001Okay, thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, we are recalling to order the regular meeting of the Suffren Central School District Board of Education for Tuesday, October 28, 2025. Uh, may the record reflect that all board members are present except for Miss Joy Yin, but I see Mr. Robbie Schwarz is here to hold down the Ford for us. So, thank you. And, uh, we're going to begin with the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, [clears throat] indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Okay, our next item is student board member report. Robbie, what do you got for us tonight? So, hi. I'm back. >> So, seniors are a little busy with applications. November 1st is early
002action deadline for many schools. So, a lot of seniors are touching up, getting forms filled out, and just finishing up before regular decisions roll around if they want to do that. On Wednesday, we have or tomorrow we have the safety assemblies around the school. So, it'll be seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen that will all attend. Friday, of course, is Halloween. We have rules that for costumes just in case anyone wants to dress up and some activities at lunch. Next Tuesday is election day, so we have that off. On the 5th, we have uh the superstar contest in the gym for top placesers in our school's fitness tests that we had during the first block of the first half of quarter 1. On the 6th, 7th, and 8th are our fall play dates. Uh, at 7:00
003p.m. Se on each day will be our main cast, which will include me. And 100 p.m. on Saturday is our matinea performance. And we also have a a video cast which will be for the families and friends of those people. So tickets can be bought soon I believe now. And volleyball just won today against North Rockland. They're still in the playoffs. >> Yeah. >> So always love it when we beat North Rockland. and boys volleyball. Um the 7th of November is the end of the first quarter and office hours and parent teacher meetings begin on November 13th. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um I hope that all of our seniors who have uh turned 18 are able to get out and vote on Tuesday. um when they don't have school.
004And I've been hearing wonderful things about the fall play. I'm very excited uh to go and see it. All right. Um our next item is the minutes of the regular meeting of October 14th, 2025. Has everyone had an opportunity to review the minutes? Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? Mr. Donnelly, second. Mr. Andert. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? >> Okay. Abstension from Mr. Frasier. And now we're going to go to superintendent's comments. >> Thank you very much. I'm going to turn this right back over to Robbie Schwarz um who alluded to the fact that you are maybe the only person in the cast um for for the production, but I don't think that was the case. >> The only person in the cast actually. So,
005>> so I think Robbie, you were going to say a few things about the production um of Clue coming up. So, go ahead. >> That is correct. It will be me and Sarah Benovitz who are in the crowd. Hello. Thank you so much. Um, hi. I'm Sarah Benovitz and of course you all know Robbie. Um, and we are both in the main cast of the fall play and we're excited to speak to you about it. It's Clue on stage and this is a comedic tag on the beloved Clue board game. Basically the story is we follow the classic clue characters Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Miss Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss White, and Mr. Green as they are invited to the mysterious Body Manor where they meet the butler Wodsworth and Avet the Maid. They arrive under
006the premise that they are simply attending a dinner party, but they soon realize that there are ulterior motives. Secrets are revealed, fights break out, and things go haywire when all of a sudden the night takes a turn. There's a murder. The rest of the night is chaos. There's panic, yelling, and perhaps even more murders. The ultimate goal is to figure out who did it, where, and with what? >> All right. We of course have to thank our wonderful team of directors, Mr. Murray, the director of stage crew, Mr. McCarter, director of our tech crew, and our directors who are in the audience, and also my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schwarz. They all work so tirelessly to make sure that we're able to put on our best performance. This show would not be possible without them,
007and we're extremely grateful to have them supporting us every step of the way. This show is truly a mustsee. The cast and stage crew have been working so hard the past two months to make the show the production that it is. This show is comedic gold and will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. Thank you and we hope to see you there next weekend. This is Robbie Schwarz and Sarah Benovitz in the boardroom with the microphone. [laughter] >> Thank you very much, Sarah and Robbie. We're looking forward to the production. Uh, and every year they exceed our expectations and I'm sure this year will be uh no different and of course no pressure. Um, but congratulations on all the hard work that you're putting in and we're looking forward to it. Uh,
008another big congratulations um that uh we're all very proud about is uh our dine to nourish uh organization that really put on an absolutely incredible event now two Fridays ago in the high school cafeteria and in the lobby area. Uh you may have seen the very nice article that came out in low HUD about this uh this project and the fact that our student organization partnered with local businesses of course partnered very closely with the community food bank to raise $40,000 for the community food bank is just incredible. Huge round of applause for them. and the fact that our students have uh zeroed in on such an important thing that's taking place right now, right? With uh the government shutdown on everyone's mind and with SNAP benefits coming to an end, if not today, in
