BOE Business Meeting 2021-10-18

001(tranquil music) Hello, welcome and good evening 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. Earlier this evening, the board met with the village board, the village manager, and certain village staff. We affirm that our goal this year is to foster even stronger communication and collaboration between the village and district. Both boards provided high level overviews of their current structures, processes and plans for the year. The collaborative work already done to improve traffic and safety around the schools was recognized. Areas for potential exploration and collaboration, such as cell service, pool facility and field improvements were also discussed. Thank you to the representatives of the village for taking the time to

002meet with members of the board of education, Dr. Hagerman and the cabinet. Since policy review is an important part of the board of education's work. Policy subcommittees have been formed to complete the review and revision of the 1000 and 2000 tranches. The 1000 series subcommittee will consist of Amber Yusif, Bob Klein, and Jim Dugan. The 2000 series subcommittee will consist of Carl Finger, Jessica Resnick-Ault, and myself. The board policy subcommittee on remote public participation is scheduled to meet again on October 29th. We encourage members of the public to watch the recording of our first meeting on September 24th, which has been found and posted on the board policy review page, and to please email us any comments or questions to [email protected]. We thank you in advance for your feedback. One of the commitments the board

003made as part of Policy 0105 is to engage in professional development on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. The board will meet for the first time this Saturday, October 23rd, with Dr. Hagerman and Dr. Macintosh to begin our work in this regard. Over the summer, board members read Dolly Chugh's book, "The Person You Mean to Be", and we will use Chugh's text as a springboard for our conversations. This evening, the board looks forward to hearing a comprehensive education report in addition to updates on the strategic plan and district DEI work. As a board, we create policy with the intention of supporting the mission and vision of the Scarsdale Schools. These reports inform and educate us about how this vision is operationalized and brought to life on behalf of all of our students. Finally, I would

004like to share a firsthand account of seeing some DEI work in action at a recent STI Policy Board meeting that I attended. "Ms. Nee led the group of Scarsdale and Edgemont educators through an exercise from facing history on ourselves. The activity included sitting in small groups and making identity charts, which were then shared and discussed as potential classroom tools for helping students understand their own identities and draw connections to others, including fictional characters and historical leaders. We also watched a video clip of 'The Bear That Wasn't' and contemplated questions such as, 'What do you do if you see yourself in a certain way and society doesn't? How does needing to be part of a group affect our actions? How do attitudes affect our thinking?' I found the meeting both thought provoking and inspiring. It was

005also exciting to learn that this and other significant work is cataloged in a comprehensive STI project database that teachers are encouraged to access and use. That meeting and tonight's reports are important reminders of how much professional development and planning are done by our teachers and how work happens behind the scenes in support of teaching and learning by our administrators and staff members, all with the intent to provide our students with the best educational experiences and outcomes." Dr. Hagerman. (mic rustling) Thank you, Karen. Good evening and welcome. As Karen said, we really appreciate everyone joining us here either in person, and little shout out to a bunch of our students who are here today, so thank you for coming and joining us here at this board meeting. And also to folks who are adults and staff

006members who are in the audience, as well as those who are streaming from their own homes. We appreciate everyone's interest in some of our most significant work. Tonight is the first education report meeting of the year. As a reminder, education reports are provided on alternating months when there are two board meetings. The first meeting in this month is traditionally our business meeting, and the second one is dedicated to specific issues around teaching and learning. Tonight's special presentation is entitled, "Start of the K-12 school year". In past years, we've also included strategic plan updates at these meetings and we will continue to do this moving forward. This year, we'll also be adding regular DEI updates to these meeting agendas as well, as Karen indicated. In other news, I would like to note that today is the

007beginning of School Board Recognition Week, which extends from October 18th through the 22nd. The New York School Boards Association sponsors this week as a way of recognizing school board members for their commitment to New York public school children. School Board Recognition Week is an opportunity to raise awareness and understanding around the crucial role that board members play within their respective school communities. Scarsdale school board members take on one of the most important citizen volunteer responsibilities; providing governance for the education of the community's youth. School boards are composed of volunteers who do not receive any compensation for their service, and yet they selflessly dedicate considerable time to improving public education. School board members nation or, excuse me, statewide, collectively oversee more than 2.35 million K-12 students and a 76.5 billion in budgeted spending locally here in

008Scarsdale. Our school board members provide governance-level leadership for nearly 4,800 students and allocate resources through $167 million budget. With our community's children as their primary focus, school board members also create a shared vision, set the direction of the school district for high levels of performance in all areas, monitor student growth and achievement, evaluated and approve the annual budget and present it to the community, align district resources to our goals, and support a healthy school district culture in which to learn and work. While common in purpose, each of our board members brings a unique perspective and skill set to this work. They also have and continue to be effective partners in our work towards continuous improvement. They also serve as key communicators on district priorities, goals and operation. I ask that everyone in our community join

009me in recognizing and thanking our board of education members for their many contributions and efforts. (all applauding) And this was not a part of my script, but I had some late breaking news from Niche Magazine that actually ranked Scarsdale the eighth best school district in the nation today, and we were the only one on the Westchester, only the school district in Westchester to make the list. Overall, we earned an A+. The Niche touted the district's 13:1 student-teacher ratio, with student showing 90% proficiency in standardized testing. It was also rated number one as the best place to teach in New York and had the top ranked districts with the best teachers. So we will be celebrating more of that and sharing that out with the community a little bit later, but just wanted to let you

010know that that was late breaking news today. And with that, I will turn it back to you, Karen. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, do any board members have opening reports? Amber? (mic rustling) Thanks, Karen. As the PTC liaison, I would like to share with you details about their upcoming programming. On Tuesday, November 9th at 7:15 pm, high school assistant principal, Dr. Chris Griffin will present the results of the Pride Survey. Since 2014, the Pride Survey has been administered every few years to our high school students, with the goal of helping our school measure student alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use through the use of student surveys. Immediately following that presentation, the PTC, along with the high school and middle school PTA's, will host a joint program on resilience in children with

011Dr. Ken Ginsburg. Dr. Ginsburg is a well-respected leader in the field of adolescent medicine. And in this 90 minute program, he will share practical approaches that parents, professionals and communities can use to build child and teen resilience. The event will be held virtually. The PTC welcomes attendees and encourages everyone to look for details in their upcoming e-blasts or local media. Thank you. Just briefly, as a follow-up to the last meeting where we discussed the New York State School Board Association proposed resolution and bylaw amendments, that meeting began earlier tonight, so I attended the portion that I was able to as delegate until this meeting started, and the results of those will likely be available on their website shortly. Again, these are proposed bylaw amendments and resolutions that NYSSBA will take up in their advocacy efforts

012on behalf of school districts around New York State. Thank you. Any other board members? Reports? Okay. Thank you very much. Now we will move to item four, personnel report. Thank you. Nothing tonight. Nothing tonight. Okay. Thank you, Drew. Okay. (laughs) So then we will move to item five, hearing from those present. At this time, members of the community are invited to speak on agenda items and non-personnel related matters. When you come to the microphone, please state your name and address, and if you represent an organization. As a reminder, please limit your remarks to three minutes. Thank you. Hi, my name is Tracy Tan, and I live at 56 Harvest Dr. First I want to express my personal gratitude for all the volunteers here, particularly PTA board members. I know you guys have a real powerful

013community. And secondly, I want to bring up two issues here for your attention. The first one is the student's access of the Zoom or webinar. At home where they're at home for medical reason, for example they are sick, I'm actually very surprised to find out that our school right now doesn't provide any remote access to the classroom for the students at all. The reason I found out because I have a ninth grader, Harry, who was sick last week. He couldn't go to school for it because he had cold. The school told us we had to have a PCR test, and I didn't realize that was actually not rapid test. So, when we asked them, we actually went to a doctor, and our doctor did the test and told us he couldn't go to school because

014it took three days to get a PCR test result. So even though on Thursday, he was actually 90% recover, so he still couldn't go to school. He actually emailed a teacher and none of them provided any access at all. So, I actually feel very frustrated. I brought this issue up to the board and also to the Facebook group for the parents, and a lot of parents echo my concern as well. Especially right now, after one and a half year we had this remote access for the students, we just simply practically shutted up. So we think we shouldn't because our school actually always big in technology, and this is the technology for us. We can use since they already proved that we could use in the past year and a half. So, I know that Dr.

015Hagerman actually email me stating that, said, "As long as they having school in Scarsdale, students have always been off illness for various lengths of time, and they have worked with the teacher to make a mass instruction and work". So he said, "This practice have been in place for a very long time". I do not think this is the answer we want to hear during this COVID time, particularly after we have this technology to prove. And believe me, I think we should have the webinar access, particularly for high school students. My ninth grader is only ninth grader. I cannot imagine those students who are like sophomore, junior or senior. If they are forced to stay at home for one or two weeks for medical reason, particularly right now, I think part of the reason that our

016COVID testing rate is so low, a lot of parents are afraid because they feel, if they find out this reason, they're forced to stay home. What can they do for the student, for sophomore or for senior? (bell rings) So that's- Sorry. (laughs) So it's done? Yes. Yes, if you could- Sorry, I have another one. Now, second question for the board is that, I just heard there's no university hockey for the winter sport? I literally just heard this morning from a ninth grader. In the past practice, we always have a varsity team and junior varsity hockey, and my son has been at the Scarsdale youth hockey in the past eight years. And this year he's 16U. These 16U are designed for the preseason. That means, when we have the school sport, the youth hockey is off.

017So right now a lot of parents actually not aware of this, so we actually never heard of it. And a couple of weeks ago, we're supposed to have a meeting for the parents. It was canceled. I didn't know about this until my son told me. He see a email from the coach. So we will like the board, and also Dr. Hagerman to look into it because a lot of- I'm sorry, you're at the three minute limit. If you could kindly wrap up your comments. We'd appreciate that. Thank you. So we just like all of you to consider looking to this winter hockey junior varsity sports issue because a lot of parents are very surprised to find out this problem. Thank you very much. (people speaking faintly) (paper rustling) Hi, my name is Hiran Israel, and

018I live at 64 Stratton Rd. Scarsdale elementary schools have eliminated snack times for our youngest learners from kindergarten through third grade. Currently, children have 15 minutes to eat over a six and a half hour school day. It's generally universal belief that snack times during elementary school are an essential break, critical to nutrition, growth development, and even concentration. In fact, the Scarsdale school district thought enough of these facts that we've had snacks in our elementary schools for as long as I've lived here. I reached out to some people this past week and this is a list I've gathered of local districts that currently do have snack time in their elementary schools. Ardsley, Bedford, Brewster, Briarcliff, Bronxville. Byram Hills, Chappaqua, Darien, Dobbs Ferry, East Chester, Greenburgh, Greenwich Country Day, Harrison, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Kids Base Little School, Lakeland,

019Leffell, Mahopac, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, New York City, North Salem, Pelham, Pleasantville, Port Chester, Rye, Reinach, Somers, Tarrytown, Tuckahoe, Valhalla, White Plains, Windward, Yonkers, Yorktown. Many of these districts share the same medical advisor, Dr. Louis Corsaro, and he has not stopped snack breaks in any of those other schools. Conversely, this is a list of local school districts that have eliminated snack time. Glenbrook, which we know is closed recently to unsafe conditions. Edgemont, Scarsdale. Our inclusion on the second list rather than the first list is reminiscent of last spring, when 27 local cheerleading teams were able to compete under the same regulations that Scarsdale quoted as, "Not possible for our team to compete under". How can snack time be unsafe and how can there be no way to handle this if all the other schools have figured

020it out? Parents have been told by Eric Rauschenbach that the district will re-examine the elimination of snack after Thanksgiving; that six weeks from now. One-third of this year's school days will be over before any change can possibly be implemented, even if it is implemented. One-third of the year for our youngest students without a snack break. So I have a few questions for you guys to address after our public comment. One, I don't think any of you have any kindergarten through third grade children in our public schools, but if you do, I'm curious, what what have experienced from the elimination of snack? Two, why specifically have we eliminated snack? And if it's a logistical issue, why it's unsolvable? Three, if it's not a logistical issue, has our district's pedagogical opinion on the necessity of snack changed

