BOE Budget Session 3/Business Meeting Education Report 2022-3-21

001Hello, and I call this budget study session number three, sorry. I call this budget study session number three, to order and note that all board members are here. And we're also joined by Dr. Hagerman and his cabinet. Amber is going to. There's an issue with the Verizon Fios. Right now, service, thank you for the word. (speaking faintly) Only for the streaming of this meeting. So please go to the website to watch the meeting, thank you. Okay, well, if they can't watch. So I will turn this over to Thomas to start. Okay, thank you. Good evening, and welcome to our third budget study session. Tonight's study session will provide an overview of the budget development process and accomplishments, a staffing recommendation summary, and the proposed 22-23 budget plan, including the proposed expense budget, revenue budget, and

002tax levy followed by the budget discussion timeline. We appreciate all of you being here, both in terms of our live audience and those who are watching by streaming. And with that, I will turn it over to Stuart Maddy. Thank you very much, Dr. Hagerman. As Dr. Hagerman mentioned, this is budget session number three for the 22-23 school budget. And look at our focus for tonight's meeting, again, most of this is not new information. It's just really a review and putting together it's sort of the whole budget plan package. Go the next slide, Jerry. Also a reminder of budget development process. The school budget itself it's really providing the financial resources for all those goals and objectives set by the school District and supporting the strategic plan. Goes across all of our District, all of our

003buildings. Our budget initiatives are set forth and appear in the budget draft only after many, many, many meetings. A lot of thoughtful consideration, deliberation and discussion really focusing on the following criteria; educational efficacy, impact on student education outcomes and achievement, of course, alignment with mandates and best practices, alignment with our strategic planning and education priorities and considering staffing efficiencies and financial impact. And really those criterion go through not only on staffing requests and instructional budget drivers, but also on the non-instructional side as well, when we meet with those individuals leading up those departments. And again, strategic plan made up of our 13 pillars, really a spectrum across the District of all of our different focus areas in this strategic plan. Sequence, again, all that deliberation development going back to early in the school year, some

004items even stretching back to the prior school year. So you'll recall some of the items that we removed from the budget back in budget session number one. We go back, Jerry, well, thank you. We start those budget discussions then with the Board of Education administration later in the fall. And then we bring forth those to the community and all of our budget sessions and then inviting feedback from the community all the way up to the point where we get to the final budget and vote. And you can see that feedback, administration, Board of Education, community all through this process, going back to November 17th, when we had our first public forum is really when we sort of started listening actively with the special meeting with the community at that day. And of course, our by

005budget sessions, staffing recommendations, and this whole calendar of events for our budget process. And a reminder the budget vote is, I don't have it on there. I missed that line, May, what is it again? May 21st? May,17th. 17th, thank you. Third Tuesday of every May, I remember that one. Budget accomplishments: Most importantly, maintaining high quality teaching and learning consistent with our strategic plan. I'm not gonna read through all these bullet points as we did in a previous meeting, because I see, on this slide and the next slide, all of these different areas that this budget really supports. And most of these or a lot of these are not only continuing programs of course, but also new initiatives. Also, continue to study and development of our DEI initiatives. Our focus on social, emotional support of students

006as evidenced by additional staff members. And we'll see that in an additional slide here. Continued support for opportunities for our students with disabilities, wireless connectivity and communication systems. That was a big one in this 22-23 budget. And of course, continuing on with supporting our building infrastructure needs. Here are the staffing recommendations. You see really three different areas in the budget, both instructional, non-instructional or student support and also operational additions. So what is the proposed budget plan for 22-23? And we always start off with the fund balance. So this is the projected fund balance for year end June 30th, 2022. This really is sort of gives us the framework going forward when we look at the next year's budget. See we're projected to have about $23,500,000 million overall fund balance based on year end revenues and

007projected year end expenditures. Again, they will not be those exact numbers. There are a lot of variables at play. We're happy to see the weather getting a little bit warmer, so we can sort of turn down those boilers and open up the windows even more. Maybe this temperature will be good, so we're not using too much air conditioning to keep all of our energy used out as much as possible, because that is driving a lot this year. As you can see our projected allocations for year end, our tax certiorari reserve, our health insurance reserve employees retirement reserve, all of those in good shape and funding future liabilities as far as we know them. And unassigned fund balance of about $5.3 million, it's a little bit lower. It's about 3.1% of next year's budget. It's driven

008a little bit by $500,000 as you recall. We do have a built in contingency in next year's budget. So that number could be a little bit higher if we had kept that in unsigned fund balance. And you can see our assigned fund balance is at 1.925. Again, driven up by that $500,000 for our COVID contingency or slash inflation contingency. Next slide is. I'm sorry, I'm trying help the people. They can see or hear anything. Oh, okay. Proposed budget plan, I think I like this slide. It really gives you a year to year comparison for some important factors in our budget or drivers, total expenditure year to year up 3.85%. That's the first row offset by other revenues. State aid, county sales tax are the big ones there, up about $1,500,000 million, about 15%. Transfer from

009reserves down $53,000, offset by assigned fund balance. That's inflated a little bit for the COVID contingency, leaving a year to year total tax levy when you take away those other revenues of 159, 697, 444, and about a 3.45% increase year to year. So the number takeaways, the budget again, $173,291,393. It's at 3.85% budget to budget. Projected levy 3.45%. Tax levy limit as you recall, slightly above that at 3 1/2%, or about $75,000 below that translates into tax rate increases of 2.43% for Scarsdale, and 3.68 for Mamaroneck due to equalization rate changes in those two municipalities. So our proposed expense budget. Okay, again, high level, but these themes you'll recall from our previous presentations for the different components. Again, up 3.85%, and the major drivers are really those staffing recommendations. So estimated salary increases either contractual

010or some estimated at this point. Teacher retirements, we did not get as many teacher retirements as we had previously, so that doesn't help offset that tax levy and help fund some of those newer staffing additions, and those additions themselves in adjustments. So overall by far and away, the largest driver of next year's budget, $4.4 million. Related to that are the pension systems increase about $567,000. Health benefits and FICA increases are the main drivers there at overall $1.1 million. So pension systems, FICA health related benefits are the drivers. Special education, as you recall, Mr. Rauschenbach presented his budget. Again, a lot of those support services for our students post pandemic costs $636,000, larger than what it has been in previous years. But as you recall, we had the conversation about enrollment changes and the needs of

011that particular segment of students. Technology: WiFi improvements and expansion, $252,000. Plant operations and those energy costs I talked about not only for projected year, and this year, not seeing the surplus like we would normally see but having to drive that number up again for next year's budget in anticipation of the continued increases. We did see a decrease in security equipment year to year, but overall plant and operations about $200,000 increase. Miscellaneous about $90,000. And then there's that expense down 300,000, from 800,000 to $500,000 budget to budget. And overall, these are all the different categories. Most of these you received presentations on throughout our budget process and budget sessions one and two, you can see that year to actual. So we're comparing, you can see the three previous years actual and projected for this year compared

012to the budget. And you can see we're about 4% over when you look at our proposed budget compared to this year's projected year end. And there's our budget history. We're at 3.85%, we're a bit higher than where we have been the previous eight years or so. And there's our component pie. We go to the next side. So how do we offset these expenditures, 22-23 revenue budget? Again, that has to equal. So those numbers and percent increases, at least the percent increases will remain the same. Big highlights drivers as you recall, state aid. We had previously, or the last couple years had that pandemic deficit reduction built into the budget. We have taken that out for next year. So that's sort of like $1,000,000 increase, which was great. It was a nice, very strategic important that

