Sag Harbor Schools Board Of Education Meeting, March 20th 2023

001[Music] foreign [Music] thank you we have had a huge in business in the order of our agenda this evening based on presentations yeah so we're gonna so we will be proceeding first to Eastern Eastern Civic BOCES followed by a cage ball writing followed by a margin update we'll do the cell phone policy before um so with that we'll turn into uterence so I'll just uh introduce uh two members here who are members of uh the Eastern traffic BOCES board uh John weish and Ann McAfee for those of you who don't know um they've been serving for quite a long time and was a former member of the Board of Education in Sag Harbor for many years when I first came to District so we thought it would be appropriate for them to come here and

002uh you guys to sort of get a get to know them a little bit nothing elongated but I'll give you an opportunity to introduce yourselves thank you Jim it's good to be back in this room I'm sorry Sandy's not here I miss her I'm here of course you're wrong um yeah I was elect I was I filled a vacancy on this court I want to go back my son was in the middle school so it goes back quite a long time I want to say it was um I think 79 80. um then there was a vacancy on the BOCES board so just coincidentally that Matt's father was the principal of the superintendent in Southampton and he called our superintendent John Barnes to say you think Ann mcasey would run for that vacancy and I

003knew nothing and I said okay it was August and well this just something that I was elected and I'm very happy uh that I was that was um the late news um John was the longtime president of the Bridgehampton board and goes back to the old BOCES won before BOCES one and two emerged which is 26 years but there used to be two bow seats for Eastern Long Island and now it's eastern Celtic books it's because of the emergence of John goes back as an original member of BOCES uh but we knew each other locally at one time her champion and said whether we're doing some shared services we were combining some classes and um it was it was a great time and it's uh a lot has changed I am running again I had

004to kind of struggle with the decision to run for another three-year term but the work we do is um is really um very important work on all of Long Island and I'm we're just leaving packets for you because it's really too much to try to explain what a BOCES does um even an hour what I suggest for people who might have students interested in uh careers and texts in the Arts in um you might need an Autism or a special ed program we contract with the districts and municipalities we do shared services so I'd suggest you look up the Eastern Sofia both cities dot org website for any questions that uh just to go over it's a very thorough very very well done website and it's constantly kept up to date and it really explains

005the programs the mission and um what would you uh what else do you think about questions here all night but uh programs right but major programs which one Aviation the dental program Mary's daughter is a graduate of the aviation program she's a pilot there's also the passion to help what I push is for young people to grow and maybe do Automotive to the carpentry program Big Plumbing for the window right now the Plumber's on East End you know they're making more than 20 an hour so if a young person if a young person can take those technical programs we also provide uh college courses so that means you could go away to college and come home in the summer you could work for a plumber you can work for electrician so those are the programs

006that I try to push on some of our students on the East end because opportunities are here for them and they can make a lot of money when they come home from colleges Etc so I get a little passionate about those because on Easton if they don't live on these then it might take them two days to get here but if they're here it's just so valuable I mean it's nothing can be taken away from him and that they get out of college is a hard time to get a job they've got something to fall back back on and every one of our Automotive students almost always get a job in Riverhead or somewhere on the Norfolk at one of the uh or even an out of the state and win a lot of awards

007so we're Pathways we probably we provide a lot of Pathways where they're going on um in education or you're going in onto a career we have a major Adult Ed classes um we educate homeless students we educate migrant students so again all of this people don't I I learn every time I met a hostage for me and it's been I think 25 or 26 years so um serving serving um the geographic that we have as you all know um making Making Connections geographically uh is is something of an art uh in education and culturally in so many ways so uh does anybody have any questions or anything comments other than I'm glad to see you glad to see some old old friends and um very glad that you asked mayor um Sandy are you there

008I am how are you Ann it was good to see you sorry you're not here hon uh yeah I I miss you I miss your all your expertise and your calmness that you brought to the board for all those years it was fabulous okay okay that's that's good any board questions anybody I have a question so um I mean the boasting programs like they're you know fantastic for these different Catholics and stuff I just was curious um what role that you guys play as board members in terms of bringing the programming out east or you know when we're looking at we're reviewing our budget right we're always told oh we do this through a closing property run pack like what will a board members you do in kind of directing people episodes to go find

009yeah this purchasing power find these different avenues for contacts and stuff like that we're really oversight we as as any school board there is a difference between a local board and up overseas board with 15 members for a star um from the entire range from Montauk we we served for Montauk to Brentwood um New York state has overseas in every area and County Health uh the focus I think of various ones varies depending on where they are in the state we approve the administration we approve the budget that goes out to the local board which you vote on the administrative books budget we are not taxpayers supported the districts by the service so that really is done through some negotiation it's done through requests from districts can you provide this can you provide do you

010provide then that it's really a board really has oversight we can suggest and we certainly work with our administrators and have close relationships with our administrators so something like I know not too far back we brought up can there be a restaurateur program can there be a marine program on the East End finding a home is tough because how is it where is it going to be physically hosted and located the district's request us we don't move in so we would that's why we welcome and again John and I are the Houston liaison so um every uh every board member has a district that they you can call us you can um certainly visit a campus I remember years years ago on this board I have been to Riverhead the HB Ward campus which had

011a very good culinary has the wonderful culinary program because the then superintendent was friendly with the BOCES one superintendent who would go up for meetings and have lunch and I had not really gone further you know so a good 30 years ago one of them I was here had a great interest for personal reasons in special ed she took us on a tour on a bus to the West Hampton Beach um setting we I never thought that children as severely handicapped because every child the law is you educate every child these were children on feeding tubes on gurneys who could press perhaps a button on a computer it was absolutely exciting it's not the word it was overwhelming to see what Educators can do and that I think I think that was one of the

012good experiences I had as a precursor because I knew that and that was only as far as West Hampton I mean highly highly challenged children and adults so you I want to I deviated a little bit from your question but your request you talked the key I think is our guidance in our schools our guidance departments knowing what we do and of course our admitting students now Jeff knows so I don't worry about Jeff but um our guidance administrators need to be able to steer the students who's not quite sure what they're doing uh yet uh maybe they're going to go to Suffolk for two years well they can do that also in team in tandem with a hoses so there's an awful lot of constant creativity and really we really we've um we formed

013academies a few years ago so we went to raise the academic level and we offer a much higher scale of academics now than when my kids were here my oldest child was here BOCES and and Sandy and she were contemporary uh oceans was kind of not where you wanted to go and when he caught the bus at noon it was an embarrassing it was somehow shame shameful that's really totally changed because of what we do that's what people always handed it Kevin Kevin Maple is a graduate of BOCES tells everybody went to Brand somewhere to learn but he so that's the type of people that have roaming around you don't even know maybe not everybody knows Okay Kevin is John well I thought the hairdresser to the Stars right right he is one of our

014graduates and he's been very generous and he's speaking and supporting we were also supported by local urgent so we get a lot of requests from uh the well hospitality is one of them but we get we get requests from like business people electricians and Company we need students right so that's another thing that drives us to put our programs and a lot of times we try to put up locally but sometimes it doesn't work in a local school district sometimes we try to get a program going so the kids won't have to go as far once we did a nursing you know Automotive at South End I think so some of the schools in Southampton now at Hampton Bays uh yeah there's a lot of creativity because it's been supportive right thank you very much

015questions my cards clear email um and John's well you've been dreaming and so the the next day was George yeah so all righty Mr Merlin yes so I'll just say a word about it that we we usually do um we shoot for four of these educational presentations a year um and writing I think is one of the most important disciplines that students aren't um when they go through our school district and it's not only about the process of putting pen to paper or typing nowadays but it's also the thought processes that go into organizing your thoughts and being able to articulate a point doing the research all those types of things so today um Mr Malone and Miss carrier are going to provide an overview along with some faculty members um of the K-12 Continuum

016so what's that I'll turn it over to Matt thanks Mr Nichols good evening everyone and Matt Malone I'm the elementary principal miss carriero the principal at Pearson's High School Middle School my gun at our high school assistant principal and a few representatives from our faculty are here tonight as Mr Nichols mentioned to provide an overview of our K-12 writing program this is an important presentation I'm glad there's such a big crowd here tonight for this um I didn't realize we'd get such a but it's good to have everyone here um I think the goal tonight is to kind of illustrate what writing looks like in our classrooms clearly you're going to see differences across the grade levels writing at a kindergarten first grade level looks quite different than what takes place up at the high

017school level the expectations clearly progress as we we go up the line but what I hope and I think you'll see is there are some some common threads throughout the program it's well that's gonna that will be clear tonight and really we're all um we're all kind of growing in the important direction of of developing children who can will become young adults and adults that right well we want them to be confident with their writing and to get there that takes a lot of practice um writers have to write Boston uh good writers need to be able to write in a variety of formats writers need to persevere through writing tasks that they're given writing truly is is a process and I want to it's one that takes a lot of work we want our

018writers to experiment and work with language and doing so they're often referencing Mentor texts they're introduced to the right of writers to use as graphics and revising editing Etc um at the at the elementary school I have um invited a few of the teachers I'm going to go and invite them up Miss perkosky is a first grade teacher baseball Caron who teaches second grade and George Kneeland who's one of our fifth grade teachers and they're with us tonight to speak specifically about writing at the elementary school grades k-15 this summer and I appreciate the efforts that they put in this summer they gathered and spent some time looking carefully at our program as it as it stood as it stands and made sure that we continually revise that program look carefully at the New York

019State expectations or as we're referred to as the New York state standards in writing and did make some important revisions to our program and have been sharing that with their fellow faculty members through throughout the school unit so with that I guess I'll turn things over to miss perkoski and we'll share with you what writing looks like at the elementary school so when we met over the summer one of the first things that we felt like we needed to do was really go through the curriculum at the New York state level and find out exactly what was expected for grades K through five um so this is what this shows you with standards one through four um standard one through four go through third grade and then there's an additional standard that's added in fifth

020grade and what we found was that even starting in kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade they were all all the students were writing the same types of writing pieces every grade level is responsible for writing an opinion piece a narrative piece an expository piece and then um responding to literature that they're reading you know in their daily reading activities um so with that we were kind of um looking forward to putting this new writing program into effect because it allowed us to do less writing pieces but to dig deeper with um those writing pieces and I think opinion it was kind of new for a lot of us so that's been kind of fun and what we decided with the narrative piece was that at the different grade levels when grade levels met

021they could decide what sort of narrative they were doing now at the lower grades we decided it's probably best to do a personal narrative a story about their lives because it's simpler it's something they can grasp and then we decided starting at grade three that's probably where teachers might want to get into more creative narratives you know fictional with characters maybe historical fiction or science fiction so we kind of left it up to the different grade levels to decide that um I can tell you at the first grade level we decided to stay with personal narrative um and um for non-fiction we are doing animal research projects which is actually our next writing unit I'm super excited about that so um slide um you go one more slide so you can see that there's an

022extra standard up there for grades four and five and what that is is um really the preparing for those State assessments you know writing to a piece of text that they're reading analyzing um looking studying pictures and then being able to create you know an introduction with supporting details a conclusion so that's why you don't see that standard um at grades K through three so that's the extra standard that you see up there and then the other piece that we took a look at you can go one more slide is the spelling and mechanics that's expected at different grade levels um and what they've done is they've categorized it into K to two and three to five and it increasingly gets harder obviously so what we're working on it if different grade levels is um

