001e e e you hear me test test one two test test one two e e e GRE on e e e okay good evening everyone Welcome to our April 2024 Board of Education meeting uh can everyone please stand for the pl please thank you please take a seat can I have approval of minutes for March 11 2024 Board of Education meeting can have a motion Please Mr Greco second by Miss Falco are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions okay and next we will have Dr Christopher H Christopher hail D director of F and per Arts um who will introduce a student Aaron Lou uh who's going to perform a piece for us tonight good evening thank you Dr Rogers Miss Chang and the Board of Education uh it's a pleasure to to
002to feature some of our student performers at these board meetings and this evening we're celebrating uh the the performance of Mr Aaron louu an 11th grader at saset High School uh some of his recent accomplishments he was was featured up in Rochester at the nisma piano showcase very selective only 10 students from around the state are selected to perform up there uh last year he performed with the Westchester philarmonic he performed a conero with them in concert uh he also performed at some International competitions including one most recently in Nashville and uh very recently just last month uh Aaron was featured he was he was selected to give an honors recital at the Manhattan School of Music pre-ol program um and in addition to all of this he is also uh an outstanding clarinettist he
003was an allate alter on clarinet so he practices quite a bit and I think you're going to see uh the fruits of that this evening so uh please join me in welcoming Mr Aaron Lou Who will be performing Hungarian Rap City number six by France list [Music] for [Music] wow that's just amazing [Applause] tallenge absolutely amazing it's it's no wonder that sias has been named the best community for music education over and over again so um thank you so much Aaron and um best of luck um with your musical um uh path um in future thank you and um we are going to uh continue our Board of Education meeting and I do understand that there will be school tomorrow so if you want to make a graceful exit this is the time for you
004to do so thank you thank you again okay up next will be Dr rufo's um uh budget information meeting so Dr rufo w good evening this is our uh third presentation for the 2425 budget um in February um and in March we went through all of the detail of the expenditure codes um we also looked at the tax cap calculation so tonight we're going to spend more time on the revenue side of the budget um so we'll we'll start again um with our budget goals that we're we're going we've been going through for several months and we're pleased to be able to present a budget that we think um meets our goals um we are presenting a budget that preserves all of our existing programs and services we're continuing our to support the emotional social
005and emotional needs of our students through continuing our um support for new social workers in every school that we implemented last year our partnership with northwell we're also able to make improvements continued improvements to our facilities our budget contains allocations for that that we've discussed um several months ago and we're going to talk tonight about how it provides um fcal ility and through the continued use of our reserves and our applied fund balance to help support um the tax levy so at this point in time um we have a tax levy increase of 3.21 and that is below our calculated tax cap of 3.23% so at this point we're approximately 000 under um the tax cap and our budget to budget increase is 4.07 since the Inception of the tax cap in 2012 and 13
006we've always remained under the tax um under the C tax cap and we continue that this year although there were certainly pressures um on us and on um all districts um to be able to um to get under the cap and we've talked about those extensively health insurance pension costs inflationary um pressures and you can see even on the controllers website where they uh where they provide the um the levy cap for the school districts or the allowable Levy growth factor of 2% over the last three years and you can see how that compares to inflation and CPI over those years over um 17 about 17% which explains why partially it's been such a challenge um for districts and and for us to remain under the cap so that is the tax cap calculation um
007and it's again it's 3.23 I went through the detail of it but I wanted to present it again um because we will be submitting um this finally um tomorrow and just to go through to get us started on the revenue side I want to just take a moment to explain um the difference between the budget and the tax levy so up at the top you have the budget which is the first line which is the spending plan so those are the expenditures that support the budget and the programs and the services that the School District offers and from that we subtract all available Revenue to arrive at the tax levy and that's the amount of funds that's raised through um taxation so we have state aid is the second line item that we reduce by
008local Revenue then the appropriation of fund balance and the use of our restricted reserves which we'll talk about so we'll start with um state aid and the figures up there are the same figures that um we presented in January with the executive budget and at that time we told you that um or you can see that there's about a $220,000 reduction in Foundation Aid and that's a result of two changes that were were made to the formula at the time one is the removal of the um hold harmless provision which is uh stops a district from receiving a lower amount of foundation Aid than the prior year and then a change in the way that CPI was calculated and applied in the formula that would reduce um given the um recent CPI if that were
009used it would be a higher percent than what the state did which was do a rolling average so we the governor the executive there was a this uh release yesterday that indicated that a temporary or budget or preliminary budget um was closer and that eliminated the provision for the hold harmless um and but still kept in the um the CPI adjustment so it won't go back to the I think it was four and change it'll be some sort of rolling out average or less than that but the hold harmless will not be in effect or the removal of that provision I'm sorry is is being suspended there's also discussion about changing the foundation Aid so we're going to be watching this over the next year for the following school year um and then aside from
010Foundation Aid all of the other AIDS are essentially expense based AIDS and you can see that um our 's Aid is up due to additional projects we did our building Aid is down slightly that's because last year we received um funds which were 50% of the cost of an emergency project and so that's sort of where our um our state aid is at the moment and and there's possibilities that if we have additional state aid and if it's efficient we could use some of that to reduce the levy further and or reduce um um some of our appropriation of fund balance um a positive part of our state aid is um we received our allocation for upk and we had the lottery about a week and a half ago and we were able to provide
011spots for all of the students um that were interested in that program so that next year will be the fourth year of that program for us local revenue is another one of our l items um 14 million for next year is what we're um what we're projecting and a noteworthy change in that is about in the middle of the page under uses of money and property you can see the interest on investments um went up significantly and that is um due to increased um interest rates also helpful that um the board approved the use of um of nyclass so we were able to um have additional Revenue because of the higher rates Associated um with that program so that was um good news our um our rental of buildings is up a bit as is
012our tuition we're proposing for next year to um appropriate about three million in um in fund balance and so over the course of the um the years that are up there the average has been about 3.5 million that we've appropriated so we were able to take interest income some of that additional interest income and apply it and increase um the our fund balance contribution and in a year in a difficult year like this that um was very helpful in order um for us to get to get under the cap we're going to continue to use our restricted reserves or we're proposing to use our restricted reserves to help support the budget as we have done in the past you can see that we're proposing an amount of about 7.2 million um and along those I
013guess five different reserves and the reason for the increase is directly tied to the increased costs that were um that were realizing in those areas ERS TRS workers comp and then the other two less um significant and our ERS funds the entire entire line item and the difference in TRS between last year and this year is just the incremental difference um due to the um increase so our next steps um are um the board has the property tax report card on the agenda tonight that contains all of this information and once approved and in addition to the overall numbers of the budget and the tax levy they we also have to represent all of the reserves that we're using and the projected balances and once approved this will be submitted um to the state and
014then we'll work on compiling all of the uh documents for the budget for posting so that is the um the revenue side at our next meeting at the hearing ing we'll go through the budget highlights that we've been talking about in all three meetings and just briefly go over the revenue and reserves thank you Dr rufo for the presentation are there any questions from the board for Dr rufo Mr Greco please thank you Dr rufo always uh very informative the the tax cap calculation you're submitting that tomorrow right so this is now fixed number or is there still a chance that the 323 will change um the 323 is the estimate that we're submitting so that that is not going to to change that estimate you also uh you you showed on one of the
015revenue slides rental of buildings was about a $50,000 number obviously nothing wonderful but is that is that tie to some of our summer rental agreements that we've been entering into yes precisely yep okay I I guess the the other thing I'll mention not really a question but it you know sometimes you got to call out good people and the N class the use of n class and the additional interest income here obviously interest rates are up so it would be up no matter what but to go into that program I just wanted a shout out to the citizens advisory committee because they were a part of that yes thank you Mr asri so I I've been following the headlines out of Albany the the the aid that's coming down from the state how much variability
016are we likely to potentially see and what parts of the revenue lines would we most likely see that variability in the next week or next few weeks the we would see it in the foundation Aid which is the Lar largest Aid category and we had a reduction I want to say about 220,000 I can go back to that it's that first line on the state aid slide so we went from 2351 to 228 so it's about 20 220 so we're hopeful that that will be restored um but there's a lot that goes into the formula but that's would be um that's my hope it's difficult to to predict there's different models but that's looks like that's the the upside um Dr Park um is there more space available for upk we have 309 students if
017there is there more room is there more money if more students um register and if we don't have more students then we have to give back is there any money that's left over that we have to give back the um it is a per pupil allocation so you're only um you at this point in time you cannot take the extra that you might save from having fewer students um and use it um for your the students that you have so it's a certain dollar amount 5,400 allocation per student right so do we have um more money for upk if more students want to if there are more students coming in yes okay and if we don't have more than 309 students then that amount is going to be deducted from our total number amount of
018um State Fund so we actually total number is going to decrease yes the allocation you get you get a certain allocation but it is based on a per pupil amount so if you don't use if you can't enroll 309 students then you um don't receive that that money so we have for 309 now but have we filled it is there more less than that number I believe the number was 250 something so Dr Park I would just add to Dr rufo's explanation this program exists outside of the district's general fund budget and it is self- sustaining so it's not supported with any District revenues so uh we operate this program in partnership with uh several different entities and they get the $5,400 per pupil Grant directly from us so even though our overall state aid
019amount would go down if we didn't fully exploit the 309 slots that we were allocated from a impact on District Operations perspective um there would be no impact because whatever amount we got from the state would be exactly equal to what we were obligated to give to the preschool providers mson sorry not really a question I just want to clarify because you did mention facilities in here and the facilities that you speaking of is not the big facilities project that is a separate vote this is facilities upkeep and things that are very very necessary that we have to do correct that's correct these are small scale projects not the bond large scale projects we've been talking about thank you m dri just one question for you Dr Rogers just for some context Reserve balances can
