BOE Education Report 2022-10-26

001Welcome and thank you to all those attending this evening's board meeting, whether in the audience, via live streaming, or watching later on demand. I call this meeting to order and note that all board members are present. Tonight's board meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, October 24th. The board had also planned to meet with the Village Board and village manager that evening. The board thanks Village Trustee Ahuja for calling to our attention that our meeting was scheduled on the same night as Diwali. Knowing that tonight's education report may be of of interest to many in the community, the board moved this meeting from Monday to tonight. The board values community engagement, and to this end, the board will strive to avoid conflicts for members of the community as we create next year's board meeting schedule. As

002a result of the move, the board has rescheduled its meeting with the village to November 21st and has also rescheduled the board retreat to the same evening. The village and school district collaborate on traffic and safety issues related to our schools, and these meetings provide us with an opportunity to strengthen our communication and explore other areas for collaboration. We look forward to meeting with the village next month to support this important partnership. The board looks forward to hearing a comprehensive education report later this evening. As a board, we create policy with the intention of supporting the mission and vision of Scarsdale schools. These reports inform and educate both the board and the community about how this vision is operationalized and brought to life on behalf of all of our students. On October 11th, the Audit

003Committee, composed of all seven members of the board, met to review the proposed corrective action plan from the internal audit to further improve internal controls and operational efficiencies related to the IT function. The audit committee also reviewed the corrective action plan as part of the risk assessment review of payroll, HR, and employee benefits activities. Additionally, Nawrocki Smith presented its internal audit pertaining to internal controls over payroll withholdings. The audit committee recommended that the board accept the corrective action plans and agreed-upon procedures reports, and these items are presented for action as part of tonight's consent agenda. Also, later tonight, the board will hold a public hearing on the Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing, and we'll have a second discussion on board goals for the current school year. At our last board meeting on October

0043rd, the board unanimously approved a leadership profile for the next superintendent of Scarsdale schools, presented to us by our search consultants from HYA. The report synthesized ideas represented in a series of focus groups, interviews, and survey responses. The superintendent search has now entered the recruiting phase, and our consultants are recruiting and vetting candidates in a nationwide search. Earlier tonight, the board met in executive session with our search consultants to receive an update on their recruiting efforts. Although we will respect the confidentiality of the search, in an effort to provide transparency about the process, an updated superintendent search website has been released on the board webpage and is easily accessible through site shortcuts on the district homepage. A communication about this updated website was scheduled to be sent to all faculty, staff, and community members a

005few minutes ago. A special thanks to district employees Honore Adams, Jeannie Crowley, and Michelle Verna, and board members Ron Schulhof and Suzie Hahn Pascutti for their efforts to put this website together. I encourage you all to review the documents that have been posted. Tonight's educational report is divided into two sections. The first provides valuable annual assessment data to help us better understand one aspect of student evaluation, including how the pandemic impacted our students. The second half of the report is forward-looking, focusing on transformations in curriculum at all three levels, allowing us insight on the important work happening to provide our students with the best educational experiences and outcomes. We look forward to hearing and discussing these reports tonight. Thank you. Drew? Thank you very much. I appreciate it, and I add my welcome. Good evening

006to everyone, especially our students in the audience. Whether you're here for an assignment or other reasons, we hope you learn something tonight and find it informative. I wanna thank everybody for joining us for our first education report meeting of the year. As a reminder, we differentiate education reports from our business meetings in order to place a sharper focus on our core mission of teaching and learning. This year's education reports are organized a little more thematically than in the past and are designed to help articulate our priorities for teaching and learning, and also to illustrate how our approaches to the work are visible across programs, disciplines, and levels of education. Tonight's presentation, as Amber mentioned, will begin with our annual assessment report, then will be followed by a report titled Transformations in Curriculum, which will highlight

007our Reveal Math work, ways in which DEI has thoughtfully influenced our curriculum, and some student-centered opportunities. On December 19th, we will discuss our thriving students by discussing DEI, wellness and wellbeing, and multi-tiered systems of support. On March 27th, the education report will focus on inquiry and innovation, highlighting our libraries, Center for Innovation, computer science and technology programs. And then finally, our May 22nd education report will explore our approach to optimizing learning and include a report-out on the advanced topics study and review the expanded programs in special education. Please note as well that the high school will be giving a presentation on December 5th entitled The Evolving College Admissions Landscape: Trends and Thoughts from the SHS Counseling Department. Typically, this would've been part of a board education report, but we thought it made sense to try

008something different as the structure of board meetings does not offer the chance, for example, for a Q&A and may not be as well attended as a public presentation. Maybe, you know, we don't know. The event will take place at 6:30, immediately prior to that evening's board business meeting, so our hope is that all board members will be able to attend that as community members, and then we'll come into this room for the business meeting. And we will have an information item on that agenda to create space to reflect on the presentation. Next, I would like to take a few minutes to recognize the contributions of our seven Board of Education members around this table. October 17th to October 21st was School Board Recognition Week across the state of New York. The New York State School

009Boards Association Organization, an organization we are a member of, sponsors this week as a way of recognizing school board members for their commitment to New York Public School students. It serves as an opportunity to raise community awareness and understanding about the crucial role school board members play within their respective school communities. Our seven school board members start their service by taking an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and that of the state of New York. But, as they each know, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Above the surface are board meetings like this one and events, but their service as volunteers who provide thoughtful, responsive governance for the education of our youth extends deep below the surface. They take training, serve on committees, act as liaisons, read contracts, memos, and

010resumes, learn together in board retreats, do school visits, and much, much more. Their service to the public is demanding. And they are dedicated to improving the education we provide to our students. They serve as a vital connection between the community they represent and the educators who carry out the mission. As a small token of my appreciation for your service, I've written each of our board members, each of you, a personal note of thanks on behalf of our learning community. Along with that is a small card with the Connecting Our Wide Community graphic on it on one side and a Brene Brown quote that I draw inspiration from on the other. And that quote is, "I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued, when they can give

011and receive without judgment, and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship." So on behalf of a grateful school community, thank you for your service. (group applauding) Okay, a few highlights from around the district that I'd like to share, starting with Scarsdale High School. It's hard to believe it's been nearly two weeks, but Global Citizenship Day took place on October 13th and was a massive success, with almost 60 different sessions for students to participate in. Sessions were led by our faculty, guest speakers, students, and even a few of us around this very table. The very next day, the high school celebrated homecoming with two games on Butler Field and with great attendance from from the community and quite a few board members. The athletics news continues to be fantastic, including the sectional and regional

012championship for girls varsity tennis. Congratulations to them. And so far this week, girls field hockey, girls soccer, and boys soccer have all advanced to semi-finals. And I wanna wish our athletes continued success as they wind down successful regular seasons, some of those regular seasons are still underway, and start or continue to advance in the post-season. Last night, the Signifer Induction Ceremony took place at Scarsdale High School, the academic honors society, which recognizes juniors and seniors that meet a GPA threshold and participate in a variety of school and volunteer activities. And an upcoming event, the annual community service dinner at the high school will be on Monday, November 7th, sponsored by the student government at the high school. That's a great event. The middle school, I was excited to spend some time with the Cooper 7

013Team this past Friday at the first of four full-day reading retreats for our seventh graders, each of the houses. The retreats are taking place at the incredible Scarsdale Public Library, where, in addition to their reading sprints, students participated in scavenger hunts and special crafts, explored new areas of the library, met the librarians, and learned about the many resources available to them. It was a great day. Popham House has celebrated their fall festival, complete with a spooky transformation of the new nature trail. And field trips are back in a big way, and among other locations, visiting out Outhouse Orchard and Boundless Adventures. And the community book club, I've mentioned this before, but the community book club for SMS parents and staff has its first meeting tomorrow, the 27th of October. And, again, they'll be discussing the

014book "Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing and Adults Are Missing." One of the authors, Emily Weinstein, will participate in a short Q&A along with William Yang, our K-12 Coordinator of Digital Learning and Literacy, and Jeannie Crowley, our Director of Technology and Innovation. A few highlights from the elementary level, Edgewood and Quaker Ridge students enjoyed a visit with Aimee Sicuro, author and illustrator of "If You Find a Leaf." The book is the story of a young artist who's inspired by the leaves she collects and each one sparking a new idea. Students collected their own leaves, and Miss Sicuro helped them illustrate their own unique characters. October is National Fire Safety Month, so our elementary students have had their annual visits from the Scarsdale Fire Department, we appreciate that partnership, to learn about fire safety and

015public safety. And students celebrated Diwali and learned about its meaning through parent and grandparent visits, special lessons, crafts, food, and books brought from home. Next, sorry for the long update, but there's been a lot of time since our last meeting. Next, I'd like to share a brief update on the IRS matter, noting that I will share a more comprehensive update at this table during the November 14th meeting. On Thursday, October 13th, we received the final IRS refund check totaling $106,990.12. This brings the total refunds related to the payroll tax submission errors to $851,186.56. The March 2022 payment to the IRS that this board made was $843,558, which means we were reimbursed an extra $7,628.56 as a result of interest owed to us. As for the tax lien, you will recall that it was set to

016self-release within 30 days of the notification received in August. We were told not to expect the issuance of a formal notification about that by the IRS, but our tax counsel did initiate a federal tax lien search on our behalf at both the New York State and Westchester County level, and I'm pleased to report that no federal tax lien results were indicated in that search. And finally, I'd like to note an observance and some key dates. I want to acknowledge all in our community who observed the Hindu festival of Diwali, celebrating the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance. As Amber indicated, tonight's meeting was moved in recognition that those in our community who observe would otherwise have not been able to watch tonight's education report. Looking ahead, we know many

017of our students are excited to show off their choice of Halloween costumes on Monday. Also, please note that November 8th is a superintendent's conference day, which is a professional learning day for our faculty but not a school day for our students. We are also closed in observance of Veterans Day, which is a state school holiday, on Friday, November 11th. And that's my lengthy update. (chuckles) Thank you, Drew. There's so much going on it's hard to comment, but I wanna say thank you for your recognition of our work. I think it's a privilege to serve on this board, but we appreciate the recognition, so thank you. Let's move on to board member reports. I know we have several. Suzie, would you like to go first? Sure. Thank you, Amber. One of the important duties and responsibilities

