001okay good evening everyone let me just get a minute to organize some here okay all right I reconvene this meeting at 6:39 p.m. the board is returning to public session after having held an executive session where collected negotiations pursu to article 14 of the Civil Service law were discussed please rise for the president ster the stands Nation indivisible andice okay we have a lot of people in there today um emergency evacuation upon activation of a fire alarm immediate evacuation to the closest emergency exit is required emergency exits and assembly areas are located on either side of the building over here and please exit away from the building so as not to interfere with the fire department and proceed to the evacuation areas please follow the directions of school officials and once assembled outside the building
002everyone must wait until an all clear is given by school official before re-entering the building thank you will the court please call the role car hin meanfield here Anastasia bis here James F McKenna here Monique proor here jacn Robinson here sh dead here and J Smith here does the clerk have any additions or deletions to the agenda yes the program presentation from Dr botcher on the tri States consor Consortium has been removed from the agenda okay thank you um the next Board of Education meeting will be held on Tuesday May 7th 2024 in the Intermediate School room and it will be a regular meeting immediately following the 2024 25 budget hearing at 6:30 a celebration of students and Community will be held this Wednesday April 17th at 6m at the elementary school all SC sis
003and shs families are invited to see students work for National poetry month the elementary school will present its spring concert on Thursday April 18th at 6m in the High School auditorium there will be no school for spring recess from April 22nd to 26 the district offices will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. each day nominating petitions petitions to run for a SE on the board of education will fill a term commencing July 1st 2024 and expiring on June 30th 2028 are now available by contacting the district clerk and completed petitions must be returned by 5:00 pm on Monday April 22nd um before we before we um um today it's a work session today so we do have a few items that need to be taken care of little housekeeping before we kind of
004get into the heart of the matter for which you all are here today and so I'm going to be moving up action items 7.02 to 7.04 7.05 as well as a consent agenda items 8.01 through 8.09 forward on tonight's agenda um um but we wanted to take some time to first of all thank everyone for all of their emails and phone calls and um and being here this evening Community engagement is really important so we are happy to have received all those messages and that you're here um and we'll take some time to kind of go over some timelines of the process Mr McKenna will kind of outline that view and then we will open it up for some questions and concerns okay also Dr foda Morel is here with us this evening and um
005she would like to speak with you all as well so before we move on to that portion of the meeting we're going to get through some of these um housekeeping items okay and it's just to get these done so that we can focus on the conversations and um have completed our work all right so may I have a motion to approve personal item 7.02 as presented in the agenda any further discussion no all in favor any opposed no okay so carried um 7.04 is the Eastern suff B 2024 2025 administrative budget and Mr McKennon did you well then we're talking the thing okay may have a motion to approve the following resolution with a no no we have to Mr mcken you need to going to talk to us about the candidates oh okay may
006have a motion to approve the following resolution with a roll call vote resolved that the Board of Education of the Southampton Union fre School District cast its vote to approve the administrative budget of the Eastern St Board of Cooperative Educational Services for 2024 2025 as indicated on the attached ballot motion second okay will the court please call the V for go car Conlin Wingfield yes Anastasia Gales yes James F McKenna yes Monique Proctor yes jaine Robinson soon with de yes and J yes it's so carried thank you everyone okay um Eastern suff Bose's Board election 20242 Mr Kenny what do you want to talk to us about candidates so there are five seats up for re election for the easn S foses board and there are two seats for two members of the board who
007have passed away since the last election so you're looking at the candidates in front of you there's one little catch to this this year and that is that two of the candidates are from the same district and by law only one of those candidates can sit on the on the on on the board so my recommendation would be that uh we go at the incumbents the that many of them have been on the board I myself have been on the board just for six years some of these people have been on the board for as much as 20 years so I would recommend that we go with the incumbents do you want to know who they are yes please all right so arene baresi um Joseph lyo myself Brian mey and Robert sweey now there
008is for the two other candidates one of them that I would recommend is a as a gentleman from the we Floyd District Angelo cerino who actually was a graduate of the us been suff with B's culinary school some years ago and certain that he'd be a great representative I think they have on the Bose board so I recommending K as well okay do we want okay so it's Arlene Bari Angelo caserino I don't happen um James McKenna Brian o and Robert P Sweeney does anybody have any questions or are we good to go with the incumbents question no okay so then may I have a motion to approve the the following resolution that I just read let me read that may I have a motion to approve the following resolution with a roll call vote
009resolve that the Board of Education of the Southampton Union preschool district cast its vote for the election of members to the east e suff Board of Cooperative Educational Services for the following persons indicated on the attached ballot alen baresi Angela caserino Joseph loo James McKenna Brian o and Robert P Sweeney second please any further discussion okay please call the r for the vote carfield Yes Anastasia gabales James F McKenna you can go for other people I guess yes monque proter jacn Robinson St Sherwood Dudley yes and jermine elith okay are there any consent agenda items from 8.01 through 8.09 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions about as presented in the agenda Adam president I'd like to make some clarification before you take a vote okay um so consent agenda items 8.02 to
0108.07 are transfers from um the special ed Department these type of transfers are pretty typical um within the budget all departments make transfer what make this different is um there are a number of of transfers here that are taken out of the um salary lines normally we don't move money from salary line to non-salary lines however because of the extending circumstance of um vendors that have to be paid we had to move some money out of those codes this year um many of the budget lines in the non salary were short so the uh andc conferences were made at the beginning of the year and we we're coming to a point in the year now that they're running out of money to pay some of the consultants and there are a couple of lines for
011um tuition payments that we have to make so we have to move money out of the salary lines and those are lines that we have estimated that will have money remaining for the rest of the year so it's okay to make those transfers so I just wanted to give you some clarification before you vote on it thank you for that clarifications any any questions on that okay I would like to pull 8.09 which is um the busing for ol while we are on break for discussion and separate action does anybody else have anything else okay I'm sorry madam president may I talk about I wanted to mention something about 8.08 and then I go on just give the board information about 8.09 okay so let's start with 8.08 um h here I ask you to
012um approve um a resolution where we decline State Ed's offer to participate in field testing as you know field testing is when the state sends us tests that they have not yet deemed um um deemed required by schools but they're they're testing out the test they're going through the process of getting gaining their validity and their their process to become mandated by the schools so rather than we've been we've had the practice over the past eight years of not particip field testing because we don't want to use our kids to just um satisfy something for the state when it doesn't when it goes against what we believe in so I have this resolution again for this year's um field test season which is starting soon for the board to consider so that's a resolution 8.08
013as I said we've done this for the past eight years any questions from the board okay the next resolution I'm sorry Mr Smith when is that when is that discussed with the board that decision or is just the decision that you're making solely your experiences well it was discussed initially with the board several years ago it's something that I annually bring up through a consent agenda okay so it was at a time I think um it was at a time when again we were trying to increase our numbers of students participating in mandated um 3 to eight testing and the field test were just taking so much time away from the students in the classroom we wanted to focus on the test that really provided us with data to help our students grow that is
014the initial discussion which led to the resolution each year I just think that the test the student should be testing so that we know where they are um correct I understand that but I I think it's just additional practice for students so I just want to voice my opinion on that that I don't necessarily agree with that okay um and if I can I'll move on to item 8.1 9 8.09 is a request from um a school within our district um a private school within our district who's requesting busing during the Spring Break um as you know our spring break and I'm talking about our lady of the Hamptons our spring break has never aligned with um O's schedule they go by the dicese calendar which typically has spring break the week after Easter and
