001(upbeat music) All right, Call this business meeting to order I'm noting that all members of the board and council are present. I wanna welcome everyone in our audience here tonight and to those of you watching in our live stream. And also to those of you watching later on demand, we are happy that you are interested in this work and continue to support your engagement with us. Happy pride month to everyone. I'll just let you know that before this business meeting, we held an executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person. And June is a busy month for the board. Oh! I hope that's okay. I just turned my microphone on. I hope that, We can hear you better now though. I hope that, (presenter laughs) Oh, sorry. Whoops. I'm not gonna repeat anything,
002but I'll just say that we did hear an executive session, we did hold an executive session before this business meeting and also that this is a very busy month and I just wanna thank the board members especially for all your flexibility and availability. This month of June, there are a lot of opportunities for recognition and celebration. We have a lot of executive session work, usually in June with collective bargaining and also discussions of employment. And we also have two remaining board coffees, in this month. There's one this Thursday, June 9th, from 4:30 to 5:30, and then there's one next, this Wednesday, June 9th, 4:30 to 5:30 and the next Thursday, June 17th, from 6:00-7:00 PM. The high school picnic tables on Brewster road. So just a lot of great attention and focus of the board
003this month. And I appreciate your commitment to this work. And I have nothing else to say. So Thomas. Thanks, Pam. I'd like to echo all the sentiments as well. I'm on, can you guys hear me? Okay, good evening and welcome. We appreciate you joining us in person and virtually at tonight's business meeting to become more informed about our most significant work here in the district. There was actually a retirement ceremony that was originally scheduled for this evening. And that's now gonna be held on June 21st at 5:30 PM. This is the board's opportunity to recognize and celebrate this year's 16 retiring teachers. The district also hosts a variety of ceremonies to recognize all of our retirees, along with a dedicated ceremony to acknowledge years of service for employees in the district, over bands of time.
004And we look forward to having those starting on as early as tomorrow in fact. Speaking of celebration, I'm also happy to report that this year's high school prom was a great success by all accounts. It was held last Thursday at the Glen Island Harbor club, in New Rochelle and the weather held throughout the designated photo opportunities. And the eventual rain did not seem to interfere with students' enjoyment of the meal or dance, I'm happy to report. We are thrilled that this, another time honored end of the year traditions are being made possible. Despite our continued COVID-19 mitigation efforts. I also wanna mention that I had a brief partial power outage at Edgewood Elementary School this afternoon, which we discovered was related to a faulty switch that has been rectified at this point. And I would
005like to recognize our school staff and the district's electricians for handling this issue in such a swift and professional manner. It was a little bit of a scare, but luckily short-lived. Also we have received a number of questions about how we're dealing with the heat. Both today and over the remainder of this week. As a reminder, we have developed cooling plans for each of our schools, which provides access to air conditioned spaces on high heat days. These plans should be in place in all seven of our schools. Specific questions have also been raised with respect to mask wearing in consideration of these high temperatures. As clarified in the weekend updates, mask wearing is still required in our schools. And in fact, we just got updated guidance late this afternoon about required mask use outdoors. And
006we'll be talking about that in a few minutes as part of our journey forward update. And finally, I wanted to share that at this time of year it's always bittersweet, because we're both saying goodbye to friends, partners, leaders, and volunteers, while simultaneously welcoming new individuals into these roles. Today, I had the opportunity to meet with our new PTC executive board for the first time. And I'm excited to continue our ongoing partnership in collaboration, as we plan for next year. As we make this transition though, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge Dalia Khan and all the executive officers, along with the building PTA leadership teams, for all your support and hard work over this very challenging year. Your enduring leadership has provided much needed support not only for our students in schools, but
007also for our parents and the whole of our Scarsdale community. So to all those folks who are involved in our PTEs, PTA's and PTC, who had provided so much leadership, we really appreciate and thank you. And that is all of my comments tonight. Thank you. Thanks Thomas. Do any board members have opening reports? I haven't received. Oh, Alison thanks. So last night I had the opportunity to attend the Scarsdale Edgemont Girl Scouts, gold award ceremony along with deputy mayor Justin Arest from the village. 10 young women received their gold awards, for performing exceptional community service. And it was an honor and a pleasure for me to offer them and their families, the board's congratulations for their dedication, their outstanding leadership and their wonderful achievements and accomplishments. Thank you, Alison. And again, congratulations to all those
008scouts. Any other board members have opening reports? All right, then while the agenda I'm looking at has personnel report next, we're moving in a little later to ensure that our new faculty will arrive. And we'll go into the information item, the journey forward update then. Thank you. I'm gonna ask Eric to join me. We're gonna talk about three different aspects tonight of our journey forward. That's the current numbers of COVID in our area, a little bit about end of the year ceremonies and other activities and finally the updated mask data. Great. Thank you, Thomas. Just to start off with our current numbers, the trend is continuing to be absolutely in the right direction. We are now in a level two rather than three or four, which is where we have been previously. There are only
009three active cases in Scarsdale currently, with an average of 14.06 per 100,000 or cases per 100,000 over the last seven days. And that daily rate has dropped to 1.8. In order to move into the lowest category, we would need a seven day average under 10. So we're toying with that at this point as far as our daily rates. So, if the trend continues that should get us there. We were at 0.6 positive percent rate, which is great and well under a 1.0, as far as the infection rate. So all of those are really great signs for us. I wanted to take a moment just to reiterate end of year ceremonies and give everyone an understanding of what the current guidance is and what our decisions around the ceremonies are. Current state guidance allows for ceremonies
010of 500 or less without the use of testing or vaccines, or proof of vaccine. That was changed from 200, a number of weeks ago. After we had, came out with our initial decisions on how to do this, graduation will require the use of testing or proof of vaccine. We have a 375% class each with the allowance of two guests that will obviously shoot us over 500. So we will be doing that, through an attestation. The elementary school moving up, will be done by class. It could be reconfigured to be under 500 people and do one large ceremony. There were two factors that really went into the thought about keeping it as a by class ceremony. The first being, it will allow for four guests apiece on the elementary level. The second being, it is during
011a school day. So, the rest of the school is in session at that point, bringing an extra three or 400 people onto campus while that was happening with the population, the left, the one population that's left in our buildings that cannot get vaccinated yet, seemed like not the best choice for the end of the year. So we will continue doing our moving up ceremonies for the fifth grade by class with four guests apiece. Any questions on those two pieces? Are the moving up ceremonies, outdoors or indoors? They're in different places in each school. All of them outdoors. Couple of the schools that have courtyards that are suitable are using those otherwise they're on the fields. And I guess my related question will come after the discussion on masks. So I'll hold on. Right. Eric, could
012you just, if they're outdoors, I don't necessarily have an opinion on whether it's by class or by grade, but it doesn't seem like bringing people would interfere with school. Everybody would just be outside, right? Correct, but the other kids in school are using the outdoor for gym. And for other other pieces we are using the outdoors pretty significantly on the elementary schools for mass breaks and other things. It's a lot of people we're doing it five different places, at the same time. So we felt it was best to keep it at class. Okay. Thanks. I'm going to talk a little bit about mask updates. We were told at the end of last week that we might be seeing some updates on guidance relative to masks. And we're unsure if that would include indoor, outdoor or
013some other types of guidance changes. We had heard a couple of things that were being contemplated by the CDC. And today, late this afternoon, we actually received confirmation through the governor's office. There's an update that's scheduled go out in a couple of minutes here to the poll broad community. I'm just reading from that. Say governor Andrew Cuomo just announced the school districts can choose to lift the mass requirements that their students must wear on the outdoors only. Let me say that again. Just announced that school districts can choose to lift the requirement that students must wear masks outdoors, guidance on mask use indoors remains in place. This change aligns with New York state guidance on schools with CDC guidance, on summer camps where an unvaccinated students are not currently required to wear masks outdoors. So
014in keeping with that, and what we had sent in weekend communications is that we would abide by guidance changes as they were written. So starting tomorrow, our students will no longer be required to wear masks outside. And that is only again, underline underscore three times. This is only about outdoor mask use, students who would like to continue to use masks while outdoors are encouraged to do so. There's nothing wrong at all with kids and families who want to make the choice to continue wearing masks. In the coming days, we will clarify our requirements for mask wearing at sporting events and end of the year ceremonies, after consultation with our district physician and the department of health. As Eric mentioned in his update, we're talking about vast numbers of folks potentially at these. And so we