020you talk about given the level of inflation we've seen the last few years across Long Island and other districts what kind of Havoc is being rought to those districts that don't have significant restricted reserves that they can draw on during these periods and uh how many districts are starting to blow through caps and you know the kind of chatter that you're getting about other districts you may need to sure this has been a difficult budget year for all school districts uh regardless of what fiscal circumstances they entered the year um like us they're dealing with the inflation and costs inflation and pension costs inflation and health insurance costs uh contractual increases uh that we all share and then we're all dealing with the uncertainty of state aid in some ways um because the state has
021not been generous with us the um the fluctuation in state aid is less impactful in the budget in scosa then it might be in a place that is highly dependent on state aid for example that said um there have only been a handful of school districts that have attempted to propose tax levy increases that exceed the cap that requires a 60% majority rather than a 50% majority uh but I'm hearing now of more school districts that are going to be proposing to their publics um tax levy increases that exceed the cap so I I think that is a a new feature of this year uh the states increase clearly will not keep up with inflation in fact it is an explicit design of their formula to blend the high levels of inflation from this year
022with low levels of inflation from prior years in order to get a smaller average number but uh we're not buying things from 2019 we're buying things from 2024 so and again that's a challenge that we all share so to your point we have been able to manage um some of these fluctuations by using our reserves to smooth out the high points and uh what we've also been fortunate to be able to do at the end of every year uh we work hard to manage the budget and the funds that are remaining at the end of the year the unspent funds replenish the funds that we use at the beginning of the year uh to to smooth out some of these fums so we've been fortunate to be able to replenish our reserves and uh they
023haveed owed us to to navigate through these last two very difficult years uh without having to propose a a break in the cap are there any more questions okay thank you Dr Ruel okay next item on the agenda will be Dr ruel's uh uh who will present the uh going to give us the the treasures report and Appropriations adjustments Dr Ru all yours again okay as shown in the treasur report the cash on hand for the month end February 2024 was 88 m299 148 74 it shows that bank balances for all cash accounts were reconciled to the book balances and were collateralized in accordance with the district's banking agreements and investment policy okay it works now okay uh up next we'll have um Dr David balmo coordinator of War languages to give us a presentation
024okay good evening thank thank you for this opportunity to speak about our world language program our school district has a long Legacy of quality language instruction and Broad language offerings tonight we'll talk about key updates to the program and highlight recent successes our K12 World language program is built toward three goals first we aim to build students Proficiency in the languages they study so they learn to communicate using words and phrases at the novice level as they gain more vocabulary Learners become more proficient their interpersonal speaking skills build as do their skills in interpreting authentic texts from the target language Target cultures like songs articles and videos authentic materials help illustrate and bring to life the cultures where the target language is spoken Learners explore the products and practices of the cultures and better understand
025their perspectives studying cultures from around the globe makes for a natural connection to our District's social studies curriculum saset is one of the few districts in our region to offer a world language program that begins in kindergarten and extends through 12th grade elementary students begin in our Flex or foreign language experience program which introduces students to learning languages Fosters Intercultural understanding and builds communication skills since the program does not focus on only one language learners become acquaint acquainted with a range of cultures and languages as they move through the Elementary grades students develop novice level communication skills in the language which which helps them decide which language they want to pursue when they reach Middle School our Flex teachers collaborate with classroom teachers to take advantage of opportunities to coordinate lessons for example in first
026grade science students learn about the water cycle which connected well with a flex lesson about precipitation and weather in Spanish in order to be sure our curriculum is current and meets the needs of students we periodically review programs to find opportunities for enhancement and adjustment our Flex program began revision last summer with an updated program coming this September several years ago we began American Sign Language instruction in kindergarten and first grade which matches well with early literacy skills taught at that level such as learning the alphabet and the sounds letters make finger spelling which is the ASL representation of the alphabet reinforces understanding of the building blocks of language in grades two and three we plan to implement a curriculum that will teach Asian languages and cultures while in grades four and five the focus
027will be romance languages and cultures the goal of this change is for Learners to explore the the target cultures through the topics and themes listed here the revision also allows for more connections with the elementary social studies curriculum students make language Choice a language choice in fifth grade among Chinese French Italian Korean or Spanish giving middle schoolers five language Choice language choices is unique in our region with most schools offering two and sometimes three languages offering diverse languages is a feature that distinguishes our program Learners develop communication skills at the novice level throughout grades 6 seven and 8 by the end of e8th grade Learners easily communicate using sentences and strings of sentences bringing them to the intermediate level they earn one high school credit by passing the checkpoint a exam in June of 8th
028grade we know that Proficiency in a language builds with continued study over many years so when students transition from middle to high school the vast majority continuing in their language working through the intermediate range of proficiency intermediate level language Learners can handle most everyday situations they would encounter in the target language from making plans with friends to arranging travel accommodations and transportation to shopping in markets and shops our large range of language offerings afford students the opportunity to study multiple languages this year 31 students take advantage of this and are enrolled in two World Lang languages at the high school at the end of level three which typically is June uh 10th grade students take the checkpoint B exam which qualifies them for the advanced Regent diploma as the enrollment chart indicates a high percentage
029of Juniors and seniors go on to checkpoint C with many taking college level courses or the AP language course in Chinese French Italian or Spanish we view our students continuation in World language courses through senior year as a strong indicator of the program's overall appeal the culmination of our program is for seniors to earn the New York state seal of biliteracy a graduation credential that indicates intermediate High Proficiency in English and another language to employers and colleges most of our seal earners come through the world language program but English language Learners can also earn the designation as well as students who can speak and read and write a Heritage language the process for earning the seal is rigorous candidates must demonstrate their proficiency through standardized tests panel interviews and coursework last year 92 seniors graduated
030with the seal which is among the highest number of recipients in our region as we look forward implementing a revised Flex program at the elementary level presents a promising opportunity for World languages in scasd the new curriculum will engage students in learning about the world in Multicultural perspective providing opportunities to reinforce the goals of our social studies program the revision will also introduce students to other languages foreshadowing the options they will have when they enter the secondary program several years ago with the board's support we began an articulated program in Chinese starting in grade six our our first cohort will be seniors next year bringing Full implementation to fruition a similar process is underway in Korean with our first cohort entering grade 8 next year enrollment in languages is fluid and shifts from year to
031year as enrollment in some languages increases enrollment in other languages decreases each year we monitor the impact these shifts have on our on our language offerings another area for growth we see is for more students to earn the New York state seal of biliteracy especially for enl students or those to communicate in a Heritage or home language granting the Seal of biliteracy has become a way to acknowledge and recognize students expertise in a language we do not offer in our program expanding our reach even further thank you for this opportunity to present our program and for your ongoing support for our [Applause] work thank you Dr basamo for the informative presentation um I do have a question regarding the flex curriculum revisions for of September 2024 how is this program different from the existing one
032and also from what we had years ago right so the current program uh does not include any of the Asian languages the new program will um that's one big shift the other big shift is that teachers will be housed in one Elementary School rather than moving to different elementary schools each year so that's a little bit of a staffing shift that will happen um the kindergarten and first grade stays the same with sign language um but it will shift in that way okay um additional question so you're saying that the the teachers that we have for these you know k25 they'll be housed in just one school instead of going to uh be shared with two or three other elementary schools no um so each Elementary Flex teacher will be assigned to one one Elementary
033School and that's kind of going to be their home in an ongoing way in the current system the teachers shift each year so each year the elementary schools the elementary teachers move from one school to the next so this is going to give a little more continuity in the buildings to have one staff member that will be there for the Long Haul Mr Greco thank you Dr BOS this sort of Carries On To Miss Chen's question question so in the past if I remember correctly and I should because I have a third grader um you split up Italian French and Spanish into one year each so now you're going to teach those three languages over the course of two years yeah uh I wonder if I can go back in the slides if I can
034I'll show you we're going to focus more on themes through let's see here these themes um so when we get to these themes uh we'll focus uh on we'll study we'll learn about each language really the cultural kind of implication not necessarily one language it's going to be a little bit more focused on the themes with the language and the culture rather than one specific language at a time so for example when we do holidays we might talk in EUR in the European you know uh set we might talk about holidays in Spain and in France and uh in Italy for example um not necessarily just only French like we do now when it's F it's the year for French for example or the year for Spanish it's going to be a little bit more
035focused through uh the events and the and the culture rather than the language itself one one other thing I I note you you mentioned checkpoint a taking place at the end of eth grade and you know something that that is I'm not going to say it bothers me because you know I didn't know about it when my oldest was in eth grade but it's funny how so many kids in eth grade take algebra and science and I feel like they know what they're getting into but the checkpoint a for the eighth grade language that grade appears on the high school transcript correct is that the case for all kids that take um checkpoint a and if it is and Dr Rogers there's a comment for you that's something that definitely should be out there I
036think a lot of eth grade parents assume algebra or science are going to be high school transcript classes but maybe not the foreign language I again just a comment no it's funny because our our was the first one years and years ago um to have a a middle school course that would get high school credit language was the first one um so it's funny that that's shifted now and people that's kind of out of people's memory but yeah that that's always been the case um and our students by and large perform very well on those assessments and and get the the credit coming into High School Dr Park thank you for the presentation um and I I'm a strong believer in training our students to be Global Citizens and I have to give credit to
037Hina for teaching me that where Global Citizens I love that um and and it's not just in language but in terms of embracing differences different cultures appreci appreciating and understanding the differences ability to discuss different viewpoints we are training our students to be Global Citizens and language plays a very big part in developing that kind of um skill set and our students when they graduate from here their colleagues are not going to be just from us they're going to be from all over the world and um we know by just visiting cities in the Europe or in Asia they're speaking English so well there are multiple Lang language speaker is fluent in this and in order to be competitive I think we need to train our students to do the same I mean we do