015ours annually we follow the BOS calendar which is the week before Easter so busing so School we've never had synchronized breaks where they were together um the state regulation requires that public schools do not have to provide transportation to private schools when um the public school is not in session so we've never provided um transportation to LH there are some of their sending districts that are providing Transportation so the requests came in this year would we consider providing transportation to Southampton students who are attending ol during the spring break I gave you a fact sheet talking about um what it would require us to do in order to do that and my recommendation is that we not change our practice um unless you had very strict guidelines on changing it because my concern is that
016as I said the calendars have never aligned there are also holidays outside of spring break that we have off that OAS does not have off so I don't want it to turn into something that expands into something larger than that we also bust to two other private schools that have very different calendars than ours too so I want to make sure that um we're giving each of the schools that we bu to the same consideration for request um to provide busing when we're closed so my concern is that be setting a precedent that I'm not sure the district does want to enter and there is some financial implications as well so for those Reasons I'm recommending we don't change the practice however if you feel um if you would like to provide busing this year
017because um of the request um I would recommend that you make sure it's non precedent setting and it's a one-year event so you can consider it early next year for for for future years anybody questions sure yes Dr Dino you mentioned that these calendars have not aligned in the past correct we've not had this request in the past I have not but superintendent has not I'm sorry solution other years that we didn't transport others correct correct correct well aware of our calendar when we yes when we adop so they're aware of it so what do you think change this year why are we being asked this year um one of the things I think because the breaks aren't aren consecutive weeks I think because Passover and Easter were so far away from each other so
018I think it's a whole separate break I think when it aigns closer to the holiday parents are a little bit better with it because if they're traveling whatever it doesn't bother them so much but I think the fact I think 50% of the time Passover in Easter are spread apart like they are this year and so I think it's a bigger issue for parents this year than it has been on other off years are there other busing compan Harbor or what does s eastampton do um East Hampton Sag Harbor and brid Hampton do not bus Hampton Bay Riverhead and tucko do bus during the break two of those districts have busing companies it's not the wrong employees um that are providing that they're providing the busing for you know how many students we bus to
019we have 35 this year that weest of AG okay what's the cost the cost is between 3500 and 4,000 dollars depending on which drivers um volunteer to come in to do the routes um and also requires us to cancel the vacations of two of our transportation employees who plan vacations for that week as well who need to be there for the office to be open to run the buses I'm sorry one of the two would have to Cel either the dispat or the super so wouldn't this be one of the years to since they are spread apart to consider that that exception to the and you bring up the one employee I feel bad about that person there's no there's no one that could step in um well they plan their vacation this year we
020asked them to plan when school's not in session so they both plan vacations this year there's still one those are the two who could St in for each other are the ones who have planned vacations um again if you just if you wanted to do it this year because of this the distance between hover and Easter you know that's your choice but I would just say that you put parameters in place so the so the private schools understand it's not an annual thing it's something you're giving for this exception because of the distance between the two holidays can you put a substitute bus driver in place it or only no they're not bus drivers it's the transportation supervisor and the dispatchers the people who have to oh be in the office while the buses are
021out there question transporting 35 students [Music] yes I we should transp I think okay so can I just m yes I'd like to we on this one again we provide services to the propio school for Health Services we provide them for um I guess there other things we might send speech some of the other special education services so it seems to me this could just be consistent we're talking $3,500 in an $80 million budget and it just it seems like at least at this point there's no good de goes unpunished but at least at this point I think we should honor this I have to really look into why we wouldn't do this in the future so I would vote in favor um I just would like to make a comment also that um our
022calendar has been out since when last February and this past week this became an emergency um I feel a little bit that it's poor planning I do think that every child needs to have a ride to school uh however you know I just think that their emergency became our problem at the last second when they knew what our calendar was that this could have been brought up before people had vacations in place and uh yeah so that's my [Applause] thought okay yes I'm super concerned of setting president and I think that we have to consider this as a board um and and see to it that if we're doing it for this week for whatever reason these parents are used to driving their kids when school public school is out I just think we have
023to just not say yes or no we we definitely have to put language in place that protects if if that's the majority votes you just have to put language in place that that we we did you know we did everything right we planned our calendar we shared it this has been going on year after year and it seems um that this past week or two it's it's come to our attention and you know it's a hard call because of course you want you want the children to be serviced but at the same token I think that parents know already that when public school is closed they not getting busing correct yeah can I can I just ask another question do we bust to Hay ground or Bross or any of those schools as well do
024we when we're closed anytime no but we do bust the H ground we do bust the r those are the other two private schools that we do sent to but again we've never buzzed when our district has been closed right so I agree with Mrs Gales that this could start a precedent of everybody wanting us you know again kids need to get to school I appreciate that but I'm also thinking about the depart the transportation Personnel that have made plans already for their vacations and this is coming up last minute I mean kids should have arriv to school and if you could do it but now you've got two people who are on vacation and what does that mean right that are in um supervisory roles I I you know I'm sure a bus driver
025that is not going on vacation or has any plans this vacation maybe they would appreciate the extra work but um something and just for the board's knowledge again we did see if there's a way we could consolidate the three runs but logistically where students are living and the times that are needed to pick them up and not keep kids on the bus for an extended amount of time our transportation director wasn't able to combine it to decrease it from three runs to two runs to lower the cost it still wouldn't change the the desire that we have to have a supervisor in place um and keep the buses on the road it would just decrease the cost a little bit increase theor Daniel just one more question the um payr school and raw school do
026they follow the same calendar like do they adopt southon schools no they don't they have they very okay thank you okay if everyone has asked the questions we'll do a roll call vote okay I'm going to um we'll go so are there any consent agenda items 8.01 through 8.08 that any member wishes to discuss or has questions as presented in the agenda are there any consent agenda items 8.01 through 8.09 that any member wishes to hold out for separate action as presented in the agenda if without objection consent agenda items 8.01 through 8.09 and hereby 8.08 are approved hereby approved as presented in the agenda okay may I have a separate may I have a motion to approve no so we're going to do a roll call we'll do a roll call for consent agenda
0278.09 all right quick please call the [Music] r have a motion second please all in favor oh yeah I'm sorry carfield yes Ania Gonzalez no James F McKenna yes Monique proxer yes Jac Robinson no no regrettably Jermaine El Smith yes that's four or one two four yeses okay so carried question of how do we follow up is it something that we have to write up with the stipulation of just you know not setting a precedent because that's what I'm most concerned about and yes I'll write a letter to sister Kathy to inform her and that's all that's needed it would probably go to the dases as well as okay we are going to move on to the public comments portion of the meeting and before we just before we do that though I would like
028Mr McKenna to um to um describe and explain our process and how we got here today and then we can have the public come up to and ask questions or share their thoughts okay thank you madam president I'm looking around the room and there are 100 150 people maybe in the room I don't know who really knows all the basics of this story so if you bear with me forgive me I'm going to take a few minutes to try to lay out uh how we got to this point tonight I did not have time to do anything formal so I have a bunch of papers that I spent some hours scribbling on so forgive me if I kind of ramble a little bit I'll try to keep it as go eive as I can so
029I want to begin because we did receive a sustainable substantial number of uh emails to look at the board look at jine anasia Monique Jackie Cara myself I'm sorry in the middle um we all this is a diverse board uh of gender of age and of ethnicity we all bring different perspectives to this decision we all have different constituent groups that support us we may not always agree on everything and God knows I think publicly we've had we've seen our internal strife but regardless the primary focus for our decisions has always been about the students of the south camp School District there's a woman that I knew uh she's now passed away Roberta rgen she was a consultant through bosies and she was the director of the council for prejudice reduction she was kind of