015still want to understand what the best practices are, you know, outside of this limited guidance that we received today. And any other place that's an enclosed place, like a school bus, students must continue to wear masks as well. So we just want to have that as a reminder, again this is a communication that'll be going out to the broad community today. We sent out a reminder to many of our staff who were involved in faculty meetings this afternoon. And so we sent that notification out to them as well. With that, I'll open it up to see if there's any questions. Amber, you said you had a mask question? It was going to be about the masks at the graduation or moving up ceremonies. But do you know when the quarantine rules gonna change? So if
016a child is outside without a mask, they won't be quarantined if... Unless they're within six foot of another, of the positive case for more than 10 minutes, those metrics have not changed. That's still the same. Okay. Thank you. Now that's not to say they won't soon, but they are, they are in place. Eric, does that quarantine role is regardless of whether you have a mask on right? So within six foot, yes. For more than 10 minutes is regardless. So there are two types of quarantine, they remain the same. The first is close contact, which is what we just talked about, closer than six feet, more than 10 minutes mask or not. And then proximate contact which is sharing the same room unmasked, with the positive individual for more than 10 minutes. And just regarding the
017use of fields by outside organizations, such as sports, can you just talk a little bit about, you know, how do we get that feedback as fast as possible? I mean, I'm reading this in the UR, obviously the CDC said they were okay with it. I'm not trying to opine on it at this table, but I do know we've had a lot of requests from this community, especially given the 90 degree heat, from those using our school fields, to not need them. It would be great to get that as soon as possible, wherever the outcome is. So people know. Sorry to get what Ron, I'm just trying to clarity. You mentioned where the school district is not lifting, is not going to allow no masks outside for school, for sports, correct? Masks not required outdoors. Outdoor
018students. What about when our fields are being used for sports? During sporting events we just need a little bit of time to check with the district physician around sports. So we'll be doing that very quickly. That I understand, but my comment was just as we can get that feedback, either way as fast as possible. That is a comment we've heard from the community. Yes. So the one thing that's different here is I think we've gotten some clear guidance about the we don't have to require the masks outdoors now for students, but I think for student activities for all the things that we're in control of. And I think we're very comfortable with that. I think the one question that's the open-ended question that absorbs a lot of these are large scale outdoor events, where you're
019going to have hundreds of thousands of people, kind of there. And I think that's what we want to try to understand better, so that we're able to provide that kind of feedback to folks. I mean, personally, the one I was thinking about was the, you know, 10 on 10 soccer game. Yeah. So I think it's a 10 on 10 soccer game and you have 500 people watching. That's where it probably has a bit different. But that's not normally what we have on weekends. Absolutely. Along those same lines would the fitness tests for the high school athletes fall under that same category as well? Yes. Okay. Spacing does still have to be maintained in all of our activities, as the guidance states, though. Other questions about masks or health metrics or end of the year activities?
020All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Okay. So we'll move to the next item in the agenda, which is hearing from those present. Members of the public are invited to speak at this time on agenda items or other non personnel related matters and per our adopted resolution policy, 1230 has been amended to allow each individual three minutes to speak. And there's a 90 minute total cap on this public common period. As long as the executive order is in place. We'll entertain invite people from our live audience to come to the podium first, and then Allison's going to handle the zoom. So would anyone from the audience like to speak? Seeing none, we'll go to zoom and see if anyone would like to speak via zoom. You just need to raise your hand and Jerry
021will communicate you through his microphone about muting, un-muting, et cetera. Right now, no hands are raised. Give it a minute in case. Well, there's only one person watching on the zoom. So if that person wants to raise his hand we'll give you a few seconds to do so. Okay. There are, there are currently no hands raised. Okay. So we will close this public comment period. There is a second one later in the meeting after our action items. We have no follow up to public comment and I can read the consent agenda preamble really slowly. (gentle laughter) Well, we could take a break Drew, we really could, because we're talking about the fact that in our consent agenda, we are welcoming new personnel and we mistakenly let them know to arrive at 6:30. So we enjoy
022their company. (indistinct) Okay. So let's skip the consent agenda and go to the DEI information. Sorry to be confusing but we're going to skip the consent agenda. And we're going to go to our first information discussion item, which is the DEI update. Thomas. Great. So we want to cover a couple of topics. Since last time we came together. Everyone whose been sort of tracking us work knows that we've been working on the implementation of policy 0105. And part of that is to have a district committee and we're using our district compact committee to determine metrics and goals for next year. And I'm happy to say that over a period of two meetings, we were actually able to establish what those goals were really building off of the existing work that's been occurring, at each of
023the levels already. And the way we arrived at that was we basically used the education framework from the state. And we really focused on rigorous standards and welcoming and affirming environments as the two sort of broad areas. And then we asked folks to go in and match some of the goals that were listed specifically in that document against the work that's going on and determine goals by each level. Obviously that work is a little trickier at the elementary school, because you're coordinating five different schools. Although we said, if you want to have slightly different goals, that would be okay too. There's a little bit, it's a little bit easier across one middle school and one high school to make that but, without a whole lot of interference from Edgar and I we're very pleased that
024there was a lot of uniformity over the goals that each of these levels chose. So you can see on the agenda here, that they actually all three levels share One of the goals, which I thought was really fascinating, because there were dozens to choose from. But it tells you that there's some uniformity in the way that our schools are thinking about this work and the values and priorities that are embedded in it. So regards to the elementary. It's using the physical environment to determine whether a variety of diverse cultures, languages, orientations and identities are reflected and represented and valued. You all will remember from Edgar talking to us, we did a big library project last year to diversify our elementary library collections. And that's one example, but to now look at the rest of the
025physical environment, to make sure that we have a lot of representation of different folks that are regularly available to our students. So that's what that goal is about. The second one is to build rapport and develop positive relationships with students. That's something that we have been working on since Scarsdale has been in existence. And the extension of that work of course, is just really a focus on diverse backgrounds and making sure that we're being as inclusive as we could possibly be. And then the third one, which you will find is now the common thing that stretches across all three schools, is create opportunities that allow different groups and ideas to become a part of the fabric of the school community, by organizing proactive community, building circles and activities, that promote positive relationships among individuals from
026all backgrounds. And again, that's just creating welcoming and affirming classrooms, but also welcoming and affirming schools and ultimately a welcoming and affirming district overall. So again, that's going to be that thread that we see pulled through. And as we've talked about developing partnerships with PTC and other groups, that's going to be a clear place where we can start that work. We move on to the Middle School. We talk about building rapport. There's actually two of the overlaps here, building rapport and developing positive relationships with students. Again, by really focusing on student interest and student background creating opportunities to allow different groups and ideas to become part of the fabric of the school again, in those same ways. And finally featuring and highlighting resources written and developed by traditionally marginalized voices, and the Middle School's done
027a great job of that. Edgar has been bringing these incredible texts and resources to the board table, that are really representative of broad diverse voices, that are out there. And there's just so much in the area, of adult and young adult literature now that that makes this such a delight to be able to do with our students. So we're excited about those goals for the Middle School. The high school is a little more pragmatic approach here. You can see that looking at and this has been part of their ongoing work about making sure that district policies are inclusive, on whether it's by gender background or other designations but making sure that again all kids are being affirmed and welcomed and appreciated in the same way, To identify and address implicit bias which has been an
028ongoing goal of the high school. They've already done some explicit trainings on this and that's something that they want to continue to work on, particularly in onboarding new staff and across different staffing groups. And finally to create opportunities to allow different groups and again to become part of the fabric of the school community. Again, that's going to be that foundational goal that we're going to be working on K to 12. And just to say a word about the metrics we had we started a great conversation about the metrics, but all three groups independently decided they wanted to spend more time going back and talking to those committees that are going to be affected by these policies. And then to bring us back in early fall, the metrics that they feel like are the most appropriate.
