001please rise for the pledge everyone i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands for a nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we'll start out with our administrative report okay so the focus tonight is going to be board of education appreciation however before that i just did want to give a quick update on a few things um the fifth grade administrators building administrators have been meeting with parents and they're in the process of having a work group that will um take a look at the field trips in fifth grade and set up a schedule for this year in addition to that i just wanted to mention that room 205 we had some work on that chemistry physics slash
002chemistry room so that's completely stripped students are in there teaches decorating so everything's back to functioning 100 room 205 and that's also one of the rooms that's earmarked for a complete renovation starting this summer and then uh last but not least i think i had mentioned that we were looking at having in-person concerts in the winter as well as in the spring but we're going to have to divide them into smaller groups so dr romeo is working with building administrators to make sure that we have a schedule that doesn't conflict with other events so that information will be shortcoming and then i did want to take just a minute is mr silva here question right there okay i did want to take just a minute um to recognize the fact that mrs basilica will be
003getting tenure today [Music] so you know when we hire teachers and when teachers get tenure i usually say a few words but i just wanted to say a little bit more than a few words uh about ms basilva given especially the last two years has been particularly challenging so i'm going to read you when her principal ms schnabel had written her about her gemma silke is an asset to the secret high school and the secret school district she's an instructional leader who models solid educational practices with new leaders teachers and students not only does she manage projects under her purview with organizational thoughtfulness and purpose but she does so with kindness and love which i agree she's she always puts her students first and operates with logic and reason mr silke holds students and teachers
004to a very high standard but is compassionate while doing so she is a role model within the entire sifa community and takes great pride in developing the staff and student body of the high school without miss basilka seaford high school would not operate with the pride and heart that it has brought to the table each day it is an honor and privilege to recommend for tenure at the seaford school district now it's hard to top that so what i wrote is i believe that uh i believe miss john basilka to be an asset excuse me i'm going to start here i believe miss jim silke to be an assistant principal of the students she enthusiastically supports the children by consciously conscientiously attending athletic extracurricular and events related to the fine arts in addition she is
005a staunch advocate for social emotional learning realizing the behavioral influence influences on academic performance always contributing to our educational goals ms basilka is a leader who has elevated academia at seaford high school i certainly recommend mrs haselco for tenure so congratulations and we're so glad that you're one of us forever okay so next we will um this is actually one of my favorite nights the board of education members are really and i've said this before on some heroes of the district they're selfless volunteers who devote counsel countless hours of their time to ensure that the students a seafood high school i mean the secret school district received the best possible education serving as a board member has been particularly challenging the past couple of years and we've tried to navigate together the administration and the
006board these murky and at times tumultuous orders and at the helm of the ship have been two amazing captains mr khan and the stacy stark have been unflappable in the dedication students staff and the community tonight our students staff and administrators have come together to honor you stacy kevin natalie and andrea thank you for your service in front of you is a small gift that we had personalized you just as a token of our appreciation but before the students begin with their presentations um ms stark i i think you wanted to say a few words about mr khan okay so on board of education recognition night i would be remiss if i did not mention and acknowledge the almost 12 years of service and dedication that bruce khan gave to this district i remember being
007at various fields around town throughout the weeks leading up to bruce's first excuse me election he would be at every single field every day handing out flyers and talking to people about his run for the board from the day he was elected into the last time we met as a board his dedication and commitment never wavered he sat in these chairs with no agenda except to leave the district in a better place than it was the year before and that was his agenda every year bruce's decisions were based on the immediate effect the immediate effect on the students and district and how that decision would affect those two things 1 5 10 and 20 years in the future he is the encyclopedia seabird bruce has served with at least i thought 11 he said 13
008different board members and was president for seven years he was and still is available to answer questions listen and willing to help his kind-hearted nature and unexpected quick-wittedness has kept our heads in the game over the years he has been a friend to all of us he has been a wealth of knowledge to all of us um he takes took every decision every thought was always about the district and it is always about the district um and bettering i asked him today how he wanted to be remembered tonight and he said he helped to bring the district to a fiscally better place because when he started we were cutting programs and that he has definitely done and everything he did he did for the kids as a board member so bruce thank you for all
