001Morning everybody. I reconvened work session at 6:38 p.m. The board is returning from an executive session where the employment history of a particular person collected negotiations with the Southampton Teachers Association pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law and matters made confidential by state and federal law were discussed. If everyone would please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please remain standing for a moment of silent reflection. Thank you. May I have it your attention for a brief announcement? Upon fire alarm activation, immediate ex evacuation to the closest emergency exit is required. The emergency exits are located behind you and to the
002side. Please exit away from the building as so so as not to interfere with the fire department and proceed to the evacuation areas. Please follow the school officials directions. Once assembled outside the building, everyone must wait until a school official gives an all clear before re-entering the building. Will the clerk please call the role? Cara Confield here. Robert Zachary Ever here. Monique Parker is absent this evening. Jaclyn Robinson here. SH here. J Smith is absent. And Ruth B here. Thank you. Does the clerk have any additions or deletions to the agenda? Yes. Action item 8.14 has been added to the agenda. Thank you. The 2025 budget vote and board of education election is in the intermediate school music room today. The polls will close at 9:00 p.m. The board of education will hold a regular
003meeting on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the intermediate school library. The elementary school will host an arts show on Wednesday, May 21st from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Before the show doors open, a string performance will be held at 5:15 on Pine on the Pine Street steps. The class of 2025 enlisted and academy recognition ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 22nd at 10:00 a.m. And I was just informed that it has been moved um indoors to the um the military um sorry will be the high school auditorium. In the high school auditorium. Thank you. It's a beautiful ceremony. I hope that people can get there. Um the district will be closed and there will be no school for students on Friday, May 23rd due to the unused snow day and on Monday,
004May 26th for the observance of Memorial Day. Did I say that right? Did I say Monday or Friday? Friday, May 23rd? Sorry. The intermediate school will host parent coffee club on Tuesday, May 27th at 6 pm. The high school PTO will meet on Tuesday, May 27th at 700 p.m. The high school pops concert will be held on Wednesday, May 28th at 6 p.m. at the Parish Art Museum. The International Spanish Academy ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 29th in the high school auditorium. The annual run against hunger will kick off at the intermediate school on Friday, May 30th at 11:30 a.m. The high school will host the annual soccer gold tournament on Sunday, June 1st at 8:30 a.m. The International Thespian Honor Society in Cabaret Show will be held from 6:00
005to 8:00 p.m. in the high school auditorium on Monday, June 2nd. Um, Dr. Moral, would you like to introduce our work session topic for the evening? Um, absolutely, Madam President. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you um for being here tonight. It gives me great honor to introduce the newly mented district strategic plan. Um we have been working on the plan um since last October and it it was a a a team effort, a district team effort. We have all of our stakeholders were involved, our parents, our uh district administrators, um teachers, um students, uh the student leadership cabinet for the superintendent. And so and and all um under the uh appointed leadership of Dr. Botcher who has held this for for us for our district um carrying this forward for the last several months
006and I'm just so so proud um of the work that has been done by our stakeholders. And so we have with us presenting tonight we have Dr. Bacher um Dr. um Martha Till Dr. Zan and we have Dr. Eley as well as Dr. Melissa Mitchell and Julianne Purscell each of them have a specific component of the district strategic plan and Dr. Duano each of them and I see parents I see um is that Abby? Hi. And we had parents on this team. This it was just a great collaboration, a great think tank over the last uh several months. And I'm just really really proud of that work. Um and so I would like to just talk about how we included all of our stakeholders. So this Thank you. I don't have sorry right so before
007I bring the team up um we so there was a process for this um when I first came in as the um newly appointed superintendent I met with a plethora of stakeholders I met with teachers administrators students executive board members um and got initial idea of what the needs of the district are and where where we would like to go as a as a community. What what people were feeling about our great great wonderful district and the great things that are already happening and how can we build on those successes to move our students even further to the next level. So having those initial conversations really shaped uh the format of how the district strategic plan would be developed. After having sought and um garnered approval of the board to move forward with the development
008of the district strategic plan, we went on an ambitious journey surveying our teachers, parents and community members. Um there was monthly meetings with the student leadership cabinet. Um there were um about six months of shared decision- makingaking meetings including parents, teachers, building and district administration and of course myself. And these here meetings included work sessions on the development of goal areas and feedback which included stakeholder voice and decision making. And so as we um gathered and collated all of this data that was coming from surveys that was coming from qualitative data and interviews as well um we boiled it down with the team to four goal areas that um we would we we we have in our plan. And so of course those goal areas at the top of the list would be uh student
009achievement um and social emotional learning and mental health supports for our young people in science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics for STEAM as another goal area. As we know with the um influence and the just the uh proliferation of artificial intelligence and other areas of steam and intellectual uh digital property. We know it's very important for our students to for them to be at the forefront of this technology. And so that became um an area and of course culturally responsive education because having a district community so diverse as our own with um so many students coming from so many backgrounds. We just want to make sure that our um um that our practices are aligned to and tailored to the learning needs of all children in our district. So as we looked at that