018of the board is to conduct annual site visits to each Scarsdale school and then to provide a report of these visits to the board. These visits provide the board with valuable insight into the operations of our schools, the conditions of the facilities and grounds, and provides opportunities for the board to learn of any school-specific needs or challenges, which can be especially useful as we move into budget season. In our commitment to transparency, we'd like to take this opportunity to provide some insight to the community on these visits. On Friday, October 21st, Amber and I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting Fox Meadow Elementary School on one such visit. It was heartwarming to see all the students and staff together as in pre-COVID times. We'd like to thank the principal of Fox Meadow, Melissa Feinberg,

019for being so generous with her time and sharing what she and her team have been working on this year on behalf of the students. Here are just a few highlights and observations from our site visit. Student enrollment is high, and every space is being utilized as efficiently as possible. The building is almost 100 years old and is in good condition. Recent projects include the installation of LED lighting as bonded in the 2018 bond. It's mostly complete and has greatly improved the visibility and overall appearance of the school interior. New paint has also lightened up some of the hallways, lockers, and the multi-use gymnatorium. The grounds are also in good condition, notwithstanding an area that is prone to flooding and has a decaying retaining wall. The back blacktop and outdoor basketball equipment were also cited as

020needing repair or replacement. We also discussed, sorry, issues such as traffic safety and lunch services, both which seem to be running smoothly, as well as the responsive classroom approach to creating a learning environment that fosters empathy and social responsibility. Melissa provided us with the opportunity to see many exciting accomplishments of the students and staff as well as observe many classrooms, too many to go into detail here, but we did see students working in their new Reveal Math workbooks, and we saw a teacher working with young students on phonemic word root work. There was also a fire safety presentation held that day in conjunction with the Scarsdale Fire Department. It was truly an inspiring morning for us. And, once again, we'd like to thank Melissa for sharing everything Fox Meadow with us. Thank you, Suzie. Bob,

021would you like to go next? Sure. I participate in a group called Safe Coalition. I'm the liaison. We met last week, and the highlight takeaway is that, as a group, we're working to sign a contract with a group called A Call in Men, A Call to Men rather, which is an organization which provides either real-time or Zoom presentations in terms of helping men, males who are in roles of coaching and part of group work ensure that we are respectful of both men and women, boys and girls. And if people have not had a chance to see the YouTubes on A Call to Men, it's really, really interesting, very appropriate to the moment, I would say. And I'm very pleased that we're pursuing that, and we'll be announcing shortly when that will occur. So I hope

022that the community will keep an eye open for that and participate, because I think it's really well worthwhile having a look-see. So thank you. Thank you, Bob. Colleen, would you like to go next? I have a few. (laughs) All right, I had the pleasure of attending the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation board meeting on October 12th. I would like to thank Meg Simon and Scott Zemachson for inviting me to join the meeting, and Erica Crisses for hosting. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the foundation, the Scarsdale School Education Foundation supports the district by funding innovative program and facilities that enhance the academic and personal growth of our students and the role of our school system as a national leader in public education. the foundation seeks to enrich the value of Scarsdale education by raising

023funds and awarding grants to programs and initiatives that fall outside of the budget of the district. Currently, the foundation is working with the middle school on updating the library furniture so the space is more user-friendly and easily accessible to our students. They have dedicated $97,000 to support the middle school library. They are also working with the high school to support the redesign of two classrooms with more multifunctional furniture so that teachers can make the most of their classroom spaces and meet the needs of all our students. They have donated $60,000 to that effort. Lastly, they are in communication with the elementary schools on how they can best support those students and are in discussion about ideas around renovating and reinventing their new outdoor spaces. In an effort to bring more awareness and encourage people to

024support the foundation, they are working on a relaunch campaign. Their goal is to engage all members of the community so they can continue their work to support all of our students. The relaunch is set for early March and will be followed with outreach to all the different areas of Scarsdale. I also had the pleasure of watching the boys soccer game against New Rochelle on Friday, October 14th. I would like to congratulate the team on their win and on their hard work and dedication to their sport. Their support of each other and the strong teamwork during the game was impressive and clearly the reason they continue to be successful each time they step on the field. Their respect for the game and the sportsmanship they exhibited to their rival team is commendable and was a great

025role model for the young Scarsdale Youth Soccer players volunteering their time on the sidelines. In additional updates, since that game, the boys also won their game yesterday against Clarkstown and are headed to the semifinals tomorrow at 4:30 against John Jay. I speak for the entire community when I wish them luck tomorrow and hopefully in their future competitions. Last one, on October 7th, Amber and I were given the opportunity to a tour of Greenacres Elementary School. I would like to thank Principal Sharon Hill and Vice Principal Sharon De Lorenzo and discuss the amazing things happening at Greenacres. The entire school is bustling with excitement as things begin to return to normal. The new areas of the building are beautiful, housing fourth and fifth grade classrooms as well as a bright, open new art room, world language

026rooms, and areas for all the student services. The update to the computer lab and library as well as the maker space is so impressive, and we're excited to see what the students create in all these new spaces. The new state-of-the-art kitchen and learning commons is such a multifaceted space, and the Greenacres community is getting so much use out of it. We would like to thank all the teachers that allowed us to join their classroom and see the amazing things happening. Reading lessons, Reveal Math, the list goes on. The kids were happy, engaged, and learning, all with smiles on their faces and questions in their minds. It was both an honor and a pleasure to spend a few hours at Greenacres. Thank you again for welcoming us into your community, and we look forward to more

027opportunities to visit in the future. Thank you, Colleen. Jim, would you like to go next? Sure, Amber. So I am the liaison to the New York State School Board Association, which is an organization comprised of representatives from all the school boards in New York state that primarily are involved in advocacy, you know, on a statewide level, with the government and the legislature for, you know, the greater interest of the school community. The New York State School Board Association had an annual meeting on October 17th, Monday, October 17th, at four, which I attended virtually, was a virtual annual meeting, at which they appointed officers, and they also voted on 32 proposed resolutions, which had been proposed essentially by the association and by various school districts that comprise the membership of the association. Of those 32 proposed

028resolutions, I believe 29 passed, and three did not pass. I'd be happy to go through each of those. If anyone would like to have me go through each of those, they could probably best achieve that by sending me an email, and I could communicate with them about it, because to do it here would take about half an hour. So rather than do that, I'll just make myself available to anyone who has the interest in wanting to know more. Thank you, Jim. Ron? Thanks, Amber. I serve as the liaison to the District Safety Committee. The District Safety Committee is a multi-stakeholder group that meets to provide updates and hold dialogue amongst these various stakeholders regarding safety and security throughout the district. We met the other week, and in general, the agenda for these meetings is for

029information-sharing, for questions, opportunities to hear questions from members, which include administrators, teachers, parents, a board member, people from all over the district. The specific agenda for this meeting was to discuss the SSEM, Safety, Security and Emergency Management, priorities for the 2022-2023 school year, traffic updates, mental health update, as well as a few other building and location-specific updates. Thank you, Ron. I know our updates were a little long, too, but now I'm going to turn it over to cabinet updates. Thank you. I think Stuart is our only cabinet update tonight. Yeah, I just have a few things. So just a reminder, at the meeting on November 14th, we'll have an audit committee. EFPR, the external auditors, will be there presenting the fiscal year-end 2022 audit. We'll also have the corrective action plan for the aforementioned internal

030audit pertaining to internal controls over payroll proceedings. That will also be on for the audit committee to consider. Also, on the 14th, will be a big presentation about the high school auditorium and recommended work in that space. We'll have members of our committee presenting, including architects. Ken Bonomo will be there, Lisa Forte, and a number of our committee members will have a short video, a PowerPoint, and a recommendation report for that agenda. And then a quick update on food service, so food service in general has been going well. We've been able to get hot food service out to all elementary buildings. The big roadblock has been Quaker Ridge, unfortunately. We continue to have incredible staffing shortages, where, you know, we'll hire two people, and three will quit. Or hire one, two quit. And it's been

031very challenging to get ahead of that. Unfortunately, Quaker Ridge, although we're able to provide cold food service, without that additional staff, we're unable to provide hot food service. So we've been aggressively recruiting. We've sent emails out. Michelle helped with some social media advertising. Carol put something out to all of our staff members. So, again, as I mentioned, I think, in the last meeting, if you know someone that might be interested in this type of work, please let us know, and we would welcome them to our food service family. And I would just add appreciation to the Quaker Ridge PTA for trying to organize some events that provide hot food during the week, and pizza days, chicken nuggets. They did a chicken nugget day. They're really trying to, you know, support the program in this interim

032time until we're up and running. Okay, thank you. Then I will move on to item four, hearing from those present. And I'm going to start with item 4.01, which is a public hearing on the Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing. The Open Meetings Law provisions that permit school district BOCES board meetings to be conducted via video conference were recently modified by the budget bill that Governor Hochul signed into law on April 9th, 2022. As a result of this change, the Board of Education expects to consider a resolution authorizing the use of video conferencing for its meetings and those of its committees or subcommittees. Such a resolution cannot be considered until a public hearing pursuant to Public Officers Law 103-A to determine whether the Board of Education shall permit board member participation via video conferencing

033is held, and attached to the agenda is a draft of the expected resolution, which would come before the board at its next regularly scheduled business meeting on November 14th. So now I would like to open up the podium or the floor to any member of the public who would like to speak specifically as part of the public hearing on Open Meetings Law. Please note that there will be a comment period for general comments. This right now is the public hearing on Open Meetings Law video conferencing amendment. Would anybody like to speak on, again, Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing? Seeing no one coming to the floor, I'm going to turn to Zoom. Is anybody on Zoom? There are few attendees, but no one has their hand up for the public hearing. Okay, so then

034seeing that no one is coming to the floor, I will close the public hearing on Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing and move on to item 4.02, which is the preamble for public comment. 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 livestream voice, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. Speakers will be asked to conclude their 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. The

035public 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 now we'll open up the public comment session. Joy Rotker, 35 Kenwood Drive, New Rochelle. Good evening, Scarsdale BOE members and members of the district administration team. I am president of ASTAA, the Association of Scarsdale Teacher Aides and Assistants. I have been working as a teacher's aide in Scottsdale since 1999 and have had the opportunity to see how our district has developed and grown over time. As president, I represent the aides district-wide, and I stand before you to respectfully

036request that you consider offering our members the option to participate in the district's health insurance plan. Teacher aides are the front line in our school district, and so many of the new programs, initiatives, and most recently pandemic challenges have required the aides to shoulder more responsibilities so that the district can excel and offer our students a progressive education. As the district grows its special education program, the need for teacher aides to support the students has also increased. Quite often, we are the ones that are charged with helping a child navigate their day. We support our students under the supervision of our teachers with how to manage executive functioning challenges. We assist students with social cuing and forging connections with peers. We assist with transitions and reinforce goals that various related service providers are working on