009the next couple of days, there's no more important time for raising this kind of awareness with regards to food insecurity as well as raising these muchneeded funds for the community food bank that uh uh just incredible, absolutely incredible. Um, I've talked often about how this student organization is really a very fine example of what's part of our blueprint, our strategic plan. Um, that really centers on the need for our students to give back to their community and to inspire one another. Uh, and so last week, um, I had the opportunity to meet with Mount Mines. That's our community advisory group that I met meet with periodically throughout the course of the year and we spent a lot of time on what the blueprint is all about. Those of you at the board meeting and the
010board of education heard me present on the blueprint at our last meeting, but we really broke it down a little bit and talked about what are some ways that folks in our community can provide some additional input and resources into the work that we're going to need to do to accomplish this blueprint. Um along with the blueprint and really focusing on one of our priorities, which is rigorous teaching and learning, Dr. Kevin McCill is now putting the final touches on our superintendent's conference day. That's coming up on election day. So when Robbie, you and your your fellow students have off the rest of the day, just know that all the educators here in Suffren Central are working hard and will be engaged in a lot of uh intriguing and um um valuable uh experiences that
011day as well. So Dr. Mcahill, thank you to you, the principles, department heads who are putting this together. Um, and then what I'd like to do is take a few moments there. There was a request from some board members a little while ago. Now that we are one plus years into the restructuring of our elementary schools, we really wanted to give you an update on the uh what we've accomplished well with the restructuring. What are some areas that we're still working on and what the future holds with regards to the restructuring. So, if you give me 30 seconds, Sheruk, you're going to put the presentation up on the screen and I will be joined by Mr. Pat Breen as well as Miss Kelly Benady, principal of RP Connor, uh, and give you an overview of
012the restructured elementary schools and what we are continuing to work on. All right, good evening everyone. Uh, I'm going to start off this presentation by providing you with a uh really the the post restructuring update um from what was our initial goal of the elementary school restructuring and what progress have we made. Then I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Pat Brain, who is focusing a lot of his work these days, not only on finishing up the restructuring, and he was the you want to call it the quarterback for the district with regards to the restructuring. Um, but he's focusing a lot of his work right now on refining our transportation network. Uh, and he'll talk about some of the improvements that we are looking forward to and that we've already put in place
013in that front. And then Miss Kelly Bennady is going to give the more personal story of the restructuring as it uh centers on students, parents, and staff and principles as well. So, let me go ahead and get started with uh some details. Uh oh, I'm going to ask for the next slide. See if I can get this. >> Oh, there we go. >> What' you press? >> Uh, just the right button. [laughter] >> Thanks, Rook. So the rationale for the restructuring, this is from the presentation that took place in the fall of 2023. Um, which was really our discussion about whether or not we should have moved forward with the restructuring of our five elementary schools and changing the configuration and settling in on four schools. And we said the rationale for the restructuring at
014the time was that all suffering central students deserve similar programs, class sizes, extracurricular opportunities, social networks, and support services regardless of where they attend school. So if you recall back then, we had a wide variety of different situations in each of the five elementary schools. A lot was standardized, a lot was similar, but there were significant differences that our community was not happy about. So what we're asking now is have we been able to address the rationale for the restructuring? So let's dig into that a little bit. The anticipated benefits that we were hoping for with a restructured system was number one consistency of programming. And so right now we see aligned curriculum throughout all of our elementary schools. Whether that's our ELA curriculum with CKLA, it's being implemented throughout our district quite uniformly in
015each of the elementary schools. And a lot of this has to do with the fact that we only have two separate schools for any particular grade. And each of those grade levels have anywhere from five to seven teachers on that grade. And so there's a true sense of a team that can work together in professional development. So whether it's the CKLA curriculum, our Matthew Eureka curriculum, anything that we've been rolling out, the professional development is more efficient and is done so with greater fidelity. We have identical staffing in each of our buildings. If there's a social worker at um at uh Cherry Lane, there's a social worker at Montabelloo. If there is another particular role in one school, that role is identical in the other. So across the board we have identical staffing. And then
