001Um, let's call to order the uh August 27th meeting, business meeting of the South Country Education U of South Country Central School District Board of Education. Um, please rise for the pledge. >> Trusty Ross, if you could lead us in the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um before we start, just take a moment of silence uh for the families affected by the school shooting this morning. Sending good thoughts their way. Uh, please note the emergency exits. It's one that we all came in. There's windows back of the room. Uh, this is a smokefree and vapefree school district. Smoking and vaping is not permitted in the building or anywhere
002on school grounds. Uh, this is also a hatefree and bullyfree school district. Uh, brings us to item C. >> Yep. >> The board consent agendas. >> Thank you, Vice President Dillo. The administration recommends the approval of board consent items reflected in schedule C1 through C8. >> Do we have a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Fisetta. >> Second. >> Miss Cderon. Uh any discussions? Okay. Uh all those who approve. Yes. >> Okay. Vote passes unanimously. Uh that brings us to the superintendent's report. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Awkward silence. Where is everybody? >> All right. All right, let's get to it. Excited to um have our board of education meeting tonight on our opening day where we welcome back staff today. So, we're really amped up for the new school year. Also, amped up because
003we have a special guest. First, I want to acknowledge our former trustee, Miss Melissa Rudo, for being in the audience. Good seeing you again. Uh she was part of the board that interviewed me when I first showed interest in South Country. So, I appreciate you being here. But even cooler than that, I want to welcome Madison Aruter, her daughter, who will be our official board member as a student ex official. So please, I want to ask Madison to come up and welcome her [Applause] >> at the board table. >> Thank you. One of the things that we really want to focus on this year is to have our student ex official really participate in the civic sort of process that we engage here as elected officials and as a school district. So, we're looking forward
004to our input and not just in terms of her reporting back um on some of the high school or school district happenings and being the voice of the liaison between us and the student body uh but also participating in some of our sort of discussions. Um she's going to be attending a training on September 17th virtually for other student uh ex officials. So really excited for her joining our team. >> Thank you. >> All right. Very good. Along those lines, um I had the great pleasure and you know up on the screen you see displayed one of our goals from our strategic plan that I'm going to talk a little bit more specifically about later, but you know we're trying to sort of enhance the student experience and certainly by advocating and um elevating student
005voices. We certainly speaking to the student experience. As part of our operations, we engaged in our uh board of education building tours this past Monday. We started at house at South Haven, which again looks it's a beautiful facility. I wanted to give a shout out to Al Ellis who was a chief there in that building for the outstanding work they did to prepare uh for the opening for our prek kids. We also went to Brook Haven um which is um Satello who's a head custodian there and the administrative team. Again, the building looks spectacular and is in well really good shape for our opening on um September 2nd. It seems like it's right around the corner. Scoring alphabetical order elementary schools. We next went to Vernon W. Critz which has the longest hallway for school
006in history. And a big shout out to Vinnie Marino who's the head custodian there for their outstanding work in prepping the building. We then went to the Kramer Kingdom where we have Mike Buxenbound who's a head chief there and did a wonderful job getting the building prepped there. Follow from Frank P. Long and Jeffrey Zarba who's a acting uh chief custodian there who did some pretty amazing work. Of course, Bport Middle School who's also now under Frank Ellis Jr. He's taken a lot of pride in the building and he's done some wonderful things already. And finally, we ended up at the high school with um Tom Ellis, who's done a wonderful job and even volunteered some of his equipment to power was to put the facade of the building. Uh but the schools look great.
007They're ready for our students. Uh we certainly welcome the staff today with confidence and we're looking forward to the start of the school year. Um next up, we had celebrated our August graduation for the class of 2025. Um it was a nice uh ceremony held in our library because the auditorium is in the process of being renovated. Really proud of these students. I'm looking forward to seeing the great things they do moving forward. Um I also hosted a community meeting uh this past Monday night uh regarding our cell phone policy. It was pretty well attended. We had approximately 40 uh community members, the parents there along with uh Trusty Dillo and Trusty Ross and um yeah people I think in the general consensus of that meeting is people appreciate the cell phone policy. I think
008it's a long time coming. Um some people expressing concerns with their ability uh to communicate with students in the event of emer and of an emergency. And really um and we're going to talk about the safety plan a little later today. Um really what we've learned from experience is that the availability of cell phones can inhibit our response to an actual emergency. And so we want to make sure that in the unlikely event that there'll be an emergency in the future that students are listening to the prompts of the adults in charge so we can sort of respond to it in an expeditious manner. Uh but it was really uh glad to have the event. I'm going to be having town hall meetings on a quarterly basis and inviting uh community members to come and