030a mentor of mine and she taught me early on that school isn't complicated you want kids to learn well stay safe participate and graduate I'll say that again because it's really kind of a catch sign learn well stay safe participate and graduate and all the adult decisions that we make when we talk about whether it be the budget whether it be about curriculum revisions or the tri state which we're not discussing tonight or the hiring of the superintendent they all need to be focused on how we can best help our students to learn well stay safe participate and graduate the announcement that came out last week concerning the appointment uh or proposed appointment of Dr morale she's a seized administrator with 30 years of educational experience she's received the national board School boards Association 2003
031Magnum award Buffalo excellence and education 2003 Trailblazer of the Year award she's recognized by Time Magazine as a national Innovative teacher in 2022 the national Center of systemic Improvement of special education she was a leader in that and she was a member of the New York State Board of region blue written Commission on graduation measures she's also an advisor to the New York State education department culturally responsive sustaining uh sustaining education she's an intelligent bilingual motivating person so we need to know who and what it is I think we're talking about I read almost every one of the emails that came in I'm sure the rest of the board has as well some of the people in this room I probably know and probably some of the people in this room I might have Ted
032a long time ago what I call for many of you that are here tonight is that we need to people close by saying they're coming here tonight to listen to understand more about the selection process the candidate that were proposing for appointment but then other people said it was a divice of candidate people told us that they were uncomfortable with the controversy surrounding this appointment people said that we weren't listening the concerns fall on De ears I have to address that one because we asked for input in the qualities for a successful superintendent and a survey that went out to the community back in December the I think people need to understand that the board interviews the board interviewed the Comm with the community was never going to be a vote on the candidate the
033seven members of the board are elected by the community to make that decision three jobs of the Board of Education are to set policy to overlook the finances of the district and to select and work with the superintendent him or her to address the priorities of the district but going back people said to us in the emails that they wanted us to postpone our decision to cancel our vote some had even been a little bit sharp how could you make such a bad decision let me get personal aside from Dr Dino our retiring superintendent and maybe Jee Mano and Jamie Bower who the assistant superintendent to work closely with Dr Dino I am the only person in this room who understands the job of the superintendent of schools since I was one let's put the
034job of the superintendent schools in perspective it's exhausting physically mentally emotionally it's not for the faint of heart last October we began the process of trying to select this superintendent and we chose e suff bosies to help us do the coordination and so we had asked the community for um some input as to what did the C what would that candidate look like and so we just read it here so that you know what it is that we we were looking for the professional background we wanted somebody who could develop and Implement policies and practices related to diversity equity and inclusivity we want to some a diverse background of leadership positions at the building and the district level proven success in implementing educational programming that narrows student achievement gaps while forcing a culture of accountability
035background in supporting English language Learners experience as a classroom teacher teacher strong knowledge of the budget process with a focus on fiscal responsibility will meeting the needs of diverse student body and while meeting the diverse student body and meeting the social and emotional needs of students and staff personal characteristics somebody who Fosters collaboration among stakeholders inspires compassion and empathy within the school Community clear and consistent Communicator confident and positive leader engaging and empower all within the community and cultivating a productive resolution to conflict last October we began the process and the we also asked in the survey about what would you consider priorities for the district and just some of the answers because roughly 150 to 200 people responded to the survey we heard about reading scores we heard about more emotional social emotional learning
036education and and uh development consistency they wanted us to help raise L uh phras student achievement he talked about the Dual language program better communication I think across the board and equity for all so David Wix who's the chief operating officer for bosies was the person who is was coordinating our efforts he's been with poses for seven years as the district superintendent and he's now been promoted to Chief Operating Officer I want to make one comment because there were a couple uh remarks made in the emails we received that bosis had its finger on the scale during this process nothing could be further from the truth what Dave did was he he uh um coordinated the meetings with with the different constituent groups and he certainly met several times with the board so we could
037have all this prepared in a professional manner and and and publish in a timy fashion we did receive some complaints that uh that the meetings weren't the best states we knew that we were trying to do this a little before Christmas and conflicted it got a little Clos to the Christmas holiday the complaint was we didn't give everybody enough time but everybody knew since this Summer that Dr din was retiring and that's the best you know Dave isn't just working for us he's working for E suff poses which is several thousand kids Dave Wicks met with 18 applicants for this position he met with all 18 because he was vetting them basically for their credentials could they did they have the the uh certificates in order to to do this job let alone if he
038had the experience that' be necessary they helped us narrow the field to six candidates for the first set of inws they were on February 5th and February 7th from that number number we narrowed it down to interviewing four candidates which we met again with on February 27th we would did something that most districts have never done in fact I don't think anybody's ever done it and we decided rather than just question and answers we actually had the four candidates do a TED Talk and if you're not familiar with a TED talk it's a motivational presentation 15 minutes in length based on a particular topic and the topic we chose had to do with the multiple pathways for graduation for a graduation diploma I will give a personal note here that when Mrs uh um our
039candidate wanted to uh when she was finished with the presentation I just wanted to be a better educator it made me that motivated I said after 50 years of doing this you'd think wow she really hit a nerve with me on March the 5th we did something else that the the board has not uh that other boards have not done and then as we did a presentation uh we had a group of about 35 constituent members from the district from the administration the teachers teacher assistants clerical secretaries Transportation Etc students and and parents and they had another question and answer session um and it was at that point that the board took the we we called some uh uh feedback from them and at that point we sat down said all right so what do
040we want to do next this was a fair competitive process we decided that night on on um March the 5th that we would make a decision let me take a second and talk about our district Dr Dino has been trying to do this for several years but I'm not convinced everybody understands our district our district now with about students has a population of roughly and don't hold me if I have my numbers wrong here but about 48% Hispanic 7% shinika 2% African-American and the rest being a couple percentage points being people that didn't respond to a particular choice and the rest would be Caucasian she would be Dr moral would be a role model for minority students to emulate bilingual background would be such a plus we can't minimize the shinika controversy that's been brewing
041it's not going to go away we need to manage it we need to understand it we need to address it the data truly tells us that they're not wrong when we look at discipline equal opportunity and courses and being treated fairly but of course that goes for all students as well let's just just take a second and and talk about the background that um Dr Morell comes from she's from the city of of Buffalo which I believe is the second largest city in the state of New York is I think 70 rather 80 to 90% African-American and when she was involved in writing the culturally relevant curriculum the name is the Emancipation curriculum think of the population that it was being written for and I actually went online and downloaded some of that material so
042I can see what is it that people were saying and quite frankly it has some things in here that are quite interesting and I could see it's very diverse and it really has some things that rep that mention unrepresented populations and we all know that when kids see something or read something hear something that's like themselves they'll do better in school Dei diversity equity inclusivity it really is all students are given an opportunity in a safe welcoming and inclusive environment again learn well stay safe participate and graduate in a safe welcoming and inclusive environment what's happened I believe is that diversity Equity inclusivity is morphed into the politics politics of our time black lives matter critical race Theory and all those politically hot topics let me just address for a second the lawsuits that were