037with our students. We comfort them when they experience an emotional upset. We problem-solve, and we are constantly communicating with the classroom teacher. We demonstrate our commitment to supporting our students daily. I would like to remind you that during the pandemic, we were consistently asked to help out with so many of the shifts the districts made at each pivotal moment. We were the ones called in to assist teachers with packing up classrooms and distributing materials in year one. We quickly learned how to navigate the Zoom room, and we also honed our skills in learning new digital platforms and applications. The aides played an integral part in bringing our students back into the elementary schools full time. We supervised cohorts for half a day so our students had the opportunity for full-day, in-person learning. The aides participate

038in professional development opportunities that the district provides so that we can support our students learning in the most effective ways. In addition, we are often called upon to be the sub coverage when classroom teachers attend professional development workshops. Since it is so difficult to get substitute teachers, the district oftentimes relies on the aides to fill that role as well. It's even difficult finding teacher aides to fill our vacancies. Candidates want a job that offers health insurance benefits. Since there are teacher aides vacancies, we are expected to fill in wherever needed in order to best serve our students. We need to quickly familiarize ourselves with the grade-level work, which may be quite different than our assigned grade. We adapt so that our students' days run as smoothly as possible, both academically and emotionally. I could go

039on and on with the details of how our position and the responsibilities have morphed into so much more. But the point that I need to make is that our teacher aides are a critical part of our school community. We give so much of ourselves to help take care of our students and our staff. We simply ask that the BOE and the district consider that same kind of care for our aides. We love the job that we do, and we would like our own health and wellbeing to be considered equally important. Please consider offering our members the option to participate in the district's health insurance plan. Thank you, Joy. Hi, dear Board of Education and administration, my name is Charlene Dong, and I am a freshman in Scarsdale High School. I live at 5 Gilmore Court.

040I am speaking today to ask the board to consider adding Lunar New Year to the Scarsdale school calendar. As you may know, Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in many Asian cultures. It's a celebration that lasts 15 days with many traditions and rituals throughout. I was born and raised in New York, but my parents are both immigrants from China. So lunar New Year has always been a huge part of my culture and life. From a very young age, my parents would tell me about all the traditions and rituals. For example, everybody stays up on New Year's Eve and waits for the countdown of the new year. On the first day of New Year, people go visit families and friends, and kids get red envelopes. However, each time they would finish by saying, "Too

041bad you have school, and we can't do that." After hearing our complaints one year, my parents decided to pull me and my brother out of school on the first day of Lunar New Year. But instead of having fun and celebrating for the whole day, my mind was on the schoolwork I had to make up for. I was very worried that I might have missed something in class that I would get tested on later. I just wished it was a true day off, and I can fully enjoy being with my family and not having to think about schoolwork and tests constantly. I have lived in Scarsdale for seven years and truly love our diverse community. And to be honest, I never heard of Yom Kipur and Rosh Hashanah before I moved to Scarsdale. But after seeing

042them on the school calendar, I got very curious and googled these holidays, and that way I learned a little bit about the Jewish culture. In the past few years, Scarsdale has seen a big increase in Asian families. I implore the board to seriously consider adding Lunar New Year to the school calendar. That way, for those who celebrate the holiday, the kids can truly enjoy that day. And for those who don't celebrate it, they have an opportunity to appreciate other cultures as well. Thank you very much. I would also like to present the board with a petition signed by the Scarsdale community that I will email a digital copy later. Thank you so much, and thank you for coming out on a school night. Is there anybody else who would like to speak? Okay, let's turn

043things over to Zoom. There are two hands raised. Give me one second to promote them. Thank you. Ms. Kirkendall-Rodriguez has been promoted to panelist. Hi, it's good to be here. Thank you very much, especially thank you for your efforts on the education report and the supporting documents. I was very interested to know what the quantitative and qualitative metrics are that parents and taxpayers should be referring to in order to establish whether our children are receiving a world-class education. Page five of the report states that 60% of seniors are getting accepted to competitive colleges as defined by the list, Barron's list of about 100- (Ron speaks faintly) Yeah. Universities as well as colleges- Ms. Kirkendall-Rodriguez, sorry, can you pause for one second? We're just fixing a volume sound so people can hear you a little bit

044better. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I think that's much better. Okay. Okay, much better now, thanks. Okay, thank you. Page five of the report states that 60% of seniors are getting accepted to competitive colleges as defined by the Barron's list of about 100 universities and colleges. This is a decline from 67% in 2020. So I'm kind of curious, where are the other 40% in 2022 going? The school data that I have shows that in 2006, 82% of the senior class was accepted to the top 31 universities. Last year, that figure was about 40%. So does that mean that the other 60% are going to top colleges in the US? Is it top institutes? Is it colleges or universities abroad? And why has that figure gone from 82% to 40%? On pages eight and nine,

045SAT and ACT scores are listed as the mean, and I'm just kind of wondering if it would be helpful to also see the information listed as a median. And I'm curious how much tutoring influences these scores. On page 10, with the AP data, I found very interesting to see that the number of students taking AP exams has risen from 2016 to the present. However, it would be very helpful to see the data from 2004 and '05 because this was previous to AP courses being eliminated and going into advanced topics. So I'd be very curious to see how many students actually took AP tests before that point and to see how that compares to today. On pages 14 and 19, referring to the state tests, level three, proficient in state standards, and level four, exceeding state

046standards, I was kind of curious as to why that data are lumped together. Why not present the data in the presentation the way it is in the supporting document on page 17, which lists each level: one, two, three, and four. And out of curiosity, why was Scarsdale's 2021 data not shown in the report while in some 2021, some of the grades had fewer students take the test, in some of the grades, actually, there were more students in 2021 taking the test. Aggregate Scarsdale scores in 2022 have dropped significantly from peak proficiency years of 2009 and 2012. They also did decline in comparison to 2021. So I'd be very curious to hear from the administration as to why these declines have taken place. I'm also curious as to what steps you might be taking to support

047students to excel state standards. Many argue here in our community and in similar communities that, you know, the state standards are not sufficiently robust since there are many parts of New York where income and racial disparities lead to low level of resources, unlike what we are so fortunate to have here in Scarsdale. I also noted that the SMS seventh grade scores, which would now be eighth graders, had 38% excelling in ELA and 49% excelling in math standards. So do they need resources to help them transition to high school, since that's coming up rapidly? There were also significant differences in the scores throughout the five elementary schools, especially, I note, between Edgewood and Greenacres. So I was kind of curious as to why those differences exist. And in the supplementary document, you mention world languages. I'd

048be curious to get more detail as to what exactly is the goal of the world language program. Is it fluency, and how would we know how to measure that? I very much look forward to your insights when you're able to, and I would love to hear the kinds of questions that the BOE is going to pose and what policies you might implement to support all of our students. Thank you very much. All right, let's go forward to your (indistinct). We have... Ms. Hopkins, I've promoted you. Hey, is that working? Let's see. Yes, we can hear you and see you. All righty. Hi, Sarah Hopkins, 40 Birch Hill Drive. Thanks for the opportunity to read all the data that you guys share. I just wanted to note about the AP scores, not scores, taking of AP

049exams over the last several years has risen. And I would suspect that students are realizing that, you know, they wanna be competitive and that the kids who go to peer schools in the county, around the country that are public schools, those kids take, those, like, top students take like 5, 10 APs. So, and especially with, you know, optional testing of ACT and SAT, those AP scores get even more important. I'm hoping the district considers bringing these AP classes back, not only for the kids who get into the classes, who get into ATs, but for any kid who's interested. I think it's really important that this is available for the kids who want to do it, who wanna challenge themselves. And thanks for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, Ms. Hopkins. There are no other

050attendees with their hands up. Okay, great, we'll go ahead and close public comment and move on to follow-up to public comment, I think I'd just like to note that the board is going to be presented the education report this evening and will have the opportunity to ask questions about the report. And if members of the public still have questions after the presentation and our questions, they're welcome to send those in. Is there anything you'd like to add, Drew? Just as I did last meeting, I'd like to commend Charlene. I know you're leaving, but you did a great job. Thank you for speaking so eloquently in public, and we'll certainly look at what you submitted to the district clerk, so thank you. Great, thank you. Let's move on then to item 6.01, the consent agenda. The

051board 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 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 regarding 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

052exempted 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. Would anyone like to remove anything from the consent agenda this evening? Okay, seeing none, I will turn things over to Colleen. All right, I'll just move through these. It is recommended that... Oh, 7.01, the minutes from the October 3rd, 2022, meeting, it is recommended that the board accept the minutes as presented. I can keep going, right? Yeah. 7.02, minutes from October 11th, 2022, Special Meeting/Audit Committee, it recommended that the board accept the minutes of the Special Meeting/Audit Committee meeting on October 11th, 2022, as presented. 7.03, personnel certified, be it resolved the Board of Education of the Scarsdale

053Union Free School District hereby accept the recommendations of the superintendent to appoint and assign the following instructional personnel. 7.04, be it resolved the Board of Education of Scarsdale Union Free School District hereby accept the recommendation of the superintendent to appoint and assign the following non-instructional personnel. 7.05, be it resolved that the Board of Education of Scarsdale Union Free School District hereby accept the recommendation of the superintendent. Oh wait, what just happened? Sorry, I just lost it, sorry. 7.05, claims audit report, right, that's where I am? Yeah, okay, recommend the acceptance of the September 2022 claims audit report as presented. Sorry, 7.06 internal audit report, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the Audit Committee that the Board of Education except the agreed upon procedures report pertaining to the internal controls over payroll withholdings. 7.07, I

054recommend the board approve the payment of the district membership dues for the period of 1-1-23 to 12-31-23 of the New York State School Board Association in the amount of $12,391. 7.08, corrective action, be it resolved upon the recommendation of the Audit Committee that the Board of Education accept the corrective action plan, risk assessment update, and AUP report related to the 2021-2022 internal audit. 7.09, be it resolved that the board approve the consulting contract for MC crews as presented. 7.10, it is recommended board authorize the assistant superintendent for special education and student services to execute the contract as presented. 7.11, it is recommended board accept the building committee for the school visits, tours in the district for the 2022-2023 year as presented. 7.12, accept the consent agenda. Do I need to say anything- And the tuition

