent agenda is a way for the board to conduct, to streamline agenda items that we don't believe there's any controversy on, or the need for a detailed dialogue, but all consent agenda items have backup material available in board docs, any board member can remove an item from the consent agenda if they would so choose. Is there any board member that would like to remove an item from the consent agenda tonight? Okay, I see none. I believe this is Colleen. Thank you. There are seven items on the consent agenda, 9.01 minutes education report business meeting, October 23rd, 2023, 9.02, personnel
031certified. 9.03 personnel non-certified. 9.04, claims audit report, October 2023. 9.05, quarterly reports, student activities fund, 9.06, contracts over $20,000 for special education. 9.07, accept consent agenda. I move to accept the consent agenda. Thanks, Colleen. Is there a second? Bob? All those in favor? Aye? Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries, we will move to item 10, information -- (Amber speaking off mic) Oh, sorry. Thank you so much Amber. Jessica, we just had the agenda up. Could you just raise your hand that you accept the consent agenda? She might be on a little bit of a delay too. Oh, Jessica, can you hear me through the -- Hear me now? Can you just raise your hands? We didn't have you on the screen before for the consent agenda. Thank you so much, Amber. Thank you, Jessica. The
032motion carries, we will move to item 10, information items and discussion items. Item 10.01. I assume this is Lisa. Good evening. Okay, so you're presented with the reports for September. We started the month of September, approximately 29 million in cash, we took in approximately 21 million in revenue, dispersed about 31, that resulted in an ending cash balance of about 19 million at the end of September. As you can see, we could started to get a very small portion of our tax money in September, but the bulk will come in in October in the following month. So as a result, cash on hand is still on the low end, so in response to some of the questions on investing and interest rates, just to note a few things. First, the treasurer's report represents transactions for the
033month of September. The investment report is where that money is invested as of one date, September 30th. So when you look at the treasurer's report, you'll see under the general fund investments, there's approximately 10.8 million that came out of that account, and was transferred into other accounts. So that could be multiple transactions, we do a weekly check run for vendor payments, and we do bimonthly payroll, so we keep money in the higher interest bearing accounts as long as possible, then transfer into the lower interest accounts for operating purposes, as needed, so again, we had over $49,000 in interest for the month, so that ending period is just where the money was September 30th. When you're dealing with a lower cash on hands, as I've explained in the past, depositories as a municipality, they must collateralize
034all of our money. So anything that's not covered by FDIC must be covered by separate collateral, and in turn, we also do not pay any hard fees on our banking. So we have very high-cost transactions that run through, but we don't pay any hard fees. So what the banks do is they run it through what they call the analysis, and basically those fees are covered by what are considered compensating balances, which ultimately requires us to put a larger sum of money in a lower interest bearing account, which, in turn, covers the fees. So that kind of explains a little bit, in October when the bigger chunk of money comes in with the tax revenue, you'll see a huge chunk of money going into our higher interest bearing accounts. So if you have any questions on
035that, I'm more than happy to answer. I have one quick question. Is it safe to assume that in a period of higher interest rates that the amount, the balance we have to keep in the lower interest accounts is lower, essentially the bank, what I'm not trying to ask is does the bank try to figure out how much fees we need to pay, and then backs into how much we need to hold? Because if we were in a lower interest period, they'd be getting less fees -- It would be lower, correct. for them, I'd assume, they wouldn't do that. So I would guess it probably works out that way. Yes. Yeah, I think the bank takes an assumed interest earnings on that balance that we've put in the lower earning accounts and that difference between what
036they are giving us and what they could have given us in another account, they used to offset those fees. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Okay. We will move to item 10.02, budget transfers. I believe this is also Lisa. That's me. Okay, so I'm presenting one very large budget transfer for review and approval, we're at the point where we're getting our salary projections together, and you know, some of these budget transfers are due to staffing changes, which could be for a variety of reasons, for example, you know our budget was finalized in April of last year, a lot can happen between then and now, we have retirements, we have resignations, replacements could be at a different step and rates, or there could be open positions, we could have enrollment changes, IEP changes, that require different
037staffing, we also have a lot of building changes, which, again, in New York state we're required to show budget accounts by building, so anytime a staff member switches between buildings, it affects the budget code. So that is ultimately what those budget transfers are representing. Okay, thank you so much. Are there any questions for Lisa? Okay, thank you so much. Those budget transfers come back as an action item tonight. Correct? Okay. We move to item 10.03, the memorandum of agreement with the transportation unit. Megan. (Megan clears throat) Excuse me. I'd like to share the MOA between the district and the CSEA Scarsdale Transportation Unit, the life of this contract, just a few highlights, covers the period of July 1st, 2023, through June 20th, 2026. A few additional highlights include the addition of longevity at years five
038and 10, which will help with the issue of retention that is currently a challenge for us. Also during the current school year, there'll be a dollar increase for each step, and a 1.95% increase in the 24-25 school year and again in 25-26, and then finally, the MOA also increases the contribution for health insurance by a quarter percentage point each year of the contract with a total increase of .75, and adds Juneteenth as a paid holiday to the transportation unit, for just some of the highlights. Thank you for that overview. Are there any -- Just one small thing. It is June 30th. I think that's a typo in there. Oh, sorry. It says it's June 20th. It is June 30th. Thank you. Any question? Oh, thank you June. Any questions from the board for Megan? Okay,