023editing checklists to have the kids accountable for what they should be looking for you know at my grade level it's capitals um punctuation minor spelling so you know we teach things through our foundations program like trick words so they should know how to spell the trick words and sight words correctly but obviously that would increase at the upper grade levels so we put that slide in there and then as we were discussing our writing Workshop what we decided was that we really wanted every teacher that was being handed this document to know the process of writing and for the students to really understand the process of writing so even before pre-writing there's a little piece in there that we do a lot of and that's immersion so whatever sort of writing unit we are doing

024we do a ton of immersion a week to two weeks if we're studying non-fiction we spend a week to two weeks on just reading nonfiction what do you notice what is the writer doing what is the writer's purpose in this um so that actually comes before pre-writing and then pre-writing is when they're brainstorming um what is it that you want to write about let's generate a list of ideas and then from there after they have a list of ideas they go into Drafting and drafting is not just one piece that they're working on drafting what we do is we like to call them seed ideas so they're developing seed ideas they're maybe they're writing a piece about getting a new dog one day and then the next day they're writing about something they did over

025the weekend so in their writing folder or their writing notebook notebook they have multiple pieces to choose from so that when it comes time for the next phase which is revision they get to pick one piece that they want to make better and they spend a lot of of time in drafting and Reviving because we're really trying to get them to dig deeper and make their writing better and understanding that writing is not always perfect and how can you make it better and that comes a lot with you know teacher conferences peer conferences which you'll get to see um a little later in the slides um so they spend a long time there and then we go into the editing phase which I talked about the editing spelling of mechanics and then finally publishing and

026Publishing does not always have to be a typed copy made into this like beautiful book um I'm going to show you in a in a little bit on our first launch published piece and it was a handwritten draft with a picture um so it's different for the different units so those that's really kind of what we wanted the kids to understand and take ownership of ownership of it so by fifth grade when they leave us they really have ownership over the writing process hi so I'm April and I'm going to talk to you about the structure of writer's Workshop that is just the huge part of writing workshop and it's really where you are not teaching to the writing we're trying to teach the individual writer and so we start that off with our mini

027lesson we often gather students onto a carpet or um at their desk and we start off with a connection where we put today's work into the context of child of of children's ongoing work and then we explicitly name what we're going to teach for today for example I might we might start off with yesterday we learned that writers develop a strong lead because they want to hook their writers and read you know the rest of the story today I want to show you something else that writers do today I want to show you how to keep your readers interested by using exact and descriptive words or honest and precise words um we then move into the teaching part of that um architecture of the knitting lesson and we teach students a craft we hope they

028will use as they write uh here we may use a mentor textbook a nice Mentor textbook are books that we've read several times to the children they know these books well the first time you read it you're just reading it for enjoyment and then the next time you come you dive deeper into it and then you can refer back to it in your mini lessons as well as when you're conferencing um so this is a very effective technique uh that we use because these are the published pieces that we aspire to these are the published writers that we want to try to become like um so we often once we go into the teaching part of the mini lesson we might model that and say something like oh you know you know guys we're reading

029fireflies I love the way that you bring up using exact and descriptive words this makes it possible for the reader to visualize this theme from the story and I feel like I'm in the story with so then I might read aloud some parts of that so to give you an example um and you don't have to reread the whole story they already know the story so it was growing dark my tree house with a black shape in the tree and I wouldn't go up there now but something quicker than a moment they looked and it was gone so that word flickered is an exact precise word that helps your readers visualize what's going on in the story and I teach second grade so most of these writers would write but something was shining up there

030or something was bright up there and so when you use the word flickered it really helps create a visual image image in your reader's mind and that's what's going to keep your readers to want to continue reading another example just very quickly would be I thought the meat and corn and potatoes in timeout I forced the meat and potatoes and corny now so you can imagine this child wanting to go out there and collect those fire bodies so quickly and you know again in second grade and first grade might write I put the or I click the meat and corn into my mouth so this is an example of how you would refer to a mentor text and then I would model how oh I want to be just like Julie brinklow and I'm going

031to try to write exact precise words in my writing after that you have an active engagement where you have the children try it you might ask them to we need some of their writing that they've played you might ask them to partner up and kind of reread it to each other and thereby you're they're helping each other like oh well what do you mean by put what about a word like four four um quickly or something more exact then we move into the link part where we remind students what they should try in their own writing um so something we might say about so today be if you're able to weekly you know so so words with exact and descriptive words and let your readers feel like they are in the story with you and

032then thumbs up if you're ready to go and then the teacher sends the kids off to write up next slide um and now is the part where they're writing and you'll see a video clip of students writing um some of them will sit at tables some of them will go to their individual special spots to do their very best writing and that's when teachers go around and read conference with students often referring to any Mentor texts we often carry a stack of books with us so that they're pulled out at any at any moment um next slide please uh the share is another really important part of the structure of a the architect of a mini lesson because it's here where you might find that child who did use those exact precise word let's say

033and then you make them famous so the share could be that the child read um a paragraph of where they've used exact for fights words or where they've used a craft of writing that you've asked them to try or it could be that you have them sitting in a circle and they all read that one word uh so it really the shares can look very different uh shares can even be where you say okay partner up and and read your stories to each other it's a very powerful piece because the children learn to be respectful and listening to each other but they also learn so much from each other and they're like oh I want to do just what Kyle did and I'm going to do that tomorrow and so the structure and the writer's

034Workshop is just a very powerful way to teach writing as well as reading thank you so I think Mr Fisher this will give the audience just um quick visual of everything that miss Caron just mentioned that while the students are writing this is writing in action and you can see there's students have selected quiet spots in the room the teacher has opportunity to be with students on an individual basis but it's really a this is the working time and it's the time where writers respect one another give each other the quiet and the space that they need to really spend time with with their writing desks okay hello my name is uh George Kneeland and I teach fifth grade at the elementary school and one of the books that we use not only in elementary

035school but in middle school and in high school sometimes one of the one of the characters Tio Luis is spoken to by Esperanza's mother and TL Luis had given an offer for marriage and mama says frankly your offer offends me then feel luis's face Pardon Me Like a Rock and the muscles twitched in his narrow neck what does that show us about Tio Luis how's he feeling right that's right right stressed angry indignant and we find that often as as Miss Caron was saying with the writers they love to say he was angry you know she felt happy really saying anything there and when we're in the writer's Workshop we're there to give Goosebumps and that's where we get into probably what I feel is the most important part of the writing process or my

036favorite part and it has to do with revision a few quotes about revision this for Robert Cormier the beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time unlike say a brain surgeon Elmore Leonard said when you write you have to leave out the parts readers skip and a great John Irving with the world according to GARP half my life is an act of revision it truly is what I think you know the greatest part of the writing process and it's a part in which writers have a chance to add to the writing sometimes and very importantly they need to remove a lot from their writing okay um they also have to move things around and they have to recognize a flow to their writing and sometimes they may

037have to substitute and when we do revising we talk about Mentor texts Um this can be one of them sometimes that we use this may be one that we use from Patricia Polacco and we may teach four or five different writing strategies some of some of those which you'll do earlier but we teach them we try to teach them at a higher level or deeper level and we expect a little bit more sophistication so that um again we can help our readers visualize and really get them engaged and connect them to the writing especially for example if we're doing a narrative can we bring them in and can we engage them so they can really fully appreciate and understand connect to that important moment that the writer is trying to write about um so so

038when we do revision it's a very important it's a very important time and yeah let's take okay well so when we go to look at students writing and and see what they're doing with their revising and they're editing we'll often have conferences with them and and we try to have them as often as possible they are extremely important tool to the writing process and for the students um there's conferencing which I can walk around I can do a lesson on adjectives I can just roll roll around the classroom and take a look and see how you're doing and see if you're implementing some strategy you can talk about and then there's conferencing in which a more formal conference in which we will sit down with the students and we'll bring them in and hopefully we

039can get to four or five students for a period if possible and we'll have a conference um that is this this has been cut down a little bit but we're going to play this in a second and it's extremely important time which the writer gets to talk about his or her writing it's a time in which they can point something out to a teacher that they're working on it's a time in which the teacher can really applaud them and laud them but also teach them maybe you wanted to teaching points and possibly even bring in the mentored text to reinforce a strategy that we've been trying to teach and it's in the and I feel the greatest thing is with the conferences it's a chance for the child to gain Joy from their writing because

040a lot of these Young Writers they're not really sure what they're doing they really are I mean it's a it's writing is a hard process and they want to be wanted and they're out there putting their feelings out in a line and they're trying to be they're trying to be vulnerable vulnerable and give more and they're trying to play and they're trying to experiment and that's what makes writing great so here we'll see some Snippets of a writing confidence hi Kade how you doing good good how's your writing going pretty good good is going going better now yeah I know you got stuck there for a while but you feel much better about it good one thing that I want to tell you that you're doing really well and you're right I'm really excited about

041this is the detail that you're putting in so when we talked about the show don't tell strategy I love what you did here um especially when you start talking about how when you go out to get Wally right to go find Wally you talk about the gray sky I can taste the dampness in the air um the the cold wind that's like swishing your shirt back and forth that was a great detail right and then um and then you're just racing down the hill and you talk about like riding over the Pebbles and the sounds that makes like that's so that's so real and I connected to that and I know that if one of your peers reads that really going to connect for them right they're going to be really engaged so I think

042you're doing a great job with the show don't tell I think if we put something in like a little story like that remember it's going to allow your reader to really feel that strength and the love that you have for Wally right because you're remembering back about Wally so which one of those do you think might make more sense that you would like to try and you're right you're probably like putting a story in there yeah I think that would be a new idea we call that a flashback and actually um Patricia Polacco used that in one of uh one of her stories and I think that'd be a neat idea where do you think you're in your story you might be able to use that flashback and I asked him if he has seen

043mommy my dog he said no in a concerned voice with his eyebrows up I started to think all hope was lost that could be a great entry point right in which you write then I remember back to Wally and I playing the fact that how you throw this you know whether it's a stick or however you know however that would be and you could put in a few sentences there so I think that's a great spot so maybe we could make a little asterisk or highlight there how about probably like right here right right there I think that's a good place for that so why don't you mark that there and then you can go back and work on doing your little flashback memory does that make sense yeah okay excellent well good glad to

044hear about the progress you're making I'm looking forward to hearing more all right okay okay so that was our friend Kay who lost quality ran out of the house and we're not sure exactly where he went but Kade was obviously very worried and had to tell his parents and spend a lot of time finding his dog thankfully there's a positive ending to that so that was one of our formal writing conferences you can go to the next slide right so just real quickly this just kind of gives you a um example of some first grade now this is the very beginning of the school year during our launch unit you're really just trying to get them to write about anything they could do non-fiction they could do fiction they could do a story about their

045lives um so what you're seeing up here on the draft side is um one of my students Joey is really into volcanoes so he decided he knows a lot about volcanoes so his story he just gave me a ton of facts about volcanoes and he was just kind of enjoying it enjoying the the illustration process and then on the final piece side you can see how simple it is um it was a picture and then a handwritten piece now his happens to be two gauges so the written part flips up and there's more on the on the second page um so that's just this was an example from our launch and he's one of my you know um you know top students he's he's definitely engaged in writing he is good at it he's able

