BOE Business Meeting/Education Report 2021-3-22

001(upbeat music) So, good evening to everyone, joining us tonight for this budget forum and hello to those of you, of you watching later on demand. Thanks so much for taking the time to be here with us tonight, and we hope you and your families are all doing well. Thank you again to Stuart, Jeff and your team, and all of cabinet for the work and efforts to prepare these presentations. I'll note that all members of the board and cabinet are present, and we will move into the next site and the brief overview of the preliminary proposed budget, Stuart. Sure, thank you very much, Pam. As you mentioned, it is the annual budget forum this evening. So to get started, just like to overview the budget. And I think Jerry is rushing to the presentation. Here we

002go. Very good, thank you. So we can go to the next slide, thank you, Jerry. So again, this is a slide that we saw at our last meeting and none of the numbers have changed from our last iteration. So this is the last update as of today, March 22nd. So our 21-22 proposed budget stays at $166,862,755. That's a 2.56% increase, resulting in a 2.15% tax levy, a one basis point below the projected tax levy limit. It does result in the tax rate increases shown below for town of Scarsdale, 1.93% and the town of Mamaroneck, a 6.28%. I did put a little table down below showing in actual dollars, what that would mean to the average assessed home to short at $1.6 million. You could see Thomas Scarsdale, $455 and Mamaroneck, $1,460 increases. And the budget

003plan, where we show some of the offsetting revenues to the total budget. So the expenditures equals the budget and year to year, you can see that 2.56% increase about $4,166,000 million. The other revenues raised to offset that mostly there it's state aid, but also sales tax revenues, interest earnings, and the like $775,000 increase year to year. I will say in that we do not have any updated state aid numbers. We did see the release of the, from Senator Schumer's office, a projected $546,000 increased due to the federal aid, but we have not received any information on now how that would be given out to school districts, whether it be a supplant of money or supplement any aids. So we really need to wait to see how that will come out. I know the assembly has

004also submitted their budget and also the senate has submitted their budget. So we do hope hopefully here in the next week or so, it's supposed to be April 1st. I have to have the final numbers. And then once we have that, we could update our state aid. As you recall, we did have a $900,000 pandemic adjustment, and I would anticipate anything that we received an additional, additional aid would really drop down and fall down to fund balance. As you recall, we've done a large transfer to fund balance this earlier this year, we anticipate drawing down on more fund balance next year. So we're well, well below that 3% threshold, well the 4% threshold and we're actually below 3%. So we would like to get back up to the three and a half to 3.75% on

005our on assigned fund balance. Again, as we go out for future borrowings, that will definitely help our credit rating. Transfer from reserves, that's largely a debt service reserve transfer with that in this budget plan helps offset the expense associated with the auditorium park project, that phase two way A, about $485,000. That assigned fund balance and right there, you can see that increase $475,000 at base level that we try to keep year to year is $1.1 million. So you can see that 2.2 is actually, quite a bit higher than that. The large $800,000 of that is part of our, our COVID plan for future. If needed PPE expenses and any staffing needs along with the summer enrichment program. You take away those revenues from that top line, the total budget, and that's what's needed to raise,

006be raised and taxes or the tax levy. So $154,374,000 or a 2.15% increase year to year. And a reminder of our accomplishments for this budget plan for the 21-22 school year. It certainly maintains all the high quality teaching and learning consistent with the strategic plan. Dr. McIntosh presented to this in budget session, number two and throughout all of our budget presentations. Implements a COVID-19 budget strategy, which I just spoke about, continues to advance the instructional opportunities for our students with disabilities, maintains a commitment and comprehensive approach to our safety security emergency management plan, elevates the district cleaning protocols and all of our elementary buildings by adding 5.0 FTE cleaners, one for each of those buildings. And it continues and is consistent with improving and upgrading our facilities with our, our capital plan. And you can

007see, as we've worked our way through the budget's discussion timeline, we started our conversations, you know, back in November, publicly, anyways, with holding our first budget forum, where we opened up the floor and listened to comments. And certainly prior to that, all of our internal work. In December, in December we looked at our year end projections and talked about our budget development process. First meeting in the new calendar year, we talked about, or any staff and recommendations and a draft budget number at that point followed up by our last three budget sessions, leading to where we are this evening. And that's it, thank you. Thank you so much, Stuart. Are we leaving the screen down for public comment? We are, okay. So the next item on the agenda would be the opportunity for community responses

008to this draft preliminary proposed budget. So members of the public are invited to speak at the podium about this budget. There's no time limit, and we're gonna ask people in the audience to come first. Oh, it's staying down. It should stay down, please. Let's just what, Jerry said. Can they see us, Jerry? The speakers here in person, it might be. I can say, I don't know whether asking people. So Leanne, you go ahead and state your name and address and if you're representing an organization. And as long as we can be seen, Jerry. Okay, go ahead. Okay, can you hear me? Yes. Leanne Frieda 51 Palmer Avenue, and I'm speaking on behalf of the Scarsdale high school, PTA executive committee, as well as our budget chair, Lauren Grossberg. The Scarsdale high school PTA executive committee

009appreciates the efforts of the district administration and board of education, in preparing a budget that is fiscally responsible while facing the complexity of stewarding our schools throughout this pandemic. We thank the members of the board of education for their dedication, and for giving us this opportunity to comment on the proposed 2021, 2022 school district budget. We are grateful that this budget plan contemplates a return to full-time in-person learning, for all our students this September. We know that in-person instruction will begin to alleviate the so social isolation and emotional challenges that our students have been experiencing. This unprecedented year, however, has left its mark upon the wellbeing of our high school students and faculty. Health experts have identified an alarming, increased incidents of mental health disorders, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder. We

010also recognize that even our most well adjusted students are suffering from emotional loss. Some have lost milestone moments, relationships or loved ones. Others have lost, lost a sense of purpose and engagement. A return to full-time in-person instruction, we'll undoubtedly reveal, increased numbers of students who are struggling and need support services, suggesting the need for additional resources to be budgeted for the upcoming 2021-22 cycle. Our school district has an exceptionally talented team of mental health professionals, who we thank for their dedication and ceaseless work, identifying and supporting students, who are coping with mental health issues. We asked the board of education and the district administration to carefully anticipate the work that lies ahead and allocate adequate human and financial resources to both address the immediate needs of students, struggling with mental health. and enable the delivery

011of school-wide programs and services aimed at fostering growth and resilience in all of our students. It has been said, that out of adversity comes opportunity. Then Franklin, we urged the board and district administration to seize this opportunity by demonstrating their commitment complete health and wellbeing of our students and staff. One of the pillars of the district's strategic plan, by providing adequate funds for this coming year. Separately, the PTA executive committee supports the addition of a full-time special education teacher, to serve the increasing numbers of students who qualify for learning resource center support. This staffing addition will further our resolve to preserve small class sizes and ensure that students of all learning styles are able to access the general curriculum and thus benefit from a Scarsdale education. This addition will also further the stated goal of

012keeping our districts special education students in the Scarsdale school district. We applaud the board for continuing to place all our students at the center of budget planning. We further support the addition of a four FTE speech and language pathologist at the high school, which will convert the current part-time position to full-time. This is not only necessary to accommodate the numbers of students requiring the service, but will afford those students, the suitable modality and amount of service they need. Converting the staff position to a full-time position will also ensure that the district not only be able to find qualified candidates, but we'll be able to retain them. We recognize that this may not be the optimal time or budget year to advocate for the complete renovation of the high school auditorium. However, we remind the board

013and the community that the high school auditorium is one of the most highly used facilities in the entire district and has been slated for renovation for over 10 years. The high school PTA fully supports the continued renovation of the high school auditorium in economically controlled phases and tax neutral as contemplated by the proposed budget. We are grateful to the board and the administration for including phase one of this renovation in the budget for the current school year, which we understand will include most of the repairs related to safety, such as rigging and electrical upgrades. Thank you to the administration and in particular, Stuart Mattey for allocating a portion of the debt service reserve fund to phase two eight of the auditorium project. Which will include replacement of the stage lighting with energy efficient led fixtures,

014enabling the district to recoup this cost over time and which we remind everyone will have zero impact on the tax levy. We urge the district and the board to keep the continuation of the high school auditorium renovation at the forefront of future budget planning, until it is fully completed as envisioned. The Scarsdale high school PTA executive committee supports the 20-2122 budget, but urges the board to consider, whether adequate mental health resources exist in the proposed budget. And if not amend the budget to allocate additional resources to address the emotional and mental health of our students. We thank the board and the district administration for budgeting within the tax cap, while maintaining its investment in the core values, which comprise the excellence of the Scarsdale schools. Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you, Leanne. Are there

015any other members in our audience, who would like to speak at this point? Well go ahead and name and address and if you, represent an organization, thanks. I, thank you. My name is Jennifer Rossano. I live at 31 Sycamore road and I'm speaking behalf myself. I've been involved with student wellbeing initiatives in Scarsdale for more than 10 years. Most recently I've had the opportunity to collaborate with staff at the high school. I'm sitting on the Scarsdale high school wellness steering committee, and also I've worked with Leanne and other PTA executive committee members to raise awareness of the importance of student well-being. Throughout the COVID health crisis, I have observed extraordinary skill and dedication on the part of our district mental health staff in serving the needs of our children across all of our schools. Certainly

016the health and wellbeing of everybody in our school community has been at the forefront of all of our minds this past year, more than ever before. The effects of COVID have been pervasive. Our students, faculty and parents have all been impacted. When we returned to full-time in-person instruction in April, our teachers and students will be returning, wearing face masks coverings, unable to fully read one another or communicate in the normal empathetic ways that teachers and students so often do with a smile or a tap on the shoulder or a high five. Our students moving forward are going to be socially and emotionally burdened in new ways, adding to perhaps the already existing anxiety, loneliness, lack of engagement, which many of our students have been experiencing over the past year. Our mental health professionals, whether remote

017or in person continue to deliver extraordinary support. Screening prevention and intervention, occupies the focus of these professionals and rightly so. I hope though that the board of education and the district have accurately anticipated the clinical needs of our students, recognizing for the potential of an uptick in service needs. If there's any year in which we should plan for additional mental health staffing staffing, this would be it. I would also like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of wellbeing education for all of our students coming out of this pandemic. How does the board and the district intend to move forward on the wellbeing goals, that are laid out in the 2019, 2024 strategic plan. As parents and educators, one thing we have observed in the past year is just how difficult it is for

018students to access their education without wellbeing. Teachers cannot teach at their best without wellbeing. Parents cannot parent optimally without wellbeing. Perhaps a good first step is for us to all discuss and define what well-being is. Well-being is not simply the absence of mental health illness, or the absence of emotional problems. Wellbeing is not the same as SEL, social and emotional learning. Although SEL is a component of wellbeing. Nor is wellbeing the same as wellness, which tends to focus more on behavioral health, such as physical activity and nutrition, all of which do contribute to wellbeing. Wellbeing is a multifaceted concept that embraces all of these factors and more such as engagement, a sense of purpose and relationships. Scarsdale is making some meaningful progress to foster the complete mental health and wellbeing of our students, on a

019school by school teacher, by teacher basis. Wellbeing education has developed organically, as things often do here in Scarsdale. In pockets, across the K-12 experience, for example, the SEL programs in the elementary school and the character and strength based education programs in the middle school. In all these types of programs and curriculum help our students develop the kind of resiliency, grit, and optimism that we as parents and educators wish for them. Lifelong skills that we know are critical to their academic and personal success. I wonder how the board and the district will be supporting and encouraging, this type of work going forward. In order to foster more alignment and consistency of the K-12 student experience in this area, I would ask the board in the district to consider additional resources or reallocating existing ones, so that

020you have the ability to fulfill the intention for wellbeing that is articulated in the strategic plan. I also urge the board in the district to ensure that you consult with the experts, that we have within our field or seek those externally if needed. And all of those efforts will help to create an environment where our teachers and our administrators can find an easier way to embedding wellbeing across school, curriculum, community and culture. And finally, I asked for the board in the district to continue to work toward greater transparency in making wellbeing, a goal of a Scarsdale education. Thank you, Jen. Any other members in our audience, who would like to speak at the podium? I don't see any, right, okay. So the next thing would be to go to the Zoom attendees and I'm going

021to promote Diane Baylor, who has her hand up. So maybe I can promote her. It's only allowing me to chat with her. So Rachel, is going to promote you. And you'll unmute mute and everything, Rachel. So Diane, you just need to respond and unmute yourself. There you go, okay Diane, name and address and organization, please. So we can't hear her one second, Diane, we're gonna work on that. And you also want us to promote Chris Marks, is that what she said? I'm guessing yes. Chris Marks is an attendee with hand raised and then we just want the audio different. Okay, Diane good. Okay, so we'll introduce ourselves and then, I will speak first Chris will mute himself while I'm speaking, and then I will do the same when he speaks, is that okay? That's fine.

022So this is Diane Baylor 31 Kohani road. And Chris Marks, 28 Sichar Road. And we are speaking as the PT council budget study co-chairs on behalf of the entire PT council executive committee. The PT council executive committee and the PT council budget study chairs. Thank the district administration and board of education for once again, incorporating the November budget overview and preview. And today's community budget forum in the schedule. We also thank the administration for responding to our many written questions about the preliminary budget proposal. We value the administration's efforts to update the current budget development page on the district website, to post promptly the most recent recordings of board meetings and to maintain the historical files for the community's reference and edification. We welcomed the boards March 15, 2021 email to community group leaders on

023matters concerning that budget. And appreciate the message as a first step in implementing the recommendation by the board's committee on community engagement, we encourage both the administration and the board to utilize additional proactive measures earlier in the budget development process to gather feedback, not just from community leaders but also parents, students and individuals in the community. We suggest earlier targeted outreach to ascertain community priorities and taxpayer tolerance, particularly for new recurring or significant one-time expenditures. Such efforts are essential for obtaining community support and will benefit all parties by leaving sufficient time in the process to refine plans, in the event of community resistance, to particular components of the budget. As we have expressed previously, the current practice of waiting until the date of the board meeting or budget study session to post agendas and materials

024typically does not allow us sufficient time or process oriented community groups, to digest and reflect on the information and craft a thoughtful response for the evening's public comment period and board discussion. Reverting to past practice of posting agendas and supporting documents, no later than the Friday before the Monday meetings would address that issue and perhaps foster a more informed and measured public response from all those wishing to be heard. Similarly, just as many teachers and students have implemented asynchronous learning opportunities this year, we encourage the administration and board to consider the utility to the community of recording and making the full series of budget presentations available on demand in advance of the budget study sessions. We acknowledged the administrations and boards cautious approach to budgeting, for the many unknowns of the pandemic school year. We

025also appreciate the attention to minimizing spikes and dips that would impact the taxpayers. We support the continued use of fund balance only for non-recurring surprises, and the calculated decision to discontinue past practice of relying on surplus to fund anticipated or annual costs. We encourage the district to restore the unassigned fund balance back to the recommended levels of close to the 4% limit, as soon as practicable. The PTC executive committee fully supports the addition of the 1.0 elementary special education teacher the 1.0 high school, special education teacher, the 0.4 high school speech pathologist and the 0.2 middle school psychologist, secretary position to support our most vulnerable student populations. Given the many competing budgetary needs, we are not unified in opinion, about the decision to prioritize the proposed addition of five full-time elementary school cleaners, as an

026annually recurring staffing measure after the pandemic is over. We are concerned by the deferment of so many long standing capital projects, until the 2026-27 bond and the noticeable decline in the percent of the budget allocated annually towards capital projects. The district has an aging infrastructure and a long wishlist of requested improvements. The PTC executive committee, thanks you for providing an updated plan for the high school auditorium. However, we continue to advocate for a public facilities master plan, updating it in real time, consisting of a running list of the many other capital projects under consideration, projected costs and rationales. The wishlist of past years has included items such as the high school and choice buildings. The high school learning resource center, multipurpose space and fitness center expansion at the middle school, large group spaces for collaborative