043mentioned we' have spoken to our attorney who's done a little investigative work with things um so in 2005 there was a case about 20 years ago defamation and acting with malice it was for a teacher and an evaluation um basically uh some of that was thrown out of court and there was a settlement that's not uncommon in situations like that where rather letting it drag on there's a settlement in 2019 there was another case that came up but it was originated in 2007 2009 it was a sexual assault case and eventually somehow we back to again I didn't get a chance to proof read all of this so I'm just going to kind of cherry pick a little bit but uh when it when it finally got to Dr Mell was being uh interviewed on
044this she mentioned about there there would have been improper kissing by a plaintiff to a teacher that was witnessed by a c by janitor and uh the student and the parents denied it and therefore the docet replace that the case is still open but that case hasn't been settled yet I hope hope that I've just tried to present a picture how we got here tonight there's so much involved I do jigs puzzles as a as a hobby and there are many many pieces to this jiga puzzle I've been as open and as transparent it hurts me deeply when I get an email that says that the board has not been transparent and open in the process we've tried to record a board meetings we put things out there for the community input some people took
045advantage of it some people did the board is here tonight to listen as we begin this process uh tonight where we're going to listen to your questions your concerns some of those things maybe I've mentioned some of them maybe I haven't so that we can at least have some consistent norms and and protocols for tonight first all we'd like to hear what each speaker has to say whatever question or comment please we need come to the microphone state your name so we know who're we're listening to we've kind of decided as a board that we really don't want to get into a verbal pingpong during this public comment session but I think might be best uh would be that uh um if it's simple maybe somebody asked a question and we can answer with a
046yes or no that that's easy but if there's going to be a response I think we want to give everybody a chance to put their questions out so kind of see what the questions are so that the board would have maybe a better way of uh responding to them I'm going to ask you to try to keep the three minutes if that's possible and I ask you to be respectful um when you come to the to the microphone again I have to go back and put a face on it look at us do we look like we got up to make a bad decision or to do something what hurt this community so please be respectful of us Dr Morel has agreed that at some point at the end here she will speak um maybe
047to answer some of your questions I thought so we'll see how this goes but maybe at that point if we had more like a town hall type of meeting where if somebody had another question she could answer it and then someone else asked a question uh but we'll see we don't want to be here all night um the board may take a short recess at some point later this evening so that we can all kind of least process what we've heard before we make any decision on what we'll do next I thank you for listening to me I'm sorry I'm long thank you from my listening to my monologue um do any of the other board members maybe want to fill in any parts of the story or say something that may omitted or state
048accurately yeah I I would like to say can you hear me [Music] um Mr McKenna stated that our data is um reflects the situation that we've been in in this district for several years and and that that data I I if any I think many of you know me out here in the audience um I don't sugarcoat things I tell the truth I think the $80 million budget was mentioned and I think that when you have a school district with this budget that performs out of 635 districts in the state around 370 360 380 one of the and correct me if I'm wrong one of the lowest performing districts in the area overall not just shinok students there's something wrong with that picture and I think that again going back to me being on this
049board me having friends and and people that I love from all walks of life um me coming on to this board was about the children and we had an extensive search you know with bosies on candidates and I felt that we came to the correct choice I would never I have two daughters I also have a pretty good background in technology and I know how information can spread I know how misin information can spread I know how quickly people can get fired up on the Internet we've all been through the last you know five or six seven years I would never ever ever put any child in horms way in this District or any district and when we came to this conclusion I felt it was the right one we could pull out lawsuits from
050this District over the years we're in lawsuits when principles are the head of a building they may or may not get named in that lawsuit when superintendant are at the head of the the district they may or may not get named in that that lawsuit it happens we have you know one of those emails talked about um I it was a Facebook post talked about the district numbers and how the district is dwindling and each month Dr Dino gets up and shows the enrollment numbers I don't think since I've been on the board um it's been mentioned that almost 50 shinik students now attend the tuo school district it's about $25 million a year in our Southampton budget that goes to C they're thriving and they should be thriving here at Southampton as well but
051there was no outcry when Southampton lost almost 50 students to T and I would have loved to see this when now was and and is an issue in 2019 when I got on Council shinik tribal counsil there was one student from shinik going to Tel one student I did not promote I don't ask people to go to takaho if someone comes to me tomorrow and says hey I'm signing my student up in the second grade at Southampton I said great let me tell you who to talk to but parents decided in 2019 after touring tuo they wanted to send their kids there and that number grew where was the outcry when that happened instead year after year we get numbers that are below part if we have a a student a white male student a
052white female student that is going to be entering Georgetown University I think there be should be 10 10 more of those students from Southampton you know attending that college or Yale or Harvard and that's not happening and so when we sit here tonight and we have such a huge crowd and we throw stones in a glass house for those of you who know me I want you to think about my caring for for students of all walks of life I worked in this District as a teacher's aid I worked in this District as a TA in the summertime because they wouldn't hire me as a Ta full time and many of my favorite students were young kids not from chin and that's where I grew to love education was my experience with these kids and
053now I have two daughters at A T Taco 11 and seven and maybe one day they'll attend Southampton and we shouldn't be hiding behind rainbows and butterflies and I just wanted to get that out there you know we we've I I believe this would be a first um as a superintendent in this District a person of color I've set on several hiring committees throughout the years I have never ever ever picked a person because of the color of their skin one way or the other and I didn't start this year without the morale we've had teachers in this District who are now administrators in other states people of color because they wouldn't get hired here in Southampton we have again correct me if I'm wrong Dr Dino we have fired more white males in the
054district for drug offenses than we've hired people people of color males in the classroom over the last 25 years we do not have one male teacher teaching math English science social studies that is a person of color in the entire District it's okay to teach shinika kids Latino kids African-American kids to dribble a basketball because we have three gym teachers that are people with color but it's not okay to put per people with color especially males in the classroom it's not okay that our leaders are people of color and again I'll go back to if Dr Morell was not the right choice I wouldn't have put my name forward to have her move forward and so I want everyone to think about that tonight and thank [Applause] you um I just want to start out
055by saying that uh there's I was really disappointed by the community input when we had our meetings and we invited everybody in the community to come and meet with Dave Wicks and express your opinions and what you wanted to see in a superintendent and not one person not one person from this community that's here tonight came to that meeting it's disgraceful I just want to say I um I have not been happy with the process from the beginning everybody on the board knows that uh I think that we had a nice meeting that unfortunately I was not able to attend because I have a private uh commitment that I could not change a prior commitment excuse me um it left me at a disadvantage I wasn't able to interact with community members when I brought
056up some questions that people asked me via text um I was dismissed um they no I you know everybody has their their thoughts so anyway the long and the short of it is I have not been happy with this process and uh that's where I am today up to public comments um I just want to ask the board is everybody okay if um we don't stick to the three minute rule but we just ask that everybody be as brief as possible so that everybody has an opportunity to speak is everybody okay with that Monique yeah okay all right then um I'm just going to send a reminder all speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner obscene language Lio statements F of violence and statements advocating racial just or other forms of prejudice will
057not be tolerated and um please come up and state your name and um ask your questions or make any contributions that you'd like to share thank you hi thank you um I'll try to step away um I'm Abby Russell I'm a parent in the elementary school I'm also on the PTO Board of the elementary school um was part of the joint unanimous letter uh written by the PTO Boards of the three buildings High School Intermediate and um Elementary uh to the board which we received no response to um I would like to say that when I first I think it was Friday morning got the email about your intended choice I was like wow she seems amazing I went on Google and did a quick search and was overwhelmed with the amount of controversy surrounding