009have a chat with the superintendent. Um we ended the meeting with open forum if people had questions which was I think a great practice and again speaks to our strategic plan and operations to giving uh more community engagement. So looking forward to continuing that process. Um today we welcome back or in the last couple weeks we come welcome some new staff and some old staff. Um first we had our new teacher orientation uh which spanned three days last week uh where teachers engaged in a variety of trainings not just onboarding practices but all the trainings associated with uh not just teaching but joining our team here in South Country. I also want to thank the BTA for taking them on a district tour on a school bus which is also a fantastic experience. We only
010had a handful of new staff members but I'm sure they're going to bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the school district. Then this morning we had our superintendence conference day which actually is days. We have two days of training that span everything from using uh parent square as a as a new methods of communication to our literacy programs. There's a whole variety of trainings going out throughout the day including there's building respective building meetings. Um we also talked about some of the challenges. The theme of the uh conference day was shift happens, embrace it, lead it, love it. And basically is to get a sense of how as a community we can face challenges, not just that, persevere and thrive. Because basically the shift represents an adaptation not just to survive, but adaptation
011to to thrive in our district. And despite our challenges, which include declining enrollment, expenses outpacing revenue, attendance, student achievement, we've made strides in all those areas in the right direction. Over the course of the last year, we've seen improvement in our achievement scores due to the eight in our region scores and our graduation rate. We've also seen a decline in our attendance aquatic absenteeism which is good. So, we're shifting in the right direction and so a lot of shift is happening and we are excited about it and we're looking forward to a very spectacular school year and it really was great seeing um all the staff back. As much as we lament the end of the school year, there's something exciting about first day of school. So I was really happy with our presentation today
012and seeing all our staff members return. Um terms of some of the activities happening outside of the district. Um I had the pleasure of attending the education in New York summit in Manhattan which theme was shaping tomorrow schools through innovation. They spoke a lot about the portrait of a graduate and what that means for school districts moving forward. I had the pleasure of listening to New York State Commissioner Dr. Betty Rosa talk about how public education really is the cornerstone of democracy and how important it is to pres uh preserve our programs. I also got New York City Chancellor Melissa Ais Ramos um to speak about New York City which is such a huge huge uh system and organization that it was remarkable to talk about or listen to them talk about all the innovative
013things they're doing to deal with so many things like food insecurities access to technology internship opportunities and making uh college more accessible to New York City students and I had the great pleasure of seeing my old colleague that I hired as an assistant principal who was newly appointed as a Glen Co Superintendent Dr. Lex Lex Dashner who just started in that role in Glen Cove. But what was really good about our subway ride to the conference is that I got recognized on the subway because I was wearing a Clipper shirt and it was a alumni from 2020 who said Belor Clippers. So I said hello. I chatted with him and then he jumped on a train that was leaving. So adding his name but it's a 2020 um grad. It was great to see him.
014He's living in the city now. It was great to get that little recognition. In addition, I participated in a Spanish language radio interview on Alvivo, which is AM440 in 92.3 uh FM and I was invited by Daphneari who was the president of the Latino Teachers Association. It's a great experience doing the interview in Spanish. Um I did it once before and I shared it with my mother much to her delight. So I'm looking forward to sharing broadcast with my mom and also expanding uh outreach to Spanish speaking community members. We spoke about the district, some of the resources we had, and to encourage um our um Spanish speaking listeners to be actively involved in our school community. And finally, um I had the pleasure of meeting with the Long Island Jewish Coalition through my association
015um and our uh Suffach County School Superintendent Association. Um we met with the coalition just to talk about anti anti-semitism and how we best can support our Jewish students and our Jewish community. Just so you know, the uh Long Island Jewish Coalition is comprised of 24 different organizations and they have a tremendous amount of resources available for our schools, including but limited to Holocaust survivor presentations, which are now shifting to the family members of Holocaust survivors as they start aging out. Um, one of the most impactful presentations here was with a Holocaust survivor at Belport Middle School, and I've had the great pleasure of attending several throughout my career in education. It's always impactful. but they also run uh No Place for Hate, an antibbias and anti-semitism education programs that are free across the school
016district. So, we're looking forward to their continued collaboration with that organization, not just here in South Country, but across Suffach County. And finally, please check out our new website. Um it has great resources. Um if you just click here, this will bring us to the website and just to see how you can access my page. of course is an announcement on full athletics menu. Sorry, my finger. This is the worst trackpad. I apologize with the legs there. So up on the top of this page which is now being displayed by this far is the superintendent corner which I update on a monthly basis. Also has access to my contact information as well as my weekly blog that I post uh on a weekly basis on Fridays. So, please visit our newly improved website which we're
017really proud of. Um, and finalist, you can also follow us on social media. Um, some of these images were taken from this week. Uh, Bport Middle School had a great uh orientation for the incoming sixth graders where they got to practice using lockers, something they haven't done uh in quite some time. So, we're really excited about our social media presence. So, please follow our different social media handles across various platforms. All that information can be found on our website. And that concludes my superintendent report. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh we'll proceed with the trustee uh report. Uh we'll start with Mr. Ross. >> I don't have a whole lot to report. Things are just started getting started. Uh I did attend the son foreign policy. Um and uh I commend those teachers in