055settlement. The tuition settlement. Which one is that one? 7.12 is the tuition settlement. Oh, it's not on mine. Oh, sometimes you have to hit refresh. Oh, this is the new thing. I know. I'm sorry. It's on this group, that last one. Oh. You're good. Is it? Yeah. Just read that one. All right. 7.12, tuition settlement agreement. 7.13, accept the consent agenda. I'm sorry, you said you move to accept? I move to accept the consent agenda. (Colleen speaks indistinctly) Great, thank you. Is there a second? Seconded. Thank you, Jim. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, thank you, consent agenda passes, and we will move on to item 8.01. Okay, thank you very much. Before turning it over to Dr. McIntosh, I would like just to say a few words about this evening's

056education report. The first portion of the report focuses on the relatively narrow band of academic measures that are either mandated by the state or preferred by colleges and universities. These moment-in-time assessments are important, but they do not explain the fullness of any child's experience, any educator's capacity, any school's performance, or any district standing. The stories of the growth and achievement of our students, that our students demonstrate are individual and nuanced, and cannot and should not be reduced to a single score. That said, we do pay attention to these measures. We learn from them, and we check our performance against that of peer districts. We recognize the means of our community. We acknowledge the motivation and preparedness of our students. And we know these factors are linked to high expectations on all measures of achievement, including

057those being reported today. However, I do wanna be on record saying it is important to resist drawing sweeping conclusions from this information, however tempting it might be. The second portion of the report illustrates just some of the novel ways we are adapting curriculum to further support the growth and development of critical dispositions within our students as they learn and engage in core curriculum. Tonight's examples come from mathematics, English, and science, but this work is ongoing across the curriculum. With that, I would like to express my thanks to Mitch Crasson for all his behind-the-scenes work on tonight's report, to Nancy Pavilla and Vivian Robert and Kevin Viviano, and to Karine Schaefer in the high school English department. for his vision, leadership, and collaboration, as all were required to prepare tonight's presentation. Take it away, Edgar. Thank

058you. Put up the slides. I do wanna say, this is the first time I've been using the clicker. I've been reliant on Jerry Crisci for the last four years, so if I miss a beat, then please forgive me. So welcome, tonight I look forward to a two-part presentation. First, I will review the results of many of the Scarsdale schools' 2022 benchmark measures and standardized assessments from third grade state testing through APs, ACTs, and SATs. Please know that all these slides and additional supporting data are attached and available online. The second part of the presentation will be dedicated to a description of the rationales and processes we use to update, evolve, transform our curriculum. I have chosen to highlight three areas, an update on our adoption of Reveal Math tools, a new textbook being piloted by

059chemistry teacher Kevin Viviano, and finally, a description of the process in which we choose core or common texts in the high school English department. Oops. (computer chimes) Okay, first snafu. Oh, here we go. Understandably, learning loss is something that has been of great concern throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as educators have made adaptations across the globe to meet the needs of students and attend to essential knowledge and skills. What will be evident is that Scarsdale continues to maintain and demonstrate high levels of achievement through several standardized means, consistent with previous years. Before we proceed, I do wanna review some key points. As Drew mentioned, the assessments that are reviewed in this presentation represent tested knowledge and skills that are measurable in a standardized format. We are aware that our students have been impacted in areas that

060cannot be assessed using the highlighted evaluation tools. The data is summarized and represents percentages and averages. We know that there were individual students who struggled in keeping pace with grade-level peers and that more nuanced assessments were engaged to identify students' difficulties, currently and during the COVID mitigations. Many of the assessments were either paused or greatly amended for the 2020 and 2021 years. For those, we will be looking at assessments from 2019 and before as points of comparison. For the sake of consistency and apple-to-apple comparisons, we have loaded the graphs and charts that have been used in the past years' presentations. We have, however, attached additional assessment data that has been requested or could be of interest. As I move through the slides, I will note key places when additional information is included in supporting documentation.

061So, as in past years, we will begin with the high school and some college data. I do want to mention here that a full presentation will be given on December 5th by Oren Iosepovici, the head of the high school counseling department, in which more detail, context, and depth will be given to the changing landscape of college admissions. For the purpose of this presentation, general information will be shared. As in the past, nearly 100% of our students go on to four-year colleges. This slide... Oops. This slide represents the percentage of students who were accepted into what Barron's rates as most competitive in the US. Barron's, this percentage, for this year is noted. And additional questions about increased competition overall will be addressed by Oren during the presentation. A list of 87 schools in Barron's "most competitive"

062category is in the supporting documentation. Here's a review of our students' performance on SAT tests, which demonstrates a continuation of high mean scores. Please note that the 2020 SAT was not given, and the 2017 test was redesigned, and reading was restructured as ERW, which stands for Evidence-based Reading and Writing. All these slides and additional supporting data are attached and available online for people to take a closer look at. This graph shows the percentage of our students whose performance on the ACT correlates with college readiness called the College Readiness Benchmark scores. And, as in past years, we have put up the national percentages as comparison. As has been our practice, here is comparison data with local high-performing districts in both the SATs and the ACTs. In 2022, Scarsdale continues to be a leader in the region.

063Here is a chart that shows the history of our students' participation and performance on the AP exams, the number of exams taken by students broken down by those exams that received a three, three or above, four or above, and finally, a five or above. The next slide puts this data into a graph and provides a visual for the performance of our students over time. This chart shows the percentage of our students who have successfully passed the required Regent Exams. At the elementary and middle school level, we appreciate standardized assessments have their place and provide broad measures of topic coverage and concept understanding. They are especially inconsistent in reliability in accurately measuring individual students' ability. When a student does poorly on an exam, however, it sets in motion a team review. In the vast majority of

064cases, when a student struggles with these types of exams and receives a one or two, it is not a surprise to the educators surrounding them. And in many cases, the student has some form of educational support already in place. In cases where the score contradicts the student's in-class demonstrated achievement, inquiry reveals a range of reasons from a student who missed a page or even a day of testing, to a student with impactful testing anxiety. The difference between the score of a three and a four can be within a question or two. And on a given year, the range of a four can be very small. And looking at comparison data, the state tends to group proficiency threes and fours together, and we have in the slide ahead. We have, however, as Mayra has pointed out,

065provided the percentages of threes and fours in the supporting documentation. As you may imagine, we did have our eye on the assessments for 2022 in comparison to 2019 and the previous years. So then the iceberg is a metaphor that can be appropriate for a few different ways here. First, state assessments are just a small tip of the iceberg of the ways we assess our students. For a fuller picture, please take a look at the first section of supporting documentation. These pages describe the multitude of ways we assess, monitor, and evaluate our student performance through common benchmark assessments, formative assessments, and progress-monitoring tools. These assessments are much more meaningful than the snapshot these state tests provide. In addition, and I will discuss this in the second part of my presentation, some of the other assessments and

066performance tasks provide us with information about how our students are progressing in learning that cannot be captured in a standardized testing format. Second, icebergs can be dangerous to unsuspecting ships. The interpretation of these snapshot measures, which lead to generalizations about schools, grades, and instruction is misguided. We are reassured that our students continue to demonstrate high proficiency despite the mitigations from the last two years. That is certainly not the case in many places throughout the country and the nation. We have, in two upcoming slides, provided a chart that shows comparative New York State performance across our five elementary schools. The purpose of this is to underscore that our schools are well above state and Lower Hudson averages and have historical fluctuations of percentage points between the schools. The reason for fluctuations that have happened predictably from

067year to year can be explained through the learning needs of a particular cohort, the number of students assessed, and other factors. They should not, as I mentioned before, be interpreted to be a measure of curriculum, attention, or instruction at any given school, regardless of the current order. On this slide, you will see our students continue to perform within the historically high percentages of the ELA state exam. This slide highlights five years of the exam in which the format of the exam was the same. As described, there are no scores to report for 2020, and the flawed 2021 scores do not provide helpful comparisons. Please note that we have included the longer history of the performance in the supporting documentation. As in the past, we have provided comparisons to an average of high-performing cohorts of districts,

068the Lower Hudson region, and statewide percentages. Here is a graph demonstrating our state test performance in comparison to Lower Hudson and recently released state scores. Note the inter-district fluctuations, which can be seen and described in past assessment presentations. Here now is a chart of our math state assessment performance. Our students continue to perform within the historically high percentages as well. Like ELA, here is a proficiency comparison chart for math. Again, all of this is available in the supporting documentation for a closer look. And here's our graph for the 3-5 proficiency rate in math. Note, again, the undulation from year to year across the schools. So before we move on to the next part of the presentation, I would be very happy to take questions from the board and have a drink of water. Before we

069turn it over to questions, I just wanna say thank you, Edgar, to you and your team for compiling all this data. It's incredibly helpful, and the supporting documentation. So thank you. I'll open it up for board questions. Edgar, I think one of the, for me anyway, hallmarks of Scarsdale is the broad and interesting international population of students and families. And it seems to me, perhaps you would disagree, that the percentage of, for example, students that enter the system not speaking English might impact scores. I mean, just common sense, there's a transition or catch-up. So I'm wondering if we have any sense of whether that mix of international students has changed, you know, over the last 10 years, I mean, if there's any way for us to track that. Although, as I was looking at, for

070example, ELA, I was noticing that from 2000, I think it was 2006 to today, that actually the percentage of proficiency increased like by 10%, even though, to me, it seems like we have more and more families from abroad. So, you know, I don't know what that means, but it seems to me, of all the factors, obviously COVID is one of them, but you know, the nature of the people that are coming and, you know, whether they're coming from abroad or not would affect scores. So I'm just curious if we have any sense of that as an impact to, you know, what we're looking at. Well, you know, we certainly do track our students where English is their second language, our English language learners. And, you know, there's a range with proficiency as students first come.