029And again, we gave sort of broad permissions for those, like the elementary schools, they don't necessarily have to have the same metrics but we provided some examples and we had a great conversation. We did some breakout groups as part of that work. And we feel really pleased with the progress that we made. So tonight and this will be coming back as an action item. We have two pieces that fulfill on policy, 0105. And the first one is that the compact committee is recommending that the board adopt the New York state culturally responsive sustaining framework. And that we use that, as again the framework for our district as well. And then within that, that the board accepts the goals that have been identified by each group as a focus area for next year, which is our
030short term goals. But next year, we're also using it as a longer-term planning year so that we will develop a multi-year plan, as part of our work next year. I'll stop there and see if there's any questions. Yeah. Karen. Were only three goals allowed for each? I was just wondering why? No, we said two to three at each level, we wanted to, you know we wanted people to be sort of focused in and not feel like they, again, as we set this up, we want it to match existing work. We didn't want it to be, to feel like something that was onerous or that they were adding on. And so we had put out there two to three and that's what people came back with. Okay. I just wondered why some of the ones that
031were under elementary and Middle School were not incorporated for the high school and vice versa? That was the only. Just, we let them choose by levels. And we actually, there was the Middle School and the high school work together in a breakout room, but the elementary's were completely separate. And so again, we saw this, and if you look at the all these goals came out of the framework and within each one of those there's dozens of bullets to choose from and we said they could have even moved into the other domains. So there was a remarkable amount of parallel structure without us working on that or trying to make that happen. Is there any update on the process or progress on hiring a consultant to help us? Sure is. So under the second part of
032our update, is other information updates and we're going to be talking about that right there. Nope. Go ahead. I just wanted to follow on what Karen mentioned about the goal. So what's interesting is that I think, we all read this without the context of how they were selected. This idea that there was a list and each level could pick a few of them. So I have the same view as Karen and I said this, I said, "huh, these are great goals, but boy, why is the high school, or why is the elementary, the Middle School not identifying and addressing implicit bias in the school and community environments"? Like why is that a high school thing? There's probably a broader discussion. It's probably not for us to have, about whether they should be aligned and then
033or whether there should be some district goals and then some specific ones at each level. But I do feel speaking as sort of with my resident hat on, as just reading this, that there's going to be a lot of confusion about why aren't certain goals in each level. So I just want to really reiterate what Karen said. I do have, I think this is great. I think we may need to think about how we communicate this out though, if we're not going to be aligned. Sure. And we're happy to do that. So just so the board is aware, we are meeting with all of the folks involved in any of our form of DEI multicultural, or other named committees that deal with this work, it's next week or the following week. So I think that's
034189 people across the district K to 12 who are involved in DEI committee work in some capacity or another. And so we're bringing all of them together and we're actually going to be walking through, just as we've done the same presentation at the board table about the framework itself, about the policy, about what their specific goals are for next year, that we were trying to look for. You know, the district has set the goals in the short planning year. So we're going to walk through all of this, Ron. So that would be really, hopefully crystal clear to all of those folks I've been doing that as I've gone around to PTCs been doing that. And, you know, we both been sort of doing road shows of that in the different groups that we're working with.
035But once we have an opportunity to meet with that group, then we will be crafting out an anchor. And I worked on another letter earlier, where we sort of did that same sort of a description, so that we'll be able to explain those kinds of things out to the broad community and to the school community as well. So I had a question on that, because I wondering who is part of the district DEI committee? That was confusing for me. That is right now that's 189 people. Is that what you're saying? Again, the idea of that meeting, we're going to do it by levels. And then obviously the school year is running out. And so we have to have one meeting with everyone in it, moving forward, working with these groups we'll probably try to do
036them more by levels, but there's 189 different or 190 people who are involved working on committees across our seven schools right now. So they're just all coming together to have this sort of common understanding meeting, about where we are in this work to understand that they don't know about the policy, where that came from, if they don't understand the framework where that came from, the process that we set up for our goals and so forth. Are there, I think we talked about this before, but are there high school students that are involved in setting the goals at the high school level? I would need probably Ken's help. I don't know if there's high school students on the compact committee, I'll have to find that out for you. I would also just urge against overly homogenizing
037the goals. You know, I think it's really important that this work be based on the maturity and the age level of the students at the different levels. And also there may be different issues at each of the elementary schools, that those teams want to focus on. I would urge us just to keep most of the oversight at the building level, which is consistent with our past practice. That is certainly the way we set this up, Alison. So thank you. When you, sorry, when you mentioned just it's more of a clarification, you said there's 189, 190 folks that are involved, that are coming together that are involved in committees. But the committees that they're there on I think are not DEI committees. There are other committee's, or are they DEI committees? There are other committees that
038are taking up DEI work. That's correct? Depending on which school you're at, you might have a multicultural committee, you might have a DEI committee, the work might be done compact. It could be doing it happening at all three. And we've not designated or told schools that you have to have a certain kind of committee or only some committees can do this work. So when a group that's been involved doing DEI work, we wanted to invite all of those people to bring them together, to sort of develop this common understanding and sort of bring us up to where we are today as a district in this work. That's why it's such a big number of folks. But I just think it's important to know that both from a from a personal passion and professional passion around
039this, but also the reach that this has, that there's a lot of people who are really interested in this work right now. I mean, I think there's, so number one is I think that there's good basis to have it go sort of ground up, just like we saw with some of the other work that's being done. But I also think that, that clarification, I want to just get that out there because I think it explains some of what Ron and Karen were getting at there. Right. Thank you. Just another question. What is the status of the identifying primary? Like, will we be leading this summer for the board? So we have a couple more items, sorry. I would just want to do the two formal recommendations. Are there any more questions about the goals or