038have a little bit of Advantage because they are speaking English to us however if um our students don't speak the other languages then we have they have to rely on other people's ability to speak English so we don't want to fall behind on that and SAS that being a large school we can afford more uh languages we can offer more languages compared to other districts that have just half or third of our student body and if we decide to offer choices I would love to have um these languages structured supported so that they will be they will Thrive and our students are excited to take these languages especially because they have the ability to choose it's not just given to them or they they were locked into it because they didn't have choice so I
039hope that we can have a stable setup for each level of language with low turnover of teachers and consistent curriculum and consistent and strong growth so that our students are been benefiting from this robust language programs even if they choose languages other than Spanish and Chinese That's My Hope thank M Le thank you um I guess I have a few questions but I'll try to be concise so to Echo um Johny um what are the criteria and the process we have in place to add or drop a language um what percentage um unless it's drastically different per language um do we have of Heritage speakers in class versus non-speakers do we have I guess third question do we um um have do we do anything proactively to promote um learning um taking a language um
040among the non-speakers non Heritage speakers um and I guess fourth question which is the big picture are we uh merely following the enrollment here in saset um you know when determining what class to add or to drop or to to cut or downsize um or are we looking at um you know the fiveyear Horizon 10 year Horizon future Horizon in the job market um Which languages will dominate um the economy Which languages are circulating mostly in this industry that industry and another industry or or is it merely um you know following the enrollment and interest local interests in language I'm sorry too many questions sure I'll try to answer so as far as a process for adding languages we went through that twice in my recent experience first with Chinese um about six years ago
041um and then with Korean about three years ago and the process was um canvasing students having forums with parents getting feedback about what languages people were interested in having us offer and at the end of that process um we resulted first again about six years ago with Chinese and about three years ago with Korean being added so that's the process basically that we have in place for adding languages as far as Heritage langu you asked about Heritage language language Heritage speakers right so taking the languages right so um I don't have statistics on that necessarily on what what percentage of let's say the Italian classes are Italian Heritage students or Spanish or or I I don't have specifics on that um it would be interesting to look at it um as far as promoting your
042third question was about promoting languages so yes promoting among the non-speakers right so what we try to do is give kids lots of choices and we give kids more choices than anybody um you know the number of languages that we offer in middle school is just no one has five languages like we do um so uh we always encourage kids my Mantra is follow your heart study the language you're interested in because when you follow when you learn a language that you're interested in in that's when you're going to pursue it that's when you're going to really learn it when you when you want to learn it when you're interested in it so I always tell kids Follow Your Heart Take the language you're interested in whatever it is that you're that you know turns
043you on that's what you should take um we're very careful not to promote one language over another because it would go against that idea right of kids kind of fulfilling their own destiny in terms of their language Journey um your other question was about how much does enrollment drive your Staffing decisions completely we what the process is that students um sign up for classes uh in about January they they sign up for whatever they're going to take for the following year um we sit down we get a print out basically of how many students have signed up for each language I sit down as the coordinator of the department with the High School administration with the central Administration and we look at those numbers and we review those numbers and that's when we figure out
044how many sections of this we need how many sections of that we need um and that's when we would make any decisions about what makes sense to continue and and what really doesn't make any sense anymore and again this it's all based on student interest and what students have decided to sign up for sorry just to follow up um you mentioned canvasing the parents are we talking e8th grade fifth grade elementary school yeah when we went through the process it was with Elementary parents if I recall correctly because the program was was essentially going to begin for sixth graders so I believe we actually focused on the fifth grade parents specifically because we knew those would be the the kids who would be coming into the next you know group the next cohort are there
045any more questions for Dr Belo okay Miss fov and then miss dri so I'm gonna be easy I actually just wanted to pay um you guys a compliment um the program having had the opportunity to have some of my kids go through it and having had the opportunity to see their level of proficiency in action during a emergency situation in a foreign country where English was not the language spoken the um the level of proficiency that the kids attains in scasd was really mind-blowing and their ability to translate and to converse was really so important and I think setting them up for such future success in college and for those kids who choose to study abroad or in future job markets where being bilingual will really serve them well and they're really getting such a
046strong basis and it starts in in those schools and the fact that they come out so proficient if they choose to continue all the way through the level of proficiency was really mind-blowing they were incredible so I just wanted to compliment you guys and tell you that the children are the level of their proficiency is fantastic so well done thank you I'll pass that along thanks hi thank you um I have a couple questions they'll be sprayed around the room a little bit so first I I think I heard you mention that the number of Middle School languages that we offer is unusual when compared to peers is there some kind of significant difficulty in offering so many languages as middle schools that we're overcoming how would you describe those difficulties how would you describe
047how we've been able to overcome them if we have sure so um one of the one of the factors that impacts that is teeming right because that could have a big impact on how the the day is scheduled um it's also smaller remember we have two middle schools we have one high school so when you split the whole group in half now you have half the kids so in our in our district in particular in other in other schools um I'm not sure you know how they go through their decision- making process but I know that typically um you know it's Spanish and something else it could be Spanish and Italian it could be Spanish and French um but it's hard it it's a challenge to schedule you know the building around for example some
048of the some of the classes that have fewer students in them you wind up with only one class so that means you really have to schedule that schedule around that one class of kids who wants to take whatever the language is that only has one class that year for example and the decision to offer the large number of languages was based on parent canvasing or polling or some other strategic priority that was sort of discussed understood so this was about uh like I said about six years ago when we added Chinese for the first time um and it was based on reviewing the program which we do periodically we take a look at what we're doing one of the things that we noticed at that time was that we only had European languages right for
049for grades six through 12 um we had some Asian languages at the high school but we didn't have any that started in sixth grade and we looked around and said well why should there only be Asian languages starting in middle school and we said well if we want at the time we were picking one Asian language right we were looking to see what could we add to our program that would make it Fuller and a little bit more representational right rather than just having the three European languages at the time it was Spanish French and Italian um and so that was The Innovation that we made at that time to say let's add something and the process that we went through was to decide which language it should be right there were a few kind
050of on the table and we went through that process to say well at the end of the day this is the one that seems to have the most support in the community so I'm I'm sorry I'm I'm kind of just getting started so the the flex curriculum revision uh ties very nicely to the presentations we've been seeing about the trans the the skills that are uh across disciplines and I can see there's intentionality in bringing that uh to the elementary schools which I think is fantastic in fact I think to get a firm understanding of language without culture context geography history uh probably puts us um back in the past whereas I think in order for us to be moving into flexible thinking and training our children to do that we really need to continue
051to think strategically about how to allocate uh lessons and pedagogy in that direction I guess my question to you Dr Rogers is it sounds like the Strategic level thinking went into the elementary curriculum Flex program but I'm not not sure that I understand the Strategic level thinking about what we're trying to accomplish at the middle school and the high school in terms of language enrollment and language offerings it sounds like we're following a bit of a random walk by surveying parents if we have huge intentionality in what we're trying to do in the elementary school curriculum I'm not sure I understand what the decision making process is at a strategic level for what we're trying to accomplish with languages at the middle school school and the high school we don't offer German a lot of
052people might say that German language is the most important for business in Europe as opposed to Italian or French or Russian or Japan in other words there there's a high level of um discussion that I feel like might be warranted and I don't think I understand how that strategic level decision is being made um or if that's the level it rises to and then I have one or two other things yeah so I think I can put a little more context around the decision Mak and maybe clarify it a little bit so when I arrived here 10 years ago the board was engaged in a discussion of how much proficiency students would be able to acquire in the uh Flex program at the elementary level and whether the board should or should not put all
053of its eggs in one basket so at the end of that study the conclusion that we arrived at we went to neighboring school districts that had dual language programs and other kinds of structures was at best we thought students might be able to get themselves between a half a year and a year head start on where they would be in sixth grade otherwise and that get did not seem worth the challenges of Staffing a program like that which I won't go into too deeply but they are daunting and the loss of the ability for students to have a broader Intercultural experience uh in elementary school and so the board at that time I agreed with their decision decided to leave the program as it was and as you've observed we've been evolving that program and
054moving it to aign with the kinds of cross cutting work that we're doing elsewhere in the curriculum also at that time as uh we were studying this I was startled to see that we had something like 80% of our seniors still enrolled in a world language that's also an unheard of statistic and that meant that we had lots of students who were at high levels of proficiency in whatever language they were choosing to study when the state offered the Seal of biliteracy which I think is a valuable credential for students for lots of reasons college and the world of work it occurred to me that uh we had several advantages one we had so many kids that were still enrolled in World Language as seniors so they were likely to be proficient enough to earn
055this uh Seal two we have lots of Heritage speakers in our school district and they will have a natural advantage in earning the seal and so uh some of our decision making was around how do we maximize students potential to maximize their Proficiency in at least one more language so part of the conversation around adding Chinese and then Korean at the middle school level was this would allow them to have a longer ramp so if prior to adding Chinese Chinese 1 would be offered in ninth grade the furthest you could get would be Chinese 4 but by starting in sixth grade students would be able to move on to AP Chinese and have more proficiency more likely to earn uh the seal literacy so the as Mr Dr balamo points out there are some staffing