013we had that in there the last couple years, just in case we did see that taken away from us as we are anticipating state deficits, now that did not happen. So we're able to put that comfortably back into next year's state aid projection. High interest earnings projected to be back at normal levels. So we're gonna be at a deficit this year, but we're projecting that to get back to normal next year. Interest rates are increasing, which isn't great except when you get to the side of revenues. So that will help I imagine a little bit. And our county sales tax is one of our larger segments that's projected to increase on top of this year's projected actuals, which was an increase above what we had budgeted as well. So all we know sales tax are

014up, I talked about the pandemic deficit reduction. The county sales tax up 284,000. Other revenues, BOCE refund and pilot tax revenues projected increased about $200,000. BOCES refund, I think I mentioned this before is basically that BOCES budget that we sign up for at the end of the year, they're gonna have deficits or reductions across all of their different expenditure categories if they have surpluses and they typically do, or we did not spend up to our budget amount. We get that money back in the form of a BOCES refund at the following year. Assigned fund balance, decreasing 300,000. Again, that's a COVID 19 slash inflation recommendation down from this current year. Transfers from other reserves, debt service reserve, going down a little bit. That's all we had in that account to help offset the Heathcote project.

015And we are using the ERS reserve to help offset some of that budget line. And property taxes is of course, what has to go up when things go down and the budget goes up. So again, that's that $5.3 million increase. And there are the different categories. And if you see our detailed accounting, of course, our subcategories below all of these feeding up into these sort of major categories and the same on the expense side, of course. And you can see comparing proposed budget back to our projected for this current year. Proposed tax levy. Again, a simple formula to help folks understand in the community. Proposed budget just about, or just a little bit over 173 million. Other revenues, 11.1. Offsetting that transfer from reserves, 550,000 offsetting that. Assigned fund balance offsetting that. And what you

016have left is what you need to raise in taxes to make that whole 159, 697. And again, about 3.45%, translating into the tax formula gives you a tax rate of 2.43% for Scarsdale. And again, 3.68 for Mamaroneck. And there's your year to year. Again, going back about eight years or so. And timeline: That's takes us right down to the end here, a budget of session number three. So we're lined up for the budget forum and review next week. We've been answering a lot of questions from the different organizations in our community. I think we're up to, we're working on question number 115, I think. We have our 80 up on the website now, and hopefully we'll have those remainder ones up in another day or two in time for the forum and get them back.

017And of course, we're lined up for a budget adoption by the board on April 4th. May 17th is a budget vote date, and that's it. And we welcome questions. Stuart, I have a question, first of all, thank you so much for that transparency you're providing with all of the Q and A on the website. Like I realized that that's a huge amount of work to get a detailed response to all of those multiple hundreds of questions, so thank you. The only question I had and perhaps this was something I just missed a nuance in was I understood that you said that teacher retirements were lower than what we had projected. And I thought actually based on retirement announcements that we'd had to date that they were quite high. Was there something specific? Is there or

018was there a deadline? Is there some nuance in that, that I'm not understanding. Yeah, they're actually not higher than what we would say is sort of normal, sort of a little bit lower. Last year was a bit higher, which helps offset newer expenses. Sure. So this year being a little bit lower, we had to make up that much more in other areas, whether it be revenue side or on the expenditure side, especially with the additions, is a big driver this year or the staffing additions. So you like to have those offset, but it is what it is. It goes, it's cyclical and yeah, we'll see what happens next year. Okay, thank you so much. Sure. In respect to tax certiorari numbers, they're being estimated to be down, what's the driver of that? Was that in

019the reserve or? I guess it's whatever but there's something that shows that like it's down to 100,000 estimated. Oh, that was an actual expenditure line. Okay, yeah, so tax that's an actual expenditure line that would be for current year settlements. So the assessor is actually doing a tremendous job and very caught up to date. So we're not seeing the number of settlements coming in. So we're very comfortable in reducing that and still being like right there with what we feel is a comfortable budget number. We don't see that number really going up in the future. It had previously been higher, sort of those current years got settled out and we're at a point now we're just not seeing that. So less tax appeals filed (speaking faintly) Yeah, we're seeing that number go down for sure.

020Yep, and you can actually sort of see that on the board agendas as well. We haven't seen as many settlements on an ongoing basis as there were two, three, four years ago. Stuart, could you remind me what was the COVID 19 contingency budget this year, and how much of that did we use? Yeah, sure, it was 800,000 and I haven't seen a recent reconciliation of it, but I think we were right up against it. A lot of it was for tutoring costs, some staffing additions and some mitigation, I don't know. Yep, right. I would say exactly that. Yep. Yep, we're right. I think we're right at it and for those reasons. And so we're comfortable with the 500,000 or is that what it is? It is. 500. Yeah, for 22-23, we kept 500,000 in there.

021Generally the same sort of categories I also threw in were the inflation, something really gets crazy with fuel expenses, we are. We don't know what we don't know, but that's why we have it in there. I think changing some of our tutoring considerations has helped to stabilize that expense, where that was a big driver of that earlier in the year. So as far as right now, we're good with that. If it gets to it next year and we hope that it doesn't, we do have the fund balance. We don't wanna go to it, but it's there for strange situations and emergencies that come up. So we have that to access if we need to. Okay, thank you. Stuart, thanks for that presentation. Just a few questions. Could we talk about state aid for a second?

022So this is a tough one because the state is going through their own budget process, but there's a lot of discussions around state aid for schools, foundation aid, potential changes. It doesn't sound like many of them will have a material impact on our District. I'm just curious your read on that if there's anything we should be watching for at state level. Yeah, I would agree. I haven't seen anything that would impact us, at least in the short term. Certainly there's conversations about driving dollars to the poorer districts or districts that have been shorted over the years. We have not been that. And typically in these high types of situations, districts are held harmless where even if the formula were to drive our foundation aid number lower, they would keep us at that flat level, which

023essentially is what has happened in the past with different types of aids. If anything, if they were to go in a different direction, I wouldn't anticipate it happening all at once. Typically would be a two, three, four year phase out. Fortunately, we don't have a lot of money coming from state aid but every dollar that doesn't come from state aid has to come from somewhere, or an offset on the expenditure side. So it's definitely something we have to keep an eye on. All right, thank you. Just on thinking about something we talked about last meeting, and I know we can't really think about so much the future, but when we talked about the high school auditorium, we talked about possibly having some leftover funds from the 2018 bond as things come in under budget. Yeah.

024Is tonight the last piece of the 2018 bond? Or what is the timing when we'll know what might to that debt service reserve for the auditorium or whatever a future board chooses to use it for? Yeah, no, great question. So I've been thinking about this a lot of course, and planning it out, there's only so much you can plan. But the last of the work will be occurring this summer. The bid tonight is actually not part of the bond. It's as part of a capital transfer to capital project. Oh, tonight's the audit trip, right? Yeah, so there will be one more bid related to the bond. Just chatting about that today. It's not for a lot of work. We're gonna be putting that together rather quickly. And hopefully coming back to you at the April

02525th meeting for a bid award. However, all that work will happen this summer. When those projects are substantially complete, because things come up during projects, we'll have a really a solid idea and firm number of where we'll be and what number I would feel comfortable saying, this is what will be available to put into debt service reserve towards any future projects. So certainly by the next time the administration board is discussing the next budget, we will have full visibility into what is.. Yeah, and full transparency, that is absolutely the plan. And the auditorium committee we have talked about that, not promising anything because we can't do that. But strategically, that is at least my thought process. If you look at the auditorium, it was part of the 2014 bond. It unfortunately had to be removed.