027work between elementary classrooms, food preparation areas at elementary schools that lack kitchens, playground renovations, classroom case storage and furniture and the heath coat office. More recently additional building level requests have also included lockers, ventilation improvements, outdoor group spaces for instruction and technology classroom and library improvements at the middle school. The upcoming building condition survey, may identify yet additional items. District-wide public discussion is appropriate for ascertaining, whether how, and when to address these facilities wants and needs. We encourage the district to identify potential energy savings from changes to heating, cooling, lighting and other equipment. While we understand the decision this past year to pause the district sustainability committee exploration of long-term cooling solutions, alternative energy sources, environmentally friendly food service and waste disposal practices, EG feasibility and utility of reintroduction of dishwashers in lieu of compostable

028plates and utensils composting on site. We are eager for the district to resume its efforts during the next year, we look forward to hearing the districts recommendations and proposed funding for these plans. The PTC executive committee or just the administration and board to reconsider implementing the transportation study that had been recommended, included yet ultimately removed from the budget several times in the past few cycles. This study could yield future savings by identifying potential areas, for efficiencies and could likewise have a positive nonfinancial impact for our families, if done in coordination with village efforts to improve traffic congestion and safety for student pedestrians and bicyclists going to and from school on village roads. These longstanding problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic related reduction, in student use of bus transportation. A thorough exploration of efficiencies to

029be gained through incentivizing expanded bus ridership when safe to do so, as well as adjustments to routes and mileage limits is overdue. We encourage district to collaborate with the village on issues surrounding improved (murmurs) reception in and around the schools and to reinstate the discussions that have been put on hold this past year. We support the districts funding of a summer program and using internal experts and hiring external consultants to help evaluate the social, emotional and academic impact of the pandemic on students. We encourage the district to be transparent with the results of such evaluation and to ensure it has satisfactory staff to address the identified storefronts and issues. Similarly, in light of pandemic case and changes to the use of standardized test scores and the college admissions process and the elimination of the college

030boards SAT two tests, next year does appear to be an opportune time to review the AT program and revisit the AT vs AP decision as the district has planned. The district has benefited from shrewd technology budgeting practices, securing favorable grants and leases to fund equipment needs. We hope that district's efforts to harness benefits and efficiencies born out of necessity during the pandemic such as improved attention to digital literacy and increased collaboration and communication among the administration, faculty and staff will have lasting effects after the pandemic ends. The increases to the athletic expenditures of the past few years have undoubtedly enhanced safety and improve the experience for members of certain high school sports teams. Nevertheless, in light of the many non-athletic budgetary requests that did make, that did not make the final cut or their scrutiny

031may be warranted to ensure that extracurricular high school activities are funded appropriately relative to the needs of academic curriculum programs and non-athletic extracurricular clubs. And that school teams are funded equitably across sports and genders. Thank you in advance for taking our comments into consideration. As you finalize the budget, we appreciate your openness to feedback, your increased focus on community engagement and your impressive dedication and efforts in a year that has tested everyone's limits. Thank you very much, Chris and Diane. Susie, you're next, and Rachel, we'll promote you to panelist and then ask you to unmute yourself. Hi, good evening, my name is Suzzie Hon. I live at 7 Cornell street and I'm speaking tonight as the school portfolio chair of the league of women voters of Scarsdale. The league of women, voters of Scarsdale thanks

032members of the board of education and district administration for participating in a panel at the leagues general membership meeting and school budget information session and addressing on the proposed school budget 2021-22 on March 11th, 2021 via Zoom. The following statement reflects the consensus of leagues members at a consensus meeting held immediately following the information session, position. The league supports the Scarsdale school district proposed budget for 2021-22, and recommends that the community vote yes to approve the proposed budget on Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 at Scarsdale middle school. The league of offers it's comments and recommendations regarding certain budgetary items, as well as the budget process, which we hope will be considered as this year's budget is revised and finalized and in future budgets. Budget overview and noteworthy features. The proposed budget is $166,862,755 with a budget

033to budget increase of 2.56% and a tax levy growth of 2.15%. For the administration, the estimated taxpayer impact for the current average assessed property valued at $1,595,700 would be $455 for Scottsdale residents representing a 1.93% tax rate increase, and $1,460 from a Mamaroneck residence, representing a 6.28% tax rate increase. According to the demonstration, the budget accomplishes the following, maintenance of high quality teaching and learning consistent with the strategic, strategic plan, implementation of the COVID 19 budget strategy, advancement of in-district instructional opportunities for students with disabilities, continuation of a comprehensive approach to safety, security and emergency management, enhancement of district cleaning protocols at all elementary schools and the improvement and upgrade of facilities. The proposed budget reflects a 7.6 FTE net increase district wide from 2020 to 21. This includes a 1.0 FTE special education integrated

034co-teacher at the elementary level, a 1.0 FTE special education learning resource center teacher at the high school, a 0.4 FTE speech teacher at the high school, a 0.2 FTE psychologist, secretary at the middle school and five FTE cleaners, one at each elementary school. Commendations, the league acknowledges with appreciation the substantial time and effort that goes into developing the proposed budget. And thanks the administration and board for their additional efforts spent in preparing for our March 11th information session. The league would like to commend the panel at this year's league information session for their participation. Additionally, the league commence the administration for making the budget book available early in the budget development process. The budget book allows a comprehensive view of the myriad components of the budget. And through this tool, there's an enhanced understanding of

035the budget itself. The league is also appreciative that the administration continues to include league budget questions, and administration responses on the district website as a public resource. Comments and recommendations, the assigned fund balance and reserves. The league supports the general approach to budgeting, to ensure the stability of school finances and appreciates the administration's acknowledgement that the un-designated fund balance at a projected 2.8%, which would be the lowest level it's been since 2006, 2007 is a concern. As discussed at the information session, the league understands that the administration is aware of the low fund balance and supports their stated goal of replenishing the fund balance as soon as it is reasonable possible to do so. The league notes that as recently as 2015, the administration with the support of the community took measures to be balanced

036and stabilize the budget and thereby address the 2014 Moody's downgrade that was related to the declining fund balance and over-reliance on non-recurring revenue. Furthermore, the league understands that the credit rating can be negatively affected, if either the undesignated reserve or total fund balance drops below a certain threshold, an important factor and the ability to issue bonds in the future. COVID contingency plan. The league board appreciates the administration's forethought and implementing a COVID contingency plan within the 2021-22 proposed budget. This includes an $800,000 allocation and budgetary appropriations, funded by assigned fund balance with no tax impact as follows, $220,000 for additional staffing of 2.0 FTE teachers for remote learning supplemented by an additional 1.0 FTE contingent as part of the regular budget, $330,000 for unanticipated non-recurring costs associated with COVID-19, including instructional or general support type

037expenses and $250,000 for the introduction of an elementary summer enrichment program, 2021. The League hopes, that the administration will continue to plan proactively for different possible scenarios next year, including the likelihood that students will not be fully vaccinated, at least in the fall. Busing students safely with recommended social distancing, mitigation, traffic and safety issues at the schools should students elect to forego busing and the logistics of lunch service are of particular concern. The league recognizes, that the unpredictability of the virus, combined with changing and conflicting create many challenges and appreciates the extremely hard work of all involved in COVID planning. The league would like to acknowledge the foresight of the administration and offering a summer enrichment program. In light of lost instructional time due to this past year as hybrid and remote learning models. The

038league encourages the administration to proactively engage in outreach to students who might benefit the most from its summer enrichment program. Beyond the summer, the league encourages the administration to clearly and proactively communicate a plan to assess and address the student needs that have emerged as a result of schooling during a global pandemic. The league is concerned that particularly in light of remote and hybrid learning this past year, students at all grade levels may need additional support on multiple fronts. This may vary from social emotional to academic and the league encourages the administration to continue to monitor and support students as needed. Staffing and support of most social, emotional and mental health of students. The league notes that a Scarsdale education has long been regarded as a leader amongst its peers. And we recommend that the

039administration continue to aspire to educational leadership. The league notes that the administration continues to support the elementary class size policy and the middle school house structure. The league continues to recommend, supporting traditional class sizes and norms at all levels in order to ensure a classroom environment, most conducive to student learning and the achievement of the administration's national goals, as outlined in the strategic plan. The league reiterate that classroom teachers are the first line of defense in regarding, in regard to observing students' social, emotional issues and a teacher's ability to detect and address problems or refer the student to a counselor, must be supported by appropriate staffing. The league is concerned about students' social, emotional and mental health needs being met as we move into the next school year. And we encourage the administration to continue

040to be examined the social emotional needs of all students. In addition, the league recommends that the administration and board continue to provide appropriate staffing to protect the high academic standards of the high school. In light of conversations regarding students' social, emotional issues at the high school, the league is concerned about increased student per dean guidance, counselor ratio. And we asked the administration to look more closely at the trend. The league believes staffing should be reflective of an underlying high school culture that supports academic choice, allows each student to forge a personal connection to an educator and provides a safe, healthy environment in which students can develop and grow. The league continues to encourage the administration to communicate proactively and clearly with the parent community and the community at large, regarding the importance of supporting special

041education students in Scarsdale schools. We would like the administration to continue to address appropriate staffing needs as current elementary age, special education students move through the Scarsdale school system, and to support needed staff adequately as enrollment in special education continues to trend higher and more in line with neighboring districts. Plan and capital improvements. The total plan and capital improvements budget for 2021-22 is $1,115,000. This is $374,000 less than the prior year combined capital and maintenance plan improvement budgets, and $1,429,000 less than the 2019-20 year. Especially in light of COVID expenses and future revenue uncertainties, this conservative approach for 2021-22 seems to prudence. However, the league would like to reiterate from past statements, that given that several of our schools were built over a century ago, thoughtful facilities planning and capital improvement are of utmost importance.

042Our buildings must maintain and enhance student learning and be safe, sustainable and flexible spaces, able to support 21st century innovation and future programs. The league appreciates the administration's work, evaluating air quality and flow in our schools and supplementing with HEPA units and areas as needed. The league encourages the administration to continue prioritizing upgrades to HPAC systems as planned at Edward, Fox meadow and Scarsdale high school, and continue exploring both traditional and innovative cooling solutions. The league appreciates the administration pursuing green energy, such as the led lighting included in the Edgewood and Fox Meadow hallways, including in the 2021-22 plan improvement budget, which will help to offset carbon footprint impact of increased air conditioning. Curriculum, instruction and assessment. The league value Scarsdale schools, educational leadership. The preservation of educational leadership requires a strong and proactive commitment

043to continuously enhance our educational plan, K-12 while keeping the community informed. The league appreciates the administration's anticipation that assessment of impacts of this past year will guide the work in this area going forward, and encourages the administration to communicate clearly and proactively its assessments and plans to the school community. The proposed staff and curriculum development budget line is $1,510,927 a budget, a budget increase of 7.61% and a proposed budget to projected expense increase of $228,180,417 0.79%. The league encourages the administration to continue to pursue goals and wellness and especially commends the work being done to incorporate values of diversity, equity and inclusion into the curriculum. Advocacy, as per the board president, the board has liaisons to both the New York state school board association and the Westchester Putnam school board association. It was further indicated

044that other board members, including the board presidents have attended virtual meetings with elected representatives and have attended webinars on critical advocacy topics, such as COVID-19 obstacles and recovery, public education funding for the New York state education budget and cost containment. The board is not currently engaged in advocacy at the federal level. The league appreciates the board's efforts to increase its level of advocacy this year. However, the league continues to strongly encourage the board and the administration as a whole, to be leaders in advocacy at both the state and local levels. The league strongly recommends that the administration and board continue to monitor the many legislative issues that currently affect Scarsdale schools and public schools in general. Budget process and community engagement. The league commends the board for creating the opportunity for continued public input into

045the budget. The league believes that a more complete picture of community feedback combined with relevant expert opinions and research will serve to enhance board decisions on complex issues and their implementation. This will then serve to facilitate community understanding and appreciation of Scarsdale schools. The league appreciates the board's efforts to open new avenues of engagement, with all stakeholders in the community, through the formation of a community engagement subcommittee. Furthermore, the league supports efforts to engage in board coffees or focus groups as discussed by the board at our information. The league strongly encourages the board to continue to work, to be proactive and transparent, to ensure community trust in the board process. We thank all members of the administration and board for consideration of our statement. The league looks forward to the release of the board's final

046budget iteration resulting from having considered community comments, thank you. Thank you, Suzzie and thank you (indistinct). And Myra, Rachel we'll promote you. Hi, good evening. Are you able to hear me? Yes, go ahead, Myra. Great, good evening. MITRE Kurkendahl Rodriguez sparks meadow budget liaison. Thank you for, thank you very much for your multiple study sessions to enable Fox metal residence and indeed all of Scarsdale residents listen to how the District creates a budget to meet your strategic and educational objectives. In my role as Fox motor budget liaison, I solicited feedback from parents staff, the Fox Metro administration via the Fox Metro newsletter and via multiple local Scarsdale social media sites. I spoke to a few parents, a few of them emailed me and I also communicated of course, with our PTA president and, and our

047principal and assistant principal, Madame Feinberg, (murmurs) and the eyes follow-up. For the rest, for the record I'd respectfully like to share the feedback and questions I received. A few parents wanted to clarify on when Fox Meadow would be renovated. And whether that capital project has to wait until 2026, 2027, when the current bond matures. It would be good to know a more detailed timeline for Fox Meadow classroom renovation. Would they take place only after the current bond victors, what pools the district have to head, against any kind of risks that might arise such as a rise in interest rates by the time that the, that new bond would be issued. A few parents stated that this core responsibility is very important, especially, especially given job losses and income declines in our community. A few parents

048also mentioned continued interest and longterm financial model and plan. And yes, Mr. Mattey, you know, that that also includes my husband and me. Very specific to our budgetary needs Fox Meadow lockers in the old wing need refurbishing, given social distancing lockers are needed more than ever. Space in the classrooms will be impacted even more with students having their proposed sweaters and backpack in the classroom. Some areas in the hallways are very dark and I thank you, Mr. Mattey for having emailed me that there is an led lighting project for the hallways. In addition, our principal and assistant vice principal recommended that perhaps, hallways could be painted in lighter colors and together with the led project, this would certainly help give the hallways a fresher look and make them a lot less dark. Also faculty bathrooms

049need repairs and they need to be painted, student bathrooms in the old wing also need to be updated. A lot of classrooms as you do need updates and they need to be painted, this task indeed might be part the bigger kind of renovating this five-year old school, with the school loan. (indistinct) up in the back before there (Indistinct) had been a fun create a mindful garden to enhance learning this project, unfortunately was put on hold. Myra, I just wanna let you know, we're having a little trouble hearing you, so it just disappeared just recently. Okay. That's good, that's good. Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, should I just, well, I'll just continue and then I'll send this in writing. So I had been talking about the student bathrooms and the old wing needing updating

050the faculty bathrooms need repairs, the black top in the back of the need refurbishing. Last year, there had been a plan to create mindful garden to enhance learning. And the project was put on hold, due to the COVID crisis. The old multi-purpose room needs to be painted, the kitchen and the old multi-purpose room specifically needs renovations and especially the countertop. And also many of the water fountains were removed as part of COVID risk mitigation. So there was a question as to whether they need to be replaced for the fall. And some of the fountains were indeed shut off for drinking and can only be used for water bottle refills. Another question that was posed is whether, we have numbers from the district on planned expenses or the district's diversity and inclusion curriculum presented by Dr.

051McIntosh, how will these expenses be allocated for school. Presently, there is one set of diversity and inclusion books from the district list. And those are at the principal's office, is not a plan for any budgetary allocation. So the teachers could have had some of those diversity inclusion books in their classrooms. And lastly, has the district received any numbers about how rising home sales in Scarsdale, what that might mean for enrollment changes for school? Might had influenced faculty the next year. Thank you very much for all your hard work on the budget, goodnight. Thank you, Myra. Are there any other community members, who would like to speak via the Zoom? I don't see any hands raised at this time. So I'll close the opportunity for public comment on the preliminary proposed budget, and we move to

052the next item, which is board discussion, but I'm guessing you might wanna start that off by maybe, speaking to some of the concepts that were raised by the public, and then the board can kind of ask questions off of them if you want. Or do you really just want to do more questions? Normally we respond to the public a bit. Is there anything you want to. I mean there's a lot. There's a lot there. (laughs) I could guide you or, I mean, we're very appreciative for all those comments. We do look forward to getting them in writing. Absolutely. But maybe a little bit on the mental health, you know, that are we definitely very comfortable? What kind of intent do we have in terms of adequate funds and paying attention to that? You wanna start

053there? Sure, our art guidance, counselors, deans, social workers and counselors, or psychologists are meeting regularly to discuss students, discuss upcoming or kids who are new to the counseling world due to pandemic related difficulties and consistently reporting back what their needs and what their engagements are. I think, as I said, in the last budget session, we are comfortable with the total number of FTEs that have for next year. That being said, we would be able to bring in additional counseling resources, in the form of consultant counselors if we ever got to a point where we needed additional counseling help. We could also look to engaging some of our counselors in more larger, larger format ways, seeing multiple kids in more teaching aspects. Right now we do think we are in good shape for next year, but

054obviously we're keeping our, our thumb on the pulse of what's going on. Is there a education report related to mental health among us that we do on a regular basis during the year I forget? Usually we have a special ed\ student services education report that did not happen this year, but we, would hope we get back to that early into next year. So early in the fall, there'll be something that's really a good, like transient clarity on where you are. It would be worth getting started and having that, you know, it after the first quarter to see where we are, as far as everyone coming back in a more normalized way in September. Okay, can I ask a question related to that? Yes. How, how will we proactively assess that? Like what will we do?