040the framework real quick? And Chris going to talk to us about a couple more items here, sorry. I do Thomas. Yeah. When are these there's things coming before the board, when, at our next meeting? The next meaningful action. It's action items. There'll be two things to two deliverables on policy 0105 the one on the goals that are being presented. And the other is the recommendation to adopt the New York state culturally responsive framework. Okay. And that framework has the four principles? Correct. And one of them is related to professional development? Correct? Which none of these goals technically address and work with, but the framework you've provided us in the presentations does talk to that principal and notes that administrators are going to have the charge to do PD on historical injustices and inequities, inequalities that
041have led to institutional educational barriers as a means to eliminate them. And then you have administrators there. Correct. So will there be goals coming out related to that, or that just kind of runs alongside this, the development of these three to four goals? We really focused on the two principles as we've worked with, cause that most closely reflected the work that's going on in the buildings already. And again, we wanted to be respectful of, we want to create new work for folks. We wanted it to actually reflect the work that has been ongoing and the priorities that have been set up for this year. And so then my other question would be, thank you, that makes sense. So we have the multiculturalism diversity equity and inclusion page, which is under the superintendents tab. And that
042is where all of this, the presentations and the documentation is going. So that's our database for your work going forward, the board has seen something. This document is a framework. It's like a Google doc, a framework on diversity equity inclusion, that you've shared with us to help us, you know as you've worked through this to keep the board informed, is that something that can, this outline could be put on that webpage as well? Sure. And it's a really short bulleted outline of your process and work along the way. Yeah. So, you know, we've been crunched just because we just adopted the policy. We're trying to meet and get this pretty heavy work done, in a relatively short period of time. We've not done any of the pretty cleaning up work that's involved in this. Pam
043to your first point. We need to move it out of the superintendents and create its own little web page just as we did with journey forward, we need to organize and beautify our materials. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of work that we have to do on that front. And I think as we do that, it's going to get to some of the questions that were raised around the organizational. And we talked about using infographics and schematics as ways to understand this work moving forward. So we did all of that is, you know, in the back of the brain right now, trying to get this heavy stuff done in the front of the brain. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously going to be a work in progress for awhile. That's what this is. This
044is a journey, a process through this very important work. And it's terrific. And I think this certainly, small bit of it here makes sense to me, thank you. So with that, we'll go onto the second part and we're just going to share about, Oh, I was actually, sorry, I wanted to talk, I talked about the metrics. We're good with the metrics. I thought you wanted to talk about the consultants now. Yep. Consultants, Anchor, Techs, at our next meeting. So we continue with our process to examine and choose appropriate and inspiring consultants for our work in DEI. Thomas shared before the rubric that we use to make the determination, our committee examined and discussed available multimedia resources, online testimonials, personal experience and writing to narrow our focus to four well-regarded consultants, with years of experience in
045diverse educational environments. And right now we are at various stages of communication and conversation with Dr. Brian Marks from Morehouse College, who some people who saw the PTC presentation would recognize the noted DEI speaker, Dr. Derrick Gay, Dr. Sonja Cherry Paul, from teacher's college, who many of us have worked with and Dr. Pedro Guerrero from NYU. After an initial screening discussion in which we we're gonna discuss our community's needs, they will or are currently in the process of creating proposals for us. The next stage is an interview of the final candidates with members of our leadership team and representation from the Scarsdale teachers association. Ultimately, we may in fact engage some or all of them in ways that best match their expertise. Some have more, for example some have more target experience at the elementary
046level, while some have worked more with secondary college and parent communities. What's important is that we are not, you know buying any program or package wholesale, but thoughtfully and critically making these determinations we think are best for Scarsdale. As we mentioned, the leadership team will continue our practice of built-in professional learning together. We are focused on improving our knowledge and our nimbleness in diversity, equity and inclusion. Right now, a subset of us are, are doing a little bit of a preview of a book called, The Person You Mean to Be, by Dolly Chugh. Some of you might recognize it's been around for couple of years now. We made the determination to engage in a book that addresses a wide umbrella of different types of bias through the lens that she incorporates, as a social psychologist.
047She's written something that's both accessible, but also research-based. And we believe will be applicable to our work as leaders. There's about seven of us who are reading it. Now we're going to come back together and make sure it's a match. If we don't come to consensus on that, then we'll we'll go forward in another book and look carefully at that text before we move forward. And as we mentioned, we have our next meeting this sort of collective meeting on June 22nd. And we look forward to that meeting and we'll obviously use that as a springboard for continue to work over the summer. So Edgar, one of the components of policy 0105O is for the board to engage in development around this issue. What work is being done there? Well, Thomas and I were talking about
048it, the book that we are looking at, it would be a book that we would share with the board as well. So one, that would be a common text of a leadership team and the board of education. Oh, would the board have the opportunity to work with the consultant, or would the board have other opportunities to engage in additional learning other than, you know reading the book, but participating in having some participatory activities? I believe so. Do you want to talk about that, Thomas? I'm sorry. Absolutely. I think one of the things we're trying to talk about is how to leverage these experiences so that when we bring a, particularly in a cult, consultants coming and working in the district, there's an opportunity to meet with as many folks as possible in that given time
049period, you know all this has to be negotiated, but if we have somebody coming in for the day, working with groups of students in the day, working with groups of teachers in the day, and potentially having something as a parent meeting in which board members and other community members could be invited to and then a PTC presentation in the evening. And I'm just sort of saying this but you're really trying to leverage those to try to make sure that we're drawing a through thread through our district and making sure that, you know all the different groups who are stakeholders in this process, have an opportunity to be involved sort of hear the same messages. And then it's not just about, you know one of the things we've been very aware of, is you can't just
050have a great speaker come in and then sort of be done with that and move on to the next great speaker. So to try and to create meaningful opportunities for engagement and then sort of debriefing lessons learned. And then what do you do with that? Whether it's a personal reflection or professional growth based on that or something else. But I think that is an important part of it. We think that, you know, the board's role as a trustee is often to sort of sit at the table and get a lot of information here, because board work is public work as well. But we want to be able to create those opportunities where board members can interact and interface, as part of other community groups, as part of this as well, whether participating as parents, you
