SOUTH COUNTRY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEETING 03/08/2023 PART 2

001all right we good Vinnie okay all right we'll call the meeting of March 8th to order it is now 6 30 P.M we'd like to thank everyone for joining us tonight and uh switching up our agenda our executive session will be at the end so our presentations will begin just as soon as we do our opening so I have a little uh welcome notice to read you and then we'll do the pledge right after that so if you can just uh bear with me a little a little bit we'll read that to you we are pleased that you have come to a South Country Central School District Board of Education meeting your attendance will allow you to become aware of the educational issues that affect the future of our children and communities informative involved parents

002and citizens are the best guarantees of excellence in our public schools out of order interruptions or interference with the orderly conduct of the school board is not permitted we ask that you refrain from defamatory or abusive remarks because they are always considered out of order the board president May terminate his speaker's privileges to address the board if he or she persists in engaging in improper conduct at public meetings at the board nope person so shall orally indicate charges or complaints against individual employees of the district invade the students privacy or challenge instructional materials used in the district all such charges complaints and challenges should be presented to the superintendent or the board in writing and signed by the complainant all such charges are presented to the board or superintendent shall be referred to the proper

003channels for investigation and reported back to the complainant Privacy rights of both students and staff will always be honored any written or printed material is welcome to be distributed to the board however we do ask your cooperation by submitting that written material to the district clerk at least one week before the proceeding meeting materials will then be transmitted transmitted to the board of education to review prior to the meeting thank you for your Indulgence in Reading those welcoming messages that we could all please rise now for the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for Iran thank you we can't hear back there are no microphones so I'm just going to have to speak up there is a seat in the front would you like to move up to

004the front all right by way of reminder just one more notice emergency evacuation notice please recognize the emergency exit to my right and your left for everyone sitting in the audience and immediately to the back of the room in the event of an emergency please leave in an orderly fashion through these exits this is also a smoke-free District smoking is not permitted in a building or anywhere on school grounds we also enjoy a hate free and Bully free so first on our agenda is the board consent agenda for item C1 the minutes of February 15. Mr superintendent Administration recommends approval of items reflected in schedules at C1 one do we have a motion motion by trustee Cavanaugh second by trustee Barry any discussion on those minutes seeing no discussion all those in favor please raise

005your hands thank you see it all hands raised the motion passes unanimously now we're up to notifications and announcements and we will begin with the superintendent's report okay so audience tonight so welcome to everybody so considering the agenda that we have which is um pretty lengthy I thought I was gonna really shorten my superintendence report but there is too many great things happening that I need to share and I do want to sort of uh apologize I could not stay for the whole concert last night the concerts are one of my favorite things I had an emergency I had to attend to but I'm sure the students did really well I know trustee Hayes and trustee Trent were there so on behalf my office I just want to give a shout out to older people

006performing teachers from last night about being able to stay for the duration of the concert but let's get to it so first there's always customarily and we can start streaming now um I always like sharing our covet data it's not required but I feel in the sense of just being uh transparent who we are these uh coping numbers were as of February 10th uh 2023 and we updated them so since February 10th and as of March 3rd which was last Friday we've had about 15 20 cases numbers of dwindling um as you may have heard in the news the as of May 11th it's projected that covet will no longer be a federal emergency you don't lose that status we'll keep the community posted but I do think that we're slowly edging our way back

007to normalcy which is great um although I do think we'll be mitigating the effects of the pandemics as we approach the third anniversary of our schools closings back in March of 2020 so we'll keep you posted and as always stays healthy and safe use whatever precautions that you feel work and surely follow Doh and CDC guidelines last budget presentation I decided not to review our inclement weather plan because we spoke a little bit about the groundhogs and how accurate they were and they predicted in early spring sure enough we got snow after that board meeting so um I was very fortunate that the it wasn't a Monumental snowfall and we were able to make the announcement for a delayed opening fairly early in the evening and a pleasure the community into the board and we'll

008always bounce these closings or delays as early as possible given that I really do want to give a special thanks to our custodial maintenance crew uh we were in touch the night before we started communicating around 4 30 in the morning make sure the conditions were okay and to be honest you know they did such a fantastic job that there was potential for opening our schools on time so I just want to give a shout out to our custodians at maintenance crew as some of us get to sleep in um they're getting up extra early to make sure our schools are safe for the students and staff arrival I will say this about good weather there's great weather in Washington DC so I wanted to share these photographs from today our eighth graders made it

009down to DC they're having a great time the picture captures our chaperones up on the right hand corner by the Washington Monument and an entire picture of our entire uh body of students who are attending so so far they're also a great art they got to DC earlier than anticipated and we're really pleased to be bringing back these experiences back to the district starting with this big trip to DC so I wish them well they have a great agenda plan for the next couple of days and they'll be back on Friday moving on Bellport High School athletics we just closed our winter season so I wanted to share some of the accolades that our students have earned along with their coaches these are just a couple of shots from a basketball game I attended I

010did want to give a shout out to the young lady with the camera Who's down on the bottom right corner I don't know her name but I feel like I know her because she's at every game with that camera so I wanted to give her a special shout out thank you so hey Salinas big shout out to you for always reporting and taking great pictures that ultimately will appear in our uh yearbook but in terms we'll start with uh boys basketball and all the accolades they achieved um so achieving all well first and foremost there were division division two Champions which is a great great accomplishment they're a double A County 75 Islanders in terms of all League accolades and Mir Bell Jason hunt and Xavier doors the two dead status all-conference Samir Bell and

011All Counties Samir Bell also division two coach of the year went to Peter Grassi so there's some accolades for our basketball program next we have wrestling which are League four Champions fifth in the overall counting Championship which is fantastic we had a number of League champions We have Jaden green Cameron Howard who happens to just be a seventh grader uh Michael Anthony neris Luis Rodriguez Henry Sarris Bobby John Isaiah Green County champions again Cameron Howard placed eighth in New York state as a seventh grader which is again fantastic this is Varsity we're talking about and Jayden green placed fifth overall in New York state he's a senior congratulations to him and League four coach of the year goes to Charles maraciolio who did a fantastic time uh job not just with our male wrestlers but

012our female wrestlers to participate so great job for them moving on we have Boys Winter crack which had a few accolades as well um achieving world league with Aiden Dowdy uh Donahue I'm sorry I apologize that's Aiden Dominique Johnston and Kyle Brown for girls bowling um there were the Wild Card qualifier for the playoffs which was an achievement and achieving all League was Brielle Reed Haley Sheen Shriner and Morgan Thompson congratulations to them in terms of oils boiling all League was achieved by Christopher Schultz girls basketball all League athletes break Johnson who cannot be here today unsung hero Maddie Madras next they are cheerleading squad uh all division Ramona Builder All County Sierra Seaman and all County academic Scarlett Maldonado and finally for winter track uh Ella Mason who's a state qualifier and a state

013champion on behalf of our school district it's a lot of accolades for our athletes we're student athletes I just want to give a big shout out to all of our coaches support staff and our athletic director Patrick Hayes really uh did a great job in supporting our Athletic program I also wanted to talk a little bit today about South Country school's accountability salary status so as some of you may have known um for the last several years we had three schools that were considered targeted schools Bellport Middle School was a TSI school which starts for targeted support and Improvement Brookhaven Elementary was a comprehensive support and Improvement school and Vern W pritz Elementary was also a targeted support and Improvement school for those of you who are not familiar with those designations it's based on

014testing data and the achievement of the or various cohorts that we've educated in our school district the good news is that as of this year and our current status both Brookhaven Elementary School and Vern W Chris Elementary School are considered now schools in good standing the official designation is local support and Improvement schools which just means that they're in good standing at Bellport Middle School actually was elevated to a targeted and additional target support Improvement School the elevation and its status so I do want to give a big shout out and Greg congratulations to our entire instructional team including our teachers administrators and our entire Learning Community we all make a difference and this is a credit to our students our teachers support staff Beth Boyle her team military directors it's really good to achieve

015these accolades and I also want to thank the Board of Trustees for their continued support in supporting our academic programs and sort of just getting that other waiver and support but this is a great uh accomplishment for our school district this path weekend I got to attend the niskis winster Institute niscus is an acronym that we like using in education but that actually sounds from New York State Council of school superintendents the theme of the uh conference was wrote awesome and I was able to attend workshops uh strategies on increasing student engagement minimizing off-task behaviors legislative advocacy mindfulness for our learning communities staff and students alike social media and mental health and sort of a relation between the two equity responsiveness and fiscal planning which is all very informative a huge part of the conference

016also is our networking and speaking to other superintendents and state officials on current trends in education which are um always keeps us in the know one of the things that struck me was this graphic that was used in one of my presentations um where schools really need to start thinking about social media as an addiction when we think about the effects on children so it's no longer the inappropriate use of Technology but rather the effects that social media has on our children um something really that we'll be looking at closely as part of the opening ceremonies Elementary School students from upstate New York I actually recite Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech and Amanda Gordon's inaugural poem this past presidential inauguration I think we've all heard Snippets of I have a dream but

017to hear elementary school kids actually recite the entire speech from the canoe Community that's not diverse it was really fantastic to be whole I mean it was so much more impactful when you hear fifth graders kind of recite these speeches so I thought that was a great experience and overall positive experience for me to have going up there I appreciate the board of trustee support in that talking about the road to awesomeness I get to participate and read Across America day at Bellport Middle School basically it's a day where a book is chosen and community members and folks like myself uh get to read a book to a group of students this year's book was entitled um let me fix your plate so trustee Puccini and trustee Hayes also participated I'm sure they'll share some

018of their experiences but many of the students in my group were special named kids and some English language Learners and they really were a fantastic audience the book Itself by Elizabeth Lilly basically depicts a mixed family that visits her grandparents and one of the grandparents Grandpa lives in Virginia and treats them to Great American food um and then the grandma which is abuela lives in Florida treated to some traditional Latino Foods so it's a photo of myself reading to the students the participation was great we talked about Abuelo which is uh grandpa in Spanish I think the first picture I've ever seen myself in where I actually look like a grandpa so I had to share that um but really it was a fantastic experience and more rewarding was the conversations that the kids got