026Wasn't part of the 2018 bond for whatever reason. We tried to have done piecemeal here and there. And I would dare say it's time to make a substantial effort to get that work done. I'm hopeful that those dollars left over can be put forth and to take care of the scope that we would lay out for the auditorium. And just, a last question, as I think some people will have this question. On the slide where you show from sort of budget to tax levy, and then there's the breakout from the levy to the tax increase; Scarsdale versus Mamaroneck, and there's a difference in the two. Can you just sort of talk through why you will see a tax levy of 3.45, but depending on where you live. Scarsdale you'll see 2.43, in Mamaroneck 3.68. I

027think people. Right, Jerry, if you go back to the, like a few more. This one? Yeah, but go back a few more please. A couple more. About three more. There you go, right there. All right, so the formula, the only thing that the District really has a say in, in the tax rate is the tax levy. The tax levy is one variable. The other factors that go into the tax formula are the equalization rate, which is set by New York State. And that's supposedly putting the fair market value on your home in comparison with what this other residents are sold at in your community, in comparison with the rest of the homes in New York State. When you put that formula together, it can change the way the tax levy is divvied out. So if

028the equalization rate changes in one town compared to another town, that will drive the percent of the levy to one town or the other. And it can be just a little bit, but it can drive the tax rate off just a bit as you see here. So when you see, I always try to put this little box in here and people can take a look at that. Town of Mamaroneck, their share is increasing in the total levy. So a little bit piece of their pie goes to them instead of Scarsdale. Now by far and away, Scarsdale itself has a huge piece of the pie. Because Scarsdale's I think 95% of the levy pie, or if it just changes a couple tenths of a percent, it'll shift the tax rate a little bit, that good? Yeah,

029I think that's always something that we get questions about. Yeah, absolutely. And we're fortunate actually we only have two towns, some districts have five or six towns and it can really change around quite a bit if there's not 100% on the equalization rate. Anyone else? Any other questions? Very good, thank you. I too would like to thank you Stuart, for all your hard work on the budget and this presentation this evening and echo what Jessica said about answering all those questions. Well, I'm not doing it alone, yeah. Okay, well to you and everyone else who was answering those questions, the community's questions, we really appreciate that. So thank you so much. So can I have a motion to move to adjourn this meeting and move into our business meeting, Jessica? So moved. second. Carl, second.

030All in favor. Okay, so we will now move to our Board of Education meeting. I call this meeting to order and I note that all board members are present. And that Dr. Hagerman and his cabinet are also present. Good evening to all those attending in the audience and via remote means. I hope you are all well. Before this meeting, we just had our budget study session number three, which for provided updates and a full presentation of this year's budget process, its accomplishments and its proposed plan. If you just missed this presentation and the following discussion the board had with Stuart and the cabinet, please know that you can view it online in the Board of Education's meeting videos library. There are two upcoming dates that I would like to note that are related to our

031budget process. This Thursday, March 24th at 10:00 AM via Zoom, representatives of the board and District will attend the Scarsdale League of Women Voters annual school budget information session. A link is available on the Scarsdale League of Women Voters calendar online. Next Monday, March 28th at 6:00 PM in this room, the board will hold a budget forum during which we will receive written statements from community groups and hear community comments on this year's proposed budget. As always though, we also invite the community to ask questions and provide feedback on the budget during our public comment periods at next week's budget forum, or anytime via email at to us @boardofedscarsdaleschools.org. We thank you for your participation in the budget process. I'd also like to note the following information items. As per the recommendation of the board

032sub committee on community engagement, the board has scheduled two board coffees to take place on Thursday, April 25th at 3:30, at the Scarsdale High School picnic tables, and also on Wednesday, April 27th at 5:30 PM in this room, room 170-172. Official notice will go out to the community as we approach these scheduled dates. I also wanted to note that yesterday, the governor, or I'm sorry, not yesterday, the other day, the governor continued the state of emergency for another 30 days through to April 15th. This extension permits school districts and other public bodies to continue remote meetings pursuant to the amendments to Open Meeting Law signed by the governor on January 14th, 2022. In closing, I would like to reiterate that the board recognizes the critical work we are currently engaged in identifying an interim superintendent,

033preparing an RFP to help find the appropriate search firm to lead a national search for our permanent superintendent, and developing a responsible budget that is responsive to the needs of our students, staff and schools. Again, we are making good progress on all fronts and are committed to doing this work well, understanding the impact that this significant decisions will have on the school community and the broader Scarsdale community. We will provide additional updates on our transition planning under agenda item 9.03 later this evening. And we thank you again, the entire community for your participation and your support during this time. Dr. Hagerman. Great, thank you, Karen. Appreciate that, good evening, everyone, welcome. We appreciate it already joining us in our viewing audience, along with those who'll be streaming the education report later this evening. Tonight's education

034report will focus on multi-tiered system of support or MTSS, followed by a brief update on the strategic plan. We appreciate your continued support of the District efforts by staying involved in this board work through our regular and special meetings. As Karen said, as we began the first full week of spring, the District is a buzz, engaging students in a variety of activities across a multitude of domains including academic, artistic, and athletic, planning for the remainder of the year. And of course, preparing for the year ahead, including hiring for new and vacant faculty and staff positions. So quite a lot going on all around. I did wanna take tonight to highlight a couple of notable achievements as well. First, I am very pleased to announce and congratulate our very own, Jerry Crisci, who has been awarded

035the 2022 LHRIC TELL, T E L L Award for outstanding innovative leader by the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center of Southern Westchester BOCES. Recipients of this heralded award have demonstrated an outstanding, innovative, or a strategic approach to technology integration in their districts. The prestigious awards are given to individuals who continually demonstrate innovation, showcase best practices and implement systematic changes in teaching and learning. During Jerry's 30 plus year career rather, he has grown from an elementary school computer teacher to the head of the one of most innovative K to 12 instructional technology programs in the nation. His forward thinking approach has led him to become a creator and founding member of the New York Technology Educators Network, as well as the co-founder of Scarsdale's very own Center for Innovation. Jerry, over in the corner here, congratulations

036on your big achievement. (board members clapping) Additionally, as most of you already know, Heathcote Elementary was designated as a National Blue Ribbon Schools Program honoree this year. Heathcote was only a handful of elementary schools that earned that designation in New York State, and that was back in October of 2020. On March 11th, we finally held our long awaited Blue Ribbon ceremony in front of the building to unveil the new sign, now centrally located in front of the school. Be sure to look for it when you drive by. Our students got to sing, dance and even enjoyed a visit from a very special guest, the Heathcote Husky. I would like to thank Maria and Kathy particularly, but of course the rest of the Heathcote faculty and staff for their efforts to not only earn the Blue

037Ribbon designation, but also for planning meaningful events that commemorate and memorialize this outstanding achievement. So Maria and the faculty of Heathcote, Congratulations, and thank you again. (board members clapping) And with that, I will say thank you again, for being here tonight. We appreciate it, and I'm gonna turn it back over to Karen. So and I wanted to echo something Thomas said. Jerry, on behalf of the board, I would also like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to you for receiving this year's TELL Award. This honor is so incredibly well deserved. And we thank you, Jerry, for the outstanding leadership you have shown and the utter commitment you have made over the last three decades to advance the educational technology, understanding and resources for our students, our teachers, and our schools. Thank you so much and congrats.