010d those surveys and that qualitative data those are the four goal areas that um we begin to design as you see the district strategic plan we can't give it all to you because it is quite hefty um for one night. So what we have decided to do and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. voucher. One second is to just highlight for you the some of the most um fognant pieces, the most um high lever pieces of the district strategic plan that we feel will move our district forward and prepare our students to be equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century workforce and college and careers. And so um you'll see within those goal activities and those strategic goals a myriad of of activities probably bringing about two or three and then
011you'll see the evidence of progress that we will be monitoring throughout the entire year and it is a five-year plan and each year we will highlight for the entire district which portions of the plan we're actually looking at working on and centering for focus for the entire district and then you would see that evidence of progress. What what what are the deliverables that we should see um when we if this district strategic plan is actually uh working, if it's in effect, if it's realized, if it's living and breathing, what are some of the evidences of that? And so, you'll hear our team tonight who put so many hours in. And I'm so appreciative of each of you. um you'll hear them talk about the district strategic plan. Each of our goal areas had what we
012call goal leaders. So while there was a small team around each goal area, there were leaders for each um for each strategic goal. So you would see Dr. Eley and Dr. Martha Tuio at social emotional learning. You would see myself and Dr. Botcher at student achievement. Um you would see Dr. Dueno at social emotional learning. you would see uh Miss PCEL at steam and Miss Abby at steam and at social emotional learning. So there were many areas that had goal leaders and and that's what that's what kept uh the continuity of the plan. So without further ado, I would like to introduce Dr. Botcher um to begin to talk about our goal areas and then to successfully introduce uh the next uh goal leader. Thank you. Sure. You're welcome. Um, good evening everyone. So, we
013broke this presentation up into the four goal areas just to kind of go through those goal areas with you. Um, and Dr. Morurell mentioned that um, several of the leaders are here and I think it's important to also mention there everyone on the instructional leadership team has been involved in creating this plan even though they can't be here this evening. Um, so it it was a really hands-on approach. I did assist Dr. Morurell. I know she's giving me some credit, but I really just made sure that the meetings were planned properly and that they could be productive. Um that was my main function and to make sure that the team was on target. So um we did do a lot of work over the last six or seven months. So I appreciate the insight and
014the guidance from Dr. Morell as she uh provided that through this whole process. So I'm going to talk a little bit about student achievement um our first goal. Um so uh our first goal statement for student achievement is improving literacy outcomes for all students in order to ensure academic success throughout the grade levels. Our second goal statement is to improve numeracy outcomes for all students in order to ensure academic success throughout the grade levels. Uh goal statement 1C was challenge all students to achieve their highest potential through rigorous academic instruction, high expectations and a culture of self-efficacy. And finally, the fourth goal statement was to ensure that all students graduate equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary for success in career, college, and beyond. So, I'm going to take you through these goals a
015little bit just so you can understand in depth each of these four goals. So, our first goal statement around literacy um requires some activities to look like this. engaging in the revision and adoption of a core literacy programs that meet the needs of all learners, including our multilingual learners and special education students. We know that we have to make sure that our um literacy practices and programs represent the needs for all students, especially our multilingual learners and special education students. Guarantee the use of best practices in literacy and biiteracy instruction with alignment to formative and summitive assessments in all subject areas. So we realize also that um professional development and best practices for this instruction is going to be key in making sure that this goal is achieved. So the evidence of progress these are
016the things that we will use um almost as a guide as guide points and audit of literacy resources professional learning on the six pillars of reading and the science of reading. And then finally we look to see that we have improved literacy scores on local and state assessments since they both mean a tremendous amount to us. Our next goal with student achievement is to improve nu n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n numeracy outcomes for all students and our numeracy goal is centered on providing math. Some of the activities that we will focus on are providing mathematics and intervention training for math teachers
017prek to 12 and then guarantee the use of best practicy in numeracy instruction with alignment to formative and summitive assessment. So it looks very similar to literacy but um when we talk about this goal being with numeracy and mathematics um I think Dr. Morel did mention this that this is a five-year plan. So, we're giving you pieces of it as she indicated before that these are some pieces and we know this is seems like a lot but it is going to be rolled out over five years. Some of the evidence of progress would be um to audit the math and math resources and curriculum. Uh provide professional learning on best practices and numeracy develop development. And then of course we would like to see improved math scores that we would like we would hope we
018are going to see improved math scores on local and state assessments. Our third goal centers around students reaching their highest potential through rigorous academic instruction, high expectations and establishing a culture of self-efficacy where students believe in themselves. So some of the goal activities that we identified were creating a culture of high expectations by providing providing targeted supports and academic scaffolds regardless of students abilities or needs and holding students accountable for meeting these academic standards. And then student another uh example is strengthening students critical thinking skills with the use of complex questioning, analyzing information and approaching problems with curiosity and logic. Some of our evidence of progress that will keep us on task are building in district data reviews, parent academic nights, developing a parent guide of grade level expectations and supports for prek to 8