019into so we spoke about Foods ranging from pierogies to mac and cheese to pupusas and empanadas we had kids from South America talk about how they call Gee we'll talk about that which is a delicacy I'm not going to steal your thunder you can get them out there when you report it out but my biggest um reward was the fact that the kids signed the copy of the book for me and uh for some of those kids who were in the audience and but you could see the pride in their faces when they talked about their respective foods and how it taught us to their identity and culture and I know responsiveness becomes a scary word for a lot of communities but really responsiveness is creating an environment where we all belong and feel good

020about ourselves and that's what was on display at the middle school and so I would just wanted to say as I took this selfie with the kids in my group the adult poor middle school students demonstrated awesomeness so it wasn't that we're on the road to awesomeness we're kind of there so really excited about that experience I also got attention the privilege to attend a couple more events uh in observance of Black History Month which concluded last week first I went to the high school historically black college and university Fair uh which is a great experience we had alumni attending schools like Howard University speaking to current students about their experiences in college and the road there but months to our surprise and I want to thank Miss Robinson who's in the audience tonight we

021had some dignitaries visit first and foremost we had Fifth District Judge Alonzo Jacobs he's one of two African-American judges here on Long Island and he spoke about his journey in inspired students um we also had Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison who presented to the students as well and also challenged them to address new police recruits if they were in charge what would you say and the students really gave great great responses um what I want to say in terms of the whole um day and how appreciative I was if they're giving up their time to come join us at our high school was that it was both it was like one part inspirational excuse me could you step outside thank you so no I really was really appreciative of both the judge and the

022commissioner in terms of their really taking time their busy schedules to come talk to our students it was one part inspirational and one part moving um just because you know one of the things we're striving to do is close that gap between communities of color and law enforcement and so to have two leaders from the law enforcement world come and talk to students uh it was really fantastic it was moving for all of us and here's a picture of Miss Robinson who'll help bring some of these gentlemen here Ms dela Rosa and but I think anybody who's in attendance was really impressed and moved by just by their words and they're sort of inspirational sort of uh talk and again try to really establish a positive relationship between young people and law enforcement and of

023course we had to take a selfie with the two gentlemen uh judge Alonzo and commissioner Harrelson and this is a I'm going to take this moment to make a real big shout out to a new dad Mr Rafael flipping congratulations who has a second child born last month so congratulations to you thank you thank you for being a leader in your own Community by joining the Board of Trustees and that's something we talked about to the kids as well so participating so the following uh that evening I got to go and to do some more observance at the middle school for their back History Month celebration and was able to um and I had a great time the entire Middle School Community has been participating in this month-long event and they hosted an evening event

024that was hosted by Dr Colson who had a great speech one of the highlights and one of the people invited to speak to the community was former New York Jet Bobby Jackson I'm a New York Jet fan so I was like that was an amazing experience besides the stories and his inspirational talk and I really liked the fact that he chose to speak about African American women in the history to acknowledge which I thought was really fantastic it was great to hear him talk and learn about his experience we also had the pleasure of having sergeant major Joseph McNeil visit the middle school he's a gentleman in the glasses also the grandfather of Mr McNeil who runs our Empire program it's an after-school program at our Middle School what I didn't know was I'm sure

025we've all seen this picture in our history books it's basically the Woolworths counter back in North Carolina in 1960 it was all white counter where these four young college freshmen kind of challenged the status quo and set at the counter um demanding to be served and this young man is Mr McNeil and he actually was in our school and we got an opportunity to meet him and talk to him which was really fantastic so again another demonstration of Middle School awesomeness everybody there had a fantastic time and it was like living history so really wanted to reflect on that and very thankful that I had the opportunity to meet these great people we met another great individual uh the culminating uh sort of activity for our Black History Month observance at the high school Bellport

026Alum Khalid Allah who was a very well reputed reputed uh photography and documentary filmmaker um he engaged in a very intimate conversation uh that was uh uh hosted by Mr O'Neill it was I don't know if anybody's familiar with inside the Acura Studio but it was just an intimate conversation about his journey because he took a very unorthodox Pathway to his success in photography but most of all he talked about the value of seeing people for who they are and seeing people for their Humanity he's taking photographs of homeless people drug addicts that we all can sort of see superficially never really think deeply about them so his words were also very inspirational And Timely so right away so he had immediate impact on our students and an impact on all those who attended so

027really want to thank everybody who helped put this together I know there's a big Committee of people that I'm not going to name all the individuals but certainly the high school administration or Black History Month committee and a special shout out to go to this man Mr budras who was actually being selected and actually being acknowledged in Albany for being identified for uh New York State outstanding social studies teacher of the year and it was also behind a lot of our Civic programs and our black history month program so big shout out to Mr Blue Dress we're gonna invite us to our next board meeting so we can give them a more formal uh Accolade so another great experience which I really enjoy and of course this leads us into women's history month and today

028this happens to be International women's day so I want to celebrate and you know how it's that to all the women in our lives that are made of positive impact on personal lives and certainly all the women throughout history that have made an impact on a global scale uh we'll be updating the board in the community with some of these activities as they come along but today is also a special day in Bellport history 60 years ago today gold Port High School when it used to be located on Station Road um caught fire and this is long before technology and our ability to communicate so on Friday another Friday March 8th 1963 the South Country Community came together a response so far that broke out at the high school located on Station Road it was

029amazing it was really like a truly amazing response I got to view a video that's available on YouTube depicting the event back from 1963. but here's a photo from that video that I was able to get from YouTube um but literally children had to be caught from Second Story Windows as they jumped out because the school was Ablaze teachers drove students to emergency rooms because at that time the village only had one ambulance not one ambulance company but one ambulance um and many were hurt but no lies were lost and here's some more aerial footage um interviews with firefighters and staff members and a picture of a helicopter that's uh when you look at the helicopter there you kind of get a sense of um 1963 so I wanted to sort of acknowledge that day

03060 years ago today developer Community came together to help students in need in the community I need that is a reflection of our true danger to provocative there's so much more happening in our school district please keep on uh in touch your community portal available at our website by pressing that you can give your contact information there's a superintendent's cup quarter um which is here it is which I update on a monthly basis it features my Twitter feed my contact info and as well as access to the weekly update number by our district and staff and that concludes my superintendent's report thank you for your time that brings us up to the trustee and advisory committee reports is there any trustees who would like to report on what they did for the week well as

031um Miss Santana mentioned I did have the opportunity which is rare these days for me to get into one of our schools and read read Across America today which really was a treat I think of all the times I've got to visit our schools this might have been my most favorite trip and I think the um it was hard because going in I when I got the book and I read a little bit of it in the morning before I got there but probably half of it before I got there making sure that I didn't mess up any words and things like that something little trap so I read half of it I'm like I got this when I got there and started reading the book and I got through it in the back half

032of the book was loaded with Spanish words that I had no idea how to say so uh so as I as I stumbled through a few what the greatest part was that there were a lot of um Spanish-speaking students there who jumped in and there was one young lady I wish I could remember her name she sat right up front and the staff had the I just got to a word that I could couldn't pronounce and I just got the point to the front and she took over and it was great it was a lot of fun but it really was this wonderful book and what is the name of it again I can I fix your plan can I fix your plate and it's funny my wife happens to be a second grade teacher

033I said you need to start reading this book in your class because it was it was a lot of fun and sometimes in life it takes a children's book to uh remind you how important certain things are in your life like food travel and grandparents and that's what I took out of it and we have this wonderful discussion about um the importance of food and family and holidays and traditions in all of our families and how the students engaged was something I don't know that I ever really experienced at that level in the middle school you know even to the point where you know I had to go in first period because my work schedule so you know I'm glad there was a slot and I asked the kids to just you know make sure

034this wasn't a typical first grade period in middle school where all kids heads are on their desks but uh that was never even a chance they all sat up and they were so attentive and and so much fun so as Mr Santana did allude to we did start talking about foods that are connected to our culture and how they stay a part of our traditions and you know I told the story how my mother as a Irish woman always said nobody Cooks lasagna like an Irish woman so that was my one of my stories amongst many other foods that my mother made for me and my grandmother made for me but so as we went around the room one student talked about how do I say it as a queen ghee yeah it's spelled c-u-y

035which is why I can never really remember how to pronounce it and I texted my children in our family group that when they asked me what's for dinner I said it's going to be ghee cuy when they didn't know what it was they told them they all had to look it up well my daughter won't speak to me because ghee is a guinea pig and uh so that's it I guess that is a very it's a delicacy in Ecuador and that was something so I got to learn learn that but my daughter who's been asking for a guinea pig was not happy about it so uh so thank you um to all the staff that really put that together was really really a neat experience for me and one I haven't had in a long

036time so thank you um uh to uh Dr blazik and the staff yeah I'm sitting here like don't forget the names don't forget the names and you know so Dr blazik and I think it was Miss playing him Miss Vega were there uh during my session I don't know if they were there throughout the day but it was really great experience so thank you to all of them and I'm happy that we get that opportunity so thank you that's all I got Vice President Hayes since the last meeting I don't have any business items to report there were no advisory committee meetings or anything like that I went to I had the same ex reaction to the experience about the reading program that Mr Puccini reported you had that uplifting experience first period I had

037it last period on Friday so even at the last period of the week they were all energized and engaged in the experience and I I think I took away as much from it as any of them did um I also um went to the Black History Month event at the middle schools at the superintendent reported on and it was a highlight for me it was a pleasure to meet a former NFL football player it was that had a lot of good things to say but in meeting sergeant major Joseph McNeil I came out of there feeling like I'd had the opportunity to be in the Aura of greatness it's just somebody I've grown up seeing that that newspaper article in the photo and um my eyes are getting full just kind of thinking about it