051know, district folks or things like that. Other questions? Yes I'm curious to know, will parent leadership also be involved in the read, or be encouraged to be involved in the read? Cause it references in our policy also includes volunteers? So You know, that's to be discussed and determined at this point. We, you know, again, part of our iterative process is to come back together and think, okay, and this goes for the consultants, as well as the book. Is this a match for this particular stakeholder group? I mean, so far, this is a incredibly accessible book and something that even on my second read through, is something that I think could have a wider audience, but I'd like to, you know, continue that conversation. One of the things we've learned as we've kind of gone through,
052a couple of things we've learned about anchor texts, some of that, for example in meeting with Ann Marie Nee about this process, that there have been what I would call already anchor texts that have existed, by showing up again and again, as part of STI courses, book groups or things like that. So there's been some try cast, you know, the book that that Edgar's talking about, we've had books that have come up and Amber sort of gave us a nice list of those, that have been sort of a staple of for Scarsdale teachers to be using already. So I think sort of full stop on that. I know that we have done some of our PTA programming around books and things like that. So we really want to, I think not lose that work, that's
053already been out there as anchor text, but think how to leverage it. We also know that at our elementary schools many of our schools are involved in one book, one school, where they read a novel together as developmentally appropriate for as many students as possible. And then use that as an anchoring text that, you know they create activities throughout the year based on that. So we do want to be respectful of the processes that are in place. I think, try to leverage those that already known quantities and then to build off of those over time. Any other questions? Okay, thank you to the board who's clearly made this a priority and you know, has tasked us with a big task, I mean, this is not easy work but we appreciate your support of this work
054with us, that there is accountability included in this work, because that was a really important part of making sure that it stayed a priority and to the compact committee particularly, who at the end of the year, took this on with gusto and did a lot of heavy lifting work on it. So I just would like to acknowledge and thanks folks for that. And I think Pam, we want to now step out of information for a minute and go back. Yeah. We'll go back now to the personnel report, Drew. Thank you so much. I appreciate your flexibility tonight. Again, it's a delight to be able to welcome five new faculty members to probationary positions and one returning familiar face to a probationary position. And some of those folks are here tonight and we're delighted to have
055a chance to to formally and officially welcome you to Scarsdale. So first, without further ado, I'm delighted to introduce Lauren Armstrong who will be serving at Heathcote as the new speech teacher. And I see Lauren here tonight. (loud applause) Also like to introduce our new computer teacher at Scarsdale Middle School, Jen Crunk. (loud applause) We have a new special education teacher that will be working at Scarsdale Middle School and that's Trisha McNally. (loud applause) And our new elementary special education teacher in charge. That's Dana Connie. Welcome Dana (loud applause) The returning individual, you'll remember the budget supported an increase to the speech position at the high school. And that's now a probationary position and Alyssa Kufner will be filling that role. (loud applause) And finally, we have a new strings teacher who will be most
056likely assigned between Heathcote and Fox Meadow elementary school. And that's Hannah Walton, welcome Hannah. (loud applause) And if consent is next, they could stay in, get the official nod. All right, well that would be what's next in this agenda. The way we've structured it tonight. But so we'll move into the consent agenda preamble very briefly, the officer's meet with the superintendent on the Thursday typically, before a board agenda before before a board meeting and we get input from our board and cabinet on what belongs on that agenda and items that we believe do not require discussion at the table, go into our consent agenda. But at this time any board member can pull an item designated for the consent agenda out into the discussion or information items. Anyone want to do that? All right, then
057we'll move into consent agenda, Bob I believe that's you. Yes. 9.01. It is recommended that the board accept the minutes of the business education report meeting May 24th, 2021. 9.02. Be it resolved that the board of education, the Scarsdale Union Free School district hereby accepts the recommendation of the superintendent to appoint and assign the instructional personnel that Drew had listed. 9.03 Be it resolved that the board of education of the Scarsdale Union Free School district hereby accepts the recommendation of the superintendent to appoint and assign the non-instructional personnel listed within the recommendation. 9.04. I recommend that the board accept the rates of pay for services that fall outside of existing contract agreements as presented. 9.05. It is recommended that the board accept the preliminary tuition rates for 2021 22 as presented. 9.06. It is recommended
058that the board accept the claims audit report for May, 2021 as presented by Stewart Mattie, 9.07. It is recommended that the board accept claims audit report for May, 2021 as presented, regarding the tax tertiary settlement for the Fox Meadow tennis club. 9.08. It is recommended that the board of education adopt the resolution presented regarding nine Seneca Road and finally, 9.09. I recommend we accept the consent agenda as presented. Second. Thank you, Carl, all those in favor, say aye. (collective aye) Any opposed or abstentions? All right. The motion passes. The consent agenda is accepted and congratulations to our new staff. (loud applause) Welcome and good luck with your growth and development and all the work ahead. We're really happy to have you here. We really appreciate you guys coming. And so we can sort of put
059names and faces together and welcome all of you, but please do not feel obligated in any way to stay. It is warm and muggy and our meeting will go on for a while. So feel free to go ahead and take a departure right now. Thank you so much. Congratulations. (loud applause) Okay. So we will actually do written communications now as they leave, and then we'll go all the way back down to information items. Communications, Alison? Okay. So for the preamble for written communications, just note for the community that emails sent to the board of education are also viewed by the superintendent and the district clerk. The open meetings law requires that all board deliberations which may lead to action or policy change, occur in public and therefore written communications and emails are to be reported
060at public board meetings. So the board received 37 emails between May 7th and May 25th, 12 emails posed questions related to the lockout at Scarsdale High School that occurred on May 21st. Five asked questions or expressed concern regarding COVID protocols. including whether or not mask rules would change. Three were questions about the budget and the board of education vote that took place on May 18th. Three were in regard to the district's new DEI policy. There were also general questions about the use of school facilities, including over the summer and invitations to board members to attend end of year community events and celebrations. All of the emails received a response either from a member of the board, a member of the administration or both. And I on behalf of the board, want to thank all of
061the members of the community who took the time to write to us and share their opinions. We value input from the community and we appreciate your participation. Thank you, Alison. So now to item 10.02, the facilities update, Stuart. Yep. Thank you very much, Pam. So update the board of education community on some of our projects that are coming up in the actually the next couple of summers. So starting off with bond projects scheduled for the summer of 2021. We talked about these at previous board meetings and we actually, the board approved the bids for the roofing projects for the Middle School, Edgewood and Quaker Ridge. Those are EPDM roofs. Middle School, it's a substantial replacement of all of that roof. Edgewood, probably about a third of the roof and Quaker Ridge, a much smaller section.