018the audience who will deal with the naysayers and sort of ripping the band-aid off. Um that was sort of the general impression. Um short of that uh there wasn't much else to there's nothing else to report. >> Uh Mr. Fisetta. >> So I could attend a few unique things. this um past couple weeks. Uh starting off with um the summer youth program uh which I'm not sure it's been much mentioned of it. Uh it's where my work life and this life is cross paths. I was there actually in attendance for work. Uh and Belrot was represented by three students currently that were in the program summer youth program this past summer right now. um and one that was actually a graduate of the program from the year prior and I'm gonna want to make sure
019I pronounce her name right because she was the keynote speaker and is headed to Vasser College I believe uh Janette Mahed uh which was one of the most impressive young ladies I've seen who has been interning with um Hogland Group for the last year um and partnership I have with them through my work obviously they've done stuff here uh but Brook Haven National Lab uh Stony Brook University and um Community College offered these our students a paid internship opportunity at the summer youth program in which three of them uh were paid by the department of labor and received um a steady paycheck for seven weeks uh and graduated from the program with a with a badge from Stony Brook University. Uh and Janette was the first of last year's program and there was three I
020believe from this year's program from Belffort. Um, and I know they are looking for to grow the program and I'm hoping that something through STEM and science that we could uh look to get um some more hopefully because it is uh it's an open-ended invitation um and I'm on the committee to help grow that from the other side of it. So, I'm hoping um it was very impressive to see the Bport alumni now at this point. I know she left this week uh speak on that behalf. Uh did get a chance to stop by the uh Belor football scrimmage 50th anniversary. saw you from behind briefly. Uh but it's amazing to see that it's 50 years. Um saw some old people that I recognized, some old friends and coaches and things like that. So, uh
021it's a great sign to see um summer ending with football starting. Uh so hopefully there best of luck to them. Uh and then today I actually had the opportunity to attend the Brook Haven uh elementary kindergarten um orientation uh this morning. Uh this afternoon, I guess it could be. uh my son has entered kindergarten. Um and I did want to make a statement in that regard too and I you know preface this in conversation with the superintendent as well. Um there is you know some hesitation or um I would guess um uneasiness with the start of the school year for me personally. Um this is a personal uh part but also I think as a board of ed trustee um I have to look at it as a bigger picture. Um obviously and I've been
022very transparent with the the board of ed and the superintendent in regards to this uh there was an application process for the dual language program where um it is my belief and I can strongly believe that there was the process and the policy um was not followed um and there's about four or five families that were negatively impacted uh and were never afforded the opportunity that followed the policy and the procedure pos in the right direction and were never afforded the opportunity to be considered for the program. Um, I know I've had extensive conversations with the superintendent about this as far as fixing the policy moving forward and I appreciate those conversations. Uh, however, there's still five families in my mind that were negatively impacted. Uh, and again, full transparency, my child is one of
023those people. Um, and I feel that it was a disservice to not only myself but those families as well. Uh I wish there would have been an opportunity to write the wrong that took place. Uh I do think that the policy that was in place um there was failures by in my opinion um again this is my personal opinion. Uh and I've shared this with everybody as well. Um I think that there was administrative failures at both the district and the building level that could have prevented this from happening. Um and ultimately, you know, there are five district family members um that are not being accepted into the dual language program and this is not a negative impact on the dual my oldest daughter is in the dual language program. I speak very highly and
024I'm very happy about it. U my ultimate goal personally is to hopefully grow the dual language program. I know we've had extensive conversations about that. Um, I just I believe that more could have been done in this past this upcoming cohort to address the students that were negatively impacted by the um lack of adherence to the policy put forth. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Ruda, is there anything going on with the high school? >> Oh, I was just going that way. I'm sorry. Um, I've met with the student council exec board a few times over the summer. We're just getting things started. We're starting to plan homecoming. We got to meet with Mr. Fll last week just to work out some kinks and stuff for homecoming. And we have an ice cream social planned on
025the 5th, the Friday coming up to school just to, you know, get everyone settled and, you know, communicate. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. >> Uh, Trusty Feliz. >> Thank you. Uh, welcome aboard. >> Thank you. >> You have big shoes to follow with your mother having been here and served so well, but good luck to you. We welcome you. Um, uh, yeah, it was a busy week starting this week. Uh, attended the building walkthrough. Um, some of it's going to bear repeating uh, in what the superintendent already reported, but the work was so outstanding. It it does bear repeating. Uh um so in in the building walkth through I was especially impressed with how much work was done and uh especially contracting in the work that was completed by our own custodial and maintenance staff.