038so I really appreciate the opportunity to be there and I'm hoping that the students who attended got similar feelings out of them um the basketball events I I met um Samir his last name um I met him at the high school event that had uh kalika law and I told him that I'd attended the last two games that they played and I can't remember when my heart rate's been higher so it was really really quite an event and then we had the concert last night at the high school and Miss De la Rosa that was so terrific it was um you know technically um the play that they did was just wonderful in terms of quality and there's going to be another concert tomorrow night and I I understand it will not be exactly the

039same as the one last night but um I'm looking forward to that as well the nice thing about the concerts at the high school and also the drama Productions it's open to the public and you know it's a it's a good opportunity to go out and and see what we have to offer here so thank you so much thank you Mercedes and I won't repeat what Miss Hazen and Mrs Santana have already discussed but I will say that I regret not getting to the to the concert last night because I was at another event called power in heels and it's sponsored by the Patchogue Chamber of Commerce and they honor Four Women each year for the contributions they've made back to the community and four out of the five women were from our district so

040I felt very I felt very excited to be there with them for it and there was just so much going on that I I couldn't leave and tear myself away because I just felt I was doing a disservice to the service that they were being honored for and I was fortunate enough that a scholarship was awarded to one of our students at the same event I'm not going to mention her name because I don't know if we have permission to mention her name but I will I will at a later date once we confirm that but it was very nice to know that this individual came to the aid of a local community group that had been burglarized and put together and go a GoFundMe page for a loss that resulted in about two thousand

041dollars and from her effort she raised ten thousand dollars for this non-profit group and she just received all sorts of accolades that and I saw I was happy to witness Ed that so that concludes our reports and we will go into uh public commentary we do have three cards typically public commentary items are restricted to just agenda items in the beginning and then any item in the end but because of the size of the crowd we are going to take those cards now and as a courtesy to you to let this free finance there are also some uh announcements that have to be spoken to before public commentary that I will read to you now address the board wicard to the district clerk which we have here public commentary occurs two times but first in

042the beginning for agenda items only and the second at the end for non-agenda or agenda items comments from each speaker are limited to three minutes A total time for public session is limited to 30 minutes comments related to a Personnel matter or an individual student will not be entertained in public public commentary is a time for the board to hear comments from the public not a question answer period for the board and the public if asked informal questions requiring short answers will be addressed however the board will not enter into a dialogue with a speaker during commentary instead we will refer those those comments to the appropriate channels in our district district residents who seek additional information will be guided to the administrator who will just address their questions for concerns or concerns sorry so

043having said that we have three cards and if you would step to the podium that is to uh to my left and your right and we will start first with Mr Gregory umiz yes your first sergeant thank you Gregory chavius 50 New Jersey Avenue Bellport here for 30 years I'm interested the reimbursement for retirees and this is something that I just got information from so bear with me read this and I have a few questions after him thank you and very early South Country Medicare primary retirees received their last Medicare reimbursement for 2021. included with that reimbursement assistant superintendent for business Christine Lacosta requested that the recipients submit photocopies of their 1099 forms to be received from Social Security sorry from Social Security in a few weeks this would allow the district to compare the

044reimbursements actually paid with the amounts that should be reimbursed based on the 1099s I would like to know so today how many individuals 1099s were submitted for 2021. married couples were both individuals where Medicare primarily received separate 1099s and are considered individuals for reimbursement of the total 1099 submitted one how many individuals were reimbursed two how many individuals were reimbursed less than they should have based on the 1099s three how many individuals were reimbursed more than they should have been based on submitted 1099s the South Country district has had more than a year to make these comparisons as a result the answers to the questions should be readily available note I am not requesting names of the individuals that submitted 10.99s or their other Comfort confidential information could you just finish up that's it okay

045perfect timing thank you for your questions of course we don't have that those answers readily available but we will have do you did you leave here yes you did you left all your contact information my contact information is there I will be looking forward to call responds from you okay thank you so much thank you for being here next we have uh Tony Huffine um hi my name is Antoinette have fun with Tony as they call me um Mr Santana I'm very happy to see you here we were I was very excited to have a new superintendent however as a retiree in the district I worked here 22 years versus the teacher that is a reading teacher then as a an assistant principal love the district everybody that has so many faces here we've worked

046in the district um and it's a very tight District most of us are friends and socialized so it's Unique but we were committed to the children my kids see every face here that was committed to the children and it were part of it we're part of the district but I'm most appointed disappointed in Mr Santana is that one of a retiree submitted to you a legal a a letter asking for a response I think it was um return receipt requested it was never never answered and this is something that's close to each of our hearts now that's very disappointing but we didn't she she didn't expect you know an explanation maybe legally you couldn't but at least you could say thank you for your response I was advised not to answer this letter not thing

047is very insulting okay and I'm disappointed but I have an appointment with you on Thursday to discuss all the little you know the area and um that's it that's what I have to say thank you thank you any comment real quick whoever the individual is I want to offer an apology I don't recall receiving a letter I typically respond and if I'm advised you've never received anything I'm not saying I never received it I recall but typically I'd make it a point to contact people um on a regular basis so I apologize publicly if I didn't respond I'm gonna look into it and as a matter of fact I think she called and asked about it and still didn't get a response it was you know just very dismissed and it's a big issue and

048you'll see it's a big issue in the district when we meet tomorrow if you could just bring her information yeah yeah okay I think it's next Thursday tomorrow next week Thursday I'll look into it okay okay okay now Barbara schatzman hi hi I appreciate the opportunity to speak to it in the district for 25 years I was on the board for nine years um I have a question that I probably will get the answer to now but I just want to bring up the subject I was at the dedication for the field for Mr conquest at that time it was brought up by his family members Troy and other family members and town supervisor Ed Romaine about renaming the Middle School in honor of John Conquest 2012 when I was on the board I spearheaded

049an effort to get that done I still have over 100 letters from community members alumni students asking for that it never happened in the spirit of Santana talking about the history of the fire Mr Conquest is a huge part of the history of this District in the spirit of Black History Month he was the first black administrator in our district his impact on people who are now adults who have gone through this District on teachers whoever toy on teachers who are still working who knew him the man was phenomenal uh not only did he address issues in the schools when they had trouble at the middle school and he was receiving treatment for cancer he came in to help out you all I think you all know that he volunteered as a coach for football

050for years volunteered never did anything his door was always open always if you got sent to Mr Conquest office if you knew that you would be treated fairly no matter what your address was what the color of his skin was what you look like who your parents were and but his door was always open for people who didn't have a problem as far as Behavior academics people who needed somebody to talk to and he was always always there so I don't know uh if it was been discussed since the dedication about the possibility of renaming the Middle School I know I'm not going to get an answer tonight but I'd like you to seriously consider it because the man deserves that I I was trying to think of some kind of analogy to end this

051with and the only one I could think of I know his name is up in the back and it's facing the field and the field is named after him I don't think he should be a footnote I think he should be the whole story so I'd like you to consider that thank you thank you for your comments that concludes our public commentary for the first uh portion of the of the meeting and that brings us up to items for discussion and Mr Lieutenant let's begin with item number one all right I'm gonna go back to the podium to introduce our next presenters and I'm really excited about this before I introduce principal Del Rosa we'll go on with the introductions a few board meetings back we talked about Civics day at Bellport high school and

052I saw a lot of really impressive presentations to expand topics from creating a senior Lounge to an open campus to fixing a crosswalk that was being dangerous by community members it were actual action is happening um one of the presentations that struck me was a presentation on our graduation gowns and the fact that currently we use three different colors as part of graduation and the students desire to sort of move toward a more uniform graduation look during the graduation guys um I was really impressed by the presentation and just by the passion shown by the students um and I said why not give them my opportunity to talk about it in public before the Board of Education even though it's not necessarily a board policy I think it's important that people uh listen and to

053empower students to advocate for themselves and speak their minds in an open Forum uh that's safe um I will say this and I kind of warned students that sometimes progress is slow I participated in a similar change in my former District that took about three years to implement I'm not saying that we're not or we are we're not making any definitive comments and sometimes the progress is slow and if ever there is a change in our graduation ceremony and if it doesn't happen this year certainly they'll be it'll be their legacy so at this point I want to introduce principal De la Rosa we'll introduce our student presenters I'll bring up their presentation on them my apologies but um but I'll have principal Del Rosa introduced yeah you just have to hit the right arrow

054good evening president police Vice President Hayes Board of Education trustees superintendent Santana and the South Country community I'm pleased to be here tonight with some of our Bellport high school students they will be sharing with you their Civics Day presentation this presentation is the result of Our Generation citizen program where our seniors work with their classmates and their teacher to identify a Civics project that is important to them this generation citizen project opens the door for our seniors to earn the Seal of Civic Readiness on their high school diploma I am pleased to announce that under the guidance of our director of humanities Mrs Jacqueline o'hagan South country is at the Forefront of this new New York State initiative it's my honor to now turn it over to Robert and Alia so good evening when

055is Michigan South Country School District Community I'd like to make a quick thank you to our program but still teacher Mr Blue Book here in this project I'd like to thank Mr Rosa and this generator Stephen for help pull out on this journey to creating this presentation so our presentation is not is changing our gradually graduation gown color to one color this is our proposal to change the graduation gown color to One Singular color this is for multiple reasons such as ideas of unity Conformity and gender gender identification one color gown creates the unity within the class people identify as non-binary and or transgender won't have to deal with being in that color they don't identify with they struggle with having to pick with one color that would not be a problem having one color

056gown shows our class is United as one we stand together as one class that overcomes many challenges together we can send racial and ethnic device you should try to transcend division by gender as well and only does this provide a sense of unity for your imagination class but also to support students who don't identify with their gender so uh 23 years ago our gowns were changed from two colors red and blue to three gallons red white with white honoring the National Honor Society now no matter what changes are made National Honor Society will still be honored with the blue soul and a gold for most of the school's history there has never been a separate color rule for students in honor scientists to wear eliminating eliminating General specific colors puts us on par with many