038(board members clapping) And of course, I need to echo also our congratulations to Heathcote Elementary School on being recognized as a Blue Ribbon school. That is an amazing achievement and also so well deserved. So congratulations to Heathcote. Thanks Karen. I just have a quick liaison report from the Scarsdale Drug and Alcohol Task Force. The DATF held their most recent community event last Thursday, at the Scarsdale Library. This was the first in-person event for the DATF community events, I think for about two years since the pandemic started, but they're back in person. The DATF typically holds about three of these community events each year on various topics. And it's a great opportunity for community members to come out, speak with members of the DATF, which includes the youth outreach workers from Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling and

039others. So please look out for other ones this year and in future years on all different topics. Any other announcements (speaking faintly) Carl. Not really a liaison report, but I came to the difficult decision not to offer myself up for nomination to the board again. So that was after the February vacation and more on that, I guess later, but I just felt that people should know that that decision had been made and it wouldn't be city. Apparently people actually were wondering what I was doing much to% my surprise. So, but I'll still be around, thanks. Okay, thank you Carl. So now we will move on to agenda item four, hearing from those present. And I will first read our preamble to our public comment period. At this time, members of the of public are cordially

040invited to speak on District related items or other non personnel related matters. 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 are asked to conclude their remarks within four minutes, and will be given a cue at the three minute mark. If at this point a speaker has additional comments, they may send them in writing to the board via email at boardofedscarsdaleschools.org. 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 at, or, or at a later time in place.

041Response to public comment will take place after the first and second public comment periods this evening, thank you. So I invite anyone in the audience who would like to speak to approach the microphone. Good evening, everybody. It's nice to be here. It's nice to see everybody behind the mask. So I am Deb Pekarek, 43 Green Acres Avenue. And I speak to you this evening, simply as a neighbor and a taxpayer. While I am on the board of Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling, my comments are solely my own. It has come to my attention that the school District is proposing to hire social workers, one each for the middle school and high school. I am fully in support of all mental health services to provide our kids the assistance they need. I have a few questions regarding

042your proposal. Number one, mandate. I am curious about the use of this term, mandate, mandated or mandated services. I am a bit confused or maybe I misread. So please clarify what you mean when you use these terms as they relate to SFCS social workers within the youth services program. I understand that licensed social workers are able to provide mandated services as determined by the committee on special education for an individual student with an IEP. Family counseling social workers have provided these services in the past, are licensed to do so and are trained to provide highly professional counseling. I also understand that New York State educational rules do not require that school districts provide social workers. So please clarify what you mean by the term mandated in all its forms within the context of this proposal.

043Number two, partnership. This almost 40 year partnership has been a unique, effective, powerful collaboration between the Scarsdale schools, the village and SFCs, and has worked and thrived to successfully help countless young people in Scarsdale. I would venture to guess that if additional social workers are needed, the village board of trustees would entertain this discussion, an endeavor to consider additional funding for shared social workers in this budget cycle. Has this been discussed with the partners? And has it been considered at any public budget or other meeting? Which leads me directly to the financial considerations, three financial implications. The SFCs model is significantly more fiscally responsible and has been so for just shy of 40 years. Have these calculations been presented in your budget presentations as an alternative plan to meet existing and future mental health needs?

044My ask: I respectfully ask that you work within the framework of the existing partnership, honor the process and model that has served our community and more importantly, our kids and their families for almost 40 years in a fiscally prudent fashion while providing necessary mental health services. I'm almost done. I asked that these additional social workers, our kids need work within the existing format and infrastructure of the youth services program via Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Services. Unintended consequences, number five. I leave you with one final consideration. While we cannot predict the future, were that we could. We all know that once you pull a thread, a significant thread such as this certain things are bound to unravel. Thank you very much. Thank you, Deb. Good evening, good evening. My name is John Leslie, I live at

04543 Green Acres Avenue, and I've been a resident of Scarsdale for over 29 years. And I am an empty nester since 2002. In order to be transparent, I am also on the board of the Scarsdale Family Counseling Services. I am however speaking as a long term taxpayer in this community. I know that the COVID environment and other reasons have led to increased mental health issues and the resulting need for increased resources. I therefore suggest that the SFCS is in the unique position, working with the schools and the village to address those needs. Your proposal to create a social worker organization at the high school and middle school is expensive. And in my humble opinion, not the right way to go. We have an existing infrastructure already set up, almost 40 years old that provides for

046counseling as needed for the high school, the middle school and the community through the youth services program. As you should know, it is a partnership with the schools, the village and Scarsdale Family Counseling. SFCS agrees that more resources are presently needed to address the growing mental health issues in our schools and community. And I also believe that the village concurs or will concur with that assessment. However, the schools, you, while acknowledging that more resources are necessary, have decided to ignore the partnership and go out on your own to provide for this. You are setting up an unnecessary infrastructure at a much higher expense than what would occur within this partnership. If the partnership is not able to provide the services, then by all means let's do it. However, this partnership is quite capable of doing

047it at a reduced cost to the taxpayers, which is me and many of us here. And within an already established infrastructure. I know that SFCS can do the job because it has done the job. It was just several months ago that both the Scarsdale Inquirer and Scarsdale 10583 wrote very positive articles about Scarsdale Family Counseling Services. The counselors that are used by SFCs are well trained and have all the credentials to deal with all mandated services required by the State Department of Education. And these requirements would be met by any addition to staff that would be necessary to address the president mental health issues. The members of SSFCS that are assigned to the Youth Services Project are well trained, highly motivated and properly credentialed. While there would be an increased cost to all the partners

048to do this, the increase would be significantly less than the cost creating the new infrastructure that you propose. So to summarize, as a taxpayer who desires to get the most for his tax dollar, I think increasing our mental health resources within our schools and communities is much better addressed through an expansion of our existing infrastructure; the school, the village, and the Scarsdale Family Counseling Services partnership than through the creation of a new very expensive infrastructure that your school administration is proposing. Thank you very much, John. So we will now move to our remote participants. Do we have one? (speaking faintly) Okay, so with no additional hands raised, we will move to item five. I'm sorry, item five, follow up to public comment. If we wish to follow up now or would you prefer to follow

049up at the later public comment? Okay, all right, so any other comments? Okay, so we will close the follow up right now and we will move to item six, the personnel report. That's true. Thank you, I just thought it would be appropriate to add a little context to what Dr. Hagerman shared in his opening regarding our searches for vacancies, just to update the community. We are running 21 searches at the present moment across all aspects of teaching and learning K through 12, those include two senior technology leadership positions due to the coming retirements of two of our colleagues here, in the room tonight. I would encourage people if they haven't or if they haven't in a while to read the preamble to the personnel certified consent agenda item, it's the same preamble in each board

050agenda, but it does provide context to our process, how we recruit, the process we run to select our candidates and fill our vacancies. We were unlikely to have our first appointment from among those vacancies at our next board meeting. And it'll continue throughout the spring as the searches reach a conclusion. So I just wanted to provide that update. That's great, thanks so much, Drew. So now we will move to items seven, our consent agenda. The board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in an effort to achieve greater efficiency at board meetings. The consent agenda condenses some of the routine business of the Board of Education into a single motion. Items are selected when the officers of the board and superintendent believe there is no controversy regarding them. Any member of the

051board who feels any item on a consent agenda requires discussion prior to action may remove that item from the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to do that? So then we will move to item eight, the consent agenda, which will be led by Carl. Okay, thank you. There are 10 to 11 items on the consent agenda and they are as follows, which I'll be moving for approval at the conclusion of my listing. Minutes from the March 7th budget study session, minutes from the March 9th special meeting, minutes from the March 16th special meeting, personnel certified report, personnel non-certified report, memorandum of agreement, a resolution in public notice for public hearing on the budget, board meeting calendar, tax certiorari settlement, second tax certiorari settlement. And I move that we accept the consent agenda with the items I've