058your choice yeah I was overwhelmed with the amount of controversy thank you uh surrounding your choice your choice is named as a defendant in a pending lawsuit by the New York State as having potentially broken New York state law for not having reported sexual abuse alleged sexual abuse in a building under her care learn well what is it learn well stay safe participate and graduate well if you want to talk about learn well your choice is from one of the worst performing districts in New York state I believe that the Buffalo Public Schools data of metrics and academic testing which you're just talking about um is between 20 and 30% at some levels that I've read so if our first objective in this in the in our hamlet in our town of Southampton is to
059teach our children well and have metrics that continue you know somebody on the board just talked about field testing and how they advocating field testing if we want our kids to be tested and want them to perform well why are we bringing in a new superintendent from a district where they're not performing well I also stay [Applause] safe stay safe as a parent that's my number one priority I don't care about grades or testing if my child is not safe [Applause] now all of the accolades that your choice received many of them you you had listed were in 2003 well her suit against her for defamation with malice was in 2007 now I realized that that was dropped but if you're hiring somebody to communicate across barriers and bring people together why is your choice
060being sued for defamation of character with malice I mean yes people get sued or named in suits for various reasons and obviously we have to evaluate everything but but then there's another one where she's not um protecting the students under her care in a building that she is the administrator of and I now I come to this with literally got through email and did a Google search so I'm hearing from the board today that you're look you said you had your lawyer looking into this lawsuit information and you look through it and you think it's still pending were you doing that due diligence while you were doing the um hiring process while you were doing the interviewing process were you aware that your candidate was being sued for potentially having broken New York state law
061for failure to protect a student under her [Music] care that's what I'm talking about in terms of due diligence and if you Outsource the due diligence to David Wicks or who whoever you did at Bose's but at a certain point are you going to look up the people that you're reporting to hire to represent the entire community and as far as this community it is a beautiful diverse Community with I mean we are thr thrilled as a community to be here everybody I talk to uh you know we're we're a community of Strivers we're trying to achieve and to and to become better in all the ways and it's important to have role models and templates for you know education excellence and also good behavior and if you're speaking to people with malice and you're
062not protecting students in a your building that to me is not a good role model that is issue number one safety and as far as learning well i' I'd be interested to know what are the metrics put in place for um academic Excellence you know if the school school system that is is so good from the place where you know your choice is coming from did she send her children there I'm curious thank [Applause] you hey J are you going to correct that the dates so the awards were from 2023 not 2003 just so you know and she's currently in 2022 and she is currently Dr m is currently working in Buffalo so if they were concerned with her legally I don't believe she would still be working there um or receive those Awards in
063National recognition I prefer we're not going to go into it back and forth you know you made your statement you corrected the dates you you yourself said the dates when your introductions you listed a number of dates from 2003 there was one award from 2020 later 2022 2021 2022 which had nothing to do with sorry Hi good evening all um of the feedback problem my name is Will hussy I'm a long time uh lifelong Long Island resident I have three small children in the elementary school here um a Pre-K student um first grader and a third grader and I would just like to start by applauding the elementary school team Dr Fernandez and all the teachers there they do an amazing fantastic job I really am amazed um with the product that my children bring
064home on a daily basis particularly Charlotte my youngest she's actually writing her name now and she's um in prek and she has a long name with a lot of letters so um thank you everyone for your time this is uh a new venue for me um I try to really focus on my private life and my career Etc um my wife is actually a first grade educator um so I'm kind of somewhat exposed to the educational system um and I I definitely empath empathize and understand the challenges that all of you folks go through um it's not an easy time in our our lives and our worlds to to educate children and to raise children um I think technology and social media has really introduced a new aspect um into all of our lives that
065we're going to have to deal with um but I I think the majority of us are here tonight because we have a really strong foundational um a foundational belief in how we should treat other human beings um and how we should interact with our fellow citizens um as I mentioned I'm a long Islander by nature and I'm a kid of the 80s and 90s as I think a lot of my my cohorts are here and I mean we we grew up in Multicultural world I mean look at the look at this clly look at this this room here there's Flags I was looking at these signs up here you except every choice different languages so you know when I was informed of the decision um to bring Dr Morell in as the new superintendent the
066first I'll be completely transparent the first exposure I had was a New York Post article um there was a author Chris rufo I think had done an inves ative journalist type um piece and it was relatively uh contrary to I think some of Dr morel's teaching and it was somewhat frictional um and and when I read that I really tried to take a step back and say you know I really need to think about this in a objective standpoint um because obviously I'm a 47y old white male and Dr Morel is I don't know your age but a black female um and so I think race has been a part of this consideration or maybe that's the wrong term race has become a part of this conversation and when I did some further research I
067guess you could call it you know I think we all do the Google research these days um I pulled up some interviews that Dr Morel had conducted and that's when I really started to kind of formulate my opinion and my concern about primarily the curriculum um the previous speaker mentioned safety I Dro my kids off at school every day um because my wife is a teacher so she's out of the house at 700 a.m. I have my three children in the morning get them fed dressed to school drop them off and and the last thing that I do when I walk away from that school is I kind of look back at the door and I know that those kids are safe and that's the most important thing right so I think to provide these
068children with an an environment of safety um not only physical safety but educational safety personal safety the ability to express themselves safely uh is Paramount right and I think that's what we all want for our children and what what concerned me was when I was exposed and and listened to some of the interviews that Dr Morel had given was it seems to be that her emancipation curriculum comes from a position or a foundation of of black lives matter um and in the interest of time I'm just going to go off some of my notes Here problematizing whiteness and the the concept that there is per pervasive systemic racism throughout our educational system in our society um and and to be honest I mean I think again if you look around this room I know there's
069interpersonal issues and people have problems but I I don't think color again I'm a white guy so it's easy for me to say this but you know if you look at our national the success nationally um of politicians business people athletes entertainers it's it's really it's such a broad I I don't I think it's backward looking is really my concern and when I think about a higher to replace Dr Dino who I haven't really had much interaction with because again my children in the elementary school I think it should come from a foundation of broad science Arts Engineering language astronomy travel there's such an infinite amount of possibilities that you could build a curriculum around and my fear is that we're going somewhat backwards um I applaud Dr Morell um I didn't I don't think
070I'm supposed to address you personally but um I've been an entrepreneur in my life I've tried to start companies I've tried to launch certain Ventures I know how hard it is to get something new out in the world and you created this curriculum and and got it out into the world which is is amazing I just don't think it's the right foundation and the right platform to to support a school system Elementary intermediate High School moving forward I it may be the right platform elsewhere I just don't think it's the right platform for our children to be be exposed to moving forward I think there's other I think there's probably better candidates and and I had a question question about the candidates you addressed it earlier but in the interest time I do want to
071give other people the opportunity to speak but that's fundamentally is my concern is I have a four-year-old a seven-year-old a nine-year-old I don't think they should be problematizing their whiteness um so the irony the irony of the curriculum is lost on me I I it's it's inherently racist is my is my thought so um that's my that I'd like to just I guess close with that is I think there's a broader scope or structure or Foundation or platform that a curriculum should be built around moving forward to help our kids into the next Century thank you [Applause] you're uh Kevin Elisa I'm a 40y year retire in South Public Schools I just retired last year I don't want to go tip fortat but the gentleman in front of me I can you know understand where