039I believe this also comes back to us tonight as an action item. Thank you for all of your work on this, and hopefully it's great to hear this will help hopefully with some of the retention with bus drivers that the whole state and nation are facing. And our bus drivers do a amazing job for our kids in all weather and all types of driving, so thank you so much. Item 10.04, policies, the zero series to rescind. This is Drew. Thank you very much. This is the first of the next five items are policy-related. And given this was a little bit lighter meeting, we thought this was a good meeting to get this business done, and I just wanna give a little background. The first thing is to say a huge thank you to Honore, who
040has kept track of the overarching policy review process for years, and this first item, policies to rescind in the zero series was part of the initial Board of Education, full book of policies review process that started before COVID. Some of you were part of this process, and tonight, we have a little bit of unfinished business, just that Honore brought back to our attention to make sure that we close the loop on those tranches, I think was the word that was used. So this first one is in the zero series, the summary sheet that's an attachment to this kind of gives the rationale for why these policies are no longer necessary, for example, the evaluation series there, the last four, these are all processes outlined in collective bargaining agreements, the policy was not adding value or
041information really to the board or to the community, and how that would work. So I will leave it at that for this particular item, and see if there are any questions knowing that this item comes back as an action item in a few minutes. I have a question. Yep. So NSBA recommended rescinding some of these policies, and this was before I was on the board. So did the subcommittee also, was that like at the time that the subcommittee reviewed, they also felt that these policies should be rescinded? Yes, the subcommittee was in agreement with these particular recommendations. Okay, great. Thank you. And there is, just as a reminder, there is video of those, those subcommittee meetings were recorded as public meetings. I'll go back, and check that out in my free time. I know. Honore
042did. (participants laughing) Okay. The next item, 10.05, this is sort of back to our regular policy process, this is follow-up from our October 23rd first read on policy 0100 non-discrimination equal opportunity, and so this would be the second read, and this would, unless there's a change, this would come back as an action item. Any comments or questions on this one? Okay. All right, the third one here, item 10.06 is the first reading of purchasing authority policy, before opening up to Andrew, if he has any comments, I will say this is a little bit unusual in that this policy by statute requires that we name the person and the position responsible for this. So there's not, I can't think of another example where the board has a policy that names an individual employee, but the statute
043and I went back and read it, clearly does state that in this case. So this is something we'll figure out a process by which to make this clear that the board will have, you know, to make sure we're not missing it if the person changes that the board is ready to act to review that policy, and change the name of the person. Anything you wanna add to this? No, the only thing is that it does say in statute that this policy needs to be reviewed bi-annually, so you know, we, of course, when we appoint a new purchasing agent, hopefully in the near future, we'd have to update this policy accordingly. Okay. Any questions on 6701 purchasing authority? Okay. Next, overview of the board, this is 10.07, overview of the policy subcommittee's review of the 2000
044series, and first reading. So this also is unfinished business, there actually was a first reading of this, some of these policies back in 2021. Is that right? I think yeah. Two? But we are, it's been such a long time we're revisiting these for the first reading, Honore did a really nice job, I think, of kind of breaking these into the moments that they occurred this work, very grateful to board members who worked on this, they worked through different meetings, and different configurations to review the 2000 series. So there is an awful lot of information there, but it indicates in the agenda item who was part of those initial reviews to make the recommendations that you see here for first reading, video of the meetings is linked for anyone in the public, or any board member
045who wants to see that. And then you see that they were kind of handled in these three different groupings. In addition to this, there was a recommendation by the policy subcommittee to invite a board subcommittee on onboarding to review policies related to new board members, so those three policies, 2510, 2520, 2521 were not edited. So those are not recommended for change at this particular time. I'll pause there. Any questions? I just have like one. Yeah. It's more scheduling, the reorg meeting always falls, right? I think it says first like Tuesday of July. Yep. It always tends to conflict with holidays and board travel, and is there any kind of consideration to maybe try to do it, I know like the contracts all start July one, but is there any consideration on maybe trying to do
046it before the holiday starts? 'Cause I feel like we always come into conflicts of people being away or traveling, or ... Like on July 1st, or second? Yeah, or like July, this year was July 6th. I think we have done it in the past. Yeah. Right. It was two years ago? Because it fell on the Tuesday. No, the board can pass a resolution to change the date away from that particular first Tuesday. I just foresee a continuing They just have to do within to be a -- the timeframe. I think it has to be within the first 15 days. Yeah. Yep. Of July, is that it? Yes. So it cannot be like June 30th? No, the new board members, yeah. Got it. Yeah. Okay. The term of new board members starts July 1st. Right. And
047the election of new officers happens after that day. I just foresee it continuing to be an issue. And then people are Zooming in, and it's not ideal, so sometimes it's a new board member's first meeting, so I don't know. Just something to consider in the future. But that is state-determined that those boundaries ... Yeah. Of the first 15 days in July, and after July 1st, or after is a statute, or ed law. Okay, any other ... Yeah. I have a couple, a couple questions slash comments. Sure. Okay, bear with me, hopefully I read them correctly, so if I have any mistakes, please let me know. Policy 2205, just give people a chance to click on it -- Which is voting procedures. Voting procedures. Just recently there's a new law about early voting for school boards.