052just enumerated. Is there a second? Okay, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Now we'll move to item nine: Discussion items and the education report. Great, thank you. As I mentioned earlier in my opening comments, tonight's education report will be on multi-tiered system of support, formally known as RTI, and that'll be followed by a brief update on the strategic plan. In advance of that I would like to thank Edgar and his team for putting together tonight's presentation. I know it will be a very insightful and eye opening for folks. So with that, thank you very much, Edgar. And I'll turn the floor over to you. Thank you, Thomas. Good evening, and welcome to tonight's education report. This education report will focus mainly on the evolution of our systems and structures to support student

053learners within their classrooms and schools. Formerly referred to as RTI or response to intervention. And now referred to as the more inclusive term, MTSS or multi-tiered systems of support. You'll remember that Eric Rauschenbach presented an overview and updates on the special education program. MTSS does not reside in the special education realm it is a general education structure available to all students. I will also give an update on strategic plan goals centered on global learning, sustainability and provide some exciting examples of student-centered learning. Finally, I will provide an update on recent work and diversity equity and inclusion. Before we begin, I wanna define MTSS. We in education love our acronyms. The term MTSS refers to the systems and structures that are used to identify students in need of additional support, collaboratively determine, and match research based

054strategies for support, monitor progress in response to those strategies and document the need for additional or different interventions. MTSS has a broader scope than the former term, RTI. RTI focuses on the academic needs of students. MTSS is farther reaching in that it encompasses the social, emotional and behavioral needs of students. This wider definition is important and reflects a more holistic approach to student support, and certainly the current needs of many of our students. The purpose for our focus in this area grew from an identified need expressed by educators, administrators, and service providers to streamline, clarify, and make the process to provide support to all students more cohesive. As some may remember, we began with a tri-state consortium audit of RTI with a focus on reading. After a three day consultancy in which they learned about

055our structures and community, reviewed our internal documents and interviewed relevant stakeholders. Tri-state's recommendations included consistency and documentation, processes, common training for the child study teams and the assured sharing and distribution of research based interventions, strategies and resources to support the range of students in our classrooms. To help guide this work, we began working with nationally recognized consultant and leading expert and RTI MTSS Jim Wright. Last summer, we launched a three day workshop training with members of our elementary administration and child study teams that set us on a pathway of discovery and improvement. During this school year, we've been working on the development of a tool to collect and record the most relevant, focused, and meaningful data in a way that is streamlined and sustainable for classroom teacher. Jim Wright's suggestions informed its development. Across the

056five elementary schools, we have versions of data collection forms that are being evaluated. Over the summer, we will involve a representative group of educators to make determinations based on collected feedback of the essential and most effective elements to include in our District form. Recently, the elementary administrative team met with Jim Wright to coordinate the scope and parameters of the MTSS adaptions. Further summer subcommittee work with CST and teacher representation will reach beyond the development of a common form and make determinations about consistent assessments and metrics and the curation of shared and accessible research based resources for classroom teachers. Already new strategies have been distributed through the MTSS meetings and at faculty meetings. Here is just an example of a recently shared multisensory tool to help students struggling with spelling. I actually pulled this from Ms.

057Feinberg's. I think it was at a faculty meeting that I got this from. She's in the room. I don't wanna embarrass you, but wanna just give credit. This is a part of a curated and growing list of resources available for teachers to target, remediate and support students within the classroom. As we plan for the next 18 months, we look forward to additional training and tailored support from Jim Wright. In the fall, we will roll out a newly designed multi-tiered support form with the essential elements informed by this year's explorations and iterations. We will continue to receive feedback and input from classroom teachers on the effectiveness and usability of the process, and collect data on the number of students who show measurable improvement within the classroom due to our efforts. One thing to note about this

058presentation, our District testing coordinator and data learning specialist, Mitch Crasson, introduced me to the font that I am using for this presentation. It's called Lexend, and it was designed to be easier for eyes to track. And research has demonstrated that using it has helped certain students with reading, retention of information and overall comprehension. I am open to feedback from the Board of Education and community on whether this translates well to education reports. I now have the pleasure of giving some updates on our strategic plan goals. These two photographs are just teases for upcoming reports. One shows technology teachers, Paul Tamazawa, and Meredith Dutra, presenting to a group of our educators on media literacy. The importance of this in our age of information cannot be overstated. Evidence of our attention to our goal of using technology

059to transform teaching, learning, and assessment. Jerry will share more at the April Educational Report and explore this goal further. And the other picture shows our students in kindergarten class practicing their readings, what they call their reading superpowers. Our district's youngest learners are applying their phonemic awareness skills and phonics knowledge to decode unknown words. Evidence are our next gen standards in action. In the development of global competencies, there's been an exponential increase in the connections using technology to connect our students with hundreds of international peers. The Envoys Summits are one of the structures we use. Envoys is a global education platform we subscribe to that coordinates international virtual summits that run on Saturday afternoons and enjoy wide participation by our high school students, roughly 100 students at the last count. These summits bring together international experts,

060educators, and students, and explore broad themes and sustainability and social action. The Global Entrepreneurship Channel is in its pilot year. Here's how it works. Students review the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are challenged to find opportunities in their local communities to make an impact around these areas, by observing, interviewing, or immersing themselves in experiences that present a need. Participants will then ideate, test and iterate their solutions to create value for their communities and share their projects with a network of participating schools. I was excited to listen in on a recent planning session in which students were sharing their progress and their struggles with their international friends. As members of GEBG, global education benchmark group, we have the opportunity to participate in international virtual conversations with global partners. Topics include global production and consumption, gender equality

061and climate action. Heather Waters, our global coordinator has been invited to sit on a panel at the next GEBG conference to share with our global partners the strategies she used to successfully and meaningfully engage a wide range of our students in the virtual spaces. Many of our goals are integrated. The Scarsdale Saturday Virtual Summit coming up is a place our strategic plan goals of global citizenship and sustainability are fully entwined. We have speakers, Amir Dossal, founder and CEO of Global Partnerships Forum, and Manjula Dissanayake, founder of Educate Lanka, both internationally resound leaders in sustainability who have made huge impacts through their work. We have three student leaders, local experts, Michelle Sterling, and Ron Schulhof to discuss concerns and social solutions both local and global. The student run Global Exchange Club is helping to run this

062April 30th, Global Saturday Virtual Summit. This year students had a robust Italian virtual exchange in their piecing it together class like the entrepreneurship challenge. There was a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We are working on developing new international school relationships that offer opportunities for students in STEAM, as well as history, art culture, and language. Of note, these are connections we've made through Project Zero at Harvard schools that are recognized for their STEAM programs. We know from experience that our students make real and authentic connections through collaborative problem solving. And will appreciate this opportunity to learn alongside other STEAM leaders in the area. The two schools we're actively exploring partnerships with are the Austin EBS School in Buenos Aires, and the American School in Paris. I'm excited to announce a new event at

063Scarsdale High School, Non Sibi Day, a high school community experience that also connects strategic initiatives. This one also attending to wellness. The Scarsdale High School Social Justice Committee has planned a Non Sibi Day of service for May 27th, that will feature student and faculty-led programming on issues related to human community, animal welfare, and the environment with the aims of increasing awareness and fostering activism and action. Current proposals in partnerships including engagement with many of our in-school service clubs and outside organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Scarsdale League of Women's Voters and Hudson Link. The day seizes to build on the success of Global Citizenship Day by further empowering students, fostering community and interconnectedness, and cultivating a sense of personal purpose and meaning that increases emotional wellbeing. In addition to small class seminars, faculty advisors