072you where you're coming from but I was next in line you walk right like I didn't exist just went to the mic show where we're at show where we're at but the thing is what what I'm trying to say is that a lot of things happen happen in my 40 years a lot of the the lawsuits that the district had you know I I more or less talk with a lot of superintendent before that you know I was good friends with everybody there the thing is what we're looking for right now is move forward and I have a lot of friends in the audience I may not have none at the end of the day but the thing is I think this district is afraid to move forward with someone of color that's that's like
073because you're basically that I mean all the losses that we've had and I can name but I don't want to name them all all the all the prior issues we had was with colored administrators principles assistant principles they was all they was hired voted on approved and then we get some family in the district that's higher up than everybody else and we've had assistant principales reprimand a student you talk about safety we've had people in this district with their kids was was doing drugs and selling drugs in a school district the prin of color repr man suspended him and next me know he was quiet and then all the sudden you go into a lawsuit and the just law a lawsuit and I didn't say he went back to doct Bruno I was saying listen
074this this was like a old priz fighter you jump in the ring you ain't won a fight in 20 rounds and we we're trying to get someone in place that can help us move forward and everyone who at their backgrounds it happens all the time something always comes out of the back and and it sneaks up on us regardless of their credentials their qualifications it always seems to stop the process even though they're doing a good job you may have one or two families in this District that will go against it and that you know you you're in a lawsuit let's try to work together you talk about diversity let's work together together if you're you're white you're black you're Hispanic if you can do the job let's move forward and do the job we
075we we can't keep focus on who's who in the community let's focus on doing the best we can for our kids like Miss Mr Smith said we got a lot of kids going to T we got a lot of kids leaving this district and I always say this with we are the wealthiest District of Long Island whether you believe it or not with a $80 million budget with the number of students we have we are the richest District on the East stand well what do we do we come here because this one we don't like this one we don't like that one when are we going to focus on what's doing best for the kids we got to keep moving forward regardless of like I say regardless of what color you are we got to
076do the best that we can for the kids thank you good evening my name is mar Randall and I am a graduate of South Anton high school and three of my children have graduated from South Southampton High School and I am a citizen of the shinok Indian nation and the person that made the comment that whiteness is not problematic is uninformed and I just needed to speak to that because what is whiteness what exactly is that so the idea that a thing called whiteness exist is in fact a problem and it goes directly to the founding of this nation unless you are indigenous to this country you come from another country where you are you so you have an ethnicity whiteness exists because of white supremacy because of racism because of colonialism and those are
077facts I asked somebody please define whiteness for me what is whiteness whiteness goes directly to white supremacy and the construct of this country so what you need in this in this community is an understanding of what whiteness is and if we have someone at the table who can break that down for this community and educate this community then we will be in a better place because whiteness is a construct we are the skin color that we are because of melanin in the skin that science whiteness is not science whiteness is created for a reason to benefit some at the expense of others and it plucks my nerves so we have somebody who's educated on on it and can educate our community and improve our understanding of what we are as human beings yet are we
078are e people of ethnicity not of a race race was created for a reason and if you're person of color be clear it was not created to benefit you and if you're a person who's not of color if you have less melanin in your skin that system was created to benefit you so in terms of whiteness being problematic it is in fact problematic and we need to fix it [Applause] good evening my name is delosa I'm a parent in the district not here to talk about race or politics Dr Morel I'm very sorry that you're here for this this evening um two days ago began an onslaught of information which most of us have not had an opportunity to digest so I'm one of the people that emailed asking for everyone to just slow down
079let's do a little more homework let's get everyone a little bit more comfortable so that if Dr Morel does get into our community she's welcome with open arms during my time as a parent in this District we've had a superintendent that lived in the administrative building we've had an assistant principal that was homeless and a menace and due diligence was not done for either one of those individuals in an appropriate way I have nothing but respect for this board I know how hard you all work and I know that every single person is up there to benefit our children and I appreciate that I just think in this case we got a little off track we just need to slow down and examine the situation further and make everyone a little more comfortable but I
080do think that you have tremendous background but when you go online and you read about you we might not be getting who you are so I would just like an opportunity to know who you are okay thank you hello Melissa Ary I grew up here school here and I love everybody equally you know me you know that um like everybody said we' read things online that were a little bit disturbing I'm mixed background my mother's Dominican my father is American I don't see I'm I know it's controversial but I don't see people by color I just don't I see you by your character who you are what you put for so when I read that all white people are responsible for systemic racism I I am not responsible for that so that bothered me a
081little because like I said I love you all I love everybody equally so I don't want my kid to learn that because she's never been Tau that at home I I just that really that's what stuck with me I that bothered me because it's wrong I think it's wrong to teach a child that because they're going to go home feeling guilty that their skin isn't darker like I don't I don't to little children who are trying to navigate going to school going to middle school is hard enough to have to be in school and to then have that put on top of it if that's what is going to be taught that that concerns me so I would love to hear what you have to saying to get to know you and know why this
082Choice was made but I but that is the thing that stuck with me because like I said I'm a mixed child so I like everybody equally there's no I don't have a bias against anybody individually so that's all I want to [Applause] say hi everybody Laura WI I have a daughter in fourth grade Audrey for those of you who know me I come from a different place with all of this I didn't want to turn this into a race issue but I have a Chinese daughter she is check the other box so we're talking about every race but we didn't mention Chinese we didn't mention Asian not offended by that at all not offended by it at all bringing it up because because I'm not offended by it I'm raising my daughter to be a
083human being she's not defined by her origin we as white parents decided to adopt her and before we did we spoke to therapists about it to make sure that we were making the best decision for a child who was not Caucasian we wanted to make sure that she was not going to grow up and resent us for not being able to follow through on her culture it was a big decision we spoke to a lot of Professionals in the community we also had adoptions in for children of color latino children African-American children children from the islands we were accepted by a lot of parents that decided to adopt their children out to us two of the Whit colored people you've ever seen and they all said the same thing we love you as a human
084being we love the two of you because of your kindness and your acceptance when we first came from China we weren't sure if Audrey was going to have any developmental delays we weren't sure if there was going to be any longterm effects of her adoption at you know she was two years old so you never know what's going to happen and we met with the lovely teachers and the board at the public school when she was two years old to interview the school and that's usually what you do with private schools but I felt the need to get an understanding of where they stood my first daughter who's biological is American she's white so this was new to me and I wanted to make sure that I had the tools and that I was equipped
085to come that racism if I ever was faced with it I have never been faced with it yet never and when we made the decision not to send her to private school and to send her to public school it was because of the diversity it was because we wanted her to be with Children of every race and every socioeconomic background that was our choice that we thought was the best choice for her and when this gentleman before talked about safety when I watch her leave my car every morning I reach for my metal around my neck and I thank God that she's walking into a safe building never a guarantee but I know who's running the show and I know they have our best interest at heart with that said uh last year a child
086told my daughter that she had flat nose and everyone that was around me said oh my goodness they know was a racial slur I said who's not a racial slur she has a flat nose they said it to her as a little person that just said your nose is flat so I didn't say to my daughter oh my goodness we need to take it up with the principal we need to start talking to parents and make an issue of this I said to her you have a beautiful nose it's perfect it's the nose I've always wanted the color of her skin is the color of the skin I've always wanted the color of her eyes the children tell her she has black eyes they say when they tell you that you tell them that your