057other school districts the lgbtq community has been gradually more accepted over years and as time change so should be graduation is also not just it's also a day of Celebration not a day of drag no one should have to shovel with who they identify as so now we are going to show you some pictures of other schools who practice single color graduation gowns and they also use souls and tassels to highlight the achievements whether it be academic athletic other extracurricular activities of their students without using multiple gown colors and in 2019. these students are crafty he spearheaded news presentation and he changed glencoe's High School gown to one color right explain this is Miss Jones over there she explained her own heartbreaking experience when children were struggling with gender identity issues including issues with their

058own parents she explained how certainly be easier logistically with organizing both ordering and setting up graduation gowns she also informed us that New York State education guidelines they recommend schools to own use one color to help avoid so this is uh the director of guidance Michael Tui at Glencoe High School um we did talk to him and he made up of two points such as Unity amongst all students and it eliminates issues with gender identity we also pointed out that 65 of the student body is on free or reduced lunch which is a sign of poverty switching to one color makes it easier to find gowns for kids in need many graduates are dating donating their gowns to be used for kids in need in the future and it was also easier until a place

059and get out of the student loses is very receptive and supported to our presentation he agrees that this is this is the direction the school should be moving in he also helped to implement this at Glen Globe High School where he was previously the principal he explained how this would be a decision that would lead school board approval Mr Santana agreed to take it to the school board but first request that we complete a student survey to gather more data first you should acknowledge that we should a knowledge and want and need to look coordinate it as we close this chapter of high school and enter new one we should mimic the practice of colleges and universities which which have a single color graduation account so uh we did have questions such as what happens

060to our society so this is an example of a school that our society would wear um the color can be picked and this would just to show uh the work that they put in and a stall is better than the ultimate power down this is why it stands out more than the original car gown it looks more sophisticated at Miles university practice so when students go to college they remember their days from high school in a National Honor Society have never installed now this is just some quotes from our peers I didn't know that the gowns are different colors since I'm new to this school I honestly would just not shovel my own graduation if I had to wear a gown based on my gender the fear of being perceived as something I'm not as

061terrifying being able to wear a gown that is the same color as everyone else is would mean the world to me so these are student quotes and actual students when they took the survey they had a chance to put in their own competent and disturbate and these actual things that they typed in this is genius as someone who has lots of friends on a non-binary spectrum is very helpful to them and it feels less alienating because some people aren't able to achieve as high just because someone is in the National Armstrong does not mean that they are not smart as someone who doesn't identify as male or female I appreciate the push for diversity smiley face I feel like there should be one color not only for gender equality but only also because it feels

062very separating to be put in a box for example honors children and our students are not other students it feels almost degrading to be seen as non-honors or not smart something I feel that we we should be seen as just one so this is a screenshot from the survey do you believe we should change the one gallon color to unify the entire class while adding graduation chords to signify your special accomplishments so 59.3 students said yes 30.1 percent said no and 10 plus 10.6 said they're unsure which you can tip the scales in our favor that's a great response by the way when the school is about 1200 kids so considering you know that many students respondents um this is the next question so if change what color would you want all graduation gown colors

063to be this is very impressive the results next we have extracurricular honors students will receive a distinct cord for each owner's side and one for all Varsity athletes and one for being a member of any club activity or consumero this honors various types of achievement between achieving all the students would wear them well this is a suggestion all students would wear a white gown with a white cap on a test in our society would wear an additional gold axle and a blue stone to honor a National Honor Society achievement among other students who are engaged in other things will wear additional souls and tassels conclusions this presentation we would like to say that on our graduation day we are not just Achievers and individuals but we are friends and the family we spent 12 years

064together suffering through a pandemic emotional stress and other things class and we should graduate as a whole thank you for listening to our presentation [Applause] board members have any questions thank you play off for comments okay did anybody like to start with questions trustee Barry just from the um the obvious uh question of the Red White and Blue parity in response uh to that um what do you think is the ideal I mean in terms of the um decision making of what it could be what do you think would be the impactful tiebreaker if you will um well then the survey was open across multiple grades um so maybe we could have another survey made geared towards future students so that they can choose which graduation gown cover they would like to have at that

065graduation um but the our that server was very mixed so 35 said either red or blue in red or white and then blue kind of fell behind so it kind of uh just narrowing down options I think would be a better choice I think my ideal graduation gown red like the mood to mix both of Bellfort Scholars I just want to say this for the record you know it was hard for me not to be supportive of this when they did their research and I could actually contacted my former school who got inside information you know as a current superintendent you know I'd like to be open-minded and really like students and community members lead to charge I'm always willing to offer my insights and my beliefs the rationale for my former District was just

066uniformity um that was kind of an end goal and um there was some pushback from community members because tradition is tradition and you can't take tradition for granted if you can especially when there's you know billboard in many communities have a long history and certainly my former District Glencoe had a long history with the two girls and um so it took a lot of conversations um until we finally did it and um you know I think overall the community was very happy and those students were at special designations in terms of Honor Society as the students mentioned still had their designations and they were still evident to their parents because I know parents like to see their uh you know their child's achievements recognized um but I will say that aesthetically it looked better and

067I'll say that much when you look into a field or a crowd of gowns that are one color like they do at the Collegiate level it really looks more uniform and for me graduation is a celebration that students met the requirements to graduate it's not about differentiating achievement or not there is only one class of 2023 which you're a part of and that's the way I sort of characterize it not that I want to lead anyone in any direction but I had to be honest and transparent because they did their research and actually spoke People to People in my former school district and that's really impressive so I'm really impressed by both you know you're your third partner almost out here so I want to give her a shout out but fantastic thank you for

068coming and uh the comments we have more questions yeah just one more item you pulled um red white and blue as a college did you consider black because I know that you're trying to make it more like a college graduation I think most colleges we do consider black it's just that our school colors are mixed red white blueberries thank you so much I really appreciated your presentation especially the way you concluded it about how you are a class and you should graduate as a whole and your focus on Unity um and I'm and also and I also appreciate that by going to one color of rope there's a symbolism there too of Oneness so you've got some something in common with everybody that's graduating you're all graduating you've earned a diploma from Bellport high school

069so um thank you very much for your presentation and I'd like to make one final comment um myself and Vice President Hayes were fortunate enough to be at your first presentation and we're impressed with it yeah very we were very impressed with it then so I was pleased to hear that the superintendent wanted to bring you to the board of education so having said that should the should the superintendent ask the board for approval of going to one gown one color gown and the fact that you are so evenly divided between the choice of colors have you thought further in your in your research as to how you're going to um canvas your your classmates and decide what color is best to be chosen we have we've thought about how to choose a single color

070because it is very divided I don't think we came up with solution yet and that's fine too because you got this far and probably didn't expect that you were going to be here so congratulations on putting your you know your vegetables and meriting being invited to here we really do appreciate you being here I'm sorry I have comments too oh sorry sorry I'm sorry thank you I'm sorry that looked like it was wrapping up and I'm probably going to keep you updated a little more longer than you'd like to be and um I'm gonna challenge you both a little bit with some questions and I want you to know why I'm gonna challenge you and it's because number one I love debate and I really want to see how you research this but I really

071want you to convince me that this is the right move to make because my phone already started ringing this morning about this topic and it does it is a hot button topic usually amongst parents right and I think some students but I don't you know I hear from more parents than I hear from students so um so I have a couple of questions and I think the first thing that I think we all should recognize too when the reason for the white gown pounds originally being initiated was it was after 9 11 so that we could have a patriotic representation of red white and blue but I agree that very few districts signify Honor Society with a white robe but we do and we have for 23 years now and it has become a tradition

072so before we change the tradition I always like to really dive into it and why that is because I do I do agree with um calling out Honor Society and I get you can do it with a sash but we do it with a white robe and again that's been uh that's been a tradition here and I've heard from students hey I really want to graduate in white like that's a goal for them and I don't really like and I don't know how much it really diminishes that I own um I'd have to ask more students that but I guess my question really would be um well the first let me say this too and when we talk about exclusion over um things like you know Honor Society or not like my own my my

073oldest son graduated and red blue boys wear blue girls were red right blue um I always forget it anyway um but if you ever go to graduation or when you graduate this year you may notice and I don't know what it'll be like this year but most years when you stand up there I'm the only board member without a sash because I didn't graduate from college so I have that and I I manage that right I'm comfortable with it it's an important part of who I am because of the success I've been able to achieve in my life at different times despite not having those advantages so that's why I kind of challenge these things a little bit um so I guess my question is I think you answered this one after the whole all

074four grades right in the high school so was there discussion about keeping the colors red and blue for that matter but not assigning them based on gender is so because what I'm hearing from this and when this topic comes up it's always the key focus is usually gender identity and I understand it right it's not something I can say I completely understand but you know I get it it's an issue and if we can change it make people feel more comfortable we should but what if we just didn't assign the colors based on gender I mean did you think about that it is so and let me ask one more question to add an enthusium like was was Unity really that important that everybody was the same color and that's just a question I don't

075know the answer as for the first question no we did not consider that I'm going to be honest um I never thought about that but I was for Unity I do believe it was kind of important because there's so many reasonings that we use for it some of the arguments that we kind of picked apart and used for Unity I do believe it's important and um it was really one of the main arguments for our presentation do you think I'm sorry just interrupted they despawned it and I know you don't know an answer but what does your impression say because you're in the building you talk to people and this is obviously important to you well I believe that the unity and the gender kind of correlate in a sense because the whole point of

076this presentation is to not make someone or anyone feel separated but together as a whole so I think that's where the unity really comes in and it was a main focal point in the presentation and by the way that's a great answer thank you I do think Unity was on their minds I just don't think it was it came in the way that we kind of introduced it in terms of the introduce that oh and graduating as one class rolling this together kind of unity I think other students kind of saw Unity as as in again I so I guess for no because um again I I can go back and forth on on on honoring people on directly stepping people out and you know things like you know recognizing people differently but based on