019and greater participation in um highlevel and AP courses. And then finally, our last goal for student achievement is uh to ensure that all students graduate equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary for success in college, career, and beyond. So, some of our goal activities include developing a Southampton portrait of a graduate in SCES, SIS, and SHS. The um New York State Department of Education is unveiling a portrait of a graduate for New York State, which we will use as um SH as our uh portrait of a graduate. But we really thought it was important that we understand how our students leave each of our buildings and what that portrait of a graduate looks like in fourth grade and eighth grade. Um, also another goal activity is to create and maintain diverse curriculum and course
020offerings that support the varied interests, college and career and employment paths for all students. And finally developing opportunities for students to establish, monitor and reflect on their own academic and personal goals. We thought that was really important that students have ownership over these um goals. So some of the things that we will look to do as our evidence of progress is launch a college and career task force that will develop and implement a format for student led conferences and develop and implement a student and college and career portfolio for each student. Um also incorporate CTE informational nights starting informational sessions starting at grade six. We typically don't do this in um that low that in the lower grades, but we thought it was really great that kids have exposure to these earlier. So um those
021are student achievement goals that we've identified. Um and I just saw somebody else. So um I just want to also thank our parents who are here tonight because uh we've had uh five or six parents who've consistently showed up for our shared decision-making teams meetings and have really offered some great insight. So, I just want to thank you as they come in. Um, okay. And goal two is and mental health support. So, I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. Tutill and Dr. Epley and Dr. Dian. Dr. Dian. Okay. So, uh, yeah, we're this is a group effort. Um, we have we're gonna we have three goal statements and we're going to share them. So, um, for the social emotional learning and mental health support uh, goal, we have uh, three statements. So full statement 2A
022is to establish systemic anal philosophy and practices districtwide. Um statement number two is to ensure every student has a trusted adult that they can turn to within the school community. And the goal statement um three is to create a welcoming and nurturing environment of understanding, empathy and conflict resolution. So um for the goal uh the goal statement one where we want to establish a systemic philosophy and practices districtwide some of the activities associated with that would be just to establish a clear vision of what seal is across our district. Oh, sorry. Um, pay attention. Okay, great. Um, so we want to sh establish a clear vision of across the district and establish a task force to develop this shared vision and definition of SEAL programs and practices um in our district, all three buildings, you
023know, pre-K through 12. Um, we want to provide training for teachers on how to effectively integrate SEAL into their teaching methods and classroom environment. So, we've been looking at some SEAL curriculum and um we're right now sort of assessing um which direction we can go in with that and we want to make sure we get something that is also in Spanish. So, we found a few that we liked but then found out that they didn't have it in Spanish. So, we're working on um we have another meeting actually this week with another company to uh you know check out their program. Um, and we all know that we do seal in all three buildings, but it would really uh benefit everybody if we could all be speaking the same language and uh and have a
024clear definition of what that means. Um, evidence of progress for this would be to administer surveys to students, families, and staff to identify their understanding of um our SEAL vision and and program. Um we want to form a task force of students, educators, counselors, and administrators um you know to create this this vision and and this definition and uh we want to develop this district-wide framework. Thank you. Um good evening everyone. As part of our team, we're also missing Dr. Navvice and Miss McCoy who were also um a part of this team in creating on part 2B um with regards to ensure every student has a trusted adult they can turn to within the school community. It's very important for us to be able to develop a plan where students can feel that they can
025talk to trusted adults about anything that comes up for them with that those activities. Um, we will implement a schedule time where teachers consistently connect with the same group of students, creating a stable and ongoing relationship. Consistency is key. So, it's very important for them to feel that they have someone that they can talk to and that will listen to them. While we're doing these activities, we want to provide training for teachers on building strong trustbased relationship with students, including active listening, empathy, and mentorship support. So, being able to be there for the students to help them, not just communicating, but also letting them know that we're here to listen to them with evidence of progress. And like we said, it is a five-year plan. We will continue to use surveys and screeners. So we
026want to collect regular feedback from students, teachers and mentors and again about their experiences, their perceptions of these trusted relationships. Not only would that improve academic performance but also reduce behavioral issues just to be able to support students to be able to kind of deescalate, be able to regulate some of those things that come up for them. um retention rates for students who are regularly connected with these trusted individuals will also increase engagement in school and also lower dropout rates. We want our students to graduate. We want them to be confident and we want them to leave here with the tools for them to become independent as adults. Thank you. And our third goal um is to create a welcoming and nurturing environment of understanding, empathy, and conflict resolution. This goal really focuses on the
027the school culture um and in particular how do we resolve conflicts and how do we deescalate um situations. So um some goals that were set was to uh implement restorative practices districtwide. Um restorative practices have been uh you know a big goal this year in all three buildings. We're seeing it um being introduced more and more um in all three buildings um include and so we want to move forward by you know continuing to train staff and restorative justice techniques and establishing community circles in all classrooms um to help foster empathy understanding conflict resolutions and just build overall community. Um so I know in the intermediate school this year we've really introduced I know Mr. Benson one of his big goals this year was to introduce community circles. Um so you know I think we're
028on the right path but like Dr. said this is going to be a five-year plan. So, every year we're going to build and build on um how to implement community circles and restored uh justice practices. Um you know, one thing we are very excited about is the establishment of sensory rooms um to help with deescalations and provide a calm space for reflection um for our students. Um so, I know Dr. Morell has been um really um spearheading this sensory room initiative. So, we're really appreciative of, you know, her her work with that and we love um we we're very excited about the future of having sensory rooms in um in school and high school moving forward. And I think that's very important. Um if we're going to have a detention room, I think it's very