016a big initiative that we see time and time again with our community groups is that the problem based learning, projectbased learning um activities that our students do across the schools are really important to us. So what we've been able to do is not just have a cool activity take place at at the time Viola school, but it didn't take place at RP Connor or Slotzburg, but now we've been able to do it. So every, for example, second grade student is getting that same PBL. Every fourth grade student is getting that same PBL. Another anticipated benefit, special education. So with five different elementary schools, we didn't have consistent special programs in each of the buildings. Now each and every school has the same type of pro program across the district. So a child who had some
017challenges didn't have to get on a special bus and go to a particular elementary school across district that had that program. They get to go to their home school with their friends that are in the same neighborhood as them. So that's consistent across the board. Bilingual education. Before the restructuring, the only elementary school to have bilingual education offerings was Montabelloo. So once again, if you were a student that was going to be in a bilingual program, you had to get on a special bus and go all the way to Montabelloo. Now we have bilingual classes in each and every school. And you all know about how proud we are of what's been taking place in kindergarten and first grade so far with our two-way dual language program really setting us above with regards to bilingual
018education where not only are some newcomer Spanish- speakaking students benefiting from that bilingual education program but English-speaking students are benefiting from that bilingual program in that full immersion opportunity. So that's consistent across all desk uh across all schools. Then of course extracurricular programming we talked about at grades three through five. So we've been having our PTA partnership meetings. We've been able to really launch uh with great financial support from the district the musicals in each of the three through five buildings. But admittedly, our extracurricular programming at the grade 35 3 through five levels is a work in progress. And um our our ongoing meetings and discussions with PTA leadership um and opportunities that we were hoping we would have gotten off the ground by this time this year has not taken place. But admittedly, we
019are working on it and we are expecting to introduce more and more of those programs. Class size. Now, any of the elementary school classes are anywhere between 19 and 23 students in a class. Whereas before the restructuring, we had a wide variety of class sizes. We had classrooms as low as 13. In one case, one year we had 12 students in a classroom and as high as 25 and 26. Now, it's certainly more consistent in that appropriate range of 19 to 23. And then finally with the anticipated benefits from the educational perspective, we have age appropriate libraries in our buildings. The assemblies, the authors that are coming in to talk to students are more age appropriate. They're not across five or six year spans. They're across threeear spans for students. We have age appropriate STEM
020labs and the music programs. And when I mentioned identical staffing, right now instrumental music starts in the grade three through five buildings. So, there's benefits there where we don't need the instrumental music teachers in the K2 buildings, which benefits us from an efficiency standpoint as well. And that's where I'll get into right now. Some of the additional anticipated benefits that we had talked about prior to the restructuring from the social emotional standpoint, a wider network of students. I think Miss Bennady is probably going to touch on that a little bit when she talks about the perspectives of students. There there were some grade levels in some of our schools where there were 36 students in the entire grade. Now that number is much larger. There are more opportunities for friends. So any grade uh in
021any of our elementary school buildings has anywhere between five sections and seven sections of that grade level. Six. Sorry about the happy uh triggering here of the of the button. Uh this year for the first time, sixth graders entering Suffren Middle School were familiar with half of their fellow students before they entered the middle school. Whereas again I referenced that class from Slozburg that had 36 students in it. Those students would have gone into Suffren Middle School only knowing 35 other students and a huge number of unknown uh fellow classmates. Now there's more of an integration of our suffering central students across the board. Other anticipated benefits from the financial and the staffing perspective, we are receiving $500,000 annually in our rental agreement with Rock Boseies for their rental of Viola Public School. So that
022is still being utilized as a public school and the district is uh generating some revenue from that. And then finally, the staffing efficiencies. We were committed and the board I think is really to be commended for ensuring that no individual was going to lose their job as a result of the restructuring. But now one year in we've already been able to recoup some of the staff efficiencies through attrition through the retirements. Last year alone we had a reduction of nine total staff members across the elementary school unit. one principal position and eight teaching positions that did not need to be rehired for because of our greater efficiencies now in the restructure. And of course, as I mentioned before, fewer shared staff, take music, uh, in particular, the instrumental music teachers in each of the grade