055So earlier this year we've sent out surveys to students. Our, each school is assessing their need to additionally survey students directly and families, but also working with teachers and talking with teachers during team meetings, faculty meetings asking proactively asking for those teachers to, you know, refer any students that are having difficulty with, our CST teams are meeting and looking at students whose attendance might be might've fallen off or might be having more difficulty than they used too. Assistant principals, principals and deans and guidance counselors we're looking at student grades as, as also an indicator of the way they're performing. Are they seeing a dropping grades? Are they seeing a spike in grades while they're at home? And you know, what are some of the things that, that could, that could mean. Any other board discussion

056on wellness, wellbeing, mental? Yeah. I don't remember which speaker brought it up, but somebody mentioned the student to Dean ratio has that changed over the years? How does that look? The students at Dean ratio, fluctuates with the amount of students in the high school. It has stayed relatively steady as our, as our high school population has stayed relatively steady. Okay, so maybe, so I think where we're staying here is that you believe you're adequate, you're looking ahead, you're anticipating, you'll be assessing you understand the value. There's a possibility that you could make changes during the year as necessary. That's correct. Okay, something else, the transportation study, Stuart. I know that you spoke a bit about that already and why that's being put on hold again. Yeah, it's certainly not forgotten, but just putting it on

057hold for another year. And I would very well imagine it'd be part of our 22 or 23 proposed budget. Just really try to get back to a normal level of operating next year. Give a chance for, to get back to a norm and see what we have, see how it operates, give a chance to do an RFP for a transportation study and then, have it in the budget for the next year. And then with capital projects, the building conditions that's gearing up to have that done in the fall. Yeah, so I mean, it definitely is a, a lower number for plan improvement and transfer to capital. And I would say a couple of things to that are a few things. One is we have some of the traditional plant improvements we sort of built into

058our regular budget. One off the top of my head, is the painting where we used to have sort of a district-wide painting number in that plant improvement and we've built it right into our regular budget. I feel like we have a better, it's really controlled by the facilities department. And internally we used to sort of farm that out to the buildings and they would sort of lead us point to different areas. We still work with the buildings, but we controlled on a district wide rotational basis. And we make sure that we have adequate funding into the budget, both internal. So we really focused on common spaces. So we heard, a one comment about a multi-purpose room. So those are the areas that we began to focus on to make sure that our buildings are pleasing

059when they walk in and don't sort of stand out or one building looks better than another building. And also now we've done classrooms and all that sort of in the regular budget. Another item that is sort of naturally decreasing is the roofing number. And we talked about that a little bit. We're replacing a lot of our roofs. So that number is naturally decreasing. So that that's a great thing are able to allocate those dollars to different parts of the budget if necessary or, you know, put back into the regular plant budget. And I would say the other major thing of why that number's a little lower is, we had a $64 million bond project. So those projects have been ongoing for the last couple of years. They'll continue into the summer of 2022. Not only

060is it a massive undertaking internally for our facilities teams and within the buildings, as far as the ability to take on other projects, but also really ticked off a lot of the boxes on our last iteration of the BCS list. If you recall, that was primarily an infrastructure project other than green acres, it was doing that a lot of the nuts and bolts things that have been sort of put aside for the last 30 years. So those are the, really the primary reasons why that number is a little bit lower. And then in combination with the new BCS building condition study coming up here late summer, ready for presentation in the fall, that really be our guiding tool to look forward to not only future planning, proven projects on an annual basis, but also sort

061of that building basis for the next bond project as well. Thanks Stuart, do board members have some thoughts or questions about the proposed budget related to capital improvement, plan improvement, facilities work? Another thing maybe brought up Edgar, you might wanna maybe clarify where, on UC dollars in the budget specifically related to multiculturalism or the promotion of diversity equity inclusion efforts, it was mentioned, you know, there's PD, there's STI courses, there's curricular changes in textbooks, kind of scattered throughout the budget. Yeah, absolutely, in fact, there are, there is money allocated for each one of the elementary schools. Several thousand dollars for the inclusion of books that reflect diversity inclusion and equity. Can I ask about that? I know we keep saying really great books coming into the high school classroom. How about the high school library,

062what's being done? You know, part of my presentation the other day, actually I got the, the slides or I got the pictures of the books from the high school library because the high school librarians were doing a presentation to the faculty of all the books that they had that reflected diversity, equity and inclusion. So it's a big interest and it's a push there that they're, they're, they're moving to make their, their shelves more diverse. And also to actively share out those books with their teachers so that they can share them with their, their students. To leave the middle school out. Assuming that's, I'm assuming that's true at the middle school as well. Yeah, as well, yeah. I'm in the middle schools as well there are classroom libraries that many of the teachers have in which,

063they're stocking those shelves with books that both reflect and mirrors and windows and prisms. And then it seems, you know, we have a lot of speakers who come in and work with our faculty and speak to our students related to multiculturalism diversity, equity and inclusion. So those dollars are in grant areas or. They are, there's a, there's a budget line in which we have an interdependence institute that looks to find and vet and discuss ways that we can connect with speakers and provide programming around that. Anthony Ray Hinton, part of his, his funding and support came from the interdependence Institute, which is part of the curriculum office. Thank you, do board members have any discussion points related to DEI multiculturalism or something that's brought up by speaker. I'll also note that a lot of our

064speakers supported the staffing investments, the cleaners and the, the special ed and the, the secretary and the increase to the full-time or the high school. So that was really wonderful to hear. Does the board have any discussion, any thoughts on staffing? Is there anything else that came up from the comments that people want to talk about? I mean, there's a lot of great things. There's a lot of confirmations of the work, a lot of understanding of things that maybe we've paused, but that we're focusing on doing, getting back from 2.8% to higher all of that commitment. I wanted to bring up the question on, on the revenue side. On the school aid projections that came out of Senator Schumer's office. Do you know why there's so much discrepancy in terms of how much each school

065district gets? How, how are those numbers calculated. from our understanding is based on title one. So based on school need basically how much federal aid is going to those districts were title one funds, Scottsdale, similar to other wealthier districts in comparison, you know, what had been on the lower end of receiving those dollars, which is why you such as, saw such a wide swing between districts in the area and, and a Scarsdale or a proximal or a Harrison. (indistinct) I'm looking at the list, it seemed to me that there were some districts that we would consider comparable that we're getting far more aid than we were getting. And I was wondering how that came to be. It could be by the number of title one funds that they particularly generate compared to Scarsdale. You know,

066that would be really the only thing that we saw as driving. I don't think Jeff, I don't know if he saw anything different on that. Yeah, I think that's our best order and it's really difficult because we really haven't seen any detail on that. Neither we have something maybe you have No, no, really only the only thing we saw was a number, in the long list of numbers. All right, any other board? Yeah. Stuart, just thinking about the traffic and safety and putting off the transportation study for another year, and knowing that we're already dealing with traffic issues right now. At the middle school, the custodians help with the dismissal, would you envision the five new cleaners at the elementary schools, helping out with dismissal at all? That certainly could be a role as we

067are able to have, you know, additional staff there, you know, specifically we, you know, Quaker Ridge is more of the issue than the other buildings. Fox Meadow has a couple of buses, (murmurs) has bus, but that is something and we are working with the HR department within contractual limitations to make that something that we can have them do that would be, you know, above and beyond their cleaning duties, but would be valuable to those schools. So that's something that we definitely will be looking at. Yeah, I think we've heard a lot about that this year. And I know over the years really it's been an issue. So I think that would certainly be attractive if we could build that in. Absolutely, and we are at Quaker Ridge as well. That team is out there supporting

068arrival and dismissal, including the new staff that we've hired. It's wonderful because every day that they're out there, I think it makes the traffic so much better, I think fantastic. And they engaged in some training actually over the February break that just bring, you know, help, give them some more resources to do that work. Great. Can I ask the question of sort of related to wellbeing, but also to sustainability, I was curious about the water fountain comment, especially with our students being in school all day. What is the access to water? Is it just filling stations, I guess, you know, I was a proponent of filling stations years ago. Are the water fountains coming back at all? Or is this something that we'll just, do we have filling stations in all the schools and how

069did the children, especially the little children access? Yeah, so we do have bottle filling stations, you know, that was part of when we did the Legionella study. And then, you know, as part of the COVID reopening, we were supposed to, we had to close off the regular water fountains and turn at the same time, we replaced them with the bottle fillers because they provided the adequate filtering for the Legionella. And also it was a touch-free. So that really served a dual purpose. I think we need to go back and take a look at, you know, the number of them. My understanding that we're in pretty good shape with all of them, but I haven't specifically gone back and did, done like account and check back with the building. So it's something we'll have to take

070a look at, but I haven't heard that there's been a shortage. The bubblers are actually shut off because of the COVID return. Right, so I understand that. I was just wondering how the younger children, do they come in with their own bottles, like the kindergarten first grade and they fill it, okay. Yeah. Thank you. And I think typically that was happening almost already anyways. And then with the added, you know, bottle fillers, it's just made it that much better. Other board, yeah. Just to two modest comments, somebody, I think who commented was sort of uncertain about the five cleaners, additional cleaners. And the thing that helped me understand that need in, in one of the prior presentations, there is information about the number of square feet that we've added over the past, however many years

071and the comparison, the comparative staffing. So I think if anybody has a question on that, they can get back to us and we can share that because I think that was a really important understanding of that. Because I sort of had the same thing, like even, even given COVID and everything else, it did seem like a big item. The other thing was... That would be in the January staffing recommendation presentation, just if people wanted to go. January staffing, recommendation, you know. Yeah, yeah, Pam has every detail at her fingertips. The other thing is, I just, I know, but Stuart, can you just kind of give a quick summary of what will be happening and won't be happening with the auditorium because people keep matching it. And I'm just not sure that everybody understands what's been

072done, what is being done and what may even still be deferred. Sure, so I do have, I did put together a non presented presentation, which is up on the website and attached to the last agenda, maybe. Sort of that shows what we have planned for this coming summer, which I think Leanne pointed out is most of the safety issues. So taking care of all the rigging issues, which was, you know, a concern in this space as a primary project, the proposed and that will be happening this summer. The work proposed in the budget is primarily a stage lighting led work and the work to be done still would be the replacement of our seating stage flooring. And I believe some acoustical work as well. And that would be, you know, as we can develop a

073plan to fund that project again, as a plant improvement or transfer to capital, we hope to have some funds falling into the debt service reserve, hopefully in the near future, which would still maintain that sort of tax neutrality on that. But we would still, you know, we want to be true to that plan. I mean, it was part of the 2014 bond project. So we want to keep getting that work completed as much as we can on a regular basis until until completion. But really do like the reference people back to that short presentation or not presentation, I did informational item. It's called high school auditorium information and it's on the budget. Great, thank you. The rigging and the lighting and the things you mentioned, that's actually not in this budget, right? That was in

074last year's project? Correct. So we're not, even though people keep asking that, that's what I was getting at. So people are asking, but like the work that we're talking about is work that we already funded, but in terms of the rigging and the lighting and all that. Well, the lighting, the stage lighting is the proposed budget, which would happen well late spring or summer of 2022. Okay, so rigging safety is past budget. Summer is future budget. Yeah. And other work is future budget? Correct. Okay. Any other discussion? All right, I'll just note that as I think the PT council budget study chairs noted that Alice and I did end up using the community leader group email list as approved by the board to reach out to are just over a hundred names, basically from the

075community calendar. You all are familiar with that huge list on the back of the Scarsdale community counter that PT council puts together. And I think we, we received great feedback. People appreciated that the leaders appreciated that. And many of them forwarded our email, just linking people, reminding people about the budget web page, a link to the large document itself and all the other attached documents and links people forwarded that to their boards and it was appreciated. So I think that's a great tool to use going forward and maybe even earlier in the process in, in upcoming years. So thank you for that. That's it, all right. So motion to adjourn this, I don't even need a motion. We'll just adjourn into the business meeting. And let me move into that. Thank you, Stuart, Jeff and

076everyone. All right, so we are now beginning the business meeting with the education report, item four. I will note that all members of the board and cabinet are present. And I do have an opening statement, just to let everyone know that before this business meeting, the board met with the village board and we discussed the many ways we can continue our work together to ensure the holistic safety and wellbeing of our entire community. We spoke a bit about the process to recruit and hire our new village manager, got an update on school tax receipts, the summer recreation program, the freeway project, which is really on hold on pause and we'll come before a future board village board, and then the middle school comfort station progress. And after that, we held an executive session to discuss

077collective bargaining matters. And that was followed immediately by this budget forum, which we just concluded. And again, we encourage you all to watch the videos of our budget development presentations and discussions fully, and to get clarity on the key budget drivers. Please take time to provide your perspectives and priorities related to budget development, either during public comment today or via email to the [email protected], the board will adopt a budget on April 12th and the public will vote on the budget on May 18th. And I just want to take a moment in this comment to, on behalf of the board to stand together with our Asian community, and to echo the words written by so many of our neighbors. Including Mayor, Sandwick the chairs of the PT council, diversity equity and inclusion committee, and all 12

078members of the PT council executive committee, which includes its officers and all PT, all PTA presidents. The Scarsdale high school PTA executive committee, our school principals and of course the words of Dr. Hagerman and his cabinet. We support our educators responsibility to protect our students from harm, to help provide empowerment and to convey guidance related to the disturbing realities of racism, discrimination, bias and violence. The board endorses all efforts to make Scarsdale a more welcoming community. And to help our staff and our students respect the value of diversity equity and inclusion. Dr. Hagerman listed guiding principles in his letter last week. And we encourage the ongoing work to recognize diversity as an asset to understand that the principles of acceptance and inclusion are paramount, to provide a welcoming environment in which staff and students see

079reflections of themselves around them, and to prepare students to confront issues of racism and bias. Finally, we agree with district leadership that racial bias and hate incidents must be taken very seriously. And we support the response efforts clarified in his letter. We are committed to this journey and as noted by Scarsdale insight in a recent email to this board together, we make the change. Additionally, I want to reiterate our appreciation of the efforts of our custodians and school facilities teams who got our buildings and campuses ready for today's change at the elementary schools. The teachers and aides who have once again adjusted their classrooms and their teaching, all the staff that supported this work and our system principals and principals for their guidance and leadership. And finally, tonight, we are all looking forward to another

080education report from Edgar assessment support. And looking ahead, hearing about the teaching and learning within our buildings is one of this board's highest priorities, Thomas. Great, thank you very much, Pam. I appreciate that good evening and welcome to everyone, both in our physical and virtual audiences. We appreciate you joining us to become more informed about our most significant work in the district. We have a very full agenda this evening. So I'm going to keep my introductory words brief tonight. Mainly I wanted to welcome all of our elementary students back to full in-person learning today. It was truly an exciting day it's throughout the district. As we welcome the majority of our students back. Of course, this would not have been possible without the incredible support of our elementary faculty and staff, who worked tirelessly over