029important to have a deescalation calming space where students can reflect because, you know, behavior should be about the education piece and the learning piece. And um I think uh you know, we're on the right path with the the upcoming sensory rooms that we have in the buildings. Um and also the development of a peer mediation program where stu uh students get trained in conflict resolution. Um so promoting leadership skills within our students and creating just a culture of collaboration and empathy. Um so really training you know student leaders, principles, cabinet members to resolve conflicts um to help with the escalation of behaviors and just you know build that overall sense of community in all the buildings. So some evidence of progress would be the implementation of community circles. Um, so one of our goals would
030be evidence if you're able to walk through our school buildings to see community circles going on in classrooms. Um, and just positive student feedback. We've done a lot of um, surveys so far to to to kind of analyze that survey data in the f future compared with past data just to kind of see where students are at. Um, the sensory room usage um, positive outcomes and uh, just overall behavior incidents uh, student writeup, student referrals um, just overall incidents. Just a reduction of that would be evidence of progress and just positive feedback from students um would be our evidence as well. So um I'm here to talk about steam. Um most people think about it as STEM, but uh my group uh convinced um to add the A for the arts because you know we
031are a um we do have a lot of arts here at the district and we wanted to make sure that we incorporated that. Um part of the uh goals that we have right now are enhance the understanding of steam and AI instruction and resources for all staff. Uh goal statement 3B is to establish a steam integrated curriculum and goal statement 3 C is to establish a data-driven evaluation continuous improvement system to enhance the integration of steam and AI education. It's a bit of a mouthful. um to take a look at 3A. Uh we really want to work on enhancing an understanding of what AI instruction is and what steam looks like in all of the inter into um core courses. Some of the activities that we want to start with is really an understanding offer
032district-wide professional development workshops for educators on AI applications, emerging technologies, digital fluency standards, and steam best practices. uh we feel it's important to establish uh programs with industry professionals and higher education in institutions to support teacher growth. Um people have been hearing about AI. There used to be a long time ago there's an app for that. Well, right now there's AI for that. Um people may know how uh it how to use it to get potential answers but not really harness the power of AI. It'll be interesting to see what AI looks like in the end of five years because I think it's rapidly changing even the last 18 months uh since it's really come out. Um I will tell you that the kids know how to input information in um part of the um
033evidence that we'll look at when we are doing um enhancing the understanding for steam uh would be to get examples of how educators are applying the AI tools and emerging tech into their classrooms. We'll look at their lesson plans, student projects, and classroom observations. Uh we'll also get participation uh feedback uh from the educators that are actually attending the professional development that we're offering um uh and and find out what's working and what's not working. Get attendance lists. You know, we we already are doing it, but we want to get more people involved in this um professional development um because it isn't going away. And you know, somebody might not necessarily be interested in it, but it's in every facet of every single thing that we're doing right now. Um, so once we start the
034understanding of it and continue to grow it, we're going to have to find a way to implement it into the core curriculum. Um, it's not going to be something separate and aside and another thing that teachers are going to have to do. It's going to be embedded into the what we're already doing. Part of what New York State is asking us to do anyway is to have a full implementation this current school year of all the digital fluency standards. Um, and we're working to that end and it is happening, but we need it to be just natural and embedded into every single thing that we're doing. Um, so to to that end, we're going to start to conduct curricular analysis of all the maps that we've already created. Um, and to support infusion of these
035standards, um, especially digital fluency standards into the core curriculum, we're going to create interdisciplinary steam units that integrate AI concepts and use the arts to enhance those computational thinking, design, digital literacy through creative coding, and media projects. The easiest thing that I can say is what does this look like? It's, you know, steam is in itself a um hands-on realworld problem-solving way to learn. And so we want to help an English teacher, science teachers sort of already have it because problem solving is part of what they do. But we want to take math, my kids are always saying, why am I learning this? You know, and try to explain to them why they are learning it and to use AI to help them with that. Uh we're going to be developing curriculum maps and um
036outline the K to2 progression. But I think it's really important because the teachers are already creating the the um the curriculum maps. They have them. They're tweaking them always constantly, but we want them to look at it and have an understanding of what AI looks like. And Steam, I get calls all the time from teachers like, "Hey, I got this thing. It looks like AI. Like, what am I doing here?" We have to get them to start to change their lessons so kids can start to think critically about what they do so it is AI proof as opposed to you know you know what's this essay about because the AI is getting really good. Um so we want to kind of make sure that that's we're working to that end and it's aligned to all
037of the disciplines. Um and 3C so we have an understanding of what it is. We're going to create the curriculum um to to be able to implement it. And then the last thing is we're going to analyze, are we doing what we're supposed to be doing? Um we're going to establish um a way to analyze our professional development and tweak it. So, uh we're going to look at we're going to use AI and surveys and performance indicators to see is what we're doing working. um are the kids being able to think critically about what it is that they're doing? We're going to look at feedbacks. We're going to get, you know, like maybe a liyker scale. Um we're going to design, administer, and analyze surveys for students, teachers, and parents to capture the perceptions of
