001and it's all free re that's for the Middle School going things here good evening everybody um if you would rise and join me in the pledge and and while after the pledge if you would remain standing uh for a moment of silence for Matthew Broly uh class of 2014 who recently passed away I to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank [Music] you okay just a quick Public Service Announcement before do does for administrative report this board meeting uh will be recorded and not live streamed because we're having some technical issues with the app um and you may take it away well thank you um as you know the vast majority of the update is going to
002be our presentation tonight budget presentation on curriculum highlights but I would be remiss if I didn't honor some of the individuals that are on our board agenda for retirement so I'd like to just say a few things as you know later in the year we have the formal recognition where of course a lot of wonderful things will be said um I'd like to start with just saying a few words about Sher Sher rzo so Sher started with us in 1997 as a special education teacher um she was an English teacher the following year and um she has served as an English teacher for many years as a September of 2022 she has taken the new role of being our attendance teacher for part of her schedule and uh last year she taught English and this
003year she's teaching enl um shar's been really instrumental in that attendance office and in the establishment of the attendance office so I'd really like to give a shout out to that because uh that was not an easy task uh also she is I think almost everything drama with regards to her extracurricular um she was she was direct directing behind the scenes actions for this uh past weekend with me and girls production which was absolutely fabulous um but she's also done a ton of Summer curriculum writing within the district she's been sorry about this guys she's been a teacher leaon for uh English grades 7 through 12 and 9 through 12 and she was on the Patriot committee and she was also a patriot awarde and I cannot say enough about her um she's she's everything
004seford I think and uh we look forward to celebrating her at the end of the year also on for board action I'm very happy for her which it's just to be sad not to see her around wearing the many hats that she wears okay this one from now doesn't show okay we good now okay um so next is uh Carrie degman and Carrie is actually a secret high school graduate actually she went almost entirely through she started at secret Avenue and then when that closed she went to I believe the harbor and uh she went to the middle school when it wasn't the middle school and it was a junior high and uh if you know Carrie she is really she I think in her veins it's green um she is a very effervescent person
005uh extremely bubbly has the energy of um I don't know like five people um I had the Good Fortune of going on the trip with her the Gary C Foundation trip to New Orleans she was one of the chaperon and she just has an incredible kind heart and uh really good spirit with the kids um the kids absolutely adored her and she too has worn a number of hats throughout her years in the district uh she was a club advisor science department chair 7 through 12 she's done a lot of Summer curriculum writing she was the Green Team advisor um and then she's done things like PM detention and she also teacher Lee is on for Science and Technology so we really do appreciate her um her classroom is I I don't know how she's
006going to move out of the classroom because of everything that she has in there um to teach earth science but we will say more about her we do really do appreciate uh all the work that she's done with our students and just her Devotion to the community so congratulations Carrie very excited for you and then in another un uh Scott nasio is going to be retiring as a security guard he's been with us since 2007 he's retired New York City police detective but he will be staying on everybody can be very said he will be staying on as a rolling coach uh but Scott again is one of those those people that has become part of the Fabrica Seer he cherun a lot of the events he's very entrenched with the children he was president
007of their unit csca and always been a pleasure to know and a pleasure to work with he'll be missed during the day but I'm glad that he'll be still be coaching on children in in bowling so those are our three retirees tonight that you'll be approving on personal action report yep okay now we're going to start the ccal presentation just give me a moment great okay such a different Vantage Point here so um as the board knows from Mr cassel's presentation last month we are in the throws of budget season it's the most happy time of the year for him and for us it's a good point of reflection so tonight's presentation focuses on the fabulous programs that we have here in the SE School District I'm honored to present alongside Dr Offman salano and
008Miss kis son and I think and here we go it's me right I have so much energy can't compete with me right um so we were uh so I'm very honored to be able to present with them the incredible work that we've been doing the theme this year is empowering our SE Scholars with Innovative programs and as you know it's all connected to our mission statement and I think it's really important to always go back to our why which is our mission statement and our goals and again Innovative and Empower is is at the Forefront of what we want our students to be we want to empower them through our programs that are Innovative to become the leaders of tomorrow and the Learners of tomorrow today and tomorrow actually okay next behind the curtain are
009our goals so we'll touch on every single one of them uh when the team comes together and it's largely headed by Mr Cel to create a budget we ensure that it's fiscally responsible and that meets the needs of our community and I think that that's really important to point out because it meets the needs of our teaching and learning goals we've had an increased focus on social emotional learning and safety that is always a component of our budget operations and Facilities I don't think I really need to say much that operations and Facilities you pull into the high school parking lot and you see the Evan not only outside but then when you walk inside the school our libraries this year have been absolutely um fantastically transformed at the elementary buildings and now we're also