071Our international students do tend to very quickly, traditionally, acquire language based on their proficiency with the language that they come in with. But it is something that we look at, and we look at and track. As far as looking at its impact on these broad standardized measure, that isn't something that we generally drill down in on from a district level. It is, however, something that they take into account when the individual administrators and teachers are looking at the schools and looking at their schools and looking at the data, looking at their classroom data. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead, Jessica. Thank you, Edgar, for preparing all of this. And I know we've only just gotten to sort of the very first part of it. I'm curious, so at a time when a lot of districts have

072been dealing with falling scores and negative pressures, we have actually seen some pretty remarkable rises, increases, for example, in the ELA sixth grade from 2016, or the overall average for ELA. What do you think accounts for that? Or do you have a sense of what might account for that? Well, I mean, when you look at the data, it is just one particular point. And I know that there are fluctuations. I do know that, you know, I do believe that there was a great deal of support for our students and that there were structures that were built in to make sure that we were attending to the content and the skills that we knew were essential at each each grade. And there was a real focus, a focus on that. So that could attend. You know,

073as far as fluctuations up or down, again, I'm very cautious to ascribe any particular pedagogical move or any shift to that because they can just be very mercurial from year to year. I understand that, and so I was really trying to look at broad changes in the average and just a general, average trajectory. I mean, I will say, and this is something I should just address, is that, and it's something that I think is making national news as we look across the nation, and we look across the region, that the communities that are the hardest hit are the ones who have higher levels of poverty and less access and resource. So that's where you'll see, where it's not surprising to see the trend down in the state and also in the Lower Hudson region. Thank

074you. Thanks for this report, again. It's very thorough and, for the most part, very encouraging. I do want to ask whether there's any view on the part of the district that, you know, with respect to the percentage of high school graduates attending the most competitive college. Somebody alluded earlier this evening that that percentage has gone down since 2000. It's gone down, and up and down, you know, over the last couple years. But certainly in the last three years, it's gone down. Is there a view that that's a trend of any kind? I know, anecdotally, I'm hearing from, you know, parents that it's harder, seemingly, to get their kids into the colleges they wanted to get into and thought they could get into. I mean, they're hearing from their guidance counselor about the schools they thought

075they could get into, they wanna get into, you're probably not gonna get into that. So, I mean, that's all anecdotal, obviously. It's not a systematic assessment. But I'm just wondering if you have a perception that there's a trend going on. I do have a perception that there are certain trends, and there are factors at work, and this is my huge plug to all of you in the community about Oren's presentation, which the cabinet had a preview of, where he will unpack a lot of that complexity. Because I do think that when you look at the Barron's number, and you look at the percentage, it is just one data point from those 87 schools. It doesn't speak to the different levels of kids', you know, first choice, second choice, third choice. It's about the percentage of

076students who were accepted, who applied for those schools. So I don't mean to punt, but I am gonna say that Oren has a lot, a lot of information to share that is going to reflect some of the feeling that's in the community. I think, Jim, it's a question to write down and revisit on December 5th, if that's okay. 'Cause I think the, you know... I learned a lot in the preview that Edgar just described. Interestingly, I went to a college presentation in my home district as my daughter's starting to get toward there, and it was almost identical, with two totally different counseling departments. So it was pretty interesting. It's a good question. And I think holding off till December 5th would be a more fulsome conversation about it, if that's okay. Okay, thank you. Yeah.

077Thanks, Edgar, for this great presentation. Some of my questions, I think, probably are more gonna end up more for the college or even maybe the AP report. I'll toss 'em about there, whether it's helpful in those presentations, or maybe you can provide some insight tonight. Let me just start with AP. Again, I understand this might be better for the AP report later in the year. But when we look at the... Recently, it looks like there's been a rebound of the number of students and the number of AP tests they're each taking. But if you look back on, you have a chart in the supporting documents that goes all the way back to 2005, it looks like around circa 2005, 2007, there's actually even more students taking more APs then. And then it declined a bit,

078and now it's coming back up. And I know that time predates you in this district, so I don't, but I just wondered if you have any insight into sort of those dynamics. And I understand if you would say, let's talk about that in the AP discussion. I think it is actually a good thing to talk about during the AP discussion. It may also be something that comes up during Oren's conversation as well to talk about the fluctuations of students' perceptions of whether taking the AP would be something helpful as it relates to access. And he has information about that as well. Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, and this sort of followed along with something that, Drew, you mentioned from the start, that this is like a narrow view into one part of assessments, of

079one part of student's life. And I don't necessarily... This is more of a comment than a question, but you know, as we think about, I know we do this report annually, but we do lots of education reports, trying to think, is there a way to provide that sort of broader context while we then get into this? So, for example, I don't know what... I know, for example, there's changes in when SAT 2s were offered, and then that changed, changes in the SAT versus ACT, changes in what maybe has been perceived that colleges are looking for. That might be a tall order to ask for, but I think, to your point, Drew, when you just look at the data here, you're looking at raw data without that context, to the extent we can give that story,

080I think, might be helpful. I would've said that before, but sort of listening to you is what kind of brought that thought to my mind. And then I have a college question. Let me save that for the college... I'll ask that as a parent in the college presentation. And then, just lastly, I'll just make one comment sort of about the ELA math scores. I mean, I don't wanna give too much weight to these tests. I understand that point. You know, I was a little struck about the difference in proportion of students achieving four versus one, two, or three, when you compare math and ELA. We have a much higher percentage across the grades achieving higher scores in math. In ELA, the combination of three and four is very high but more shifted towards level three.

081Again, I don't wanna put too much weight here, but I just think it's sort of... I would be interested to further understand what's driving that. I know within, or I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, within ELA there's two sections. There's reading and writing. I don't know if one of those, if we have that data that drove the scores. I understand one question could shift you between the two. So I understand that nuance. But looking at it from the top level, I just think, it's not, doesn't seem to be pandemic-related, seems to have predated that and continued post pandemic. But I guess, my personal view, which maybe is not the right view, would've just been, if you take our faculty, our core curriculum, and our students, you would've expected to see a higher percentage, not

082because anybody would teach to the test, I wanna be very clear, I don't believe in that at all, but just based on those factors would lead to a higher proportion of fours. Again, it's just a comment, I don't know if there's any response. I understand there's a lot that goes into it. Yeah, I mean, I think you brought up something important. There are ways, and I have heard colleagues talk about ways of teaching more to the test, where if that is the measure, and, indeed, in some districts, certainly for a while in New York City, it's a huge measure that was life or death. So there was a lot of emphasis on moving those, you know, those threes to fours as much as possible to make certain lists. And there is a benefit to giving

083kids a certain practice so that they can demonstrate their knowledge. But there certainly is not an emphasis on doing that so that we can, you know, just game the test. We want kids to be comfortable taking it. We want them to demonstrate what they know. But there isn't months of ramp-up time, and that is something that, you know, philosophically, pedagogically is not great practice. No, I think that's a huge asset of this district, that we teach what should be taught. I just would say that that's... I think that would hold true for the math side as well. And, again, you just see it lead towards a higher percentage. Again, I wanna reiterate, I don't wanna put too much weight here. But it is data. It is top-level data that's across hundreds of kids. So I

084do think it's value. I appreciate this discussion, and I would just think... I think it would be helpful for us to, or not us, but administration to consider sort of what is leading into that. Thanks, Ron. Thank you. First of all, I wanna echo what everyone is saying in terms of thank you very much for putting together this data and this report. It's extremely helpful. A lot of my questions are probably best saved for the December 5th report, but I'd like to maybe throw out there, you know, some of my concerns, you know, looking at some of these numbers will be kind of through two lenses. One is a mental health lens. You know, it's amazing that we're doing so great on these scores, right? Deb and Sue in their HYA presentation, you know, mentioned

085that Scarsdale students like being, you know, considered smart and like doing well in school. So, on the one hand, that's great that we have these great scores. How are they doing mentally, you know, to get those scores, you know, especially with COVID and the pandemic? I think that's something that I would be interested in learning about. Also, as we're going into budget season, I would like to look at some of these trends, you know, from a budget perspective. Like, if we have students applying to many more colleges, you know, do we need more resources or support, or do we feel comfortable, you know, with our new world in terms of applying to college? You know, because things seem to be different landscape. We'll learn more, you know, December 5th. But, you know, if there are

086needs, you know, and resources that could be helpful, you know, as a board member, I'd love to learn about that. Thank you. Thanks, I just have actually one request since I haven't seen the presentation on December 5th. But for me, I feel like it would be valuable to know, you know, where the students ended up in terms of their top choice. I think more of, it's great that they're getting accepted to competitive schools, but if a child doesn't want to go to that competitive school and prefers a different school, for me, it's really, how many students ended up in their top choice, where they wanted to go, as opposed to the most competitive? So if that could be part of the presentation, I would appreciate that. The other thing I would be interested to know

087is, as we break it down, versus kids who chose to test SAT, ACT, or just take AP, some of the things we're hearing now are maybe they're thinking that AP is what might get them into their universities as opposed to testing now that the testing is optional. So I don't know if we can break down that data, but I would be very interested to hear that. Lastly, I found these numbers... Again, I don't put a lot of weight on these tests. But I was happy to see that there wasn't as big of a drop as we've been hearing about from other districts and other areas. And I really think in terms of the testing, for us to use this, it's really gonna be what happens next year, right? Because we came out of this pandemic.

088We had two years. So, you know, the third graders took this test and then didn't take a test again until they were in sixth grade. So it's really like, how are they doing next year as opposed to after this big break? But I think the fact that the drops were even tiny or small, you know, we should commend the district on that because that is because of our resources and the efforts. And so I just, you know, I appreciate that we didn't have as huge of a drop as other areas, so. Oh. Can I just ask a follow-up? Sure. Thank you. Oh, sorry, (indistinct). Oh, no, I- No, we're good. You're fine. Okay. So Colleen's question around (indistinct). I guess the first is to the December 5th presentation. It seems like it would be really

089helpful for us to get some data that shows those points around this discussion, so like, maybe the number of students who took AP tests on a timeline that also shows when the SAT 2s, the subject tests were eliminated, so when the College Board stopped offering them, and also when testing became optional for colleges, exactly what percentage of colleges our students are applying to have that as optional so- It sounds like you're envisioning a graph. I'm not sure we'll produce that graph, but conceptually some of those things are in there. Something that gives us- So certainly, the change to test optional is a core influence on the anecdotal stuff that's being talked about around the table. And that will be directly addressed. But what I wanna be clear, we're not gonna go back to Oren and

090say, "Go change your presentation." No, I'm just- So these can come through questions but not through- I'm just-- Yeah. This is something that is on my mind, either for that presentation or a future presentation, something that would allow us to contextualize how those numbers are now, particularly around the elimination of the subject tests since now these are kind of, seem like they might be a more significant way for kids to prove prowess in a particular subject, and then, also, the testing (indistinct). And then the other question I have kind went to Ron's point on the disparity between math and English. And we may not have this, but do we have any sense, in the district, in the district writ large, about external supports for math versus English? Anecdotally, I think I hear much more about

091people having math tutors than English tutors. And I'm just curious if that's something that might factor in, and whether we might want to offer more supports for kids whose families might not have those resources. You know what I mean? I'm sort talking in a circle. No, I just have a clarifying question. You're talking about the elementary, third through eighth grade? Were you talking about- I was talking about the third grade grade averages, which were distinct for English and math (indistinct). So I was just curious. And outside partnerships as far as professional organizations that we partner with or? As far as private support being used, has there ever- You're talking about parents paying for tutors? That is what I'm talking about. Okay, I mean, that is not data that we have any other way than anecdotally.