038is it working, is it not? What's your take on this AI um and learning experiences? Um, some of the evidence will be benchmarking and goal setting, including comparisons of initial data, um, and year-to-year progress that we've made. Um, one of the things that we're going to really try to do is implement student digital portfolios again. We had it a long time ago, and we're going to try to bring it back as a we we now have the technology to make it happen very easily with all of the tools that we have. So, uh, teachers could give a project and they can just add it to their digital portfolio. they can reflect on their learning. Did they get it? Did they not get it? What can they improve on? When kids start to articulate and reflect
039on their learning as opposed to potentially an assessment, that's where real growth happens. take a long trip back from Australia. There you go. Right. Congratulations to both of you. All right. Um, so I will be talking about goal number four, which is cultural responsive um, education. My administrative partner, Dr. uh Anna Martinez Fuentes could not be here tonight. So I'll be speaking on behalf of both of us. So we worked on goal number four which was um creating culturally responsive education for our students here in the district that was grounded by um three state goal statements. One that we're ensuring that all teachers and staff build capacity and culturally responsive practices through professional um learning or professional development. Our second goal would be ensuring that cultural culturally and linguistically responsive practices are included in daily
040lesson plans and lastly ensuring that our curriculum and extracurricular activities and opportunities are diversified. So what we'll do to get there? So looking at the first goal to ensure that our teachers and our staff have the capacity to deliver culture responsive education. We're looking to do a couple of things. We have had some really good PD uh opportunities on implicit bias and some culturally responsive practices already. Um we have taken some elements even just looking at some of those practices uh within our restorative practices also and breaking that down. We've introduced some elements into the classroom, into our faculty meetings, such as an example of that is the utilization of check-ins with our students before jumping into um curriculum. We want to make sure that we're connecting with our kids. Um so, one of the
041first things that we're doing is just taking a moment to check in on our our learners to make sure that they are ready to go and if not, we are equipped to make sure that um we're directing them to the places that they need. But just that that piece of even checking in with our kids is something that our building um took advantage of and really started introducing this year which we were very proud of them for that. Also looking to um create uh some look fors almost like a tool uh that our teachers can even utilize and we can utilize as administrators to make sure that these practices are taking place. So uh again coming up and designing a look for tool uh for when we are walking through the classroom, walking through the
042buildings um we can make sure that these practices are in place. Um and lastly once we design that tool is making sure that our teachers, our administrators um are using it and they know exactly what all of those practices are on that look for tool. So you can see through the evidence of our progress. Um the evidence of that is we can clearly look at the PD opportunities that we are affording our staff. Make sure that we are uh certainly taking care of what we need to there. Uh looking at the signin sheets, make sure that all of our staff being trained on on these practices and certainly we have a a great organizational system for that. Um and lastly, uh really taking a look at out our classroom instruction and continuing that research on
043um res on culturally responsive practices so we can design a great tool for our teachers and um our administrators. Looking at the second goal, this is goal. Although it's uh on the goal statement up there, it's reflecting the first one, but really our goal B is all about making sure that we have culturally responsive practices um included in our daily lessons every single day. So, one way that we're a couple of ways that we're going to do that through um some of the activities we designed to reach this goal are making sure that um we are providing a lot of resources, multicultural resources that reflect our student population in our classrooms. And uh one thing that we started emphasizing even through our learning walks this year was taking a look at the the student work
044on on the walls. And really that kind of tells the tale of what what students are doing in the classrooms every day and making sure that we have that student work up and that we are also providing some of the resources um for success for our students. For example, when you look in some of our particularly our classrooms that um we're we're focusing on delivering what we call our part 154 minutes. We want to make sure that all the items in that room are labeled um are designed so our kids have these resources to help them uh as they are learning throughout the day. So that's just one tiny little example of when we refer to these resources uh for our students uh we want to make sure that those are intact. Also um incorporating
045we we've done a lot of work with restorative circles and making sure that we're taking that information from uh what we're applying to and learning about putting it in practice not just when there is a disciplinary incident or not just when there is some sort of event but making sure that students are using these practices every day and getting used to and comfortable with the use of circles in in the classroom. So, we've seen some really good progress and again I have to give a shout out to uh particularly Miss Blanco who leads our social studies department and she had a really clever way of getting our teachers introduced to circles in the classroom and that's by utilizing what we said some restorative circles from looking at the academic vocabulary and getting students just used
046to that practice of getting in circles. It was really clever. She actually did it uh with some of our community- based organization guests during department meetings as well, just to even have the teachers practicing that themselves during our our meeting time. So, kudos um Mrs. Blanco if you're watching and we certainly appreciate the work that you're doing there and thank you for that. Um and then uh also we're looking um to make sure that uh we are utilizing and training our teachers on specific techniques that are um researchbased for the populations that we serve. For example, um you see something up there called the SCOP model which is the sheltered um intubation observation protocol and that is a specific delivery technique and a specific teaching methodology that is designed for second language learners. And there's