010looking towards making some tweaks to the middle school and high school so that the more hubs of innovation and then we talk about communication and I think this year it has been such an important piece of in commun increase in commun communication so that is in mind app can everybody hear me with the yeah [Music] okay okay [Music] thank Okay so we've presented before the concept of the New York State education department through the Blue Ribbon commission has presented new goals um and Transformations as to where the school will be the schools will be going in the state of New York so a lot of it we've done this before if anybody wants to see it they can go back to the November 13th word presentation and we do a full presentation on the Blue
011Ribbon commission but we talk about adopting a portrait of a graduate redefining credits and what seat time means talking about the sunsetting the diploma r requirements and then moving to one high school diploma so those are the four components those are the four Transformations and I'm really happy to present that we're very well situated to achieve this goal and we've done a lot of work in this area already so the concept behind this is that there are some skills dispositions ways that you think about learning that are the foundation for building the portrait of a graduate which will then give them skills to be successful once they graduate with their high school diploma that's the philosop the philosophy behind it so and some of the things that we're looking at here is these little icons
012are really nice because I think um they're just reminders of where we are and where we're going and we we touch every single one of these tiles so the green one is to encourage critical thinking the yellow is innovative problem solving the orange one with the books is looking for literacy across content area so being literate in technology being literate in social studies and being able to pull information being literate in MA the pink um covers social emotional competency and again I said that we're talking a lot in the district about our seal programs and maintaining robust offerings for our students we keep that in mind and we realize that our students are dealing with things that we didn't have to deal with when we were in school with regards to social media um the
013heart is taking a look at social emotional competency um oh excuse me being an effective sorry the heart is social emotional company and the pink is being good communicators and then the blue is being a global thinker so and we we had this slide in a former presentation so when you talk about the portrait of a graduate we're already filling that bucket a ton of our programs at the elementary level and at the secondary level support all of these areas and we're continuing to do that and to grow in these areas and again our secret scholar profile many of the dispositions in that support every aspect of the wheel so we are well positioned to implement Blue Ribbon commission changes and we're ready to go so one of the things that I think is the
014core of this work is our secret scholar profile and the secret scholar profile encapsulates the way we want our children to be able to display behaviors that enhance their learning and we know them we want them to be principled we want them to communicate well we want them to be resilient resiliency is a huge component about being an effective learner and being able to navigate through the world and of course reflective and innovators keeps popping up we want the children to be creative thinkers we want them to be problem solvers and we want them to think about things in an inov problem solving Manner and of course flexibility within our cour work but and also how they see the world and how they adapt to struggles or successes that they may have so at this
015point speaking a little bit more specifically about within each level of instruction elementary middle and high school talking about our core program in this budget some of the things that are going to be offered that are a continuation of the recuit on before Dr opman thank you Dr pakora and the board of education for affording me the opportunity to share the highlights of our curriculum this year as well as what we have planned for the upcoming year we do remain deeply grateful for the community support that allows us to maintain our exceptional programs and collaborate as a team to continue in ating this enables us to empower our Seaford Scholars to achieve greatness so starting with the foundation of our elementary schools we begin with an overview of what our tax dollars have enabled us
016to maintain which are represented in the White Tiles uh and I will uh just want to share with the board that I'm not going to go through each tile specifically um I'll highlight a few we're going to break out more in some following slides and this pattern will be followed with the other levels of schools so our teachers use nwaa results to drive their instructional decisions working tirelessly to personalize instruction to meet students where they are and facilitate their Learning Journey forward our Project Lead the Way units provide a platform for Project based learning fostering collaboration problem solving and critical thinking our elementary schools also offer popular robust Club offerings and our physical education program not only promotes physical exercise but also provides less lessons on Healthy Living our students love learning to code practicing
017sequencing logic and nurturing their creative side and of course the elementary school remains committed to social emotional learning and I'm very proud to report that we've been recertified in both schools as internationally recognized habits of mind schools our new sea fors of Scholars of the month program is one way Dr bakura Dr Jacob and our dedicated team of teachers and administrators bring our SE scholar trads to life for our students at Harbor we've introduced a brand new club that serves as a leadership training ground for future team leaders care club members at the middle school and our bracket leadership team at the high school we are consistently impressed by each edition of Manor morning news with Dynamic new anchors and reporters in the field led by The Talented Mr Richard Schwarz our lift program and