021and will this be our new belief going forward? And fourth, last, what will change in the next six weeks that make it crucial to weight, to consider changes? Thank you very much. Any other members of the audience wish to speak? If not, then we will open public comment to our remote participants. (laughs) (people speaking faintly) Oh. Are there people? Yeah, there's two. Okay. Okay. I think this is Myra, so I promote. Do you read- Right, yeah so, for those who are commenting remotely, if you could please completely mute your live stream voice, this will cause an echo if you do not turn down your volume. Please turn on your camera so we can see you. And please unmute yourself, we will let you know if we cannot hear you. (woman speaks faintly) I have to

022turn off my speaker too, sorry. I guess this applies to me too. (laughs) (woman speaks faintly) I'm sending her a message right now. (talks quietly) (object rustling) Her video is disabled. I'm sending her a message right now. Hi. Are you able to hear me? Yes. (mic rustling) Okay. (voice distorting) It sounds like you're able to hear me? Yes. (people speaking faintly) Great, thank you. Good evening. Myra Kurkendahl Rodriguez. This evening, I'm speaking in my capacity as PTC budget study co-chair together with Laurel New. I wanted to let you all know that we have kind volunteers for each school who will be working with our PTA presidents, principals, assistant vice-principals to be gathering their list of needs in each of the schools. Also, I wanted to inquire if it's possible today, or in a subsequent board

023meeting, whether Mr. Madi will be updating us on the meetings that have already transpired, October 13th and October 19th meeting with cabinet and elementary school principals and secondary school principals, to start having discussions about staffing requests on programmatic budget drivers. I wanted to know if that's something that you'll be updating us on so that we can do our analysis as you conduct your meetings so that we can be better prepared to analyze and to upline on the budget. Many thanks. Thank you, Myra. (voice distorting) There's one more. Marshall Kitain. Gonna promote to panelists. Thank you. There we go. Ask to unmute. Marshall. (voice distorting) Can you please turn your camera on? Thank you very much. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Thank you. Terrific. Thank you. Marshall Kitain, 11 Butler Rd. I wanted to call

024in tonight to discuss quarantines and how quarantine policies may potentially be changed as more students become vaccinated, hopefully in the weeks to come. I think the board has done a terrific job minimizing quarantines, but when they do happen, they're terribly disruptive, right? And to that end, I like to ask the board, if there can be circumstances under which it makes sense to revise quarantine procedures for a student who has had at least one dose of the vaccine. And, keep in mind that in many countries including in the UK, the standard dosage for minors is a single mRNA shot. So, while clearly that's not where the US is headed, I think it's still worth asking the question as to whether a student who has had exposure, but is symptom free and has had one shot can

025come to school or at least test in and with a negative test and one vaccine dose still come to school safely and with the appropriate balancing of risks and rewards. And, I raise this question now understanding that hopefully by the time the next board meeting exists, some of the younger students will have started getting vaccinated and would love to see at least the question raised as to whether or not a single dose combined with some kind of test in option, or just being symptom free, could be sufficient for these young students to avoid, prolong and, disrupt the quarantines. Thank you very much. (woman speaks faintly) Okay. (people speaking faintly) Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay, at this time, I'd like to close public comment and we will move to item six, the consent agenda. The preamble

026for the consent agenda, "The board may conduct some of its business using a consent agenda in order 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. Items are selected for the consent agenda when officers of the board and the superintendent believe there is no controversy regarding them. If any member of the board feels that any item on a 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." So now we will move to item seven, consent agenda. Jessica, please. Yes. The consent agenda today has six items. First off is 7.01, the minutes of the business meeting on Monday, October 4th, then 7.02 pertaining to

027certified personnel, 7.03, non-certified personnel, 7.04, claims audit, 7.05, stipulations of settlement, and finally 7.06, the acceptance of the consent agenda. I move that the board would accept the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? I believe in additional item was added to the consent agenda. (pen clicks) Oh. Right. So, 7.06. And there's a typo on that. It should be Madeiros. Yeah. It should be Madeiros. Mm hmm. I apologize. I think that was added after. Okay. Thank you, Ron for. And I don't have my glasses on to do that, so thank you, Ron. (laughs) So I'm gonna add 7.06 Madeiros versus Scarsdale public schools. And then 7.07, accepting the consent agenda. So let's make a motion again. Right. Sorry. So, the consent agenda now has seven items. And with the items as

028listed on the screens, I move that the board accept the consent agenda as presented in the (talks quietly). Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the consent agenda is approved. Now I'm gonna move to item eight, information items. Discussion and education report led by Thomas. Thanks, as indicated in the opening comments. I'm gonna have Jerry transition his computer over here. As indicated in opening comments, we're gonna have two, and these will be shorter reports tonight, but there is a little bit of catching up to do on both of these items because we haven't talked about them in public in awhile. So, never before have I done two computers simultaneously. So please bear with me as I kind of work through this. We're gonna start with the strategic plan update, and I'm going

029to have partners up here at the table walk through very high-level goals. I wanna spend a couple of minutes just talking about where do you find the strategic plan, it's been awhile since we've been talking about it. Talk about a little bit of the format changes that we've made to it, and then we're gonna go through, quickly, the high level progress reports on goals that have had progress since the last one. So is this screen on here? (object clicks) So this is under the superintendent. So when you're looking for it, you'll go into the superintendent tab and then the very top list of this is the 2019 through 24. If you click up at the very top, this is the high level plan. And then you can see on this page all the goals, the

030subgoals, the strategic pillars that they fall into, and then who sort of owns or who's responsible for these. So this is a very useful chart just to get a 20,000 foot look at the strategic plan and what we're doing. What I'm gonna call our attention to is this little maroon link up here in the corner, right-hand corner, under gold templates, and that will take you to a Google site. And this is really where all of the action of these goals lie. And one of the things that we talked about was making sure that there was an accountability piece related to this. And so the last time you probably saw this, if you've looked at it before, these had dates that were indicated back over a year ago in which we provided the last formal updates.

031There's certainly been work that has been going on since then, but we haven't, again, made it a public priority in terms of reporting out because we were focused on other matters. But tonight we're gonna come back, we have 13 main goals over here. Again, we're gonna provide just very high level report outs on these areas, but I want you to know that this is where you'll be able to find our progress moving forward. It's looking at these. And specifically, there was a January, 2020, which was the last report out. And now the updates that we're gonna be talking about is just October 2021 update. And anyone can access this information, who has a computer, it goes to our webpage. So we encourage you, if you're interested in this, to go and actually look at all

032this information and sort of refresh your memory on this work because this is going to be sort of our guiding principles moving forward again. And with that, our first goal is balanced literacy, creating the foundation of learning, and I'm gonna ask Edgar to review the progress on the high-level on those areas. Sure, so I'm just gonna zero in on a number one in the October, 2021. The elementary schools continue to pilot and implement phonics and word study programs, K2 and three, five. In addition, vertical and horizontal cohesion has been created through a collaborative approach to mapping assured literacy experiences. Thank you, Edgar. We will move on to the next area. That's too big. (both chattering quietly) Okay, perfect. So the next broad area is curricular and co-curricular approaches to health, wellness, and wellbeing, and this

033is a shared responsibility, really, And Ray's gonna come up and talk to us about progress on this goal. Thank you, Thomas. Right now, we're kind of in a reset mode since COVID, but overt examples of wellness have been identified across the district, and we're in the process of operationalizing the definition of wellness. We had a meeting on September 23rd with the PTC wellness committee to brainstorm how to best do that and having an inclusive definition prior to expanding on it. And then we reset the dates for our benchmarks and our goal setting. Great, thank you very much. Moving down to the next goal, we have gardens and biomechanical innovation. I'm gonna ask Edgar to talk to us about that. Sure. We'll go back to one, assuring experiences across grade levels with coordinated curriculum, with the

034exception of Greenacres, which is in process, they have their gardens being built since the renovation. All the elementary schools and middle school have coordinating a garden use and curricular connections through outside partnerships. The high school garden is used through clubs and individual classroom engagement. Thank you very much. Our next goal is around global citizenship and education. This has a lot of different tentacles as we have global for all initiatives at our high school and a strong emphasis at our middle school as well. One of the things that I wanted to speak to on this one is that, the high school and district administrators have met to discuss how and under what conditions international travel might resume, and this has been a big priority for us in terms of performance, language, acquisitions, home stays, and service

035learning. And so we wanna get back to those opportunities and we're figuring out again how we can navigate that safely this year. And with that, I will move it over to the next area, which are libraries, learning spaces and curated resources, and I'll hand that back to Edgar. Okay. I'm going to go to section two for the October where, it's to help teachers and students make effective use of libraries and librarians to support research projects and student presentations. And I am happy to report that we continue with this goal focusing on the role of librarians and also considering multiple perspectives and the work in DEI. Moving on to the next goal. Again, some of these are things that we are very aspirational and there are some things that we have to do being a public

036school in New York, and one of those is the next generation standards, development and implementation. Edgar, can you talk to us a little bit more about that? Yeah, I'd like to actually just focus in on one of them for now, and it's because I just left a few elementary school classrooms where they were so excited about their science lessons. But for the October, the fourth grade has adopted the Next Gen Science Standards alliance Smithsonian curriculum tool, and the fifth grade is piloting it currently as the Next Gen Standards continue to roll up our curriculum. Thank you; again, all of these have much more context to them and much more information. So we do encourage folks to go back and to look at these when you have an opportunity to dig in a little more deeply.

037In the meantime, we're gonna move on to our next goal, which is professional culture of lifelong learning. And, Drew, did you have a goal in there? Yeah. Really, what we wanna highlight in this area today is our upcoming kickoff of some DEI professional development with Dr. Derrick Gay; that'll happen on our November 2nd Superintendent's Conference Day. And one of the things we're particularly excited about for that day is the inclusion of our teacher aids and that professional development along with teachers, both in the Keynote and in some group work that's gonna be done to process and make sense of that work shortly thereafter. So we're excited about that. So DEI has been just an essential part of our work for a long time, but we're very excited about this, sort of, next wave of having

038both students engage in this learning as well as the adults. We're starting to round out our list here. We're gonna talk about set 2.0, STEAM and Design Thinking. And actually we don't have any updates on that right now, so that's a good point to say that there will be times when we come back for reviews on this that we won't necessarily have substantive updates. We wanna make sure that these are meaningful and that we're not just adding information on these items. And so again, you can expect over time that we'll be covering all of these, but not necessarily at every meeting. Our next category is student centered opportunities and environments, and it looks like we have an update in this item. We do. I'm happy to report that the LATIC model continues to expand into

039middle and high school classrooms. The summer SPARK class with CPED professional development provided elementary teachers additional opportunities to expand their repertoire, and there are plans to bring them back for an STI course this year. Our next area, which Eric does a great job overseeing, are student supports. Thank you, Thomas. I wanna focus on two of the goals. One is our work on the RTI system or response to intervention and providing students with pre-referral services. This summer, we had a three-day training with Jim Wright, really to look followed by the development of a steering committee to pick this work back up, and really look at how to streamline our services and provide kids pre-referral with more support. Currently, we're working on cohesion around our referral process, professional development for our CST teams and ultimately, rolling out

040the next step in this work to our teachers. And another major goal in this area is reviewing our continuum of services for special ed. When we left pre-COVID, we were working on adding an eight to one, to two class to Edgewood, that has been done this year. You will hear us talking during the budget season about expanding the K2 program that now exist in Edgewood 235 and moving our Bridge Program up into the middle school. And then we will discuss the need for emotional support program in the middle school. So that's all in the vein of having students serve within our district and expanding our continuum of services. So one of the important aspects of this work is, it does guide not only the way we spend our time and energy, but obviously the financial

041resources that are necessary to support these goals. So Eric, did a good job of projecting, that you'll be expecting to see many of these things show up in a budgetary form as well as providing these types of updates. So thank you, Eric. And then we are looking now at sustainable schools and systems as a goal. And again, there's no particular updates this month to review at this time. And this gets us to our unified system of district-wide goal setting, of which it looks like we have one update here. I believe that's Drew. Yep. Thank you. So we have this month kicked off the second year of goals of a common approach to goal setting among our faculty. So in partnership with the STA, we developed a system that was first implemented last school year. And