092Right, okay, I just wonder if there's a sense that that factors in any way or if it would be to understand that to fill in those gaps. I think they can't hear you. I wonder if it would be helpful to fill in those gaps or if there is even a mechanism for collecting that data, and there may not be. I'm not sure that parents would report that information, so just putting that out there. Are there any other questions for Edgar? I did have a couple questions for you, Edgar, however, my board colleagues asked many of them. And I think that a lot of that is gonna be covered at the December 5th presentation. I do wanna just ask in terms of understanding the December 5th presentation, is Oren going to cover some of the AP

093material in that presentation, or will that solely be focused in terms of college acceptance? Or is he just focusing on the college process, and, like, SAT, ACT? Yeah, I think it's... I don't know, Ken, you can correct me if my memory's not serving me. It's really focused on the admissions landscape. You've hit on many of the questions that we're all interested in, including in the impact of test-optional on, first of all, number of applicants in a college. And, therefore, anytime you see a rapid rise in the number of applicants, you're gonna see a decrease in the admissions rate. It's just math. So that's certainly a key one. There is some touching upon what the behavior is both on the part of colleges and on the behavior of students in terms of how to replace the

094tests that might be optional now. Am I right on that, Ken? There's a little bit on that. I think so. It's not going to... Really, you heard, later in the year, it's gonna be a laser focus on the AT research that's been going on, the actions that were prompted from the tri-state report and the board discussion that took place when that report was presented to the public. So that's really gonna be a report of that work. And, you know, some of what we would think of as essential questions in that dialogue are about, you know, the value of AP courses, credits, what colleges do or don't do with those things. Is that your recollection? Yeah, I'm thinking of, yeah, a conversation that I had with him, where he mentioned student perception around AP and what

095it looked like as far as access, and then any evidence out there that actually supports that versus doesn't. And whether he has that as part of that conversation, I'm sure it's something that he could answer. Great, I think we'll have a lot of community interest in both of those presentations. Just one more question, too, going to Suzie's point about sort of mental health, and I don't know, is there any way to track these types of things? And as I was looking at sort of the college data and, you know, the 98%, 99% going on to school in four-year schools, do we ever track how our students are doing after that, like how many stay in school for a year or graduate at four years? I'm just curious if that's information that we gather. Well what

096I can say is that in past years, we've done alumni surveys. But we do that through an organization that reaches out directly, and we get responses from people who are either in college, have graduated recently, or a few years out. So I don't know if that's data that I have from my office. There's also National Clearinghouse data that track students from high school and graduation rates after four and six years that we can get that. I think we can get that. It's in the data warehouse. It's of mixed quality. So the National Student Clearinghouse is a nationwide, by the title, it's a nationwide effort to track that data, and New York State ed subscribes to that. I think that's right, subscribes to that service. I think it's basically a service. So we do have access

097to that data in the statewide data repository. Okay. Yeah, it just seems like, again, going back to the one data point and maybe not the best way to track mental health of our students because there are a number of factors that could impact, you know, graduation rates from college, but just trying to think of ways that we can get that information. So thank you, Edgar. Oh, did you have another question, Bob? Yeah, well, I just wanna kind of make maybe two points. One was, I believe that it's becoming maybe more common for graduating seniors to take a gap year. I know at one point that was very uncommon. Maybe it's becoming a little less uncommon, where people don't necessarily go off immediately to college. So I wanna make sure that when we see the percentages,

098that if someone says, "No, I'm not going to college next year," it doesn't mean they're not going to college. It means they're going to take a gap year, which in many countries and cultures is more common than not. So I think, you know, it would be interesting to kind of put that in perspective. I think the other thing, and I hope this doesn't sound flippant, but you know, as I sit here worrying about parent mental health, because I think parents are concerned about the wellbeing of their kids, right, and I read that on social media all the time about the parents' concern, to me, I feel just incredibly reassured when I hear that we are a district that doesn't teach to the test, yet as I'm looking at this graph, we are at the top

099of, you know, the percentages, that I think that says something for the quality of the experience kids are getting. As the spouse of someone who worked in a district where there was pressure to teach to the test because a certain metric was associated to her performance, that we're not one of those districts where teachers are scolded for not teaching to the test, yet our kids are still performing very well. I'm not saying we can't do better, but I just think parents should, you know, step back and look at these numbers. And to me, it makes me very proud of the results. Again, I'm not saying there is not room for... There's always room for improvement. But I think our district really, these numbers make me feel very comfortable and, frankly, good that things are being

100done well, so. Did anybody have anything else? Before we move on, the board has been meeting since five o'clock. It's a little bit after two hours. So could we just take a five-minute break right now, and then we'll resume at 7:15? Sounds good. Okay, thank you. And deserves its own slide, and breaking PowerPoint presentation protocol, I am going to read it verbatim aloud. "The curriculum tools we use, textbooks, texts, programs, need to support the pedagogical methods that lead to student learning we value." Before we zoom in on those three areas, I wanna briefly describe for everyone the thoughtful process involved in changing curriculum. Changes in curriculum are guided by research in education, how students learn best. This can be in the form of guiding standards and frameworks. I've spoken about the next-generation learning standards, built

101and rebuilt from research and education, and more recently the culturally responsive and sustaining framework that is helping to guide our work in diversity, equity, and inclusion. We also rely on professional learning organizations, organizations that champion applied research into the best educational practices. Our educators not only belong to these organizations but actively present and share their learning. Research also comes from within and allows us to adapt a curriculum that reflects the unique needs of our students as determined through both quantitative and qualitative measures. We are fortunate to have several internal opportunities and structures to look closely at our curriculum and use educator experience to guide changes, the Scarsdale Teacher Institute classes, the Center for Innovation grants, and ongoing interactive partnerships with a range of educational institutions. Summer program improvement days provide a structure for revising the

102curriculum. The process in which curriculum change happens is collaborative and deliberate. It is a reflective and responsive rather than reactive process. Needs are identified through committee, team, and department review. These are driven by research, guided by professional learning, and aligned with the goals of the district. Large-scale changes, like Reveal Math, related to program and tool adoption are determined by representative committees. When appropriate, educators pilot materials and curriculum, as elementary teachers did for Reveal and Kevin is doing for chemistry. Data is collected on pilots and tools and shared. Textbooks, curriculum, and common text are presented and reviewed by the Board of Education. The key to successful change is professional development, or professional learning, as it is now referred to. And planning for educators is ongoing, responsive, and includes opportunities for program review. It also includes chances

103for both assured and educator-identified learning. We do this through district training, external workshops, and conferences through the Scarsdale Teacher Institute, and department, special area, and grade-level meetings. So looking at the program adoption of Reveal Math tools, flexible teacher training is essential, and it is happening throughout the schools currently. Importantly, there are embedded assessments for student growth and structures in which teachers can provide feedback on the transition. We look forward to dedicating an upcoming superintendent's conference day to provide responsive teacher training and support. Here are some photos of our elementary administrators attending a math workshop to get a better understanding of the Reveal Math tools, what to look for in a math lesson and environment, deepen understanding to inform communication of big ideas to the school community, and support their teachers' progress. Finally, this type of

104leadership training aligns with our philosophy that our administrators are instructional leaders in the district, and therefore we continue to develop alongside our educators the necessary skills and knowledge in curriculum instruction and assessment to inspire and support the work. So getting back to the statement about tools that lead to learning we value, with this program, mathematical practices are at the heart of the shifts. Research overwhelmingly supports the shift. We need our students to be skillful at modeling, explaining their thinking, making connections between concepts, flexibly applying strategies, and persevering through difficult problems. There's a big emphasis on curiosity, discovery, and mindset, right alongside computational fluency and efficiency. And I got that question a lot while we were talking to parents. Computational fluency, math facts, so we're also learning math facts, which is important to know. And understanding

105at the leadership level is important across the disciplines. Here's a shot of a full-day leadership workshop on the next-gen science standards. This hands-on workshop gave all of us an appreciation for the science standards and remind us about the connections between the shifts being promoted in math and the shifts being outlined in science. I did leave off a photo that I had of Meghan Troy that she was making, like a, what was it called, a periscope underneath the table out of... She might be a little bit embarrassed. I thought it was a great picture, but I didn't want to embarrass her. In science, we have spent the last several years moving the next-gen science standards, or NGSS, up through the grades with our elementary folks, starting with kindergarten, assuring professional learning opportunities for collaborative decision-making over

106tool selection, through pilots and lab classrooms, and ongoing training structures to support grade level movement and new teachers. At the secondary level, the engagement with the NGSS happens at the department level. What I do want to focus in on is pilot and assessments of texts and tools. And I will shift to a slide that was put together by Kevin Viviano. I had the pleasure of being in Kevin's chemistry classroom as he was using a pilot textbook. He was actually scheduled to be a special guest but was unable to attend. He did share with me his thinking and the following slides. He reported that the biggest tension in chemistry is the content-driven course, and that it is important to find opportunities for applications and student-centered, inquiry-based learning. The most important thing to emphasize here is scientists

107don't gather in a room and learn rote information. Scientists observe. they question and hypothesize. They argue and justify. But most importantly, scientists do. We want students to be engaged in the work of scientists, doing things as often as possible. The second slide shows the balance of that tension described above. It shows how it's possible to marry both content and application. In fact, doing this makes the content and applications more engaging than if each existed in their own. Specifically, Kevin wanted to emphasize the purpose of the learning. He said, "Any teacher's, most dreaded question is, why do we need to learn this? Or, when will I use this in my life?" What is so effective about the approach detailed in this textbook is the answer to both of those questions now live in the moment. For

108example, they are learning about the density, learning about density to prove whether the penny that they turned golden through a chemical process is actually made of gold. They are also learning about nuclear decay to show if it's possible for certain isotopes to decay into gold. The topics and concepts all relate back to an overarching idea that allows students to see value in the learning of the content. Having seen this particular lab firsthand, I can attest it was different than my experience memorizing the elements of the periodic table. Finally, I'd like to talk about some of the transformations that are happening in the core text. Teachers are curating for our students in the criteria and process that are guiding their choices. I want to thank Karine Schaefer, the head of the high school English department, for

109her leadership and her articulation of this important work. The criteria, not surprisingly, always involves looking for texts with literary merit, with appropriate complexity and depth. We are engaging texts, modern or classic, that are of high quality. Teachers are also looking to engage texts that are relevant. Recently, and following the themes of a hero's journey, teachers have been expanding from J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" to Jacqueline Woodson's 2016 novel "Another Brooklyn," a story that resonates with students and captures their imaginations and interests. Our teachers are looking to engage books that both reflect students lived experiences and also provide perspectives on other ways of viewing the world. Many of these texts will be familiar to the board as recent adopted common texts that provide what we refer to as both mirrors and windows for our students.