064and class leaders will host grade wide shared experience for freshmen, sophomores and junior classes. There is a hope that Non Sibi Day will become an annual event integral to the Scarsdale community in our students high school experiences. As you may imagine, we value student involvement in our sustainability efforts. With the Greenacres gardens, students are involved in everything from flower selection to setting up the garden beds. Through the social entrepreneurship class at the high school, there's an excitement and interest in solutions that are sustainable. Through their classes and clubs, student lead the way in advocacy, innovation and active participation. We in fact, have several students who will be joining us at our next District-wide sustainability committee meeting to present. The art teachers across the districts are getting into the act as well. We have arranged for

065sustainability experts and educators from Shelburn Falls to lead teachers, art teachers with partner educators and K12 to learn about how climate change education can connect to the arts. Here are some pictures of our Greenacres green thumbs in action. We appreciate their patience as we replace their temporarily displaced gardens from the earlier construction. And I did just get some pictures from today from Kaleidoscope that shows that the mulch has arrived and it has now been put into the beds. Student-centered learning opportunities have grown. This year, we have discussed the new linear algebra classes at high school, and the 50 plus elementary educators partnering with the Center for Professional Education of Teachers, also known as CPET through the STI to develop student-centered learning modules. Evidence of student choice can be found throughout the District. Here is a

066picture on the left of the middle school wellness morning with students in which teachers and community volunteers led dozens of wellness activities that students could choose from. This captures a particularly messy art project principal Megan Troy was leading. A quote as Megan was scraping dried glittery slime off the floor, "The custodians are going to get me for this one." Next to that is a picture capturing students sharing their Rub Goldberg engineering projects in Vivian Roberts, fifth grade classroom. Principal Style and I had an opportunity to hear students discuss the failures and successes both live and through their creatively filmed and narrated videos. Student-centered topics were an abundance in the March 14th Pi Day celebration across six high school periods. Some of the workshop talks included construction and the golden rectangle, graph theory, game theory, stats

067and sports and modular arithmetic and data encryption, all exciting, relevant applied math workshops that brought abstract concepts real and meaningful. The crowds of students packing the chairs of the little theater is what one might call a telling detail of this slide and of our students. Go and thank you to our high school math educators, and yes, actual pie was served it's right there in the lower the bottom. I'm pleased as well to give you some updates in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. The leadership training continues with our consultant, Dr. Derek Gay. Here are some pictures from his in-person training with the administrative team. On the 9th of March, he completed his third consultancy with building level leaders. The most recent with elementary administrators. He has scheduled to ship in April, and a full

068administrative consultancy in May. I will provide more details about his upcoming work after our next planning session. In addition to engaging materials and texts with multiple perspectives, teachers have been using creative ways to celebrate student's identity. Much of this professional learning has been done through professional sharing, the structure of STI courses, stacks and collaboration with librarians and technology teachers. Here are two examples of young learners using technology to celebrate their unique identities. On the right, a student is using an iPad to record a tour of a family diorama in clay. And some identity mapping is featured on the right, I'm sorry, on the left. I will provide further updates at our next educational report in April, but thought I would end with Mason, from Ms. Chaney's first grade class, talking off his identity map and

069sharing some of the ways that he is special. Hello, my name is Mason, and today I will tell you all about what makes me special. This is my family and my favorite school is Fox Meadow. And this is my iPad. This is me and I am Chinese and American. And this is my mom, and this is halo. And I celebrate Halloween. This is me talking Chinese in my gray circle road. This is is me, and this is my iPad. This is also me and my favorite foods are sushi, seaweed and pizza. I flew to China before, when I was one years old and four years old. And I like to play basketball with my dad. And my favorite teacher is Miss Toni, and my birthday is December 27th. And this is my birthday cake. And

070I do have to say there were about 22 of them that were equally delightful and I wanted to play all of them, but I just thought, I'd give you a little taste. My name is. This is the Greenacres groundhog that has been placed in the new gardens. I think it was in another place before, it was near front of the building. And I'm happy for any questions that anyone might have. I have, the comment just said, I thought, first of all, thank you for doing the presentation. The presentations in general that all of you do I know come on top of making sure that what's in the presentation is happening throughout the District. So this is an added bonus for us. I thought though, you made kind of a joke and I'm always one for

071a joke, so don't get me wrong. But about the font and the type of font. And I thought that was so interesting, 'cause number one, it never occurred to me, but I also thought it really showed that here you have somebody doing the computer work, et cetera, who is not a only doing the technological work, but is attuned to the connection between that work and what our kids are seeing. And I thought that was a really interesting point. And I think that's really something we see a lot where everybody in the school; teacher support, et cetera, are so focused on what the kids are getting out of everything that's happening, down to the way the letters are drawn. So that was really appreciated. And I'm actually gonna try and use that in my own work.

072So maybe some of the people that are reading what I present gets overtaken by them. And to be fair that I believe the research was done for reading off the page. And this might be our little action research here to see if this has actually been helpful for the presentation. Yeah, and I imagine there'll be opportunities to print things for the kids and it's just when they do it, having that thought of that this is something that could help. And it's such a minor thing, 'cause you can print in any. These days changing fonts, you don't have to change the wheel on the typewriter like we used to so. And it was new information to me. And I think one of the things I wanted to get across is that we're looking at just wide

073sharing just to make sure that everything that is the most effective strategy is something that's transparent, available and that we're always discussing it. Thank you. Thanks. Edgar, I have a question and I'm not sure if it is more for you or for Eric, who I know it's not here tonight, so feel free to defer. It's more for him, but we had an education report about special ed and this is about MTSS. I think it'd just be helpful if you could talk a little bit about the linkage between MTSS, IEP, 504 I think that may be helpful. There are more initials, yeah. But I think that may be helpful community to understand how these things link these two presentations sort of link together. Yeah, Ron, that's actually a really great question because one of the purposes

074of MTSS is to make sure that we are using the resources that we can push into the classroom to support students and do our due diligence in a sense, before it becomes a 504 or a special education designation. That we are using all the tools in the toolbox and that there's a structure in place that's helpful, usable, sustainable for teachers. So that really is the connection. We don't want it to be a something that teachers just do or push through to get to special education services that the process itself is something that's gonna help the students in the classroom. And is that something that a student may experience for math versus reading or at a time of their education versus something that becomes a mandated services where that service tells you how long it's gonna

075take. That's another good question. So it is something that can be very specific and very targeted. In fact, part of the process that we're engaged in right now is to make sure in looking at the forms that it's giving specific information and that we're recording it so it can be centered, not just on math, but computational fluency or numeracy or fractions or whatever it is. It's something that we can address using the most targeted strategies that we have. And it is something that there's a cycle. So part of it is we do this, we try this for a finite amount of time, six to eight weeks, and then we check back to see if it's actually something that's working, put the strategies at the teacher and then leave them. It's something that's cycled back to

076make sure that the student is making progress. Thank you. Can I ask something related to that? So when does this, my understanding of this, maybe if I have this right, every teacher fills out a form on every student? No. No, Actually this is if a teacher is finding a student that is not responding to the classroom interventions and they're not making progress and they come to a team or a subset of the team to have a discussion, and there's a protocol where they come together and share strategies and they work with the team to match the strategy to the students. So it is only used for those students who are not making progress within the expected range. I see, so and then if there's no progress being made, then there's a child study team put