047very specific techniques that you would use in this um teaching style. So we want to make sure that our teachers are equipped with these uh methodologies and techniques for when they are in the classroom delivering to particularly our our large group of second language learners that we have in the district. Um, all right, moving on to our last goal, which is looking at our curriculum and extracurricular um, opportunities, making sure that those opportunities are diversified by by our kids. Um, and certainly we've made great progress in that area this year. And I think the easiest way that we made progress is what what I find is the easiest way is you actually have to ask the kids and speak with the kids and survey the kids um, through the superintendent's cabinet. Uh this year um
048students certainly had a a voice and were able to use it. And uh we had one of our students that you heard from before here pushing out a lot of student surveys just hearing from our kids in terms of what is it what will help with that connection here in school. What will help you achieve some of those goals? And we've put a lot of things in practice this year just from surveying our kids and hearing from them and really getting everyone involved in reaching those goals. Um so certainly that that is something the the increase in student voice um through the surveys and the folky group have been really really positive and highly effective in getting some of those goals done. Um also looking at our literature through book audits and standard curriculum. So
049making sure that um we we always want to take a look at the classics especially when you're in English class. But also um what we're finding is sometimes kids have a little bit of a difficult time connecting with those texts. So we want to make sure that we do have texts that are relevant that are are relatable to our kids um and certainly they can connect with some of the content in there and that's a way to increase some of the reading um and the reading and writing that we need to do in the classroom. So that's uh one way that we're we're looking at that. The other place is look making sure that our musicals, our plays, our concerts all have diverse offerings. I think you've seen this year during some of our musical
050performances. Uh we had a lot of different songs in there, ones that would connect with u groups that make up our the demographic of Southampton and certainly will continue to do that. We just had a um a meeting the other day with our play director, Dr. Morell and myself really speaking about the future of our plays in terms of what we can do um with with our plays and our students to increase um the number of students that not only participating but making sure that that stage is reflective of us here in Southampton. So we we had some really good ideas for that meeting the other day too. Um and again I know that you heard um Dr. Morurell and Dr. Botcha speaking about our diverse summer reading programs K to 6. So, I know
051that we're still trying to work on on that piece as well. And we have some good uh evidence to review this. Again, um surveying the students, I think, is is paramount in this. And not only they going to tell you what what they require, what they need or what they feel they can do to help improve Southampton High School, but they're going to tell you honestly if it's happening or not as well. So, um, you know, if you ever want some really good, honest feedback, just speak to our kids and they'll give it to you. Um, you know, certainly for better or for worse. Um, but I'll tell you, they keep you on your toes and they are brutally honest and it's important that we listen to our students. Um we want to continue to
052inventory our current book list through our departments and we work with our department leaders making sure that we have a good diverse um offerings for our students and uh same thing as we do with our plays and musicals and we will continue to work on our selection process to make sure that it's representative of the students and the families that we serve here. So uh looking forward to carrying on that work. So with this I think we came to the last slide. So maybe Dr. I'll hand it back to you. All right. Thank you. Um I just want to again extend thanks to the members in the room uh especially those who presented this evening and the parents who were able to come and join us um and those that couldn't be here tonight but
053really have played an instrumental role in sitting around the tables and really um watching our brains each of our brains sweat and really come to um some great decisions. So I do want to thank everybody um and I guess Dr. I'll turn it back to you if you I think everyone has said enough. It's um that was very um um fruitful discussion and I'm just so very thankful to everyone who helped and contributed to developing the district strategic plan. Um especially I mean everyone but especially our parents because we know you could be anywhere but you were there with us. Um and that was really important and so I really appreciate that. Um, but everyone put in so much work and um, I just want to thank our board for um, giving me the go-ahhead
054and the support to be able to put this together and I'm I'm really proud of the growth of the staff. I mean, it's I'm just proud right now. Thank you all. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Merl. And thank you for everybody for that um, great presentation. Um, if it's okay, Dr. Merl, if the board has any questions they want to ask, does anybody Just I just have a question about the timetable for the for all the activities. Like are are some of them sequential? Are you going to take them on all at once? Um seems like some of the work has already started, right? Some work has started. Um no, we we can't take them all on at once. Um the district strategic plan is a five-year plan. And so for each year, um we'll work
055with the uh with the team and the district stakeholders. And so some of those uh goals and activities that you saw some of the um all the goals will be worked on but just one or two no and we'll make not every no we have to do it uh in a way that we can actually manage it because we won't be able to do all of those goals and everything in one or two years. It is a five-year plan, but we have to prioritize and that's our next steps. Um, now that we have the plan kind of um in place, uh, yeah, it's kind of in place, isn't it? Um, we have to decide as a team now, what will be Yeah. What will be the folk the folky for each year? Um, knowing that
056we don't want to bite off more than we can chew. We don't want to overload our teachers. We don't want to overload our parents and overload our administrators with so many, you know, um, new initiatives and things like that. So, we want to do things in kind of a con a sequential manner, but that makes sense with some alignment. So, Dr. Botcher and uh, myself and the team leaders will all be meeting again with our parents and um, coming up with uh, the roll out for each year. Yes. The timeline. Yes. And I know Julianne started some of that timeline work. So we'll just pick up with that. So thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Yep. I just had a couple of questions. I'm really pleased with this. I love the goal of student achievement.