046to come come up with a lot of sentences now if you go to the next slide this is one of my enl students and um she did not speak English until I want to say February of her kindergarten school year so this is the very beginning of the year in first grade um I want to say September October and this is what she came up with um I was gonna leave the words off the bottom and see if you could figure out what she said but um I put the writing in there um so my family went to the beach I played in the sand and water I went fishing I got a fish and you know and a lot of first grade writing we're really working on just something structure trying to stretch out

047a full complete sentence with all the right parts as well as spelling um stretching out their words so those are just two examples of our beginning of the year okay um I'll just quickly read this here these are tool Snippets from pieces that uh students have written in our classroom one of them on unfortunately is about um the girl who had put her dog to rest on her mother's birthday uh I couldn't bear to watch him squirm and clench his teeth as his tongue flopped to the side of his mouth my head hung low as I walked over to my uncle and gave him a hug he held me tight and Whisper don't look uh the next one comes from Anthony who we talked about theme about the idea of courage and Anthony had talked

048repeatedly about anxiety and nervousness and just not having success in sports especially baseball that he loved so um he started off in his story and brought up brought up a scene in which he just really struggled and now he goes up and says later in the story he says my heart was beating so fast I could see the ball drop from my head to my waist so I took a step back with my toes Penny against the cold soft turf then I loaded up and swung crack I hit a hard Speedy Line Drive in between left and center field I couldn't believe I hit the ball if you're my bat in the ground I started to get my feet moving as fast I could toward first base way to go my dad cheered going to

049be left and she's going to be doing a share where she's showing up how she develops a strong need to hook her leaders and want to continue reading and on the right is Nicholas and he I wrote a story with perspective and so here are the children uh that and they read aloud their uh the pieces that they wanted to share to the rest of the class from this picture day where we woke up with a surprise startup Ruby thought it that it came from her dream she tumbled out of bed and ran downstairs I fell asleep ah I was falling from the sky it's done ow when my foot up I was on the beach double out a crab pinched me hey stop I said no what crabs can talk well some can what's

050your name chatter class my name is Ron smell I replied so he also has a lot of dialogue which is another uh craft with writing we talked about it puts all of that together and inspires kids to you know want to share so they always usually try for crafting your teaching okay we'll just finish up here with um our student Indigo uh unfortunately her grandma had gotten to a car accident and there was an issue about taking care of her dog and she was very emotional about it and she talks about the time that she gets down to Puerto Rico and sees grandma and we'll hear about seeing her dog also we parked at our condo my sister and brother swung the car door open and jumped out of the car but I took my

051time finally I gently opened the car door and stepped out it was like my feet were glued to the ground my shoulders drooped as my head tilted down I put my hand on my heart and felt it pounding my breath was as heavy but my breath was heavy and a trickle of sweat went down my face onto my teal shirt the stairs felt like felt like mountains and as I opened the door it started started getting heavier and heavier then I spied little white paws in a light pink house I kneeled down and touched this softer she gave a big sigh as my heart started to slow down my legs stopped attempting I could I could feel his hot breath on my face his wet slobber went all over me I picked him up and

052took him to the car he sat on my lap and my brother sister and I pet his course for her we were together again and I know it was difficult to hear that but again we're refocusing was um students really zooming in on the moment and not having time travel too quickly a lot of times writers like to go here than this and that and we can't really linger in what's happening in the scene so really trying to stress the powers of observation where you are at the time and really bring your reader into that moment so we can really evoke a powerfulness of the moment so the kids did a nice little about that very nice that was that was excellent appreciate it now we're going to move on to the grade 6 through

05312 writing process I'm Brittany carrier I'm the Pearson Middle High School principal here um Mr Malone at the elementary school they laid the foundations of writing and then at the middle school we're Bridging the Gap between um more Independence writing and then also the more of the editing process as we know as great writers you keep editing and you're still never satisfied with your piece only so I have Miss Masters going to talk about Middle School Mr Freeze is going to come up and talk about the high school and then Mr Diane will talk about what our end product goal is right for those International Baccalaureate Learners of what writing process last week as a faculty as a whole staff because it's not just an English classes here that we are doing writing our whole

054staff every course went over the different types of writing that they do throughout the year and what is expected of their children so like if you walk into one of our social studies classes they are working on documented based questions and analyzing it and then having to write it if you're going into a science classroom they might be writing their conclusion on what they found through a lab and then if you walk into an art class they might be critiquing each other pieces and then having to write about it so it's happening all the time in different places our Ela and English teachers lay the groundwork but at the same time all of our teachers have to be well versed in writing in order to provide a great introduce not really interdisciplinary approach to us

055so I'm going to welcome this math um to talk about our Middle School process hello everyone I'm Jessica mass and I'm very excited to be here to talk a little bit about the seventh grade as well as the Middle School curriculum um the writing Workshop can be broken down into four primary components and one of the first as you can see here is creating rigorous and high interest student prompts so in order to do this we really like to look at the standards in order to create these prompts that align with the standards we also like to provide students with opportunities uh to select their own potential writing pieces that might Inspire them so in order to do this effectively we like to really create multiple prompts that really set with the task at hand

056that align with the rubric in addition to that we use exemplars to model best practices in order to really analyze an Exemplar piece effectively it is very important to work closely with the rubric so in order for students to really look at that example or piece they would work together as teams and in Partnerships to really rate the effectiveness in terms of how those exemplars meet the level of the rubric so this is a really important tool which was also referenced at the elementary level where students have the opportunity to look at these model texts and then really create them themselves so they might do this using graphic organizers or even using strategies like steal a line of text uh these really provide opportunities for students to encourage one another and to create really meaningful

057texts so the next component would center around conferencing which we saw some beautiful conferencing going on this continues on through the middle school level with students as well so students conference with one another through the peer review process this is a really important process where once again students get to read each other's work and provide feedback for one another in addition to that this time is very important for teacher student conference as well so when I might State and talk with the student we may look explicitly at a few items that they're going to be working on but it's also really important to acknowledge those areas of achievement and those areas that students are doing really well with and finally we really want to work towards developing a sense of writer's Grace this is ultimately

058what we want for all students we want students to see themselves and envision themselves as writers so in order to do this we like to expose students to a multitude of genres and really provide students uh with opportunity for not only formal but informal writing opportunities as well so this is kind of like our springboard page here we have multiple opportunities where we can take a look at some student writing in action um if you could please just click on the bottom part there I've linked a pre-plan outline checklist I think this is a good place to start thank you so this is an opportunity for students to think through their writing and to work through the process so if I was working with a student that maybe needed a little bit of extra support

059in terms of the scaffold I would provide the student with this type of an outline in addition to sentence starters and transitionary words and phrases this offers students something to grab onto so that they're able to releasing their teeth into the writing piece particularly if they're experiencing some type of writer's block this is a nice way for students to really have the opportunity to sit and think about their writing and create in addition you'll notice at the top there's a writer's checklist these checklists are so useful and helpful for our students so that they can really itemize those areas that may be in need of improvement while also acknowledging those areas that they've tackled and done very well with so this is a sample piece that a student worked on and in structuring this particular

060outline the student was able to then self-assess and go through using that self checklist and make sure that they met all the criteria and areas in need uh in addition to that we can click on the argumentative task and rubric so here if you scroll down to the bottom of the rubric you will note that students have the opportunity to reflect as well this reflection process is a very important step in the writing process in addition to providing actionable feedback for students so what I mean by actionable feedback is not just great job well done but looking specifically at those areas of strength that students have done very well and also itemizing those areas where students may need to make a little bit more of improvement so this type of inactionable rubric really forms the

061basis for how I might conference with this student so as we sit and talk specifically we can also formulate next steps and writers goals that will help them to achieve that next step for their writing so just to look at a writing piece of student work we have a multitude of examples here but we can focus on the argumentative writing student workplace so here you will note that we work specifically on Crafting a compelling lead and we like to use the language of the rubric in the classroom by using words like compelling it allows students to really understand the level and rate and degree of what the expectation is for the assignment in addition to that you can note that during the process of writing an argumentative piece students need to formulate a cohesive thesis

062and this thesis should also represent the reasons that support their claim this particular argumentative essay provided students the opportunity to work with multiple sources so not only do they read a primary text but they also used articles to integrate into their writing so they had to really think critically about that in order to select the most relevant pieces of evidence to best support their claim or their thesis so this particular piece is rather long so we will not read the whole thing but as you can see the student really did quite a job in terms of preparing planning while we work through every stage of the peer review process as well as conferencing and the student also integrated multiple pieces of relevant evidence which they were able to itemize and select the most important to

063support their claim in addition to that you will note that by the third paragraph here we integrated and Incorporated the counter plane and then students formulated a rebuttal so this is an example of really extending student thinking from maybe writing an argumentative letter to then expand it upon that to formulating an argumentative essay so you'll also note that in the conclusion we work with multitude of different styles of writing conclusions and we do that through examining exemplars but also students learn from each other in the classroom and they work together to try out and give it a go and they try out multiple opportunities for conclusions as well so at this point we can just scroll to the next slide this is an example of informal writing opportunities so we just looked at an example

064of a format formal writing opportunity which was the argumentative writing this would be an example of students opportunity to really respond to the literature at hand this could potentially form a later writing opportunity for students when they're thinking about formulating seed ideas so students really love this particular part of the writing process because it's kind of unscripted and often it can be in the form of a free write a do now response or a reader's response such as so writing goals and celebrations are really important when we talk about the writing process and providing students with that reflection time after they've written a piece is also highly important students date and reflect and then share some of their highlighting moments which we call our hits and highlights and they find that as they listen to

065one another they learn from each other as well and that allows us to also have students formulate those goals those writing goals and at this point I'm going to pass it off to Mr priest who's going to talk a little bit more about the high school level right thank you hi everyone I'm Charlie page and I currently teach 10th grade um at the high school level we are building on all the fabulous work you've heard from here today uh the really the the goal is just facilitating the independence so we take many of the things that uh are happening in the middle school and they are still present in the first semesters of freshman sophomore year and then gradually throughout the year they start to pull back um informal writing uh takes place in much

066the same way uh quick rights do Nows annotations become much more prevalent as we want students to to take their own information and start building their own arguments um the uh use of rubrics starts to move towards things like the rubric that's for the Regents or the IB rubrics if they're in the IB Program um scoring of Exemplar writing uh really Empower students to make specific goals about what they want to achieve and then more frequent long-form writing comes in in 11th and 12th grade as the essay becomes the most dominant writing project or short stories um so the the purposes for writing are outlined by the state standards and they're much the same uh throughout 9th through 12th grade um there's writing for analysis there's argument and then there is creativity um I've included

067um our writing overview on the the bullet points on the bottom here uh one would just be for the English Department and uh another would be a document that features all the other departments so um it's the same set of standards that each grade level approaches with more complexity uh with um more length to the assignments uh with more Independence on the part of the student um at each level people are writing argumentative essays at each level people are writing research papers at each level people are writing creative uh poems and stories um the if you want to go to the other slide that has everyone you can see that writing um is happening all over the curriculum and if you want to just go to the pages on the bottom each page is full