018Library enhancements including flexible furniture and innovative design create a space for inquiry engineering and boundless creativity and although no taxpayer funds are used to support our current upk program or our plan's very extensive expansion for next year this initiative is an investment in our future students ensuring that they enter kindergarten with enhanced School Readiness skills that will definitely contribute to their long-term growth and success so we love to highlight our lift program because we're in year three but it continues to evolve combining Library Innovation Fitness and technology has created a synergistic formula that leads to High student achievement in problem based Project Lead the Way and teacher created units this year we've introduced the new Vex robotics into our curriculum which is why you see the new down there by Vex robotics the programs not
019new but that's a new component um and when you look at the screen you see those same icons that Dr pakur had ex had explained to the board on a previous slide because what this shows is that we are aligned our lift program and so many of our programs are aligned for the upcoming Blue Ribbon commission changes and this shows how our Innovative and empowering programs already align with the direction of Education in New York state we are engaging in exciting work in the math world with a dedicated team of teachers and admin administrators examining and evaluating math programs to find one that fits with our goals and we're excited to welcome Dr Kella to the team who's helping to lead that work our team seeks an inquiry based program that promotes math discourse and
020strengthens the home to school connection that's a really important piece that we're examining closely and we want our new math program to bring to our families our teachers and our students because we think that connection is really key to success in math math and all subject areas so we've narrowed our options to two programs which will be piloted by teams across all grade levels K through six and several committee members are also conducting site visits to see these programs in action this year we've also rolled out magma math which is an Innovative supplementary resource built on the principle that math should be a social and communal Endeavor with conversation and collaboration at its core when I grew up we we did math in silos and that is not the best way to learn math the
021best way to learn math is through conversation dialogue and math talk so that you can reason out your thinking with your peers so we're really excited to see how this complements the new math program our committee will recommend to the Board of Education this spring for adoption this coming fall to support the shift to new science standards our teachers are using the Hands-On Science Program mystery science students engage in experiments ask questions participate in argumentation which brings the new science to life while framing their thinking through lenses like cause and effect structure and function and systems models and if your kids have ever come home talking about mystery Doug you know why they love the program our new grades 3 through five social studies program which is being supported by Dr Leone gives students the
022foundation to develop Civic F foundational skills through the cont context of historical study with a very strong literacy component in each unit which is the perfect segue to the right side of the slide which shows how our elementary teachers are empowering readers and writers through a comprehensive approach to literacy instruction infused with research-based techniques foundational to the science of reading our focus on Phonics and pheic awareness in greates k 2 has been enhanced with the new hegr program which incorporates hand motions and movement in Daily lessons to build foundational literacy skills kindergart I was at a a professional development um led by our Harbor team recently and the kindergarten teachers reported that their students have now exceeded phonological awareness Expectations by the end of February compared to previous years which I'm sure the first grade
023teachers were really happy to hear because they're going to get students who were ever more prepared for learning in that grade level and I will also report that students themselves will not let teachers Miss the heger lesson so they love it so much that if the day starts to get away from the teacher it's 10 minutes so they will remind the teacher to make sure that hegerty is done every day they love it so much so the curriculum partnership with our elementary administrators miss basula miss crudus Mr Schwarz and Miss Savage has enabled our district to make significant strides in a very short period of time setting the stage for continued growth and innovation and we move on to the Middle School led by ra Dr Raphael Mory and Mr Joseph P and they serve
024as a bridge between our youngest and our oldest Learners um we're following the same format white tiles are programs that we sustain every year with the gold being new programs that were introduced either this year or next so we continue to use multiple programs to support our Middle School student social emotional growth always with Seaford scholar traits integrated throughout our project lead the way and Robotics courses equip students with essential skills for successful future careers fostering collaboration problem solving and critical thinking and again you're going to keep hearing those words because those are the skills that employers are looking for they're not necessarily looking for specific content depending on the field but they're looking for those critical skills when they're hiring nowadays and we want to make sure our students are prepared for success our