057I think that's really important for us. But I was curious. I know for evidence of progress for both math and reading, we have improved literacy literacy scores on local and state assessments. Um, so I'm just curious what our goal is. So in terms of improved literacy scores, I understand how we're going to measure it, but I'm just curious what our what are we shooting for? Are we do was that ever discussed? I know we always want to improve, but we have big goals in, you know, for our our buildings. So, I'm just curious what what are we striving for? Is that been discussed or will that come down the line or well minimally adequate yearly progress when it comes to um state assessments because we have to do that anyway. We should be doing that.
058Um so um the state has a threshold for what adequate yearly progress looks like in terms of moving um students from um one level of uh developmental proficiency to the next. And so we would have to know figure out what those targets are to then make sure we're meeting adequate daily progress. But we're going to be looking at local assessments too, right Dr. Ber? Yeah, I think um just to add on to what Dr. Morel is stating is that we didn't put very specific there because we really want to look very specifically at the data of our English language learners at our special education students and to say that we expect certain increases from certain subgroups. Some are going to um excel even greater than what our expectations are and we want to make room
059for that. So we need time to digest the data at the end of this school year to be honest which will is happening right now. everybody's assessing right now and they'll do that throughout the month and then we'll take a look at that before the summer and then make some real um number decisions on how we want this to look. Okay, good. And then I had a second question um on student achievement for goal 1C about um holding students accountable. So, it's kind of just generally stated holding students accountable for meeting academic standards. So, I'm just curious what were some of the thoughts about where you want to go with accountability? And I know I I really love the parent academic nights and developing parent guides. And is that linked to attendance? because I know
060we have attendance policies in place, but we still have issues with attendance. So, I'm just curious, is that part of this uh discussion? And in terms of holding students accountable with meeting academic standards, what was discussed? So um some of what we discussed and I'm trying to pull up the entire plan right now to give you more specifics but some of the discussions that we had around student accountability were students understanding expectations perhaps understanding either the code of conduct which would include attendance also understanding how classroom management what the expectations were moving into cell phones you know banned and stuff like that so anything around what expectations are as per departments and classrooms and schools um so that's something we also have to investigate within in our buildings and talk to our administration about to
061make sure that kids know what their expectations are because we can't necessarily hold kids accountable for something we haven't told them as an expectation. Um so we want to be clear on what we indicate as what we're holding kids accountable for. So just to be clear, there wasn't already um an idea of which of you know I'm just curious if the principles have discussed with you what exactly they need to improve in terms of student accountability like which are we well when we talked about student I'm trying to pull up the uh things but um when we talked about student accountability it was mostly about students taking accountability ility for their learning because it was linked to student learning and some of that is going to be linked to attendance because we need kids to
062be in school first and foremost taking advantage of extra help opportunities. So when kids are assigned or you know told they need to attend extra help are they actually going um just ways we can hold students accountable and students can be accountable for their own learning. So, those are some of the conversations that we have that we have structures in place already that students should be utilizing um that may they may not be that we they don't even know are options for them or they've been told are options and told to attend but they aren't. So, we need to really understand that and we have had those conversations with building principles about those things that are already in place and what they'd like to see moving forward. Good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Anything
063else? I know you guys met with community members and stuff, right, for this parents. Can we give shout outs? Do you give the names of the parents? Yeah. I just want to acknowledge people that are coming and volunteering. Yeah, I I definitely can do that. I know we uh I see I see Abby. Well, Abby is here. Ria Dietrich is here. Um we also had Anastasia Carlus attending. Uh Victoria Naba um was one of our parents. Who am I forgetting? Um I think those were the consistent parents that came every week. Consistent. Yeah. And and we were really lucky to have them their different perspectives um from special education to and their own you know students their own children and then also their own professions was super helpful to have them in the room with
064discussions. Yeah. I just want to thank you guys. Um it it's important for parents to get involved and go to stuff and I know we have meetings all the time with different things here and you get one parent, two parents showing up. So I think this is important. This is a strategic five-year goal for our district where we want to go. So we're going to get people that are going to see things that are going to happen and then they're all going to play Monday morning quarterback and they're going to complain about things and how the game went. Um, so I'm I'm just kind of telling parents like if you want to get involved and you want change, you should be coming to this stuff and you should be getting involved. So, thank you guys
065for um participating and taking the time. Yes. Thank you very much. And maybe they'll start to listen to Zach now because they're tired of me begging for eight years to please come to a board meeting and not just watch on TV. So, thank you for saying that, Zach. Um if there's no other questions then we will turn to public comments at this time before I read the big long Okay. Um the board of education encourages public participation in school related matters at board meetings. Any group or organization wishing to address the board must identify a single spokesperson. The presentation should be as brief as possible. No speaker will be permitted to speak longer for than three minutes. The board will not permit in public session discussions involving individual district personnel or students. All speakers are
066to conduct themselves in a civil matter. Obscene language, vitalist statements, threats of violence, statements advocating racial, religious, or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated. Persons making presentations at board meeting will address their remarks to the president and may direct questions or comments to board members or other district officials only upon approval of the president. Good evening. You would state your name, please. Hello. Uh Rod Pearson, Southampton. I just have a question. Um was there any board members on this very important committee? I was not. I don't know if any other board members were able to participate. Thank you. You're welcome. I just want to say something. I believe that when it's like districtwide decision making um in this type of format that for members are actually not um allowed to participate according to