068of writing assignments that are connected to similar standards uh specifically around the use of evidence and the selection of evidence the ability to go out and find evidence that supports their arguments we're going to head back to the slide I think we're um so the demonstration of Independence on Project a process from start to finish um is more uh focused is more of the focus of the high school um where in the earlier grades you may be learning uh you may be learning to write uh as you get in the later grades you're writing to learn so the project is assigned at the start of a unit and you are collecting information as the unit goes on in order to organize those ideas and get the most out of it um using relevant evidence uh

069from text to support your ideas is driven home in every grade level locating the reliable sources of information and then utilizing those uh formats that they'll be expected to use in the next level of their education some recurring themes in the K-12 Continuum um I think Mr fresh synthesized that well is we go from learning to write to writing to learn across all subject areas in the IB courses which are the most challenging courses we offer here at Pearson the goal is to prepare students for the demands of College and Career writing and specifically that means to help them develop and refine their writing to form an argument that is uh supported by codeine expression of relevant and rigorous analysis across all subject areas those recurring themes are writing as a craft right so revision

070revision practice practice the more opportunities they have the better the push to go from a more structured support of the writing process to helping students learn their own process and work with them through feedback loops next please so I think that the the screwing in of a light bulb is a is a good uh metaphor to illustrate what we're after especially on the higher grades and in the IB classes um feedback from teachers and feedback from their peers is what helps them see their writing from different perspectives which is really the mechanism that helps them to improving adolescents are often caught up in their own head especially as they're learning more vocabulary and they're writing for themselves and uh as we screw and screw the light bulb through those feedback loops we hope to get

071to the AHA of writing is all about the audience to the extent that the argument is comprehensible to the audience to the reader uh is the extent to which the child or the student has been successful um oftentimes uh adolescents try and sound fancy it's very pleasing especially as they're really developing in the 11th and 12th grades and fancy is often the enemy of clarity sophistication of structure and language are necessary only to the extent that they serve uh the argument and that's that's what we try and uh get after and and help them to realize so in the IV classes there are internal formal writing assignments all of the IB classes have a project which we call an IA that stands for an internal assessment it's an internal assessment because the teacher is great

072at using an IB rubric and then IB asks for a sampling to moderate to make sure that we're grading to their standard and then there's the actual external assessments excuse me that we send out to be graded by IB examiners so for the last couple weeks I've been uploading those for our current seniors those are the essay that they do in their literature course we don't trade that in-house that's done by an external examiner uh in addition the theory of knowledge essay and the extended essay um the theory of knowledge essay which Mr Price teaches theory of knowledge as well in seventh grade English um is probably the best preparation um for college writing in my opinion it really helps a student to Pare down their argument um it really forces that discipline on them

073which again uh is what we're after the clarity of communication and comprehensibility for the audience the extended essay is a 15-page term paper that they write on the subject of their choosing which introduces them to the Raiders of research supporting the evidence but the the essence of that argumentative writing is is best taught through that took essay just for fun we'll have a sampling Tok provides next slide please um titles that students may choose from to write their essay so this is some of the stuff that our students are responding to as a writing prompt is replicability necessary in the production of knowledge discussed with reference to two areas of knowledge and to what extent is the knowledge we produce determined by the methodologies we use discussed with reference to history and one other area

074of knowledge these were the two most popular I think this year right um they're good writing props um definitely challenge the children to make a clear cogent argument to consider the counter argument as they Advance um their claim and then in the extended essay next slide please um these are some of their titles that this illustrates how the students are producing work across all of the subject areas so does rust have the capacity to improve other program languages that's a computer science extended essay paradoxes and Sophocles Antigone uh the Dilemma of Nazi human experimentation results as medical knowledge analysis of the radius of a wind turbine and power output a physics essay and parental pressure and childhood expectations explored in the screenplay of the royal tenant Maps so this is some of the stuff the

075current seniors did this year it's very impressive writing which speaks to the strength of the K-12 Continuum that all of the teachers details uh so nicely thank you so that that doesn't if you guys no it's fantastic thank you very much for presenting that to us I am just taking some notes about and you know about the the great job you all do and um meeting the child where they are in that or the Adolescent and bringing them up speed giving them confidence and and the ability to project their thoughts and emotions in paper and then to uh the audience so thank you it's excellent all right thanks guys thank you very much so the the next topic yeah yeah so the next topic is uh really talking about cell phones and I'll just briefly

076introduce it when I was high school in Middle School principal maybe I don't know four or five years ago we at that time sort of emphasized that technology was here to stay and maybe we should place our emphasis on teaching students to navigate this new world um thoughtfully and um over the last three or four years despite our best efforts to do that um it appears as though cell phones and related technologies have become an issue in our school to the extent that they're interfering with students focus in the classroom um so we've decided to restart that discussion um to think about um perhaps re-examining how we approach it and to that end Miss carriero and a board member um Jordana soby have had multiple discussions about this topic and so I'll turn it over

077to miss carriero to briefly introduce it so um School shared decision-making committee have really come in concerned about the use of cell phones since the pandemic our qualitative parental students and teacher data has demonstrated the amount of addiction is a stronger but the amount of addiction but also the amount of use that our children are needing to be on their cell phones all the time and it's now interrupting sometimes our education process here so we have been decided to re-examine the cell phone policy through the shared decision making committee it is also seen that there's two different um policies within the middle high school so in the middle school students are once that first spell rings at 7 50 that they are to put their phones away they can be on them but they're away

078they are not allowed to have it wow that is great it doesn't mean that our kids aren't Savvy and they're manipulative as all middle school children are if you remembered so when you were a middle schooler they go to the bathroom and they text their parents or they're on Snapchat so we understand the process of that and then at the end of the day once that Bell Rings after academic support they are able to use their cell phone it's uh it's been a great process we since the implementation we've seen a lot more engagement in the classroom more or less reliability on that cell phone so we feel like middle school policy right now is great there's still some Kinks to work out obviously with the bathrooms and the hiding of the phones in the

079locker rooms as well but that's normal you know children they have to get around it just like as adults if we sit somewhere we try to get around the rules sometimes as well in the high school though it is up to them to be their check-in point with how they use their cell phone and how much they can use it so if a teacher asks to put it away they have to put it away if they ask to give it up give it over if they're using it too much after being asked to put it away we're able to take it however we've seen an increase with pushback sorry for all the students as well as a lack of attention in the classroom because of how attached they are to their cell phones and remember

080these children grew up in a pandemic where during that lockdown period that was a way of communicating with their peers when they were home FaceTime Snapchat Instagram Tick Tock I was gonna call it Ticky talk because it's embarrassed the children but I won't do that now so those are important things of how they communicate however the in-person and communication how we interact and speak with each other in real time in real life is a very big skill that they're all going to need in the real world so it's now maybe we have to scale back so miss Sylvie and I um met with the representative Andrew Richards who's right here who's going to present from Yonder and Yonder started out as a company that was used in the like art spaces or for like parties

081for celebrity parties where people when they went to the party or the event had to put their cell phone and put it in a pouch that can only be opened by a special um unlocking device it's almost kind of similar to we remember the old school plastic tags that we got when we went to I'm going to bring it back to sweezies but to Macy's or swedes when you bought case of clothing so it limits the wanting to get it get to their cell phone and taking a picture or posting about it or Snapchatting it so then Yonder realized through a teacher or an a minister School administrator was like Hey this should be in school so Andrew is going to go over how it's implemented in school um and I'm very thankful that he

082came out from the city to do that and we had a very good meeting about it it's in a bunch of schools I came from the New York City Department of Education space and a couple of our sister schools I would say like Clinton Middle School which is similar to what rehab has it as well as Wagner so there's a bunch of schools that are similar to the style and Progressive collaborative education that we have here that have implemented in their space as well so Andrew I'm sorry all right thanks so much thank you all for having me here today um so really I did a little bit of digging on some of your guys goals for the 22-23 school year and two things I noted were inclusive educational practices as well as security infrastructure

083so today I'd really like to identify how Yonder is going to address both of those things uh here at your school so as a principal uh careyo mentioned we started in the entertainment industry so doing concerts um doing comedies weddings listening parties you name it um you know most recently we actually just did Fenway Park with Bill Burr of over 20 000 people all out of phone three uh upgrown free events so that's you know pretty impressive to think about humans being able to focus their attention for that period of time at such a great scale so at one of these uh one of these events in New York a principal and this was about five years ago a principal approached us and said hey can you do this in our school our students are

084struggling to engage with one another they're struggling to engage with uh you know their their peers and their teachers much in the same way we as concert goers are struggling to engage with you know Joe Rogan uh Bill Burr Dave Chappelle um and so uh we said sure let's go for it uh so since that point about five years ago we have grown and we're in over a thousand schools worldwide um we'll go to the next one please um these are some of our schools in the United States and then on the next slide um in New York City uh right uh so a few of the schools that principal carriero mentioned uh was down at the bottom but in 238 department of education schools um so uh you know we've been very busy hard

085at work but I can say that all of the policy uh and procedural side of things that I'm going to discuss next um all came from educational leaders and Educators themselves we've listened to uh what worked what did not work and so our best practices are derived directly from that um so the purpose of Yonder right uh we're creating that phone free distraction space it is a tier one intervention so for those of you that aren't familiar with that term it means it's to be utilized by all students to create the normative learning environment um so for all students um so the the program includes implementation planning right community outreach product the implementation itself and then post implementation support so the way we facilitate this tier one intervention is by one to one individual assignment

086so at the beginning of the program every student is assigned their own pouch they write their first and last name on the pouch they do this for two reasons the first and more obvious reason if you drop it on the floor you know who to give it back to but really the most important reason is accountability right as we're talking to those Middle School and High School normative behaviors we find about 10 percent of students are going to try to push back against this so uh you know in a in a variety of ways some include tampering with the power strike and so by having the name on it it's it holds everybody accountable um so you go to the next five points so the process begins at in the morning at the beginning of

087the day so I can use you uh as a student comes in right they have their pouch they take that out of their backpack good morning how are you they press it it opens up like that take your phone put it inside students keep this pouch with them the entirety of the day so they put it in their pocket often go to class learn about writing uh we come back out at the end of the day dismissal I say all right thank you so much have a great day and off I go so what that does is it takes the liability you know off of collecting phones at school it also takes the logistical burden off of um you know your intake staff of having to do that and most importantly right we're talking about

088being able to sustain long periods with having our phones next to us and not uh you know utilizing them so you know I think this is a proverbial desk drawer right when we have to get something done you know whether that you know is our taxes are writing a song or doing whatever it is uh we turn our phones off we put them on in a desk drawer we accomplish the task that we need to and then we return you know to check our emails or messages whatever um and so what what this allows by having the students keep their pouch on them what this allows them to do is build that stamina right they're going to come to school and they're going to have their phone next to them for seven eight hours a

089day and so what we have really found is that is not only successful in the school but all those habits that they learned will also carry over into the home life as well so um that's just um our that's why our ethos is a tier one intervention for all students because that they are they're then able to engage with one another um so we talked a little bit about what the program includes but go to the next slide please so this is a survey that we did of 900 School Partners um 65 saw an improvement in academic performance 74 an improvement in student behavior and 83 in student engagement in the classroom s uh so I also have a few frequently asked questions that I just wanted to address right away and then I'm happy