110High school teachers are participating in an STI in which they are thoughtfully reviewing novels by Latinx authors to include in the cannon. Balancing the ways we include different perspectives is important. One of the essential conversations the department is having is making sure that the menu of what we offer does not always center on trauma. We need students to read stories in which people have a variety of experiences, and it is not always centered on marginalization. There's also a deep conversation about maintaining texts. Which literary classics do we keep hold of for the sake of cultural literacy, historical importance, or literary uniqueness, and what it means to present texts written 50, 100, 400 years ago through a modern lens, acknowledging historical contexts. I appreciate and support the thoughtful work of the English department and look forward

111to supporting their work. And with that, I would love to take any questions about curriculum transformations. So I was just curious about- Microphone. Sorry. I was curious about, with respect to the presentation on literary text, I wasn't sure if what you were saying was that "Catcher in the Rye" is now no longer relevant and is being replaced by "Another Brooklyn," or if what you're saying is that "Another Brooklyn" is being an extension of the themes of "Catcher in the Rye." So I just wasn't sure what you were saying. By relevance, it means that "Catcher in the Rye" is still a text that's engaged with. There's a historical relevance to it as something that, you know, connects to cultural literacy. But for students, they have found that "Another Brooklyn" is something that resonates. It was written

112more recently. It's a modern classic. It engages students in a way that... You know, J.D. Salinger wrote something that was really groundbreaking, is groundbreaking, but was groundbreaking at the time, and now Jacqueline Woodson is writing some modern masterpieces that students are really excited about. Just a follow-up question, with respect to the criteria for maintaining texts, is it the view that "Huckleberry Finn" is worth maintaining or not worth maintaining, given certain culturally, you know, sort of limiting tropes? Well, you know, it's interesting, I've had conversations with English teachers about this, and there are texts that involve a great deal of pre-teaching into them to create a historical context to describe the world in which, say, Mark Twain was writing, and there's a balancing act between this being of historical significance and engaging at a certain level

113and the amount of work that needs to go into it. And that is something that is thought out. Because there are times when it is appropriate for us to move on from a text because the lift around it becomes not worth the value that it has in the classroom. I think Jim's asking specifically, though, about that text. (chuckles) I'm gonna look out to Ken Bonomo. I do believe that "Huck Finn" is still a text that is used in classrooms. It is, but as you're describing, Edgar, it's an ongoing conversation. When we think about some of the language that's in there, you know, there's a trade-off between putting that in front of kids and giving them the historical perspective and the themes that it does. We're constantly revisiting it. I'm not sure that we're ready to

114make a decision in this moment, but we're sensitive to the question. Okay, thank you. Before I ask a question, there's a note we got an email that the livestream is down. (Amber speaking faintly) Oh. If you can watch this, during the recording, Honore stepped out and is looking into it. Drew, could you just make an announcement on what you learned about the livestream? Sure, so we're not able, at the moment, to troubleshoot the livestream. We're not sure. It was working fine. We're not sure what the barrier is. So without a clear timeframe on when that might be back up and running, it's the recommendation that we conclude the meeting and get the recording of the meeting up on the website as soon as possible. Michelle Verna will put out a message to the community stating

115that we're concluding the meeting, and of course the public is welcome to send emails and messages to the board, to the administration and Board of Education, if there are questions. Thank you, Drew. Okay, that sounds great. Let's finish up with our questions for Edgar. Did anybody else have any questions on this portion of the presentation? I had a question. Edgar, one of your slides has the guiding frameworks that sort of we have to follow as a public entity. Can you just talk about what autonomy each local district has within, you know, next-gen standards or different guiding frameworks that the state sends to us? Well, I mean, there's standards in which we do have agency in how we meet the standards. So we use a variety of tools, some of them in the form of texts,

116some of them in the form of programs and tools like Reveal Math. And those tools make accommodations to make sure that there is alignment with the standards and the practices and the content knowledge. So there is, you know, we do have control, but it is a guiding framework that helps us make sure that we're matching the right tools to how we're using. Gotcha. Does that make sense? You don't feel, as we talk about all these different things, there aren't aspects of what we would like to do that we're inhibited by these frameworks? They're sort of... My understanding is they're much higher level, as a district or an individual teacher's able to deliver that content in the way they think is most effective, even though we have this slide that talks about these different frameworks we

117have to follow. Yeah, well, I think, in many ways, it's my belief that having these standards and having these frameworks allows the teachers, the administrators, all of us to look at what our goals are and opens up the possibility for creativity and integration because we can be looking at how the social studies standards meet with a culturally responsive sustaining education and their ways of integrating it. I don't feel that we are, that we're held back by the standards. And in some ways, it helps with an articulation to make sure that we're... Especially the new learning standards as they've been adopted, they're much more reflective of what we know our students really need to be successful as they go forward. There is, like, not my favorite but technical answer, also, which is that our linkage to

118state aid is connected to our, you know, following the regulations set forth by the State Education Department. You know, just it's a factor. Yeah, (indistinct). No, no, no- (group speaking indistinctly) Full about it. I appreciate that, that context, 'cause I think, you know, it's just helpful to understand that relationship as we talk about all this innovation that happens within our district. And just, I think, sometimes, you know, I, at least, will, you know, read the news about, you know, different state standards and just understanding that relationship. And then my second question, it's a little inspired by the fact that we've had students come to the last couple of meetings. So you have a slide on the Scarsdale-focused research and things like the Scarsdale Teachers Institute, the Center for Innovation, ways for our faculty members to

119come with innovative ideas and grow them. Is that pathway exists if a student had a similar idea? It's interesting, I do wanna talk a little bit about, I was thinking about the students who were inspired around sustainability and that we were talking about the other day. The different sort of projects that they've come forward with? Yeah, as far as, yeah, there are certain avenues there and through the Scarsdale Education Foundation, their entrepreneurship- Oh yeah, that's a good example. Grants, and I think that, you know, the Scarsdale-focused research, what I meant by that assessment data, that qualitative, is how we're using their voice and their feedback, sometimes in the work that they produce but also the feedback that they're giving to us as a guiding factor for making (indistinct) choices. Oh wait, let me make sure

120I understand this. When you say the Scarsdale student assessment data, we're not referring to the previous presentation. No, no. We're referring to data back from students about their experience. Yes. Oh, that's part of, got it. I mean, I think, also, assessment data is kind of the nuts and bolts, too, how they're doing on standardized and benchmark assessments that we're doing. And we look at that data to inform, yes. But I was also talking about more qualitative measures. I appreciate that. Just, you know, one of the nice things about sitting at this board table over several years is to see the students that come to us. Sometimes they come to the board table with ideas, with proposals, and it's really fantastic to see our district empowering people to feel like they can come to a Board

121of Ed meeting, which is, you know, it's a hard thing to stand up there. So I was just thinking about it from the same with sort of internally, so it's great to hear that. Actually, one example that popped up today, the recent art show here in the high school featured a project, a new project, that has a very sustainability-oriented lens to it, which is all part of kind of students influencing the work. And they participated in a Junk Kouture competition. And there's a YouTube video where our students were one of 21 semifinalists in the broader New York City region, and their Junk Kouture gown was reviewed and analyzed by judges and, you know, really kind of a neat example of that. Thank you. Does anybody else have questions for Edgar? Edgar, thank you for your

122presentation. One thing that really jumped out at me and I'm gonna steal, I think, is the idea of professional learning rather than professional development. I really like that. I did wanna ask just a little bit more about "The Catcher in the Rye" and the "Another Brooklyn" example. So would it be that ninth graders are reading one of those texts? They wouldn't read both of those texts, is that- And, again, I'd probably call on Ken for a little bit more color, but it is one that, as far as the common text, some have moved it, "Another Brooklyn" as the core text in the place of "Catcher in the Rye." Okay, so it's sort of the teacher's choice as to what they think- Yes. Will resonate, and perhaps they choose a different classic book later in the

123curriculum? Yeah, we still have classics that are taught throughout that are part of the core curriculum. It's us looking critically and carefully at the ones that we've been doing for years and years through the different lenses to make sure that we are, I mean, responding to a culturally sustaining framework as well. That's one of the guiding principles is looking at multiple perspectives. And if the perspective is just one way, and even if the representation, and this is something that's been talked about a lot lately, is just through the one particular lens of victimization, for example, that's also something that we have to look at. And that point you made earlier really resonated with me about not just looking for books that had trauma. So I appreciate that. Okay, well, thank you very much. Thank you

124to all of your team. I know you put a lot of effort into this, so we really appreciate this presentation. It was very valuable. Did have a lot of late-night help from Mitch Crasson, you know, thank you, but it's just- We appreciate it. (laughs) Points, right? Thank you. All right, let's move on on our agenda. And I believe the next item is Jim. Right, so this is back, once again, to the New York State School Board Association And here we have an election that's coming up for our area, which is area 10. And, you know, our current representative, who was elected, I believe, last year is Frank Hariton, who apparently is no longer serving or will no longer serve on the school board of which he's a member, so it has become necessary to elect

125a replacement for Mr. Hariton. And we have two candidates who have been nominated, both very good, Sheryl Brady and Deborah Gatti. Sheryl Brady is a member of the White Plains Board of Education. I think we actually were among the nominators of Sheryl. And she has, you know, a sterling resume, sterling background. I think what she's doing right now is she is... She holds a bachelor's degree from Purchase College and master and PhD in mathematics from Cornell, where she was a Danforth Fellow, and she was an assistant professor and chair of the mathematics department at Purchase College. Currently, she's a manager of operations and client services at the Bennett International Education Consultancy. And she teaches at the Congregation Kol Ami Religious School. And that's Sheryl, and she's been on the Board of Education in White Plains

126for a long time. Deborah Gatti serves on the Rockland Board, BOCES Board of Education, and she has served on the North Rockland Central School District Board of Education, and she is currently an administrative assistant for Robert A. Lenahan Architects. But she has worked in local government for a number of years as village clerk for the Village of Haverstraw. She's been on school boards for a long time, serving in a number of positions, including as president. So she certainly has a lot of experience in that area as well. So those are the two candidates. I believe the vote is later in November. I'm not sure of the date. Yes, that might be the 17th. That's right. And I think the board has to basically vote for who they would like to cast a ballot for as