056challenges to having so many languages at the middle school but what it affords us is the opportunity for students to earn the longest possible sequence in five languages so we had had with the board uh seven years ago when we started the process of adding Chinese a long conversation about how all of our long sequences were in Romance languages and there was an interest in exploring adding at least one sequence in a non-romance language after our conversations with the parents we settled on Chinese as being the most likely to succeed uh because of the larger number of Heritage speakers in scas so the the overall strategic goal is to continue to do what Dr balamo suggested which is follow kids passions but also allow them to pursue those passions in a way that would build
057the maximum proficiency so that they could earn these kinds of credentials so that's the strategy behind where the language programs have been at the secondary level okay I think I understand that so then the follow on question is the languages that we chose are a mix of those that have the longest potential Runway through the most advanced degrees and those that don't and some of the ones we chose are based on local uh desire to to have it as opposed to sort of maximizing that long runway for credential is that what I what I'm trying to understand I'm I'm not sure I quite followed the the question are you ask have we chosen a mix of languages that have the longest chain and those that don't for a specific reason because of local interest as
058opposed to just maximizing the curriculum where we can have the longest chain just generally it's it's or for some other strategic reason yeah with Chinese we saw that there was the possibility of having very long sequence there um when we went back and talk to parents and for both of these uh additions of languages we took a lot of feedback from parents we we held a lot of meetings we were in the Village Elementary School library talking with parents about this and some of this is providing long ramps and runways and some of this is uh listening to our parents in our community so I'd say it's a blend of both of those things we want to be attentive to what the parents have shared with us and we also want to be strategic about
059giving Kids deep levels of proficiency and I just had one other quick thing that I wanted to uh ask about which is Dr bamo um what are some of the biggest challenges and um that you see in terms of the language programs that we should be aware of at least at a strategic level and then Dr Rogers I don't see a lot of data in how we're doing so maybe if we could get some update on how we're doing that would be helpful for me so in addition to my real job as the World Language coordinator here I'm also the president of the New York State Association of World Language administrators and I can tell you um that the biggest challenge we face in our in my in my role across the state is Staffing
060is finding getting people to become language teachers getting great talented language teachers into the classroom um New York City has a shortage we have challenges finding teachers everybody in my role wishes that they could just find great teachers that's probably our biggest challenge are there any more questions uh Miss kosier thank you Dr balamo I just have a quick question for you at the elementary level on K to five actually no I'm sorry two to five are the children actually learning like basic language along with these the cultural topics and themes which I think is is wonderful to introduce them to it also may give them a sense of which which path they want to take once they leave Elementary School moving to Middle School language um so do they actually learn different languages within
061the grade levels yeah so the idea is that they are learning language as they're learning some of the culture um so it might be for example words in a song when we're doing the unit on holidays maybe kids would learn the lyrics to a song in French about ex holiday right so there is some language involved in it um it's going to be a little bit of you know everything obviously because it's it's going to be through the focus of these uh these themes and topics but yes there will be a language component as well okay thank you again Dr pleas for the presentation Right Moving on next we'll have Dr Rogers um give us his uh monthly superintendent report uh I'll be brief I know we've done a lot of work already tonight um
062I just want to Circle back to the earlier conversation uh that we had around the budget that's where most of my attention has been focused um as Miss Abramson pointed out earlier and thank you for saying that I wanted to make uh sure that folks understood that the board is still in the process of taking feedback on the larger facilities proposal around the major projects that we need to do to accommodate our enrollment growth and uh that is not part of uh the budget proposal that's going to be in front of the public uh in May but that is something that we're very much still working on and appreciative of the feedback that we've been getting uh secondly I neglected to talk about the one challenge that we are facing in our budget that uh
063not many districts are facing and that is our enrollment increase so uh new state did a series uh within the last two weeks about enrollment declines across Long Island and some two-thirds of the districts on Long Island are seeing fewer uh students we're in the opposite posture we've grown about 500 students but over the course of the 10 years that I've been here and what that has done is ex exhausted most of the available space in many of our buildings so uh assuming that enrollment trend will uh increase and the students are already in in the elementary schools that will eventually be in our middle and high schools we're going to need to be able to accommodate uh that enrollment growth as those students age and transition into uh the secondary program so uh in
064addition to inflation that we've been dealing with we've had inflation of our student body that we've been dealing with so um that has made our challenge all the more interesting all the more challenging and therefore our use of um our interest income and our reserves um all the more important uh with that said um I also just want to comment a little bit on state aid trying to read between the lines of the governor's announcement uh earlier this week of the framework for uh budget deal and Dr rufo's prognostications about what it may mean for us there's a provision that has been in the budget since I worked on it 30 years ago that said no district will get less money uh next year than it got last year year the governor's rhetoric has been
065I don't want to pay for empty seats meaning since there are so many school districts that are in enrollment declin uh they no longer want to support uh same levels of Aid We're not in that category so um what is challenging for us and why our state aid was reduced was because the governor recalculated inflation to be something less than what it actually is a number that is smaller so to the extent that the legislature has an inflation number number that is more consistent with our lived reality that will improve our outcomes what we won't know is the interaction between not getting more not getting less money than we got last year which would restore the $200,000 cut and how they calculate inflation which might reduce something more globally overall so we we won't know
066for sounds like another week uh what that will work out to exactly but uh for the board's uh benefit I want to just share what our plans are I don't anticipate a windfall in state aid um but if we are restored to the level of last year our uh proposal would be to reduce our use of fund balance because I think um the less we support the budget using fund balance the uh better off we are and then we would use the remainder to reduce the tax levy further we're about $40,000 under the cap now I'd like to see us get a little bit further under the cap if we could so our plan is to take U whatever Restorations the legislature adds to the governor's budget and uh spread them between those two priorities
067so we wouldn't use those Restorations to increase spending any further we would use it to um improve the revenue side of the budget further so that would be my recommendation I just wanted to let folks know that that's um how our approach will be this is an unusual year in that the budget is so late um Alban is certainly aware of school district's budget deadlines um they are you know not just cutting it to the wire they're beyond the wire at this point um this was a circumstance that was common 30 years ago but we haven't really experienced it for the last 10 years so it has made planning difficult when um a big chunk of the revenues are just in unknown but I think Dr rufo has managed this process admirably and I think
068we're in a position now where whatever the state does we know how we're going to handle it thank you Dr Rogers are there any questions from the board for Dr Rogers okay all right thank you okay next we'll have Dr Ruel um give us a report on the citizen advisory committee for finance the um the committee met on March 12th and we discussed uh the budget we discussed state aid at the time we also talked about the bond work and and the process um that we were involved we also shared with the committee our plans um to lease office space as part of our um additional classroom space that we're creating in Southwoods we have to relocate some offices so we talked with committee members about um about the leasing process and they gave us
069um good suggestion so that was um the meeting in March and the next meeting is um tomorrow evening thank you Dr Hu okay next will be the anti bias task force report and we will have the co-chairs rabbi jimie shavit and also Pastor Rebecca Sheridan to give us the uh recommendations from the an bias task force okay thank you so much for having us uh for this presentation we want to thank everyone who was on the anti-bias task force we're not going to name Everyone by name because it's their choice to LIF their names out but uh we want to thank everyone who worked with us and uh countless hours so first we would like everyone to be aware that there was a diversity and inclusivity task force in 2021 they created suggestions and recommendations
070and we firstly recommended looking back at that document and second we want you to know that we're building upon those recommendations that were in that as well so let's start with the task force the reasons that it was created and and some other information the task force was created due to uh bias incidents happening in our schools specifically swastikas at first anti-Semitism was brought to the community and the board's attention public the public discussed and revealed other claims of hate crimes as well and therefore a diverse task force was formed in response to community concerns the board then asked the co-chairs to be co-chairs and we said yes the school and the communities within the school voted on their representatives so that these Representatives could hopefully represent a large and diverse group amongst our community
071the representatives came together to form this group along with some of the administration board members as well and we met we met together we shared our backgrounds together we shared our experiences together we discussed what was happening in the schools we researched we met again and we met again and we met again and we came up with ideas and we then discussed those ideas and tore them apart in an attempt to come up with ways that we could truly make a difference we held Town Hall meetings to meet meet these goals to hear the community we held a town hall meeting sorry to hear the community's concerns we collected input through emails as well and input from the general Community also and then as we were creating this idea with these goals we ended up
072creating five subgroups I will list the five subgroups and then hand over to Pastor Sheridan who will discuss a few of them so our first subgroup was best practices and existing initiatives our second was specific to our student experience third were family Partnerships to bring it outside of the school buildings but within our community the fourth was the code of conduct and the daa reporting known as the dignity for all students Act and the fifth was data collection without want me to okay I just want to first uh echo my gratitude for task force members who some of whom are literally standing behind us and to say this was really a group effort where everyone's input uh was uh everyone's Voice Was Heard in the diverse representation on this task for us and best practices
073which I'll speak about now um was our largest area to look at what are other school districts may be doing that we could learn from other resources uh based on the expertise in the room from the task force what are they bringing and everyone while this was a subgroup of three people dedicated ated on working on this particular area all of our task force members contributed uh to some of the resources you see in the document uh so the recommendations include really intentionally again going back to the former diversity task force recommendations and continuing to be really intentional about how we Foster cultural competency using a culturally responsive teaching framework and mitigating un conscious bias uh curriculum evaluation the I learned some some of our task force already knew that the school really use utilizes
074a courageous conversations framework and principles that all staff are trained in to help facilitate difficult conversations especially some of the Salient issues that have come up in our community at this time um we cannot emphasize enough how important it is to train our staff and students to have difficult convers conversations respectfully we also recommend pursuing external organizations resources which may include a consulting firm that would cost money uh and there are several that are good that specialize in education spaces hiring practices is another piece of this recommendation which again was recommended and even and being worked on in the previous task force recommendations so we encourage commitment to diversity in hiring practices striving to hire staff who represent all of our students um and that's all I'm going to say about hiring practices but I