090to answer any question factors so uh in the event of an emergency right what happens if there's an emergency at school well what we know is that we want students to follow the safety procedures that you you're uh you know safety experts have put in place fire drill locked down those types of situations we want students to be um you know situationally aware and also listening to first responder directions once the area is safe students are then able to open their patches to call home and uh you know let loved ones know they're okay do other magnets work with younger phones um so this is a this is an interesting one uh so I can see this again um this is actually this is uh multiple magnets geometrically configured inside of here right that's the

091basis of the patent so um in the uh in my entire time at Yonder I've only seen twice uh students be able to engineer that themselves so that's off to them for their engineering crowds you know we want them to use that use that energy um we use it for good and so I will say though while they you know were quite genius they still uh you know lack the discretion that most middle schools middle schoolers and high schoolers do so um they were caught within an hour and um they were you know we had a policy to to address that um and then smart watches and headphones right uh these pouches they will hold your smart watch they will hold your air pods and they will hold your Apple watches so all wearable tech

092and the reason that this is so very important is a lot of the social emotional learning that happens it doesn't just happen during algebra class while you're learning algebra it happens in the hallway when you're passing one another and even if you have one airpod and you're detracting from your ability to engage with you know another human being face to face and giving them your full attention so for that reason we really uh recommend that all wearable technosing Style so uh this this sort of faces more the policy side of things so these best practices you know if you see a student on their phone outside of the pouch well the best practice and most natural consequences call home talk to Mom and Dad talk about a plan to support that student right engaging um

093with everybody in the tier one intervention so apparently we call it parent pickup right parents comes to school you know the conference and say look this is a policy this is a norm that we are in an Endeavor we are going um as a whole so um we're going to ask at your student applies um in the event that a student damages the past you know we see this occasionally right um whether it's just anxiety and nerves or if someone's seriously trying to cut into it and so the same thing um in the event that it's damaged uh apparent parent contact um so part of what's included in the program is we actually don't charge energy per pouch these are included in the annual program so when a student damages the pouch you will have

094extra ones on hand to give to the student after that parent conference right it's so important to isolate the conversation with the student and the parent as you know that's really important in um in in not only having that conversation but hearing out the student side as well you know why did you damage the patch well I felt anxious I felt nervous that's a very legitimate reason right so we want to hear their side as well um and then if a student forgets their patch this one's really very simple um simply we're going to collect it at the door the school staff will put through the door and give it back to them at the end of the day um right so that way they're they're accountable with a reminder of pages fingerpatch tomorrow and

095you'll be able to bring yourself so in addition to those uh the policy and the procedure side we also have a student art program and work program that all students that are in our uh in our schools are eligible to do so at the high school level you have to be 18 years or older we're working on getting um that uh age limit um dropped a little bit but essentially you are able and eligible to come work at a Yonder show right and this is a really great opportunity for students to see Home Free spaces engage in them outside of just the academic um so what are the next steps um essentially what I'll do is uh provide an estimate and once uh PO is um uh processed we can bring in the implementation planning

096process um we begin a district-wide communication plan this is really step one of that so thank you all for being here uh and then um step forward would be go live for the ball term so um I would love to answer any questions uh if there are any that jump jump right out sorry board first sure any board member questions uh really just for us I think I think it's a very interesting product uh the only question for us is if the phone is on its place in the pouch is it put on obviously will be the middle put on silent or off right because I'm obviously in the pouch if it starts going off it's going to distract everybody I uh ideally our messaging is just at the door right please have your phone

097powered off before you get to the door the first few days you know we're building new habits so students they get to the door they forget to turn it off it goes inside right um but after that it's really quite seamless they've come to the door mom invaded the school powered off and then they go how long have you typically found the learning curve to be implementing to schools generally um it really depends um I think safe to say I mean I've seen you know the first signs of that neuroplasticity if you will in on the first day um and where I really see this is in the lunchrooms when I go into many lunchrooms um it's eerily quiet um at first um you know those are sort of the places traditional you think of

098as boisterous right but uh when you go in you know every student's on their phone it's silent they're not engaging with their peers many times they're not actually even eating you know the food that's provided um and then after that first morning when everyone's pouched in that first Lunch Period the noise level rises when you get those age-appropriate sort of um you know guys let's bring energy down so that's you know within hours um and then really the the longer term uh that affects both academic and behavioral definitely within a few weeks to a month and then after a full year it's really quite significant right there were two questions that I had asked you last week that I feel like to answer them here because people will come up with the same questions one

099is you know if you're taking an art class you need to go on for stop-motion animation just kind of what happens in that situation and then uh I wouldn't say that one I lost the other one so I ended that one and then I'll think about it sure um yeah so what do you what do we do if a class is using a cell phone or student cell phones for academics um so one of these will always be in the main office but then one of the things we also do is assign an extra one that can kind of roam around so if a teacher has a lesson plan that is specific to utilizing your cell phone um they can say hey I need to sign one of these out for a very specific class

100very specific curriculum at which point uh this the teacher will be responsible for students repouching the student's phone before they go back into the classroom or into the sort of General atmosphere and then the teacher would be responsible for bringing us back immediately to the main office so it really centralizes on this uh this process and I guess to that point as well this system is designed to take the class the classic conflict cycle out of the classroom right so instead of a teacher having to you know engage with a student negatively um and and vice versa and also take away from important academic time um we're simply removing that from the classroom and and um by if a phone is seen in a classroom a support staff from the administration would come isolate the

101conversation with the student and no class time is lost and no you know relationship is is harmed and the other one was just the situation where like if a kid needs to call home to change their dismissal plan or a parent needs to reach their kid you know right now there's usually you know I might text my kid hoping they'll see it at 2 50 at dismissal time um sometimes they unfortunately say beforehand I realize I'm now part of the problem but as a parent so what what's your solution to the situation yeah absolutely so so much of the uh so much of the texting that I do hear of from teachers and students for that matter are it's it's my parents my mom it's my dad they're letting me know you know that I

102have this or this after school and um you know while that is super important it's also good tracking from not only that individual student but also you know if the distraction is larger than that the entire classes ability to learn um but in the event of needing those specific details um number one again all one of these will always be in the main office so student can simply go down to the main office check their phone right or if a parent needs to call the school they can always use the landline which I imagine still works yes okay um good good I love you love to hear that um so you can always get in touch uh the old-fashioned way and they will uh the main office will call to the classroom and let your

103son or daughter know that it's a what your plans are for that for after school how many decoy phones do you see phones quite a few the more the more interesting one is the sticks of deodorant so anyway you come in and for that reason uh it's so important that there is an adult right monitoring this process in the morning so that way they're really ensuring okay you know what's going on in here is the phone not in fact deodorant and in the event that they do put a decoy phone in there it really solved itself you know within an hour or so because um students are really uh it's very compulsive being on their phones what ends up happening is that that body language right if 90 of the class is you know using

104this effectively and you have that body language in the back it's much easier to address that that one student and really support them through um you know living in in a home-free environment yep I had this happen at a concert and I admit that I got my eye watch out so I just think you should know that yeah I made my eye watch out nice when how long ago is it um and I managed to get it out and because the reason that this is an annual program and there is an annual cost is um you know we're doing product upgrades and replacing so actually since the time you've been to that concert we have uh I addressed that problem and if you have if you have an Apple Watch on you now you can

105definitely demonstrate okay maybe if you want to I tag it yeah yes okay okay thanks thank you all right thank you so much thank you yes I'm like you said some viewing of school hours so it doesn't increase or decrease I mean um I can say that we have not done any studies on that however anecdotally speaking every parent I talk to says can we get one of these in our house so uh I I can't say you know from a peer-reviewed standpoint but definitely anecdotally speaking um and what we also find and this goes you know this speaks to um you know the tremendous amount of work that um you guys are doing on the curriculum side of things as well are habits that we learn at school they always carry over at home

106right and so it's it's really it would make sense that this would as well so yeah thank you all right Rich we're going to now have a margin update from superintendent Nichols and then we'll have public input number one I'm just before you go to that though in terms of like next steps like this is the next step like to the extent that's something you want to do is it going to just be a recommendation from you and it ends up on an agenda or is there going to be further discussion or I just go around and find out the world of war to apologize yeah I mean I'm I'm all for what you know this sounds great this is one one uh many different ways to handle cell phones in schools we tried one

107in 2018 it didn't really work very well so I am for going to the next step um but I also feel strongly that this should come from our administrators and superintendents so to the extent this is something that they have left they know now that that you've made his presentation you guys want to move forward if that's your recommendation then I would just you know move forward with it yeah what I'd like to do I think the measured way to go about it is to talk uh to miss carriero Mr Malone the administrative cabinet and to come back to you at the next board meeting um with our thoughts but certainly uh there seems to be some significant Merit to the idea that was supported it's a great idea of that recommendation of administration right

108yeah no it looked great and we'll get obviously a cost proposal but yeah it seems like a means a method saying so whatever you know it's going to be effective for the district um be supportive of it seemed like a good good tool I'm sure there's others out there also but Sandy you're muted I think oh we've got two phones you're muted Sandy I'm not sure what she's doing choice well we'll come back to you Sandy you want to come back to her yeah we'll come back okay we're going to move on while Sandy's working that out to uh superintendent update on Mars they don't know what Republican but number one yeah just a very brilliant update that um for those of you who are following um humor in communication with Southampton Town um over

109a number of months and at the last hearing um after that hearing concluded the board discussed um the notion of moving forward on our own uh with a referendum without the town and that would be simply for the acquisition of the property it would no longer be um involved in extensive talks about plan modifications or that kind of stuff so in my discussions with the board it was simply for the acquisition of the property with no related plans and related to that we're at this point just Consulting with our attorneys with regard to next steps to comply with what we need to um if we end up having to vote on May 16th so that's the statement at this time okay great um with that I would open up public input number one with respect

110to public info number one there are sheets Mary we have those out on the seats as to the rules for public input number one correct yes okay so those rules are applicable now to public input number one um if anybody would like to speak for public input number one that would be the time come up to the podium and just please give your name only not your address and you'll have three minutes subject to the rules that were provided in writing America ladies and gentlemen manager board thank you for the opportunity to speak we just need your name first um I hates making two points in relationships and acquisition for the benefit of the community i o transparency in your decision making and intentions first of all artificial turf can you please Clark by your

111position on this and now that you're pursuing the acquisition of the Mars and lots without Community presentation fund involvement their restrictions no longer apply can you please State whether you intend to pursue artificial turf or whether you will rule this out in line with the wishes of broader community for those still not aware this is important to understand that artificial turf is highly toxic which creates carcinogenic and endocrine disruption exposure for athletes who use it and the broader community in our drinking water at a time when the surface is falling out the plate with professional athletes due to documented health issues I believe it would be a terrible idea from school to burn our community with us for years to come secondly protests the November third vote authorized the scores to use 3.3 million dollars

112in reserve funds to the acquisition now that the score is going alone a six million dollar bond issue now needs to be approved by taxpayers at the May 16 vote if approved this will provide the nine million dollars needed to acquire the land however it must be emphasized that this is not the total funding needed for this project it appears at a further three to four million dollars will be needed to develop the land into the field it's also complicated and there is significant risk of it costing more than that with extensive engineering required to deal with flooding and potential toxic waste remediation what is the school board's plan for this I believe it is important that you just clear this plan now will you return to voters for approval for a second bond issue