023three through five buildings can stay in their grade 3 through five building because there are enough students in that building to teach strings. If you're the band teacher, there are enough students in that building to teach band. you're not jumping around from building to building to building. So I mentioned before that we have still some work to do. There are three major challenge areas that we still face with regards to this restructuring. One is the extracurricular programming. parents and I had stated when we were going to be restructuring that we were going to develop a more robust system for whether it was inter mural sports in the grade three through five level or some additional quote unquote cool after school activities for students that has not been launched yet. So we need to work on
024that universal prek. One of the very valid points of criticism in this program is that our curriculum and programming is consistent across the board K through five. But of course, we also offer universal prek and our prek program that takes place at RP Connor is a suffering central prek program. Whereas at Slotzburg, it's a YMCA program that we allow where we allow them to rent space for their uh prek program. and we have committed that this year we were going to be analyzing our options and create a consistency across the district for next year. So that is coming. And then finally, this is where I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr. Breen are the transportation efficiencies. So Mr. Breen, if you can go ahead and take over the controller there. It's a little
025tricky there, but hit it on the right. You should be able to do that. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Gunderson. So, prior to this year, my experience with transportation was as a principal right on the other end of it. Uh, during the restructuring, I learned a lot more about it. Uh, and what I wanted to do uh today is just give you a snapshot of where it is right now. Uh, some of what's going I think better and what we can do better. So, uh, looking at that. Um so for our routes uh just so you can see the overall we're pretty consistent from last year in terms of the number of routes we have uh changing obviously from 23 24 with the restructuring in and that continued to this year. Um so again
026uh some areas you'll see uh we were able to uh create efficiencies with Boseies in some cases with the smaller bands in some particular schools. So, uh, some things getting better, uh, as we move forward. Um, these are the average, uh, route times for this year compared to last. Now, I will obviously I know statistics, right? So, we know that that saying where you don't walk across a river that averages 4 feet. It doesn't tell the whole story, right? But it does give us just a glance when you route. And again, I'm learning a lot about routing uh, in terms of how that works. You kind of plot it out and that gives you the estimated time. uh we know there are variables and those are obviously some of the challenges we are working to
027address. So again the good news though overall is that the average times are better this year uh than last. um some of those challenges uh communication whether that's with the district to the Chestnut Ridge Transportation whether that's uh between parents and the district all across the board we want that to become uh much more efficient uh with more clearly identified point people so that we can address concerns as they come in expeditiously uh especially when it concerns a student right so we want to make sure that that's enhanced and we've taken some steps to do that um variables beyond our control obviously when We talked about those averages, traffic patterns, delays, uh weather, all that plays into a time on a route. Uh and again, just something to be uh challenging with, you know, dealing
028with as as those challenges grow during the year. Um boarding time. This is one that I sort of discovered uh looking at, you know, GPS data uh and the data from the buses. You know, a bus can arrive at a school and you think it's going to stop stop there for 2 minutes and then go get on its route. Uh but no, you know, when you're dealing with kindergarteners, it takes 8 to 10 minutes to get kindergarteners on a bus. Now, I'm a high school guy. We didn't really think about that, right? At the high school, they just get on the bus and it goes. Uh so, these are just some nuances that impact sometimes those route times. Uh and that we could probably tweak and improve upon uh down the line. Uh late buses,
029arrivals, driver gets hung up, a bus leaves the station late. So, again, just kind of staying on top of these. And it's a lot, pardon the pun, a lot of moving parts, right? to transportation has a lot of different drivers, different routes, uh and again just kind of connecting all those dots. Uh and obviously adapting rule uh routes from year to year. So depending on where people move to within the district, uh routes can shift uh denser areas can become more dense creating more routes needed in those areas. So each year presents its own challenges uh and just something to be aware of. Uh as far as the ongoing improvements, and I call them ongoing because these are continuous. Um this year we were able to you know in some cases modify combine or split