009of your service um we miss you and hope to see you soon [Applause] [Music] okay so um i really just want to tack on to to what mr dark has said that it's it's a very unique combination of having a board member that really understands finance and at the heart of matters is not just looking at the numbers but looking at what the numbers do for our children and being able to maximize each dollar so that we have the programs that we need in this district and he's done a phenomenal job of navigating very very tough financial conditions and then leading us to a place where we're really strong and fiscally solvent right now um and the creation of reserves the things that we've done so that we can have things like a brand new
010turf field all because of the vision that was planned even before i had gotten here and we're just staying the course and making the district better and better so we really do owe a tremendous amount to bruce and his stick-to-it-ness and his devotion to the district so we thank him for that i would now like to introduce our student presenters and i invite mr burke miss emmerich miss schoeser and miss cacales to come forward with their students should we go sit in the audience [Laughter] so dear board of education mrs stark mr devlin mrs parisi mrs pettisich the matter and harvard elementary schools would like to thank you for our seo lessons this year social and emotional learning is the process where children and adults understand and manage emotions set and achieve positive goals feel
011and show empathy for others establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions a main focus for the district this year comes from mark brackett and his work on the ruler approach research shows that ruler skills help people of all ages to use emotions wisely opening opportunities for us to succeed in school at work and in life ruler is an acronym for r recognizing emotions in oneself and others you understanding the causes and consequences of emotions l labeling emotions accurately e expressing emotions appropriately and are regulating emotions with helpful strategies one of the ruler tools is called the mood meter it enhances self and social awareness while supporting the development of nuanced emotion vocabulary and a range of strategies for regulating emotions mark brackett said when all people in the community embrace the idea that
012emotions matter when they become more skilled with their emotions and in their interactions when schools and homes become warmer safer and more supportive places this is when educators and students and their families thrive so please let me introduce our students with us tonight we have michael sagnelli in the red zone man and frustrated let's hear it from michael we have dave carlony in the blue zone sad and tired here comey her brother nolan carloni in the green zone nolan's just calm and chill tonight and finally juliana parisi in the yellow zone she is happy and excited so they will now present the four zones of the moon meter written by our new district psychologist and sel provider elise d simone so boys and girls you can put down your cushions and i'm going to pass
013the microphone over to me [Music] we're in moon meter colors we showed different energy and pleasantness levels for example i'm in the green zone and i'm feeling calm well i'm in the blue zone and i'm feeling pretty tired it's right past my bedtime both of you shared your feelings before me i'm feeling frustrated in the red zone [Music] and i'm in the ozone and i'm feeling excited that we get to show our mood meter to the board event and red maybe you should try taking a few deep breaths it's better not to worry anymore thanks yellow [Applause] [Music] and we do have some gifts for the board of education too we have mood meters for all of you so if we can pass them out to the board board members if you could wave so
014they know who to give these gifts to michael over here [Music] he's calming down and uh we also have another special gift for all of you a little known company known as lego teamed up with a march much larger brand known as showzer enterprises and they created for you your very own lego mood meter board this can be used that will be a hot item for holiday toilets coming up this can be used in future board meetings to regulate your moods at any time so here we go [Applause] and a big round of applause [Applause] and next up is the middle school [Applause] thank you mr p thank you mr burke for that excellent introduction first of all i wanted to uh since it's a night of recognition again mrsulka congratulations jen you're an excellent
015colleague a fantastic administrator and we're very happy for you this is a special night where we get to say thank you for all the stuff that happens in the middle school that you make possible everyone that works in seaford school district most everyone draws a salary you don't so you must do it for the glory so it's a labor of love we want to say thank you and we want to let you know about a few things in the middle school that you made possible whether directly or indirectly so i'm going to turn it over to the person who i couldn't exist without my right hand lady dr dunn so on behalf of the middle school as you know our theme is exploration discovery and growth so we wanted to highlight the program of project
016lead the way this evening and i think the kids will say it better than i can but it is an opportunity then to explore discover and create and grow and learn about engineering designing and creativity so if i can have my project lead the way students come up here so we have zachary henry eva angelina and adam so here we go [Music] project lead the way teaches us a lot about the programs of a robot in project we the way we learn how to code one day we can all be programmers we also learn to collaborate with others project wool either way helps us learn about computers and coding which i which i enjoy doing i enjoy project lead the way because because i like coding micro bits and we also just added sound to
017a foreign jumpman project thanks to the board of education we have project lead the way so we just have this gift that we're going to present to you which is a poster which we love to add to the border bedroom if you want to bring that over just thank you and because we're over achievers at the middle school we have a second thank you students how about a round of applause for our wonderful students so as i was saying since we're over achievers we have a second program that we'd like to highlight this evening because it's been a great addition to our school this year i have the good fortune of working with four of the most fabulous pps staff so i'm going to have them come up and talk about what we're doing in