042we met in the month of September, an ad hoc committee that's been working on the goal setting process meant to look backwards at last year and make some assessment of how that goal setting process worked, being brand new. We made some adjustments, some adaptations, and we rolled out the start of that process this month. So we're very excited. It's been a productive and really interesting way to share the good work that people are focused on around student learning and professional development. Those are the two key areas. Great, thank you for very much Drew. And then finally, our 13th ambitious goal is around using technology to transform teaching and learning, and assessment. And we have a couple of updates here, and, Jerry, I'm gonna ask you to focus in on some of those highlights. Thank you,

043Thomas. This is a big year for the technology program in terms of our planning process. The community and board members may not know, but every three years we are required by the state to revise and put together a new technology plan. And that's this year, our plan expires at the end of June, and so we have to have a new plan in place before then. The deadline for that plan, just like the deadline for your taxes, is April 15th. So we'll be submitting our plan to our local BOCES to have a review at that time. And then on April 25th, the technology team will be presenting the plan to the board of education and the community. There'll be time for public comment and time for other community comment. And then the final plan has to

044be submitted to the state by June 30th. There actually are two technology plans. There's something called the Technology Plan that comes from the state, which is more of a very lengthy survey. And then there's also the internal technology plan that we use and you ultimately approve as a board of education, which provides us with specific direction for the district in terms of the instructional technology program, administrative technology program and technical services. So it's a big year. You could be hearing a lot of progress related to that. And to that end, we created a website to make our planning process public. So the website is live if you go to the Scarsdale School's technology pledge. Actually, Dr. Hagerman, could I just pop it up? Be my guest. Okay. Oops. So it looks like this is our

045technology planning guide. And if you go there, you can see not just the areas that we're working on, but you could also see the milestones we have planned for the year in terms of our technology planning process. If you are inclined to read about the different resources that are informing our thinking, you can click on the ISTE standards. Also, the consortium for school networking has some technology planning guidance that will be relying upon, et cetera. And then finally, some of the topics that we're gonna be discussing at our meeting. So, we wanna encourage the community to partner with us in the planning process this year as we move forward. And of course there'll be opportunities. I spoke to the PTA about having parents also provide input and students as well as we move forward with

046the plan. Thank you. Great, perfect. Thank you so much. Go back to my tab here. So I realize that's a brief overview, but really intended for us to refocus and begin to think again about this as a primary driver of all of the decisions, all the work that we're involved in this year. For the community who may be new to this work and to couple of new board members, there's a really good archive of the entire process, how we came to this plan as well as a lot of documentation that allows folks to see the work as it's ongoing. So I encourage you, depending on your interest in time, to really spend some time going back over this work. Again, it's the most important work that we're involved with as a school district. And with

047that, I would like to just open up the floor and see if there's any board questions at this point. Yeah, please. Edgar, when you talked about the LATIC model, could you just give a little more information about it? Are all subjects using like, a LATIC model or do some subjects lend themselves more? Some subjects have lent themselves to the LATIC model and, what it actually stands for is, Learner Active Technology Infused. And it was something that was introduced a few years back by Nancy Sulla who shared the model and the philosophy behind it. And so through an STI course, there was a study that I did with a group of teachers and educators, and many of them got very interested in it and it expanded to a discussion about executive functioning and how this might

048help support executive functioning and student choice; and it ties back to student-centered learner, we were very clear. So, it is something that is a model, that within it has many strategies that teachers are employing, but not all the teachers. And in certain departments, science departments, are finding it, at the secondary level, are finding it a very interesting model that's getting their kids to really engage. And, there are other teachers who are also experimenting with it right now. Thank you. So, it's more for older students? (inhales) Well, it's actually not. It's a model that can start at kindergarten. But, it is one that, at this point, there's a lot of interest at the middle and the high school through the secondary. And it does engaged, you know, teachers in discussions about how they can facilitate classroom

049work more and more, and have the students use the technology in front of them to really be curators of their knowledge to build their repertoire. Thank you. Any other questions? I have a question about the gardens. Are the gardens part of the curriculum, K8, but not nine, 12? I'm not sure if I heard that. Well, the gardens are part of the curriculum K5 as they connect to the classroom teachers. They have an opportunity to go into the gardens. They partnered with Kaleidoscope, which is an outside partnership. And at the eighth grade level, it's something in which it's an assured experience because it's something that is done through FACS. And through health, they have cycles in which the students have an opportunity to make those kinds of connections. So, more through a special. There are also

050teachers who engage the garden, bring their classes out around it and engage it in creative ways. Okay. But at the high school level, it's a club or a afterschool? Yes. So some very passionate gardeners, but it is a club. And I was just curious to know, what is involved in vetting a pilot program, you know? How many teachers run a pilot? Like, how does that work when you mentioned that in the, sort of, the science, area science? So in this pile, there are two products that they're looking at. One is science 21, and one is the Smithsonian at the fifth grade level. The fourth grade teachers as a group had determined through looking at the product that they were going to adopt it rather than the next... But the fifth grade, they wanna take a

051look at it and they wanna do some comparisons of it in class before it's rolled back up. It could range. Right now at the math level, we've talked around this table about there being 52 teachers at the elementary level who have volunteered to look over three different products that were the finalists that they came down to. So it's a very in-depth study in which they're gonna come back together and have discussions and make a determination about what's the best one to recommend going forward for the students. Okay. Thank you. Okay, so again, we will bring this back to the board in our second board meeting in December as another education report meeting, and look forward to continue in providing these updates throughout the year. With that, I'm going to segue us into our DEI work.

052So if we kind of find our way back onto the main webpage, one of the easiest ways to find this is just to go to site shortcuts, and you'll see about halfway down there's diversity, equity and inclusion button. And I'm just gonna, sort of, let that hang out there for a few minutes. And for those of you who are watching can kind of preview this a little bit as we're talking. It was mentioned, I think, a little bit earlier that the board created an adopted a new policy, which was a 0105, equity, inclusivity and diversity in education. And basically it put out a charge for us this year to explore five different areas. The first one is to create positive, inclusive learning environments. The second is to ensure broad diversity representation and curricular resources, the

053school environment, and among faculty and staff. The third tenant is to provide professional development on historical injustices and inequalities that have led to institutional educational barriers as a way of eliminating those moving forward. Number four is to utilize curriculum and instruction materials that reflect educational equity. And finally, to establish annual goals and metrics around DEI at each school level. So when folks say, "What are you involved in with DEI?" These are the five charges that have really been put out through this board policy. And so far, we've accomplished these goals by intentionally prioritizing this work through our communications, our meeting structures, through professional development and program planning. Edgar has and continues to bring to the board instructional resources that represent some of the diverse texts and perspectives that are being integrated into units of study

054across the district. Both the administrative team and the board, as it was mentioned earlier, our reading Dolly Chugh's book, "The Person You Mean To Be", and are participating in professional development activities that correlate to their areas of responsibility and decision-making. This ensures equity of access for all students and families to the full array of district programs and services that we offer. And finally, goals have been established at each school level. For this year, which focused on creating, welcoming and affirming environments for our students, staff and families. Two specific examples of this work include our planning around the November 2nd Superintendent's Conference Day. So highlight to this day will include a keynote by our new district consultant, Dr. Derrick Gay, to all of our faculty and staff. So we're very excited about that opportunity. And this

055will be followed by professional dialogue and planning at each of our schools on how to integrate DEI into our ongoing district-wide practices. The other example is the administrative team's work around Dolly Chugh's book. This year, we've set aside specific time each month to discuss this text as a way of deepening our understanding of equity work, creating common vocabulary and context, and examining our roles as school leaders in facilitating this work within our respective areas. Last week, Edgar and I led an in-service training in which we discussed chapters nine and 10 of Dolly's book, and then work through tabletop exercises to address a variety of scenarios that might be encountered in our daily work. This Saturday, the board will also be participating in the half-day workshop, which will follow a similar content and format. And we're

056very excited about the opportunity to sort of dig into this text. Now, I also wanted to use tonight to formally introduce the district's new DEI page, which you can see up here. I wanna get a little smaller Jerry so we can get more of the screen on there. And it can be accessed again, as I mentioned, through the front page, if you go to the site shortcuts. That is probably the quickest way to be able to access it, although you can also find it through other tabs. So just as a quick introduction, I'm gonna keep this fairly short, but basically, starting with diversity, equity, inclusion, we have pop down menus here in terms of working definitions that we're using as a springboard for having conversations in doing district work. We encourage you to look at

057that. We realized that these are not representative of all situations and all people in all facets of teaching and learning, but this will be a work in progress as we move forward. And this is just, again, a starting point for us. So we encourage you to sort of look through those pieces. And then what's interesting about this page is, actually the top bullets across here also reflect the icons that you see below. So it's the very same material, it just depends on your browsing preferences. This is a really rich resource considering we just put this together this summer. It's its own Google site, and so we're able to access it very easily, be able to add new information. And we really designed it to be able to be used by a variety of audiences. We

058wanted it to be very kid-accessible and kid-friendly, but also a resource for parents who wanted to learn more and then a resource for our staff as well who wanted to access information about what's going on. So I'm not gonna go through all of this, but I will say these first. Three categories, if you wanna understand, the groundwork that we have laid are really good ones, the board has adopted a number of policies from gender neutral bathrooms to the Policy 0105 that we just talked about, and many more, to make sure that we're providing equal access again to all aspects of our schooling life. This culturally sustaining responsive framework and goals are the state framework that we adopted in our individual goals at each level. So we have the high goals for our elementary level, for

059our middle school and our high school. Many of the commonalities among those are creating welcoming and affirming environments for all of our students. And we've asked our parents to partner with us in this work as well to make sure that they're doing the same in terms of access for parents to all of the programs that they provide. We are, I should say, in the mention of developing metrics, and we hope that by the next time we bring this to the board more formally, that we will actually have metrics that go along with each of those goals as well. Again, you can really dig in here to our DEI plans for 2021. This goes back and looks at all the different presentations, the setup work that we've done speaks to the board work that's been underway.

060A pretty comprehensive review of the pathway that we follow to get to where we are today. Partners and collaborators are a fun page. As we keep mentioning, Dr. Derrick Gay is our consultant this year; it has a good bio on him. On some of the other pages, they have some YouTube videos so you can sort of get to what he's about. Dr. Bryant Marks is coming back from working at the high school on implicit bias issues, and he'll be coming back and working with staff again in advance of the Superintendent Conference Day. We just had an author visit, we're about to have another one, those are listed up here. And then you can get a sense of who's been here in the past by looking at a little bit of the archive of partners who've

061been involved in this work as well. A couple of other things, we have an update button here that you can go in and again, watch the progress of this work over time. This is a beautiful page. This is reading resources that we have. And, although this crosses all content areas across our district, as we mentioned earlier, Edgar's bringing in some just wonderful texts that really have a wide array of representation. And initially they started with beautiful children's books, but we've been adding more secondary books and texts as well. So it just gives you a good flavor. This also allows parents who might be interested in learning more about what's going on in our classrooms to, sort of, say, "Hey, here are the things that we're looking at, here are the books that your kids are

062reading in classes. Some really fascinating perspectives that are being brought into the classroom through the use of these innovative texts; not only as reading materials, but also as being used in more traditional texts fashion. And it goes on and on, this is clearly not all of the books that we use, it's just meant to be a sample of the kinds of books that we're looking at. And again, also as a resource for kids and families to be able to pick out maybe some reading that they wanna do over their next break or holiday. It's not letting me go back now. I can go to the homepage though. It's set up to have lots of redundancies in it to be able to take care of this very issue. Again, I'm not gonna go through all of

063these pieces. The mental health one, I did wanna call out. Again, we have lots of mental health resources here in Scarsdale. This page is really devoted to mental health resources for different populations of potentially our adult in our student communities. So there's a Black Therapist Network, we have The Center for LGBT youth, Clinicians of Color, Inclusive Therapist, Latinx therapy, and so on. So if people really wanted to find a particular, kind of, resource or somebody they felt most comfortable with, this is a great spot to come and learn about those pieces as well. And, one other thing I would just call out right now is the student clubs and organizations. We have an amazing array of opportunities for our kids to be able to participate. We just had the club fair at the high school