081the past few weeks to prepare our buildings and classrooms for this return. Teachers aids, custodian support staff, secretaries and administrators were all instrumental in making this transition a smooth and seamless one. And I cannot thank these folks enough, not only for the organizational aspects of this work, but even more so for planning, welcoming activities that focused on building a renewed sense of community. It is clear that today was a highlight of the year for both students and our faculty and staff. On another note, I would like to encourage folks to read our district communications from last week, particularly. Adele dispatch went out on Friday with several articles on the importance of continued risk mitigation efforts, both within our schools and outside of our schools. And the very real risks associated with pandemic fatigue in light

082of ongoing variant infections. I also sent out a community update as, Pam suggested in support of our Asian American Pacific islands, students and families, and share the ways in which we can continue to work together to create warm, welcoming, inclusive communities within our schools. I referred to COVID-19 and ongoing racism as dueling pandemics, both of which require our continued attention and intervention. We know that the past year has been an extremely challenging one on both fronts. However, as a school community, we have both a moral and ethical obligation to continue to combating, combating both of these issues in equal parts. Our children and our community depend upon it. There are ways that our schools can support our students or families in these areas. We ask that you reach out to us directly. Finally, next week,

083we'll bring a well-deserved spring break. It is my hope that each of you has an opportunity to find some time for self care and mutual the nation. When we return, we will have three very active months of school, and we want everyone fully recharged and ready to participate. Thank you again for joining us this evening. Thank you, Thomas. Are there any board members who have opening reports? Amber does. Thanks, Pam. As the board liaison to PTC, I would like to remind the community that the Scarsdale PTC legislative education forum will be held on Wednesday, April 7th at 10:00 AM. Local and state elected representatives will answer questions submitted by the community, parents, staff, students and even board of ed members are welcome to submit questions. All questions must be submitted by Friday and details are

084found in the PTA e-blasts. I also want to encourage our community to mark their calendars, for the PTC Scarsdale high school PTA and Scarsdale middle school PTA's joint program on implicit bias and cultural competency. The meeting will be held on Zoom, via Zoom on Tuesday, April 13th at 7:30 PM. As a child of immigrants from Pakistan, a person of color and the parent of children of color. I implore you to consider taking the time to attend this valuable programming. This is an opportunity for all members of our community to understand what implicit bias is, how it affects all of us and what we each can do to reduce bias on an individual level. The presentation will be led by Dr. Brian Marks, an award-winning educator who served in president Obama's administration. Dr. Marks has provided

085implicit bias training to police chiefs, executives, individuals in education, philanthropy and local and federal government. We are fortunate that the high school's assistant principal, Dr. Chris Griffin has completed training with Dr. Marks and at the high school is bringing in Dr. Marks for a program for our faculty. Please consider joining this educational program on April 13th. Zoom details will be sent out in future e-blasts. Thank you to the PTC, Scarsdale high school PTA and Scarsdale middle school PTA, for creating this opportunity for all of us to grow as individuals. Thank you, Amber. Any other opening remarks? All right, then we'll move on to item five and the journey forward update. Great, thank you very much. So tonight's journey forward update will include the following information. We're going to talk a little bit about first day

086schedules, lunch and specials. Then Eric's going to talk to us about current cases and numbers. We're going to move on to vaccines, which Drew's going to share some information with us from that. I will also be talking about travel and quarantined information with the upcoming spring break. Stuart, they're going to talk to us about a couple of issues related to Phyllis facilities, particularly tense and work this occurring over the break. And then we'll round out our presentation with some general announcements at which Eric will be sharing with us regarding our doctors and physicians work. So as an introduction, I'd like to reiterate my opening remarks in which I acknowledged today's exciting return to all in-person learning for the vast majority of our elementary students across all five elementary buildings. Full classes were reunited with their

087teachers, and there was an air of jubilation and celebration throughout the day. As students experienced one more step towards normalcy. I also acknowledged the full compliment of staff who contributed to today's return. Many of whom spent a good part of their evenings and weekends at school over the past few weeks, making these necessary preparations. I think I speak for many in the community when I express my heartfelt gratitude, to the entirety of our faculty and staff for making this work. Certainly seeing the expressions on the faces of students today makes the work worthwhile. I would also like to thank our elementary PTA's who enhanced today's return with colorful and festive yard signs, welcoming everyone back to school. As we celebrate this return to in-person learning, I do feel obliged to remind the whole community that,

088as I said in the last week style dispatch, opening school and staying open are two very different things. It will take our collective mitigation efforts to remain open over the next three months and our school home partnership, and these efforts remain critical. We all have a part to play on this work. And I asked that we all take that part very seriously. I also want to address two aspects of our current schedule. The first is our 9:10 AM start time. There's been a number of questions regarding why this time is different than the 8:40, 8:45 start time in previous years. As a reminder, our teachers have, are contractually provided a 30 minute preparation period each day. During this time, students would take specials, allowing teachers time in their classroom for planning purposes. This year, due

089to space constraints, specials are being done remotely requiring the supervision of classroom teachers to be in the classes during their special periods. Therefore, the prep periods have been moved to the beginning of the day with a later start period in order to accommodate both the contractual agreement and our special schedules. We do anticipate returning to our regular schedule next fall, however. Finally, the last issue that I want to briefly address is lunch. Today was our first lunch period with all K-5 students in the building and it was largely successful. As a reminder, we continue to use six foot social distancing while eating in our classroom spaces. All those today's weather was beautiful. We do believe we'll be able to accommodate lunch and resource indoors as well during inclement weather. Although we'll certainly be a much

090tighter fit with fewer options for free movement amongst our students. But all in, all I have to say today was a great success. And certainly all the reports that we have heard, we're very happy students and very happy faculty and staff. So we're very pleased at this hallmark moment of our return to elementary school. And with that yes, yay, we can say with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Eric to talk about current cases and number. Thank you, Thomas. I just want to add my deep appreciation and thanks to the staff for, the immense amount of work that's happened over the last weeks, preparing for kids and my sheer joy in walking around schools and seeing the smiles. So I have good news to report generally on the case numbers, and current trends in

091the area. Currently, the village of Scarsdale is at 41 active cases. If you remember my last report, we were the low seventies, which was down from the nineties, the report before. So that is trending in the right direction. Westchester County still unfortunately has a positivity rate of about 5%, which is still relatively high, but lower than it has been in the past months. Our seven day per 100,000 total is 274 cases currently in my last report, it was over 300. So again, trending in the correct direction. However, still relatively high. So all the numbers have decreased over the past week at approximately 29% of the County at this point has had one or more vaccine shots. So that is becoming a meaningful number as the weeks go on. So that's a wonderful, a wonderful piece

092of news. Drew has also been surveying and can report on our actual staff numbers. Sure, and in fact, March 12th, the County launched a survey asking us to report the total number of staff, and then the total number of those staff that have been vaccinated. So we have been collecting that number so far 554 of our employees have received one or the only, or both doses, depending on what vaccine they've gotten access to. That amounts to roughly 73% of our teachers. And we have a lower percent about 40% of our teacher aids, at least in terms of reporting to us, but that continues to move steadily as our days and weeks have gone by. And the ability to make an appointment has, has occurred. It's still challenging, but we're just reiterating our gratitude. Erica German

093and all the folks in the community who have learned of some, you know, resource or way to help access vaccination. They've reached out to us and we pass that information along kind of in an all hands on deck approach. Thank you Drew, any questions about the numbers or the trends that are currently happening? Great, so the next piece I'd like to reiterate is kind of the travel restrictions that have imposed by New York state and our upcoming break. So everyone is aware of kind of where we stand. There is right now, a gap between what has been announced by governor Cuomo as, restrictions that will be lifted on April 1st and what the actual guidance States. So at this time, the actual guidance, the latest guidance that was issued by New York state DOH, which

094was on March 10th, allows any individual who has been fully vaccinated, which is defined as being 14 days past their last vaccine shot. But within 90 days of that same shot, to not quarantine, if they traveled domestically. Wherever they go within the United States. Governor Cuomo announced that starting April 1st, there will be no quarantine for domestic travel. That has yet to be codified in executive order and New York state regulation. We believe that that will happen prior to the April 1st deadline, but it may very well happen after we leave on spring break. So I just want to be clear with community that as soon as that regulation is put into place officially the school will be following that regulation. But until such time, we are still requiring the 10 day quarantine or the

095test out, option for people who are not vaccinated and traveling. The other exemption for domestic travel, which is already in place is anyone who has had a verified diagnosis of COVID in the last 90 days also does not need to quarantine. The other piece, that was changed in the most recent guidance, which wasn't given a lot of fanfare in the news, but is really important, is the international travel restrictions for New York state. Those changed rather significantly in the last guidance. They have moved to a CDC model, for international travel and they have dropped the leveling of countries. So in other words, this is for all international travel, regardless of the country, you travel to, you will be required to either quarantine for a full 10 days on return or, quarantine for seven full days

096if you receive a negative tests on either the third, fourth or fifth day of quarantine. So kind of a completely different standard that had been, had been used in New York state. It's important to note that neither a COVID diagnosis nor the vaccine gets you out of quarantine for international travel. So that, we do not expect that to change prior to April 1st, there's been no announcement, but obviously that could change at the last minute. So I would encourage families to stay abreast of the travel quarantine rules as any new guidance comes out, we will be following state guidance. But it is completely possible that that changes very close to the April 1st, deadline that governor Cuomo announced. I know, that's kind of a mouthful. Is there any, oh, the one other piece about testing

097for quarantine for travel. It can be an antigen or a PCR test for quarantine for travel. However, you cannot use at home tests that are not sponsored and analyzed by a lab. So you could use it an at home collection tests that is then sent to a lab and analyzed, but you cannot use the director consumer COVID tests that are, that are simply more like a pregnancy test where you, you use spit and, or a nose swab and have the results in your house. We are not accepting pictures of negative tests. So it has to be either analyzed or provided by medical professional certified lab. So any questions on the travel restrictions. And our residents can call, call the school nurse. Yes, so any resident that has a question or any student, a family that

098has a question about quarantine, we encourage them to call the school nurse and they can walk you through, kind of what the restrictions would be. Okay, could you maybe just review the virtual options for families that are required to quarantine when they return? Sure. So we do not provide tutoring, on the elementary level for voluntary travel. If it were travel that were necessitated due to a family emergency or things like that, that would be considered an excused absence. But for voluntary travel during the quarantine following voluntary travel, we would not be doing tutoring. Given the fact on the site and the district is trying to be as flexible as possible. On the secondary level, there is a structure in each class already set up. So we would not allow for a student to be virtual

099present, while they were on travel. But if they were quarantining, once they returned, we would allow them to be present virtually. Other questions? Yeah, I'm gonna turn.. To Stuart. Sure, so a couple of things tents, you'll see, later on the agenda, we have a couple of 10 resolutions and the discussion, but just to talk about the, before then as that we do plan on renting a total of four tents. Two tents at the middle school, two tents at the high school. And this is based on a review of our spaces and what was needed for the middle school and high school additional space for the students to eat lunch with all the kids coming back in, in April. And a review of the elementary buildings. Dr. Hagerman already mentioned that we do have enough space

100internally for students for lunch periods. So we will not be needing large tents in those buildings. We will however, be purchasing much smaller like field day tents that you might see, like at a soccer camp or something like that as a space for teachers to eat lunch, if they're outside or a mass break, just to get outside the building. We'll be getting two or three of those for each of the elementary buildings and probably like a picnic table or something like that. And that would be more of a permanent structure or at least the, the picnic tables. The tenths much, you know we're looking at much smaller tents than would have been, what would have been the case in the fall while we were looking at really providing like classroom space instructional spaces. Again, these

101are really just spaces for the kids to get outside. Isn't an additional space to, to create less density, to eat lunch. I can look outside my office now in any given day, which is neat and the kids are gathered out there. Luckily the weather has been nice. So the tensile provides a space when it gets warmer. And if it's, if it's raining, the review process at STD is much less stringent when we're looking at these types of spaces rather than an actual instructional space in the middle of January. And then as far as upcoming work over April break, again, a tremendous effort in getting the elementary buildings ready with our custodial teams and along with everyone else, and over April break, our facilities crews will be really focused on the middle school and high school

102and getting those classrooms up and ready. I've spoken about the tents. They probably won't quite be here ready yet, probably the second week in April or so, is what we're hoping for. We won't know exactly, but that's the anticipated time, but the folks with be folks will be on the inside of the buildings and setting up those classrooms and science labs and with all the barriers and, and all of that. Also want to say kudos to, I think we mentioned almost everybody, but the transportation team for the elementary Quaker Ridge is a, is a big left in arranging that. And again, that worked really well today. Good reports on that. And I know that we're focused speaking about work over the break or the term to the middle school now, getting those runs ready for

103later in April. Sorry, I missed them transportation. It's okay. Impressive. (chuckles) Thank you, Stuart. Last couple of things for the journey forward report. I am pleased to announce that Dr. Cousero was nominated for the healthcare hero award, during the COVID outbreak and received a commendation from the Westchester County department of health, for the dedicated work to local school districts. So we, we second that commendation and congratulate Dr. Cousero for all the work he's done over the past year. And want to announce that doctor's Cousero, Holly Gilbert, Dr. Steven Shelov and Dr. Nathan Litmann participated in a vaccine informational session and question and answer for our staff and faculty, over this past week. And that has been posted on Scarsdale schools TV, under the board of education presentation, presentations there. And we would encourage any resident

104or anyone listening to this, outside of the side of Scarsdale to use that video, to answer any questions they may have about vaccines, including how they work, their side effects and their efficacy, which were all answered kind of in depth, but in plain, in plain English by our doctors on that presentation. So again, we thank those doctors for their continued work with us. And with that, I'll take any questions for the restart or the journey forward. Yeah, go ahead. Actually, my question is for Stuart. Stuart, I have two questions related to the tents. The first question is where are they gonna be set up? And then related to that, are there going to be tables for kids to sit at. Questions and the agenda under the tents? I did put a diagram about the middle

105school one will be in the lower courtyard and the other one will be adjacent to the tennis courts on a paved area. And the high school there'll be an, a breezeway courtyard and the Brewster road entrance. And as obviously consulting with the administration in both of those buildings on how and where they would best, best work. As far as what will be under the tents folding chairs. So, you know, the immediate concern was, oh my gosh, it'll leave a million holes but we'll be renting them. And you can think about certainly the wedding ones are, it's more of a flat bottom, and they're easy to grab and pick up and put away every evening and they're light and allow students to sort of be flexible with the seating as well. So that's what we'll be

106using. Can I ask something related to that, do you mind if I interrupt you for a second. I was just gonna ask if there was some sort of flooring underneath, because that can get so mushy, if it's raining and. No, I mean, if we ever put something underneath, then we'd probably be killing the grass as well. So it's a, it's a concern but we were not planning on that. So, you know, we'll have to see it's all, all new. You know, we have to adapt as, hopefully it's not too rainy spring. (laughs) Sorry. Oh, we do have flaps on the side as well, which would help, but I know how the water will drain, so we'll have to see. Oh, I thought you had two questions. Can you just talk about the virtual, these students

107and just at a high level, how many students we saw come back to in-person and then whether we had to make any adjustments to the virtual only section. Yeah, I can pull up some data. I'll take a second. The answer on the virtual only (indistinct) we did not collapse any of them. We, you know, we're pushing size a little bit in some certain specific spots where we're in person, where that is occurred. We're adding aid support, teacher aid to help the adult, to student ratio there. But in the total picture, we made the judgment that it was best for our students to, who decided to stay virtual, to stay with the teacher they've had all year. We do have a couple of class sections in that, arena that have dropped to close to 10, but

108we think for the run out to June, it makes sense educationally. And again, that support for the larger in-person sections we're providing more teacher aid time. Oh, thanks and that's great to hear that the students that for whatever reason, either have to, or chose to stay virtual can stay with their teachers. Obviously that would be a disruption. And then just so while we're talking about tents, just if for any reason we'd found it beneficial to have some additional tents at the high school and the middle school, does the SED approval that we're going to go for? Does that cover if we want it to add a third one for any reason? No. Okay. We actually need a, it's crazy. Actually we need a separate project number for each tent. So for this proposal four tents,

109we have four different project numbers, four sets of paperwork and all of, and all of that. Goes along with it. Okay, thanks. Yeah. I a ask a question about, with more children outside of the middle school and high school, can we talk about safety measures that are being taken? So during the time where we have more students outside, which is not an uncommon occurrence during the regular, a regular school year. The safety monitors who are not at the doors are doing campus walk around checks. Plus we have, every group of kids has, are either supervised by instructional aids, administrators are doing rounds out during lunchtime to, to keep an eye on everything. So, similar to how we would do it in a normal school year when students are outside, obviously there's some increased numbers in