018the middle school [Applause] good evening board of education on behalf of the pps department at the middle school and on behalf of the staff and the students we thank you for our wonderful wellness center staff and students are already enjoying coming into the room and taking some time to refocus and refresh and we extend an invitation to you as well to come in and experience the zen so thank you again for helping us to make great connections and to spread kindness and to really be there for our students in mind and their body thank you yes so another poster for the border bedroom so you can just remember what we're doing and now i'd like to introduce the most amazing high school administrative staff on their it's their turn to present [Music] and congratulations jim
019okay just give me one moment please and make sure i'm ready back here you guys can stay right there i planned this out a little bit differently so i just had to grab these for miss basala behind the stage but obviously dr pakura shared my sentiments but just congratulations miss basulka on behalf of mississippi dr maury and myself we are so excited to welcome some seaford high school singers for a little performance for our board of education tonight so let's take it away [Applause] [Music] okay oh um thank you [Music] so [Music] us [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] wow is my is i foreign [Music] because i knew you because i knew [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] all right great job um [Music] everybody can come back so amazing thank you so um i just want
020to thank everybody the administrators and the team and the students that we're here tonight for present for the board of education um again it's one of my favorite nights and it's a nice night just to show some appreciation for the board members and also to showcase the talents of our students too and it's nice to see everybody singing in together again okay so this is a little anticlimactic because okay so um i have to thank mr lynch for this great illustration talking about the superintendent goals so um [Music] definitely his personality but i loved it so it's my personality too so um we're talking the superintendent goals are always set in relation to the board of education goals so in our teaching and learning goal for the board of education it's to provide an enriched
021learning environment that provides and supports the academic growth of students so that they may reach their full potential while becoming positive contributors to society so within that the two main academic goals are the first two bullets to enhance instructional programs for all students in grades k through 12 to meet each student's personal learning needs and to raise academic achievement so within that are things like the teachers college work in reading and writing that we've been doing over the last seven several years continuing that work recognizing the pathway that we have in science from middle school to high school providing more opportunities not just for students to take additional science classes but because they vast majority enter high school with a credit in science it opens up the world of electives and possibilities for them in
022their junior and senior years and with that expanding our electives college-level courses that are not just ap courses and providing every student the opportunity to at least experience college so they can make a decision as to what they would like to do when they graduate from secret high school [Music] the second one to monitor the academic growth of our students and provide differentiated approaches to learning and augment after school support programs so one of the things that we're really focused on in this pandemic environment was whether there was really any learning loss or some areas in which students either excelled or need some some additional support so one of the areas that we're focusing on is provide some additional after-school programs for the students all students so students that you know may be struggling in
023an area and also some of our ap students we're fully aware of the fact that the academic year wasn't the same i mean i think we did a fantastic job here last year with our hybrid model particularly at the high school and then keeping everybody in school in the k-8 environment but it it just wouldn't be um i don't want to use the word truthful but it is not the same we never said it was the same as being in school all day long and now we are and we have the opportunity through the federal funds to provide some additional supports after school so that's one of our focuses in all of the buildings children for whatever reason whether they really want to just excel and move from that 95 to 100 or whether there
024are areas in which they require additional support across the board we want to make sure that we're supporting our students and with that is also um you know taking a look at our programs like dr leone had been working on our rti and working on our reading programs to provide some additional support at the elementary level so our third goal or my third goal is to continue to support teaching and learning through targeted professional development we've done a really great job over the last several years we've brought in some of the best professional developers not only in the country but in the world teachers college is recognized as one of the best literacy programs the trainer that we're using right now with lli or reading support program has been recognized by the teacher as being
025a really good fit for our district and great with how she's directing that learning and we also have social emotional learning as we've discussed before you saw the students presenting the mood meter and continuing our work with mark brackett last year we were recognized as an international both the matter and the harbor were recognized as international habits mike schools so all of that work is really important so we're going to continue that professional development so everybody's able to instruct students just not academically but also on social media social emotional um vein as well and last but not least it's hard to believe but um in 2017-18 which is my first year in the district we didn't have any one-to-one devices and in a three-year period of time we were able to affect the entire district