077together that looks more closely at the child, is that? Well, the way that we have the structure now is we have teachers filling out the form and then sending it to the child study team for them to look at. I see. And then meeting and having a discussion with the child study team, setting up some strategies to try matching the teacher with the resources and then setting up a time to meet back again and check in on the progress. And so my understanding is the RTI is more academic focus. So does this then extend it to the gym teacher as well if the gym teacher is seeing some sort of motor planning or other things, is that also incorporated? It's absolutely open to any of the educators in the building to use. And it is

078something that it does not just need to relate to academic areas. Got it, okay. Areas of behavior. Okay, I understand. And then I just had to comment how wonderful it was to see how many different opportunities there are for students to be engaged in all these different programs and initiatives. So I just thought that was great. And when you talked about finding personal purpose and meaning, and also personal identity, I think these are all just really wonderful things that we're bringing to our students. So thank you for reporting and showing us more of that. I would love to celebrate the work that the teachers are doing. And I will flee click that's what he's doing. I'm a Greenacres person. So your Greenacres groundhog is. That was what I believe the teacher, instead of clapping, he

079had the students flea click. Oh really, I thought it was an like it was an okay. I think it's a click. Is it a click? Yeah, a flea click. Yeah, and that the groundhog is dedicated to that particular teacher. Yes, I knew it was an honor of a beloved teacher. So I'm doing that for you, Edgar. Thank you so much. Actually have a question. Edgar, can I ask you a little bit about the strategic plan? Thank you for including that in your update. You touched on sustainability and you mentioned the Greenacres garden, and you mentioned another program. I think it was at the high school and sort of the climate and change in arts. But I was wondering if you could share a little bit more what they're doing in other elementary schools for sustainability

080besides Greenacres. Well, that's a great question. I focused on Greenacres because Greenacres was a school that was without a physical garden for a year. All the other elementary schools have gardens and not only do they have gardens, but they their students engage with the garden through curriculum that is co-written by Kaleidoscope and also the classroom teachers. So woven in that, and in the next gen science standards are the concepts and the big ideas around the cross-cutting concepts around sustainability. So it is something that isn't just about the organic gardening, but it's actually about getting their hands into it and having these real experiential learning opportunities while connecting it with the curriculum that they're working on. Thank you. I had a couple of quick questions. I really enjoyed seeing all the different things that our students

081are engaging in. So thank you for that presentation. And I really did appreciate that I could also see even above my glasses, I was able to read that font on the smaller screen, which was like a great test, but I had a couple questions on the global learning segment. You mentioned that more language partnerships are being formed. I just wanted to understand currently are all of these sessions that are being done with the school in Argentina and the school in France going to be in English as a base, or will they be in other languages? How is it working? Well, those particular partnerships are schools in which they're gonna be at American School in Paris, it is English based. And the school in Buenos Aires is also English, but I also believe that I need

082more details about it. We're still reaching out to figure out that partnership. Lisa Yokana and Heather Waters are working on that, but that would be largely an international experience with an emphasis on STEAM. Right, 'cause I think it's great if kids personally can get the vocabulary, the STEAM vocabulary in the foreign language. The idea is to be able to do both, to get like a twofer in these global programs. And there are programs that do that. So I was just curious about whether that was sort of an end goal or something we had considered. Then I had a quick question on sustainability that may actually almost range more into the Stuart sustainability bucket than the Edgar sustainability bucket. Okay, I'm happy to share. But I love the gardening programs at the elementary school, at the

083middle school, at the high school. It's fantastic the Greenacres now has a garden. I know that prior to the pandemic, we were composting at many of the schools and some of those programs have been curtailed or eliminated. Is there an effort to bring that back or to bring it back? And is there a timeline for doing that? For bringing back that part of the sustainability curriculum where kindergartners to be compost crusaders and. There is no particular timeline on that. That is something that I might even defer to a resident expert who's very much engaged in that initiative, Ron, to talk about discussions that he's had at various levels. He's. Sure, I would just say doing food scrap recycling and compositing in the schools under COVID mitigation with a lot of packaging is very difficult. I

084think the ideal time would be the start of next year, when we're fully back to hot lunch and not cold sandwiches and not individually packaged things because we wanna set everybody up for success. And just right now will be I think very difficult with all those other mitigations. Okay. And we are planning on that. So all of our food service bid items that you'll be seeing here in the next month and a half or so we'll be compostable products as part of our bid process. Perfect. And then on the custodial side of things, same thing we're getting ready to go for next year. Okay, that fits well. I just wanted to understand how those two parts pick together. And obviously COVID had put a damper on a very successful previously existing program. And then in

085terms of Non Sibi Day, that's gonna be happening at the high school where that's the motto. Is there a plan to have a day like that at the lower grades as well, or just at the secondary school this time? Well, Non Sibi is a District motto, so we all own it, what? I always thought of it as the high school model. Oh really? I believe it's a District. It's the whole District because it says in front of Karen's podium, so there we go. If I needed more proof that you're right. But yes, go ahead, Edgar, Sorry. There are different structures at the elementary schools and this also Human Rights Day, which is very At the middle school. Much about that as well. And the big ideas around Non Sibi. Global Citizenship Day was something that

086they have as well. This is one that they're really looking at the concept of Non Sibi and relying on faculty and community partner expertise and student leadership to lead this work. So it is the first year. I'm very excited about it and look forward to sharing. Sounds really good, thank you. Okay, thank you very much, Edgar. Really appreciate your time on that. As we move on to the next section of the discussion items, which is 9.02, we have proposed new textbooks. And again, I'm gonna ask Edgar to share those with the board and community, please. I would be happy to. The first one is it's really a digital update to something that was basically had before that they found successful, but they have found a product and an update that would work better for them,

087and all the privacy rules and everything have been all vetted so it is good to go. I do have two books that I'm excited to share, "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," and "The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learnings from The Lord of the Rings." And of course, I was very excited to get these, but I was also very interested in reaching out to the teachers of the AT international relations course who are proposing them to ask how they were going to be used, which is always the most fascinating part. And so I'm gonna read the response to it, which I was very happy to get. "The International Relations of Middle Earth" is a textbook written by Abigail Ruane and Patrick James, for an introductory national relations course at the University of

088Southern California. Students new to international relations often find the study of international relations theory complex. The book uses the story of the Lord of the Rings to address major themes of human agency versus determinism, causes of war, levels of analysis and other theories of international relations, such as feminist theory, as a way of making issues accessible to students. The text conveys that concerns, goals and understandings of problems and insecurities are influenced although not determined by context, such as gender, race, class, sexuality, and post colonial position. Like the use of the other texts they're recommending, "World War Z", "The International Relations of Middle Earth" is another source aimed at using popular culture to gain an understanding of challenging political science theories interpret their political environments. Their proposed plan for "World War Z" is to use it

089as a grounding text for the course, the book structure independent yet interconnected vignettes allows it to be easily segmented so that different international relations topics can be hind sighted and more fully developed while providing the benefits of having a common text experience from which to start. For example, the text can be used to discuss foundational concepts that are already central to the course such as power, sovereignty, transnational issues, terrorism, climate change, pandemics, et cetera, refugees, misinformation, disinformation, the Global North and South, the legacies of imperialism. While focusing on zombies might on the surface seem like trivializing the content, the teachers were originally introduced to the idea through a blog post on Brown University's website, entitled "Reading global international relations through fiction" that highlighted some key potential applications of the text study. Since finding that post,