127between those two candidates. Thank you, Jim. Does anybody have any questions for Jim? So we'll be taking action on this next at our next board meeting so that we can submit our vote. It's one vote as a board for our candidate. Thank you, Jim, for your research on that. You're welcome. I don't think either one of your microphones were on. But Jessica thanked Jim. Jim said, "You're welcome." (participants chuckling) All right, let's move on to item 8.03, Board of Education goals and evaluation templates. Give me just a minute to pull up my notes. So each year, establishing goals is an important opportunity for the board to reflect upon current work, needs, and potential areas for growth and development. At our last meeting, we reviewed the proposed goals for the 2022-2023 school year, and the copy

128attached to the agenda reflects our discussion. I added a goal related to collective bargaining and noted the two units that we will be bargaining with, and added language to the advocacy goal using the words identified by the board in addition to identified by other organizations. There are also some minor word changes. Can you please let me know your thoughts on the latest draft of our goals so we can hopefully come to agreement about our goals this evening and post them online. Please note that we do not need to have a formal board vote to approve the goals. This is board development work that requires consensus, so just something to keep in mind. Does anybody have any comments on the revised goals? I think they look great, and I agree with them and just wanna thank

129Amber for the time you put into putting them together. Thanks, Ron. Thank you, Amber, for putting... My microphone is sort of on. It's, like, not really, totally working tonight. Thank you for taking the time to put these together. I agree with them, and I appreciate the updating of the union agreements. Great, thank you. Yeah, I would say they look fine. Thank you very much. Thanks, Bob. I agree. Good job, Amber. Thank you. Okay, great, so it sounds like we have consensus on the board goals. And I will ask Honore to post those on our website. Now I'd ask you all to take a look at the board's self-evaluation tool. Also attached to the agenda is a draft of the board's self-evaluation tool. It has been revised from last year's tool to conform with our proposed

130goals and objectives for this year. Does anyone have any questions, or is there any discussion on the self-evaluation tool? Having used a version of this for the last few years, I think it looks good. I think your updates look great, and I fully support it. Thank you, Ron. Anyone else? Is there general consensus that we can use this tool for our self-assessment at the end of the year? Yes. Great, thank you very much. This will also be posted on the board's webpage. Excited to have some goals for us. Okay, now we have a board discussion on the draft resolution item 8.04 on the Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing. Earlier this evening, we had a public hearing on the draft resolution for Open Meetings Law amendments for video conferencing. We discussed this at our

131last board meeting. There were no members of the public that came forth to speak on this, either in person or via Zoom. Does anyone have any comments on the draft resolution or anything related to this? I continue to support this. Great, we will actually be taking formal action on this at our next board meeting, but please feel free to share any other thoughts that you have on this. Would it be helpful to kind of go through the steps that we- That's right. That is a very good idea. You'll recall, there's a policy sort of connected to this. So tonight, you held the public hearing. You've got a kind of draft of the resolution. At the 11-14 meeting, you would want to, ideally, act on the resolution but also discuss an amendment to the policy that

132matches the resolution. And, also, the attorneys have supplied us with a draft exhibit that would kind of lay out step one, step two, if such a need occurs to be remote, an exhibit that would outline the procedures, and you'd have a first reading on the policy amendment in the exhibit, and then later, at the December 5th meeting, potentially a second reading and action on the policy and exhibit. Thank you, Drew. Yes, it is a not a simple process to go through, so I appreciate that. So yeah, we still have a few more discussions on this, but we can move forward now, so thank you. Let's move on to action items. And, Bob, you have the first and only action item. Yes. It's actually picking up one of the book selections that Edgar had mentioned in

133his presentation. And it is recommended that the board approve the proposed new textbook for the high school as presented. That book is "The Last White Man" by Mohsin Hamid, and I propose we accept that recommendation. Thank you, Bob. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Jessica. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion carries. 10.01, a gift, and that is Jessica. It is recommended that the board approve the very generous gift being offered to the Scarsdale High School athletic department. The board is recommended to accept with thanks the gift of $25,832.75 to the SHS athletic department for the purchase an elevated soccer box for use on Butler Field. And this is being offered generously by Maroon and White. So I would recommend that we accept this with thanks to

134Maroon and White. Thank you, yes, and it is a scorer's box, just to be clear. Is there a second? A scorer's box. Thank you, Suzie. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, thank you to Maroon and White for their generous gift. And now we'll move on to our second public comment period. 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 livestream voice, turn on your camera, and then unmute yourself. Speakers will be asked to conclude their remarks after four minutes and will be given a verbal cue at the

135three-minute mark. If at that point, the speaker has additional comments, please send them in writing to the board. 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. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to make public comment? Thank you. I'm Laura Liu, 2 Wheelock Road. First, I'm speaking here as a member of the community. I'd like to thank the board and administration for your great work and dedication. Special thanks to Dr. McIntosh for the very informative education report. I also thank the board for rescheduling this meeting so residents who celebrate Diwali wouldn't have to miss this important meeting. I'm

136here to express my support for the proposal raised by many students and residents to add the Asian holidays to the school calendar, including Samina Malik, who spoke at the board meeting on October 3rd, and Charlene Dong, who spoke earlier this evening. While adding Eid and Luna New Year has been specifically proposed, I'd like to suggest that the district consider adding Diwali to the list and give the issue of Asian holidays the serious considerations it merits as the work on the 2023 to '24 school calendar gets underway. I recognize that these changes are very significant and carry many operational obstacles. And these changes may also feel like major departures from tradition and old habits and may cause some discomfort. But I believe that our school community as a whole is at the point where we are

137ready to engage in this work as a real project. It should no longer just be a concept or a wish for down the road. I hope the board will set specific goals and timelines and start to engage in scenario analysis, identify steps to resolve barriers, and work toward making Asian holidays in the district a reality. This progress will substantially advance the DI work we invest so heavily in. It will greatly add to the congruence of many of the district's strategic goals, including student-centered education, cohesive community, and global citizenship. While the process of this change will take a lot of work, the long-term benefits will be too significant for us to delay this work. Whether it's in our schools, on the sports fields, in the town library, in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, local music and

138arts events, or many other civic settings, we see a very large number of families of Asian descent actively contributing to our community. And that number is growing annually. This past Saturday, I joined some friends at a Diwali celebration in Ardsley. The beautiful music, dance, and shared culture really brought home for me the strength of our shared community and how much we all value and enjoy the same things. I hope the board will work toward adding the Asian holidays to the school calendar and truly affirm the diverse multicultural community that we already are. Thank you for your comments, Laura. Is there anybody else in the audience? Seeing no one, we'll turn to the Zoom. There are no attendees on the Zoom at this time. Okay, then we will go ahead and close public comment and turn

139to follow-up to public comment. And, Drew, could you just give a brief timeline about when we look at the calendar for next year? Yeah, I actually wanna say I appreciate the public comment coming when it's coming because sometimes it happens very late in the process. And I think we have, you know, some clear voices in the community about their desires. One of the big pieces of information we have to wait for annually is when the Regents Exam week in June starts and ends. Because the State Education Department mandates the last day of school is what they call Rating Day. So, just for example, looking ahead, if Rating Day is on a Friday, which it has been traditionally, it would be June 21st. And that constrains our calendar probably maximally, like it makes it a really

140tight year. If it is on the Wednesday, June, I believe that would be 25th, which sometimes has happened, that would obviously create more flexibility within the calendar. So that's one piece that we're waiting on. In terms of the discussion, the stakeholders traditionally have been the civil service unions. They have, in their contract, the expectation that they are consulted in determining the civil service holidays. The teacher's union has the expectation that they're consulted before a calendar's brought forward to the board. That's traditionally been around February. Obviously, I think we'd be in good stead to bring something forward earlier if it's possible to do so. I will say, as I've responded to some emails that have come in, practically speaking, the calendar that we have really observes only those holidays that are mandated by the state of

141New York under the General Construction Law and holidays mandated through our contract agreements with our unions. So, at least traditionally, those are the days that we have established as holidays, with some flexibility, depending on when that last day of school is, to have additional days off. So an example would be we've sometimes taken the Monday after the April break off, and that would be six days off, not five, if there's enough days to fit within the 185-day calendar, so just some information there and a lot of thinking to do. Thank you, and I think we'll be having more robust conversations after the Regents Calendar comes out for next year. It's sometimes as early as December, sometimes as late as January. Okay, and review information, questions, wrap-up items, I don't think there was anything. I think

142we have a lot of questions for the December 5th presentation, but I don't think there is anything. We'll save all that for next time. I would just like to apologize for the livestream issues. And obviously, we had problem-solved and identified the problem we believe that was causing the livestream issue in the last two meetings. And a project was put in place to make the change. It was working for the start of the meeting. But just to the public, we do apologize. This was not the plan, and we will get to the bottom of it for the next meeting. Thank you for that, Drew. Ron, would you like to give our meeting dates for the upcoming month? Yes, the board will meet on Monday, November 14th, starting with a designated group at 5:00 PM in the

143high school learning commons, followed by a business meeting at 6:30 PM in high school room 170-172, followed by a special meeting and/or executive session if needed. On Monday, November 17th, the board will hold its public forum for the 2023-2024 budget priorities at 9:00 AM in this room, room 170-172 at the high school. On Monday, November 21st, the board will meet with a designated group, the Village Board of Trustees at 5:00 PM in room 170-172 at the high school, followed by a board retreat at 6:00 PM, room 170-172 at the high school. The first part of the meeting with the village trustees is an open meeting. The border retreat is a meeting just of the board. On Monday, December 5th, the board will meet with a designated group, the Scarsdale High School Student Group, at 5:00

144PM in the high school learning commons, followed by a high school presentation, The Evolving College Administration Landscape: Trends and Thoughts, at 6:30 PM in the the high school auditorium. This is the presentation that Drew and Edgar talked about before, followed by a board business meeting at 7:30 PM in the high school room 170-172. And lastly, on Monday, December 19th, the board will hold a special meeting and/or executive session if needed, followed by an education report and business meeting at 6:30 PM, room 170-172 in the high school. Sorry, Ron. November 17th is not a Monday. It's a Thursday. Oh, thank you for that clarification. I believe it's November 14th. No. That one is actually new. (group speaking indistinctly) That is Thursday. 14th is a Monday, but November 17th- The budget forum, and we'll be sending out

145a communication- Yeah, but just so there's no confusion. On that. Thank you, Bob. I appreciate that. Okay, can I get a motion to adjourn? Thank you, Suzie. Is there a second? Thank you, Jessica. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Have a good night, everyone.