026i don't know how we would have done learning last year if we didn't have all of the devices that we had and that was really a team effort it was it was our technology steering committee that led the charge of teachers administrators working together the board support uh mr caden and then a year later mr lynch came in and really just did a fantastic job with the instructional end of the devices but believe it or not we're at the end of our first cycle this year and we have to talk about replacing those devices so the technology steering committee has a very large job this year in selecting the device that we're going to continue with so that work i'll be a part of as well as mr lynch institute okay so social emotional this
027goal has a lot more components to it than it's had in the past so the board goal is to create a safe secure nurturing environment that supports the physical social and emotional needs of our students so my goals are to work collaboratively with the community to create a safe environment for students in which there are more opportunities to develop positive relationships healthy behaviors and wise choices also to utilize the federal funds um one of the psychologists that you saw here that wrote the script that the elementary students had performed was one of our psychologists who is working in the district this year as part of the federal stimulus money we have an additional psychologist at the elementary level an additional psychologist at the secondary level to support not only the social emotional programs but whatever
028needs individual students and families have at this moment in time we are also going to work or i am going to work with the reopening of schools task force to continuously evaluate our coveted school procedures to ensure for in-person instruction and develop protocols that support student participation in extracurricular activities and athletics and to advance the security features and safety protocols while working collaboratively with local authorities to ensure that the district facilities stay safe and secure learning environments so we focus so much more on so much on the social emotional the last couple of years and we always want to keep in the forefront the safety of our buildings the physical safety of our buildings the cameras within our buildings the lockdown systems within our buildings a healthy relationship with local law enforcement so that remains
029a focus of the district [Music] financial so the board's goal is to create a financially responsible and operationally efficient budget that maintains and enhances the integrity of our programs that's the heart of whatever of everything that we do we want to make sure that the district is financially solvent we want to make sure that our fiscal stress is low and we want to make sure that we have and can afford programs of excellence so that's the work that we're doing so i partner with ms miseral as the assistant superintendent for business and operations and we develop budgeting strategies budgeting strategies that include prudence spending targeted savings and increasing revenues through grant applications the focus is to maintain financial solvency and as i said before minimize fiscal stress the grant writing is huge over the last
030several years we've been able to secure a substantial amount of funds through the help of some of our local politicians you know particularly senator brooks and steve rhodes and we look forward to continuing those partnerships and that's in addition to the federal stimulus money and i will say um the application process is pretty substantial so i thank ms miseral for her dedication to that but um it's affording us the possibilities of having programs that we didn't have before because these funds are now available so that's fantastic and last but not least communication so i'm going to continue to improve the distributed public relations but communication i think is at the core of a central office administration and the community so i have a premium on communication i don't think anybody would say that there's a
031shortage of communications from the secret school district so we want to continue to maintain that and enhance that and make sure that the district is transparent in the information and how we share that information with the community does the board of education have any questions about superintendent schools thank you very much thank you dr pacquiao before we go on i know that all left but that was pretty amazing yeah i know the choir sports here's what has awesome song and my son's high school career in those pictures um so thank you to all the building administrators for that that was really fantastic thank you okay moving on to business i need a motion for agenda items five a one through [Music] any discussions all in favor aye now we can really say congratulations to mrselfa
032congratulations [Applause] and resident comments [Music] joan balone 40 49 uh i just would like to know do you use any panorama education curriculum in the school district transparency remember i'm not sure what you're referring to the days a this it's called panorama it's a curriculum and it teaches critical race theory do you use this district to the best of my knowledge we do not have any panorama curriculum in our district okay do you know the source of it is it actually called panoramic it's called panorama i'm surprised it's been all over the news i'm surprised you don't know anything about that well if we don't use it we may not know about it okay well that's a good thing all right my other question is um now that bruce khan is gone when are you
033going to have a special election for a new board member uh we decided that we are not having a special election we will be holding the election in may we are going to leave the seat vacant i don't think you're allowed to do that yes we i don't think you're allowed to do that like the council right here we have council right here who will be able to to discuss that that is one of the board's um options it is an available option to leave the c fake in until the may election it's not a good option it's a community option and when someone resigns in position that position should be filled how many people are on the board now there are currently four people on the board yeah one of our options is to