026For instance, the refurbishing of several restrooms at the middle school, restoration of the lockers at the Frank P. Long school uh and the continuation repair of the tile work at all of our schools. The hallways and the floors are looking exceptional, as well as the uh rebranding of the cafeterias and the stairways in both the middle school and the high school. There's much for our students to be proud of, and I hope our budget can uh support all that is taking place. Uh attended the August high school graduation on uh 8:26 for some very proud graduates and their families. Congratulations to our summer school principal, Amy Ayaluchcci, who is especially proud that every graduate was able to stay within their cohort and earn all the accolades they work so hard to achieve. It is also
027significant when you really think of all the concerts, the plays, the sports, the homework, the tests, that until that moment when the superintendent certifies to the board of education that each graduate has satisfactorily completed the course of studies and requirements necessary to be granted a high school diploma. and the families were just excited to to celebrate those achievements. Uh yesterday I observed the boys JV and varsity golf tryyouts. Um that was pleasant and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of students that were participating even if that means I'll have to have a later tea time uh as a result of the number of students that were there. But I have to say I also have to say and I have to compliment the the JV and the varsity coaches. Those boys were so polite
028uh to all the golfers cuz we were all still out there um uh with with our um outing that was taking place. They were so polite to everybody else that was still out there and I was so imp impressed with just how well-mannered they were um and how excited they were to be out there playing. Uh and finally today with superintendent conference day uh and a bit of trepidation uh as we're approaching this day especially when we talked about district expenses outpacing revenues. I trust that in in uh the order in meeting our strategic plan uh that was also heavily referenced today that to achieve the plan successes we will start our budget strategy strategy talk sooner rather than later to have a strong 2025 2026 school year. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Feliz. >>
029Thank you, >> uh, Trusty Fderon. Yeah. >> Um, well, welcome, uh, Madison. Full circle moment. I was an ex official student member and my high school and Patrick Medford. Um, now I'm sitting here, so maybe we'll see you in a few years. Um, and not much to report. Unfortunately, I was traveling, so I couldn't attend a lot of these amazing um, events, but I'm gearing up for the new school year. Excited. Um, that's all. >> Thank you. um for myself. >> Welcome, Miss Madison. >> Oh. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Miss Hayes. >> Do you have something? I had I had the pleasure of meeting Madison Aruda in conference with the superintendent for an informal onboarding discussion. um which was very interesting because it came right on the heels of the conference that I had attended uh
030a couple weeks ago sponsored by New York State School Board Association where one of their main focuses was owned student exeicio members and why the current state law is requiring all schools to have them. Now you remember that Bport has had a student exeicio member as long as I can remember but it's now required statewide and it's intended to so that the exeicio member and then all students that she is associated with will learn about civics and um learn about how boards operate. and the importance in boards. It's important also for bo the board itself to set an example of behavior for the students um so that they can learn how a functioning board should operate. So watching our demeanor and our efforts to build consensus to always work in best interest of the students
031and also to recognize board responsibilities and to respect the administrator's role uh so that we don't blur the uh the lines between them. I also had the pleasure of being able to attend the new teacher lunchon. Um, and just looking around the room with the new teachers, having just recently met with Madison, our new exeicio student board member, I realized I was really looking at the future because uh these are young people who are coming in um dedicating themselves to doing what's best for the students. and I'm really looking forward to seeing all the things that can help us achieve. So, I'll just sum up and say I'm very disappointed to have missed the activities this week, but very glad to hear the reports about um how successful they've been. Thank you. >> Thank you,
032Miss Hayes. Um, one personal thing, uh, personal note, I just want to give a shout out to Coach Gibbons and Coach Marolio and the girls varsity soccer team. Um, they participated in the town of Brook Haven summer program, uh, summer tournament. Um, they came in first for small school and, uh, went on to the champion against uh, Sichum, unfortunately lost there. U, but it was a great season. It was a combined uh varsity and JV team and it was uh very warm and fuzzy. Uh it was great seeing the camaraderie amongst the girls um and how they really did function as a team over the summer. Looking forward to seeing that into the fall. Um the activities this week have been uh fantastic. the building walks, the summer school graduation, which I give a shout
033out to everybody who has organized that. That is terrific that we do that in August that there is a graduation, not just a congratulations, he has a diploma and see you. Uh, superintendent's conference day today. Uh, I felt motivated to get into this year. Um, clear picture of where we're at and where we want to go. So that's it for me. Uh public commentary. >> We do have one card. >> Yes. >> Uh Mr. Kenselier >> Conseller. Sorry. >> I'm from I have a hard time remembering myself. >> First of all, I'm Ronald Canala. I am a native of the school district in Bin for 83 years and I graduated in the turn of San 1960. Just to let you know in reference to uh people that graduate from Elport High School or South Country
034School District, they move on and they accomplish great things or good things for the well-being of the well people of their own. I notice your the wall of fame is kind of defunct. I would not like to see that disappear because there are people as I say I repeated that move on and graduate and they accomplish good things for the well-being of the general public and they should be recognized just like we recognize those people that go on in the top 10% say of their classes and go to college. These people should also be recognized. So would you please continue the wall of fing? Do you know what it is? >> Yes. >> Huh? >> Yes, I do. >> Okay. Cuz uh I noticed last semester it went to punct and I know the person
035that used to run it has now retired. >> Okay. >> So if you keep that going, I think that would be a fantastic thing. We appreciate the comment and that is our our intent to >> No, I appreciate the comments. That is our intent to revisit the wall of fame and start continuing that practice. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> Thank you, sir. >> Thank you. >> And that was um item F, the strategic plan. >> Yes, Mr. Santana. Thank you. to my post. All right. So, it gives me great pleasure to finally present our strategic action plan. We actually worked on this for quite some time last year. So I want to begin by giving you a little history. Um we actually contracted with blueprint uh strategic planning which is run by uh Kevin McGawan.
