001Larry came up with the uh >> we're live. Okay. Wonderful. We are live everyone. >> Okay. Good evening. Uh this is the regular meeting of the Suffren Central School District Board of Education for Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Uh we are going to we are now recalling to order after our executive session and we will begin with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. May the record reflect that all board members are present except for Mr. Tom Donnelly. Uh we're now going to move on to item 1.07, 07 which is the minutes of the regular meeting of July 29, 2025. Has everyone had an opportunity to
002review the minutes? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? >> Mr. Shapiro second and Mrs. Brian. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? >> Okay. An abstension from Mr. Andert. And now a superintendent's comments. Thank you very much. We are in the last week before school begins. So, uh, a couple of weeks ago, it was a nice quiet summer with us preparing for the upcoming school year. It's hit us like a ton of bricks right now. So, we have had all sorts of things going on. Uh, actually this week and last week, we've had some um new student orientations to our different buildings, which is very exciting. We uh one of the big ones tomorrow is 9th grade orientation and then uh some more middle school
003uh seventh and eighth grade orientation and locker experiences at the middle school on Thursday. Uh so it's been great to see the students coming in and of course at the high school level we've had plenty of students in for athletics as those seasons have are now in in full swing. Um we also have new teacher orientation. Dr. Mahill has been leading the charge on new teacher orientation. Today was day two of three. Um, tomorrow I believe is uh a little bit more of a can you call it the fun day for the teachers. So if they've been able to make it through uh first and second day, they can make it through third day. Nobody's running away scared yet. Uh and I think there's a there's the the annual tour of Suffren Central, right? where
004the new teachers get on the bus, they visit some of the schools, they go up to Slosburg, a variety of the other villages and meet some of the more distinguished individuals in those locations uh and really get a sense of what the community is all about and not just where they're going to be teaching. So, it's a great uh opportunity and experience. Uh and then of course they have some other sessions tomorrow with some of our administrative uh team members who are providing them with more uh substantive orientation work. Um, last night we had uh a tremendously successful blueprint strategic planning evening where we had members of our administration, our faculty, board of education members. Thank you for being there. As well as uh a large contingent of parents and community members. We had about
00565 to 70 people uh in the room last night. This room really working on what the direction of the school district should be over the next couple of years. And our next step now is on September 8th. Our administrative team is going to be collecting all the data from our facilitator, from the work that we did last night, from the thought exchange that went out in June and July, and are going to be working on action plans to address some of the goals that were established at last night's meeting. And of course, we'll have a full presentation when we are closer to sharing what that strategic plan blueprint looks like at an upcoming board meeting. Um, the last thing I want to do this evening, uh, besides remind all those folks that are tuning in,
006although I assume that if they're tuning in, they do know that school is starting next week. Uh, next Thursday is our first day for students. Next Tuesday is our first day for staff members. Uh, and of course, every year we have to go ahead and re review the code of conduct and uh, review some of the modifications that are being made to the code of conduct. So, I'm going to ask Mr. Mone um to go ahead and highlight some of the changes to our code of conduct. But before I ask you to to go ahead and do that, just want to highlight one aspect of the code of conduct um that is not completely in alignment with what we are doing right now and that is namely uh the dress code. So there the board
007of education is fully aware of the fact that dress code uh and our policy and how we um how we address students if we have a perceived concern about how a student is dressed. Uh we're experimenting with that a little bit last year and this year we are collecting data on it to see how prevalent of an issue this is at our different buildings. Uh but the biggest difference right now is we have instructed our staff members that if they have a concern about a student dress that they may think may be in violation of the dress code, the teacher is not to go ahead and approach the student, but instead teachers have been instructed to email um their uh their building administrator and the building administrator will then address the student in a private
008more private format so as not to embarrass the student and also collect data. so that we can get a sense of what's happening with regards to dress codes. So although in our code of conduct we have if you will quote unquote the old official policy teachers have been instructed that we are going through this trial period to experiment with the dress code policy in hopes that later on this falling data we will be adjusting the code of cond I'm sorry addressing or adjusting the dress code policy to be more reflective of what we are looking for. Um so Mr. Matone, if you can go over the official adjustments to the code of conduct, that would be great. >> Can you turn on your microphone? >> Moved it in front of me. >> Hello. So, most
009of the changes are what they call non-material changes, which is just cleanup language. So, we model our code of conduct based uh based on NISBA's policy. And so, our attorney, Suzanne Bulpi, who works in Aina Bean, reviews it for us annually. So she goes through and makes suggestions. So some of the the non-material would be an example on page five where it used to say work to develop mechanisms to manage their anger. Now it says work to develop skills to manage their emotions and reactions to resolve conflict with others. So a lot of it is just getting with the current language that we're using today in school systems. So the substantial changes are still those changes that are part of education law. So on page two where it talks about the code of conduct applies