062But there will be construction at those sites all summer. And then for the remaining bond bids, they will be, believe it or not, if all goes according to schedule, completed in the summer of 2022. So to be bid in the upcoming fall, that's this coming fall, the high school unit ventilators and electrical panels that's about $3.2 million worth of work. Quaker Ridge is about $1.3 million worth of work. That's heating ventilation and electrical panel replacements and improvements. And then Fox Meadow and, oh, that's an old one. So those are the two projects for 2021 They'll be bid in 2021. Also work for 2022 bid a little bit later on in the school year, winter 2022. Heathcote $1.3 million. We have not done the boilers in that building. So the boilers and burners will be part
063of that work. The electrical pole panel replacements and an air handling unit for the gym will finally be replaced. And at the Middle School about a half a million dollars worth of work for ADA improvements and waterproofing certain areas. So again, summer of 2022, we'll have work at the high school, Quaker Ridge, Heathcote and the Middle School. And related to this work on the financial side, we are putting in place now the permanent financing for the bond, there'll be $15.8 million and all told. And I think this is very good news. Our total borrowing at the end of the day will be about will be about $1 million less than the bond authorization which is great, which, you know, comes and impacts the taxpayers in a positive way. And then pending bid results from these
064remaining projects. You know, I would anticipate, I would say I'm giving ourselves some room based on what the bids may be. I would anticipate some money being available to come back into the budget in 2022, 2022, 23 or 23, 24 as we talked about as a debt service transfer that we've seen in past years. So all around good news, as far as where these bids have come in over the last three or four years and credit to BBS architects and Park East with our estimate work. The plan improvement projects and transfer to capital budget. Those are the projects that are part of our annual budget. So as you recall, the high school auditorium phase one, which is mostly updating and replacing the rigging work, that's already been awarded as you know and we're scheduled to
065be completed by the end of the summer. We're having our kickoff meeting in the next week or so for that work. And then the district-wide installation of carbon monoxide detectors bid and the project to replace a number of the Heathcote, exterior doors, bid that's being opened up in a couple of days. And you should expect those to appear on the next board meeting, along with some other facilities related bids, for some renewals and custodial bid type items that we have not awarded yet. So very busy summer installed or anticipated this coming summer. And then of course, next summer as well Any questions? Stuart, what's the condition survey that's happening in September? That will be later this summer, the building condition survey mandated for all school districts every five years. I'm actually having a kickoff meeting
066with the architect, I think next week or the week after. I would expect the final report and presentations to the board sometime in mid to late fall of next year. And that will be the basis of updating the facilities improvement plan and the basis of any sort of, you know, certainly leads the path to work that we would recommend to get done, as part of our plan improvements, transfer to capital and any larger items, you know, as part of a future bond. Thank you. Okay. The next item is 10.03, which is the youth services agreement. And I believe that is Eric. Thank you. So each year the board has to approve the youth services project. This is a joint village and school district project, that provides youth outreach workers who are licensed certified social workers,
067three full-time social workers in the Middle School, two in the high school. It also accounts for our young men and women in leadership, our drug and alcohol task force coordinator and that work. So this is one of the major backbones of our social, emotional support for students. It has been in existence since the mid 1980s and is one of the first programs of its kind. It has served us extremely well over the years. This year's budget for the youth services project is $544,737. That is split evenly between the village and the school district, with each of us paying 272,368 50 throughout the year. This is a budget that is about a 1.39% increase. There have been some staffing changes and some internal movement, within the organization of Scarsdale, Edgemont family counseling, as they have expanded.
068One of our longtime social workers will be moving to a supervisory position, Emily Valeria, and taking over the supervision of the YSP under Jay, who had done the supervision up until this point. They will spend the year kind of transitioning that. That opens the door for a new social worker to be brought into the into the Middle School that doesn't change any of the numbers around the supervisory expenses we pay, cause it's simply shift from Jay to Emily. But Emily's move into the supervisory, actually allowed for a very low increase budget to budget, because the new social worker will most likely be hired at a significantly lower salary than Emily, who's been here for coming on 20 years I believe. So that's really where we are at. I think it has been a wonderful program
069and I would suggest as we move into next month's meeting that we approve the program yet again. Any questions on these services? We had talked about potential mental health issues for students. And so if we needed to add another resource to this contract, would that be possible? How would that work? It probably wouldn't be added to this particular contract, because it would probably be done on a consultancy basis. Now that could be through Scarsdale, Edgemont family counseling, but that could also be through another consultancy or through we have psychologists who, we've used many times for leave replacements and things like that, that we'd probably look to, because this is a joint village and school district endeavor. It's actually a bit of a process to get any type of change like that done because it would
070need to be split between the village and the school district. These, the social workers involved in the project also provide services to the village. So in this case, it would probably be a school need. So we would look to do that on our own. Okay. Thank you. Any questions? No, I just want to thank the village for their support of this program as well. Absolutely. And congratulations, Emily, which Alison just said. The next item is actually a board item which would be 10.04. It's about board succession planning. Okay. So every time this year before the board we talk about how board succession works so that the community is very aware of this process. We do have a policy 2220 where the president and the vice president of the board shall be elected by members of
071the board, from its membership at the annual reorganization meeting. And that's our July meeting. Candidates for each office shall be nominated and voted openly. The president and vice presidents shall serve for one year or until a successor is elected. So, as I said, we have our, the new board will have its reorg meeting on July 7th. At that board nominations for our president will be entertained and voted upon. And the nominations for vice-president will be entertained and then voted upon and just wanted to let the community and the board know that at this point, we have a lot of interest in officer positions. Ron has expressed interest in the presidency, as has Karen, Amber is thinking about a vice president position. And Carl is interested and willing to hold both. So the board members who
072make up the board starting July 7th, will have the opportunity to hear nominations from the board. There can be self nomination. There can be nomination from one board member of another board member. And then you will vote on the board. That board will vote at that time, a little emotional. (nervous laughter) And also, so at this point, you know if you know what opportunities are, what your options are, and you can certainly talk to each other and think about, you know, all potential all future board members of next year's board may think about which candidates they might want to support, during the nomination process in July. That's really it. Is there any questions or thoughts about that? Okay, so well done. All right. Thank you. The next item is 10.05 which has proposed new textbooks
073for the high school. And as is our typical fashion, I'm going to ask Edgar (soft laughter) Let's not break tradition now. You did say, I bring wonderful texts forward and I really am just a conduit of the teachers and the department chairs and others who recommend these texts. And I have an opportunity and the pleasure of revealing them. One of them that's the first one that's on our list is a novel, written by Julie Otsuka, called When the Emperor Was Divine from 2002. and it's for eighth grade English, it's historical fiction. And again, it's another book that that also engages a different perspective. This novel tells a story of a Japanese families ordeal in interment camps during world war II, where the father is arrested by the FBI as a spy while the mother goes
074to an internment camp in Utah with two children. And what I particularly like in my conversations with social studies and English, there's a lot of pairing and conversations that go on so that the stories that are coming out can be further examined in history class. And there's, there's a lot of mirroring as it goes up. The second is a series of books and I have to give a shout out to Alyssa Forte. Before the stack of books and workbooks came down to me, she did say that the course that she's teaching now, in addition to her role K-12 music coordination is that she has the AT music studies class AT music theory, I'm sorry, class. And she wanted to have a year of engaging in the materials and with the students before she actually made