036He was actually um nominated and was awarded the superintendent of the year for New York State as well as the national superintendent of the year uh for United States of America. That's what makes it national. Um it's a great resource in terms of collecting community input, state uh stakeholder input to come up with a fiveyear strategic plan. So, in January of 2025, this past year, we had a community meeting that was preceded by meetings with our administrative team and our trustees where we discussed some of our wants and needs, areas of growth for the school district in a very sort of um collaborative manner. I was really happy with the amount of participation from our community. I think something like 80 people participated that night and joined teachers um staff members uh administrators community members
037and trustees and really discussing uh what we're looking to do with the district and we came up with three priority areas which is academic excellence, the student experience and operations. So to get more specific um again um I call it the charted path ahead. You know, our mascot is a Clipper and so it's good to have a sort of a clear path or trajectory moving forward. So, we engage in this blueprint strategic planning process to chart a unified course of the future, one that reflects our community values and sets a clear trajectory for every Clipper. So, this collaborative effort ensures our goals, actions, and resources align to student uh support student success and long-term district excellence. Um, we developed a new mission statement and I think it's important that we all familiarize with our mission
038and our mission is to collectively we empower every student with the knowledge, skills and rigorous academic experiences they need to excel in their future endeavors fostering critical thinking, resilience and a sense of belonging and a commitment to lifelong learning. So that's basically the mission of our school district. vision, which is where we see ourselves going in and our vision for the school district and how we want to market ourselves, is that we are a high-erforming, inclusive school community that prioritizes students, fosters excellence, and ensures equitable opportunities for all to achieve their fullest potential through highquality education, critical thinking, and core values like honesty, perseverance, and compassion. We prepare lifelong learners for a diverse, evolving world. Together as partners and mentors, we create a safe, supported, supportive environment where every student is heard, valued, and empowered
039to succeed. So, I think we already hit a lot of those notes already in the shifts that have been happening in our district, and we're proud of that. So, to go over our core values, and again, this was something that was um a result of our collaboration. First, we have honesty and integrity, and I think that goes without saying, the value in having that as part of our values here in South Country. um acting with truthfulness and transparency in all interactions and decisions. Um and even when we're faced with challenges, respect uh respect is super important to me. I think respect goes both ways and we need to have mutual respect in any interaction you have at studentto staff uh reactions, staff to student reaction, certainly amongst the board, our community members. We're going to
040value that as something important to us. valuing every student even though students that make poor choices deserve our attention and support. So we want to make sure we provide uh the supports that students are feelings are validated and they feel seen. Uh giving and doing our very best something I pose as a question today is um are you the person you were when you were interviewed for your respective position? And that's something I reflect upon all the time um to make sure that I'm living up to the standards I set forth when I first was introduced to South Country. uh but really doing our very best and a lot of the stuff is in our pride sort of uh model which I'll go to in a second. We want to be solutionoriented. I think we
041spent a lot of energy and effort complaining of things that maybe need some growth or some change. So let's change that dynamic and talk about solutions to meet those areas of need and growth. Uh we want to be student centered. I mean students are our client. It's our it's our product. We want to make sure that every decision we make is made uh with our students in mind. is that that's not to say that we won't support staff in making those decisions, but really if we want to make sure that we continue being student centered. Of course, we want to be equitable. Every member of our community should feel like they have a fair shot in our school district. Every member of our community should feel like they're valued and respected and that their voices
042are heard. And finally, we want to make sure we increase community engagement um through different venues like having uh town hall forums for our community members. That's something we look to uh continue. Um so these are basically our core values and the most important core value is our pride which represents being prepared, respectful, involved, diligent and ethical in our interactions and to me the most important word there is ethical because you'd be great at many things but if you're not a good person then I don't think I think that says a lot. So those are our values. Then we talked about our priority areas which I mentioned briefly but to give you a little more specific we have academic excellence and the goal under that priority area is to provide all students with access to
043tool the tools skills and opportunities needed to succeed in in rigorous and relevant coursework by emphasizing 21st century skills expanding access to alternative learning pathways to support student interest. This is also very much aligned with our um the portrait of a graduate and sort of the shifts we're making on a state level. Secondly, we talked about the student experience and our goal is to foster a supportive and connected learning environment where students feel safe, secure and valued by prioritizing meaningful relationships, balancing the use of technology and instructional practices and promot promoting social emotional well-being. And I like the part about balancing the use of technology that is aligned with our new cell phone policy. And also a high school student really eloquently told me that you guys focus and harp on screen time yet you
044keep us in front of Chromebooks all day. So it's something we really want to be conscientious of and ensure engage in more note takingaking, academic discourse, and just optimizing the student experience and best prepare them for the future. And finally, operations. Um, our goal there is to enhance school district operations by fostering a supportive work environment, upgrading facilities, improving communication and transparency, strengthening parental involvement and increasing community engagement through active participation and partnerships. We've already hit some of those marks just with through our new website with our transition to parents square by having more community meetings in the future. So, we're excited to tackle all these things. And just to get a little bit more specific, when we talk about academic excellence, we want to focus on literacy and communication. The shifts in our assessments