034leave the vacated seat open until the next election which is what we have chosen to do in conjunction with legal counsel all right now my question is if somebody disagrees it's like two against two or four against zero it's not equal so nothing can get me resolved no what would happen in that case if it's a two-two vote then the vote would be no but legally i don't think you're allowed to do well to check that out but legally i don't think you're allowed you're supposed to have a special election no thank you can't wait six months for the next election i'm sorry that's only one of the options ma'am that is an option is to hold the special election the board actually has three options one is they can appoint somebody to fill the
035vacancy the second is to hold the special election and the third is to hold the seat open until the may election the board has decided to hold the seat open until the man they really shouldn't appoint anyone either because then they just bring their friends on board sorry that's not right that's why we're not appointing anyone okay any other resident comments okay um correspondence all emails were responded to i believe we received all of those emails as well i need a motion for agenda items 9 a 1 through 5. any discussion all in favor aye i need a motion for agenda item 9b1 any discussion all in favor aye i need a motion for agenda items 9 1-4 any discussion all in favor aye miscellaneous discussion items i don't think we have anyone anything um
036and closing comments adrian of course i would like to thank all the administrators that put together such beautiful presentations do i need the microphone [Music] thank you so much just wanted to thank all the administrators for the beautiful presentations and gifts it's unnecessary but greatly appreciated thank you so much we were all really touched say like to uh thank you guys also the students how cute were they i know the senior singing was amazing um thank you so much the gifts were very much appreciated and um bruce we miss you and i guess oh congratulations miss basil congratulations again for the umt time tonight uh to the students i know they're not here but the building administrators still are please let them know how thankful we are you know it's been a trying year and
037tonight really kind of you know reminds us why we do this in the first place uh and i just wanted to say something brief about mr khan who you know is no longer on the board but i remember not too long ago when i graduated from secret high school in there was plenty of times when budgets didn't pass in this district and we had to cut programs and i remember the high school football field you know on the track where the track was condemned high school football field was basically a dirt mold and it's because of the leadership of people like mr khan that this district's in a lot better place and he's really could say that he left the school district in a lot better place than he found it so as a thankful
038former student alumni and a resident hopes to raise his children here one day just thank you bruce [Music] i think i said everything but thank you again to the students the administration beautiful night thank you for your goals um the totally unnecessary gifts but i appreciate it thank you okay so we just need to make sure that the border event members those little bags that you have that you bring them to every board meeting because i'm gonna hold you to your mood meter so i know exactly how to read you guys when you walk in the room um and you know again i just it's been a real pleasure uh working with bruce over the last four years i know mr felino also wants to say some words about bruce who has worked with him
039for much longer than i have but um it really takes a special person to give of themselves as much as he has and i greatly appreciate the collegial relationship that we've served that we've shared between the board president and the superintendent of schools i also want to say just really hats off to the administrative team and the kids for everything that you did today i think it was a real honor for me to sit at a superintendent and watch the kids perform and and say thank you to the board of education so it's really appreciated especially in this year because you guys just keep doing and you keep doing and you do a great job so administrative team thank you and please also thank the pps staff over at the middle school please for coming
040tonight really appreciate that and the wellness center is great this year it's going to be outrageously awesome next year so people can come and uh take a look so i came into this position well it was assistant superintendent the year that bruce came onto the board so i worked with him the past 12 years and i just wanted to not from the bottom of my heart acknowledge his commitment and dedication to this district and this community long after his own kids graduated he supported all our efforts in expanding and enhancing the educational program extracurricular activities and athletics he truly cared about the students in the seaford community being a board member and president often is a difficult job and sometimes thankless yet he stayed with it for a long time and he always remained a
041gentleman he acted on behalf of what he thought was best for the students so i just wish him the best of health and best wishes jen i want to say congratulations to you from the first time i met you in the interview process i felt true warmth from you and positive feelings and just positive energy you've not disappointed us you do everything with thoughtfulness caring and love so you are a true asset to us and congratulations and just again thank you to everyone who came tonight for their efforts administrators the teachers and of course most importantly what's the most important is our students so i guess want to resonate what was said already but um the energy in the room tonight was very nice um the presentations were lovely and uh um it was uh
042you know the recognition to the board of ed who works tirelessly it's um i enjoy working with you and i was fortunate to work with um mr bruce khan as well and i echo all of the things that have been said about him um very thorough it was always nice to know that there was another set of eyes looking over the work that you were doing so and uh congratulations to you also jen i've enjoyed working with you too okay i need a motion to join the meeting any discussion all in favor aye thank you everybody for coming have a great night