110those students. So there's increased staff, watching the, staff who are outside with children are all manned with FM radios, that they can communicate back and forth to the administration in the office immediately. Any other questions? I know last time we talked about the remote students that you were checking in. I don't know if there was follow up to that. The remote students or remote teachers? There was just, you know there was concern about the remote students and their schedules, and you were gonna have a follow-up conversation. Oh, yeah I had a follow up conversation, with the virtual only teachers. Can you speak in your mic. Oh, I'm sorry. I had a up conversation with the virtual only teachers, and we talked about the flexibilities that were afforded to them. Now that they were going from

111now until the, to the end to work creatively and flexibly in the grouping and to look outside the boundaries that they had before, in a way that worked for them and work for their schedules, for the schedule of the students. And so many of them have followed up and sent out revised schedules, so that they can use that creative flexibility that an online platform allows. And they're very excited about it. It was a very positive meeting. Thomas, was there and they're there, it's groundbreaking a lot of the work that they're doing and unusual for us to be afforded this kind of model when some other districts are having some streaming in, that doesn't have that level of personalization or the ability to break things into small groups and have that kind of individual. Are there

112questions? Okay, thank you very much. So that wraps up our journey forward, a portion of the meeting. Which then moves us into our model 6.0 Pam. So it's eight o'clock in 15 minutes, we'll then be doing this for two hours. We can take a wellness break now before public comment. I don't know how many people are in public comment, quite frankly. I can't see in the Zoom. Yeah, so I mean, what's the thought, does the board wanna take wellness now before? Okay. We'll take the wellness now to prep, yeah. So then for anyone, we'll start public comment after a five minute break and you can get onto the Zoom and raise your hand and we'll start with you because there's nobody, oh well, Leanne does have a public comment, so she will speak first from

113the audience, sorry, Leanne. Okay, so we're adjourned for five minutes. Okay, so we'll return. You can, I guess, begins streaming. We're all back, all right. So we're moving to item six, hearing from those present. And I just want to note that at this point, members of the public are invited to speak on agenda, agenda items or other non personnel related matters. Our policy 1230 allows each individual three minutes to speak with a 90 minute cap during this public comment period. And we'll have our one in person public comment or speak first and then we'll go to the Zoom. Name and address, or if you represent an organization, please. I'm not sure that's, try again. Leanne Frieda. Sorry. I'm speaking on behalf of the Scarsdale high school PTA executive committee, and this is a statement that

114we sent out to our high school PTA membership. But my executive committee felt very strongly about it and asked that I speak publicly at the board of ed meeting, on this subject. We are deeply disturbed about the recent violent attacks on Asian Americans and the murders of eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were of Asian descent. We are also aware. And that we are not immune and that there have been anti-Asian racist attacks right here in Westchester. The PTA is an organization that is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and we stand firmly against all racism and hate. We condemn all acts of hate and violence against people of any ethnicity, nationality, race, culture, religion, gender identity, or expression, sexuality, or neuro diversity, bigotry, and xenophobia of any kind is unacceptable in our school.

115And in Our community. We stand with our Asian American and Pacific Islander community in solidarity and outrage and support in grief. We will not tolerate hate and discrimination on any level. We are a community of multiculturalism and diversity and we value celebrate and are proud of our differences. There remains much work to be done in our community and our school and the Scarsdale high school PTA is committed to continuing this work. To that end on April 13th, as Amber noted Scarsdale high school PTA is co-sponsoring together with the PTC and the Scarsdale middle school PTA a program on implicit or unconscious bias for parents. We encourage all parents to join us for this program. And to engage with our parents and school communities. As we continue the process of talking, learning, advocating, and growing. This

116work is ongoing and transcends one tragedy or one program. We are also working closely with the high school administration to ensure that there are parent voices on the Scarsdale high school diversity inclusion and belonging committee, which consists of students, teachers, and administration. If you would like to get more involved or to bring our attention to specific experiences within our community, please reach out to the PTA. My email Scarsdale high school PTA, S H S P T A [email protected]. We encourage you to have a conversation with your children about their experiences at Scarsdale high school and in the schools in general, and to reflect with them upon this most recent tragedy, your schools, your students, excuse me, may have discussed this in their social studies classes. If your children are experiencing bigotries in a phobia or

117microaggressions of any kind, the school dean psychologists and student outreach workers are available to listen and support them, for you, we reaffirm our commitment to stand together as a community in opposition to bias and welcoming to people of all backgrounds. We are United in the belief that everyone in our community is valued and respected. Thank you for letting me have this time. Thank you, Leanne. And seeing no other members of the audience interested in speaking at the podium at this time, we will move to our zoom. Oh, feedback going to zoom. Rachel warned me about that. I thought I had it covered anyway. Irene, I'm promoting you. You just need to unmute. Go ahead, Ron. My name is Ron Israel, and I live on Stratton road. Through the laws of open government. I recently received

118a 67 page architectural document full of charts and architectural layouts of every classroom in space in every Scarsdale elementary school. The January 8th document from our school administration shows unequivocally that all current in-person elementary children could physically fit full-time in our schools and have been able to anytime this past year at six foot distancing. In this study, 40 rooms, including many large rooms, such as gyms were not even needed and were left empty 40 empty rooms with the children and staff six feet apart density per teaching room was basically unchanged. Now you may say, why does it matter? The children are returning the full-time schooling in March and April, and maybe we'd have arrived at the same decisions at the same exact time anyway, but here's why it's important. Starting on January 8th this architectural

119document was withheld from the community, never shown to the board and never revealed to the restart committee. In fact, this document would never have surfaced. Had I not submitted a freedom of information request. It is never acceptable for the administration to withhold information that is blatantly pertinent and crucial for advisors decision-makers and those evaluating their performance. It is not the administration's prerogative to withhold critical decision making and policy determining information, make no mistake. The superintendent and and administration did not come forward to the board, restarting community and state that the children could fit. And this is why the choice was made not to do so. Instead they denied the information in early November and hid further proof from all stakeholders at the start of January, while stating and applying publicly and privately the complete opposite.

120If the board of restart were armed with this information, would they have advised to, or even change policy to allow the children to return to full-time schooling sooner. Would they have used the 40 empty rooms to allow our middle school or high school to add additional in-person sooner, maybe even January the board and restart never had the opportunity to make those judgment calls because of this withheld key information. Most peer districts did not have the ability to fit all of their elementary children at six feet, we did. We knew it on November 9th when I presented it, and we confirmed it two months later on January 8th, with this 67 page architectural document. Scarsdale missed a golden opportunity to go above and beyond for their students in a time of unprecedented need. This pattern of

121misinformation and information purposely withheld from advisors, decision makers, evaluators, and the community did not allow all options to be fully assessed and may have paved the way for subpar decisions. It has led to infighting and pulled our community apart. The board needs to consider this when assessing #the performance of the superintendent and the administration this year, and the board needs to use its voice to personally reprimand these actions. Thank you. Sorry about that. Any other hands looks like there's no other interests in hands to speak, right. Then we'll close this opportunity for public comment and we'll move to follow up to public comment. We had one public comment. Is there anything you'd like to say back to that? I mean, you know, why you withheld it. Sorry, I think we've addressed this issue thoroughly in

122terms of addressing the board around the work that we consulted with our architects and how we use consultants reports. There are times when we present that information to the community. And the times when we use that as an invite for advisory purposes, I think as we've been very clear, the board was well aware of the work that was being undertaken by our architects. We reported several times that that work was taking place. And certainly the restart committee knew that as well. So that's all that I would say in response. Thank you, Thomas. So we'll move to item eight, which is the personnel report drew. Thank you, I just wanted to return to one topic that kinda got put on hold a while back and then address one other trend that we've got a couple of

123questions about, including from the PTC, thank you. The topic to revisit is one of the, two of the retirements I neglected to point out when they happened some months ago or two of our longtime nurses. And I just wanted to take a second and express appreciation for Nancy McGlennon in her 23 years of service to the district and also to Patricia Mahalo. Who's our nurse over at IHM and to thank her for her 24 years. It's if there's appropriate time, our nurses are am6ong them. The many, many heroes who've been working so hard to, to, to keep communication, good, to keep our kids safe, to keep our, our staff safe and, and thinking clearly about all of this. So thank you to those two folks, and we'll be on the hunt for folks to succeed

124them in those positions. And then the other piece I just wanted to mention was respect to, we've gotten a number of comments about the number of retirements this year and other resignations, which means we're out on the hunt for candidates. And we have many, many processes already underway at our various levels for these positions, but it is not out of the ordinary. So I just wanted to kind of express that we, we really look for three types of folks. We look for our probationary teachers who are typically replaced. Those who are retired or resigned. We do hire some leave replacements when there's an, a known full year leave. And then we look for part-timers and usually many of them returned, but, but sometimes those are vacancies as well. And in the, in the five years

125that I've been part of this process, we're actually sort of right on, on average. So we do have about 26 probationary vacancies, three leave replacements right now. And, and right now, no known part-time vacancies. So that's a total of 29. And in the past five years, it's strange from 43 31 39, 25 and 29 this year. So we're kind of right in the middle of, of where we are. So I just thought that would be good information for the community. Thank you. Drew. And congratulations to the honor on the retirements of our two nurses of the nurse at IHM and nurse McGlynn what great work. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to item nine. The consent agenda, just as simple preamble that the Thursday, typically the Thursday before our Monday meeting the superintendent, the

126vice-president and the president, and sometimes a board member meet to set the agenda and items are selected for the consent agenda. When we believe there will be no discussion on those items, but of course at any time, particularly now, if a board member wants to remove one of the items placed on the consent agenda, he or she may do so now. Alright, so stands It is Amber item 10. The consent agenda tonight has nine items. Item 10.01 are the minutes of our budget studies budget session, number three, and business meeting. And from March 8th, item 10.02 is a certified personnel report. Item 10.03 is the non-certified personnel report item 10.04 is the 2021, 2022 Scarsdale school's calendar, which was presented and discussed at the February 8th and March 8th business meetings. Item 10.05 are stipulations

127of settlement item 10.06 is the Tax Certiorari Settlement, For 17 Oxford road item 10.07 is TaX Certiorari Settlement for 23 Cooper Road. item 10.8 is a Tax Certiorari settlement for 45 Popham road item 10.9 is item to accept the consent agenda. I move that the board accepts the consent agenda as was just presented. Thank you, Amber. Is there a second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? The motion passes. Thank you, everyone. Item 11, the discussion and information items starting with the education report. On the topic for tonight was first put on the long-term calendar. We were going to focus on middle school reading because the word of the year is flexible and we must like our teachers prioritize essential and relevant content. This educational report reflects what is on everyone's

128mind, namely assessment, how are we doing? And how do we know support? How do we make sure we're providing all students with what they need to be successful and make progress and our future. We'll dedicate some time to looking ahead at what we've learned through this year's hybrid and online learning and what we may take with us. I want to take a moment before I began to thank the dozens of Scarsdale educators, administrators, teachers, department chairs, and coordinators who I interviewed and who provided artifacts and detailed quotes for this presentation. I'm using their words and evidence to tell this important story, We'll start with assessments and how we've been keeping track of our learners and their progress. In the last year through our hybrid and virtual models, you may remember that I reviewed a process

129in which teachers worked extensively at the end of last year and over the summer, adapting their instructional methods and making critical decisions about essential skills, content and concepts. As students progressed through the grades in the secondary courses. I had the pleasure of presenting examples of those shifts at an early board meeting. In a year like no other. We knew that the assessment of student learning and our adapted environments was key to understanding what was working, what pivots were needed and what modifications were necessary. We have multiple ways of knowing via data and anecdotal records from our department chairs, administrators, and classroom teachers from past educational reports. Some may remember that we use standardized measured from the state from the third grade ELA math, all the way up to the Regents exam, as tools to broadly

130benchmark our students' attention to basic understandings, but have always relied most heavily on our internal measures, both traditional tests and formative assessments to benchmark student growth and inform instruction. Last year, as many are aware, state assessments were suspended and this year they were being greatly reduced in scope, one short, multiple choice test in ELA and math. Third through eighth grade, and the elimination of the performance section of a science test for fourth and eighth grade. And much greater flexibility of timing of the exam, which makes logistical and humane sense, but curtails its application as a tool of comparison across students and districts, we then rely on our most valuable internal assessments to make sure our students are progressing and to monitor the progress against typical years. In the slides ahead, I'll describe some of the

131challenges we faced. Some solutions are educationals educators discovered along the way. And some discoveries of effective practices will likely take with us. Going into this this year. We anticipated that because we were working through virtual and greatly adapted environments. There'd be certain challenges with assessments and the online world. There was an is concerned about students, simply Googling answers, or as was noticed in one virtual classroom, a well-intentioned caregiver whispering answers to her child during a quiz, integrity and honesty have been topics discussed during this time as have the ways we reinforce and assure it. Some common assessments we used in the past were ill suited for the online student, or there was a lag time before needed adaption adaptations were made from the platform. It was also assessment challenges in person. Communication can be difficult

132in both the online and in-person setting one because of adapting to the increased use of technology. In the other, through talking through barriers and masks. There were some tech solutions that helped a great deal, a special thank you to our Scarsdale education foundation for quickly supplying voice application tools, for example, both environments created difficulties in reading nonverbal cues related to understanding whether through a camera or a mask covered face. Educators face this head-on. They were both solutions and opportunities. I use these words together because in some cases, Scarsdale educators worked to come to solutions that were work arounds or temporary modifications, and some ways the dilemmas revealed opportunities to reevaluate current practices and consider future applications in a regular school year. Here are some of the ways we continue to monitor student growth. Despite the

133Challenges. Small group groups of students allowed for more in the moment, formative assessment, both hybrid and virtual only models at the elementary provided small groups of students in which teachers could monitor student understanding and an ongoing way, or in a manageable way, pull individuals or pairs of students together for quick evaluations here, you have an elementary student engaging in a math assessment. Yes, the hat reflects a window open in February, and here is a middle school science lab in which a section of the class is engaging in a modified lab while the instructor could assist and assess students as they worked there was, there is an emphasis on pathways of thinking. I attended a middle school, special education department meeting in which they were discussing the merits of Nearpod as a way of monitoring student

134participation and progress. Here's a screenshot from that floor of platform that highlights what teachers are doing to continue to check for understanding. It's not just the answer, but the how you got there. This has always been a smart assessment method and instructional strategy that eliminates lucky guesses and using a laptop cat calculator or an off-screen older sister to get the answer. This works in both the classroom and the online world. This particular example makes the process explicit for students to scaffold them to learning the high school science department as well, relied on written explanations for students to show their thinking. Assessments were administered. That required critical understanding. Here we have Ms. Comerford balancing a memoir discussion between students in class and at home involving the themes of family race and privilege. The English department has

135thought carefully about the questions that demonstrate true understanding of the elements of a text by posing questions that cannot be answered quickly through a spark note, Google as well requiring students to apply their knowledge through the creation of a project. Also avoided, avoided rote learning and click and search answers. From the high school English department. Our work around was to ask students interpretive questions that would be harder to Google, for example, based on reading last night, why does the character behave that way in your opinion? And from our middle school science teachers, seventh grade science students learned about cells viruses and COVID 19 as a way of assessing students, students were asked to research more details related to viruses, vaccines and COVID-19 and create a brochure poster or video explaining COVID-19 to elementary school children.