045are basically asking students to be critical thinkers. When I was a student, it was wrote memorization and recall. We're kind of moving away from that because we're realizing that for people to be successful in life, they have to be able to think critically. It's not so much how good your memory is, but how good or how well you problem solve. So again, we want to strengthen writing and research across content areas, promote daily reading, literacy growth, and foster student discourse, debate, and critical thinking. When I was a kid in school, the optimal classroom was a silent classroom. We sat in rows, and we listened to our teacher. We want to see our students kind of engaging in academic discourse about the content they're learning. Uh we really want to focus on STEM and core instruction
046as part of our strategic plan. Uh updating our K to 5 math curriculum. We've done that for our literacy curriculum. Then we want to expand that to our math curriculum. expand our project based and problem based learning across grade levels and provide explicit instruction and study skills. One of the feedback I got from some of our alumni from Billboard High School is we wish we had more like instruction how to study. Some of us that really don't know how to study. Um global and career readiness. I see Madison shaking her head. Um global and career readiness. Obviously we're looking to maybe expand our CTE programs. Certainly uh look into financial literacy for all students. That's something we're already starting and looking to do uh foreign language instruction at our elementary schools. Equity and access of
047course which is to guarantee rigorous coursework at all levels. And I feel the need to define rigorous. Rigorous doesn't mean difficult. It means that kids are thinking critically. So we just want to make sure that at all levels and all courses that we engage in just good conversations about the content. um broaden elective opportunities especially for our special education students and use master scheduling to ensure equitable class sizes and learning conditions. This is also aligned with our uh DIP priorities. DECIP is our district comprehensive improvement plan and basically our four focal points for this year is to have rigorous and relevant coursework uh to focus on amending some of our instructional practices to match the profile of the graduate K to2 focus on high impact instructional practices and data-driven instruction. We want to be a
048little bit more deliberate in what we do to meet some of our uh needs in areas of growth when it comes to academic excellence. >> What is Dip again? >> It's a district comprehensive improvement plan. Um our second priority area, the student experience. We want to make sure we focus on well-being and mental health, especially these days when we see a rise in and more health mental health um concerns. So that included like normalizing the use of mental health professionals. Sometimes that's frowned upon. We want to make sure that students feel comfortable reaching out when they need help. Provide supportive and trauma-informed responses to incidents and expand our uh mental health professionals or access to them by through different mechanisms like our partnership for example with Northwell Health. Uh inclusion and support strengthening bilingual supports
049for our multilingual learners. We've already seen some progress there. ensure equitable, compassionate responses for all students, and establish regular check-ins and re-entry meetings for students affected by incidents, a positive school climate and behavior. Again, we're going to really be focusing our code of conduct to ensure consistent implementation moving forward using our restorative practices where applicable, community circles and mentorship to build uh relationships and build a sense of belonging. And of course, our culture of responsibility through restorative consequences and community service. And finally, engagement and enrichment. Provide more opportunities for mentorship, enrichment, and accelerated learning. Build a culture of enjoyment in our schools. School should be fun. I mean, sure, we're here to learn. We should have fun while we're doing it. Look to expand extracurriculars, including inter murals at the middle school. And promote community
050building programs to connect students, staff, and families. And I want to emphasize, these are just generalizations. The plan is actually actionable, and we're going to be reporting on a quartered basis on the progress we're making in each of our goals. And some of these goals span a couple of years. Again, this plan spans five years from this current year through um the school year. That'll be 2028, 2029. And finally, operations speaks to stu staff support and morale. We want to make sure staff feel empowered to be involved in other decision-m processes and have a voice so that their concerns are validated. uh addressing staffing inequities across schools, a great recognition programs for staff contributions, foster positive leadership culture to support morale and then again to provide clear support for handling student behaviors. Facilities and infrastructure
051is a big big sort of part of this uh area of operations. Over the last three years, we've made sort of a substantial changes in our capital projects. We're engaged in a multitude of projects currently in a budget neutral manner by using our reserves and by um creatively using different mechanisms. So we're going to continue that as a district sort of needs um some TLC to put it lightly. Communication and transparency again provide communication in multiple languages. RD website is you're able to translate it at a click of a button making it a lot more accessible to our community. We want improved consistency and the clarity of communication methods. Implement unified communication which is parents core which is something we've already implemented this year. We've already uh upgraded our district website and want to use
052multiple outreach methods to reach all families. But at the same time, as much as we emphasize technology, we do think that certain things merit old school uh paper documents like report cards, certainly our newsletter uh for those in our community that don't have access to technology. And finally, again, community and family engagement. We want to strengthen parental involvement, encourage our parents to get involved in our respective PTAs and increase transparency and active participation in district operations, which we'll do through our advisory committees and our plan moving forward. So, that's basically sums up the strategic plan. Um, I don't know if any of the trustes have any questions. >> I'll ask a question. So this this uh strategic plan is are you going to be reviewing it at the strategic planning committee um on the on