030routes to improve that efficiency and time. Uh collaboration with bothies as I said earlier where applicable if we had a student traveling to a building uh we had cases where you know we we were sending two buses to the same spot. So we wanted to improve in that area. U consistent bus drop offs or regional drop offs to to lessen the amount of pickup and drop off locations. Uh so that can improve efficiency as well. Um and this year we've started synchronizing the data right between our student information system which is synergy uh and the transportation system. Uh that's a first. So that that will help with communication to parents in terms of route information. When you register you'll get that information much quicker. It'll show up in the parent portal and the student portal
031as well. So again some of that instant information sharing. uh additional staffing added to uh the department the transportation department here in the district to support routing logistics. Someone with experienced in that routing area so that we can look at things uh as a team. Uh and utilizing route data again as I said the GPS feedback that we get from those buses. How long is the driver taking in this route? Are they going the exact way the route says? being able to look at that data and go back and say, "Okay, this is working right or this isn't working right and why is that happening?" Um, so those are just some areas we've continued to improve upon this year. We'll continue to do so. It's early in the year uh and make some improvements across
032the board. Our next steps are really to kind of dig in on this uh and align our goals with those objectives that we uh designed in the district blueprint uh for the operational excellence area of that blueprint. So again, some of them are there, uh, but we'll be adding as we go through the year. All right. And now I'm going to turn it over to Kelly Benady to share the student perspective for the restructuring. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, shorty. Hi. Okay, can you hear me? Okay, so um, through our students eyes, so we just captured some some of the thoughts of the students and as I go through each slide, its faculty, its families, and its principles. So, when the schools restructured, a lot of students felt nervous at first. One fifth
033grader said, "I used to go to Viola. When I first came to Cherry Lane, I was scared and sad, but now I like it here because I have a lot of new friends that make me smile." Students shared that they love their teachers and classmates. Some moved from completely new communities and felt welcomed right away. Others have always been at the school, but noticed a positive difference. Across the board, the students are making new friends, some they might not have met until middle school, enjoying shared activities and seeing familiar teachers from their old schools. As one student summed it up, I feel safe. I feel cared for. I feel like my voice matters. School is fun and I'm glad to be part part of it and and see my friends. So, you have nice photos
034there from the schools. Okay. See, here's our the f Oh, I went too fast. Did I go too fast? Did I Did I go too far? Wait. Oh, thank you. Quick clicker. Okay. This these are the st our staff reflections. And again, we captured photos from the schools and just some special moments across the four buildings. So, for our teachers, this was a huge change. Some had been in their schools for over 20 years. Moving to a new school, meeting new colleagues and families, unpacking classrooms. It was overwhelming. Even those who stayed faced emotional challenges, saying goodbye to longtime colleagues while welcoming new staff. But one of the most powerful outcomes has been the collaboration that's developed. Teachers are working in larger, more dynamic teams, problem solving in the moment, and creating targeted support for
035students. Housing special education programs in homeschools help siblings learn side by side. Students entering middle school already know many peers, which eases transitions. With students group more closely by age, connections are stronger. Younger learners look out for older peers, and teachers have more colleagues to plan and problem solve with. It hasn't been easy. Change takes time, patience, and resilience. But our teachers and staff approached it with creativity, heart, and dedication. As one teacher said, teamwork makes the dream work. Click it here. Our families, three families joining together. Bringing different personalities, traditions, and expectations can always be difficult. But once the dust settles, we often find that we're stronger together. Our families have faced their own challenges. New transportation routines, new PTAs, new friendships. It hasn't always been easy. We've heard a range of emotions and
036experiences from gratitude for the incredible care and opportunities their families receive, their children receive to concerns about consistency and fairness across our schools. Many families have shared pride in the education, emotional growth, and sense of community they see in their children. At the same time, they they've reminded us that as we grow into one district, our work isn't done. We still need to make sure that expectations, supports, and opportunities are consistent for every child in every school. And that's important feedback because it helps guide us forward. We've seen wonderful examples of what this new structure makes possible. Programs like musical theater, which used to live in just one building, now reach students across multiple schools. Traditions are blending, new experiences are being shared, and students are connecting in ways that bring our community closer together.