090they've done more investigating and discovered that many others have and exploring this lens in a way to engage undergraduate students in a study of international relation theory and application. After reading both, the professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and diplomacy of Tuft University, the book "Theories of International Politics and Zombies" and Max Brooks, "World War Z," they decided that using the fictional text would not only be more engaging, but also provide opportunities to connect beyond just the introductory units on theories. So very creative ways of using texts in a thoughtful and engaging way. So I happily recommend that these be included in their course. Thanks, are there any questions? Okay, thank you. That brings us to the last item under discussion, which is 9.03 entitled succession, which is very much under

091the board purview. So I will turn back over to Karen, for a discussion on that. So just as a review, the board had reached consensus to appoint an interim superintendent for the 2022, 2023 school year, and identify a professional search firm to conduct a national search for permanent superintendent. The board, we set forth a criteria on priorities for an interim candidate and reached out to the school community and the broader community to ask for feedback on the criteria and priorities that we had set forth. And we received 108 responses, which both affirmed and added to our criteria and priorities. I encourage you to watch our March 7th meeting for summary of that feedback if you we're not here for that meeting. As a reminder, the board will not discuss the vetting of candidates or search

092firms at the board table. Due to their confidential nature, these conversations are reserved for executive session. We will however, continue to provide updates and discuss process related decisions. So the community knows we are currently vetting interim candidates and we are making very good progress. We've also identified potential search firms and we are working on the RFP right now. And I don't know if Bob or Ron or Jessica wanna add anything in addition on the RFP work. If not that that's where we are right now. So we'll tell the community know we are making very good progress. And I, again, I wanted to thank my fellow board members for all the additional time that they're putting into this to push us forward in this work and to do this work well. So thank you. Okay, now

093we'll move to item 10, action items. 10.01, Jessica. Sorry, I turned the microphone on and then off by mistake. Okay, so we recommend that the board accept the following proposed textbooks proposed at the previous meeting. They are "Weather" by Jenny Offill, for 11th grade English. And "Decodables Packaging of Readers for Kindergarten and First Grade." Is there a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Item 10.02, Bob. Sure, the bid for the high school auditorium phase two a, bid number 2021-22-15 A was advertised in Journal News on February 17th, 2022, in the Scarsdale Inquirer on February 18th, 2022, it was also advertised on Rev Plans, which is a capital bid solicitation website. There were a total of six vendors that requested bid specifications and the District received bids from

094four vendors. Bids were opened on March 3rd, 2022. Based on the review of submitted bids, it is recommended to award the base bid and alternate number one, which is 25 additional fixtures and cables, and alternate number two, which are eight additional fixtures contract to Sebring Technology Inc. The lowest responsible bidder at a total cost of $339,551, which is under the allocated construction budget for this project by approximately $25,000. Work will be completed this upcoming summer. Second. Okay, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes. Item 11, gift proposal to the high school, Ron. Thanks Karen. This is a gift as part of the 2022 Regeneron Science Talent Search School Award in the amount of $2,000 presented to the high school. And I would just like to further note that the school

095receives this because for a student that is named as a scholar from the Regeneron Science Talent Search and Scarsdale's winner was Armaan Ahmed. First, congratulations and thank you for securing this award and gift for the school. I move that the gift be accepted with thanks as presented. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Now we'll move to item 12, questions or response, I'm sorry. Hearing from those present. At this time, again, members of the public are invited to speak on District related items or other non personal items. Is there anyone from the audience who wishes to speak? If so, could you please state your name, address. and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization, as a reminder, we ask you to conclude your remarks within four minutes and

096you'll be given a cue at the three minute mark. Thank you, Joey Silver Fine, Five Oak Way. I'm here on behalf of the school PTA executive committee and the PTC. As the board continues to analyze the proposed budget as outlined in the 2022-23 budget booklet, we would like to reiterate our strong support for the two full-time mental health professionals at Scarsdale High School. As we noted in our last statement, the pandemic has significantly and negatively affected the wellbeing of our high school students and faculty. Health experts have identified an alarming, increased instance of mental health disorders in our youth in particular, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Parents in our community are concerned about the mental health resources prior to the pandemic, as concerns are only heightened now. We strongly encourage the

097board of ed to maintain appropriate resources for the high school to address the increased demand on our mental health professionals. We consider it a top priority to create a budget allocating adequate resources to address both the immediate needs of students struggling with mental health and to enable the delivery of school worldwide programs and services aimed at fostering growth and resilience for the future. We believe these goals are best achieved with two full-time District mental health professionals who will work closely with our administration, the current District mental health employees and the youth outreach workers to help support our students. And the PTC wanted me to let you know that they express their support for the mental health FTE's in the District. And they'll be addressing it more fully in the statement next week as well. Meg's

098on her way, but didn't get here in time. Thank you, Joey. Good evening, everyone. Leah Dembitzer, 354 Mamaroneck Road. I'm president of the Scarsdale Middle School PTA. And I'm here speaking on behalf of the Middle School PTA executive committee and budget study chairs. The Scarsdale Middle School PTA executive committee and budget study chair strongly support the increase in staffing related to mental health support at Scarsdale Middle School, as requested by principal Troy, at the January 10th Board of Education meeting. These needs include staffing for an emotional support program, as well as an in-house social worker. Please note the trend of increasing mental health needs predates the pandemic. However, the pandemic has been a catalyst for these requests. Principal Troy has requested an in-house social worker as a result of the significant rise in students currently

099struggling with mental health issues at the Middle School, through the addition of a social worker to the Middle School staff, the Middle School will be able to foster a greater degree of familiarity, continuity and a consistent touch point for families and students due to the increase in mandated counseling and the significant growing mental health needs. Current social workers do not have the time to focus on proactive, preventative work. Rather they are addressing students in crisis. The impact of living through an ongoing pandemic upon our student community is immense. Our Middle School students require more mental health staff, time, and support than is currently available to them. The Middle School EC and budget study chairs strongly support an additional school based social worker in addition to the current support of Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Service in

100order to meet the mental health needs of students before they enter crisis mode. Thank you for your time and consideration. And we beseech you to contemplate the very real and immense mental health needs at Scarsdale Middle School in your budget process. Thank you very much, Leah. No one else? So now we will return to our remote participants. Okay, so we will close this public comment period and move if there's any follow up public comment again, we thank all the speakers tonight for coming here to give us your feedback and share your comments with us. So thank you very much for taking that time. Wrap up items. Do you have any? No. No, okay. So we'll turn to Amber, meeting dates for the coming months. On Wednesday, March 23rd, the board will hold a special meeting

101executive session at 6:00 PM in this room, 170-172 at the high school. On Monday, March 28th, the board will hold a budget forum at 6:00 PM, in this room 170-172 at the high school. On Wednesday, March 30th, the board will hold a special meeting executive session at 6:00 PM in this room, 170-172 at high school. On Monday, April 4th, there will be a meeting with the designated group at 5:00 PM in the learning comments at the high school. The board will adopt the budget at 6:30 PM at one, in room 170-172 at the high school. There will be a business meeting immediately following in this room, an executive session if needed. On Tuesday, April 19th, there will be a special meeting. The Southern Westchester BOCES vote at 9:00 AM in this room, 170-172 at the

102high school. And on Monday, April 25th, there will be a special meeting or executive session at 5:30 PM in this room, 170-172 at the high school, and an education report and business meeting immediately following. Okay, thank you very much, Amber. At this time, I'd like to have a motion to adjourn this business meeting. I'm sorry, this Board of Education meeting and move the board into executive session. And can we move into. Discuss. Is that Okay? The board will move into executive session in Grande. So moved. Seconded. I second. Jessica. I'm sorry (speaking faintly) You didn't finish. Carl moved it, you seconded. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Okay, so thank you all very much. Have a nice evening.