075want to also then move to social media we are under sure how much social media uh looking at social media use critically and understanding the effects of social media on our society and biologically and emotional how that is currently being taught in our school district so we recommend especially focusing on this area including uh exploring how artificial intelligence impacts our conversation our understanding and our human relationships and then maybe the most controversial recommendation uh is to consider prohibiting phone usage during school hours from kindergarten through grade eight as a means to decrease bias incidents and strengthen relationships in-person healthy communication because we all know the detrimental effects of uh extreme and overuse excessive overuse of smartphones okay I'll turn it back over to Rabbi shall haveit so the next few slides are just to prove
076that we didn't make this stuff up if you look at the bottom of each slide you'll see that they're all citations for everything that um that Pastor Rebecca spoke about so we have citations for all and they're in the packets that you received I'm just sort of waiting through that our next section our next subgroup was was the student experience and it was going straight to the students we had representatives from both middle schools and the high school student Representatives who might I add are incredibly impressive young adults and becoming young adults so we are incredibly grateful for not only their long hours and we hear they managed to keep their grades up during that time which is really impressive but the respect and the knowledge that they brought and the passion to to this
077idea of all speaking together and learning from each other uh and and peace uh really was absolutely impressive to all of us so all the recommendations here rely on effectively communicating with the students so that the students are aware of them it turns out that there are some wonderful practices happening in the schools but not every student knows about it and therefore they can't take advantage of it and so all of these recommendations rely on uh good communication one is to create safe space spaces where we know that people can remain anonymous and there's nothing specifically let known of that different places children students could meet with uh guidance counselors and adults where they might not be seen walking into an office that they are assumed to be going in for a reason there might
078be another space that they can use continue supporting things like saset unite which is student run and specifically about inter relations reinforce a sense of community by doing doing that uh the students had the wonderful idea to expand Junior Day to younger students as well I don't need to explain Junior Day to you guys I hope because I can't but the students could so if you have any questions feel free to ask them they also would like to suggest Town Hall meetings for students by students so that they can really discuss things with their peers all building on the courageous conversations and the way to discuss difficult conversations with respect for each other and themselves the third subgroup was family Partnerships now it's understood that the district can only do so much because our students
079go home and live in the world but our students and their families being part of this District need to see it as a community so this work must continue at home families must take advantage and are encouraged to take advantage of the community building activities that the task force is about about to recommend so the amazingly good news is everyone loves the PTA events and they should just keep doing what they're doing they are a wonderful group of people who are doing really great events and we need to have more support for what they are doing to bring the community together there were recommendations for workshops specifically for adults parents and families a as a whole learning cultural engagement for parents and families how to avoid identity-based hate actual workshops and classes for adults who
080may never have learned how to do this how to be an upstander for adults our students are learning how to be an upstander but this way they can see it at home and in their communities as well and see that what they're learning is being modeled by the adults around them and the same courageous conversations that are being taught in the schools need to be taught to the parents and adults now what we do understand is that workshops will usually bring out people who are already interested in those workshops and so it brings us to the next really important part of family Partnerships which is marketing and branding which is much more important than it sounds and it's not about selling something it's actually about getting the truth out the idea is that families will
081share with each other through little video stipps or a little the idea of how to share is really up to you but the idea of video came to the task force mind that maybe before a concert or before a game there might be two or three two-minute videos of what my family does at or what this family believes of and it's actual videos or situations that the families themselves record and the school gets to see and everyone who shows up gets to see what their what their Community is doing and who they are and really not just giving voice to the social media that is negative that people might post but rather the wonderful things because we don't hear enough about them because nobody thinks to record them and show them so giving that opportunity
082to see the good and see the uh wonderful things that the community is doing amongst a large group of people the next subgroup was the code of conduct and daa Reporting this also took a great deal of effort and a lot of uh discussion because it is so important and we came up with uh I think four specific things except accessibility awareness commitment and addressing certain things so let's go back to accessibility for a moment the code of conduct is a 5,000 page document just kidding but it's very long I think it's an 80 page document or something incredibly long and there are shortened versions of it but again to make that more accessible online Plus in paper there's been discussion about uh recommendation to have a student handbook that is given out possibly at
083different age groups age uh time periods during their time so each code of conduct that they receive is the same code of conduct but age appropriate for them to understand it and for them to actually um identify with it also we uh recommend adding more languages to the code of conduct putting it out there in more languages so that the so that everyone in our community can really understand that and the packet that we gave you lists six other languages that we'd like it to be that we recommend it being added to in awareness again we want to make sure that people know where they can find the code of conduct we want to make it impossible not to see the code of conduct and so it needs to be everywhere it needs to be
084posted it needs to be in paper it needs it already is in the calendar but it turned out so many people don't know that it's in the calendar and so something in in big bold writing that says code of conduct inside um which brings us to Commitment we know they've seen it if we require that adults and students sign it and so not just and I don't know if you can require but the recommendation is to require that they have signed it and seen it and understood it so that no one can say I didn't know that was in there or I didn't know that broke the code of conduct or I've never seen that before and then we have addressing and this is with specifically with Dasa reporting so we want to make sure
085that the Dasa coordinator which are many Dasa coordinators but that the Dasa coordinators who right now already do receive uh anti-bias training that we evaluate the training that they receive and that uh the school district uh makes sure that we re-evaluate the Dasa coordinating training to ensure the mitigation of any unconscious bias among staff who conduct the investigations and adjudicate the Dasa complaints just to make sure that every section of our Dasa reporting is as free of uh unconscious or conscious bias as we can make it that is important for uh for making sure that everyone feels that they have really been given a fair deal and a fair shot at what they are reporting or what they are being accused of and with that for the next one I'll hand it over to so
086data collection was our last subgroup and really uh this process could begin pretty quickly I thought the one compelling idea is to administer a school culture survey at the end of fifth grade 8th grade and 12th grade sort of as a exit survey where people students may feel more comfortable uh sharing information that they perhaps felt they couldn't share um while in the school year uh and I think assessing the the district by collecting an anonymous survey uh whose credit credibility and legitimacy is vetted is essential to get a a a temperature on how the district is doing and how are we improving uh as we move forward with these efforts so in closing this is really uh these recommendations are the beginning of something that needs to be a long-term effort including all of
087these uh things that you see on the screen um examining the curriculum reviewing policies collecting data encouraging wide stakeholder involvement and um this task force is concluding its work and we thank you for this opportunity so the question is how does the work continue and how do we keep this in front of us as a community um so we can continue to do better so thank you thank you so much for the presentation thank you I want to take the moment to uh thank the co-chairs and then also all the members who are involved Central Administration and all the the building level um leaders who are who are involved in this process and I know that uh there were countless hours into this not just the meeting itself but the research behind the scenes seene
088and I wanted to let the community know that all the meeting progresses they've been posted on the district website so anybody can go to the district website and pull out the meeting notes uh from the uh the hard work that they they've put in so again I I really can thank you guys enough to you know for putting in your time to stepping up to put in all your time and siasa is committed to fighting all forms of biases whether it's inter semitism or islamophobia anti-asian antiblock just all forms and no the hate has no place in period so you know all this time that we've been invested into uh uh creating this task force and also working on this task force I you know I really just can't thank you guys enough for the
089for your hard work thank you [Applause] again and um at this point um I would like to ask Dr Rogers um to bring back a plan to implement um all the recommendations you know that been listed um from the task force and then also for the board to review again like uh just like what uh Pastor Sheran said that this is a long-term plan it doesn't end today we have a very long road ahead of us and then we want to be able to find the best way to implement all the hard work that these co-chairs and also the students or the members have put in and this is not going to be the although this is the the conclusion for the report but it's not a conclusion for what we have to do for
090the future so okay all right thank you okay there are no legislative items uh no discussion items and no unfinished business so we are moving on to um uh new business um a items A1 is the approval of the appointment of staff changes for April 2024 may I have a motion please m Mr GRE let seconded by Miss leban are there any questions all in favor opposed any abstentions A2 is the approval of stiens and hourly rates for 2023 and 2024 can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss kosia are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions A3 is the approval of coaching recommendations for spring 2024 can I have a motion Please Mr GRE by Miss Falco are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions A4 is
091the approval of the appointment of Summer School principal can I have a motion please Dr Park seconded by Miss koshia are there any questions all in FA Mr Greco I guess it's getting redundant how much I um like our summer program and and I'm obviously very happy with the choice of the principal but I have a question excuse me I have a question about in the past you WR summer school was summer school and then it became summer school 2.0 and I'm wondering I was just looking at the budget and I saw what appeared to be a decrease in the funding is are we continuing going down the road of enrichment uh as a large portion of summer school and are we expecting the same number of students as last year or less yes so
092a closer look at that budget line will reveal that uh we over budgeted for summer school last year so what we're doing is trimming to the actual so we're not making the program smaller we're just trimming the budget line because we had put more in the line than was necessary last year but uh summer school 2.0 is actually going well and I'm uh excited about some of the class offerings that um I think the teachers in summer school felt rejuvenated by the opportunity to redesign some of these class I think they align more with our strategic Vision around flexible thinking cross cutting kinds of lessons and um there is enrichment and there's also um uh reinforcement for students who need a little extra help and uh our our mission is to make both of those