136This required synthesis and clear, purposeful communication of essential understandings for an authentic audience. You can't fake that one, nor would you want to. Technology played a major role in assessment. Here's an example of an eighth grade English teacher employing a shared document and reflection protocol to have students set goals self-assess and make improvements based on ongoing feedback from the teacher. So one of the ways that we use the eighth grade writing goals is primarily as a tool for reflection for the students to be extremely transparent and direct about what the goals are for writing at the conclusion of eighth grade, and then to support students in their project progress towards meeting those goals. With this particular piece of writing, we asked students to select a writing goal. They felt they achieved and highlight that in

137yellow, in their writing and explain why they felt they achieved it and then select a writing goal. They felt they needed more work with highlight that area in green, where they felt they tried to achieve the goal and explain really why they felt they needed more work with that specific goal. So we've come a long way from the red pen. Educators employed more frequent check-ins when speaking to the math departments, the importance of frequent check-ins on understanding were essential not letting students get too far along without revealing misunderstandings. For example, high school exit tickets are administered as Google forms and students are encouraged to use their notes. Once the exit ticket is graded students receive FAPE feedback for each question and can review their answers at any time. The high school science departments shifted to

138a greater focus on application, shorter and more frequent assessments, open resource exams, virtual platforms, and documentation of problems through handwritten solutions. The middle school math department also reported smaller, lower stack stakes check-in points to assess student understanding and place of some larger, wider spaced exams. The reassuring news is that internal assessments are revealing that students are learning essential sills, concepts, and content, and moving forward in their learning and through the curriculum. Student growth is also being supported and personalized. As I've mentioned in places, content has been edited. Questions have come from the community about any gaps and knowledge, compared to students from previous years, from any edited or rearranged content, depending on the level and the content area, there are different ways. Educators are attending to this very question. With less time directly in a

139physical classroom. Where, and what are the academic differences from typical years? A learning gap is described typically as the disparity between what a student has actually learned and what our heat he or she was expected to learn. And this really comes down to three scenarios. Adjustments in some cases have not impacted learning outcomes. Meaning through technology, concentrated time, small grouping or other strategies, students are achieving outcomes from past years. For progressive courses. The content was arranged by team horizontally in order to make adjustments in the year ahead, some courses, content areas, or making X making expected or more progress than originally mapped. Some courses, content areas. We'll make adjustments through vertical articulation to describe areas to emphasize in coming years. And this is also a reality. Some students struggled with the format and expectations and

140support has and will be directed to ensure their continued growth. I do want to address something that's been raised this evening. This particular presentation focuses on academic areas, but we know social, emotional wellness is connected to the ability to learn. Teachers have reported that some students in transition years particularly have struggled. I've spoken with Dr. Elliot Cohen psychologist chair about the work of the mental health district committee. We look forward to the recommendations to inform our work ahead to re-engage and support all of our learners. In the social, in the C the Scarsdale high school math department meetings occur between teachers of different levels to recognize any gaps when students switch levels in between teachers of subsequent courses, in order to ensure that the teachers of the next course are aware of topics that received

141less attention, this communication has been ongoing and reflects the coordination that directly addresses the possibility of missed or under-covered essential content. And important point from our high school, social studies teachers, we are always editing content in order to facilitate deeper and richer learning opportunities than other areas, because it is not uncommon for teachers this year and therefore should not present any real challenges for teachers next year. And from our high school math department, the integrity and essential understandings have been preserved. This quote from the high school English department from an assessment point of view, the English departments work remained mercifully largely unchanged throughout remote and hybrid learning. Students were able to write essays, personal narratives, research papers, and creative pieces as they always had. And then a series of reflections from other departments and overarching

142philosophy at the middle school of meeting students where they are and moving them forward and reports from both elementary ELA and math that students on average are progressing on, on target from past years due to concentrated uninterrupted time, often with small cohorts of students. Through elementary science times, the next generation standards are being taught risk mitigation, however, have complicated hands-on learning and impacted time to explore materials and concepts. This has already been identified as an area of careful attention over the summer. As we bring on standards aligned through the national geographics. For the fourth grade and pilot fifth grade materials. We were able to Keep some key benchmarking and progress assessments across the grades. Here we'll look at student achievement data and how are students achieved in the star What's called the, I know this

143is also I believe, an economic term star assessment. It's also a math and English assessment for students. This data shows our stern, our students in math and English continue to score in the same range of proficiency, even with the mitigations and complexity of the last year. This is a Testament to our amazing teachers who have adapted throughout the year, as well as the strong and trusting partnership we have relied on with our Scarsdale Scarsdale families. None of this was easy. Our students in person and online have been resilient and impressive. Here is a graph for reading. This graph is arranged to give you a sense of the back-to-back COVID and non COVID year. The winter scores comparisons give you a sense of cohort achievement. You know, weren't more than three or four points difference up

144or down. And the next is a graph with math, with a range of one to three points different. The next item I'm going to talk about is student support. This is an area that we will go into at a later date in more depth. As many of you remember, we went through a tri-state's review audit in which we will focus resources over the spring and summer to enhance our practices, even further. One of the areas of focus is a close review and reflection of our response to intervention or RTI processes through the grades. I'll begin with the elementary structure where a great deal of energy and resources are dedicated. So at every one of the elementary schools there's a child study team and it's made up of this group of people, administrators, psychologist, speech, and

145language, a special education teacher, or a reading teacher. And then depending on the needs of the student brought forward and OT, PT, or even teachers from the previous year, the philosophy behind the RTI is that recommendations are given through this group of experts in a conversation that's data driven by the teacher and in which the T the student is given two rounds of interventions to see if the student is progressing through these recommendations. Everything is documented. At the secondary level there is a process as well, that is slightly different at the middle school that they benefit from a team structure on which teachers across different content areas have an opportunity to talk to students they see have needs. And they have an opportunity to refer them to school psychologists and special education teachers as well.

146At the high school. they run a weekly PST team that reviews students and the PST has used various building level supports to help students who are struggling. The adaptations this year. Turn it turns out through this, these digital mediums. We, we have access to a wider breadth of expertise, meaning that we can close the gap and a zoom connect with lots and lots of different specialists. At one time, that's created cross school connections because of some of the supports that happened. Some of it was one-on-one and it happened at home. So there was more one-on-one opportunities and because a lot of the extra support was happening when students were off cohort or not in the school, it necessitated at times, and it involved direct family communication and involvement. I'm going to just dig deep into

147one area of flexible support as a, as a case study of what went on this year. And I'm going to look at the reading support for a second, and a traditional a year reading support at the elementary level looked like this, where teachers would recommend students based on the data that they collected through what we call the Fountas and Pinnell benchmark assessment system. And through the monitoring of using running records for their reading in a typical year, the focus was on first grade with the secondary focus on second, and then a spring focused on kindergarten. They use a particular set of materials, and they keep all their records of infinite campuses. This year, Much of that was intact, but there was a shift towards including more second-graders. And that was based on the data that

148they had because of the students who had a period of time in which they're away from school, they wanted to make sure that they were addressing their urgent needs of the second graders. There is more parent awareness to the students needs because of the virtual instruction. And also what they found happening is that there was a cohesiveness that was happening across classrooms, where they were using common classroom charts to help students understand and work together. For the scheduling. They did work with smaller group size and they shifted the frequency and the duration of the sessions. And they did embrace all the virtual adaptations. And while it was not a typical year, 23%, even with a shortened cycle, 23% showed growth to above grade level or grade level. And students moved up an average of 2.3

149levels. So looking ahead, what did we learn and how do we strategically prepare for what's next. Clearly through many examples, technology can refine what we do. Technology is best when it modifies and redefines, what can be done in classrooms at the very best when students are having experiences previously inconceivable. I'll leave the details for an upcoming technology report by Jerry, but we'd love to share a screenshot that exemplifies some of the exciting national and global collaboration. This is a group of our global learning Alliance ambassadors, connections have multiplied, and this connection modality will be continued. Students have participated in the women's conference level of village and then national and through national and local connections. This global Alliance are preparing for a discussion with their peers from Finland and Singapore, the topic and article on belonging

150and inclusion, Heather Waters, who is their teacher reported to me that the discussion deepened to include a conversation about social justice and the inequalities inequities surrounding COVID vaccine availability. This experience is further enhanced, our sharing and collaboration across separate groups for specific courses from the high school science department and an elementary teacher shared with me never before, has there been this level of district elementary collaboration and sharing. Personal connections are very powerful. We started off with that, making connections with students, developing that trust. And through that trust students learn, connect with their teachers and connect with each other. We also found that some of our greatest struggles, but also some of our greatest strengthening happening around happened around executive functioning, where students had the opportunity to build independence and organization. But also we found that

151students who needed the most support in this area were the ones who often struggled during their independent time. So we've learned that this is something that we need to continue to attend to. We also we're reminded that and relevant content, engaging stages students. So we focused on diverse texts and topics projects with meaning and authentic audience as much as possible. And when we could give students choice, we found that was a very powerful motivator as well. We hope to continue. The, the English department says we hope to continue the work we have done this year in devoting more time to issues of social justice and prejudice. We have had several meeting, meaningful professional development sessions on this topic and spearheaded the session with Anthony Ray Hinton. From the middle school English department. It helps students

152to have ownership of their learning as they work to achieve clearly defined, personalized writing goals. And from the high school science department, we are learning during this time to use some innovative models to build student independence. And they've been doing experimentations with the LATIC classroom and other ways of developing students' independence and agency. We look forward to returning. I was talking with Jen Maxwell, who's the department chair of the ACE school. And we talked about the social elements of learning that are informal and social backed by years of research made famous by Bogacki social cultural theory of cognitive development. more time with students means that the return of conversations that can linger more on a topic at the elementary level opportunities for hands-on projects, project-based learning indeed the summer enrichment program plan acknowledges that we've

153missed those opportunities in with, and it will be built around it. And a typical year students huddle think of the last time you've seen that. We look forward to less screen time and being together. Some essential areas were impacted more than other. Lisa Forte. This is going out to you. We need to sing and play wind instruments, music, and physical education and sports live theater and performances on this stage. The administrators educators from across the district came together about a year and a half ago to celebrate 50 years of the STI and the culmination of a learning event that reflected the best of us educators, teaching educators, unity of purpose and trust and an organization that is built on that trust. Collaboration and honoring students. And we made music together and I was trusted with

154the tambourine. We look forward to returning to that, looking ahead means planning ahead, as I've talked about the vertical articulation of grades and content areas and reverting reviewing learning goals will be important more hands-on project-based lab experiences to support our scientists and attending to those transitions and supporting those students most impacted by hybrid and online learning. We need to continue with urgency to build on the work begun by engaging multiple perspectives, diversity inclusion, and equity, and renewing our strategic plan goals, areas that were paused or slowed down because of the pandemic. And also spending some time carefully thinking about what we have learned and what we will keep, and we will grow. So, I'm going to end literally on a happy note, Dr. Roshaun at the middle school and the music department designed an at-home

155project for a unit on science, music theory, and sound through performance, and which students had a choice on how to demonstrate their understanding Morris chose to use the technology of a backing track and his understanding of the classical recordings of Louis Armstrong and Danny K to perform when the saints go marching in this piece features the interval of a major third, if you're interested, which was learned at a frequency ratio of five to four, to the very short clip from his full performance and example, and exemplifies a performance-based assessment that is meaningful technology infused flexible and joyful. (soft music) Thank you Mars. So I guess we can go back upon the stage for questions. Edgar, thank you for Dr. McIntosh. Thank you for an excellent update on assessment and other practices. Do we have questions

156by any board members on presentation? Alison. Edgar, thank you that was an incredibly thorough and reassuring presentation. And I was particularly interested in your description of how the smaller cohorts allowed for more as you called it, In-Moment assessment and more individualized instruction. It almost reminded me of back when we used to have Kendrick garden callback for that reason. So I'm wondering if one of our goals can and should be to find ways to incorporate that smaller group instruction as we move forward. It's Interesting that you say that it is one of the ways and one of the things that we can think of as we go forward, because even in the context of a larger group, to know that that there's a great deal of power and pulling a small group of students, even while

157the students are doing independent work and work with them directly is something that educationally makes a great deal of sense and has been proven to be something that's effective. I think what this has done is it's been a case study in that as well, that it kind of reinforces that idea. And so I do think it is something that we should continue to look at. Where are those opportunities to use the instructional AIDS in a way to work with the group while you pull a group of students And we see that mostly in the elementary schools or did we see it across all grade levels? Well, what, what we did see is at the elementary school we saw at the most directly, and obviously because they were working in a largely on AM and PM

158cohorts, but at the secondary level, what we had is we had small groups of students who were in front of the teacher while the teacher was negotiating online students at the same time, while also what we saw as also an uptick and the conferring and the small group conversations that we're having, not even during the necessarily the class time, but other times that proved to be powerful and impactful. Yes, Amber. Thank you, Edgar. That presentation was fantastic. I do have a few questions, so it was nice to see the star and the Fountas and Pinell results for the elementary students. And I'm wondering what kind of assessments we have like that for middle school or high school students? Well, you know, it, it is interesting because what they do generally is they have these, you

159know, these assessments that happen at intervals that are related to their course. And what I was finding is what they were doing was a lot more of these frequent assessments and check-ins, and in that way it was moving away from a okay it's time for the big test to work. I'm going to make sure that I'm checking in with my students and their learning as they move along. There, as far as something like the Fountas and Pinell that's, those are done for Earl in the star. They're done for early literacy to kind of benchmark us. Mostly, we use it internally. It's not something that we generally share out, but we do find those kinds of assessments. We can use more nimbly at our, at our discretion. Whereas the state test is something that has limited

160function because it, we, we always, I mean, Scarsdale does incredibly well in those tests. It's something that we, we use in a fine tooth kind of way. Cause it just doesn't, it doesn't give us the level of data that we get from a Fountas. And Pinell for example. And then can we talk a little bit more, I took some notes on the high school science teachers and sort of their methods. And, you know, you mentioned that the teachers found they have a lot more collaboration, which I think is fantastic, but also that executive functioning was needed for these students. And I'm wondering if, when you mentioned the transition years, so tying that all together, how's that working for the ninth grade students? Well, it it's, it's interesting that you bring up the ninth grade. What

161I found from the conversations that I have was having with educators is that that was a transition that was particularly difficult in many ways, for a certain number of, of ninth graders, because they didn't know exactly the rules and the rituals of what high school was and what the expectations were of a high school. So the comments that I were getting there were more related to executive functioning and dispositional expectations. So when I, when I was talking about giving special attention to that, there are certain areas where we see that we're going to need to give, we're going to give support, and we can look at that over the, you know, the spring and the summer and think about how we can support those students. Great thank you. I know that the district is looking

162to, and we talked about the K five summer program to help for students that perhaps feel they want to spend a portion of their day on something slightly more academic than, you know, just being in summer camp. Is there a way to use some of the assessment to help parents make a decision, whether that something that might be important for their child, whether in fact their child could benefit from that kind of opportunity. I know it's, it's a unique situation that most parents don't have to decide when their kids are in K five, whether they might spend a portion of the day doing something more on the academic side. So I'm just trying to think how we can help the, you know, the parents make a decision, whether this is something for them and their

163child. Well, I have a, you know, a fairly simple answer for that and that's that this is going to be an opportunity that reflects some of the lost opportunities in a typical year. And those opportunities are what I talked about a little bit at the end, which are, you know, the kind of project based learning, working together collaboratively on a project where you're applying your skills in a way that can be creative and artistic. And it is also something that is included in a lot of what some students engage in through their, their camps and the things that they, the kind of projects and the music, you know, the opportunities that they have. This is something that I think is going to be unique. And I also think it's going to be fun and joyful

164and, and all those things, but it is also something that we want it to be very clear. Wasn't something that's going to include required knowledge for moving on to the next class, which I don't think diminishes it, it just puts it into context. It's, it's these kinds of these opportunities that we, we would have done more of in a regular year. And now we have some time to do it with Scarsdale teachers. Any other questions? Oh yeah. I have a question. How will remote students speed take the state tests? How will they take the state tests? Yeah. So this as the state New York state was informed that we must give a one test in math and one test in English. And it's a small, fairly short, multiple choice test in each. But what they

165did do is they gave us flexible windows in which to give the test. So there's a, there's a period of time in which it can be given and it doesn't have to be on the same day for every class. It doesn't have to be on the same day for every grade. It can be spread out in a way that actually is, as I was saying, makes legit logistical and humane sense, but they're not requiring any other section of the test to be given, but they're providing the materials if you choose to collect them and use them at a later time. So what we're doing is we're giving the required test and we're collecting the other materials so that we can see, we can use the metal later time to, to analyze and see. Yeah. So,

166I mean, do they have to physically take them in person or can they opt out? Well, they, they have to physically take them in a classroom and the usual process and many parents, several parents will get a letter from me shortly that we'll talk about what the process is for alerting the school, if it is your plan to opt out of it. Parents, parents absolutely have the right to opt out. And any students who are not in school, it does not count against the, either the student or the school this year. Yes and this is also a test that doesn't have any weight or measure towards AP PR towards a teacher's score. They used to use state tests with the child study teams, I guess, to identify like if you had a level two, you

167would be potentially identified. So are the state tests just not going to be used right now because they're so limited in what they're testing. And. You know, as far as the, the, the rules that would come down around how you use the state test, if you get lower than a three, if you get a two, in most cases, there's there's a nuance there so that you can use your discretion in which you can give support in ways that don't necessarily look like, you know, quote unquote, AIS. I think in, in this year's test a lot of the validity and the is going to be of question because it is such an unusual time. and it's going to prove to be something that's not going to be particularly helpful in doing any kind of comparison. It's

168because of the level of flexibility that's being given out throughout the state on. That the tests themselves are gonna be much shorter and much more streamlined than they were. So I took to egress point the validity and reliability of the test may or may not be intact. We're not sure about that, but the compare ability is certainly not going to be there for looking at past year's tests or past performance. So it will be an anomaly. Occasionally we have cut score changes, or we have other kinds of things, and it represents a restart for us when we have to look at student data trends over time. And so this is going to be one more of those years in which we're just going to have to sort of say, this is it as a snapshot.