064a couple of days ago and people were milling around and learning about all the ways that they could get involved outside of the traditional academic program or outside of athletics. And there's just a huge array, many, many of them have a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion issues. And there's a little bit of catalog here so that you can actually click on and learn more about these clubs. These were able to be found on various web pages at the high school, the middle school and the elementary schools, but they weren't maybe top of mind, they weren't that easy necessarily to find. So we wanted to put him right in the front, so people can be able to access these and sort of see what we're offering for folks. So a couple of highlights that I

065would say, there's some more archival information that we've had out for a while here as well, but this is something we're adding to every single day. And the way that we're adding to it is, that we just get great advice, people are emailing us saying, "Hey, you should really think about this resource, you should think about this book, you should think about the speaker potentially coming up in the future. And so we're taking all of that feedback and trying to incorporate it as it makes sense with our goals into the webpage. We've got just feedback on the format, the accessibility, we really welcome that from students, from faculty members, from parents; it's only gonna make this a better product the more we hear about the ways that we can make this a better tool for

066you, which is really the purpose of it. And so, I would really encourage folks not to just visit this when we do formal presentations, but really use it as an opportunity to follow our diversity trajectory here in the district and our learning process about it. So again, and I would like to formally acknowledge Michelle, really, who did a lot of work on helping us to design this page. Jerry also was really part of it, Edgar has been instrumental in putting this together. So we've had good partnerships around creating this. And again, a lot of this content is coming out of, really, the terrific work that's happening in our classroom from our teachers as well as the more holistic work that's happening at each school level. So thanks to all of you for that. And then

067one last thing I just wanna say is, in terms of the DEI work, I have to do a big shout out to our parents and particularly to our formal parent leadership and the PTA and PTC, these groups have been integral to our DEI work in the district for a long time, and they continue to support our efforts in clarifying and centralizing our work as we move forward. Their extensive student and adult programming has also supplemented our in-school initiatives and they've engaged our parents in meaningful conversation through their speaker series. We've been meeting throughout the fall to further define our respective roles and responsibilities and to find out more ways to collaborate on shared experiences across our entire school community. So, I just wanna recognize and thank them formally for all these efforts in keeping a

068positive focus, particularly with our parent community. I remember that as we were sort of coalescing around some of this major work last spring, we had a big Zoom, this was before we had groups of people coming together, and I think we had 198 parents who are involved in this work in some way, participate in that Zoom call, which is just tremendous. We see communities around us who are really struggling with the idea of DEI and putting it into practice in schools. We're talking about significant struggles and their school districts aren't necessarily very far away from us. We have an entire community, our kids are engaged around this, we have teachers who've been champions of this work for a really long time, and we also have the support of our parent body, which is really, I

069think, pretty special. Especially right now with this turbulent as there are in terms of political and social issues right now. So, just a big shout out to everyone who's been involved in this work, and we look forward to kind of moving it forward in a really positive way. And with that, I'm sorry, I'm trying to be really respectful of the education report because I know there's so much more good coming. So I don't mean to rush this, but I wanted to provide a good overview of this. And again, really the resources to go back and look at it in a more meaningful way as people have time. But we'd also love to open up the floor to see if there's any board questions. I just wanted to start by saying congrats on the website. It

070looks great, the webpage. To all those who worked on that, Michelle, I think you said, and Jerry, you. The content is very comprehensive, so it's really nice job. Thank you. I do have to say that this is truly a labor of love of Dr. Hagerman's when I noted that he was updating it at 2:00 am, so. (both laughing) Okay. Does anyone have a question? Jessica, I think- I did have, sort of, a question. The webpage is great. It's really, really good to Michelle and Gary and Dr. Hagerman for working on it. It looks terrific. But, the one question I had was, you mentioned some of the work that's being done by, sort of, adjacent groups by the PTC, by the PTA's, would it be appropriate or is it something we've considered to have links to

071those various sites that are starting to emerge at each, not to come up with another thing that could keep you up until two in the morning, but (laughs) would it be appropriate or reasonable to also include links to the PTC and PTA sites for the various schools? Absolutely, particularly to the DEI one specifically. Specifically to the DEI committees at each school. Yeah. You didn't ask this question, but I'm gonna expand on that just for a moment. Which is, we had a huge programming meeting, we have several more that are already scheduled in terms of that, but, part of the importance of these partnerships are talking about the work that we're doing. Our work as a school district is very inward facing. We're looking at kids and their lived experiences and teachers and their lived experiences

072in the district. Our intention is not to transform the entire community, we don't have the resources at the time to be able to do that. And that's really where our parents are coming in and really being able to work more closely with the parent community and the broader community in a way that we can. But I think obviously, all of us working on this kind of work in a similar fashion is really critical. Right, I mean, I guess my idea is to have some links just so that people who are looking- Absolutely, I was just providing more context than you asked for. (laughs) No, I appreciate that. That's fine. I just, yeah. Thank you. Thanks. I have a question about the books. It went by quickly, so I apologize. Does it indicate grade level or

073the level of reading on those books? So if I'm an elementary parent with a first grader, I can see... Are you talking about the book section? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the books that were up there were books that all went through, the beginning ones, the secondary ones were board adopted. Okay. I don't know if we actually have what level they're at. Yeah. We do not right now. Yeah. Okay. That's something as an evolution of this work. We could certainly start to say, "Here's great elementary choices if you're trying to find some books to buy your kids or here's some middle school resources. Absolutely. That's a great suggestion. And just one other question, I'm not sure developmentally how this works, but it seemed that there were, on quick look, there were more like identity based clubs at

074the high school than the middle school. And maybe that's just, you know. Do the children identify the clubs that they want to have? And maybe that's why we don't see the same identity groupings at the middle school level versus the- Yeah. We do have many clubs that have just been traditional clubs at the high school there are things that have, sort of, lived for many years. But more and more we try to create our new clubs particularly, are really centered around children interest, and I would extend that to Ray and Ray's field as well. He's really tried to expand on the activities based on the feedback that we're getting directly from students. So I suspect as we engage in this work and raise awareness around it, we'll be having more and more students wanting to

075think about different aspects of, again, diversity, equity, inclusion that might, you know. We do have limited resources, so the one thing we have to think about is if we bring three things on. We sometimes have to think about what's going off the table as well and having that balance in conversation as well. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I would just add. There are structures in place at all three levels within the school curriculum and extra curriculum for ideas that come from kids to be matched to an adult that will supervise or help them get that off the ground. And some of those eventually become full-fledged clubs and activities. Thank you for that report. (talks quietly) Talk amongst yourselves for a moment. Okay. Sure. You wanna take a five minute? (talks quietly) Oh, is the education report

076gonna be longer than an hour you think? (people speaking faintly) Okay, so it's suggested we maybe take a five minute recess because the education report will be lengthy. Our norms is to try to be practice wellness with each other as well as our school community. So we're gonna take a five minute break and then come back and begin with the education report. Thank you. (objects rustling) (people chattering) (person laughing) Good question. Great. Thank you all again for joining us here tonight, we have moved through items 8.01 and 8.2 of our information items, which were the strategic plan update and the DEI update respectively, and we are very excited now to move into 8.03, which is our education report and it's entitled start of the K-12 school year. I'm gonna turn it over to Edward at

077this point. Thank you. Welcome, and thank you all for attending in person or watching online. Thank you to our wonderful teachers, staff and administrators, Thomas, and the cabinet and board for a fantastic start to the year, and Scarsdale's focus on the whole child. We value the opportunity to talk about our educational priorities in Scarsdale, how we prepared for our students learning this fall, how we assess our students and how we support their connections and sense of community and belonging. Psychologists and educators agree, "We must attend to our students' social, emotional and wellness needs in order for our students to thrive in all other areas." So for this presentation, we'll focus on some key areas related to the start of our school. I'll start with a review of what research is telling us about what structures

078and strategies work best for teachers and students during COVID close downs and the implications for now and our pathway forward. I will then talk about the important process of academic articulation, the incremental development and coordination of learning objectives across the tiers and subject domains; an incredibly important process following a period of modified instruction and curriculum. Afterwards, I'll discuss the elementary and secondary academic benchmarking, how we identify that we are meeting our objectives and are on track, and trends at the secondary level. And then we will turn our attention to the social and emotional needs of our students. And I'll hand the mic over to esteem colleagues, first to Oren Iosepovici, to describe the supports for our high schoolers, and then Meghan Troy, Meghan Lahey and Daniel Boniello to discuss the creative evolutions of the program

079Keystone for our middle-schoolers and an updated sixth grade transition. I'll finish up with a brief overview of the student centered start across the elementary schools. In the area of academics, I want to lead with some positive news by citing an international study that explains some of the successes that we've experienced in Scarsdale. This comes from the meta analysis of noted researcher, John Hattie, who, in a recent report, described three elements that correlated to the best outcomes. Educators led the charge in Scarsdale and from the successful systems across 59 countries in the study. Educators found ways to engage their students to deal with countless logistical and instructional issues and to manage huge workloads. The most successful systems listened to their educational leadership and their teachers nurtured collaboration across different teams to resolve issues and were open

080to conversations about rethinking learning. The best outcomes empowered educators and educational leaders to make the decisions in schools that best met the needs of the students in front of them. And for that, I appreciate the trust this board of education and members of the community put in the cabinet, the administrators and every educator to apply their best thinking, and in the moment, research, to solve the problems and develop the opportunities that were presented. The second. Independent learners and empowered teachers succeeded. One of our strategic plan goals is to continue our focus on student-centered learning. Not surprisingly, for those in virtual and hybrid classrooms, the students most likely to be successful were students with higher independence skills, whereas those most dependent on teachers struggled the most. Classrooms in which there was a gradual release of teacher

081responsibility did the best. That is a major tenant of our balanced literacy and workshop model, and the cornerstone of our constructivist approaches in math and science; and evidenced by student-led discussions and debates. You can hear, again, echoing through the classrooms in the district. Focusing on both content and deep learning was key. A strong shout out to our physical education teachers, art, music, performance teachers, and support experts who created engaging engagement and independence at every turn. Researchers found that those systems that successfully modified and structured their lessons to be more student centered during the pandemic had the best outcomes. These are principles embedded in Scarsdale's learning philosophies and reflected in the professional development and design thinking, project-based learning and principles explored through the learner active, technology-infused classrooms in classrooms and labs in the district. And third,

082in many ways, successes outweighed the losses. Hattie cautions us to beware of doom and gloom reports. Educators have made headway in several areas, not just the obvious in technology. They build better connections with parents in the language of learning and not simply having their child get it right. There was a focus on how students were thinking, teachers engaged in what Hattie called, "triage principles" to discover what students already knew and could do where they were stuck and how to help them determine where to go next. This necessitated clarity about what success looks like. These are principles embedded, again, in Scarsdale's learning philosophies as well. Meaning, an emphasis on student thinking, seeing struggle as desirable, prioritizing next learning steps, focusing on the centrality of each student, collaborative learning and deliberately teaching them skills of self-regulation. Hattie

083noted that equity and access problems that arose in the US and beyond. Scarsdale was well-positioned to support our students; not all communities could, and the gaps between our systems is troubling. And as a nation in a world, this deserves our attention. There are also areas beyond academics and the dispositions of learning that deserve our review and attention, and that is the social-emotional realm, how we are supporting our students best through the transition back to full-time, but mitigated in-person learning. After a review of our preparation and assessment of academic areas, we'll take a look at some of the structures and practices that support our students' needs, and that we have an eye on each student's progress and potential struggles in this area. Articulation across levels concerning skill and content is important. We plan and coordinate cohesion

084of expectations in a variety of ways. A great deal of work was done over the summer to review student progress and coordinate the skills and knowledge at each level under the umbrella of program improvement. Content area chairs and coordinators had an opportunity to meet and articulate across levels. And as an ongoing process, team, grade level, special areas meet regularly as do departments at the secondary level. Importantly, our teachers discuss student progress with other teachers at faculty meetings and school and district committees and in hallways and during breaks all the time. Assessment of student learning happens in a variety of ways through more formal means, through benchmark testing or performance evaluation or more frequent formative assessment tools that drive the instruction and through in-class work. Not surprisingly, we learned a great deal through individual conferring with