075these really critical and important decisions about what texts she wanted to do going forward. So through her research, both, in the classroom and also outside, she came up with these really rich and interesting, and for people who weren't music majors, very difficult to decipher, but I do defer to her expertise in the field and know that I trust that the quality of the material is something that's going to support our students in this college level course. Thank you, Edgar. Any questions from board members? All right. Thank you very much. And then the last item in our information items is going to be tax on (indistinct) reserve establishment fund. And for that, I am going to ask Stuart to walk us through that, please. Thank you very much. So this is an annual occurrence. So it's
076a state law that the board of education prior to the end of the year, establish the reserve for any outstanding claims. And then at the end of the year, we look at the reserves to see if we can sort of free them up to get back into the general fund and fund belts. So in studying the reserve this year and working with the village, great news that as you recall that Reval for many years ago, we've had a sort of backlog of settlements or cases I should say. Of those. we only have 77 cases still open. So it's great news. A lot of these have been either settled or they've been withdrawn from over time. So having said that, looking at the reserve we will be reducing it from the projected almost 5.5 million down
077to just a little bit over four and a half million dollars and adding about $800,000 back to the un-designated fund balance. And that's from our projected fund balance. The difference between that 936 and $800,000 are anticipated claims between, actually you'll see them at the next board meeting, is the difference. So not that we finalized the fund balance but all other things being equal that gets the un-designated up to about a little tiny bit over 3%, which is good news. and there was additional information attached in the executive content of this item. Thank you, Stuart, any questions from board members? Okay. Thanks Dora. So that is all of our information discussions items. We'll move into our action items. Carl Thank you. Give me one second. Here we go. Okay. I moved at the 2021, 2022 reorganization
078meeting for the Scarsdale Union Free school district be held on July 7th, 2021 at 3:30 PM right here in room one 170 - 172 Scarsdale High School. And that the district clerk provide and distribute the appropriate notice of same. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Just to note, I want people to be clear. This was a change of schedule and it's a different time than we typically have a board meeting. So just please note the change in date and time on this, for folks who want to be watching that meeting. It will be live-streamed as well. And it will be videotaped for later observation. Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor, say aye. (collective aye) Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right. The motion passes. Thank you. Moving on to
079item 12 gifts. And the first gift is the gift proposal to Greenacres and that's Ron. Thanks Pam, item 12.01 is a gift proposal from the Greenacres PTA to Greenacres school, is for two gifts. The first gift is the purchase of a subscription to Scholastic news for kindergarten through fifth grade classes. The second gift is the purchase and installation of a sensory pathway at Greenacres school. Both these gifts are in line with the board's policy and I move that the board accept with thanks to the Greenacres PTA the gift proposal to the Greenacres school as presented. Thank you, Ron. May I have a second? Second. Thanks, Alison. Any discussion about this gift proposal? All right. All those in favor. Say aye. (collective aye) Any opposed? Abstentions? All right. That motion passes. Thank you. And the second
080gift is the proposal to Quaker Ridge Amber? Yes. Item 12.02 is a gift proposal from the Quaker Ridge PTA to the Quaker Ridge school, for an original sensory path decals and installation valued at $2,500 at the school. I move that the board, accept the gift with thanks to the Quaker Ridge PTA of the gift proposal of original sensory path decals and installation. Thanks, Amber, is there a second? Second. Thanks Ron. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. (collective aye) Any opposed? Abstentions? All right. The motion passes. Thank you, Thomas, I think the next board meetings agenda is where we get a review of that the guests for the year that annual... Sure, happy to. Yeah. That annual summary of gifts to the district. All right. Moving on to 13. Questions from those present. So
081we've reached our second opportunity for public comment. The same three minute limit applies while the governor's order about virtual board meetings is in place but there's no cap on this time period. Anyone from the audience like to come to the podium? Seeing none. We'll go to zoom. We have one hand raise Jonathan Rothenberg. Jonathan, you're going to get promoted by Jerry and he's going to speak to you to let you know when you're able to speak. Johnathan, you can speak now. Okay. Thank you. Can everybody hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. Thank you. I have a few questions related to the DEI discussion earlier, was wondering do you prefer that I ask the questions altogether, or take them one at a time and have responses interspersed. You can ask them altogether. Okay. Thank you. So
082the first question is what specific in the work that the DEI committees have done? What specific deficiencies or failures have been identified? What barriers basically has our district been erecting over the course of the past years, to achieving diversity equity inclusion.? So that's one, second is certainly the goals Sam water bowl, welcoming, but very generic. So what are the tangible concrete implications for our schools in practical terms? Basically, how will our schools be changing? The third one is how can community members get more insight into the DEI work? Do the committees conduct open proceedings, or how does that work? And then last, how do we observe or participate in the process of creating the metrics that you mentioned are being formulated? Thank you, Jonathan. We will take any other public comment and then we move
083to follow up from public comment where cabinet or board members can speak to a particular, issues raised or at least those that we are able to do so at the time. Any other hands raised? Yeah, my recruitment Don Rodriguez, hand is raised. Okay So Mayra I'll asked Jerry to follow through with promoting you and speaking with you when you're all set. Mayra you can speak now. Hi, good evening. Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez. Thank you very much for all the information that you gave us today, particularly on DEI. I agree with the previous speaker that absolutely metrics are important. Transparency are important. These are definitely topics that the administration has covered previously. I definitely encourage you to have transparency when it comes to the compact meetings, to at least try to receive some kind of an agenda before,
084so that we understand what's being discussed. Not everybody is a member of the compact committee. Are there minutes? It's, a little bit unclear. It seems when observing some of the questions posed by the BOE members, you know, how exactly all of these objectives were chosen. So it'd be great if at some point you could describe the bid, a bit more. I'm very grateful, Dr. Hagerman and cabinet that you're having the June 22nd meeting. A lot of parents who have been invited have been involved in multicultural DEI and ability awareness committees for years. So I personally am thankful that you are including us, given the number who will attend. It would be good to know if there's going to be any documents, anything that we can read ahead of time. Obviously I'm aware of the policy.
085I'm aware of a number of the documents you've included in the agenda, but is there anything else that we should read ahead of time so that we're better prepared for this meeting? And will you be taking questions from those in attendance that would be useful to know. Thinking ahead, I know that it's a lot of work, but it would be really great, if teachers post syllabus on their website with more specific information about their classes. I spend a lot of time looking at the curriculum. And when I come to board of ed meetings, I hear about some of the wonderful topics and books that you're covering. And with all due respect, I feel that you're underselling yourself. I repeat you are underselling yourself, on the DEI work that many of you staff, teachers, administration have
086been doing for years. And it was really great to get more details on some of the books, things like that, so that we as a community are better informed. Lastly, I'd like to thank all of you who are volunteering to lead the board of ed. Needless to say, these have been challenging times and for all four of you to stand up and volunteer, I personally am grateful. Three of the people who have volunteered have never run for board of ed trustee, you were selected in a closed door nominating committee process. So voters did not have the opportunity to vet you. I respectfully asked all board members, in the new board to please do your due diligence on all of the people who have kindly volunteered, due to the ongoing issues related to the pandemic. There's
087a lot that we don't know, what may arise in terms of academic, emotional or mental challenges. We're still not very clear on how assessments will be done. So board leadership is incredibly important. We need strong and inclusive leadership. We need leaders, not only who will ask questions, but who know what to do with those answers. Given that many of the people who have volunteered, the three of you have kindly served for two years. And one of you has served for one years, one year, excuse me. We really need to know more about all of your past board experience, your leadership experience, your ability to work with such a diverse community, with opinionated parents. Yes. I think I know who I am. Many of us have become much more involved in the last year and a
088half. And so we really need leaders who have a strong track record of being inclusive and being willing to listen to all opinions, even when they may not agree with them. Thank you everybody for all your hard work. And I really appreciated today's board meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you Mayra. So no other hands are raised, but I see that Rashanah is saying just raised her hand. I saw she joined. So Jerry, if you could promote Rashanah please. Rashanah you can speak now. Hi Rashanah from Griffin Avenue. I wanted to thank Dr. Hagerman and the board for taking this important DEI work. And again, there's more clarity in this meeting then it was in the past meeting. So thank you for all your hard work. I hope to, as a stakeholder for DEI work,