169You know, perhaps we can determine some trends or not determine some trends about it, but in terms of being able to compare to past years or likely future years is just not going to be in the cards this year. When we talk about the individual student level, also, when we talk about RTI, the state tests are not, they are an identifying factor. One of the identifying factors we use getting a two or one on the state test, but also remember star is, is basically aligned with those state tests, which we give three times a year, and those have been consistent through the pandemic. So we're using that data as well as our universal screener. Once you get past the universal screening and the identification from those state tests, then the S the CST team really

170uses much more teacher derived and skill focused assessments to engage in a, in an intervention. So while it's nice to have a comparative data from year to year on a cohort grade, or, or larger school, the, the lack of States tests this year will not do much from an RTI intervention on the student level. So I'm assuming that parents will get some sort of letter explaining this situation. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. Any other questions for Edgar. One on, I have one question as much as a comment observation, you know, last year I recall during a educational report, we discussed sort of a knowledge bank that kind of exists in the, in the computer servers, whatever the school has and teachers can kind of exchange ideas and there's access. And this year, what I saw was sort

171of that a more direct exchange of ideas that they've been undergoing due to a calm, the technology of zoom and everything, as well as I would imagine, having some additional time on Wednesdays or other times where they had some ability to coordinate together in a way that they didn't didn't have before, which is, which was part of the point, obviously. So I would like to, imagine, and I, I hope that that, and if I'm repeating something, you can tell me, but that one of the goals for next year for the teachers is to try and for everybody's benefit is to try to keep that to some extent that a line of communication and, and going, and I don't know how that, how that will work, but I hope that that's something that's being thought about

172because there were a couple of positive remarks from the teachers. And if they feel as valuable, I want to, you know, try to encourage that as much as possible. Some of it is the STI, but it seemed more than that. Yeah. I think the genie's out of the bottle, because I think that. Through necessity. There was a lot of, of sharing that happened, but a lot of exchange of ideas and also, you know, exponentially technology understanding of how to use them has grown and that these connections have been made. And I think they're very powerful. So when we talk about what we're gonna we're going to keep going forward. Definitely those kinds of connections and the databases that we've, we've developed. It's all, it's all good stuff. Edgar, I appreciate you talking about students that

173might be struggling right now. I actually want to sort of the flip side, or how are we looking at students who may have struggled in the past and are actually improving, or maybe thriving in a hybrid or virtual model and thinking about them going forward, where perhaps it was the model for whatever reason, and we're hopefully all going back to a traditional school year, but there might be some group that actually it's, this is the model that works for them. I'd love to know if we are able to have data on that and have a discussion about that. Well that's a really interesting point, because what we find is when we look at these different models and I, I use LATIC as an example, they're built on student choice, agency independence, and we find that

174there are students that thrive in that model because not necessarily because they have a ll the executive functioning, but they like the choice. They like the ability to engage that way. They like the independence, and then they start to build more and more executive functioning and independence. We also find that there are students who struggle and it's much harder for them. What we know from, you know, our, our educational gurus is that the disposition and the skills that are really important out in the wide world and from when you get to college, are those executive functioning skills and that level, I think that we will, we will continue. It's one of our strategic plan goals is student centered learning. And under that umbrella, or lots of different opportunities and models to develop more choice and

175agency on the part of students to take those students who are thriving now, and even in, even as we move under one roof, look at how we can use that curiosity, that strength, that what they they've learned and harness it for, for their own, for their own learning and their own good while at the same time, knowing that the kids who prefer to just be lectured to and take notes, because they feel the most comfortable. That actually discomfort. Is probably. What we need them to experience a little bit, because in the world, you, you don't just take them. I mean, sometimes you do, but you know, there's a balance there that needs to be struck. I appreciate that, cause it's just, I think you touched on this more than touching. You talked about this idea

176that we're learning about all these different ways and sort of, some of them were thrust upon us. Well, thrust upon the teachers, I should say. And, you know, were very interesting to see what what will come out of this. And I think that assessment piece ties with it, you know, looking at how students are doing with it. I did have a specific question about a metric on the star assessment, Star assessment. If I read it correctly, our students are performing 90% are performing at the 40th percentile. I was a little surprised. And I just want to correct that it's not 90% of our kids are scoring at the 90 at a 40th percentile, but the 40th for 10 cent centile is gen a nationally generalized, a recognized as proficiency. Okay, so it's like if you

177re if you connect it to a three on the, when we used to do that, we used to look at the threes and fours. The star puts that basically the three at that level. So it's not, it's not like a deep kindness. I would strongly urge, hopefully you can post the presentation because it was fantastic. And just making a note, because in my mind, when I think of percentile, I always think about SATs. And we talked about other than you want to be the 99th. And that's all that, that number sort of, but I understand what you're saying. No, I'm actually really glad you asked that Ryan, in case somebody saw that and it didn't have it in context. And then my last question is just sort of looking forward and you talked about this.

178We are, we're embarking in a new model today in elementary and middle and high school soon. That might potentially be what next year could kind of look like where we're hopefully back, but maybe there's risk mitigation. Are those impacted, you talked about some of the things we can do. And I don't know whether it's a, a mini education report or something, but I think it would be really helpful to hear how these next three months look as you're starting to look ahead, because this might be a really close model to what we might see in the near future. When you say this might be a very close model, you're talking about where we are now or where we. Well, where we're going to be. So where once all three levels are back in quote, full

179time, but still there's all this risk mitigation. And so just from an assessment standpoint, you know, how do these risks mitigation? So for example, I think use the word like the kids huddling together, which they may not be able to do still, you know, how does that impact when we don't have the small groups anymore? And now we're in the bigger class, right? But it was some small group work that was really beneficial. And just understanding from an assessment standpoint, how these next few months look going into next year, be really helpful. (murmurs) I had one thing, sorry. Please go ahead. I just wondered if there was any discussion as you reached out to the faculty about the times office hours, the tutorial model, you know, how this structure may or may not have impacted

180the efficacy of those opportunities, maybe not necessarily for assessment, for force or, but for support and whether that's something that people are looking at to kind of lessons learned related to the tutorial model in the high school or office hours in the middle school. Well, as I was kind of going through what we learned, one of the points was these kind of personal individual connections with students. That's something that's always been reported as being incredibly powerful in a typical year by our, our secondary students. In this year. It, it continued to be important and essential. And I think in many ways, you know, they even talked about in a typical year that it being almost a, also a social, emotional connection. So in the conversations that I've had with secondary teachers, they found that when

181they had an opportunity to work with individuals and small groups of students, that it was something that was very helpful as an assessment tool, but also as a, as an instructional tool. But I was thinking maybe also, perhaps in a normal year, you know, three or four students stop by a faculty's office hours or tutorial time all at once and can be managed together. And now with masks and distancing, we're so much more limited with that. And there, you know, I've been a lot of that connection was compromised. And I didn't know if they felt that, that they were, that they had come up with ways to mitigate that compromise because they had to deal with Vic. We're only able to deal with fewer students at the time. And I was wondering if maybe that

182come up as something that they have. Only that there was people were using technology and zoom to make those and that you were able to there was an advantage to it in that you could see the student's face and that, that was important, but that's how they were mitigating, that it wasn't the, the groups that used to drop in. And when I was talking to Jen Maxwell about it and having sat in on the ACE school, for example, where it's so much of the learning is social and conversational and casual, but so essential and so important. That's one of the things we're looking forward to getting back to perhaps not in September on but I may be always pushing a little bit farther ahead. Okay, any others? All right, again, thank you, Edgar. Really appreciate

183all of your work in these efforts. The second item is 11.02, which is a resolution and public notice for public hearing on the 2122 budget on May 10th of 2021. And the annual district meeting and election vote on May 18th, 2021. This is a lot of fancy jargon and resolutions that are related to some housekeeping items around the time Manner Place of our budget, vote and vote for board members with two vacant seats this year. And so you can look over the resolutions. This is again, typical language that we've used in the past year is obviously drawn out by our attorneys and comports with the legal requirements around these two issues. Are there any questions about this item? Okay, if not, then we'll go onto 11.03 and we're back to our friend Edgar. Who's going

184to talk to them. I will be brief here to textbooks for earth science earth and introduction to physical geography and essentials of geography Nasta edition. And I had a chance to look through them. Well-regarded well reviewed. And I was struck by the fact that they were so engaging and accessible, lots of pictures of volcanoes. So of course it had me kind of drawn in and that those are the two of the books. And then one of the other is just a tried and true digital for Spanish classes from visa learning Other questions about this text Stryker. Thank you very much. The next item is 11.04, which was the district wide safety and emergency management plan. As the board knows this plan was put before the board and adopted a July 7th, 2020 meeting since then

185there has been an amendment required for the plan, which is the provision 2801. And it's inserted starting on page 22. If the board wants to kind of join in there, you can see that education law 2801 A requires protocols for responding to a declared public health emergency involving communicable disease. And there are seven protocols that are outlined on here. One is about the F workforce. The second one is about non-essential employees and contractors telecommuting to work. The third one is around staggered work shifts. The fourth one is around PPE. The fifth one is around learning environments that protect staff and students. Number six is around essential employees or contractors having their hours of work in locations, documented by off-site visits. And number seven is around emergency housing for essential employees. Essentially that's the only portion

186of that that was changing again, required by law. Eric, I don't know if you have anything that you wanted to add to that. No, that is all that's there for the 2801 change. Just to let the board know this is an action item for today for acceptance before the April 1st deadline, you will actually see this plan yet again, next meeting, because we are, have to review it and have a 30 day comment for the yearly acceptance of the full plan, not just the 2801 change. So don't be surprised next week or next month when we bring it back again. Not wouldn't be surprising for us to see additional changes that are required as a result of the pandemic over time. So I think you have to view this as a flexible and organic plan

187kind of moving forward. The safety committee met last week to look at any suggested changes and we'll come back one more time before we bring it to the board in the next board meeting. Are there questions about this? Okay. I'm going to bundle the next two together because they belong to steward 11.05 will be the proposal for sprint tent rentals and item number 11.06 will be the secret determinations for the same. So Stuart doing, walk us through those please. Yes, thank you very much. I mentioned the tents earlier in the evening. So this is for the 10 proposals themselves. We did go out for quotations and estimates from two other companies. The lowest quote was from Atlas party rentals for cost of 18,400. As I noted earlier, they're about 600 square foot tons 20 by

18830. Hopefully we should get between 25 and 30 students, depending on what they're doing. If they're eating lunch, it should be about, about that. They do have to comply with some STD requirements. PBS architects is helping us with that. And before we can use them, they do have to have a final inspection by the architect and fire inspector. Once we're up, if we're approved tonight, we'll send that off to SCD for their approval and then get ready to receive them hopefully in early April, and again, the diagram where they're depicted as attached to the agenda, and as I spoke about earlier. The secret determinations actually to, for the aforementioned tents, we get to do seeker on that type two designation, meaning we need no further environmental review. And these resolutions were written up by the

189attorney, the tents, basically a temporary building less than 10,000 square feet does not need any further review. And the other secret is resolution is for the high school auditorium that's included as part of the proposed budget. Again, type two, no other review is needed basically because it's a renovation of an existing space. Any questions? Great. Thank you. All right, thank you. The next item will be 11.07, which is the required board policy review. Second readings. The first policy that we're looking at is, 010 0101 which is regarding the gender neutral bathrooms. This has been a clean reading for a second time, without any suggested changes at this point, very straightforward. Again, Stewart reported in a previous conversation about this, that the district has prepared the signage prepared the spaces are prepared to move forward to

190implement this policy, which is a required change by law. The second policy there's one, two, three, four, five. The next policy really that we're looking at is the dry policy 0105 five as a PDF. Again kudos to Alison who took a very clunky multi page policy and condense it into a one-page version, which is much easier to read and understand after she did that, we had a couple of other readers look at it and make some additional changes. We promised that we would bring a clean copy to the board for this meeting. You can see that policy now with the changes that have been proposed to the original one that Alison submitted to us. At this point, we continue to welcome any feedback or input on this policy. If there is none or even if

191there is some, we will bring back a clean version of this as a second reading on this particular policy for board approval. Are there any questions about this item, Amber, please. I just, when I read this over, this is great. Thank you Alison, for putting this together, there was one thing that I was thinking about adding and it's in the fourth paragraph, the last sentence that says class instructional activities and extracurricular programs shall be designed and implemented to provide opportunities for cross-cultural and cross-racial interactions that foster respect for diversity. And I was wondering if we would consider adding something like foster respect for diversity and inclusivity. I think we talked about, it's a couple of paragraphs above where we say, in which diversity is honored and all individuals are respected. And I think it's important

192to go just beyond diversity and mentioned inclusivity there, or if everyone's okay with that. Thank you. Other ideas or thoughts? Yeah, can I, I have trouble with the sentence that the last sentence in the third paragraph and in the third paragraph, the third paragraph, it says, well, actually it's the whole paragraph, sorry, but it, I think it's that it says that contribute to the disparate educational outcomes within our schools. It makes it sound like there are disparate outcomes in our school. So I I don't know. It just gave me a pause when I read that interview to potential or to any contribute that could contribute. I don't know I just, it sounded affirmative there that this is that we have disparate outcomes. Maybe we do I know we're seeking not to have that, but I'm

193not sure how to fix it. I don't think you could potentially contribute or something like that. Supposed to indicating.. Yep. I have a note on it. Thank you. Wait, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Sorry. I want to clarify that. This says, I'm going to read this just so I understand why you're looking at the paragraph that says, in order to realize this goal, it is imperative that the board district employees, volunteers, and students understand historical injustices inequalities that have shaped our society and recognize and eliminate the institutional barriers, including racism and biases that contribute to the disparate educational income outcomes within our schools. Right. And you're asking that instead of it, say that contribute to the disparate educational outcome within our schools, that it say for instance, could contribute or could contribute to the disparate educational

194outcomes within our schools. Is that right? I just want to make sure I understand you want to change the word that, so the word point, yeah. The point that Carl's making is that what we're trying to do is understand the historical injustices and inequalities that have contributed to the disparate educational outcomes. That's, that's the full sentiment and full font. And I think what we're saying is that you know, we might change that language to say that might contribute to. But I think the intent is that there have been historical injustices that have absolutely led to this. I think that's the sentence. So maybe that's that have contributed then it's you have the Hab there that have contributed to yeah. No I think if Karen is confused and others would be confused as well, so maybe

195we can say that have, and may continue to something like that. Yep, all right. We can make that change. I just, I guess, right. I think that's right. My point was that the affirmative newness of it is meaningful. Okay, thank you. I also was wondering why the compact committee, I'm just trying to still try and understand the work of the compact committee, how that work is meshing with, you know, for example, the high school DEI committee and why it would not report to the board annually on something so important. Yeah so Alison raised the very same question cause she was the one who suggested that'd be the case. And my response to her was this will be a brand new endeavor for the compact committee while we've been. This is what? This would be a