087eyes are mochaccino and now that's what she tells them I'm teaching her to accept herself so that others will accept her but in parting with this I I belong to a few Boards out here I'm not going to mention the names of the organizations and I co-chair several um benevolent events out here and when I am interviewing people to be um on the board or to be an executive director of the um the foundation which we've had to do I Google them first and I just don't take the the first Google that comes up I go all the way down and then I cross reference it to make sure that somebody would have a bre because that could happen too and what Disturbed me and we're here to hear what the truth is what Disturbed
088me is that I don't want anybody no matter what color shape or they are to divide our children don't we all worked too hard we try to do the best that we can every day from every background from every socioeconomic background we all have a story to tell just because some of us look like we have perfect lives does not mean that we do we have struggles some of us have very big struggles so I think we need to support one another and we need to hear the facts tell us the facts and then we'll render a decision obviously it's not our decision but we'll render an opinion and hopefully it will all be taken into consideration and all of our children each and every one of them will be protected and heard thank you
089how you doing um Sean Smith visit teacher health teacher in sis um sou graduate and member of the shin Nation um so first of all Dr Mor welcome South um I wish you had a welcoming similar to the other ministrators that we have here um so it's a little disheartening um working this District year after year and seeing the issues we have here U many of you may have seen me speak here many times um I'm always open book I teach many of your children I love working I love the kids um but it's a little dis hardening that we're talking about certain lawsuits now I don't know how many of you guys know but we've had plenty of lawsuits here in Southampton very recently they've been public they've been in the paper we had
090two administrators I at the board meting we had two administrators here both looking for jobs one was fired one was congratulated let them finish the year so obviously we knew he was applying for jobs because he got the job and finished the year up um but the reason it's not an open case here is we paid people off again it's public it's in newspaper you look it up um but when that happened I didn't see this group coming to speak up about it um maybe just didn't home for some of you um but for me it at home and I have a job so it doesn't affect me I want so when I come here and speak about these issues it's not for me I have a job I'm not looking for M but I
091care about the kids um I was speaking to a young man just the other day and we were young men that I meant to her and we went to get something to eat after school and we didn't even talk about uh Dr morell's appointment but the kids all saw it so it's a high school student and he says oh my god did you see the news of Dr Morell getting a job and I said yeah I said and he was I can't believe that actually happened he was so amazed and cool astonished that someone he could identify with was going to be leaving our school district that matters that matters I don't know how many of you know but like what it feels like to not have that I went to school here K to
09212 I didn't have one teacher color K to 12 not one um but many of our students experienced that and I want to be clear I don't want to hire someone just because the color I bet on hiring committees which I voted for the white person not the person of color because I thought they did a better job for our kids um so I just I just again it just it's just a little disheartening um and again those of you guys that know me I speak from the heart it is what it is um I I love our students here I just wanted the best for them I mean I I I looked and I read all the things that Dr M has done and I was amazed by it the fact that New York
093state is using her curriculum to help build their curriculum like we don't always get candidates like that so I I just want to give her the same respect that we've given everyone else that's come here to get a job and I don't feel currently we are doing [Applause] that and the last thing I'll leave you with is I mean I've had my own issues here at school talking about you know hiring policies and getting more people to call on just the hiring Committee just to be able to be in the room have a voice and recently it came when me and with the coworker talking and the cooworker disagreed that that wasn't as important as it needed to be and I discussed the fact that our community is 60% nonwhite now our hiring committees never
094are not even close you may get one or two people to color the hiring committee and we had a discussion the coworker who happened to be Caucasian is telling me that Sean don't you know you've been here long enough you grew up here you know our town will never allow our school district employees to look like our students and that was a direct quote direct quote and again it's just disheartening because I'm seeing this conversation um so again I just have to be honest about how I feel about it but welcome and to the board like you guys made a decision right none of this information is new so I would expect we stick with the decision that we made and not be pushed by public pressure um to change things so thank you hi
095everybody Collins um member of sh IND Nation din handed me my high school diploma sub um I just wanted to say a couple things so maybe I misheard but it sounded like the lawsuit involving a student both the student and the parent ended up denying those allegations correct is that said oh okay um and then the next part that I wanted to say was for anyone in this room that was able to clap to the point of not wanting their children to be judged based on how they look you clapped because you're privileged and that's a privilege that a lot of people in this room we don't have and our children don't have based on the how we look and denying that denying history is is why we are where we are it's a privilege
096and until we acknowledge that we're not going to get anywhere so thank you [Music] my name is Ja and longer than some of you have been B to say okay um U first of all I like to welcome you all here and it's nice to see other people here other than me Mara myself out of the time most of the time so thank you for coming out and I hope the next time you come it won't be because of some controversy I hope you come out live for your children cuz that's why [Applause] here and um when we real as a people when we as human beings when we we look back over our lives and so and saw and just remember how we were supported how people fought for us for the right education
097for the right to uh to thought for us to be able to come together no matter what color we are has nothing to do with color has nothing to do economic has nothing do anything the only real thing that we can stand on is that we are all human beings and we all and if we can't start loving each other how are we going to teach our kids to love each other they're going our kids I'm talking about my kids CU I don't have all you are my children all and I see chaos and confusion but I see a lot of love and no matter how long I've been here what has kept me to stand what I have stood for and I will stand for all the days of my life is that I
098love you and I love your children and if we can't children to love one another no matter where they come from no matter who they are and if we can't be those examples then we um we need to take a look in the mirror and say what's wrong with [Applause] me I whatever decision has been made let's give let's let's do divers let's die to that and let's live to love [Applause] my name is Scott G I'm a parent in the district I have two children in a high school one thing I need to say and and I think everybody can agree with this is that our children aren't born racist nobody's child is born racist my children have friends of all different races ethnicities backgrounds it doesn't matter to them it's just they just
099see him as a friend as a classmate as a teammate um I'm not a big fan of the the Dei protocol I'm not a fan of equity equality to me means more um I think everybody's got to work hard to get to where they are I don't believe in that is going to get you further if you're lazy and you're white you're not going anywhere so everybody who they are based upon an effort they put into it so I was you know I did I did my due diligence as best you could with the internet looking up our candidate here tonight um the the text from her from the uh whether she put it together 100% or not her name's on it but the all white people play a part in perpetuating systemic racism to
100me that's racist you know the black Liv movement black Liv mement I look at that as racist as well we we shouldn't be looking at everybody's skin you know Bob Marley said don't judge a person by the color of the skin judge them by the color of their eyes we all have similar eyes all of our blood is red we're all the same person you know so we just have to put all this aside and things that are out there that we've looked at from Chris rufo and others if that's true you know I'm scared I don't want to go that path but if it's not true and there's a different path that we might be going down with a with a new leader then I'm all for it [Applause] thank good evening my name
101is kenth from Nation I was hoping that we wouldn't come to this uh it's unfortunate that we're here talking about race uh and I'm hearing a lot of comments a lot of statements and everything else about how race doesn't play a role or does play a role I um I went to elementary school middle school I got as far as high school my freshman year that's about all that it could take me so I had Jackie lamb Bristo was in the um Library m mean with my math teacher I understood eventually I was just really smart but I always from the r i have lot attitude so one of the things with me is that for the most part I was sit in the back in fast with the rest of the kids and be