093um Lanes attractive and fun for kids that it should be an enjoyable uh summer program regardless of what the curriculum is designed to do all in favor opposed any abstentions A5 is the approval of a site letter agreement with the SAS Teachers Association can I have a motion Please Mr GRE second by Mr Lan are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions A6 is the approval of a settlement agreement with the sayas Teachers Association can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss enson are there any questions all in favor opposed any abstentions B items B1 and B2 can be taken together they are the approval of committee on special education and the committee on preschool special education recommendations can I have a motion Please Mr GRE second by Miss fov
094are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions B3 is the approval of student Club Charters 20123 and 2024 can I have a motion please Dr Park second by m Eon are there any questions m vov um yeah so one of the clubs is a Recreational Sports Club in hbt for sixth graders um to participate in Recreational Sports which I think is wonderful um I was just wondering is there an equivalent in Southwoods I'm gonna ask uh Dr Curry if she knows the answer to that question I do not off the top of my head yes currently Southwoods does have its a morning wreck program for the students um so it is equivalent but each each School modifies the club to the specific needs and interests of the the students in attendance okay all
095in favor opposed any abstentions B4 is the nasal B's administrative operations budget vote and election of board members since the last board meeting where we uh passed res resolution to um uh to nominate the three B's uh incumbent members um we B's received three additional members um I don't know if any board members would like to nominate any of the three additional ones or um we are comfortable keeping the three that we passed last last month okay to be clear This Is Us voting for the three members of all right voting on the three members that we passed uh that we nominated last month okay can I have a motion Please Mr greo seconded by Miss Falco are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions B5 is the first reading of new policies
0969120 Workforce violence prevention and 9550 expression of breast milk in workplace and this the same two policies will be adopted at the next meeting in May okay and B6 is the authorization to establish School Meal pricing for the 2024 2025 school year can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss Eon are there any questions Mr asri yeah so I don't have a question specifically about the pricing for meals I assume that's federally mandated but I do have a question about the timeline for the bidding on our school um meals or the the outsourced um food program and how we can make sure that there's a robust discussion before we end up with a resolution in front of us about what our potential choices are in terms of Outsourcing it providing it ourselves
097exploring other options things like that uh I'll let Dr rufo who's been managing this process uh share the timeline and uh the trajectory that she's been on with the food service Consultants on the subject of the meal price though um the meal price that we're proposing to you is our estimate of what it will what the meal price will need to be in order for us to be successful in the bid that we have with the quality expectations that we have so there's an increase in the meal price that is in order for us to be successful in our bid in getting higher quality food choices so um the number it's the program is federally controlled but this specific number is controlled by us and Dr rufo in terms of the process and timeline the
098state uh contract for um Food Service management companies for 24 25 just released maybe a week and a half two weeks ago and that's the contract that all districts all school districts in New York state use and we have been working with our food service Consultants we did a survey of the students to get input on what they thought of the meal program and I think I have a meeting with her tomorrow to sort of um what we're able to do is customize the bid specs to get certain items that we want so we're going that process of modifying the bid then the uh then the bid has to go to the state because they want to approve any modifications that you make to the contract and then they after they approve it then we
099can go out to bid and um and our consultants and I believe we will be bringing it to the board we'll be advertising in in May that's when it'll be going out so to answer your question when would it be timely to have a conversation about what it would take to stand up our own food service system without a food service partner I think that would be that is that's a conversation that would be very hard for us to complete by May in terms of the logistics that would be involved in trying to stand up our own system it would involve a finding a food service director which is a civil service job so we would be constrained by whoever appears on the Civil Service list then we would have to hire the the employees
100to staff this program um we would likely have a different wage scale than the food service provider would have for those employees so it would significantly change the cost structure of the program uh it would give us some more control um but it would also mean that um the Staffing challenges that right now are the food service providers problem to solve on our behalf would become our own problem to solve on our behalf and i' say all of this uh because Food Service like busing has been uh an area of operations that has been particularly challenging to staff in the last three years so um there are not insurmountable but daunting challenges to standing up our own food service program that would take ample time for us to really work through okay and the other
101half of I guess my question is is there used to be provision of School meals that were not done through outsourced contracts how does that discussion that not necessarily provided by our own employees right it was provided by PTA in the past how does that discussion get re-engaged in terms of understanding of whatever the alternative choices are that could be in front of us aside from me signing off on $35 cents without any context for what's gone behind the scenes of that detail are you asking uh to explain the rationale for why that approach to Food Service was discontinued less so about why it's no longer or why there are only options of of Outsource food contract or standing up our own like what are all the choices available to us currently those would be
102the two choices and my concern with the program that was in place is that it didn't comply with um the federal Food Service program and regulations and that because of that we were assuming a lot of liability that was one of many reasons but we had for were pretty robust reasons for why we couldn't continue that program so I I think you have two choices one is to run our own food service program with all District employees the other is to Outsource it um and the challenge in the Outsourcing World um is that there are really only three companies that bid on work on Long Island so there are some national food service cooperatives and it is possible that one or more of them may decide that they want to break in into the Long
103Island market and so we may be surprised to see a new entrance but um for the 15 years that I've been U leading School institutions on Long Island there have only been three uh competitors I understand it's do it ourselves or contracted out but we're talking about at some point putting out a bid and potentially changing specs in asking the state to approve the specs and I wonder if you know and I haven't looked in a long time if the contract we have now that we put out for bid is exclusive and maybe what we do is think about updating those specs to allow I'm not talking about going back to PTA launch as much as I'd love to um I'm talking about having some kind of exception for the kind of things that may
104get other food items into the schools that may be more attractive to the kids and that would be be part of this may bid and would need to be discussed if we wanted to go that route right unfortunately that's a choice that um will not be available to us the law requires that whoever the successful bidder is have an exclusivity arrangement with the school district so um that's not a feature that we'll be able to write into the bid speec because it won't get past the folks at the state who then turn around and improve it and in all likelihood um no vender would bid on that if we try to incorporate that feature not to give you more homework um I understand how the exclusive how an exclusive contract will inevitably have some kind
105of carve out evening events right that that's not going to be covered if you could take a look and just see if there is something that we could because obviously we have to get the bit approved so I'm not talking about going outside of what the state would allow but there has to be exceptions like evenings weekends I don't know chocolate CH cookies there there's there's going to be something that we could do and if if that's a start um I don't I don't think it's a bad idea and I guess the other remaining thing is I I I thought I heard that there were student surveys and other sort of deliberations that go into the formation of this bid are is that survey work and information available for us to review and in other
106words is it available to review in advance of us picking $315 today is this an irrevocable number where I there's information that I feel like I don't have and now I'm signing up to this and maybe I'm going to change my mind if I have different information so one way or another I anticipate you're going to have to raise the food Surface price so um in all likelihood if we were to try to stand up our own food surface system we would have to raise the price more so I think Dr rufo from a timeline perspective if the board wanted to revisit this adopt this number tonight and then revisit it at a future meeting at what point have we run out of time for for that process the meal price has to be included
107in the bid so companies need to know what the meal price is so we can't we can't wait um in terms of of a decision in other words we I can't make if the decision is delayed then I I don't have the ability to um to write it into the bid specs it's I'd have to look up the release of the the bid correct this it doesn't make it doesn't make it we're releasing before the next board meeting yes this was our opportunity but we can make the survey results available to you um they're interesting it places they're humorous um our students had fun with the survey but um you know they they're asking for some things that we can't provide because the federal school lunch program prohibits us from providing them they ask uh
108sugary sodas for example um so that data not not helpful but fun um and then some of the things that they look for are just higher quality options uh the students ask for more variety in the vegan Halal and kosher options that we provided um the vegan options typically are just salad they're looking for more like prepared meals kind of vegan options so yeah we can certainly share that information with the board all in favor so for the 10 years that I've been here we have renewed The Food Service bid every year we've kicked the tires but not seriously on the idea of standing up our own food service and the the reason why those discussions have never gotten a lot of traction is because I think the cost structure would be much greater to
109do it inous so those have never seemed like practical conversations they tend to run out of energy so we have continued on the path of renewing so as Dr ruo said the the state bid specs have only just come out and they're late but if we don't move through the bid process quickly we stand the risk of not having a vendor in place for September that Prospect worries me so I would not want to take risks in this timeline I think if we want to have a discussion about a more significant change in approach to how we provide food service I'm all for that conversation I think there are some things that we could do at a very high quality but I think there are so many variables in this around labor around Insurance around
110uh sources of food will never be able to buy food as um inexpensively as a large conglomerate can Source food um will be responsible for the potential cross-contamination of allergens wherever that food is produced Etc there's a lot in this we can have that conversation there plent of school districts that have their own food service programs it's not insurmountable but it even if I offered you another month somehow we Magi away May and made it June we're not going to get to a credible Food Service program in two months internal Food Service program why can't we go to track why can't we potentially have the discussion Mr ostri wants to talk about on May 13th but also go the route of putting this out for a bit we always have the ability to pull it
111or change our mind in June as insurmountable as you'll tell me it is it's still within our right my recommendation to the board would be to proceed with your bid and if you're if you as a board are serious about uh getting a plan from me for creating an internal Food Service option I would ask you to give me the time to do that right and I don't think that that's going to be something where you would want to risk not having a food service vendor in place for September in the hopes that we would be able to create a program between now and September so my strong recommendation would be to proceed with the plan that we have now and if we're looking to do something different we would aim for that to be