077that argument we shouldn't have a valedictorian salutatorian or sasd there right so I mean like I can kind of slice it up a couple of different ways and I don't say that to make you change your mind I just want to know that did you really think about it and I guess one of the things because this is an abort issue right this isn't this is important to have authority so whoever makes the decision I'll still be at graduation and support every one of these and again I I can't I I don't know that I could have done what you two have done tonight when I was your age and I don't know that I've you know over the last couple years we definitely have students come here more and more but I love this

078because this is something that's that's important to you it's a milestone in your life I would wonder I would throw it back to you and say before I was comfortable with it knowing that I have no say in it right um I would like to know that this is talked about a little bit more now that it's such a public thing now because you made a presentation that's going to air all over YouTube because you know if you had 600 responses superintendent's right that's excellent out of 1200 people nobody really gets you know uh 500 I'd be curious if you get more of the other 600 that didn't reply want to take note if you have more people want to talk about it I don't know what the timeline is I know because one of

079the questions I'm getting from parents is when are they going to take the cap and gown orders so I'm sure this is holding it up uh possibly not necessarily so and one of the things and I'm glad you brought up like a counter argument because this is what Civics is is the ability for us to have debates and have opposing points of views in a safe space and I think it's really productive for people to hear opposing arguments um to listen to other considerations because we're all gross and we all gain an appreciation for how people think so um and go ahead you know I continue to be impressed by you know just the presentation um yeah and it certainly has gotten easier for me to present in public because I have to it's part

080of my job um but yeah again as a high school student um you know what you did was courageous and you spoke about certain topics that there are certain communities that aren't talking about they're afraid to even bring up in public so credit to you credit to your teachers in our school and our board to create a safe space where people can just Express themselves and feel safe that's what we mean by belonging and empowering people and Civic institutions so thank you for being the poster young adults not kids I always like to come real quick that we did watch the results of the survey as responses filled and we didn't look at it when everybody's finished um even as we filled in the responses for the first question of would you like to change

081the calories it didn't really change um that wasn't even the height of how many students said yes at one point above 60 percent so I just like to add that part it just never went down it never went yeah I got you great great include our question all right thank you thank you [Applause] I have a question who would make that decision to change the Gap so ultimately the way it happened again Glen Cove I spoke to our PTA about it we had open discussions with parents you know first there was some opposition to it so you know my strategy was kind of to ease the community into it until everybody kind of started seeing the benefit of it I do think the Tipping Point in my former district and I can't believe I'm saying

082this publicly is aesthetically looked better now I'm being honest it's when you look and our callers in Glencoe were green and red so um I heard some comment from me but yeah it was green and red so I think that kind of drove it a little bit but again the idea was um you know we always emphasize in actual one identity that we're all you know big red was the name of our teams and our identity in Glen Cove and we're all Clippers here so the idea is that there was only one Club no matter what your background is how you identify we're welcome but yeah ultimately the conversation with PTA and students students were pushing for it before the parents were and then eventually parents came on board and in the end it became

083inconsistential I I uh when I've seen this survey that I was actually surprised and you read the the comments that were submitted by the students and it's obvious that this change will make a lot of them feel more comfortable correct so I don't care what the color is as long as they're comfortable they're on a stage because I didn't go to my graduation because I was uncomfortable so if we can make this change to make them comfortable then we need to make the change I would definitely support it if it was up to me I appreciate that trustee Barry and then Vice President Hayes having had a son who I graduated and two who have not yet graduated I don't remember who Bears the burden of the cost of graduation gowns students students themselves that's

084another Factor just right with our district to make sure that people feel comfortable with that having worked in high school and in college for a the biggest cap and gown the cost difference is tremendous between a high school and a and so that's something that also whoever's making that decision needs to consider and the burden that may put on some families in the district [Music] I just wanted to make another comment about symbolism and you know they're talking about Oneness the class and all together um but that also fits in with this belonging in our next presentation and that seems to be a big theme here I'm so glad that we have that and it would enable the students to all feel part of of one one group [Music] can you discuss it all right

085that brings us to our next presentation item F2 yes I'll do a quick introduction and then I'm going to hand over the uh I don't know if you can hand over a Podium but I will uh the camera so as the Board of Trustees is aware South country has been engaged in equity work long before I arrived in fact I always say that where I can almost say Miles Ahead from other school districts and certainly other states in terms of this work some of this work is threatening to some people even though ultimately the bottom line of the work is to create an atmosphere of belonging for everybody because uh the success of our entire Community is our Collective success um and that's what we're striving for we want to make sure that we address

086the needs of our entire community so to speak on Equity we have a team of Educators Doyle introduce each of them but super proud that we're going to be featured at a big National Conference an ascd conference pretty much like the biggest conference in education it's held on a national level uh and the fact that we're featured presenters of the school district really is a testament to our work and to the work of the individuals that you're going to hear from so I'm going to first introduce Doyle and to introduce the recipe for team we're bringing up her presentation take it from there this is the same time do you think just push the podium towards the horseshoe good camera yes that's much better thank you all right thank you Mr Santana good evening members

087of the Board of Education the South Country Community thank you for having us here tonight thank you for that introduction I think the presentation that Robert and Aaliyah just did speak up a little bit I'm sure they can't hear in the back okay the presentation that Robert and Aaliyah just did the lines perfectly with the work that we're going to talk about tonight um so I am bath Doyle the assistant superintendent for curriculum here with me tonight is Monica she's the director of enl and bilingual programs and Kai Watkins he is our restorative practices facilitator and a math teacher at Bellport High School am I speaking loud enough now thank you yes all right so um before I jump in uh Mr Santana explained that we will be presenting at the ascd conference just a

088quick background on how this happened we are part of the diversity equity and inclusion professional Learning Community with Eastern Southern BOCES and we attend meetings monthly Monica is the we in we and we are there with other districts that are part of Eastern Suffolk BOCES we meet monthly with April Francis Taylor She's the Dei coordinator or director at the Eastern Civic BOCES and there's a presentation every month and then we're put into great breakout rooms to talk with other districts about our work and every time we're in a breakout room people are want to know more about what we're doing they're hearing about our work they like the approach and they're sharing challenges and I I often find myself you know trying to solve problems with them um people reach out through a phone call

089and email and I realize that we're on to something here and I think that we should share this with other schools and districts and at a conference so I applied over the summer was accepted and you're going to see an abbreviated version I know you probably almost passed out when you sold a number of slides so we will try to go through this as quickly as possible not that it's not important don't let me think that but three presentations in one night is lofty for any boy myself so uh timer is starting now all right so this is the team you know who we are Jackie o'hagen is also part of this director of humanities she's in Albany with Andrew Rogers um today getting his award but she will be at the ascd with us

090presenting so people this is National so we're going to show them where we are you guys know where we are um I I'm going to talk a little bit oh this thing is very sensitive um about our district especially the diversity in our district because this work is tricky and people are often like oh you must have all black and brown students or you must be all white and it's like no we are diverse ethnically racially and politically and that's what I think is very cool about that we're able to do this work so this is our pathway as you can see it's not a straight line um and it doesn't end because we are nowhere near ending this work but I wanted to represent it we wanted to represent it this way um because

091it it has been like this and it really should have lines crossing over it too because it's it's messy and tricky and there are a lot of tentacles to it um but we felt that this is a good visual each one of those teardrops we're going to go into more detail and you'll see them throughout the slides so when you think about Equity work traditionally it's there's some Catalyst for some reason where districts really get into this for us it was no different it was the murder of George Floyd which had really lasting impacts on our staff members our students our community we had discussions all over we had an incident with a local fire department displaying the Confederate flag that also spurred conversations and then we had the pandemic at the pandemic you know

092put a light on a lot of inequities that we had on no fault of anybody else's the whole country was going through the same thing but we did see that different households had different capabilities we had different access planes that were different so we really these were our catalysts for us to get into this Equity work so the first thing that we did is we made a commitment to equity and the district started an equity and education committee and that was in December of 2020 it was our first meeting and it's a group of stakeholders all stakeholders and the first thing we did was we developed a mission and then we realized that we needed a board policy to support this work and to provide a vision for what we were going to be doing

093and at the same time we created an action plan and a plan for professional learning around Dei we also had two other committees running at the same time that connected to this work that were in our district Improvement plan so we had SEL communities committee social emotional learning we looked at data in our school and then from that committee we identified programs that are now being taught in our school and the attendance committee we reflected on our attendance policy and our interventions we looked at what was working wasn't working and we looked to ensure that there were no punitive practices in our attendance policy and included proactive measures and interventions to support our students all with this lens of equity then we went into enhancing under our under our own understanding of equity and bias

094you started something called student voice meetings um because we realized that we need to hear from the students we need to know how they're experiencing school so that's a picture of one of our meetings you can see it's virtual Monica and Kai and myself are there and it was great and we realized that we were on to something here then we did our own professional learning in Dei we engaged with John kranapple and Floyd Cobb they're the authors of the book belonging through a culture of dignity which I'll talk about a little bit more later I also did a certificate program an ndei through Adelphi University because I felt if I was leading this charge I needed to brush up on my skills as well definitely and at the New York State cultural responsive and

095sustaining framework came out in 2018 and that's a document that really helped guide this work for us and built our knowledge base uh it's a document that's used as a guide for teachers to help create a learning environment that is student-centered and that affirms racial cultural and linguistic identity of students as well as prepares them for rigorous and independent instruction and part of this work is also aimed at creating students that can be empowered to become change agents themselves I just wanted to mention that the framework is broken up into four major domains and those are creating a welcoming and affirming environment for students ensuring that we have inclusive curriculum and assessments as well as ensuring that we have high expectations and rigorous instruction for students and of course to maintain all of this ongoing

096personal learning and support so we use this framework as a foundation for our Equity work and you will see this embedded within our presentation today okay and we know we had to expand our restorative practices we just started so and when we started this Equity work we would just run restorative practices in the high school and it was really me and Mr Hogan was really taking on this but we know we need to expand it we need to create District alignment we need to have all of the buildings doing it so we got all the district administrators trained and we had constant professional learning opportunities where we can really spread this thing that we had going so um one of the things Beth mentioned is that we uh um assembled an equity committee and that