048Do we need to make any updates, 'cause in this policy, we talk about absentee ballots, do you feel like we need to add anything to this? Do you wanna -- (member talking off mic) Yeah, the rules have not been established basically for how that law is gonna come into effect, right? In full force and effect. Okay, so possibly? Okay, so we could -- Okay. I always love when there's laws, but the rules to follow them haven't come out yet. So we could pass this, and then just update it once we get that, if we need to. And we would probably get recommended update to that from NSBA, or our attorney. Yeah. Okay. If we go to 23. Thank you for that. Wait, can I just ask a follow-up question then? So looking at this draft
049policy 2205, is there any reason to actually make the changes, 'cause they look like they're capital letters, and I mean if we're gonna have to revisit it potentially in six months anyway. I mean, if we need to, it's fine, it's just I'm literally looking at the changes going replace lowercase B with a capital B. There's nothing requiring us to do to make this particular set of changes right now. If we want to, it's fine. I don't object to it. It just doesn't seem like there's anything material changing in here. Yeah. I guess the only benefit I could see is that if we try to sort of track back how policies were changed, we'd be able to say this tranche went through this process, through the subcommittee process, the subsequent change went through the NSBA process.
050I don't know whether that's of value or not. Okay, that's fine. If there's a reason, I'm open to it. And you can even think about it until it comes back next meeting, and decide then, 'cause there's, you're not -- We're not taking -- This is not something you're taking action on tonight. Okay. My next comment's a very minor one, but while we're making these updates in 2341, which is board meetings, agenda and procedures, we have a section which talks about sort of the typical agenda, and we have follow-up to public comment after the second public comment period, but we actually do it after both, I think we just, it'd be great if we just add a bullet after the first public comment period that says "Follow-up to public comment." Everybody okay with that? (members talking
051off mic) It's just we do a follow-up to public comment after both public comment periods, but it's only listed once in this proposed policy as like a typical agenda. It's not gonna prevent us from having the second response to follow-up because the officers and the superintendent make the actual agenda, but it's in every agenda, so I figured we should just have it in the policy. And I have just one other one in, okay. 2410, which is policy development, adoption implementation, suspension, and review. Okay. Two items, one is, I'm just not sure I'm reading this correct. If I go to the second page, it says under the section adoption, then there's a section, there's a part that says "Option A, option B." Do we need to pick one of those options, or is that actually saying
052in the policy, "These are the two ways", I think it's saying these are the ... I'm actually not sure, but these are the two ways that this could go in the policy, or we need to pick an option. I read it the way you described. Yeah. But now, now as I reread it, I'm seeing another -- Because sometimes -- Like it was an unresolved. Yeah. Sometimes NSBA does that in their recommendations, they say "Here's a couple options for your board to pick from", so we don't have to answer that here, but maybe just before the second read, we could just determine. And then I had one other comment on this under ... Let me just find the section, sorry. Okay. Okay, under development it says that "Any member of the board, district staff, students, parents,
053district, taxpayers, or other members of the public may identify policy issues. Such issues shall be identified to the superintendent. The superintendent shall be responsible for submitting policy issues to the board for consideration for keeping a record of all policy initiatives submitted to the board." Okay, my comment, I'm not sure that it matters or not, but it's a nuance that I just wanna make sure I bring up. Policy is the board's purview. So if the way this is written, if the board went to the superintendent, and said "We'd like to have this policy discussed at a board table", it would be up to the superintendent to then submit that back to the board? What happens if a superintendent didn't submit it back to the board? I don't know. (members laughing) I feel like there could be
054some sentence, and I'd have to go back, and re-look also at NSBA's proposed wording, maybe some sentence just about the, you know, the board officers can also bring up a policy item for consideration, just something like that. I mean I think in practice, our two by one structure is the way that could easily happen, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's conforming to policy if it's stated this way. And it just given policy is one of those items that is really under the board. I just think it might be worthy of finding the right wording there. So I just, we don't, again, don't have to resolve it, 'cause it's just the first read, I just wanted to bring that up. Yep. Very good. Any other questions or comments from the board? Could I just ask a
055question on this one? Now that I'm looking at it closely. So when we wanna suspend policies, it's subject to a majority vote of the board. Is that the board that's present? 'Cause we struck out the whole number of the board. So that would mean like today we have ... What do we have? Six board members. So we'd still need four, but that's what it means, right? If we had five, we'd only need three? We wouldn't need four, is that what that means by striking that out. That's how I read it. Okay. I think that makes sense. Okay. Maybe we could just ask either Dan or NSBA just sort of the rationale behind that, just I vaguely remember talking about this a long time ago about situations where the board would need to suspend a policy.