112something that would start in Fall of yep we we M Mr arer we could have this discussion you know from um from June until let say next march or so for the next school year not for this fall school year and because this is a discussion that's going to take a lot more research and a lot more time and we as a district we've been doing things in a very thorough way so I wouldn't want to rush into this decision okay all right I understand I agree we're behind the eightball I just want to make the point that when we were hiring the consultant I said I wanted to engage in a discussion about our food service provision at that time and now fast forward however many months this is with a lot of intervening
113noise in between I understand and I'm not being unsympathetic to the difficulties that we've been um in managing all the details all the time but I mentioned it previously we're now here we're not going to discuss it this year we can discuss it next year I get it I just don't like when Things fall through and um that's the only thing I have to say about that okay so back to B6 all in favor opposed any extensions okay B7 B7 is the appointment of election workers for the May 21st 2024 budget vote and election of board members can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss koshia are there any questions in favor opposed any extensions C items C1 is the adoption of the 24 20124 25 sayas entral School sayas entral School
114District budget can I have a motion please miss fov second by Mr Greco are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C2 is the approval of the school property tax report C for the 2024 25 school year can I have a motion please Dr Park seconded by Miss koshia are there any questions all in favor opposed any exensions C3 is the authorization for type two action C can I have a motion please um miss Mr Mr greo second by Miss Levon are there any questions all in favor opposed any abstentions C4 is is the authorization of service contracts can I have a motion please Dr Park seconded by Miss koshia are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C5 is the award of bid for partial roof replacement and masonry repair
115at South Grove Elementary School can I have a motion Please Mr greo second by Miss Falco are there any questions on Mr GRE all right so this is uh South Grove roof it's a little under a million dollars and I'm wondering is this one of the items that would have been in the bond um but for the timing Dr rufo will you be able to answer that question off the top of your head believe this was planned for like many of our roof projects through a transfer to Capital all in favor opposed any extensions C6 is the authorization for special education and or nursing contracts can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss enson are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C7 is the authorization for Health and Welfare
116contracts can I have a motion please M Le 10 second by Miss fov are there any questions all in favor opposed any abstentions C8 is the approval of awards of bits as attached can I have a motion please Dr Park second by Miss kosier are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C night is the authoriz authorization to participate in the nasso county consortion for transportation services can I have a motion please miss fov seconded by Miss Lan are there any questions all in favor oos any abstentions C10 is the approval of inter Municipal Cooperative agreement for transportation services can I have a motion please Dr Park seconded by Miss everon are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C1 is the authorization for picky packing with Southampton ufsd for bid
117sps2 24-5 science supplies can I have a motion please Miss Le 10 second by Miss fov are there any questions all in favor opposed any abstentions C12 is the authorization for piggybacking with Southampton ufsd for bit SPS 24-4 school supplies can I have a motion please Dr Park seconded by Miss kosad are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions C13 is the disposal broken Surplus in or absolute equipment supplies and Brooks can I have a motion Please Mr greo second by Miss bov are there any questions all in favor opposed any extensions okay now moving on to um audience to the public um the Board of Education adopted new policies for the audience to the public and I just wanted to read it through so that everyone's aware of the changes the Board
118of Education Administration welcomes attendance at the Board of Education meetings the board business meetings will be live streamed and recorded the board of AD values Community input and provides opportunities to offer that input via email or in person persons who wish to speak during the audience to the public must register online to speak in events of the meeting by 5:00 pm the day of the board meeting person wishing to address the board the board in person doing audience to the public must conform to procedures adopted by the board by the board of AD speakers remarks must conform to the following rules one all speakers and observers are required to conduct themselves in a respectful and civil manner in accordance with the rules set by the board two speakers must address the board of address the
119board only not members of the audience or the audience as a whole three speakers must limit their comments to issues concerning School District Operations School District Affairs or Board of a policy four because of Rights protected by state and federal law no speaker may speak about an individual student or staff member nor will the board or Administration entertain questions in public regarding collective bargaining negotiations Personnel matters student matters or legal matters five no speakers may speak about decisions involving specific Personnel or specific students if a student reaches if a speaker wishes to address the board concerning specific Personnel or specific students the speak the speaker May write to the board six speakers may not use epithets slur P personal abuse lud and obscene speech profanity liist speech threat and fighting words or gestures defined as
120words or gestures which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to inight a breach of Peace any person who violates the rules above will immediately forfeit the balance of their time addressing the board to be recognized to speak persons must register with their full name and add and address and attest that they will comply with the rules stay above in add in addition only residents of sasid Central School District are permitted to address the board each resident will have four minutes to address the board which may be extended or is reduced at the discretion of the chair the board will will not permit polling of board members by speakers after every resident wishing to speak has an has had an opportunity to do so the board and or Administration May respond to Residents questions
121or comments no resident will be permitted to address the board more than once per meeting no no one may record Another member of the public in a manner that is disruptive or confrontational and I want to inform the audience that if the rules are not followed or if the audience Les any speakers I will first give a warning and if there's a second breach of the rule I will end the audience to the public portion of the meeting for tonight's meeting the audience to public will be recorded but not live streamed or the next day until our attorney reveal uh reviews it for compliance there are two ways for the community to uh community members to uh address the board as I stated before either by email or come to the public meeting and I
122just want to to make it very clear that I respectfully ask that those who wish to address the board confine their remarks to school business only our ult ultimate job is to run a school district and I kindly ask you to respect that okay and uh just want to introduce um Chris Powers who's sitting right next to me and that's the our um District Council CH you want to say a few words thank you madam president for notifying the Comm of the rules and regulations that are applicable here I'll be listening very closely to make sure that the comments are limited to School District Operations Affairs and board policy in the event that I deem that it's starting to stray beyond that point I'll make a recommendation to you that we then direct the speaker
123to comply with these limited um areas uh for their discussion to continue with that point Thank you thank you Mr Powers all right so our first speaker is Parisa Osman moric good evening members of the board and administration thank you Jack and Brian for addressing the need for better food my kids have gotten moldy bagels for lunch at w Whitman and I appreciate appreciate it thank you to Rabbi Jamie and Pastor Rebecca for your presentation any serious attempt to address racial religious bias in our district needs diversity in the leadership Beyond two white co-chairs and this anti-bias task force demonstrated how they could not accomplish even that I wanted to speak out about International Balor or IB and soset and how the vertical articulation of Concepts in a holistic framework from K to 12 would
124allow our students to think about their local and Global community in ways that cult of a critical analysis and creative problem solving after seeing the budget tonight the cost of IB should not be an issue given the benefits it would afford our students in their college preparation as well as Civic Readiness AS Global Citizens when I think about the correlation between holistic learning knowledge and awareness invoking empathy I think about our District's continued struggles with anti-Semitism the ATL curriculum and how it has failed to achieve any of that have you considered contextualizing atrocities throughout history for example if we had curriculum on the decimation of the 8 million tyo people of Hispanola now the Dem Dominican Republic in Haiti at the hands of Columbus 5 million killed over the four years from 1492 to 96
125with the remaining 3 million Whitted down to 22514 and near total Extinction with only 200 tyo left by 1542 we might assume Dr rogers's email wishing us all a Happy Columbus Day would leave students a gast I found your celebration of Columbus especially iron onc since the same King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that funded his voyages to ravage the Americas implemented the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain in the exact same year of 1492 and yet you made no connection to the seismic anti-Semitism and islamophobia of these figures Dr Rogers I recommend you read a short account of the destruction of the Indies written by Bartholomew lasas in 1542 if we had more curriculum on the imposed Famine of Ireland by the colonial British one that violently stole all the food and resources from
126Ireland and not the whitewashed happen stance Potato Famine that took the lives of 1 million Irish and displaced another million in 1845 we might see our students drawing parallels between the withholding of food and water leading to the current famine in occupied Palestine or to the enslaved Haans that succeeded in their armed Revolution against the French colonizer 40 years earlier in 1804 learning about global struggles for Independence after shared histories of colonial exploitation and genocide give students perspective and context that can be learned in developmentally and age appropriate ways as early as kindergarten through high school if we had more curriculum on the Perpetual cruelty and mass atrocities committed by the British through the entire Indian subcontinent a region so diverse and rich in culture and history that the only constant theme in their recorded
127histories and many different religions are teachings of peace all of our students might learn the origins of the dhic swasti its auspicious meaning of all is well in Sanskrit and the religious reverence held by two billion Hindus Buddhists and James around the world the symbol that dates back to some of the earliest cave drawings recorded by humans and was distorted by the same racist Europeans to Galvanize support for what we now spend much of our time studying and repeating as the most significant and memorable atrocity in the whole of human history the Holocaust do our students or faculty know the difference between these symbols if any of the perpetrators are Hindu or Buddhist how are you going to understand their relationship with a symbol that may be adorned in their homes or places of worship
128through a singular postor War II lens and say you're doing everything to prevent this from ever happening again in the current no place for hate curriculum do our students learn that from the Crusades to the Reconquista and through to World War II it was the Balkan ottoman Arab Persian and North African Muslims that consistently gave Safe Haven to Jews while European Christians expel them the global Community is aware of that history and this district is not [Applause] I kind I kindly ask the audience to hold the pauses okay second speaker is going to be Mercedes us usach Mercedes ustach okay next one will be Brian Tet thank you at the last board meeting in March the live stream was stopped like tonight's just before the start of the public comment period we were told at
129that time that the uh recording would be available the next day after being reviewed for compliance with the rules as a matter of fact it was uh not available on the district's YouTube channel for two weeks when I finally had a chance to see the complete live stream of last month's meeting I didn't see anything in the public comments that could possibly be construed as a violation of the rules and so I I think an explanation is needed as to why it took so long to post that video I also want to raise some serious constitutional concerns with the new rules now I'm aware and we have been reminded repeatedly that the school board is not required to have any public comment period at all and I though I don't think the voters of this