097Equity committee included representatives from all stakeholder groups and one of the things that we noticed early on was that some members were concerned that our approach was not direct enough or that it was um you know soft and that maybe we wouldn't get results as quickly as we we might like and then there were parents who were concerned about what this meant for their child what this work meant for their child so we also had to look at already established policies attendance policies already on books discipline policies Transportation so we really had to take a look at them and make sure the language and then some of the things that were there that we weren't eliminating some access to some people so really had to take a dive into our district mission and vision statements

098and all of our existing policies to make sure we could expand it and make sure it's at group of everybody graduation calendars and then of course we were dealing with the outside influences so during this time critical race theory was a Hot Topic we are not teaching critical race theory in our district to save our schools movement was brought up uh there were a lot of questions about what was being taught what our students were meeting and this fear of indoctrination so we had to think about all these barriers and come up with an approach that made sense for all of our students that all of our stakeholders could support so that's when we came across this work that I mentioned earlier Crown Uncle I always want to say Cobb I'm going to do that

099and they were researchers in the field they were also Educators that trained teachers on diversity equity and inclusion all over the country and they had what they learned is that there was often in organizations that attempted Equity work there was this dysfunctional cycle where there was a catalyst like Kai mentioned or the catalysts in South Country and then there was a commitment so the board put out a statement we believe in equity for all and then there's problems with implementation because there are so many tentacles to this work people don't know where to go next and then it just becomes the status quo and we agreed as a committee that we did not want this to happen to us as a district so that's why this work really spoke to us so we really wanted

100to to have a functional cycle of equity work um on the left is what I just described the uh-oh was reinforcing Luke of failure and that's not where we wanted to be so the right side really um highlights um the approach that Cobb and Crown Apple discuss and one that we really believed in and it's one that focuses on Dignity for all right that's what makes it for all you know an equity plan that works for everybody it it creates a much more unifying center right because dignity is something that is innately ours regardless of you know whether we've earned it or not it's ours all human beings regardless of what they do and we really like that idea we like the idea of going into this with uh this holistic approach that would um

101they would bring unity and it's something we could all you know believe in together so I the the book in the book their work they quote uh Dr Donna Hicks she's a Harvard researcher on Dignity and I don't like reading ever but I do wanted to get the quote right because I think this quote really helped us to to really commit to this this way this approach and she defines dignity as an internal level of peace that comes with the recognition and acceptance of the value and vulnerability of all living things so I don't know how anyone can argue with that you know and and that's that's that's why this approach we feel is one that is inclusive and you know connects to the unity that our students were just talking about right the importance

102of bringing together rather than dividing and separating even when it comes to the work itself you know so so here's the framework that Monica referenced earlier the first part is called welcoming and Firming environment and that's really what we like to characterize as creating a culture of care in our district and the way that we're approaching this work is through these belonging surveys so our students in grades 4 through 12 were sent a belonging survey in the Google form they filled it out in their classrooms there's 18 questions those are the questions there and we took that survey and we put it into pivot tables on a spreadsheet and we're able to disaggregate the information into four uh indicators or belonging so it's accepted treated fairly appreciated and validated so those 18 questions are tied

103to those four indicators of belonging and then we take that information and we drill down because we ask them some identifying information like race ethnicity gender for students you know what grade you're in what school you go to for staff what is your role what school do you work at because we do this for students and staff and then we're able to see which groups feel most marginalized and then we meet with those groups that feel most marginalized to learn more about why they filled out the answers to the survey the way they did and we conducted something called an empathy interview and those interviews are similar to the student voice meetings that we were doing when we first started this and we didn't even know we were really doing an empathy interview and now

104we learned that along the way and those interviews are an opportunity for us to learn about the experiences that our students and staff are having in school and we ask questions that are framed in a positive way because we want them to share those times where they did feel like they belong so that we can get to what that exactly is and then replicate those experiences for them an example that you've heard me talk about before when we first started this is clubs kids nine there were so many kids that said we want clubs where we feel like we belong we have similar interests or kids that look like me um so we Institute you know four new clubs based on student feedback so those that's we want we want things that we can put

105into action and that's when you start chipping away at the ending titties and really creating an environment where everyone has a sense of belonging did you mention what groups felt most marginalized I didn't get into our data because this was it was nationally but I'm happy to share that with you sure um you know I guess offhand it was it it's it's always our Asian Asian students it's a handful which explains a lot and then then it usually is African-American black and then our Latin students um I'm doing that off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure that's actually I think just on that point do you think that the the the large variance between the percentage of population way into how those percentages come out yeah and you know it varies between

106the four indicators of belonging also like there's so many different ways to look at this data but of course the sample size is going to play into it just when you look at the demographics and and with Hispanic students being the number one demographic in our in our buildings it you would think that even depending on where the percentages that's still a larger number in a significant amount of to overall students that may feel marginalized would you view this I'm not not seeing the data it's hard for me to determine that so it's kind of a question right yeah so the survey it just gives us a snapshot of like who should we meet with and then we have these interviews to dig in a little bit more but ultimately like you want to hear

107from all of our kids but this is a place to start and I think it's important to note that we try to speak to Old groups right even the groups that feel like they belong we want to know why they feel like they belong so we can keep doing it so we just start with the ones that have but we get to everybody and this is one of my favorite parts of this actual work like you see I just had that just we just conducted some of these empathy interviews so when Anthony crooms one of our high school seniors he said that you know Clique a lot was really meaningful for him just because it was still Mike from Bellport and he was telling the story that he can relate to so he wants more

108of that and I think his quote was you know after listening to him he wanted to invest in himself just like kalikal I did right which was beautiful to hear as an educator and we want all our kids could bring that whatever race they come from right so Stephanie Reyes is another senior and one of the latinx group that and she talked about just teachers that made her feel comfortable and teachers that were kind and nice to her in this Middle School student Luca he was talking about how you know I like movie he was talking about how that um you know kids shouldn't be labeled based on their previous mistakes so if they did something in sixth grade in seventh grade they shouldn't be looked at the trouble kid they should hopefully everybody gets

109him a clean slate and you know and it's not always realistic but coming from his eyes that's what he wants so we're going to try to make sure that we can spread that message but to that point and I'm sorry if you've had some questions because I've been writing down questions thank you all right so the next question started practices I know we've been so I know at the board you're going to see my name a lot if you're doing the all these trainings and restorative practices what this really is is a way to build community now South Country does a little different for anybody else if you Google restorative justice restored practices it's usually things on discipline right for us though we use it like a double-edged sword we use it for some disciplinary

110issues but you also build it to build community right build kids together and get kids a voice so I think we put our next one so has it started here right so a couple years back we was uh cited for disproportionately suspended groups of students so we the district got together and we got a district discipline committee and during that discipline committee we looked at a pretty good Progressive quote of conduct and we said is that the issue is that why we're only suspending certain groups at a higher rate and the district committee came back and said it's not there's nothing wrong with that aggressive discipline uh it's really we have no alternative to suspension so Sean Clark who sat on that committee he brought of Justice to the district and he said we should

111take a look at this there's some other dish research around the country that have some success with it so me and Mr Hogan that's why these two people up here are kind of they're Originators here at South Country we looked at and we spent all summer figuring out how we could bring it to the high school we did right so our idea was he needed somebody to Pilot it which was made right so we came I was piloting Community circles in the math classroom right and it was just we just started with one person and we were doing it and then we started having some succession with some steam up right so we really like restorative justice restorative practices of course the core philosophy is students are happier more productive and more likely to make

112positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them rather than to them or for them right so the really the key behind restorative practices we want to be in this thing together right we want to show that we all have a voice and our voice is equal most times sometimes it's not but most times it is right so our voice is important so it also is a practice that's rooted in research so we looked and we had all the success all these schools around the country and we looked at our own debt right we so we took ourselves from last year at this point to this year and we've seen when we actually been doing this with Fidelity we reduced our suspensions by 28 right now that's a percentage

113which is that we're very proud of that actual number but what that boils down to is we're 81 pure suspension from this year than we were last year which is a win for us right which accounts to 176 less suspension days right that means it's 176 times kids are back in the building have the opportunity to make connection with the adults and benefit from my staff and getting their education that's what we like and we we're not there where we need to be but we're moving in the right direction we're looking to expand this so we started with Community circles it's a poor so what community circles is is sitting like we are right now and giving everybody the opportunity to have a voice and we have a short little video that talks about what

114it is so I'm not going to go into it right now and then we stepped up and we have restorative conversations this comes when some harm happens right when somebody when we have some issue with social media or other things we actually have conversations and we get kids to take accountability the things that actually did and provide them tools to move forward with it so we're not continuing with the same issues over and over again Community circles provide an opportunity for students to make connections with their peers and their teachers to share their feelings and I don't think the relationship s should contribute which contributes to a positive School culture we're starting with conversations by an opportunity for students to know that their actions are consequences but they're not necessary [Music] is what really matters

115so we started with Community circles but the middle school and the high school we really stepped it up a notch and we started running these restorative circles and restorative conversations where the student and the student or the student the staff member or the staff member staff member really had the opportunity to restore some harm that was happening one valuing each other's opinions making sure we have honest conversations and safe spaces we'll really focus on moving forward how we can fix this particular situation I.E cure the haunted or restore some of the harm that happens to make sure our relationships get mended and we can move forward in a positive way and High School in the Middle School really starting this process we've been doing a lot of them in elementary schools right behind us right

116there we'll get into that pretty soon Well Community circles have been I think a really great addition to our school just making sure we have that common language amongst all of our students students and staff really embraced it but I think the beauty of it is it's very organic it speaks to what students are interested in teachers have definitely tapped into that and it really centers our kids in a different way and I believe it's connected them much more as classmates and as friends as learning partners feel like Community circles has happened we have access is here it's ended with uh do you want to tell them yeah sure the most compelling part yeah so right now you'll see the two elementary students saying yeah it helps us you know build community with their actual