025middle school offers many opportunities to students to explore their interests through clubs Athletics activities and exploratory courses and music participation uh our program participation has increased following a successful showcase for incoming Elementary School students into the middle level Dr Kennedy's leadership has enabled us to purchase a new Kiln which is going to introduce a Ceramics program to our students next year I'm very excited to see that I've always wanted to work with clay maybe they'll let me try try it out um we're also really proud to be in our first full official school year as an essential element school to watch a distinguished designation that sets us apart from other middle schools in New York state Dr Mor and his team have reimagined Seaford Scholars of the month transforming it into a true Community initiative
026by opening doors for anyone to nominate students for recognition which is really unique the end of the Year Awards now incorporate Seer scholar traes as well our Wellness Center which welcomed Lucy the the therapy dog this year has become a beloved part of the school environment and we're also reimagining our library space to Foster Innovation and creativity more to come little sneak preview our sixth grade team is an important part of our math committee program selection process in our entire middle school math program of math team excuse me has embraced the magma math initiative to augment their instruction and create more of those essential opportunities for math talk and I happened to be in Miss Alary's classroom this morning and it was amazing students were up working in groups standing at whiteboards reasoning out through
027math problems and that is exactly that the way that magma math and this building thinking classrooms initiative Fosters this kind of amazing collaboration in discourse this year and in the years to come we're offering our seventh grade families the option to challenge themselves with algebra 1 while ensuring that every student graduates with at least one high school credit from living environment so with those two courses and if they take a world language course they could potentially enter enter high school with three high school credits already under their belt next year our exploratory courses will run every other day for a quarter allowing students to take up to eight different exploratory courses throughout the school year so this approach will really provide them with with a wide variety of experiences which will help them to discover
028their interests before entering high school and we're really proud of our new computer science offerings for grades six and seven these State mandated classes give students the opportunity to code build objects with their 3D printers and acquire computer skills that are going to help them succeed in all their courses in high school college and their careers Mr P has done tremendous work incorporating datadriven instruction through our datawise initiative at the middle school and this effort is going to continue on into next year each grade level team has identified areas of focus and develop targeted plans to enhance instruction in our Ela and Mathematics classes teaming has been reimagined at Seaford middle school with multiple engaging team building exercises you can see one pictured on the left there with the red cffs throughout the school year
029and this helps students Foster relationships and to build a really strong Co hesive School Community Dr Mor and Mr plei have also restructured the teacher team meetings to really have an instructional strategies focus and with datadriven approaches and this is going to further strengthen our teaching and learning practices at the middle school while we are building opportunities for our current high school students to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness on their diplomas we're also preparing the future high school students for success in earning the seal through our Middle School C Stone project new this year for seventh graders teams of students are identifying issues to research and developing action plans to address them various teachers and administrators uh myself included Dr bakora Dr Jacob were there um we visited the students attended their presentations as
030authentic you know um leaders who were listening to what they were researching and what they were planning to do for the topics of interest and this gives our students essential practice with with public speaking skills all seventh graders who successfully complete this project will have ear earned one point towards the required six points needed to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness so when they get into high school they only have to earn five more points so many thanks to Dr Leon and the team of teachers who brought this wonderful opportunity to all of our seventh grade students this is one of my favorite slides because I definitely want to go shoot hoops at some point with the students um lunch and recess have been revamped at the middle school to provide Choice based activities for
031our students this structure gives students time to eat and time to positively engage with one another through a variety of games which are expanding as the program evolves by giving our students the opportunity to engage socially and if they choose in physical activities we actually help their brains reset and become more receptive to acquiring new knowledge during their afternoon classes that break is really needed so we're moving on to the high school our students secondary education culminates in their time at our enriching and challenging High School led by our dedicated building administrative team M naal Mr Mante and Miss Judson this past year we've continued our focus on social emotional learning through various programs and our Wellness Center again always with the lens of our Seaford scholar traits the Gary s found fully funded our
032incredible soaring Valor trip with our senior citizens of World War II our senior I'm sorry senior citizen veterans of World War II as well as our trip to the 911 Memorial Museum our clubs Athletics and activities continue to be a source of great joy enjoyment and positive engagement for our high schoolers the library supports our research programs and self- dedicate self-directed exploration serving as a hub of inquiry for the entire student body we are we are incredibly proud under the leadership of Mr Whit of our scholar athlete teams our new golf team and our tremendous accomplishment of becoming the very first nassa County team to win the national cheer cheerleading Championship if you haven't had a chance to visit our Viking Cove student run business I highly recommend it our CDP students take great care