056I think we talked about suspending a policy once for something. I can't remember what it was, and we had this, I remember that too, I just don't remember ... I'm just thinking of a situation where you only need four board members for a quorum, and then you only need three to suspend policies. That's not even a majority of the full board. I'm sure others have thought about this a lot more like our legal counsel or NSBA, so I'd like to get their take on it, I just, you bring up a good point. We will come back with responses to all those three, so I have three policies, one item in each of the first 2205, 2341, and then I have three items for 2410. The option A, option B item, superintendent's responsibility, even though it's
057a board item there, and then majority vote of the board for suspension. And just thank you Drew and Honore for all your work, bringing this back, and following this path, and also thank you to all the board members that served on these subcommittees going back, I think, this is five years now, there was a lot of work put into that, and they're not here to get the thanks, but thank you, 'cause I'm sure they're watching online. (members laughing) Okay. Thank you. And then along sort of also as part of the 2000 review tranche review, like we just discussed with the zeros, there are a number of policies proposed to be rescinded, and that, again, no action, we would do that action simultaneous to the adoptions, but there's a chart that's been put together there that
058describes the rationale for those. Okay, any questions on that last one? Okay, we will move to item 11, action items, 11.01, budget transfers, Colleen. Okay. Be it resolved that the Board of Education approve the attached budget transfers in excess of $25,000, as presented. Thank you, Colleen. Is there a second? Bob, any discussion? All those in favor ... Do you wanna unmute ... All those in favor for the budget transfers? Aye? Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries, we'll move to item 11.02, MOA, the transportation unit. Bob. Resolved that the Board of Education approve the attached memorandum of agreement between district and the USFD CSEA transportation unit, as presented. Thank you, Bob. Is there a second? Colleen, any discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Let me just make sure I can see Jessica's hand. Thank you, Jessica.
059Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries, we move to item 11.03, policies, zero series to rescind. Amber. Thanks, Ron. I move that upon recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools that the Board of Education of the Scarsdale Union Free School District hereby rescinds policy numbers 0150, 0200, 0210, 0330, 0335, 0340, and 0350. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second? Colleen, any discussion? All those in favor? Aye? Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries, we will move to item 11.04, policy 0100 and regulation 0100R, non-discrimination and equity opportunity, equal opportunity. This is Amber. Thanks, Ron. I move that the board adopt policy 0100, non-discrimination and equal opportunity, and regulation, as presented. Thanks, Amber. Is there a second? Colleen, any discussion? Okay, all those in favor? Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries, we will move to item 12.01, gift proposal
060to the middle school, Bob. It is recommended that the board accept with thanks the gift of $500 for materials to construct a mosaic mural in memory of Michael McDermott, and presented in the attached letters. Thanks, Bob, is there a second? Amber, any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Right. The motion carries with thanks, and we will move to item 13, the second public comment period, we will follow the same preamble from the first public comment period, and start with those in the audience. Is there anyone who wishes to speak? Okay, see no one in the audience, we will turn to Zoom. Susie? There is nobody on Zoom. Okay, thanks, Susie. We will close the second public comment period, item 14, I don't believe we need the follow-up to public comment, we'll move to item
06115, wrap up items. Anything we need? Yep, we will follow-up on the 2000 series policies that you brought up, and come back during the second read with any adjustments, and we can discuss those. Okay, great, thank you so much for that. We'll move to item 60, meeting dates for the coming month. Susie. Upcoming meetings include on Monday, December 4th, a board meeting with the high school student group at 5:00 PM at the High School Learning Commons, a special meeting executive session at 6:00 PM here in this room, and a business meeting at 6:30. On Monday, December 18th, there will be a special meeting and executive session if needed at 6:00 PM in this room, as well as an education report, and business meeting at 6:30. Thank you, Susie. With ... Thank you, Susie. With that,
062can I entertain a motion to adjourn? Amber? Second? I think I saw Bob. Any discussion? All those in favor? Okay. We are adjourned for the evening. Thank you so much, everyone.