067it's either NISMA or STA because I do remember when it comes to like um um like some district planning like board members aren't supposed to be there. It's supposed to be the community. Yeah, I'll check on that. And also just u we do provide oversight and work directly with Dr. Morel on developing these goals. We approve these goals. Um I would think sorry I would think that that's something that gets brought up on a report. Uh the superintendent has a report. First time I'm hearing of it from anytime I've been here or watched on TV. So, no reports have been really given on this. So, maybe that's something to stick in the report. You know, we got four more years. So, four more years. Let's have a report on how that committee is doing, who's
068on it, what comes up at that at that meeting. It can extend Dr. Morell's report extensively. You could really have a good report on that and it all goes back to the district and and the taxpayers. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Okay. Um I um the presentation were was really the goals were um good. the everything that we plan to do for the next 5 years is really important and we're trying to get our children uh to a place where they have be successful successful. One of the things that I missed hearing was that I know you don't want to overload the teachers and all the other things, but I didn't hear anything about overloading the kids. I didn't hear anything about the health and wellness of the kids. I heard about the adults
069and what we expect from the kids. But how are we going to get the kids, the children, our children to do what we want them to do if we don't put them first? I know it's all about getting the kids to a place. But if we don't take up the take care of the health and wellness of the kids first, then we not do we our goals will be won't happen. So like I asked before I asked that the schedules we are setting up rooms for them to wind down. Why not set up why not give them time to w why not give all kids the same time to wind down at the same time? Elementary school, I don't know what their recess time is like. I don't even know what their uh lunchtime is
070like. I don't know if we're giving them enough time to eat and enough time to play. But play is learning. And if they play, they can learn better because they mindset is ready to let's teach them to use their time wisely. When it's playtime, they can play. And then when it's time to sit and then let's do it that way. Let's work on the time. I read some place a long time ago, time equals love. Now, if we don't give them the time to be children like we were, then we're not doing our job. and all the academics, all the knowledge and everything will just go out one go in one ear and out the other because they won't have time to digest it. So let's give them time to digest what we want them
071to do. So, I'm only asking that we take the time as we make these goals, make sure that we're looking out for the kids and the time so that they can learn and really retain. It's record, retain, and record. the three Rs. They can record the information, they can retain it, and they can recall it at any time in their lives, whenever they need it. We'll make lifelong learners. Let's start now because we only have now. And if you didn't hear my passion or my hurt or my something in between all this my heart then um I'm sorry but I my my my my first priority is our children. I want them to be healthy mentally, emotionally, physically me uh spiritually. And I want them to be whole. And I want them to retain record
072retain and recall what we want them to be and how we want to be there. We talk about potential. Let's help them do it in a healthy way. That's Thank you, Jackie. Any other public comments? We will move on to um a few action items that we have on the agenda tonight. Seems like a lot. Um, okay. You're gonna have to listen to me for a bit because I have to read a lot. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union 3 School District and OD Dallas Franco effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented. Second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Preschool District and Jacquel and Lamb effective July
0731st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented. Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Patricia Mattingley effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented. Second. Second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Okay. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Rachel Patine effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Isabelle Subla Scanland effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 is presented. Motion second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I
074have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Chenika Talahar effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 as presented? Motion. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve an employment contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Franklin Trent defected July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 is presented. Motion second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion. So carried. May I have a motion to approve a performance contract between the Southampton Union Free School District and Harlem Wizards Entertainment and Football, Inc. to provide two Wizards for 24 minute programs on May 21st, 2025 at the Southampton Intermediate School for students grades preK to 8 at the cost of $4,154 as presented. Motion second. All in favor? I. So
075carried. May I have a motion to approve budget transfer from account A 2330.1510.60 to account A2815.400.00 in the amount of $30,000 to cover substitute nurses as presented. Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve budget transfer from account A 20 2250.4004.00 to account a 2250.400. 00 in the amount of $20,000 to cover the cost of evaluations for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school years presented. Motion second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve a budget transfer from account A2250.4002.00 00 to account a2250.4700.00 in the amount of $13,000 to account. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Account A2250.4005.00 in the amount of $40,000 to account a2250.4006 4006.00 in the amount of $24,000 and account and to account A2250.400.00 in
076the amount of 23,900 to cover the cost of mandated ser services for the remainder of the 2024 2025 school year presented. Motion. All in favor? I any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve the CSSE CPSC committee recommendations as presented? Motion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to resend the approval of consent agenda item 12.21 from the five the May 6, 2025 regular meeting and approve an amended overnight trip plan for the 2025 My Brother's Keeper College and Career Fair for New York State Indigenous Students in Buffalo, New York from May 21st to the 23rd, 2025 as presented. motion. All in favor? I any opposed? So carried. May I have a motion to approve bid SPS25-010 for automatic temperature control systems maintenance and repairs to
077be bid out again due to there being no responses presented? Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? So carry. Okay. Um, may I have a motion to move back into executive session at 7:48 p.m. to discuss continue discussions of That's okay. We didn't realize either um to discuss to continue discussions where the employment history of a particular person collected negotiations and matters conf made confidential by the state and federal law will be discussed. Motion second. All in favor? I any opposed?