113at a later date to fund and development costs are you breaking this into smaller chunks to avoid a headline 13 million dollar Plus cost lastly there is the opportunity cost 13 million dollars is an extraordinary amount of money to spend on one Athletic Field I believe it's important the community fully understands what these funds what else These funds can be spent on this large amount of money could find a multitude of other projects that would improve their lives and opportunities for the students has there been any discussion on this and the board please provide transparency on what else was considered and why the athletic field is determined to be the only priority examples of other projects and this is certainly not an inclusive list fixing the existing pills at Pearson and that with an entry

114score improving the ventilation system which I think I read and to be scaled back due to lack of funds renovating the gym Improvement cafeteria new fields of studies some real biology and Environmental Studies more advanced classes even paying bus drivers more to help shuttle students a massive sugar at Park in general it feels like there is always a lack of funds for other projects but for the Marsden Athletic Field it seems that it's been pursued at any cost it is the most imperative the community understands all the options for this that can spend and has the opportunity to be heard I urge the board to be transparent and allow the community to vote on multiple options that have 13 million or more in farms are spent for the benefit of our children thank you very

115much thank you difficult um sorry thank you come up hi everybody Michelle Leo here by surprise um first of all I just want to thank um all the teachers who were here and presented tonight that was such an extraordinarily stimulating presentation I'm so excited for um the education that's going on for my kids um Mrs burkoski I've known since grade school in these months and then miss Corona was one of Texas teacher and can I have neoland for fifth grade for Jax thanks Mr well um and as for Yonder I um tonight for Marsden thank you board of education for um putting out this proposition I am beyond excited I want you to know that continue to stand behind this acquisition effort full stop and I appreciate everything you're doing so that's my and the

116time thank you thank you foreign at the meeting at the Southampton Town board on February 28th you agreed was the town we're all closing on the acquisition of the the Muslim properties using cpf money the cost of developing the properties will be secured by a bond approved by the district taxpayers I'm really disappointed to hear that the plan now is to do this piecemeal to get the approval for the purchase and this really comes back to my point I think last September that we're not being presented with an overall plan from these little incremental bits all of which will add up the Southampton Town supervisor expressed the concern that the Muslim properties would be purchased without a fully developed plan and without certainty that the taxpayers would authorize a bond for the whole cost of

117development we the district taxpayers have the same concern you told the town of Southampton that you would present the taxpayers with a bond request in May including the estimated 5.7 to 6.7 million dollars to develop the properties since the cpf is no longer going to provide 6 million towards the purchase that means that the bond now should be between 11.7 and 12.7 million and of course that also doesn't include replenishing the 3.3 million to be drawn from the capital reserve fund so the total as I look at it is 15 to 16 million from a perspective of 15 million dollar Bond over a 15-year period of 4.5 percent interest rate will cost the taxpayers 1.4 million dollars every year for 15 years that's more than a thousand dollars sorry more than fourteen hundred dollars per

118student per year compared with about 200 a year uh per student was currently being spent for Mash Park they're 1.4 million a year does not include the cost of maintaining the new field and it does not include the potential that developing the field will cost more than the current estimate there's a meeting on February 28th the school's engineers said that the storm water management plan was puts at a very preliminary stage of design the two to three million cost estimates for stormwater management could be far too low the engineers also said that based on the work it had completed at that time they could not be certain that they could construct a playable field in discussing the details of the plan 30 seconds you described a walker water collection and irrigation system that could mean

119the field would be usable about 400 hours a year setting aside whether those usage rates are achievable at Mars and given the topography what we're talking about here is a field that is usable perhaps 10 hours a week during the school year and not at all outside that if Marston has developed the school and still need match Park the safety concerns about getting to match Park will not be addressed the time to work the mesh pack will not be eliminated many existing Field behind the school the mesh bar will still need to be maintained and upgraded thank you thank you thank you I'm Catherine Levy I feel very sad because I taught writing in the schools for years and I'd much rather be talking about writing across the curriculum which is one of my favorite

120subjects but I'm going to talk about one of my least favorite subjects Marsden instead I wish that this board would consider slowing the process down I think a lot of the acrimony a lot of the questions a lot of the questions that have been raised today could be answered by an environmental impact statement I understand that the parents and the board and a lot of proponents of the project are worried that trenzo will either develop mcmansions there himself or sell the property to others in developing connections I do not want mcmansions there as anybody who's heard me testify at the ARB I don't want the conventions there um but let's face it the transo family has owned that property for decades nobody has tried to buy it no one's trying to develop it and I

121think the reason is because it would be so problematic to build anything there a mcmansion an affordable house a playing field anything and the fundamental questions about whether the project is even feasible whether the cost of the project are going to be prohibited what kind of environmental impacts there will be whether the storm water drainage issue which is so important which I know the village is working on as well has been worked out these things have to be answered and they need to be answered before the taxpayers of this school district vote for another 6 million a total of nearly 10 million dollars for acquisition of property that this school district may not be able to use for what it intends to use it for and I as an educator sitting here tonight listening to

122the Educators talk about writing particularly writing across the curriculum I just thought let's use the money to raise teachers salaries to buy property for affordable housing for teachers for mentoring and tutoring programs that are so great for writing there's so many things that this money could be used for but I beg you to think about delaying this quote having an Eis which will answer a lot of questions which will stop all the divisive arguments and and give us some facts to talk about so we can have a rational civil discussion and we can write an essay about it thank you thank you oh yeah sorry good evening Anthony Berman uh just to start off to say that you know it's unusual for me and Catherine to agree on anything when it comes to developing development

123projects but in this thing I mean I almost wanted to say exactly what she's said so for us to be in agreement here I think it shows you that there's some fundamental issues with this and I think you know a lot of this uh a lot of this uh opposition is focused on artificial versus natural Turf and the costs and things like that I think they're more fundamental issues than that and I've brought this up before I mean is this property you're acquiring is it physically able to um be used for the uh stated uh purpose of a playing field and ancillary facilities and parking I'm not really sure based on the information that I've had uh um that that's the case I mean to put some of this into perspective this is I think

124the 4.4 acres of land um watch case Factory project the biggest project in this uh Village in decades was a little bit a little bit over two acres of land um you know I know watch case Factory has buildings on it but a lot of the um uh topographical and psych issues are going to be very similar here at Morrison Street um you know but paradoxically as big as the property is from the own from the diagrams that the sport has provided you can see that that soccer field just barely fits on the on the property and you know I I just you know and that's not even taking it that's just a two-dimensional uh issue not taking care of uh not taking into consideration top of profitable challenges um you know I was walking

125by the property today on my way way here I I don't think the topographical issues are unmanageable I think you know you could potentially do something with that but I mean it's going to involve a a lot of a lot of planning a lot of engineering a lot of bulldozers and frankly a lot of money and you've gotta let the voters and uh make sure the voters understand that um you know one thing this board keeps uh saying is at least I've seen it in the papers is that a lot of people from um um supervisor Schneiderman on downward have suggested other possible uses for the property and you've always said well doesn't mean the school's um facility needs well I mean I mean it's the only facility need for the school a soccer field

126I mean you can't tell me that there's some other possibilities that you could uh things you could use this uh property for if the soccer field doesn't work uh you know three things can happen here one is that you know your your engineers and Architects could work a miracle and make this all work and keep the neighbors happy I'll try to wrap up quickly um but you know another possibility is is that you're just gonna have to shoot horn something in there and everybody's gonna be unhappy with the product and um and um you know people who voted for funding this gonna be like this isn't we didn't realize we were voting for this and uh you know third possibility is you're just going to realize you can't do anything at all with the property

127and then you're going to be like uh having to explain to the voters well we we can't give you your your uh Athletic Field here and we just bought this property we don't have any don't know what we what to do with it thank you sorry thank you before we turn to online is there anybody else here that wants to speak wow my name is uh Sean Oppenheimer and I agree with everything that's been said this is not a statement this is a question what are you going to do with the field what are your plans you heard the superintendent statement our intent is to acquire the property and then and that's what we're going to say right now okay is there going to be a community Forum yes thank you Jeff Ziegler first I

128want to thank this board for tirelessly working on this proposed project with the town over the past 11 plus months as to the town is known and also just want to say that um everybody I know all of the community here that lives here year round that sends their kids here that wants to see the footprint of the school secured for the kids Futures and not just ours but every kid that comes through Pearson in the future those people voted on November 3rd and a lot more of those people are going to vote again to acquire this land and to keep this land as a part of the school in the district it's already in so thank you thank you um you're receiving this um I was at the onboard meeting I just wanted to

129applaud everybody that came in the support of the project I saw a lot of the board members they're speaking about it and I was you know very supportive of that thank you uh I think we've discussed enough over and over in a very lengthy process the project I think it's time to move on and proceed with a solution uh if people pay attention like I think in previous presentations uh the superintendent mentioned specifically that there's going to be Community forums so how that property is going to be developed so um I think this is the first step to move on with this and just want to thank you and move forward thank you thank you anybody else here in person Church yes my name is Daniel Marcelli and I didn't plan to speak and you're

130probably very tired of hearing people on both sides but there's a couple of things tonight that I think just uh I just can't resist mentioning first we hear about all this divisiveness and I've even gotten so many texts from people um who you are encouraging me not to create divisiveness um the parents that I know in this community are are they they just are shocked to be even thought of that were accused of such a thing and we're focused on our children the divisiveness that happens in this Village right now is because for some reason folks don't understand why we can't be convinced of what they think to be right I hear numbers being quoted that are I mean are just like somebody's doing on the document envelope typically a neighbor and all of a

131sudden I'm hearing 16 17 million dollars I've heard nothing from this board of education similar that I've heard straightforward talk on that now is quite simple that we should all understand it's about acquiring the land for the future we'll have probably in this bill which a hundred local Forums on this because of the divisiveness and somehow we'll get to a good decision at the end of it but we'll have no decision if we don't own the land this was all about cpf and improper use of cpf funds I've heard it so much from so many people as soon as CBS gone now it's another issue and it's not a cpf improper use fund anymore we talk about a you know a very well-known architect in town known for historic preservation this land is just inconceivable

132for to be used it's largely flat go walk on it it needs about a 14 foot retainer wall they're all over the village many probably on projects and Mr Vermont I would assume um so I just don't understand why that now engine not Engineers talking about engineering issues Mrs Levy talking about the engineering feat of water and whatnot it's just inconceivable I'm not trying to be disrespectful or rude folks but this Village needs an honest conference station where we're not posturing because we just don't want something listen to people who actually have a different point of view thank you very much thank you so anybody else here in person that would like to speak before we switch to the see who's here online okay great Mr Fisher hi there this is Tracy um I'm actually

133uh here to talk a little bit about the cell phone policy so I'm probably a little early but I didn't know you can't okay yes please um so I just heard about this last week I don't really know what what the board is going to discuss but I just wanted to say as a parent of uh seventh grader um I'm not a proponent of letting cell phones be in the classrooms or be in the school actually at all um when I need to get to him I can just call the front desk at any time uh he does have a little uh watch that he can talk on but um the cell phone thing that has um the ability for children to get online where there are no restrictions um is is concerning to me