033of their customers um learning valuable life skills while providing Stellar service with smile all of our science teachers oh this one okay microphone okay here we go um so all of our science teachers across all three buildings are working diligently to ensure a smooth transition to the new science standards as they bring the new three-dimensional approach to instruction to our classrooms we are thrilled to report that our innovative electrical training center program and our emergency medical technician certification program are growing each year as students increasingly gravitate towards these job training opportunities there we go our High School Math teachers have also embraced the magma math enhancements and are actively using this new collaborative tool in their classrooms is this one on okay Switching again this is resil oh hello this is resilience and flexibility in
034action right um when I visited Mr O'Reilly's classroom as he used magma math I saw students discussing calculus problems and their thinking became visible on his computer as multiple tiles showed up that actually enabled him toal their work in real [Laughter] time it provides a true window into our students thought processes as they work through Solutions our guidance to Department of the high school has evolved significantly this year to create more deliberate contact time with students to strategize and plan for their Futures they've enhanced communication by holding quarterly meetings with the middle school guidance team with the common goal of preparing our students for success in ninth grade the guidance team has also shared resources has also shared resources to strengthen home to School connections by offering more events speakers and access to college Representatives
035and these resources are continually shared on the revamped guidance website and also through parents Square keeping our families informed and engaged every step of the way new this year is our Project Lead the Way introduction to programming course which lays the groundwork for future computer science classes additionally our high school team has done an amazing job making making Seaford Scholars visible and present for all students with icons on steps photo back drops and a new process to recognize and celebrate students who exemplify our sea scholar traits through their actions and services throughout the year so I know there's a lot on this slide and that's because our entire High School faculty has been involved in one or more of these groundbreaking events that support students as they transition from one level to another our our
036new Viking Vision day was designed for students to root rotate between three areas one to interact with teachers Who provided materials and displays to showcase the incredible courses they offer giving students a true inside look into their options before they embarked on the scheduling process students also met in small groups with their guidance counselors and heard an inspiring talk from John Paul Gonzalez who encouraged them to be all in to maximize their potential when pursuing whatever Sparks their passion practice run day was designed to bring our Rising nth graders to the high school for a day where they rotated among classrooms to learn all about the course options available to them in their first year and to experience the high school environment ensuring that they walk into a familiar setting in September at the college
037boot camp this past summer for the very first time Miss Schnabel and her guidance team offered one-on-one counseling sessions to Rising seniors I truly wish this was available when my students were my students when my children were block College when my children were applying to college because it really gives them a leg up on the admissions process we are excited to offer two brand new college credit college credit bearing courses next year through a collaborative effort led by Dr Kennedy we are creating a dedicated broadcast studio where students will engage in video production switching again um engage in video production using profession equipment in our broadcast podcasts and more course they will become our local news crew thank you Mr SAA by the way they will become our uh they will they will actually become
038our local news crew honing their skills in script writing storytelling editing and visual composition our journalism and writing for new media students will learn the fundamentals of news writing and Reporting aligning with the growing field of digital [Music] journalism as you can see from this slide we offer are a wide array of courses that can lead to college credit educational research has shown that even completing just one college course during the high school experience dramatically increases the students chances of success when they graduate and pursue higher education we are very proud of our extensive list of offerings and as you saw in the previous slide we're always looking for new ways to innovate and provide our students with opportunities to accelerate their learning while they are here with us as we look back our little
039Viking is looking back at the graduating class from 2024 we can see the tremendous accomplishments of our students looking ahead to this year's senior class we are confident that we will meet or exceed the successes of the past we remain committed to empowering our Seaford Scholars through Innovative programs and comprehensive support to ensure their success both within the Seaford school district and Beyond so it's now my pleasure to turn the presentation back over to our superintendent of schools Dr Adel pakora okay thank you Dr Offerman Santano for giving such a comprehensive review of our programs um that are in the budget this year and the ones that we are continuing budget this year so in in looking at what is encompassed in this in this budget IT services the entire District in a very very
040comprehensive way which you had seen by what Dr Offman Dr Offerman salel had presented but we continue to prioritize certain things and and this has been bless you this has been historic um with with regards to how we have established budgets so one of the things that is that pivotal moment we over and over and over again is nurturing secret Scholars we really want students to develop those dispositions and use them in a constructive Manner and for to become part of the vernacular when they're talking to each other and in academic settings it has been our goal always to maintain class sizes that are constructive for learning so we do have a board of ed policy that Caps or we would like to cap not exceed a class size of 23 for grades 8 through3