117classmates and learn about our teachers and our friends and I um just get suspended Community called inspectorship so I had an altercation with this one girl and usually I just get suspended and I get sent home and they suspect me to learn on my own what I did and how to solve it but I went into the restorative practices room and I um learned that I can actually have people on my side that can give me guidance of kind of resolving with that person so now that I got suspended everything I came back and they gave me the practices I don't have any problem and we're actually really good friends now and we actually sat together into this room and we just learned about each other and we just built this friendship so that video

118was produced it was directed it was filmed it was all produced by Ava Salinas but we gave a shout out to him and she did everything she agreed to help us and make this video so a lot of times when I'm giving these workshops to these presentations we show restorative practices through some other school in like Chicago or Mississippi or New York City where we're doing so we wanted to create a homegrown one for us I thought she did a great job video with showcasing things that we did so we also are very proud of this restorative athletes program that we have we tell you so we partnered with Pat Hayes and we take our usually our senior athletes and go to the elementary schools and we form relationships and we do set social emotional

119learning and and they uh see themselves as like the role models for it so I tell them all the time what would you say to yourself right back then when you were in third grade and now they have the opportunity to do that they go back and tell themselves what they've run third grade because they see themselves in these kids which is great so we did for our fall athletes we also just did it for the winter athletes that's what you see right now right and then we're going to do it for our spring athletes coming up in Spring so remember we started with me in one actual person doing community circles in the high school now we have Community circles running and every buildings we have support we have coaches here all the coaches

120that we have um so I meet with the coaches once a month there's an elementary group and it's a secondary group we also have continuous professional learning opportunities we're doing a family engagement Center where community members can come parents could come if you want to know more about it please show up uh and we're doing that the first one's on March 15th and we're still you know engaging in these Community circles and more restorative practices going on for you uh so another part of the culturally response response of sustaining framework is inclusive curriculum and assessment and our generation citizen Capstone project um is a huge part of that but also our Equity audit Which models yeah so one of the first uh action steps that we took um to support this domain was to um

121arrange a classroom Library Equity audit and we knew going in that this was going to be a slice we weren't going to be able to look at you know the books in every single classroom Library so uh but we thought it would be valuable work um so what we did was we posted and asked teachers to to join us on an equity audit committee for the summer we created an elementary committee and a secondary committee and about 25 teachers that participated uh once we assembled our committees uh Jackie o'hagen and I met with each team and we talked about the why you know not just the why are we doing this at South Country but why was it important for you to be a part of this committee right so that that personal lie uh

122we wanted to leverage that uh and then we shared with the team the rubric or the tool that we would be using um the lens for the audit which for us was the cultural responsive and curriculum scorecard and that's from NYU I'm going to talk a little bit about that next but so we went through the process we gave them the scorecard and off they went into their buildings and their classrooms to do Their audience um once they were completed we met in August again we reconvened to reflect and to look at the findings to take a look at some of the gaps that we found and what we learned and there was quite a bit of learning that happened um in response to that we decided to order books K through 12 to address

123some of the gaps that we found in in the data so we ordered books in September um but we thought we felt it was important to speak to all of the teachers about the work that we did in the summer before the books went out so that you know they were received with the intention and the purpose that that we had in mind so we did that we in November um different members of the team went to all of the faculty meetings and we presented um our work the process the findings what we learned uh with all teachers and then once everybody had the message and understood it we delivered the released the books it was awesome it was fun so um I mentioned the curriculum uh scorecard because you know as Beth mentioned this

124is a huge undertaking right this Equity movement uh so we feel it's important that we're very intentional about the tools that we choose right even when it's at a small level so we were intentional about what kind of scorecard we we utilized we didn't want just the tally right we wanted something that was going to support a conversation dialogue engage teachers in the language of equity you know a new language common language and one that would give them a lens that would allow them to reflect so what we loved about this is that it was um the scorecard itself was divided into two separate categories representation which is something that our student talked about right how he really connected with that visitor that came right representation is really important when it comes to feeling like

125you belong and then social justice orientation there was a small tally portion in the representation part of the scorecard but most of it was statements and the Auditors were asked to read the statements to read the statements and to uh score them on a likert scale so this is just one snippet of of the the statements and so that that's the likert scale on top and Auditors were asked to read a variety of statements this is just a sampling of three of them and asked to consider how the books in their libraries reflected the statement so for example they were asked to consider diverse ethnicities and nationalities are portrayed not all aging families are Chinese not all latinx families are Mexican Etc one of the things that we learned was that we do have diverse

126books about black families and latinx families but a lot of those stories are the same story so it's like that stereotype that's embedded into that you know that diverse book so one of the questions was do we have diverse stories in you know among our diverse books so um so these were the types of statements that really we hoped would begin to ship mindset uh Equity finding results these are some of the results I actually put it on my phone because I knew I wouldn't be able to see it but you can you can see uh The Pie shows the breakdown of the character tally and the author tally um one of the findings for example was that the majority of the authors of the books were white females and you could uh I'm sorry

127I can't remember you can read the rest on your own accurate portrayals was interesting because we found what I just mentioned that a lot of the black and brown character stories were centered around poverty for you um and we did we did see um a lack of representation of students with disabilities children with disabilities disabled people and lgbtq stories and characters so something else that came out of um this audit that we're very proud of is that in a part of this book purchased we we really decided that we were going to focus on uh purchasing books that fill those gaps that the data showed and we were able to create uh an equity library at the high school so there is a dedicated section where any student can go and find him or herself

128um you know on the shelves in books so we thought that was really impactful and important and they are expectations and rigorous instruction that speaks to our seal of Civic readiness wow this is really sensitive um I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here uh because you all just saw a presentation from as an example of our Capstone projects the graduation gowns but we'll talk a little bit about this at the conference and the process that we went through to get the seal there were five states New York is one of them that has the seal um we'll go through our timeline which you're all aware of and the um the impact that it has on our students and providing them a voice and being able to take action in their communities

129we're very proud of our that 95 of our students last year graduated with the seal um you may have seen this we have a link this is a small link with all information about South Country and the CEO so through that um and we will end with this quote I try to use my own voice in a way that shows caring respect appreciation and patience your voice your language helped determine your culture and part of how a corporate culture is defined as how the people who work for an organization use language our organization is very diverse and we see that diversity as a gift that we want to nurture thank you thank you very much thank you before we go around for questions with the superintendent like to um I wish I was around for

130all this work so I could take some credit for it you know it's amazing to me I love your um your Twitter handle on there so you got them already um in all honesty it's like it's still I find it mind-boggling that some of this work is so threatening to people because one of the things I want to emphasize is that Equity work transcends race and a sense of belonging isn't always tied to what race you are when I think about clubs I think about my former schools anime club or sports or music and Performing Arts who's creating niches for kids of all different types of ethnic backgrounds religious backgrounds that transcends the notion of race but having said that representing is also extremely important because um you know just like I'm visualizing an English

131language learner who I spoke to in Spanish too when we did the read aloud he literally said well I think it could be president and um he didn't speak any English yet um but the fact that he spoke to me as someone who has a position of authority who's the son of immigrant parents was really like sort of inspiring to him and I'm sure I touched and and hopefully Inspire other students in different ways regardless what their backgrounds are just by you know being a human person and a caring person um and for me also having representative books also is important because I remember reading this book called Nono boy which depicted um a Japanese young man during uh the second world war in California when there was internment camps and he was going around

132pretending to be Chinese and they exposed my own ignorance about Asian people because I generalized and I was like how can a Japanese person have such a different experience from a Chinese person but I love the book because above and beyond that was a commonality I had with this character and feeling out of place or sometimes having to pretend to be something you're not you know and I always used to make the joke when I lived in Bensonhurst I was Italian so um but um but yeah so that's the importance also not just in terms of representation but reading other perspectives you see the humanity and the commonality and people are different from you um and finally I just wanted to say that um you know restorative circles and stuff don't always work if people

133need to accept that you know you might be a parent or someone who's had an experience that didn't go your way or didn't work out and that's okay nothing is absolute but the body of the work and the research shows and I certainly we practice restorative approaches not even coming close to what's being done here in South Country in my former district and we saw a change in the climate and culture and kids aren't getting suspended because we just choose not to suspend them it's because they're making less and bad choices so credit to you I mean this is really impressive I was like oh man that's the district I love for it I'll take it so congratulations to all of you so we to applaud them yeah okay we'll go around to the board

134and I have a number of questions but I'm not going to ask all of them at once because I want to give each of us a chance to ask and they'll probably ask a question that I wrote down so I'll start with the questioning and then we'll go around and if we could try and limit it just to one to give everybody a chance to speak first but first of all I just want to compliment you on the time that it took to put all of this information together and um and I'm really proud that um Vice President Hayes and trustee Trent were part of the Dei Committee in the very beginning and I know they must be very very proud of what you have been able to accomplish so one of my questions is

135uh when when you when Mr oil when you came in this today to check that the the PowerPoint was going to work and you were still rehearsing in the back so how much time did you did you have to put in to this presentation because I'm very impressed that you didn't have to go off of notes you know you really know your material so how much time did this take first thing to try to make it shorter how much time will you have at the conference to present this an hour okay you know it's easy to talk about what you're doing you know what I mean it doesn't feel like a presentation it just like it's just talking about your work um you know I think that that's why I don't need notes um you

136know are those things we refer to that we want to make sure we hit on points but it's it's the work that we're doing so and I think what we're passionate about it and we're in it so yeah we can speak to it very easily and we'll all four of you be presented yes okay and it certainly is a diverse set of presenters yes so I'll conclude with my set of questioning so that we can go around um we'll start with with uh Miss Hayes and then we'll go around this way I'm just gonna sum up and say that um and listening to you and seeing what you've done over the last couple of years because it's really been quite compacted I'm sorry two years yeah um it's like having the right people in the