134and has always been in fact a couple of years ago before we um uh went into what we've been through in the last three years um an art teacher uh Gary Osborne and I were spearheading um wait until eight which is um parents getting together and supporting each other to you know keep their kids off of cell phones not have any smartphones until at least eighth grade and that sort of all had a big kibosh when we went into what we just went through in the last three years but recently um the counselor called me maybe two or three months ago I think it was before the holiday and told me that my son and two or three other children who were in seventh grade were shown something from an eighth grader's phone now my

135thing is I don't want my child to find what he can find online pornography all that stuff that's my big thing like don't let these kids be you know um whatever uh you know what I mean opened up to that world that is is too big for them um but what happened was this person I don't know who the child was maybe I should have found out but I wasn't really the point he showed these these two or three boys a person on YouTube shooting themselves in the head and killing themselves now that's way worse than porn and I couldn't believe it I couldn't believe that I was trying to save myself my son from horrible things online but I never ever thought that he would be subject to seeing something as horrible as that

136you can't get that out of your head you know part of me wanted to say I need to see it too so I know that what he saw and what those kids saw um I haven't seen it I think it would disturb me forever but anyway that's the reason that's the main reason I don't think children should be allowed to have phones in school lunch time or anything they're not prepared they're not able to discern good from bad thank you very much thank you before we let the next person on Mr Fisher just want to make a note we didn't get to it yet in the agenda but the audit committee is going to be table tonight so if anyone's here for that do not have to wait okay Mr Fisher next hand raised hello

137can you hear me we can um this is Janice donno uh I wanted to speak um even before the the comments that um occurred before uh mine to say that I am still really confused about why the board of education has thought all along that it is a good policy to say that it will not answer any questions and really just remain silent when many of your constituents your neighbors other parents really want answers from you and it is not good enough anymore to say you're going to acquire the properties and then tell us what you're gonna do that just does not make sense and I don't think that you would teach that to your kids in school um there are so many unanswered questions about soil remediation flood control whether you're even considering artificial

138turfs something that the village has turned down multiple times what your plans are regarding Mash Park how much it's going to cost which is something that you've got to deal with the public on I I think that you cannot continue to say you will not answer these questions and then there are the more particular things such as um a 14-foot retaining wall and that being considered something that's not problematic in a historical district with no buffering on two sides of what will be a field shoehorned into a space that cannot accommodate it unless more than 90 percent of the trees are taken down I think it is an unreasonable claim to say that we are making unreasonable claims when you will not answer the questions about what this is what's it going to look like

139what's it going to cost and what's it going to be I urge you to reconsider this your neighbors have been able to reach a large number of people and we don't think that we can stop until we get answers as to what this project really will entail I think that you know the amount of money that it will cost has gone up in your own estimations I've gone back and looked looked at what you've announced the costs to be over time and I think that our original cost estimates are going to be pretty much on target so I urge you to stop with the tactic of not answering questions I don't think it can work for you in the long run and I think it's a vegetable thing when you're dealing with of this size

140thank you thank you Janice is there any other hands ready Spencer Fisher sorry I can't make those in Karen yes yes I'm here can you hear me I don't see myself can you hear me we can oh good okay because I can't see I can't see anything all of a sudden um I just I wanted to uh speak because I I we're about to go through round two I'm afraid of like what are the numbers and everybody's throwing out different numbers I just want to say I have I'm looking carefully at everything and this is my honest adding up I'm at looking at 15.1 to 16.1 what the school has reported that's the purchase price 9.325 the development 3.8 according to the February uh h2m estimate and the development uh the development is the 3.8

141and the storm Warner management is two so that's between is between one and two so it's between 15.1 and 16.1 um and I would be you know I just want to urge you I have many issues not just the phrase not just the cpf but on this alone it's such a huge one with implications I want to I hope you're gonna flesh out the current cost estimate at least with some of the potentially major missing items like this a six foot retaining wall is the only retaining wall that's in the cost estimate and um the renderings show at least a 20-foot retaining wall how do I get that the field side of the wall scales uh at 20 feet if the Division Street side is built to code in the renderings at 42 inches so

142I hope in the interest of transparency and responsible due diligence um you'll get the public the so clearer numbers and I'm happy to yield back the balance of my time if you will just share your intentions about getting the public a more uh fleshed out correct uh construction number a corrected uh construction number I'm happy to give you back my time if we could just just say that you will or you won't give us any more information or correct any of those errors about the construction cost we're going to respond at the end of the public hearing so you can finish your comments or continue the rest of your time oh okay I'll look forward to your response thank you very much for your time anybody else Scott yeah hi there uh Gordon Toronto just

143want to thank the board um very much for getting the cell phone policy review on uh and in front of everyone I think it's um as a parent of a 10th grader eighth grader and fifth grader I think it's really important that we deal with this at high school since 2020 um there's just been such a spike that was the only socialization that they had and I would love to see especially at the high school level um something come of this I just think there's way too much distraction going on so uh really pleased to see that on there and I thank you all for all your efforts on that thank you Gordon anyone else Mr Fisher okay should anybody else just gentleman yep absolutely Pagano I just want to talk about a couple things

144uh first of all somebody mentioned it's been one year I mean it's been two years right since uh the school board was in discussion with cpf and now here we are today and we really don't know what's going to be at those lots so we can say okay that's one thing we don't know that two years ago we started to discuss the biggest issue I had is we're using Reserve funds to acquire new that then we have to reserve against to take care of where does that make sense how are we going to replenish the reserve funds you're you're buying more assets that then you have to reserve for and you're using Reserve funds to buy it and then let's talk about the reasons for athletic fields if we're having athletic fields one is safety

145but we're still going to have to use mash r the other I think is is athletic Excellence that one's laughable I mean it's laughable the stories of athletes and what they overcome and here we are talking about a 15 million dollar soccer field it's it's embarrassing has anyone here made a nickel in professional sports okay we've probably some of us have played college sports you know enough to know that it's it's it's something internal that makes Champions not how great your field is or how far you have to walk to it then the environment does anyone care about the environment this is started with cpf now it's now it's not not cpf because the town board had concerns and those concerns evidently aren't your concerns yeah I I agree with I I agree with the

146people that are that are against this this needs to be flushed out before the Public's asked for more and more money thank you thanks will you make sure the timer's on the screen please foreign public input number one um Mr Nicholas thanks I just want to make the the I don't want to call it a correction but that statement and perhaps I wasn't clear earlier so let me restate it and he had been in discussions with the community preservation fund for the better part of the Year even though the initial correspondence was in August of 21. the earnest discussion started about a year ago um and those discussions centered um on a mutually desirable plan where it would be an athletic field to be used by the community when not in use by the school

147so all those discussions took place with cpf with the understanding that there was going to be a significant contribution now that we're not um beholden to that in terms of having that agreement if you will or understanding with the town what we're simply doing now is asking the community to acquire the property and the price tag for that acquiring the property is nine million uh three 275 thousand dollars nine million two hundred and seventy five thousand dollars it's fifty thousand dollars in closing costs for a total of nine million three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars and it's important to remember that absent the requirement to communicate with cpf this land acquisition is going to start as just a land acquisition and then there can be discussions with the community about the use and it

148doesn't necessarily have to be limited to an athletic field it'll be a comprehensive discussion about uh all of our facility needs for the entire district and so that's that's all I want to say board members anybody I want to say I just it's important to think about this as a long-term plan I'm sure all the the other professionals who are Architects and designers and planners would understand that you know in looking at a project like this it's not especially for the school district uh it is a long-term plan a long-term need like say right now the facility needs are looking at it as a field let's say 30 40 years from now get me changes the school has the property it has the ability to to develop those needs as as needed which should be

149Way Beyond any time we're all still here so I I was uh very disappointed in the fact that this thing was cpf didn't work out I thought it was it originally would have been a great opportunity for you know the community preservation fund and the school district to team together it didn't it didn't work out it didn't pan the way it was uh well at least I envisioned it would um and then looking at the long division I think it's the in the best interest long term for the school district to acquire it and have a property available for whatever the school needs are whether it's you know field today a building tomorrow or whatever happened in the future so that's my two cents remember Insurance anybody else yeah and I think maybe any other

150comments on the repeated environmental concerns would be that the school would have gone through all studies needed at the appropriate time correct so there's none of nothing's happening here without all of that being you know looked at and gone through properly um so yeah I think just the other piece to add Sandy or anybody else I would just like to say that I I have never believed that education stops and starts in Four Walls of a classroom I've always believed that it happens outside on a field it happens at a lunchroom it happens in the gym and to say who's made money or who hasn't I can name probably 75 to 100 children in my years on the board that have been able to go to college for reduced prices that most families could not

151afford so maybe they weren't paid x amount of dollars but they were able to fulfill their college dreams and do it without coming out with a hundred and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of loans and just to clear the record I did have not one but two collegiate athletes who was substantially reduced College fees and we did have a gentleman from Santa Barbara who does have a World Series ranks um who actually went on to play on an amazing stadium and you're right it doesn't make them better if they play on a great field but it is nice when you have 70 percent of your fall athletes trying to find a green space to practice on and we are shipping them all over the towns to play so for me it's it's about

152Children's Health it's about their mental health it's about getting them off the screens that we've already talked about tonight and making them well-rounded students so we don't know like we said what tomorrow's going to bring for that that property but this was a need that we had going in and and we knew that so um and we continue to have our conversations and keep the doors open and again I respect everybody that comes whether you agree or not agree and I encourage people to continue to come so thank you all thank you anyone else I just think to be clear for this evening um we're not not answering questions those answers aren't available yet so the fact that you're not getting an answer you want is not in ignoring of your answer or disclosure the

153intent of the board right now is to acquire the property the cost of that property were just outlined by Mr Nichols that's the property Cost Plus the closure cost that is it any future School needs now that we're not restricted by cpf will be done by open meetings Community forums and driven by school needs and facility needs which are no longer restricted due to cpf that'll happen if and only if we acquire the property so that's clear I don't see how there's any questions regarding any development or anything else at this time anything it's in misstatement to say that we're not answering questions just because you're not getting the answers you want so with that we're going to move forward and we will move on to Section 8 of tonight's agenda that business administrators report

154Mr chairman good evening everyone um we're going to have a very quick presentation tonight because um a lot of things have changed um on the revenue side at least and um we have very very uh secret small decrease in small increase um in the two budgets that we're gonna review tonight and the first thing we're going to do is we're going to tonight we really want to show everyone what the tax money impact would be of the increase of 1.88 so that's really the most important thing to review with everyone tonight is how that additional tax levy will affect everyone's tax bill so nothing has changed on the slide with the Lance meeting um our next budget presentation on April 3rd will show changes to the top of the slide in state aid so the

155state budget is due to be adopted on or around April 1st so by April 3rd we'll be able to finalize all of our state aid production and from there we will be able to also talk about um what our final appropriate fund balance would be and what we would need to get a reserved um at that meeting but for now the budget to budget increase is 4.75 our tax levy limit was 4.16 our tax money increase is well under 4.16 at 1.88 and the impact to our Tech players in Southampton and also um each Camping Town and this projection assumes no changes and effect values and Equalization rates from the current school year so if you just take a look at on the last line and both of those charts there you'll see that a