041and then 25 for grades 4 through 5 that has been a goal for at least the last eight years that I've been there and that continues to be a goal to keep reasonable small class sizes we recruit and we hire the best people within the field and we have a very very strong professional development program that is headed by Dr Jacob and of of course all of the postings all of the interviews all of the panels are coordinated through the HR office which is headed by Dr Jacob the refinement and expansion of courses is really a team effort and I have to point to the audience and so many of the administrators that are here today it really is the brainchild of everybody because we want to provide the best and most relevant course work
042for our students and that's not just the curriculum team that does that most of the main ideas come from like a very large think tank of all of us working together I mentioned before we focus on social emotional growth it's very important that we have our seal programs alive and well here and again we're sparking Innovation through inquiry based instruction having the children pose questions seek answers and be naturally curious and not to lose that sense of Natural Curiosity and then of course there's always a focus on instructional technology um there's a big question mark and on AI and how we're going to use it within the classroom and do it in a responsible way and we continue to look at that we do have an AI Committee in the district um that's that's headed
043by um Dr Kennedy and Dr Offerman salant is Miss Kella on there now too and miss K and of course Safety and Security are at the Hub of what we do we need to create space safe environments for our children so that they can come in and Thrive and um take reasonable risks in their learning because they feel like they're safe and secure and lastly the modernization of our campuses as I said before we're super proud of the work that we've done in each building that we continue to do and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that I think one of our funding projects that's most creative is self funding our roofs so this summer from this year's budget will be working on the Middle School roof and not a spoiler
044alert for Mr Cassel but in this year's budget we're suggesting using the reserves to do our two Elementary School GRS and that will be done the following summer and it's always it's always the tail end of a budget season because obviously we can't do that work when students are in school so you'll see over and over again the emphasis on social emotional learning and taking look not only at se Scholars but the ruler program Lions Quest and habits of mind this is the core of what we do with our students and I'm so proud of the manner in which everybody has embraced this and we celebrate our students across all levels and we have SE Scholars of the month at the elementary level um the Middle School it was already articulated all the great work
045that's done there and uh I I think U Miss schn over at the high school has just I I has it on for computer or uh on red rapid seed that you can easily just generate on a printer all of the secret scholar traits it's it's really alive and well at the high school so this is a very um wonderful new initiative and Dr Kennedy's new office so in the audience so I do have to give him credit for initiating this so in addition to supp Athletics and academics a part of the academics of course are new arts and we truly Embrace developing the artistic side of our our children so one of the things that we are entering into is a bosis agreement where we can lease to own our instruments so you're purchasing
046them at low prices and then you're leasing them over a period of three years and then you own them at the end of that and there's a tremendous cost savings associated with this and our program is really expanding wonderfully and our students are staying in the music program through middle school and high school so this is one of those Avenues of really taking a look and going back to the budget goal of looking for efficiencies and developing a budget that's fiscally responsible and looking for new ways to save money and get more things with less and then of course one of the focal points of this isue was enhanced communication so I think everybody at this point in time has gotten a parent Square message and is and is comfortable with parents Square uh that
047was a program that was initiated this year and we're very happy that the app was pushed out very successfully and in addition to that new this year are the Viking pops um and I think there's kudos to be said um Mr Sab is one of one of the creators of I pops as well as Dr operan Santano and um of our other technicians Justin so that piece I think if you have five to six minutes encapsulates a ton of wonderful things that are going on throughout the district so if you haven't seen it I encourage you to see the fourth edition that's out there you can catch it on Instagram it's on our website so if you haven't seen it take a look at that as well as expanded newsletters both departmental and building and
048we're really trying to make sure that parents and community members and students are always celebrated and have access to the most current information about what's going on in our schools and this is a fun slide because there are a lot of things it's always great when I stand here for Dr AR salano or Dr Jacob or Mr castelle or any of our administrators in the audience and we say these are the wonderful things that we're doing but it's a little extra special when somebody else tells us the wonderful things that we're doing so some of the aades that we have is once again we were recognized as an AP School honor role uh at our high school and we have both status in that which is quite an honor we have 13 out of our