053the quarterly basis or with the board of education or both? >> So we're going to be reporting on the strategic plan and our strategic planning advisory committee on a regular basis at each of our meetings on a quarterly basis. We'll be making presentations to share our progress for those goals that are applicable to this school year. >> So then you're you're essentially chairing the the the goal, you know, meeting the goals. It's a collaborative effort. Okay. So, through my cabinet, through administrators in the district, through teachers, depending on what the goals are. >> Okay. >> So, we're really excited about it. Again, this is a result of collaborative work, community input, staff input. So, u we're excited to get going and to have kind of a clear path and a part of it is to
054kind of streamline our efforts and that's why we did outreach because we want to have sort of a clear trajectory for the next five years. Um and certainly you raised some valid points earlier in a meeting today with regards to some of the financial constraints we may have. So a lot of these goals are sort of budget neutral. It's just basically changes in practices. You know it doesn't cost us anything for example for me to host community forums. So a lot of this could be achieved at little to no cost. >> So is that how you plan on get getting uh community involvement b you know based on the the initial uh roll out of the strategic plan involved a lot of community involvement. Are you going to have community involvement, community uh meetings to
055to update the community on the the the progress of the of the plan? >> Right now, the intention is to do that at board meetings, okay? >> You know, which is a public meeting and the community forums is just more to sort of engage in in dialogue with community members. Give them >> So then the agenda will serve as notice that it's on the agenda. Community should come out. >> Okay. Do you have a question? >> I was just going to comment that I thought the planning for the strategic plan was very well done and I'm impressed with the um facilitator for this. I thought that the meeting of the community was well attended. lots of participants from community members as well as a lot of staff members and administration. Um, and I thought that
056the facilitator was able to compile the information that was presented during that session in a way that it could be broken down into these priority areas for us. So, I wanted to thank you for finding this facilitator to help us make this step to have the new strategic plan put together and rolled out. And I'm looking forward to seeing it progress and to get updates about how we're how we're doing with regard to implementing this. >> Thank you. I want to make one comment too and I know I touched on this earlier um and it says foreign language elementaryaries and schools and we've discussed this at late uh I do see a date of 2728 um considering the extensive weight list that there is already in the dual language program I would hope that we
057could expedite that to a earlier date and consider options for future cohorts at a sooner date. Um I do think that there is a need in the district um in 2027 2028. I know this was created you know previously uh but I think that's a little too far down the road um to address the need that we currently have. >> Appreciate the comments. >> Any other comments, questions? No. >> Move on to U moving on to the district safety plan. Um I believe everybody had a chance to review it. Does anybody have any questions or comments? >> Yeah, I'm just going to make a couple comments about the health safety plan. So the district safety plans are approved on an annual basis because they're modified and updated on an annual basis. The district safety plan
058is the one safety plan that's public. It's going to be posted pending board approval tonight on our website. In addition to the district safety plan, we have building safety plans that are confidential. They're confidential because that's how we sort of guarantee the safety of our students and staff in the case of an actual emergency. We don't want to sort of give away what our actual protocols will be. Um, you know, in light of today's tragic events, you know, I think it's incredibly important that we have updated safety plans. Although, I'm I'm going to say this and I hope it's not taken the wrong way. I hope it's a monumental waste of time to engage in these plans, which means nothing will ever happen. Uh but they're pretty comprehensive. It includes everything from like reification drills
059anytime we may have to evacuate a building. I've lived through that as a principal um through like bomb threats. Um our response to any intruders that may happen. So it's really comprehensive. It includes uh people who are in command in case an incident happens. There's a clear chain of command in terms of who's responding, who's talking to the law enforcement. Um so those are the things we sort of discuss and as part of our health and safety committee or advisory committee we kind of address some of these concerns on a live basis and during my sort of uh career as a an administrator these safety plans have changed dramatically. So, it's amazing how much they get modified each time there's a new incident and people assess a situation. And one of the things that came
060out of these incidents and and sort of the experiences is how cell phones can actually impede the response to an emergency because what happens is law enforcement can get inundated with calls. Uh sometimes it creates needless panic and inh and it sort of inhibits the ability of a school district or school to respond to an emergency in real time because and I I witnessed this firsthand when a former student of mine and my capacity as a high school principal pulled a lockdown drill as a g as a gag. And so law enforcement showed up in the school and they were impeded to the campus because we had a driveway by the rush of parents that started coming to the district which created a traffic jam because kids when they saw the alarm go off started
061texting their parents. Um it can also cause unnecessary panic amongst kids if they're starting to pass information that's not accurate. And really the best response to an emergency is to have students respond to the adults in charge and follow their prompts. We're going to do our very best to communicate to our community as expeditiously as possible should there ever be an emergency. Um, obviously we have to respond to the emergency first, but we have mechanisms by which the buildings communicate to my office. I'll be in charge of communicating out to the community in the unlikely event that an emergency were ever occur. Another another uh factor that also helps us with our district safety plan is the relationship that we have with our local precinct which we have worked to um really enhance over the