085students. Last and actually, this year, very much least, is the New York State tests which made headlines last year when recycled sections were put in front of students sections that had been released and used by some as practice tests, throwing the reliability and any use out the window. It is still embargoed information, so there is nothing for us to share at this point, except that this test will not be used as a determining factor to point to the need for extra student academic support. (inhales) We do benchmarking at the elementary level Star and have used it this year, as in past, to note any anomalies. This chart just notes the percentage of our students who have taken the star assessment, a number in most grades that approaches a hundred percent. On the following two charts,

086we have noted the percentage of our students at third, fourth, and fifth grade who scored in the proficient range for the fall of 2019 pre-pandemic, the fall of 2020, and our most recent fall scores, which we just collected. The first chart shows reading the second shows... The first one, that's reading, and the next one, you can see, shows math. You can note just slight variations with an uptick in all areas just by a percentage point or two. So, trends reported at the middle and the high school level. Essential content and skill development were covered as planned. Missed areas were areas that were anticipated. No real surprises. It was an area students had less opportunities to practice hands-on work or materials that were not required for conceptual understanding or are intended to be delved into with

087depth at a later time. To quote one science teacher, "They don't necessarily have the lab skills they usually do, but they will get the lab schools once they get a chance to practice them. What they came in with were the skills needed to be a scientist." Meaning the ability to pose and solve problems, think critically. A high school math teacher put it well this year saying that, "It's all about flexibility. If a student requires more work in an error, we provide the practice and the opportunities". Technology skills were required, but some of the executive functioning that happened, and that were needed, wasn't practiced to the degree that it was pre-pandemic. So some students are not where they usually are in the ability to collaborate in person or keep organized in three dimensions. Having a digital

088folder can be helpful, but we want our students to be able to move from online to paper with fluency. We discussed the ways we assess our students. Some of the ways are informal, but telling. Meghan, Troy and I were talking the other day about the way the middle school hallways look compared to past years, they're often strewn with paper. We will support our students in regaining these skill through ongoing practice. A major way we can support our students and children in this way is to allow them to try and fail, and practice in this area. These skills, as well as independence, come with both structure of explicit support, but also making sure that we strategically back up and let the struggle happen. And with that, I'm will queue up my colleague, Oren, who will discuss

089structures of support for students in social-emotional learning and how, in ways, we are preparing them for their next steps beyond high school. Thank you, Edgar. Dr. Hagerman, Scarsdale district administration, and the entire board of education. My name is Oren Iosepovici, and I'm the director of the high school counseling department. On behalf of the counseling department, I wanted to express our deepest gratitude for the opportunity to be here this evening and provide some context and insight about our students transition this year as well as our collective work as a department. The work of a counselor is inherently personal. As a department, we take tremendous pride in the work we do to support our students. And if nothing else, the bulk of the past two years have demonstrated how important that work is. As we discovered for

090the good part of the spring of 2020, and the times last year, it was difficult, if not, impossible to replicate in a virtual environment the body language, counseling demeanor, seating arrangement during a meeting and the warmth that only a personal interaction could bring, as well as the relationship building through organic interactions that occur through homeroom, our cafeteria and common areas, hallways, theater, and athletic fields, and other daily activities and chance meetings that help build on relationships and also reinforce the care that we have for our students. Scarsdale High School, at times, has the reputation of having a rigorous academic environment. But beneath that, you will find faculty and staff committed to our central role as educators. And in our case, counselors. That is not to imply that we are perfect, no one is. But I

091am proud to say that I am part of a department of professionals who are enthusiastic about their role in supporting students through every facet of their school experience. It is important to note that following a year of hybrid learning, we are finding students are continuing to adjust to a return to full in-person learning. Time has always been a commodity for our students, and then unexpected outcome of COVID mitigation strategies and restrictions was actually the benefit of time. For a good part of the past 18 months, after school activities were canceled or curtailed, and the unusual schedule that we had last year allowed some of our students to perhaps take a breath from their hectic lives or possibly take on additional academic responsibilities. Our ninth graders in particular did not have the opportunity to experience the

092full dynamics of the high school. Consequently, we are finding some students taking a bit of time to adjust to the reality of the regular school year, having had nearly a year and a half of virtual or hybrid learning. This means they need to balance their academic, extracurricular and personal commitments, some of which they did not have to focus on for some time. Given all of this, our collaborative approach, always present, has been especially important at the outset of the year. As our students transitioned back to what hopefully will continue to be a more typical school year, we are continuing to thoughtfully consider how we can best support them. Most importantly, the deans continue to monitor every aspect of our students' wellbeing. This includes our daily work with students, parents, and colleagues who continue to provide

093us with insight, but also through built-in structures such as the following. As is the case with teenagers across this country, we are noting an increasing number of our own students who are struggling from an emotional perspective. And it is fair to say, it is fair to state, this trend was happening prior to the onset of the pandemic. There are complex societal factors that are contributing to this, including the prevalence of technology in our lives, social media, societal pressures and uncertainty, all leading to increase prevalence of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues; and those we work with are not immune to these regional and national trends. To that end, I would emphasize that our work does not occur in a vacuum. We view our mental health colleagues as an extension of our department and spend

094significant time with them discussing students we may be concerned about, those who might need additional outreach or simply as a means to share thoughts and ideas. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigation measures has had a significant impact on the work of so many, and the counseling department at SHS is no exception. When our district transitioned to remote learning in the spring of 2020, we worked to develop a plan in considering how we can best continue to support our students and families, recognizing that state guidelines would make this work challenging to say the least. We began our planning with these two overarching themes. One, to reduce the risk, to the extent possible for students, staff and parents, while continuing to provide a high level of service. And also, while at school during the hybrid model, we

095aim to focus on our individual work with students across all grade levels. Our large group programs and parent conferences were to be held virtually, allowing us to provide ongoing support to our students and families while reducing risks to the extent possible. As we are slowly moving back towards what feels like, a normal school year, masks not withstanding, we continue to examine our practices especially those that relate to group programs. These are separate from the individual meetings we hold with students on a daily basis, as well as the 50 or so conferences each dean has with his or her seniors and parents, the 50 or so we hold with every junior, the 150 separate scheduling conferences we will have with every ninth through 11th grader, Civ Ed and Freshmen Seminar class meetings, and the countless in-person,

096electronic and phone interactions we have with students, parents, and colleagues, all in the service of our students. Our effort to support students through their personal, social and academic journey at SHS continues. And I'm proud to say that throughout the past year and a half, we have held every one of these programs. Just put slide three and four. The list is significant, and it's predicated on the belief that every student deserves the same level of information that will support their goals and aspirations. As a department, we do our best to be proactive in our approach, recognizing that not every student will reach out to us, and that these programs serve an important function in providing built-in structures to reinforce the individual work we do with students, and to not take for granted information that students would

097benefit from knowing. While all these programs are important, and again, they take over two slides, I would like to take a moment to highlight a few to give a sense of the variety that we offer. Our grade level conversations with the deans programs have been successful with an increase in attendance, largely due to the convenience of being able to attend virtually. While we have always appreciated the organic discussion that occurred in smaller groups, the fact that more parents are able to attend or view the recording later has allowed for more parents to be able to access the information we provide. At each grade level, we have seminars or workshops designed to meet the developmental needs and milestones of that particular year. This ranges from freshman seminar and civic education to address the transition issues of

098our ninth graders to senior workshops, where we hold monthly meetings with students to check in and provide timely information regarding their college application process. Our college process overview for parents of seniors was a program we added last year as a result of mitigation strategies that did not allow visitors into the building. We felt that parents would benefit from a virtual presentation that described the college application process from a logistical perspective. And this program's success led us to institute that this year as well, and most likely, in the years to come. The Gap Year Fair is a unique program for high schools in the region. In fact, students from high schools throughout Westchester County and others have attended this informational event and fare to learn more about gap year opportunities, a trend that we have witnessed

099increased interest in. Finally, our college symposium. Again, this is slide four. Just there. Finally, our college symposium is probably the least public of these events, but speaks to the unique nature of what we try to accomplish as a department. At the end of each year in late June, we host a symposium for college admissions professionals from across the country and invite colleagues from high schools in our surrounding regions. We discuss the year in college admissions through honest conversations that reflect the level of professional respect and collegiality we have established with colleagues all across the admissions world. The insight that is shared is instrumental to our work, and in years past, has led us to reflect on our own practice. Perhaps the greatest compliment has been our colleagues' attempt to replicate this program in their own

100institution or high school, highlighting incredible professional development opportunity this presents. The faculty at SHS has been enthusiastic to return to full in-person learning, and we have always viewed our work as counselors intertwined with theirs as teachers. We rely on our colleagues expertise and support and believe that by serving alongside them, we can enhance communication and collaboration. Aside from our work with students and parents, deans remain engaged by serving on building-wide committees that include the following. Indeed, we view our role in the school as a central one, and rarely is there an issue that does not touch our work. That is why each year, we assign a dean to be part of a monthly academic department meeting, where they're able to provide our unique insight to departmental conversations, bring back those discussions to our department meetings

101and allow us to perhaps provide counsel on decisions that will ultimately ultimately impact the students we work with. Our work is not solely in the building, and given the isolating impact of the pandemic, this is more important than ever. Each year, our deans are actively engaged in several professional development conferences and college visits, and we have recommitted ourselves to that effort. For those of us who closely monitor national trends in college admissions, it is apparent that the past few years have provided some of the most significant changes in that landscape that we have witnessed in our career. Thanks to all your support, we are able to stay abreast of the latest trends, maintain ongoing professional dialogue with colleagues on the other side of the desk, as well as those from high schools near and far,

102and are able to share this knowledge with our students and parents. Historically, we have been engaged professionally with the following, and hope to do so again in the coming months. As we do every year, several deans, myself included, recently attended the national association for College Admissions Counselors Annual Conference, an event that brings together thousands of secondary and post-secondary professionals. The event includes a wide variety of workshops on topics related to college admissions and provides professional networking opportunities that could not be replicated elsewhere. One of the workshops we attended this year is centered on data relating to test optional admissions, a topic that has been at the forefront of college admissions the past couple of years. These have also been invited to serve on college advisory committees, and new opportunities come up regularly. In addition to

103engaging in professional development, some serve a leadership role, and there is little doubt that our ability to take part is instrumental in allowing us to remain engaged with what is happening on the local and national level provides us with the chance to provide insight into Scarsdale High School and our students, and ultimately it's of tremendous benefit to our stakeholders and the high school community. I'm grateful for my colleagues' continued support and effort on behalf of their students and families, and appreciate the support of our district administration and you, the board of education, in providing us with the resources that make all of these possible. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Oren. (all applauding) And now we'll invite up our middle school colleagues, Meghan Troy, Meghan Lahey and Daniel Boniello for a discussion about

104some exciting changes to our sixth grade transition and the introduction of Keystone. Great, thank you, Edgar, and thank you to the board of education and the district cabinet for your support with the work that we do with students each and every day. At the middle school, we've always supported our students during their transitions. Whether it's from the elementary school to the high school or within our building, transitions can be very challenging for developing adolescents. This past year, we recognized that students would be faced with the additional challenge of transitioning back full-time to our building after a year of hybrid, and sometimes remote learning. We have carefully planned for this and implemented numerous support systems for our students. For our sixth grade students, it began with an orientation program before school even started. Sixth grade students

105engaged in the day touring the building, meeting their new teachers and engaging with new classmates. Our counselors and faculty have shared that students were much more at ease on the first day of school. They were able to enter the building confident, that they knew where to go and that they knew some familiar faces. It is definitely a program that we hope to implement going forward. In addition, our teams have planned numerous field trips early in the year to a variety of locations where students are able to engage in team building activities and get to know each other better. These trips have included the Taconic Outdoor Education Center, The Prospector Theater, Boundless Adventures, Outhouse Orchards, and our own in-house Fall Festival. All of these experiences give students the opportunity to practice those important communication skills that

106were not always used in the same way last year. For all of our students, lunch is outside and everyone is eating together as a single grade level. An the past, students ate as an individual house. This larger group gives students to security of having the potential to have at least another friend to connect with even if they're not in the same house. For our sixth grade students, they're able to see that friend from elementary school, which helps in the transition. We also recognize that we want our teams of students to connect at lunch as a smaller group, as a house group. And so the plan is that, sometimes our teams will go together to a separate location as a team and have lunch as a smaller group. It is really this balance and the transition