04915 teams last year being designated as scholar athlete State teams and that's Quite a feat too so 75% of the team has to have an academic average of 90 or above to get that designation I'm very thrilled to announce that for our full season all of our teams have achieved F grp so and very nice standing again um it's not just Athletics and it's not just academics but the Arts as well um taking a look at being recognized as the best community in music and again having a high school graduation rate including our August children of 100% is is a wonderful fee so that's a k through2 SE celebration everybody that touches a child owns a piece of that uh Dr Offman pel mentioned we were recertified has have its mind recognized schools schools to
050watch was a huge designation that we achieved last year and we continued to strive towards continuously improving our middle school and we're in great hands with with Dr Mor and Mr P at the helm of that building and really steering Us in the right direction of continuously improving and then of course the two elementary schools and we've reapplied again to be um PTA Schools of Excellence so that's outside validation I would be remiss if I didn't mention some of the individual recognitions that some of our teachers have gotten so Michael Kerr is the asset bright asset bright star winner last year and our Mr O'Reilly over here has not one but two honors last year so um he is the honorary patri Award winner and then one of our former students had honored him as
051an inspirational teacher and the student attends the Rochester in technology shaunell over the Middle School won the Congressional favorite teacher award and Dr Mor and I were wonderfully happy to recognize her and participate in that ceremony and then last but not least James cordos won the St stainy science teacher of the year award so again outside validation great things we're doing super excited to celebrate everybody especially our students so I had mentioned before that one of our goals was to stay within the board recommended limits so m kisan is going to talk about this year one of our major initiatives is going to be creating a full ICT program at our elementary level we already have it at our second in our secondary buildings so we were able to achieve this while maintaining very nice
052class sizes at the harbor so the average class size at the harbor next year we're anticipating will be .21 we realize that students do come in and come out so at this moment in time this is what we're anticipating at manner it's about 19.4 so we would take all of our students and all of our teachers this is these are our average class sites for our general education classes that being said we're going to be able to afford the ICT program by we are going to be hiring some special ed teachers we are not accessing any of our gen Ed teachers but some of our teachers that are retiring we may not be replacing the positions but we' be replacing them with special education teachers but these are the anticipated class sizes so you see
053we're well within the range of what the Board of Education policy is um to try to see so at this point in time we're going to find out a lot more about our new ICT program with Miss K Sun thank you Dr so it's my privilege really to be here this evening and and talk to you a little bit about the next few enhancements and uh they're very near and dear to my heart but and quite exciting uh and very student centered so I'm really proud to be here um as we talk about innovating for our students I want to talk a little bit about um what Dr pakora had mentioned the idea of a full-time shift to ICT full-time I C shift on the elementary level and what that means for our scholars in
054grades K to 5 so you've heard me a number of times it's almost comical uh talking about how lucky sephr is to be in a community where um the Board of Education and the community itself funds and supports uh our full Continuum of special education services and that is something that is a true point of Pride for Seaford um what this does by talking about the proposal of an IC a full-time ICT model is it completes the Continuum and it closes that Loop so it's important to note that presently at the middle school and the high school we offer a full-time ICT model so our classes our core classes are co-taught by both a gen Ed and a special ed teacher for the entirety of that class um you know that model provides our youngsters
055with access to academic excellence and growth while also supporting their social emotional development and um it not only allows our students to thrive within the classroom environment but it supports them in thriving outside as well and as we know with our Seaford scholar dispositions and our focus on the entire child it's important for our youngsters to have those skills to be able to do so so I am beyond delighted to announce that this budget supports a full-time ICT model both at the Manor and the Harbor Elementary School and that is every grade K through five why full-time ICT why does it matter right so the benefits are tremendous we know just as looking back at our um did I skip no um sorry about that we know that looking at our models at the high
056school and the middle school that there are improved student outcomes and the story is told just by our graduation rates it's told by our students that are graduating but regions and advanced regions credentials so the the proof is in the pudding right we see that here and it's important to knowe that not only does the full-time model Foster improve student outcomes it enhances and increases student uh and teacher collaboration it increases support for all Learners in the classroom environment and it aligns quite nicely with the Seaford philosophy of an inclusive culture and how do we get there so with a lot of analysis um a careful consideration and fiscal Prudence uh we were able to develop this plan and proposal for a full-time I model and you heard Dr Bor speak briefly about the reallocation
057of those resources which would include the two general education teacher positions uh shifting over to the two full-time special educ ation teacher positions that would be required to make this proposal of the full-time ICT model a reality in addition to that you heard Dr pakora also mention about um returning to preco class size is focused on our board policy and um with a careful analysis we are well within a range to support all the youngsters in those class settings by keeping our student to teer ratios very intact and very comfortable and of course like I mentioned earlier it really is about the students right every approach we take every look every enhancement is focused on students and I'm proud to say that you know this proposal of a full-time ICT aligns quite nicely with supporting