010to students, school personnel and parents while on school property or attending school function. It also adds or off school premises when it can be reasonably expected to material or substantially disrupt the educational process of the school environment. And so that's been in effect for the last few years in our policy, but now it's incorporated into our code of conduct. meeting even if it doesn't happen at a school function but it's going to disrupt the educational process we can still um call students in under our code of conduct. The other material changes are just being current with the new cell phone ban. So there's language added in that describes that and describes what a uh internet enabled device which is added in there now and then talks about conduct which prevents others from being able to
011learn, focus or be engaged in their work. This is all under disruptive uh disruptive conduct and the use of any social media that has an adverse or disruptive impact on the educational process. So just the current language is being added in our code and then some cleanup language where it might specify a specific person like the director of special education. it's changed to just a district administrator so that we're not stuck to one particular person being able to um to do that. But all in all, there's the really the big ones are just the cell phone language um and this the other language. Some pieces were under one section or now moved to another section which doesn't constitute a material change. It's just again NISSBA goes through as you notice with our policies sometimes if
012you're on the policy committee they just change language you know should to could or may to should you know they go back and forth with those languages. >> Thank you very much Mr. Mone. Uh thus concludes my superintendence report. >> Thank you. All right. Uh we're now going to move on to public participation. This is on action items only. Action items are on our agenda tonight um at 2.01 through 2.15. Is there anybody here to speak on any action items? No. Okay. We're going to close that portion of the meeting then 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, great. Uh, at this time, do I have a motion for a consent
013agenda to approve items 2.01 through 2.15? Mrs. Hodgej second. Who was that over there? Oh, Mr. Andard. Okay, very good. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Anyone opposed? Any abstensions? Okay, very well. We're going to move on to board member comments then. Uh, any board members have any comments tonight? No. Okay. Well, I have comments. I always have comments. Uh, so I just want to um say that uh earlier this month I attended the leadership and education conference in Albany that was uh put on by the New York State School Boards Association. And it was really excellent. Um I went to a lot of sessions and I met a lot of superintendent from around the state and other board members from around the state. Um some of who are dealing with very similar
014issues than we have here in Suffern. So it was nice to hear uh what they are doing to address it. Um and there were a lot of really pertinent topics. We talked about AI and media literacy. We had sessions on budget. Um, and most timely of course was our strategic planning sessions and establishing a blueprint for your district which certainly came in handy considering we went right from that into the strategic planning uh session that we had here in the district. So I want to thank everyone from the community who came out um to participate to our teachers and our administrators. Um they had a very significant role in making sure that the session went effectively and it was productive and so I want to thank everyone who participated in that made presentations and facilitated
015many of the discussions. Uh I want to welcome all of our new teachers to the district and say good luck. Um, I will be uh one of the people you're meeting on the bus tour tomorrow. I think I'm going to be at Suffren High School. So, hope you all have a good safe ride. Uh, seat belts on, hands in the vehicle. Um, and since this is our last meeting before school, I want to wish everybody luck. All of our new students moving into third, sixth, and 9th, hope you have a great orientation. And everyone else who's returning, uh, hope you have a great year. And, uh, that concludes my comments. Uh, anyone else from the board? No. Okay. All right. Then we're going to move on to public participation. This is on any district related
016business. Is anyone here to speak on any district related business? No. Okay. Then we're going to conclude that part of the meeting and go to superintendent's closing comments. >> I'd just like to to thank uh the board members. I know that um in the summer we're not always um uh drawing large crowds and we don't have presentations and there isn't a lot to that we're talking about um of any significant consequence with the public uh because folks are mostly programmed to take a little bit of a break from school. Uh but I know that I've interacted with many of you over the summer. So I want to thank you for your ongoing commitment to the work that we're doing here in the district. Uh, and I can assure you that once we start up in
017September with our board meetings, we'll be having more presentations, more things to talk about. We'll be right back uh where we left off in June with uh with some action. So, thank you for taking the time over the summer to to continue this work. Uh, I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh, at this time, uh, I will ask for a motion to adjourn. Our next meeting is uh is it September 9th? Tuesday, September 9th, 7:30m right back here in Hillburn. Uh everyone have uh a great last few days of your summer. Do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? >> Mr. Shapiro second. >> Mr. Brian, all in favor signify by saying I. >> I. All right. Very well. See everybody on September 9th.