107between encouraging students to meet new friends while also giving them a sense of connection with familiar faces. And finally, one of our biggest supports for students this year is our advisory program, Keystone, and our morning news program SMS Today. I'm proud and happy to introduce the faculty members who have led this work, Dan Boniello and Meghan Lahey. They have done a tremendous job in making this program happen and making our students feel more connected at SMS. So I'll turn things over to Dan and Meghan. Thank you so much to everyone. It truly is a pleasure to be here tonight with Dan, with Meghan, with everyone. To share just a little bit more about our Keystone advisory program and how it's helping to support students specifically this year, but also moving forward. I think next slide,

108Jerry. Thank you. We wanted to begin with just a little bit of background to give some context. As with many of the signature initiatives here in Scarsdale, the SMS advisory program was built from the ground up with faculty and administrator input. After several years of brainstorming and discussing ideas behind the concept of advisory and how it might fit at the middle school, the first pilot program was launched in Popham 7 in 2015. With the support of a CFI grant, a small group of teachers spent a year researching advisory curricula and visiting local schools. Before, just an initial partnership with a program called, Developmental Designs and all staff went through professional development workshops. Advisory officially launched as the core program, thanks to Meghan for coming up with the initial name in 2018. But unfortunately in just

109its second year due to COVID restrictions, the core program was cut short and was put on pause all of last year. The absence of Advisory during that time combined with the challenges of Zoom classes and cohorting were felt by both students and faculty. And it became clear that having an advisory is an integral part of building connections between students and teachers in helping our middle schoolers grapple with really important SEL topics. So this year, we relaunched Advisory, we've rebranded it as Keystone, with clear goals to help the transition back to a more regular year. So going into this year, we've been trying to adjust the program to address some of the major needs we've seen in our student population, especially after the difficult past two years. We've also adjusted the program based on what's been

110successful in prior years; we've built upon those successes and then we've found ways to rework some of the program based on student and faculty feedback. One of our major focuses was to build in more continuity and consistent touchpoints between students and their advisors. In the past, we were only meeting once a week or even once every other week, with our Keystone groups. This consistency allows for more organic relationship building between the students and teachers and a stronger bond over time. One thing we've grappled with in the middle school given the size of our building, is a disconnect that can form between houses or with the center, which is in a completely different part of the building. We created a daily news show last year during hybrid learning called New SMS as a way to create

111a unifying experience to start off with the school day. On the news, we share a school-wide announcements that are important for all the students and faculty and present special features that celebrate students' accomplishments, fun challenges, and DEI topics. So what exactly is Keystone? So Keystone is our own version of Advisory. So just like a keystone locks together and arch, our advisory locks together the entire school community. Each Keystone group consists of a small group of students, usually between 11 to 13 students with one advisor. Every teacher in the middle school has a Keystone group and start their day together with that advisory. We meet every day from 8:10 to 8:17 to watch the daily news and to connect. And every other Monday, we meet from 8:10 to 8:38 for an extended session. In revisiting the

112schedule and the structure for this year, faculty requested that consistent daily touch points with their students. This is the time to make sure that each child is seen and welcome to the building. The check-ins helped set the tone for the day, the informal connections that are made in these moments not only build trust and strengthen relationships, but these are the moments when an advisor might notice that a student is particularly overwhelmed or stressed and then pass that information along to the larger team and counselor. Keystone is our student's home base and it is a trusted place where they can be themselves and have fun. In addition to those small Keystone group meetings, we're also building connections with the larger school community through some school-wide events that we have planned this year. And right now, we're

113in the midst of our SO and Keystone Halloween House Spirit Contest, so each Keystone group is doing a Halloween Door Decorating Contest, and then the larger house community is collaborating with each other as a spirit contest. Each house was assigned a theme by the SO, they voted for each house. And then each Keystone group is designing their door within that theme, and students are dressing up within that theme in the larger communities. This minimizes the isolation that some students may have felt in past years preparing their Halloween costume, and it also allows everyone in the building to get involved in the celebrations. In November, we have our Human Rights Day, with Meghan is one of our advisers. And along with that, we have a food drive for feeding Westchester. In December, we're doing a Greeting

114Card Project. In February, we're doing a student appreciation week, which we piloted last year. March, we have a March Madness event that we participated in throughout the school. And in April, we have an Earth Day Chalk Showcase that we have planned. So as Dan mentioned earlier, each day begins with SMS Today, our daily news program, which is streamed live from our new studio in the great hall, which we're very excited about. The news began early last spring as an offshoot of several conversations we had with Meghan Troy. She had found an inspirational book, "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse", who would soon become our very good friends. We wanted to find a way to use that book to help unite the school at a time where we were not able to come

115together in our small group advisories. So in March, we launched the news from the tiny back room of the library, with messages from the mole and the boy, and the horse as the anchor for our program. It has now grown into a centerpiece of the middle school; faculty and students look forward to it each morning. Michael Pincus is the other brain child behind the news, and he handles the daily production along with the help of the district technology team. The news is hosted by teachers and students, and even Edgar has made a guest appearance on the news. And by this coming June, over 400 students will have taken a seat under the bright lights of the recording studio. SMS Today feature school news, including announcements and reminders, sports updates. We also use the news program

116to help build community and highlight some of the DEI initiatives; all of this in five minutes. So on your screen, you can see some of the features we've had. Recently. We have everything on here from our daily dish features like, Wacky Wednesday, where students are asked to pick the fake headline out of a roster of three. Name That Tune Tuesday or The Question of the Week. Today's question asks students to give the stage name of Frances Ethel Gumm. Over a hundred students answered already to chime in with a correct answer of former Scarsdale resident, anyone? Judy Garland, I heard it. We had one. (people laughing) Was it Ken? Congratulations, Ken. You get some Skittles tomorrow. (people chattering) (laughs) We have Feel-Good Thursdays, which are an opportunity to feature news stories that have meaningful messages, such

117as DEI related topics. This month, we have been featuring stories that pair with our observance of National Anti-Bullying Month. We also have our web circulating feature, which you can see in the corner where our librarian, Shana Frazin, host a segment about popular books in the library that students should check out. We celebrate the birthdays of the day as another way to build community and to make sure every student is celebrated. This is a change from past practice when students used to selectively decorate lockers, which could be a difficult experience when a student does not have their locker decorated or their birthday acknowledged. Oh, here is a brief clip of some of the news show from last year. You'll see an increase in quality as it goes as we change some of our recording equipment. But

118thank you, Jerry. Good morning, and welcome to Newsville High. (woman whooping) (people laughing) I'm Ms. Holly, formerly assistant principal. And I'm Mrs. Troy, the middle school principal. This is your five minute. Middle school scoop. Which means it's time for the Question of the Week. With each Tuesday, we bring you the latest and greatest TikTok trends. It's wacky Wednesday! Every Wednesday, we're bringing three wacky news headlines. Thursdays can be a bit of a drag, so here's a little good news to lighten the mood and brighten our day. Which means it's time for Funny Friday! The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. Today, we look at this page. We hope you enjoyed the show. Once again, I'm Miss Mister. And I'm Mr. Shana. Have a great day! Have a great day SMS. Have a ducky

119day SMS. Have a great day SMS! Have a great day everybody! (laughs) (people laughing) So, we really do have a lot of fun. And if any of you would like to join to be guest hosts, no pressure, but just shoot us an email and we will get you into the recording studio. So every other Monday, as we said, we have an extended Keystone session, and this allows for some of the deeper conversations about SEL topics. Last year, we forged a Newport partnership with the CharacterStrong Organization, and they're fantastic. They provide social, emotional and character development curriculum. All teachers have access to this curriculum and we've all participated in professional development sessions last spring. As you can see here on the slide, the curriculum is articulated across all three grade levels, and the lessons focus on

120important topics, such as conflict resolution, teamwork, understanding emotions. My group had a lot of fun with that, acting out skits the other day. Handling stress, practicing kindness, setting goals and more. The sixth grade program really focuses on belonging, the seventh grade focuses on well-being, and the eighth grade's focus is on engagement. So we're just taking a look here at a sample daily check-in that a Keystone adviser might run with their group. In this check-in, there are numbers on the page. Behind each number is a set of memes, and the student would be asked to choose one of those memes that best represents how they feel that day or the meme that they feel closest to. And this just allows the teacher to get a very quick fun check-in with the student just to see how

121they might be doing. So we've got our sample student here, Meghan. 12. Okay, so Meghan picks number 12, which is gonna take us to the next slide, in this case. (laughs) So, we've got an assortment of squirrel memes, Meghan, which of the squirrel memes do you feel most associated today? There are many, but I would say number four because my daughter who's in third grade is having intense pressure for me to decorate for Halloween, and I'm feeling a little guilty that I'm behind on the eight-ball there. So, number four would be how I'm feeling. So however our students are feeling each day, they all have a place in Keystone and in our larger school community. And I wanna thank all of our faculty for their commitment to our students in this program. It truly takes

122each and every person to make this a success. And I look forward to sharing more work about the program as the year moves ahead. So, thank you everyone. (people applauding) My middle school wasn't like that. I'm just saying. (laughs) Thank you so much. What I'd like to do now is just move on and just briefly talk about some of the ways that our elementary schools are welcoming back and supporting our elementary school. Families and students in a variety of ways, and I do have to tell you that at the principal and assistant principals meeting that we have, in order to get up from looking at our computers, we actually took out markers and chart paper, and we just wrote down all of the things that we were doing, and here's just some examples of some

123of the work. The more formal social-emotional classes are through a circle of friends, but there are many, many other ways that the students are welcomed in and at the classroom level and at the school level through assemblies, outside often. The students are made to feel a sense of community and a sense of belonging. If you go onto the next slide. Some adaptations outdoors of course, and open houses were virtual this year. We are starting the conversations around social and emotional learning and lessons earlier than past years to meet the needs of our students. And there's a lot of directions and practice that's been worked in about how to keep safe, but also how to move through the building, the classrooms in a way that is both connected to the learning and safe. They also have,

124if you get a chance to visit the schools in the coming months, hopefully, you'll see that there are more and more decorations on the floor that are sensory areas that kids stop. And actually, I've seen them, whole classes of even fifth graders who get down, roll around, jump hopscotch and make their way down the hallways, even some grownups, as a way of getting some of their energy out and just, kind of, a joyful expression. And of course, there are movement and masks breaks that sets this year aside. Learning routines are practiced and some really creative ways of getting students to be able to see each other's faces through this attendance game, and also by putting up a poster with all of their faces on them. We're missing their faces, but they love being in person.

125In fact, when I was going into classrooms and visiting classrooms, the teachers were saying that the students are just thrilled to be back altogether. And there's a great deal of joy in being in-person with each other. And also, when I decided to focus in on the next gen standards in science, it was really inspired by just happening to walk into a series of science lessons where the students were just so hungry and excited to share what they knew, to actually touch the materials and get into it. What you're seeing down there in the lower right is the start of the launch of an engineering lesson where they're going to be designing helmets for eggs. That, at first, were going to be hard boiled eggs, but then the teachers got together and decided, "You know what?