102a wise ass oh my grades were tight until I got to high school and they didn't have you know folks didn't have that that that comfort knowing oh he's a wise but he's going to pump gas right so I got to high school and everything changed because they were holding me account it was time for me to leave so I went to prep changed my life I hear a lot of people talk about Grace and how this place is actable and everything else I know what it means to be immersed in White Society when I went to prep school I was there with the most affluent white students in the America when I went to Clarks one of the top engineering schools in the country they asked me why why they have black colleges well
103why do they have white ones because it's only 4% us year so I know what that's like I went on you know that education changed my life right and um I worked in the private sector on Wall Street I worked in the public sector education and when I decided to come back home and I remembered Southampton the way it was when I was was a whole lot more diverse whole lot more I said this would be a good place to raise my kids cuz where I was it wasn't very diversed and when I got here my kids were in public school Southampton elementary school and they were sticking TI I didn't want to spend time coming to school to fight for my child's education so we took him out even though my oldest got into
104Miss 's class and that's where she wanted to be you know she was an African-American teacher that you know she was really looking forward to because she distracted us so much but we like we got to go so we went to the raw school and then um then from there I sent them to B year where I went to prep school um and they've G well but somewhere along the line my niece was at Southampton school she was national animal societ killed and then um we went to high school for the open night open school night and I'm looking at her courses and she doesn't have one H course not one I said on she's why have H they said well that's that goes like a teach Chief going to make that recommendation I'm like
105how is that possible either she earned the grade or she didn't if you not putting on an honors class and she's naal hon society and you telling me she not that's problematic I was like she not going she went to colge she's doing well for so for those who say it doesn't exist men lie women lie numbers don't lie so I stand before you as someone who's come in the reservation come through the school had the bumps and boots and everything else but now in ad Ministry I'm an assistant principal right who lives in this community my wife is a high school English teacher of color that lives in this community right you heard what Sean said we're not going to put a strong native American 6'4 gentleman in front of these kids that represents
106progress and I really am looking forward to some of the young young people that we have black white quarter and everything else because they're more exposed they have the um internet they can just see a lot of things that are going I have a lot of confidence that they are going to step away from what they've been taught because as my Gentleman said they don't come out of the wom racist they get taught right they get taught that we're less that they get taught that we can't lead a math class which was my discipline when I was a teacher I was a mage can't do that right they get toward that so if my wife and we have to go elsewhere right and then there was opportunity to be you know to apply for middle
107school here at right ated school I got calls and everything else and I I went to my wife and say what do you think what you think she said and I I don't pay be honest you know that teachers you know why would you go someplace every day where you're not embraced and they don't want you and I called my consultant it was the last day that you can apply and she said to me she goes okay tell me about she goes you call him in the last day that he need to apply you have to ask me he know the answer you just wanted my confirmation because if you really wanted to apply for that job and it was really for you you came out but I knew better I'm happy where I'm don't
108get me wrong I'm happy I'm at but to sit here and say this doesn't exist is someone putting ah head and said because when I was in the private sector public sector the further I moved up the less I saw of people who look like me and that's not an abent so we got to do better this should not be about color and the reason I say that is because I'm looking at a board of end that is diverse it's different I'm telling you I se lot it's different you elected this board so I got to believe and I know D wi I went to those meetings I had conversations on what they were looking for you're saying that you Google I'm confident that the individuals on this board did their due diligence more than
109[Applause] you I know they had they started in October it is now April this been going on for some time they've had four or five blers of interviews these folks jump through who I know this like I've been there when you got the presentation the TED Talks all that type of stuff you got to be you and if you're Dr you got to yourself there's no question about that you got to be here you don't believe me I'm telling you because I've been there so please all I'm asking is if you elected this board and they made a decision and I'm confident that they Wick this board all of those steps that they went through that they have bettered this individual and if they miss something it's a possibility Nobody's Perfect it's possibility right when
110you immediately question the people that you elected that you believe in and automatically question that they did with that did you ask them when they had Community meetings did you ask did you show up but here we are now because this woman of color is about to leave this district and I don't want to be about that [Applause] she represents the train of progress get on the train of [Applause] your hello uh my name is Rebecca W I graduated from the school district in o um I worked in the school district for a number of years my mother taught in the school district for I believe 22 years before retiring um I am an enrolled member of Legion as well um I believe yes Southampton has always been a very diverse School District you can't
111deny that but it has not been all rainow and sunshine which a couple people had implied um I think every brown person in this room who who went to this school has been called the slur in the hallways they have had a weird interaction with a teacher or admin who is incredibly discriminatory for them um there's a lot of talk about race and whiteness specifically and I think it's very important to note that there is a difference between racism and Prejudice um a lot of people in this room I think could stand to learn more about that difference um you know I don't really want to make like I'm going to repeat what everybody says it's I don't necessarily want to make this a race thing but when the only people I'm seeing up here
112saying it's not a race thing are white people who have never experienced racism it's really hard to do with that um denying racism does not make it go away saying things that saying you know I don't see color doesn't mean that color doesn't play into the world um denying it just creates a bunch of adults who I think cannot handle uncomfortable situations and I think the world is uncomfortable and I think it's really important that we teach our children that you know the world will you know um discriminate will make assumptions based on your skin tones will uh judge you for where you come from you know I remember in high school once I couldn't get a ride home from school once none of my white friends a bunch of people I had known since
113kindergarten would would not bring me home right because they thought the reservation was dangerous right um I would love to know how many people here have gone to Pal you know have gone every year and gone and listened to our students and really met us and seen us you know I saw a lot of hands raised but I also I had a lot of friends in high school who had never gone they had lived in in their entire lives and they just never wi you know um Southampton has changed a lot McKenna was saying um statistics um you know he pointed out that the school district is 48% Hispanic now and um he didn't say the number but uh it's 38% white while the the staff based off what Sean had said before about how
114you know we're never going to allow the staff to look like the kids I actually have a um a work session meeting from a meeting Schoolboard meeting from October um and on it I think it says teachers make up hispanic teachers make up about 18% of the staff here um teachers make up 68 white teachers make up 68% okay for a school district where there's 38% white children um it is so important for the Hispanic kids the black kids the shinika kids to see people who look like this I went through the school district I can name how many brown teachers I had in the time I was here and they were you know an elementary school teacher C Rashard who became the principal and there was so much push back when she became the
115first Native American principal in the state I believe um I had an English teacher you know my mother was a librarian she was an English teacher uh like you know I think Germaine said like Sean said like Penny said why can't we put a brown teacher a brown male teacher in front of our teach our children to teach them um science or math we have those why don't we have them we get a brown admin and suddenly this is the biggest board meeting I've ever been to like what different room because now there's a brown lady and I have to hear what your white people tell me that they're not racist even though you don't understand really what it is what it means and this curriculum ideally would help your children understand okay maybe they
116can bring that back but they will go into the world as knowledgeable adults who understand things outside of their perspective she's they're poting her like you know she's at the end of the day this is just her appointment you're all allowed to say what you want right but if you leave here today and you have it in your head that she is underqualified for whatever reason you don't have to go back to your children and say oh this brown lady don't