156home assessed at a million dollars in both towns um the tax will be increased of 1.8 would mean an additional 57 um per year increase on the current on on everyone's current tax bill uh that per month of course would be 5.59 um that 67 would give us um the additional 777 000 with the tax money to support next year's Budget on the bottom of the slide you'll see that we will have another proposition on the ballot and that is to support the Harbor Historical Museum Historical Museum is asking the taxpayers to set aside 75 000 worth of tax levy and we rejected based on currency values again uh that a house valued at a million dollars their tax bill would go up roughly 6.48 per year if that proposition is approved um this is

157the Middle High School proposed budget all of the budget notes in detail um it was sent to the board previously this is a summary of the budget you can see the budget is actually declining we have a four thousand dollar um decrease in the budget year to year uh we did have to increase the supply uh codes but we actually decreased a lot of contractual areas so the budget itself is staying relatively flat Athletics it's also summarized here and you'll see that um the two launch uh pieces of the budget are contractual areas both of those areas are staying relatively flat um the fee we pay uh to use Nash park is in those in the budget phones we also have an increase in supplies and we also show a small increase in equipment um

158there are some additional aeds that we need to buy next year and there's other two other pieces of equipment for next year the budget's going up slightly a little under fifteen thousand dollars which is a little under three percent um increase in their budget so after that April 3rd where we are going to review the budgets for special ed and BOCES we will include the full budget detail on the website so everyone can actually see exactly what is included in each of the notes that support from next year's budget and these are the two additional propositions on the ballot um right now um we do have the proposition to establish the capital reserve for technology equipment purchases and securities upgrades and then as we spoke about earlier this is the preposition on the bottom to

159um before the dead Harbor Historical Museum so on April 3rd we are going to find a lot of Revenue projections um and we are going to finalize a budget presentations and uh also present the department of budgets for BOCES and PPS and then we're going to just do a quick review of the entire Budget on April 19th we will do another review of the entire budget and at that point the board would have enough information to adopt the operating budget that evening and also the property tax report card and then we will also have a budget hearing on May 8th and the budget vote will occur on May 15th um there's some information on s t ballots in the bottom of the slide and this presentation will be on the website um it's currently right

160now on board docs but we'll also put it on our home page so that everyone can access it great any board questions foreign I think it's great that we have we're going out to the public with one one point eight percent um which might be the lowest in the county I don't know but yes it's really the lowest on the East end so far so right which is great great job April like that which is amazing so thank you thank you you're doing a great job thanks for doing that uh also just because you know we are the lowest on the East End for tax levy it just proves that you know we do a fantastic job managing these District's budgets and costs so I just want to make sure the taxpayers understand that that

161we don't take it lightly next one thank you moving on to our consent agenda is there a motion for consent agenda items 9.2 or 12.3 is there a second is yeah 10.1 and then 10.2 are being withdrawn until the next meeting yeah before [Music] and Three Points sorry no 10.4 is something that's the um that was a monthly report so 10.4 is good it should be 10.1 and 10.2 we just have a motion and a second is there any discussion through 10-4 right um no I was the 12.9 to 12.3 the exemptions which we tabled were the 10 points um tune 10. 10.1 and 7.2 right to everything everything else was being voted on now well I have a I have uh an issue with 10.5 so that that's open for discussion now so you

162can discuss that so I I had asked earlier about the the educational uh perfectness of a trip to amusement park and I understand that you know it's because you know they experience now 10th graders the eighth graders missed it because covered 50 BC so uh I I was trying to figure out why we were voting on this is um board on our level because I thought you know even though the trip might be fun it seems more to me like it should be something uh handled by the PTSA or something like that as a trip for the students School Board level typically a trip of this magnitude would be run by the school board um but I had communicated with Ron um and he explained his perspective and I explained that this as he just

163explained was really a one-time uh offer as it related to students missing out due to covet on their eighth grade trip so they had requested the students the opportunity to go to Washington DC this year as an entire 10th grade class is that or Boston for overnight trips and they're high school students and high school students on an overnight trip is very different than middle school students yeah and I had explained that to Ron um but we'll pull that out as an action item I just questioned the educational portion of it you know in the school um making those trips because the trips in DC or Boston or something can be tied in with you know historic you know or governmental education um that didn't make them yeah so we'll do this we're gonna have

164um a consent agenda mode or items 9.2 through 12.3 Mary we've tabled 10.1 and 10.2 and we're going to move 10.5 to the action item okay and that's what we're going to vote on now and then we can correct that later on 10.5 first no no we know the consent agenda first and then 10.5 next all in favor okay we already moved that yeah I'll just clarifying it's all in favor aye aye all right now we will move on to 10.5 which is an action item is there motion for 10.5 which is approve the extracurricular 10th grade trip is there seconds good discussion we had any more discussion um with the manually vote for that right yeah okay so all in favor bye opposed okay we're moving on to section 13 which is our uh

165committee report we'll start with the audit committee if anyone is here and wants to speak on the other candidate you're not on the agenda so you don't have to speak unless you want to you don't have to well I can just say that you just have to come up to the podium so we can get you sorry you hung out you hung into it good evening everyone uh Sarah Michaelis the chair of the Audi committee we had a meeting today um that was a great discussion and we're going to meet again um in two weeks time April 3rd as uh 4 P.M to continue the discussion so that's why the items were tabled we just I'm gonna talk some more about those two items great that's it thanks thank you everyone um policy committee I

166had a meeting with everyone BOCES that will stop that was from Stones um so I don't have the update that I wish I would have but I have that meeting on Thursday um I experienced a profound challenge in picking up where the committee left off to move the work forward but while I was going down the wrong road of assuming that the work of the committee for the past few years was all in the electronic drive but it's actually all hard copy so it's taken a while to get it together and everyone BOCES is not happy that it's all hard copy I'm sure they want it electronic but uh I'll be I'll have a more substantive update the next time uh the board meetings great thank you foreign board members you don't have to we

167can carry over the rest great um public input number two same rules apply as public input number one anybody's here for public input number two let me come up to the podium and you'll have three minutes or raise your hand online and we will recognize you with Mr Fisher we'll start with people here is anybody want to participate in public input number two yeah I see no hands so we will turn to the online form is there any hands raised Mr Fisher okay hi can you hear me again we can hear you Janice okay um this is janice.o again um I wanted to respond to something that Jeff Nichols said by definition the Board of Education cannot make the determination of whether the community is getting the answers it seeks only the people who feel

168that they are not getting the answers can make that determination I just wanted to point that out that's called logic um another thing that I talk about because nobody has brought this up tonight at all is why is there a plan to buy the second lot to make a 70 space parking lot in the middle of the historic district um I think that that really has been sort of overlooked in this whole thing and that would be a very destructive measure to have a 70 space parking lot uh with now I'm sure you're not going to abide by the the lighting rules for the Dark Skies which I understand schools don't have to abide by at night anyway and which you do not abide by in the bus parking lot already so it's a bit

169hard to believe that that's something that you would be concerned with trees would have to be cut down for that lot as well and those boundaries are very close to neighboring properties not my own I would point out but I think that in the historical district that is a terrible precedent to to start I would also like to get into the record tonight that there was a new sign that went up on the parking lot of the school in the last few days that said no parking overnight or your car will be towed at your expense I believe and I'd like to address the board to say what's that about um I think that the the school board does not seem to understand that it does not act in a vacuum you are not in

170a bubble you are in a historical district of a small fragile 19th Century Village and that is going to have to be dealt with in a parking lot and nobody's said that you're not building a parking lot so I really love to hear what your plans are for that um is something that is a very destructive thing to put in the midst of the historic district so I again would like to get an answer to the parking lot part of this as well as the previous questions that we have asked and gotten no answers to at this point thank you thank you Janice um we'll turn to the in-person people as soon as we finish up with the online [Music] Keith hi it's actually hi can you hear me we can hear you hey great

171um it's actually Jamie Mott I'm zooming in from my husband's computer so um I just wanted to to quickly say um something because it has come up in a in a lot of the meetings so my background is in landscape design I was practicing for 14 years and had to work a lot with the local municipalities one thing to note each Town out here has different restrictions regarding clearing meaning how many trees can come down on a property and it's actually more than just trees it's under brush as well Sag Harbor Village has a hundred percent allowable clearing so that's a village code that any property would have to abide by which means 100 clear so anything that's developed essentially can be completely clear-cut so I just wanted to note that's not specific to this

172project or any other project that's all projects proposed in the village so that's all just wanted to add that note thanks so much thank you hi can you hear me we can hi okay I just wanted to respond to a couple of things that were said and addressed the school board's comment that the environmental concerns could be addressed after the purchase of the um after the purchase of the land but you know I also want to ask this the school district could seek a reappraisal of the Marsden Street property because your consultant cautioned sorry that um if you had to move some of the contaminated soil uh it would be a an expense and in order to install the drainage system that you're going to need it's very likely that you'll have to remove uh

173soil that is above the contaminant concentrations of unrestricted soil cleanup standards um and then I just want to respectfully ask you to correct me if I'm wrong purchasing the land um will cost three 9.325 inclusive inclusive of closing costs storm water management is currently estimated at one to two million and that has to be done no matter what you eventually build and the only public cost estimate for the scope of work that is the athletic facilities in the parking lot is 3.840 so um now the storm water has to happen no matter what you build and ward has said tonight that there might even be a school there but or a bill you know School building there but um you know building athletic fields I'm sure everyone who wants the school to have the land

174wants the scope the only scope of work that's been discussed so far so please uh correct me if my numbers are wrong thanks thank you anybody here come on Michelle Leo one more time um again the property is adjacent if there is a house going out for sale next to my house you might think about buying it because maybe I want to do something in the future to have a house with my kids and if I had the money I'd buy it I might not have the full plan yet I think a lot of people might think about things like that transparency is happening for those of you who say that it isn't it is that's just not correct you might not have liked it in the past and maybe there's been issues with previous

175boards but right now it is happening the historic district I get it that there are people who are mad about the historic district and how it might be changed and I can respectfully empathize that how that might impact you but I still stand by the fact that the footprint of this school has an opportunity to expand and I think that that's something that we can't do without the small fragile 19th Century Village it's really not that fragile we're doing fine you have lots and saved for all of you you have an entire dedicated Committee of save Sag Harbor for their use and their vision why don't why can't the school just have this what's the problem you're changing your tactics it's okay we're gonna keep coming right if you you can do you can switch

176the dialogue to the finances and now you can get everybody appalled about the cup of coffee because as Miss Buscemi pointed out 5.59 a month I'm in if that's what we're doing for the tax levy increase this year thank you for your extraordinary efforts I've been listening to your budget staff for so many years years even before my children existed in this town and I always think that it's incredible gymnastics performance and I love it and I respect it you know the only scope of work that um Miss Sarah Bonnie just referenced that the only people who are coming out in support of this want a field you're actually wrong there's a lot of people who want so much but I think what it all boils down to is we want our school to have

177the property so please keep going we're gonna get this because there's enough people who believe in that bottom line and that's it thank you anybody else here in the public house participate Republic input number two and thank you for clarifying the record the only confirmed number is the acquisition and closing costs everything else is to be determined so with that is there a motion to convene into executive session to discuss contracts any discussion all in favor I mean exactly conduct no basis but for opposing Republic meeting so thank you and have a good evening [Music] foreign [Music]