058students not only in their academic Excellence but their social emotional Excellence as well so as we delve a little deeper into building on this Legacy of strength that we already have in place that the middle school and the high school and bringing it Down K through 5 to the elementary level in both buildings just to give you a glimpse of what this new model looks like so currently our staffing model in our ICT on the elementary level is a part-time model uh both teachers the special education teacher and the general education teacher co- te for a total of 2 hours and 15 minutes daily the additional time that the special education teacher is not in the room that time you have a general education teacher and a teacher Aid in the classroom what this full-time
059model does is it allows us to have a general education teacher and a special education teacher co- teing for a total of four hours a day that's truly um you know an impressive amount of time for those two Specialists to be working together and supporting youngsters contact time with children um and in addition it allows them to co- te for the four main subject areas not only does this budget um support the movement of a full-time ICT model K to 5 there are additional enhancements uh in the department as well which I'd like to mention as we um prepare to enter into a full-time model part of the need there is to provide a very comprehensive approach to um professional development and coaching for our ICT teachers and that is something the district is looking
060to do uh K through 12 across the district to maintain that Continuum and bring it um the support that it needs uh in order to maintain and support students social emotional needs uh we're working and preparing to consult uh with um Professionals for Behavioral Health supports as well as crisis Management training we've got a number of upgrades um uh being done with our career development program some of those physical will be uh redesigning and upgrading both the Middle School CDP classroom and the high school CDP classroom as well as some curriculum enhancements not only in our Middle School and High School CDP curriculum but our special classes on the elementary level and Middle School level as well we will be adding a part-time speech pathologist to meet District needs and uh incorporating the expansion of
061some uh diagnostic tools to to assess Learners and working very closely to continue the work um but enhance it that we've been doing in our 812 classes to forer functional communication support our youngsters and their families with the use of assist of technology devices so again my pleasure to be here and share this information with you tonight and uh I welcome Dr Adele Bora back to the podium to close us out okay so this is the fun part so clearly this is a very robust offering within this budget for 2526 and we were able to bring it in I give tremendous amount of credit to Mr Cassel we were able to bring this in our tax cap is 2.68 and we developed a budget for 2.49 so we were able to be sensitive to the
062taxpayers and deliver these fabulous programs for our students and again be below the tax cap this year so and with that if there are any questions any of the three of us would be glad to answer them we're super proud of the work that goes on throughout the district and the fact that we're able to develop a budget that contains all of these programs and enhancements for St great presentation thank thank thank you [Applause] thanks drora Dr aano and Miss um Kal son for a really Dynamic and well thought out and planned uh curriculum presentation for the budget for next year we really appreciate your hard work and um all the new programs that we can offer our students so at this time um is okay if we do the next few items together okay
063great I need a motion for agenda item 5 a through E2 move it second any discussion all in favor I okay this is the resident commment portion of our meeting would anybody like to speak okay uh correspondence all correspondence has been responded to uh new business I need a motion for agenda item 5 A1 I'm sorry F I'm sorry 8 a one move it second any discussion all in favor I and I need a motion to add uh an item to the agenda it is the um upk contract for Grand Continental group doing business as Kitty Junction move second any discussion all in favor I and now I need a motion to approve agenda item 582 why do I keep saying five sorry 8 A2 Grand Continental group doing business as Kitty Junction upk contract
064for school year 2526 pending final approval by legal move it second any discussion all in favor I okay we can do the next groupings together great I need a motion for agenda item eight e through E1 move it second any discussion president yes yes yes on um B yes three when it comes back for a second reading I'm just going to make a tweak to that policy it's the extreme heat condition uh policy which I will circulate to the entire board before the next agenda okay sure for the second reading no problem okay let's do that again I need a motion for agenda item 8 B through E1 move it second any discussion all in favor I I need a motion for agenda items 8 f one through five move it second any discussion all
065in favor I okay Mr discussion items anything from the board okay uh closing comments thank you for your presentations again it was was great um I know many of us had the privilege of seeing the Mean Girls production at the high school so good so great immense Talent uh the dancing the singing I mean these kids are so incredibly talented um and kudos to everybody involved in that production sure uh it was a it was a topnotch topnotch show I really can't say enough about it so well done there um congratulations to so many of our athletic teams they've won so many amazing Awards national champs state champs um and we really do look forward to celebrating uh them and giving them their due at a future board meeting yes anything different or new okay
066I need a motion to the JM move it second any discussion all in favor I thank you thank you everybody [Music]