089not for it to be an internal HR work, which will be an opaque exercise, but an actual external community based work. I understand that ultimately it's about the school's effort in terms of textbooks and you know, increasing transparency about, you know, different cultures and things like that. But I really want it to be a community-based work. Send out a positive climate school survey for each school. Do a deeper (indistinct) and find how communities and families feel about book climate in each building. And I think that will be really telling. As far as performance is concerned, I want them to know who will be responsible for creating these performance metrics. Is it going to be the compact committee again? Also, if we can have (indistinct) for the compact committee as it relates to DEI, to show
090the community, if and how compact committee itself is diverse, how are they represented? Selfishly, I would like to see professional development for staff and presuming competence, as it relates to neuro diversity and neuro diversity population, in this district. Again, I want to thank the board for doing this important DEI work and thank you for inviting all the DEI members on the June 22nd meeting. Thank you, got it. So no other hands are raised on the zoom, but we'll give it a few more seconds. Okay. I think you can close. All right. Seeing none, we'll close this opportunity for public comment. And again, thank all of those who have participated. We'll move to follow up to public comment. And I really am just going to let Thomas respond to the DEI work. Yeah there's so much
091to say in response to that. So again, we continue to appreciate the interest in in this work and we will do our best to continue to communicate out kind of formally both the steps that we have. Well, I would say the background that's led us to this moment, the steps that we're working on and how we plan to roll that out, kind of moving forward. I do understand that there is a community-wide interest, Scarsdale village interest in this work as well. And I think that we need to continue a strong partnership as a full community around this work, but the work that we can support as a school district, is more inward facing. And I realize that that caused a little bit of frustration for some folks. We are really working on working with children
092in our classrooms and you know, we we will be able to build from this work and eventually become more and bigger and be perhaps more community-based at some point. But just as a reminder, we have people who've been doing this work and are very passionate about it, but we have a whole lot of people who are just stepping into this work for the very first time. And we've seen this work unfold in other kinds of communities. And when people try to get too big, too fast, it doesn't always necessarily work in terms of moving an institution as complex as our school district is. And we recognize there's a lot of different viewpoints and a lot of different constituencies who are very involved in that. And so we will be as communicative as possible. We will
093certainly keep folks updated on the progress that we're making. I hope that the speakers today and others who have an interest in this are following along and watching our presentations. I think that we answered some of the questions that were brought up. There was a question about efficiencies and failures and what barriers we were erecting and try what problem we're trying to solve. Something that I heard, and I think that rather than coming from it in that particular way, I think we're talking about how to build capacities within our schools. I think as we mentioned, focusing on welcoming and affirming environments is something we've been always committed to. And now we're doing that in a more robust, thoughtful way, particularly with a lens towards equity issues and diverse backgrounds and making sure that in fact,
094every person that we want to feel included and affirmed, is actually feeling that way. And that's where the question of metrics has come in. You know, it'd be very easy for us to impose some district wide metrics around this, but we also talked about it being an authentic experience and respectful of where people are starting this process. And so, so many things in our district are really about turning it back to the practitioners and making sure that they're the ones who find this to be a meaningful experience. And so that's one of the reasons we turn the goals back over to our leveled groups and why we're turning the metrics over too, because they're going to know what's meaningful for them in a way that Edgar, I, or the community, may not necessarily know depending
095on where they are in this process. Couple of board members also brought up the idea of individualizing this. And that's something that we're very much about. We were surprised that there was so much uniformity and the goals that were selected, but I think that that tells you that in the work that we've been doing around STI professional development, building level work that are obviously are some similarities there that are creating that through-line for us. We will continue to talk. And Mayra, I thank you very much for, you hold us to task around transparency and we always appreciate that, there are agendas and things that we very much share, particularly as part of board work and anything that's shared as part of board work is also shared then with the broader community. We've made all of
096the major documents that we've been involved in, in this work available either through presentations or through other board packet materials. As we described a little bit earlier in the meeting, we do have a DEI section that's really lives under the superintendent page. That is not the right place for it, probably ultimately, and we'll be making changes and trying to archive and categorize and catalog this information in a way that makes more sense and that is more accessible. We do not share out every committee agenda out to the community at this point. And that's something we'll have to talk about for folks who are involved in this work a little bit more, but we do appreciate all of the insight, all of the thoughts. And again, I'm really look forward to partnering with both the committees
097that are currently existing and with other community partners, as we've mentioned our work with our PTC and PTA's is really vital to us making progress in this area, working with Scarsdale, Edgemont, family counseling, working with our own village and other ways to make those sort of natural connections live not only in the Scarsdale schools, but also in the broader community through parents and for other folks who are interested in this work. I probably answered a third of all those ideas that were brought up. So we would ask if the three of you could forward your remarks. I can probably try to answer those in a fuller way, either through emails or in upcoming community updates. Do you know, as Mayra asked, if there's going to be anything for this prep work for the people who
098attend 622? Thanks. Good question. Good clarification. Yes. Essentially the documentation that we've put out so far, and we've set up sort of a framework that we presented at the, I think two meetings ago with the board of education. It's the framework itself. It's the board policy, it's the introductory document from New York state department of education and our policy, I've said that. And then we will add to it now these goals that have been developed and and a statement on where we are with metrics. So that will be the background reading for this meeting and whether people have read it or not, Edgar and I have been going around as I mentioned earlier, with different groups and walking folks through that information. So our goal is to bring everybody who's involved in this work, up
099to sort of the same foundational understanding of where we are in the process right now. And then, you know, as was mentioned by a couple of our speakers, the opportunity to ask and answer questions around expectations and you know, what we reasonably expect to get done through next year and beyond. All right. And just to Mayra's question regarding board succession. Yes. You know, as I noted in the item, board members are encouraged to reach out to those members who expressed an interest in a leadership position to ask questions and discuss the possibility of that opportunity for that candidate, discuss nomination options and what have you. So please explore your leadership options. Moving on, there are wrap up items and all we really did was make sure that we're putting the gifts review on next, the
100agenda in two weeks. Any other wrap-ups that I'm missing? The meeting dates, Alison. So we have two more board coffees this year, this Wednesday, June 9th, at 5:30 with Karen and Ron. And that will take place at Scarsdale High School, at the picnic tables on Brewster Road. Sorry Alison, Is it 4:30 or 5:30, that coffee? 4:30 To 5:30. To 5:30 Oh I'm sorry. And then the final board coffee of the year will be Thursday, June 17th, six to seven. That will be with Amber and Carl also at the picnic tables at the Brewster Road entrance of Scarsdale High School. Our next meeting will be Monday, June 14th, we'll have executive session at 4:30 and that will be followed by a board retreat. And at the board retreat, the board will conduct its annual self evaluation
101in accordance with board policy 0310. Then our next meeting will be Monday, June 21st. We'll have a business meeting at 5:30 here in room 170. And then as we discussed earlier, the board reorganization and business meeting for the new board, will be held Wednesday July 7th at 3:30 here in room 170. That is a change from the previously published board schedule. So please note July 7th at 3:30. Thank you, Allison. And now we'll entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Carl and secondary, Alison seconded by Carl. End discussion, all those in favor, say aye. (collective aye.) Any opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.