037Many families have seen their children thrive, meeting new peers, building confidence, and finding joy in learning. But we also know that transitions can be hard. And some of the students are still finding their place. That's what real change looks like. It's progress mixed with growing pains. And that's okay because every piece of feedback, every story, and every success helps us grow closer to where we want to be. one connected, caring community where every child feels seen, supported, and inspired to learn. We're listening, we're learning, and we're committed to doing better together. Okay, so here's the the principles. Can't get mad. [laughter] Okay, the principal perspective. This change hasn't been easy. We won't pretend it has been. We had to embrace it, lead through it, and do a lot of work behind the scenes that most
038people didn't see. We focused on giving teachers what they needed, building relationships, and honoring traditions from all our schools. Voices were heard, and we worked hard to find balance in a time that didn't always feel balanced. Throughout, one phrase kept coming up. I feel like a new teacher. It reminded us of the joys and challenges of starting fresh, exciting, full of possibility, but also a little scary. And in many ways, it made us feel like new principles, too. There were times when nothing seemed to work as expected. We had to adjust, let go of old routines, and learn new ways to lead together. But through that, we've grown stronger as a leadership team and as a district. This change also gave us opportunities more focused professional development, age appropriate activities, and meaningful programs like Unity
039Day, Global Day of Play, and hands-on learning experiences that bring students together in new ways. We've learned to lean on each other, planning together, sharing ideas, and making sure families and students have consistent experiences. Our PTAs, our staff, and our families have all been part of that work. We know new systems take time to settle and we're still learning, but we're committed to listening, communicating, and improving together. At the end of the day, what keeps us moving forward is our shared purpose surrounded by dedicated teachers, incredible support staff, and one another. We're building thriving, connected schools. And to close in in the in Cherry Lane when the foundations class was at Cherry Lane, they used to do their hands all in and say foundations Cherry Lane. So one day they were outside and they they
040did it outside but said Connor Cherry Lane. It was so cute. Biola. It was adorable. So I snapped a pic of that. So in closing, we know change isn't easy and not everyone felt this restructuring was necessary. There were questions, concerns, and growing pains along the way. But the impact has been clear. Students are forming new friendships, feeling safe, and having meaningful experiences. One student said it perfectly. I feel safe. I feel cared for. And I feel like my voice matters. Teachers are collaborating in new ways and finding creative approaches to support students. Families are seeing their children thriving socially, emotionally, and academically, and they feel more connected to the schools. We know there's still work to do and we're committed to listening, learning, and improving together. But what's clear is that our community is
041strong, our staff is dedicated, and our students are at the heart of every decision we make. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bani. Thank you very much, Mr. Breen. Thank you. Um, I really want to take a moment to I think um, Miss Bennady really summed it up very nicely there that this was an entire school community effort. This was a painful process with regards to the decision that needed to be made. Um, and it wasn't an easy process especially in the first year. It is getting better and better and I would argue that um, that we are in a very good place right now, but there's still continued room for improvement. I think we outlined what some of those core areas are for improvement as we move forward. But this work couldn't have gone
042as smoothly as it had without the incredible efforts of Mr. Breen, the four principles that were deeply involved, our department chairs that were coordinating a variety of different efforts. Uh the board of education for your support and patience. um our families who were were were hit in many cases uh you know close to the heart. There's a lot of history uh for some of their very local school communities. But as we all know, this district is evolving and evolving into a beautiful mosaic of a variety of different types of families and cultures and and together the whole time. I keep hearing again and again at that elementary school cross country run from folks, hey, we're one suffering. We're doing all right. We're doing well. And I really want to thank everybody who is involved in