137right places at the right times and events just all coming together so that it's melded into a very nice um overall way to make our our students feel like they belong here and that this is why they're here they're the focus of what we're doing and I just want to commend all of you and everybody else who's been involved in this so thank you I don't have any questions um I would just say that you know the work that you guys are doing is good you know the kids are really going to benefit from it and I can speak that as a former student here if you know this program was in place my experience would have been so different um and and I and I think that you know it's definitely gonna change how

138how our young people grow up for sure in a positive way so I just want to say thank you for what you guys are doing I don't have any questions I feel the same way Cameron does if this you know stuff like this was there when I was in school things would have went a lot different for me also so um also no questions but um I just have to say I'm bursting with pride after seeing your presentation and the presentation of the students before um I may just be a softie but I got a little choked up both of them uh so thank you thank you all so much for the work that you're doing I'm incredibly depressed thank you I do have a question I think I know the answer to the question

139but I want to ask it anyway um during your presentation we talked about the decrease of student suspensions and that was there a change in the disciplinary policy that could also have affected the change so I don't know so much it was a change in the policy I think it was a change in more teachers applying these processes right so in high school we've been doing it for a while but we really just started the middle school and we've seen the biggest change in the middle school so when we was down there and getting teachers applying some of these principles and teaching kids about making better decisions you know I think that's what really resulted in the change because the biggest change was in the Middle School so my suggestion uh take it or don't

140take it is I think that should be pointed out in your presentation uh because it's something that people will will think and may not ask and I think you know I knew that was going to be your answer and so I wanted due to maybe maybe incorporate that to make sure to point that out to focus and so we'll talk through the impact you're having pleasure um so I have a question that may lead to a Part B and a comment and a couple of things I I thought this was an amazing presentation I really I really do and obviously diversity and Equity inclusion is the topic and it should be right in education all different parts of of uh of Life today and I always said that living in South Country when I settled

141here I'll be full disclosure right people would say you know it's a great District just you know make sure you move before your kids have to go to Frank P long right that's where things get bad right that was the narrative for a lot of people here and then you could go to Frank too long and you realize it's like the greatest place in the world you know it's such a great building and there's so much great things and as I reflect on my time here and I have a 19 year old and I have 12 year old twins the coolest thing for a parent growing up the way you know where I did and things about my life and you know when I was growing up there was a lot of racial tension in

142high school in my high school uh back then and it's interesting because my kids are more insulted or upset by any hint of racism than adults are because it's ingrained in them differently it's more you know what they learn and and I think that's really interesting thing about our community right like I always say my kids don't really understand racism because they really see everybody the same because it's so they're so used to them I mean like I think like I said in school there wasn't a large minority population in my high school and I went to Patchogue and it wasn't it just wasn't that that diverse and as the population grew there was tension and you could see it so that was what I was witness to and it's you know it's such a

143different conversation today and it's so important and I've always felt that you know while I don't think racism will ever go away I do believe it will be less impactful and I hope anyway but one of the things when we have this conversation I always try to think and I always ask questions at these just like I did with the kids making the presentation because I really want to learn and I want to be changed and I want to be convinced by what you're talking about not that I'm not convinced about this but one thing that impacted me and I'm I'm a sports guy I watch a lot of sports Kyle knows that right we talk a lot about basketball and football and so they really struck me this season the last two seasons it

144really was true and I I'm a Jet fan so there's nobody in the NFL I hate more than Tom Brady right everybody does but you know and I can criticize him for anything and he's the greatest there ever was but you know I was watching a game and one thing that really bothers me he's done it a couple times is he's taken his Microsoft Surface on the sidelines and out of frustration smashed it on the ground right now I'm sitting here watching to say man I'd really like to have a thousand dollar computer that I was rich enough to smash around but if you really stop and you look at the conversation about those things it's always kind of like laughed off and it's not a big deal but if an African-American athlete steps out

145of line or something normal happens it's newsworthy and I think that's that was what like I don't say it woke me up but that's just another example about how racism still exists and how we need to learn through work like this so I that's why I think this stuff is so important and it's it's great but I do have some questions and some like it's always different right and the superintendent called I doubter is somewhat some people are threatened by it but I I guess my question was do you feel like through work like this and interviews you have do you feel like students that are not in a minority category feel like they may be excluded or or or divided in some way does that ever come up do you ever get that feeling

146any white students that we've talked to uh mostly they feel like they belong and it's their sports sports is really a place where kids feel like they belong and it's true because all my kids played Sports and I think that's the greatest connector really for for everybody yeah music as well and absolutely any any extracurricular really does so that's that's really good to know and I had notes written on a Word document I just accidentally deleted it so but my question was about the restorative um circles and things like that I have some experience and I don't want to talk too much about it because I don't want to be too critical of it but I didn't to your point some of it worked some of it didn't and when I look at why it

147didn't I don't necessarily know it was handled properly and I can talk more offline about what my experience was because it wouldn't be fair to talk about it in public so do you have any type of quantitative data data that on what the success rate is of these conversations yeah sure I'll tell you I ran 71 this year already right out of the 71.70 we're successful right and it didn't lead to any physical education or anything and I'm sorry was that all high school was that High School middle high school middle school so you know that but I think to your point see we we got pretty good at Community circles and now we're doing them in elementary school so we're just going to get better and better at them as they understand how to

148do them we haven't been really that great at restorative circles because we just started it right so there's only a handful of people that understand the real process how to do it by me being one of them so as we do more and more of these trainings get people better at running them because it's really specific procedure in how you do it one both kids have to take accountability of something right so they have to say oh yeah I did this oh yeah I did that right and I'm willing to talk to the other person because I want to make it better right if any of those things go wrong we're not ready to that so there's another protocol to do to get ready to that point but sometimes people just run right away because

149they think we just want to put two kids together to get these things squashed right so the more we train we're able to train people in the process and once we do that the more success we're going to see in some of these things so again we're not where we need to be but we're moving in the right direction so we're getting that so some of the experience you're not gonna be alone right so some other people are going to say oh I tried it and it didn't really work out for my particular situation I think this is superintendent of Santana's point it's not always going to work but it's working more times than not when we do it properly but we just got to get more people on board and train on how to

150do that well I can make I can make the argument that just the effort means you're working something's working right because you just put people together I would be happy to talk with you offline about this specifics because I do believe it's input that you should hear and you can probably improve upon um because you're right and because you made a comment about students you know say having a reputation for behavior that are acting out and things like that and I think that's really important um for all students because I've seen it and I'm witnessing it and I'm actually experiencing it with one of my children right one of my children has a negative reputation right now um but not enough people understand the root of what's happening and and I think that's where just

151questions and conversations and how they're conducted and how they're done are key so I appreciate this work I really do I think it's amazing and I'm I'm happy I get an opportunity to learn through hearing these types of presentations so and good luck very quickly to your point that's what responsiveness is is seeing beyond the actions and again it transcends race so it doesn't matter what your background is it's seeing the individual and uh colleague Ahmed who's a lab I'm sorry who spoke to our kids that was basically his message look through the superficial look through a person's history and see the person that's inside and get to know like in Middle School we call it the whole child and so you know you always want to look at the antecedent behaviors uh whether there's

152any trauma or experiences that sort of feed behaviors and the mistake that schools have done forever is discipline was exclusionary you call it exclusionary discipline sure as a classroom teacher my day was a lot easier when that disruptive student wasn't in class but as I ascended and went on my Educators journey I remember telling you every time I suspended a kid I it would keep me up at night because I wondered what that child was doing in our community or home and how no one was given that child support outside their parents and many times parents do the best they can sometimes kids come from traumatic home environments or don't have the supports or the parents aren't equipped to provide the appropriate support and it really always way Heavenly on me that you know this

153child is not in school at least in school I kept my eye on them and I could watch over them and hopefully keep coaching them to make good choices and feel respected and I remember somebody once told me that students put a barrier so you can continually break them down you have to be persistent and I wasn't always successful with my students I could visualize kids we didn't graduate my high school despite numerous efforts and um but I could think of many more who were successful and how the environment of a school changed simply because we respected each other and we didn't hold things against kids sorry no no thank you very much I'm gonna just finish up with one with one because there's so much information that you gave us and so much more

154we're we're thirsty to know about it but one of the other presentations on what Civic Readiness was about um changing the start time of the high school later because kids were getting to school late and they had a number of justifications as two wanted to go there but when you spoke about the attendance issues and you had an attendance committee were you looking at policy only or the actual attendance oh both yeah okay so um we start by looking at attendance and uh then we try to you know brainstorm you know what's going on here and then we we went to our policy and that's when we we talked about transportation that really seemed to be an issue not only do we have chronic absenteeisms being high but latenesses are really high this year and

155we're attributing that to transportation and specifically at the high school you have to live you know within a mile and a half those were going to be my two follow-up questions so thank you for answering yeah and to that end Mr gee to the business office into Transportation we're doing like kind of a little longitudinal study to see if we can change the radius um we've already hired a consultant to look at our transportation policy I think on a personal level a mile and a half is a lot for you know it is I had to walk in yeah it's ridiculous it was only been a mile and a half for a few for a couple of years not that long it was always was it 2012 I thought it was shorter than that but

156it was like it was a mile before that right made a change in the policy in 2012 to where Frank pilong and the k-3 buildings are now the same because there was a difference there so it's a half a mile for K to five it's a mile for middle school it's a mile and a half for high school yeah yeah imagine being 14 or 15 having to walk a mile and a half in the winter when it's still dark out my issue I lived within the mile but when you had to walk the way the streets were it was longer than a mile right but I was in that radius and and I was always late I was because I didn't have transportation I didn't have a bus so the other thing that changed too

157that it negatively impacted was at one point the district was calculating that door to door and then it was changed to a waypoint whatever the bus stop would be that impact that is a negative impact on some people but it had to do I believe it was a budget issue centered around not enough students were riding the boat with a lot of empty buses so that's that's kind of how that usually comes up does anybody have any other questions well thank you very much for your thank you amazing presentation I'm looking forward to Denver yeah foreign very quickly but we'll take a five minute break okay okay thank you everybody I'm going to shut this