062over the years. Um and one of those ways that we have done that was is with the uh unity day. Is there a rescheduled date for uh for unity day that we're aware of yet? >> Not to my knowledge. >> Okay. All right. if we could find out when that's going to be because it's it's I mean that's a that's a date that you know where the community really gets to know its police officers and you know in a friendly environment the you know even all their their top brass comes down to that >> right >> uh that day and it really is a really wonderful day for community members to get to know their police officers their the supervisors and uh so it's it's important that we get that word out sooner rather than
063later that uh of its of its rescheduling Yeah, I'm not sure if they're going to reschedule it. Um, we haven't heard any word. Um, but as a matter of practice, school districts, we do get in touch with the inspectors in our respective school uh, police precincts. Um, we have a great relationship with our SRO's. Um, and yeah, the idea is to expose uh, children to law enforcement as much as possible to develop relationships and so that they realize that, you know, police officers are here for our safety. So, um, at this point, I'm going to make a recommendation that the, uh, board approve the 2025 2026 project save district level plan. >> Do we have a motion? >> A motion by Trusty Feliz, second by Mrs. Fisetta. Any discussion? Okay, no discussion. No. Uh all
064those in favor vote I. >> It looks unanimous. Thank you. That brings us down to board consent. Uh letter G, board consent agenda curriculum. >> The administration recommends approval of curriculum items reflected in schedules G1 through G2. >> Do we have a motion? Trusty police. Second. Trusty Calder. Comments, questions? All those in favor I. It looks unanimous. Thank you. Uh brings us down to letter H. Board consent agenda personnel. >> The administration recommends approval of personnel agenda items H1 through H10. >> Do we have a motion? >> Comma. [Laughter] >> Mr. Felisetta. A second. >> Mr. Ross comments, questions. All those in favor vote I vote unanimous. >> So before we continue, I just want to acknowledge Michaela Lions and Joshua Lighting. Did I say that correct? Who will be working as permanent subs both
065at our middle school. So welcome guys. >> Thank you and congratulations. >> Uh that brings us down to letter I, board consent agenda business. The administration recommends approval of business items reflected in schedules I1 through I6. >> Do we have a motion comment real quick or no? >> Motion and then so >> M fellow get that right. Mr. Ross has a second questions, comments. >> I have a comment just cuz um on the last part of the final 2024 25 contract um and we spoke at this already at length previously, but I saw I think it's the third item, the career and technical education. The amount is you have 85 students currently in the program at Boseies. Is that that's what I'm just trying to clarify? >> Um it's so we pay by average. >>
066Okay. So we've actually sent more than 85 kids to the program. So So you benefit from the average for a couple years and then you don't. >> No. Gotcha. >> And it's currently at the rate is 15,500 per kid and that's on a two-year contract if I'm correct. Right. That you have to you're committed to two years per kid, >> I believe. So >> So we're looking at 1.3 million about going out to Boseies. I know we've talked about CTE coming in house um and this strategic plan. And I think that's something that we can do inhouse without a doubt um for a much more effective cost. So I just >> wanted to point that out that it's uh it's something that I I noticed in that I haven't seen it up front until the
067first time till now. >> Um it's a pretty significant amount of money that I think that we have the resources and hopefully future staff that could address that. >> Yeah, I've been talking to Trusty Fetta, you know, to sort of visit his school district. is currently at will employed because there are CTE programs that are very efficient in terms of the the cost in terms of setting them up. Obviously, if you're going to run an automotive program that requires a certain amount of in uh infrastructure, but there's a lot of programs that don't. So, the idea is, you know, can we create some sort of experiences for our students here at South Country so that we don't have to tuition them out and if the program grows and our in our enrollment declines, we could
068also even tuition kids into our programs. That is part of our strategic plan to look at those options. >> Thank you. Any other questions, comments? >> Okay. Um, have to vote now. We have to vote. Um, vote for the approval of items. >> I thought I recommend the recommended. I'll do it again. The administration recommends approval of business items reflected in I1 through I6. And you have a motion to >> We had a motion to second. So now it's the vote. All those in favor say I. >> Looks unanimous. Great. Um we have no more cards, right, Miss Christine? >> Okay. Um brings us to K closing remarks. Does anybody have anything they would like to >> I do just uh to bring it up. We sit here now having gone through a strategic plan.
069We've talked about our civics pieces and I've to note uh sort of a a whole we've seen we we talked about a a safety plan as well. I haven't seen any civic engagements that we may be losing the opportunity on to talk to our to talk to the kids and to offer opportunities and trainings for things like CPR, emergency services. the volunteer fire services that are here are looking for the civic engagement on their uh uh on their end as well. Those are our students. Those are our neighbors. Like there's I think we're missing an opportunity and it may be something we do live in a unique district and that we have multiple fire departments and districts that are here. Some of those kids should also be acknowledged. As Mr. Canella pointed out, they already
070give to our community on a on a daily basis through their volunteer services. So, I think that's something that we might be as a board both through our strategic plan, our civic engagement, and our learning through the safety plans, a way to reinforce and and get more sort of bang for our buck. >> Appreciate that. >> Appreciate. >> Anybody else? Miss Hayes. Oh, looks like >> one com one comment. It's really a request since we've been um forming our board advisory committees. We do have room for community representatives. These are people who do not work in the district. And um if there's anyone who is interested uh please contact central office um any of the committees I believe there is still room for community members on each one. >> Thank you very much Miss Hayes.
071Um this motion for adjournment motion Mr. Ross seconded by Miss Calderon. All those in favor say I. Meeting is adjourned. >> Thank you very much everyone.