043this restructuring. But most importantly, I want to thank the individual teachers and staff members in the buildings who went above and beyond to make students feel comfortable in their new schools and now are just hitting the ground running and making constant tweaks and improvements to what we're able to provide for our students. We are going to be and continue to be in a better place as a result of this courageous move. So, if there are questions from board of education members to either of the three of us, uh we're uh you know, we're happy to entertain those. Um and I'll go back and take my seat in anticipation of perhaps some questions. >> Thank you so much. Um are there any questions from any board members for our presenters? No. No questions. Mr. Commander, >>
044not so much a question, just again to relay our appreciation and the work and I I got to see it firsthand that our teachers and our principles, I mean, just took on this massive massive undertaking and and just like Miss Bani said, the students at the heart of it. I could see it the whole time and, you know, we're growing and we're learning, but it was really an amazing thing to see all the work that went into it and we appreciate all the work that's been, you know, going in and and continuing going on. So, thank you for all that you did to make that happen. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> First off, I'd like to thank um everyone involved in this move and this process. It was tough, a
045lot of hard decisions to make, but we are moving forward. So, thank each and every one of you. Secondly, I'd like to thank uh Principal V uh Victoria Vanessa Rodriguez from Slodesburg Elementary School talking about bringing the communities together and keeping the traditions alive at Slosburg Elementary School. We had our uh h Halloween parade over the weekend. Um I looked around. I've been attending those parades for quite some time living in Sloburg. And I looked around and I said to uh Trusty Donnelly and uh Miss Rodriguez, I said, "You know, I don't really understand where the crowd has come from this year. It's huge." She looked [snorts] at me and she said, "Well, I Rodriguez said, "Well, I asked permission to share this with the Montabelloo community, the students from Montabelloo." And as I was
046speaking with people at the parade, I kept asking them, they, you know, were coming up to us and saying, "Thank you for doing this." And I didn't recognize recognize a lot of them. And I said, "Well, where do you live?" Suffren Monttoello. And it came to me, this is our communities at work, the school district at work, keeping these families and communities together. So, let's continue to work together, welcome other neighborhoods into our neighborhoods. As I've heard several times, Slosburg is the boonies years back. Slosburg now is the happening place. They enjoyed Slosburg on Saturday and we welcome any and every one of you to come back, please. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Frasier. also mayor of Slosburg. Um, Miss Brian, >> I I just want to formally um thank the current four principles
047in assisting our kids through this transition. I want to formally acknowledge the fifth principal who helped the Viola community transition as well. And I I just want to say openly to everyone that um at that time, Principal Drus did do a phenomenal job in making sure her staff, us parents and teachers and kids ease into this the best way that she could. So for the record, it was five principles. Thank you very much. Any other comments from board members, questions about anything? No. Okay. Well, thank you very much for that presentation. This was um as was said a monumental task. Um and from those of us who were here from the very beginning, um there were [clears throat] so many different types of permutations and considerations that we had. And I do appreciate that all
048of the principles um from the elementary schools, the five elementary schools, once the decision was made, that you were all committed to making it a success um regardless of whether you had any personal feelings about it one way or the other and knowing that your identity as a school was going to change. So, thank you for your hard work um during the times when it was called upon and for being um open-minded and being able to incorporate the traditions of your schools with the new students and the new faculty who were coming in to make them feel welcome and to create a new identity that was welcoming to all. >> Um any more superintendent's comments? >> Thus concludes my superintendent comments. Okay, very good. Well, thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Breen. Thank you,
049Miss Spinat, and thank you, Miss Rodriguez, for being here today. Um, okay. We're now going to move on to our first of our public participation sections. This is on any action items. Action items are on our agenda tonight at 2.01 through 2.18. Is there anyone here from the public who's here to speak on an action item? Okay, seeing as there are none, we're going to close that portion of the meeting and move on to our action items. Uh, prior to asking for a motion for a consent agenda, is there any item that any board member would like to pull? Okay, very good. Uh, do I have a motion for a consent agenda to approve items 2.01 through 2.18? Mr. Frasier, second. >> Second, >> Mrs. Hodgej. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I.
050Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Very well. We're going to move on to our second public participation section. This is on any district related business. Anybody who is here from the public to speak on any district related business, please approach the podium. Please keep your remarks to three minutes. And please do not mention uh anyone in the staff, student um or uh teacher by name. Uh, is there anyone who's here to speak from the public? And could you give us your name, please? [clears throat] Thank you. Uh, hi, my name is Ro Schmidt. Um, so Dr. Gunderson, the board of ed, and the suffer central community. As always, I would like to thank you all for the hard work and dedication you give to our students, staff, and community. For those of you who don't know
051who I am, I'm Roman. I'm a mother of four children within the district, uh, a swim coach, PTA member, and have lived here almost all my life. Um, I want to start with saying thank you for the presentation regarding the restructuring of schools. Um, as one who supported the restructuring from the beginning, I am pleased with the many positive experience students have had throughout the district, my son included. Even though his transition was rocky at first, he has done nothing but thrive at Montabelloo uh emotionally, socially, and academically. And I could not be happier with the progress he has made. Um [clears throat] that said, the restructuring has come with its fair share of struggle. And I'm really um [clears throat] pleased and encouraged with the presentation tonight and how it was acknowledged that there
052has been a lot of struggles going on. Um where was I? Um I am encouraged with the strategic blueprint as well that will address many of these issues coming up such as the inequity of the UPK program which I have definitely um pushed for over the last year. Um I still have concerns regarding a couple issues that are still lingering and again very encouraged with that hopefully being addressed um and was said it was going to be addressed this evening. um including especially with the PTAs being overt taxed and burdened right now and that was you know one thing I have a big concern on is that there is a lot of stress on us to bring some of these programs and again encourage that hopefully um this will all be worked out as said
053through the presentation um and then a couple other lack of programs that I think the ease being discontinued the music being brought back in the morning which has put some stress on parents as Well, uh, again, I would like to emphasize that I still believe in this restructuring and I think there's been positive changes and I do believe the work this district has done, the principles, staff, everyone. Um, and what's going to be done with the strategic blueprint is is great. Um there's great work occurring and I look forward to conversations on these issues and what I and the community can continue to do to help this restructuring and help the district to commute to move forward in a more positive even more positive direction. Thank you so much. Um is there anyone else from
054the public who would like to speak tonight? Okay, looks like not. So, we're going to close that portion of the meeting and move on to board member comments. Are there any board members with any comments tonight? >> Yes, Mr. Shapiro. >> I guess I can only stay quiet for so long. Uh this this past weekend um I attended ver virtually the NISBA um conference that was held in New York City and uh there were a number of great speakers but one of the things that they spoke about and was shared among all of the speakers well some some of the speakers was how some school boards don't function too too well. Um, I should have sent something to all of them and say, "Listen, [clears throat] go to you YouTube, uh, Suffren Central School District
055and look us up and see how we function." And from some of the discussions, they were talking about how some members didn't treat their fellow members nicely, kindly. That's not the case here. And I just want to say that it's a pleasure to sit among um my fellow board members who are kind, who are committed, and who are really decent people, and who care about the school district deeply and are always looking to find ways to make us better. So, I want to thank my fellow school school board members. Um, and I just wish that some other school boards throughout the state could see the example that we set. Thank you. Mr. Shapiro, before you turn your mic off, can you let them know what NISBA stands for? A lot of people probably don't know
056what NISBA is. >> Sorry. NISBA stands for New York State School Boards Association. It's not a real word. doesn't show up in Wordle. It's not going to be in Squirtle. It's not going to be in any of those. But, uh, yeah. Okay. Thank you, Daryl. >> All right. Any other board member comments? No. Okay. Thank you. Yes. NISBA is an excellent resource for us and um I'm glad you were able to attend one of their trainings. Do we need do we have more comments over there? Are you just chit cchatting? >> Well, I'm I'm being as much. Okay. All right. >> I won't say it out loud. >> Okay. Fine. All right. Uh, thank you so much, uh, Miss Schmidt. I would encourage everyone to join their PTA. Um, they do incredible work and there's
057not a lot of volunteers who produce a lot of programming and um, resources that our schools use. Sometimes they don't even have enough volunteers to reach out to try to get people to join. So please um reach out to your own schools PTA and look into it. It's just a fantastic organization to be a part of and they do so much good for suffering schools. You don't have to do that much beyond joining although if you have time you know it's it's a good thing to do. They can always use more volunteers but regardless um check it out if you are not already a member. Um and that concludes board member comments. Are there any superintendents closing comments? >> I have no further comments. Okay, very good. Uh, our next meeting will be Tuesday, November
05818th, right back here in Hillburn. Um, everyone have a great Halloween. If you're going out trick-or-treating, if you're staying inside with the lights off and the door closed, I hope you have a peaceful evening. Um, and uh, at this point, I would ask for a motion to adjurnn. Do I have a motion? >> Uh, Mr. Donnelly. Second. >> Second. >> Okay, Mr. Frasier. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All right, we'll see everyone back here November 18th.