196brand new endeavor for the compact committee. We've certainly been focused on issues of DEI, but it's been a sort of a loose affiliation of being sort of warehousing place for all the practices that are happening at the building level. So I felt reluctant to go from here to here in a policy without having some opportunity to meet with compact, to talk with them about this change and to Institute some practices. So as I told Alison, I could see this becoming an annual report to the board in a year or two. I just didn't know that we could do it by tomorrow, which is what happens when you put it into policy here. And to say that there will, there will be a report right away. So that was really, Thomas' sort of trying to allow

197a process to occur and to spend some time processing this with compact, we don't meet that often. It's, you know, every other month on a normal year. And so it, it would be a pretty radical change for us to just change in one year without any real notification or conversation with them. Yeah. I understand that, I just, because compact doesn't meet that often and this is really important work. I was just trying to understand how compact is meshing with the work, the other work that's being done. Yeah, again, we've been, we've been trying to, well, prior to COVID, we were trying to find our footing and again, trying to be sort of a central warehousing of the kinds of information. We were the ones who put together the bias glossary, working on calendar issues, trying

198to be a centralizing force around this work. But again, we just really kind of started doing that as a central organizing you know committee. So, you know, we have to figure it out. They might not be the right place ultimately I think what we're trying to do is to build in a little bit of accountability here in terms of having a place and that would kind of own this work, we may decide after some conversation that is really belongs in a district multicultural committee or something else that doesn't really exist at this point. So this, this might come back before us next year. Absolutely, this was just a way, you know I think we all recognize the importance of this work and the urgency of this work and to be able to move forward with

199it, but absolutely understanding that this, the mechanisms that we put into place might have to change over time as it makes more sense. Okay thank you. That makes sense. And then just one other tiny thing, I just was trying to understand why in the bathroom policy, why it was changed from a must to will since the policy I'm assuming will exist for years and years and years. Sorry which paragraph. Signs, designating, gender neutral, single occupancy bathrooms, you changed it from must be posted to will be posted. So I was just wondering why, if it's going to be a policy for years and years, shouldn't be should or must be posted. You know, I can't actually remember. I mean, we try to do things I think rather than come in our policies in general, we tend

200to use will rather than a command word must. Yeah think I actually did that for the exact same reason. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? One more time? Is, could you just remind me who, like, who are the players on the compact committee? They're the folks who are often the PTA or the designated person and the principals from the elementary and middle school and representatives from the high school. Thank you. Fair enough, are there additional parent? Oh, at the district level, I guess on the building level there. Yeah so each of the buildings has a compact committee and then they actually choose their representatives. It tends to be the PTA representative and at the elementary that tends to be the elementary principals at the high school. It's been Hania Gorman for example. And so it

201depends on the administrators that are chosen for that year, but they tend to be a multi-year obligation or responsibility. And then the PTA presidents then sit also on the inclusion committees. Tend to there's some slight variation across the schools, but yes. Okay, thank you for all that valuable input. I appreciate that. And again, we'll continue to move forward, clean versions of this for board approval. And then the next, last two items under information, 11.08 and 11.09 are actually board items. So the first one would be 11.08, which is the Bose's administrative budget and trustee election preliminary discussion. And that is going to be led by Carl. And then after Carl does that item, then I believe Amber is going to take over 11.09, which is board advocacy opportunities. (murmurs) What's that? I'm going to do

2021109. Oh, sorry. I just, I just read the, what did I say? You said Amber. Amber sorry I'm so sorry. So sorry Carl 11.08. Okay let's see. 11.08 here we go. We discussed this last year. So maybe familiar to a few of us but, the each year we're asked to vote on the annual administrative budget for the upcoming school year, typically third week in April. So we'll be doing that. The summary is attached to the agenda and the, there are also a election for two board members for both CDs. If anybody's interested for three year terms. So attached here is the, okay. So there's a notice and the annual budget. Last year and I talked to Panel, there were some questions about it that I brought back to them at the annual. I didn't bring

203back, sorry, whoever the is liaison was brought back. So if there are any questions I would, I would bring that back to them so that we can have their response prior to our next meeting, which would be, I think, prior to their vote and when we would have to vote on it. Is that clear? Okay. Yeah. And I think it looks like it's because of meetings, virtual, regular, you know, I know you're the delegate to the both CS work, but it does look like other board members could attend the April 7th meeting if we wanted to log in and get more clarity and hear it as well this year, which is it normal? Yeah anybody can log in and watch it it's not, I think and I did it I invited... Yeah I think we've

204all been invited to it, but certainly as our representative, as our delegate, you, you could bring back any particular questions that people have today. And then we vote to approve this on the night on the 20th. Right. I could not remember what the questions were from from last year. I know when I went back to look and it's, it was not videotaped. I also thought there was something, but, anyway. This video is not posted. We could check to see, but I couldn't follow up with what the questions were either. So if anyone has them now, if you could give them to Carl. Well, if you wake up in the middle of the night tonight, and you remember the question, you could just let me know. Carl, any questions. All right, Alison is going to finish

205out our information out as with 11.09 board advocacy. So we have been working closely with other boards and with the New York state school boards association, to ensure that school priorities are heard by our legislative representatives as they work to finalize. The New York state 2021, 22 budget and local action is critical to getting the messages out. So we encourage all district residents to reach out to our legislators to share your thoughts regarding the budget priorities. And there's an easy way to do this via the NASPA website. If you go to the website, that's attached to our board meeting agenda, you can fill out a simple form with your name and address, and then that will take you to a sample letter that you can customize as you see fit. So I encourage all of

206our resident to do that and express their opinions with regard to school priorities in the budget. In addition, also attached to tonight's agenda is a letter from the board to key legislative representatives that I will ask Ron to please describe in further detail. Thanks, Alison. So this is a follow-up from our last meeting where we, we first discussed this, we had discussed a West putt sample template as a place to start given that the assembly and the Senate have proposed their one house budget at this point. And they did include many of the priorities that have been identified by public school districts, as well as the advocates, just above that. Alison mentioned in West pot, we crafted a, a specific letter and referenced a letter that came from our assembly woman, Amy Paulin, as well

207as a few other local assembly members. And the, the letter, essentially this would be come from our board to the Senate, majority leaders, to our cousins and speaker Hesty that, that we support a number of the items that have come from the one house budgets, as well as discussing one item for hopefully future consideration, which is the regional cost index, which is something that's in brought up many years for Westchester, but has not passed. So you can see a copy of it here. And this is on our agenda for an action item tonight because New York state strives to approve their budget by April 1st. So there, this is timely Other questions for Alison and Ron? So I did want to, I forgot to mention one other thing that has come up since our last

208discussion and this relates to something that Edgar talked about. One of the other ways that residents can get involved, as Alison mentioned, Nisbet has a form letter Westchester Putnam school board association also has some form letters. We discussed one last week about the budget. There is a new one about asking the federal government for New York state's testing waiver for, for the three to eight tests. And it talks about many things that Edgar talked about on why they may not be the best test this year for data and other reasons. So that's also available on Westport's website for any resident that's interested. Thanks for that clarification Ron. Other thoughts. The only thought I have is because those sources are so great for board, but also resident advocacy that we did post on the board advocacy,

209webpage, a link to those loader voice letters. So at any given time, our residents can go to the board advocacy webpage and click on the link there and it'll list all the different voter voice letters that Westchester Putnam school board association has put forward to support public education. The Nisbett is not there. Maybe we could look to see if we can add something to their, their advocacy page as well, but it's a great, easy way for, for everyone to go take a look at, you know, how you can individually support public education through these representative organizations. And thanks so much to both of you for your work on this. All right thank you very much. That concludes our information items and we will be moving on to section number 12, which is our action items.

210Thank you, Thomas. All right, so action item 12.01. The resolution we spoke about earlier, Carl. Thank you. This is the resolution that's required each year to submit the details of the budget vote in election and to publish the publish, the notice and this particular resolution similar to the ones from prior years. So the resolutions are attached with the notice of election and I would move that they be adopted as presented. Thank you, Carl. have a second. Amber second, is there any discussion? All right, then all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? The motion passes. Thank you. Item 12.02, the secret determination. I think that's Ron pretense. This is the secret determination for the 10th that steward discussed earlier in the meeting. There are, I believe five were as clauses that are in

211the agenda. So if anybody would like to read those, I will go right to the resolve clause, since this is a this is a, has a resolved clause in it. Now, therefore be it resolved that the board of education of the Scarsdale union free disk reschool district based upon the record before it, including the general specific and detailed knowledge of the board of the proposed project and under the applicable standards of secret and six NYC are, are part six, one 7.5 hereby determined that one, the proposed project is classified as a type two action and two in accordance with article eight of the New York state environmental conservation law. The board is not obliged to conduct any further environment or review of the project. Second. Any discussion? Okay, all in favor, say aye. Aye. Any

212opposed? Abstentions motion passes. Thank you, Ron item two 12.03, the proposal for the tent rental, Carl, back to you. So I move that we adopt the resolution that the board of education approved the proposal from Atlas party rentals for the rental of outdoor tents in the amount of 1700 pretend for the first month at 1300 per 10 for each subsequent month plus side panels and the total amount of 300 per month per tent. The total proposal cost is $18,400 for, for three months. And the estimate is attached. Estimates are attached. Thanks, may I have a second? Second? Thank you, Allison. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? The motion passes. Thank you. Carl item 12.04. The secret determination for the auditorium project, Bob. Yes. This is a similar format

213to what Ron had read it. It's titled the 2021, 2022 auditorium renovation secret type two action. And we recommend passing the resolution. I'll I'll jump down to the therefor now, therefore be it resolved that the board of education of the Scarsdale union free district based upon the record before it, including the general specific and detailed knowledge of the board of the proposed project and under the applicable standards of Secra and six, and my CR are part 6107.5 hereby determines that one, the proposed project is classified as a type two action and two in accordance with article eight of the New York state environmental conservation law. The board is not obligated to conduct any further environmental review of the project. Thank you, Bob. May I have a second? Is that a second? Second. Thanks Carl, any

214discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions the motion passes, thank you. Item 12.05. The resolution related to the security cameras at the mute at the middle and high school, Karen. So this involves the, as you said, the work that security camera installation at the middle school and high school, which our part of the 2018 bond project and to follow what do you want it to read, the, whereas it just skipped to the resume You can just recommend that you adopt the resolution, Okay, I recommend that the board adopt the following resolution. Be it resolved that the board of education here by authorizes the board president to execute a contract between the district and the winning bitters noted above upon approval of the same by the district's attorney. The copy of such

215contract shall be incorporated by reference with the minutes of this meeting. Thank you, Karen. Do I have a second? Second? Okay, and your discussion. I'll just have a question. I never noticed this, but how come for this one. You have the board president authorized to execute, but for the tense you just have approval. Oh, maybe the tents don't have a contract. They're just done an estimate basis. Well, glad I could ask that question and answer it correct. And provide comic relief. Any other discussion. Oh, and also the bond projects, all of that could go to ICD as part of the approval process or any other audits or anything like that. So we really make sure everything is buttoned up nice and tight. Good, all right. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions? Thank you. The

216motion passes. 5.06 these district wide safety and emergency management plan, Amber. Yes, item 12.06 is the district wide safety and emergency management plan that was discussed in item 11.04. Earlier this evening, I moved that the board approve the district wide safety and emergency management plan as presented. Thanks, Amber. May I have a second? Second. Thanks Carl. Any discussion? All right. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right, motion passes. Moving on to 12.07. Alison. I move that the board adopt a policy 0101 gender neutral single occupancy bathrooms as presented. Thank you, may I have a second? Second. Thank you, Amber. Any discussion? I want to just comment that, you know, this is the type of thing that I, I see it's coming up, not just for us, but it just

217fits in so well with the general theme that, that the administration's been working on with inclusion and, you know, kind of on the one hand, a small thing. And on the other hand, possibly a really big, big thing for some people. So, you know, as far as I'm concerned, can't be done soon enough and really make things a little more comfortable for people. And whenever we can do that by putting up a sign, I mean, that, that's just a great thing to do. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Abstentions. Okay the motion passes. And the final action item for tonight related to board Agassi, who's doing this wrong. I move that the board approve the advocacy state budget letter as presented and previously discussed tonight

218Second. Thank you, Alison. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions. All right, the motion passes and we'll move on to item 1301, the first of our gifts for this evening, the Eagle scout project, Ron. Thanks Penn. This is a gift being presented regarding an Eagle scout project for fitness equipment at the high school and from Simon Benzema and this is a followup to his brother's project where he installed certain pieces of fitness equipment and now his brother is finishing it up. Therefore, I recommend that the board accept with thanks that donations and in kind labor to purchase and install two fitness stations adjacent to Butler track and field as part of an Eagle scout project. Thank you, Ron. May I have a second? Thank you, Amber. And your discussion and

219accepting this gift. It just want to say, I think this is a really cool gift of this. I think the family has put together different donations over the years and I think it's really wonderful. Agreed thank you. I want to just to add too, as a mother of an Eagle who completed a project just a few years ago, I really have tremendous appreciation for the planning and the execution that is involved in something like this. So thank you toward. Thank you. And just to follow up on that, I should have really noted. This is not just a financial gift. There's a, a large in-kind piece to what camera's mentioning. So it's just a really a nice gift.,. Well thank you to Simon for this. I know raised on a lot of work with him on

220this and of course with word originally. So we're very grateful. Any further discussion. All those in favor, say aye, Aye. Opposed abstentions the motion passes. Thank you again so much Simon and congratulations. Whoops I've lost something battery on the why. So the next item must be another gift. That's me all right. I move that. The board approve a gift from the Scarsdale, Scarsdale Scarsdale Scarsdale Scarsdale school foundation, Scarsdale Scarsdale, Scarsdale schools, education foundation. Just want to make sure I said it exactly right, because this is for enhancement of, for robotic equipment to support elementary instructional technology program and the steam project. And it includes dash and Bee-Bots dash robots and Bee-Bots that's it. Somebody can second. Awesome, we have a second. Second. Any discussion? All right, so to accept with, thanks. May I have all

221in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed. Abstentions motion passes thank you again. can I just say a word I would like to thank Jerry for his close working with the foundation to make this happen has been an invaluable part of the process and, and working with the foundation to help understand the need and obviously to gain this really important gift. So thank you, Jerry. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you to the education foundation. Item 12 or 13.03, the third gift. Karen. I recommend that the board, except with thanks the gift proposal of four wooden benches, which were constructed by our own students for the use on the high school campus. And the club is a habitat from Humana. Sorry thank you. Is there a second. Second. Any discussion? I didn't know, they made them themselves. That

222was nice to learn. Is that in there and I missed it and it said in the letter, yeah. Discussion all those in favor, accepting with thanks. Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions. All right, so we accept this great gift with thanks, from the habitat humanity club, moving on to item 14, an opportunity for public comment. There's no one in the audience right now. So we'll have to go to zoom, which I will ask maybe Alison to take care of. But again, at this time, the public is able to speak on an agenda item or any other non-personnel related matter. Prior resolution, you may have three minutes to speak during this period, and there's not a cap on the total time. And again, there's no one in our audience who will go to any one on

223zoom who would like to raise their hand and Jerry shaking his head. Right now I see no one raising their hand, but just because of the delay, I am going to give it 10 seconds. All right. So then we will close this opportunity for public comment. Item 15 is follow up to public comment and I believe we can skip that unless anybody feels there's something to say. And then we'll move on to item 16, wrap up. I don't have anything that's kind of pending. If someone thinking of something. There's revisions to the policy, I'll get another copy of that with the two revisions that were suggested to the board. Okay, revisions to policy 105 and that's about it. Thank you Thomas. item 17, Alison meeting dates. So on Wednesday of this week, the board committee

224on community engagement will meet at 1:3 0via zoom. Our next meeting will be on Monday, April 12th. We'll have a meeting at four o'clock via zoom with volunteers and liaison from community groups. We may go into executive session if needed at 5:30 in room, 170 in the high school. And then at 6:30 here in the auditorium, we will have our business meeting where the board will adopt the budget. Then on Tuesday, April 20th. We have the special meeting to have the Southern West Chester Beau seize vote. That will be at nine o'clock in the morning via zoom. Thank you, Alison and item 18. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Thank you Ron. A second. Second. Any discussion? You got it on REA all in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions the motion to adjourn. Thank you

225all. Have a great break and thanks for all the hard work today everyone to open for today. That was terrific.