126Let's raise the stakes and make them raw eggs." So if the helmet doesn't work, then we get the splat of an actual egg. So, we do note that our students are really excited to have those tactile experiences at the elementary school, and we're happy to be able to provide them more regularly. And finally, this is something that's done every year, but part of the ritual coming back is the celebration of students and the celebration of who they are and how they belong to the group and to the school. Lots of rituals and routines. And on the left, you're gonna see the development of something that was new this year. And at kindergarten classroom, this is her identity map that she did with the students where they talked about different things that were true about themselves

127and about their families to notice what was special about them, what was different and how we celebrate those differences. And that grew out of some summer work that this teacher did in exploring identity mapping with early childhood. And it's something that she has shared with colleagues, and is looking forward to sharing with more. So we're very excited about that. And then finally, I'm just gonna talk a little bit about coming attractions because this is something that relates to all levels. But at the elementary level, the way that we're attending to the important social-emotional needs is something that we're looking at very carefully through a structure of formerly called, RTI, but now referred to as MTSS, Multi-Tiered Level of Support. That being the new word for it because it is something that is more inclusive of

128the social and emotional and executive functioning needs that students have rather than response to intervention, which was much more focused on academic needs. So we're excited to be doing that work now. We have a tri-states review based on it where we're gonna come together and talk about the work that we've done in complete partnership with Eric here in the zone of student support, but also student centered attention on the way that we support individual students. So, that will be coming up and I look forward to sharing that with all of you in an upcoming educational report. And with that, a huge, just a very huge, sincere thank you to everybody here. Those were amazing (people applauding) and wonderful presentations. And now, I think we can all perhaps take questions. Or numbers of questions. I have

129one, just a very simple question for the SMS team. Keystone is all three years, correct? So, do the group stay together with the same advisor all three years or is it rotated mix and match each year? (people chattering) (people laughing) So every year, they're with a different advisor in their grade level. So as of this year, we've made it so that every advisor has students that they are actually teaching at some point during the school year. Whereas in past years, we hadn't been able to kind of figure out the logistics of that. So every year, they're with a different advisor, different group. But as of now, they're with an advisor that they have as a teacher at some point that year. So the groups or the groups of kids also change? The groups of kids

130also shift just to allow also for some shifting that needs to happen and all of those things. Yeah, when we did some of the research, I mean, a more traditional advisory model at the upper school at the high school level is that, you stay with your same group of students and your same advisor all the way through. But as we did some research and looked at local programs too, it's more common at the middle school level to have that changing. The kids are changing so much in middle school their friendships, their relationships, and so we've chosen to go with that model. But in the spring for the eighth grade, 'cause as they're transitioning to high school, we are hoping to give them opportunities for the Keystone groups to mix and possibly do more of like,

131wellness workshops where they could choose a workshop with a different advisor and a different group of students so that they get that chance to mix, cross house. And can you just help us understand. Actually, I'm not sure if this is for the two of you for the high school team. But following a student, so they come through middle school and they had this daily touch point and then one day every week, they get a more in-depth touch point. So for those three years, they have a great structure there, sort of, a trusted advisor. And then how does that then translate? They hit ninth grade, they're in a new building, can you just sorta help us understand that linkage of, they've had that for three years, and then what does that look like? I think one

132of the high school people will talk you into that. Okay, thanks. (people laughing) So, in terms of the transition piece, each spring, we articulate with the house counselors, so the deans meet with the house counselors to talk about their incoming students, to talk about any specific needs that those students might have. And then in ninth grade, we have two transition programs: Freshmen seminar, and civic education; that includes a dean and english and social studies teacher who work collaboratively together to help those students transition, especially through that first year. And also to highlight one of the programs we talked about, I talked about earlier, which is our Seminar Programs each year, and this is pretty unique in terms of what's available in high schools across this region, across this country to have a touch point every

133year, whether it's freshman year, sophomore year. We have a sophomore seminar centering on career, personal exploration. Junior year, we have a junior seminar where we talk to students about, really, the college process. Senior year, We have a whole array of programs, including senior workshops. So every year we have these established touch points where we make sure it's not just about the students that are gonna come out and reach out to us, but it's really about supporting all our students, even those who may be a little bit reticent to reach out. Thank you. And just last question on this. Is there a process for all the information and knowledge that the faculty advisors know in middle school about the students, and they really get to know them, it sounds like, for that knowledge to get transferred

134to the advisors in ninth grade, so that they're coming in with what they might pick for how they're feeling on those days and things like that. Sure, so as I mentioned before, we have that articulation piece. So not so much with the Keystone advisers, I guess, but we have articulation between the house counselors and the high school deans. We also have articulation between the middle school psychologists and the high school psychologists. So there's a lot of conversations that are going on between the high school and the middle school to be able to have a sense of our students as they come into the building that makes sure that we are helping those students transition. And to also recognize that those students who need immediate touch points and assistance are able to get that very early

135in the year. So, absolutely. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Yes. Oh, sure. (laughs) I'll stand up. Thanks. Thank you for your presentation. That was great. One comment you made was, I think it was about the students that were ninth graders, I believe, last year in sort of the transition adjustment for them in terms of workload and balancing extracurriculars, and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that. But I was also wondering if, other grades, you were seeing that for other students or if it was really mostly just those kids? Well, I think I was making a general statement, not just about our ninth graders, but really, students as a whole. You know, we've talked for years about the sense of giving students more time and, it was a difficult

13618 months for students, it's been a difficult time, obviously. It's not easy, you know, those last few months of junior year to be virtual and then to have virtual, hybrid environment last year. But, an unexpected sort of outcome or an unexpected consequence of COVID, students actually had a little bit more time. The activities sports were not happening on a regular basis. The afterschool activities, many of them were canceled last year. So, our students are incredibly, sort of, active. They're always searching for opportunities just to be involved and to stay engaged. And a small result of that is, sort of, the benefit; the loss of time that they have and the increased pressure because of that loss of time, how am I gonna get everything done when I have all these different responsibilities? So actually the

137past year, year and a half, has presented them with a little bit more time. In the high school last year, we had a day, Wednesday, where they were catching up with their asynchronous work. But it gave them the benefit of a little bit more step back from the daily academic experience, a little bit that benefited time. So I think coming back this year, not just for our ninth graders, but also for 10th and 11th who didn't have that experience for a good year, year and a half. There has been a little bit of an adjustment period. So we are finding some students who might've taken on an additional academic class this year, struggling a little bit more. They could do that last year, but, it's a little bit more difficult for them to manage all

138that this year. So those are definitely conversations to all of us; certainly the counseling department in the school are probably having a little bit more of this year than we have maybe in past years. Thank you. You're welcome. (man speaking faintly) I have a question. This is a middle school question. When my kids were in school, there was a program called, CHOICE, and I haven't heard that mentioned, and I was just curious. Is it still a part of the framework of Scarsdale. And just for parents who are maybe looking for their kids to be going into middle school or are in middle school, just to give a little overview of how that might work. Yeah, so the CHOICE program is for seventh and eighth grade students. They would often, at the end of sixth grade,

139they learn about the program. And it's typically for students who maybe want that smaller, sort of, close knit community. It used to be in the building that's right on our campus, and now, they're in the building. We've redesigned those rooms so that the students are in the building. But that's something that our sixth grade students at the end of sixth grade would learn more about. It's a lottery-based system. We typically have more applicants than we have spots. And then students would stay in that program for seventh and eighth grade. And they have three teachers that are really the CHOICE teachers; a humanities teacher, math and science. They also take some elective programming, CHOICE studies. Typically, they're the only ones in our building who go on overnight field trips. Some of those experiences, obviously not as

140of right now, but we still have that program obviously as well. But those students are also part of Keystone as well. They have their own Keystone group. Yeah. Yeah, so that's just an additional moment for them during their day as well. Okay. Thanks. Sure. Sorry, I had a question. Am I speaking out of turn? Where you trying to? I'm sorry, I can't. Everyone's a little blurry tonight. I apologize. I had a middle school question quickly for Mr. Boniello and Ms. Lahey. Both of you. Sorry. (laughs) Or, I don't know which one. So, it sounds like a great program, and I know it's obviously a really large undertaking and a labor of love that has gone into this, and I understand that it's a new or evolving program, but I'm curious how you see it evolving.

141I understand how it came to be in this post-COVID moment, but what purpose can I address or serve like, five years from now or where do you see it going and developing? Sure, I think that it took on a new sense of urgency for this year, for us to really think about, intentionally, how are we gonna structure it this year since our students have slightly different challenges. But as I said in the beginning, this has been something that's been in the works since 2015. One of the things that I love, you know, this is my 22nd year in Scarsdale, is that, these types of initiatives, they really do grow and they grow with the buy-in and the involvement of the faculty. So even just the way that we've restructured it this year, a lot of

142that was based on student and teacher feedback. So, as we look towards five years, 10 years, I think, one, it will become more of a fabric of the middle school. So it'll just be something that students, as you said, they know about the CHOICE program, it's just part of the fabric of the middle school. We continue to look for that feedback from students and teachers. You know, what else can we add to the program? As I said, we're looking to maybe rethink how the eighth grade might look in the spring. But I think it'll continue, hopefully, to meet those same social-emotional needs; they're still gonna be here five, 10 years down the line. If you wanna add anything. Yeah, I think the Keystone program, as Meghan said, really has been around for a while and

143addresses the needs that we always see in middle schoolers that Meghan was saying, it's a transitional stage and they're finding their friend groups, they're finding these different connections, and I think it addresses a lot of those needs from them. And then the news program, I think is just something we've mentioned, just like, different ways to get the information out because in a building like that, especially because we're dealing with kids who won't travel with the information necessarily from one place to another, to get everyone to have that same message. I think that that is also something that, no matter what climate we're in, we're going to see a need for that. So, things might change about it, but I think the heart of it, that we're getting information out, that we're building community and that

144we're addressing the social-emotional needs of the kids is going to be here 5, 10, 50 years from now. Thank you. (mic rustling) (people laughing) (people speaking faintly) Hold on. I'm sorry, I should've asked before you sat down. (people laughing) So I have to say that I attended the middle school PTA's, middle school DEI event for parents, and one of my favorite parts was watching that news show. I thought that was amazing. Just great idea. I guess I was curious to know in terms of inclusion, how students are identified to be on the news show? Do they self-identify? Are they encouraged by? Like, how do you make sure that everyone, maybe some kids are too afraid or too shy to get out there, but should get out there, I don't know. Great question. So we do

145have self-identifying kids who sign up on the new show sign up when we're setting up, about through January at this point overall. But then we've also got students that bring something to the attention of a teacher or that a teacher might notice them talking about something that they're interested in that will bring in, even if they don't wanna be one of the fall hosts of the show, we can bring them in for a guest segment and things like that. So we had a student last year who was involved in a, what was it called? Mott Haven Fridge. Yeah, Mott Haven Fridge who had brought it to their house counselor and said, "This is something I'm involved in, could we bring it to the larger school community". And Edgar, that was the segment you were on

146wasn't it? Didn't you have the Mott Haven Fridge on? (Edgar speaks faintly) (people laughing) It's all a blur. But we do have students that are identified by house counselors and teachers as being involved in these different things that will bring them on, like I said, maybe not even to host the whole segment if they feel maybe a little nervous about that, but to do like a one or two minute guest segment on something that they are passionate about or interested in. And then we've also got students of different religious backgrounds, different beliefs that have identified different holidays that they might wanna feature that we've allowed to. If they don't wanna host then maybe necessarily provide information for us that we could feature on the show. We had students who, for Hispanic Heritage Month, had created

147a bunch of art pieces, so we featured their art pieces on it. So even if they're not necessarily a host too, we can feature their work for their ideas. We've reached out. One of the outreach that we did with our Keystone advisors was to say that this is an opportunity for your whole group to host the news. So if a Keystone adviser, we already had two that did it, maybe one or two of their kids wants to do it and then maybe they're sensing like, "Oh, you know, we think this might be fun", they can bring the whole group down. So last week we had two advisors and they just took turns who was gonna host that week. So there's lots of ways to include lots of students at whatever sort of level of comfortability

148they're at for the news. Thank you. Edgar, thanks for this presentation. It's great. The one piece I feel like I'm still struggling with is the student perspective. We heard a lot from our faculty, we've heard a lot from the administration, but I'm just struggling, speaking in my capacity as a board member, where are the students, how are they feeling right now? And how to get that data, not just anecdotal. I don't mean to put you on the spot this second, but, you know, it's... But if we could think about ways in the near term and throughout the year, I know we've talked about surveys at this table, the pros and cons, but how to get it from the students; what they're feeling about the academics, the mental health piece, all of that? So Ron, I

149do want to address that because, what I hope got across very clearly is that, there is an individual attention and a conversation that happens with every single student. I think at the elementary level, you've got your class, you've got, basically, your advisory group the whole time and lots and lots of opportunities to speak with children about how they're feeling. So I do agree that surveys are not really the way to go with our students as much as... I'd say it's qualitative rather than anecdotal. Meaning that, from Oren's presentation, there is such an attention, and also with the model of mentorship and tutorial, that there is an engagement that has a depth that I think is really powerful. So, as the reports come up from the teachers and through the department chairs and through the counselors

150and through the teachers who are working at Keystone in the advisory, I think that's really powerful data. And I think that kind of qualitative data is what we should be relying on to give us the best information. So. I do hear you as far as. I wish there were more kids faces in the pictures, but you know. For a later presentation, you've thrown the gauntlet down, Ron. (laughs) I was just pushing it a step further, Edgar. I mean, I believe that we gather a ton of quantitative data as well, even using something like the meme exercise. I mean, that is quantitative data, and teachers are very akin to collecting that kind of data every single day in their classes; whether it's grades, whether it's exit slips, whether it's something like surveys about how they feel

151about their assignments, when you have class meetings and talk about norms and how we want to handle certain kinds of issues. I mean, that's full of rich qualitative data, and I think our teachers are pretty used to doing that as a regular part of their practice. And we don't always aggregate all of that and put them into reports and put them in front of the board in the way that, I know that that's part of the question that you're asking, but I just wanna be sure and give the credit to teachers who really process and use data every moment of their teaching day, I think. Yeah, no, I think this is a good discussion. I agree with that. And I don't want my comment come across, I don't think that that's happening in the individual

152classrooms every day. Well, we sit here and we sort of think about these topics at a higher level. And we think about when it comes to budget time, what does that mean about different staffing or different programming? That is the piece that I struggle with, of that building up those pieces, and then in a few months, we're gonna have a discussion about different programs in different aspects and making sure that we have that data because people will ask us to be data-driven and to show that. And so I'm not asking for an answer tonight or anything. When you put it in that context, I get what you're saying. And I think, in the past, when we look at the budget process specifically, we did come with asks of personnel that weren't always supported by data.

153I think that that practice has changed significantly in the last couple of years, both in terms of needs around enrollment kinds of issues in which we can really present clear and compelling data on why we need a section or something like that. But also as we've asked for new positions, very specifically in one of our conversations that Eric shared with us about case load demands, about the demands of student needs, and all that has been on quantitative data. So, we've been working on that and we'll continue, actually, to bring that kind of data to the board in a formalized way to make sure that you feel like you have all the answers that you need. I mean, both you an Eric have been really phenomenal about infusing data into those kinds of pieces and folding

154those into the presentations and the assets Stuart brings to us. So, we're fully committed to that. I think you heard in this presentation of the really outstanding work of counselors reaching out to students, psychologist reaching out to students, teachers reaching out to students, but they will be buttresses in a month or so, maybe a month and a half, with me coming to you with hard numbers on what our counseling caseload's have become. And some of the last 20 months at this point have pushed kids to a place where they do need some extra help from a social-emotional standpoint. We're using consultants to fill that void at this moment, but we will be coming to you with some of that data, really, to look at and say we went from here to here, you know. And

155with some understanding of what is pandemic related versus what is, kind of, a growing trend that Oren talked about, pre-pandemic, because I think that's really an important part of the social-emotional characteristics of children have been changing even pre pandemic; I think this certainly was a catalyst, but certainly not the full cause. Thanks Eric. Are there any other questions at this point? Then I would just like to say, thank you to all of our presenters tonight, again. (people applauding) They have very full days and they're also experts in what they're doing, but we appreciate you all taking the time to come and share that expertise here with the board and the audience. You know, again, it's a part of the fabric of school life that doesn't always get the time and attention that it sometimes requires,

156so thank you all for being here. You don't need to stay any later, we know you have to get up early tomorrow. We have a little more business to do. I wanted to echo that too, to thank you for the important, the wonderful and important work you're doing on behalf of our students. You know, the focus on celebrating the individual, the building community, even just fostering and tracking academic and the social and emotional development growth, their health and development, sorry, I can't say. (laughs) But, it is very much appreciated and we thank you for taking so much time with us tonight. Thank you. (people applauding) Okay, with that fabulous presentation, that actually leaves us with just one more item with an information, which is 8.04, propose news textbooks for the middle school and high school.

157Typically, these would not be on this agenda, which is an education report agenda, however, there's a timely nature to the purchase of some of these items. And so I'm gonna ask Edgar to please walk us through this item. Sure, two books for middle school, common reads to support and a author virtual visit from Veera Hiranandani. I wanna thank middle school english, Claire Denise Del Balzo who explained how these are gonna be used. The first one is called, "The Whole Story of Half A Girl", and it deals with identity. Sonia is a dual- Oh, thank you. (people laughing) I half-Indian and half-Jewish, and her father loses his job and she has to move from her private school into a public school, and so it's about her feelings of isolation. And then another book that I don't

158have a physical copy of, but it's called, "How to Find What You're Not Looking For". The same author, and it's about a 12 year old girl, Ariel, whose sister, and this happens in 1967, whose sister elopes with a young man from India following the Supreme court decision that strikes down the laws banning interracial marriage. So, two very engaging middle-school books. We actually are gonna have the author who's gonna come and have a conversation with our students. So I'm very excited to recommend those two. And then I have two for ninth grade. This is Gene Yang's, "American born Chinese". New York Time bestselling graphic novelist, Gene Yang, deals with complex issues around stereotyping, belonging, and identity. And this book also reflects the high school english department to increase Asian representation and literature. And then finally, another

159book from 2006, "Winters Bone" by Daniel Woodrell. And this is about 16 year old Ree taking care of her mother and her two brothers after her father has put their house up for sale. And this was chosen specifically to add more diversity to the hero's journey. It's a young girl who's living in poverty and making her way through the world. So, very happy to recommend you these four books. Thank you, Edgar. Are there any questions about these? The question that I'm sure I could read the footnotes and find the answer to, but in the interest of time, I won't do that. This author also wrote "The Night Diary", which we had approved earlier this year, right? So it's the same- Yeah. No, but it's the same... It's the same author. This is to add- "Night

160Diary" was adopted because we knew that she was coming, but part of this is also to an offer an opportunity, and this ties back to giving CHOICE to students so that they could make choices about the books that they read, that connect to the authors visit. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Jessica. All right, with that, I'm gonna wrap up the information items and I'm gonna turn it back over to Karen to walk us through the action items. Okay, so now we are. Right. We are on item nine, action items. 9.01, propose new textbooks and that's Carl. Thank you. This is the approval for the textbooks that were reviewed last week, not last week, two weeks ago as well this evening, and I move that the board approve the proposed new textbooks for the middle school and

161high school as presented. Second. (Carl laughs) Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Now we'll move to item 10, gifts. 10.0, gift proposal to the middle school, and Amber will lead us through this. Thanks Karen. The board's gift policy 1800 provides that the board approves all gifts, and the following is the gift that has been offered from the middle school PTA. It's three PTA teacher grant proposal gifts, $500 per five apple pens for seventh grade art, $800 for eight apple pencil, sorry, pencils. Eight apple pencils for eighth grade art and $300 for one aerifier for FACS. And I recommended the board accept with thanks the gift proposal of the middle school PTA, of three PTA teacher grant proposals as presented. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye Any opposed? Okay, thank

162you very much. And now we will turn to item 11, hearing from those present. At this time, members of the community are invited to speak on agenda items and non-personnel related matters. I don't see anyone in the audience would like to speak. Is there anyone participating remotely? Zero. Zero. Okay. So we will close public comment and move to 12, follow up to public comment. Sure. So going in order, as I remember it. At the tower, we had Ms. Tang reach out and express some concerns about the sick policy related to kids. When kids needed to be out for a little bit longer in terms of how they can access teachers. The access to PCR tests and the turnaround rate on those, the expense related to that. And she actually sent an email to me and

163I responded, I think, in fairly good detail around each of those concerns, and also let her know that there were school personnel who would be available to answer any of those questions and be able to assist any families who might find themselves in those circumstances. The next question was around snacks, and I'm gonna ask Eric. Sure, I'll take the next two on snacks and quarantine policies. You know, I think we've outlined the decision-making around snacks with the understanding that we'd be relooking at it as we come to the end of the first quarter, which is a little bit before Thanksgiving. There is no doubt that other school districts are doing snack right now. They're doing it in one of two ways. The first is making it less than 15 minutes long, and having students eat

164in close proximity to one another. I've said before, the 15 minutes is the CDC number, but there's no magic in the 15 minutes. It's a way to mitigate quarantine, but not necessarily mitigate spread. The other way they're doing it is spreading kids out at six feet, that would need to happen on a very logisticized schedule, if that's a word, which is not impossible to do, but it would detract from the amount of instructional time in the classroom. We made a conscious effort to prioritize that instructional time given last year and the hybrid schedule. Currently, there are a number of kids, not many handful in each building, that have need of snack for whatever reason they are receiving those snacks. But in general, the kids seem to be functioning quite well within their classrooms. It is

165a long day, we are advising parents to send a little bit more substantial of a lunch and make sure kids get snacks as they get home. We will look at that again. One thought is, you mentioned that some kids need snack and we've been providing those special accommodations for families who have come to us and said they that. That's correct. So, that is still open, and if there are other students who need that, we would encourage them to reach out to their buildings. The other question from the video commenter had to do with relooking at our quarantine policies. We just needs to say again, "They're not our quarantine policies. They are the Department of Health's quarantine policies". They're not our quarantine policies, They're the Department of Health's quarantine policies". They really set out what is

166defined, what defines close contact. And for students in a classroom setting, that's less than three feet for 15 minutes, for adults and everybody else, it's less than six feet for 10, or for 15 minutes excuse me, 15 minutes for both of those. And ultimately, that requires a 10 day quarantine. If you are vaccinated, or if you've had COVID in the last 90 days, you're exempt from that. (man speaking faintly) Fully vaccinated, not one shot. In order to do any of the suggestions by the speaker, the Department of Health would have to change those policies. Currently, they do not count someone with one shot of one of the two mRNA vaccines as fully vaccinated, and you must be two weeks past your last shot. So that's one shot with Johnson & Johnson, and the two shots

167with Moderna and Pfizer. I do agree that as... Hopefully in the next week or two, we do have an approval for five to 12 year olds for vaccines. I do think that does become a game changer for the Department of Health as those numbers come up and schools start to have significant portions of their five to 12 year olds, or five to 11 year olds vaccinated. I do think that will provide a catalyst for the Department of Health to relook at some of these quarantine pieces and re-look at some of the other mitigation strategies they have, whether it's distance or masks. I don't see that happening in the extreme near-term, but once students are starting to get vaccinated, and if the numbers stay generally low, then I think we could see that in the medium-term

168future. And then the fourth comment was by Myra Kurkendahl Rodriguez who asked about having budget drivers as soon as possible, allowing the PTC, and actually other organizations as well who often look at our budget and provide feedback on that, to have optimal time to be able to review; and that's something that we've always tried to do to the extent possible. Stuart, I don't know if wanna add anything. Yeah, actually no, she's talking about an internal process. So, certainly in November 17th, we're happy to hear community's thoughts at the budget forum. However, the board of education and the community doesn't get our staffing recommendations until January after we have had time to really discuss them internally and talk about all the things that you talked about earlier, Dr. Hagerman; about really analyzing and gathering all the

169data. Yeah. Thank you. Part of our commitment to this process is because it is a true, authentic process every year because we have to do some norming within ourselves, both within the administrative team and the board of education before we start putting out a lot of substantive information into the community, because it's never serves us well when half-baked information gets out to the community first. So I think that'll be all to follow up at this point. Item 13, wrap-up. Any other information to review or questions from today's meeting? No? Okay. 14, meeting dates for the coming month. On Saturday, October 23rd, the board of education will have a retreat (coughing drowns speaker) to 12:00 pm in this room, 170-172 at the high school. On Friday, October 29th, there will be a board policy subcommittee meeting

170on remote public comment at 10:30 am in this room again, 170-172 at the high school. On Monday, November 15th, there will be a board meeting with the designated group, the SPA at 5:00 pm in the high school learning commons, and then a board business meeting at 6:30 pm in this room, 170-172. And Wednesday, November 17th, there will be a public forum of the budget priorities for the upcoming year at 9:00 am in room 170-172 at the high school. Thank you, Amber. And so, item 15. At this time, I will entertain a motion to adjourn this meeting. Solved. Second? Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Okay. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you all very much. Thank you.