130District would be happy if it was abolished I want to remind the board however that the US Supreme Court has ruled that once a school board decides to hold a public common period it constitutes a limited public for during which First Amendment protections apply this means that time place and manner restrictions are allowed so long as they're reasonable for example it's reasonable it's reasonable to limit uh the right to speak to residents of the district it also means that any content prohibitions must be Viewpoint neutral and narrowly drawn in order to achieve a compelling State interest so let's let's look at how the new policies meet these constitutional tests well take the policy of pre-registration I would argue that pre-registration is not a reasonable time place in Mana restriction it is in fact a significant
131barrier to public participation now suppose a member of the public might come to one of these meetings one a member of the district perhaps to see a musical performance such as the one that we were treated to this evening and they may hear the board say something during the proceeds that they strongly object to and this member of the public might feel they want to say something about that at that meeting but if they didn't pre-register they're not allowed to it's it's particularly honorous that the registration form requires the um a topic to be stated and that's a required field um if somebody has plans to speak to a topic that they have reason to believe might be contentious or controversial that might intimidate them they might wonder if they'll even be allowed to speak
132on that topic if the compelling State interest for pre-registration is to ensure that only residents of the district can speak I believe that goal can be achieved in other ways also I want to speak to the policy of of removing recorded live streams or not posting them in the first place I've heard the superintendent say say that because live streams are being removed in their entirety that this this this makes it uh compatible with Viewpoint neutrality I disagree um I since there's never an explanation as to why the videos are removed or what rule was violated um those who spoke are are just left to wonder if maybe it was their comment that caused the video to be purged and that's a strong uh disincentive to speak out in further meetings so I urge the
133board to review these policies and seriously reconsider them thank you the next speaker will be Hassan shik good evening I wish we had a little bit more space between these chairs might be easier to walk across um today I wanted to talk about the emails that we've been receiving from the school district and these repeated uh sasas that are being drawn or other events that are been taking place um since October 7th I went through every single email until last week there were 17 incidents uh the email I believe that came today or yesterday that makes it 19 incidents what I fail to understand is why are so many incidents taking place only in saset uh I've spoken to folks from other school districts there are not that many emails that are floating around there're
134not many incidents that are happening so my question is why are so many incidents taking place here now in the emails we're being reminded every time that you know parents need to be partners and I agree with that absolutely parents need to be partners but I guarantee you that in no household there are any conversations happening that you know a kid must go and do this no parent would want their kid to be doing something like this and then having to deal with law enforcement after they've done something like this so I want to turn the table back to to the school administration to see what it may be that you guys might be doing something wrong maybe there's a time for self-reflection to understand that maybe the actions that are being taken by the
135administration need to be looked at maybe you guys need to speak to other school districts and find out what they're doing differently because I think we really need to put a stop to this we really need to put this behind us and we really need to move forward you know I I specifically moved to saset because of the school district I would want my kids to be learning in a safe and welcoming environment reading the emails right now doesn't make the school a welcoming place for my kids to be coming to right now you know I feel like the kids are under a lot of stress they're under a lot of pressure and you know we need to figure out a way and move forward with this now a lot of steps have been taken
136by the school district but it doesn't seem to be helping so you know I would really appreciate Dr Rogers if you could respond to the email that I had sent a couple days ago and you know I really hope to see a shift in practice and you know perhaps some new new new things that can be introduced you know so that we can move along and you know I feel like the emails are you know um a little bit over the top so maybe you need to turn it you know turn down the notch a little bit there thank you the next speaker will be L leel sir you'll have to forgive me most of what I've said you said is a big part of what I'm saying please you here to address the you're
137here to address the board remind you I'd like to respectfully note that what I'm sharing this evening is not intended to take away from the experiences of any member of any other marginalized group currently experiencing bias I can only speak of my experiences within my specific Community because that's what I know um my numbers are not exactly the same as the gentleman who spoke I perhaps have um deleted emails or didn't receive any but I'd like to share hbt November 2nd saset High School November 2nd saset High School November 3rd hbt November 13th Southwoods November 16th saset high school December 1st Southwoods December 8th saset High School February 9th saset High School March 27th Southwoods April 11th saset High School April 15th to my best count which is clearly off these dates are the District
138communicated incidents of anti-Semitism stated in important message from the superintendent emails to families received since October 7th understand the actual occurrences may not have occurred on the dates I shared I know one such incident was reported three weeks after it happened and there was given a somewhat satisfactory explanation please consider a margin of error if by accident I did not include others there was not to my knowledge um or to my research an important message from the superintend tend an email reported report based on any other religion that shared with the community which could mean one of a few things either they didn't happen or they happened and were not reported or at worst they were hap they happened were reported and were not shared with the community the way acts of anti-Semitism are shared
139and quite honestly if that's the case it is shameful all my neighbors of Faith deserve to be protected and acknowledged please also consider I was not able to get that information from the district and I had to collect it myself man for my Jewish friends and Community present here today you know where this is going for those of you on the board in the administration and anyone else who may not understand allow me to provide a translation for you why is this night different from all other nights this is the first to four questions we ask as part of our Passover SATA ritual every year this Monday evening Jews and our ciasa community will be observing one of our holiest days that commemorates The Exodus from Egypt but asking the question this year simply does
140not have the same meaning at least to me today and most recently for my children and their schoolmates it seems like this day is not any different from any other day in SAS saset is the incident of blatant anti-Semitism continue to rise in our community again it has never been easy to get used to since I last spoke at a board meeting I had great hopes that things would turn around for all of us but they haven't whatever saset is doing whether by law or by their own policy is simply not working for anyone I'm not really interested in requiring high school or middle school students to sit through lectures upon lectures that will bore them to tears if that's all you have to offer I have taught both middle school and high school age
141students myself they're not going to read any policies they're not going to read a booklet they're just not going to do it I think it's a pipe dream um and I have enough experience to substantiate that I have plenty of ideas to share with you and I'd be happy to do it at another time I only have 36 seconds left I'm going to actually have to skip through some things given the number of reported incidents shared with us and only by that number less than six months time the rate rate of anti-Semitic acts are epidemic in nature spreading like an infectious disease why does saset have so many incidents when other Long Island districts do not is it you're doing of course not what are districts leaders in other areas doing that you're not I
142know local administrators from multiple districts meet with each other both virtually and otherwise what are they sharing what are they seeing what are they doing and why aren't you telling us the next speaker will be Ibrahim quaja good evening I understand it's been a long evening tonight and I'd like to be brief please understand that the Muslim Community here in siosa is hurting we're really hurting we'd like answers to these questions why wasn't there a Muslim co-chair on the anti-bias task force when a fully qualified candidate was willing and able to join I mentioned it at the last meeting I've mentioned it through emails nothing just goes to show you where the mindset is not only on the board the administration but with the co-chairs why does scos have an anti-asian problem anti-asian hate problem
143why doesn't the district announce and email us about each and every islamophobe incident just like it does for other hating incidents why are kids drawing these hate symbols why doesn't saset hire Muslim faculty why why are Muslim Students reprimanded and suspended at a disproportionate rate Mr Powers why don't we the scasa parent and student Community get to vote on the school attorney why does this lawyer deserve to be our lawyer why does this a man shape and Implement school policy with no input from the people who are subject to his WIS this concludes the audience to public portion of the meeting and um I just wanted to um address a few points um um the co-chairs for the antibirus task force as well as the board we have been very very actively looking for the
144third chair since February um I so I just want to make that clear to uh to the public and I I apologize to the co-chairs you know and and also the entire task force who have put in so much time and I just want to let you know that we as a board um I myself I can speak for any other people but I myself really appreciate the time that you have put in okay and um as far as the the policy goes the board is constantly reviewing the policy as we go and modify it um so the policy that we put together is so that we could have the meetings in order and then this way we can effectively listen to what the community has to address the board okay um so with that
145and Dr Rogers I know you have something that you want to share with the the community so go ahead sure I think there were a couple of themes tonight uh first of all the theme of curriculum so uh as I said at the last meeting uh I find a lot uh to like about the international baloria curriculum uh but it it it is a daunting transition and monetary resources are not the only resources that would be required to make that transition but there's a lot to learn from that curriculum its approach to uh how curriculum is structured uh how it Scopes and sequences and Spirals and uh the way it uses cross gunting Concepts uh to amplify kids understanding of things um I take all of your points about where the emphasis is placed on
146the many unfortunate incidences of man's inh Humanity to man over the course of history um certainly there's um no lack of strong opinions on where those emphases should be placed uh we are Guided by the state standards and um are always open to hearing thoughts and suggestions of our public uh Miss Chang addressed the boards um continuing uh evolution of their rules to try and maintain uh order at the meetings uh one of the reasons why we've asked our attorneys to review the live stream of the audience of the public is because we have experienced instances that violate um laws that we're required to observe such as fura and so uh because of that we cannot be a host for uh something that causes us to violate a law that we must follow so uh
147knowing that it is exceedingly difficult to try and make fine grained First Amendment calculus on the Fly uh at late at night um in sometimes emotionally charged atmospheres uh the board chose to uh by themselves the time that's necessary to have someone with constitutional experience review uh the footage to make sure that it is something uh that will not violate the school district's laws and policies in terms of reporting of data it has been all districts are constrained by federal privacy laws about what they may report so because these are individual student instances they are uh infrequent in nature reporting will implicate exposure to at least some group of people of what the incident is and who the responsible party is so it is not typical for school districts to report on individual student discipline
148even when that student discipline implicates bias what we have done is we have reported when a crime is implicated or there is another instance of bias that is conflated with that crime in New York state swastika is a crime a noose is a crime a burning cross is a crime they're all in the same part of the penal law so that is what distinguishes that and that is why because it is a crime we in any of these incidents any incident that implicates bias we consult with the school's attorney the school's attorney will determine whether that is a criminal matter if it is a criminal matter we refer it to the police the police will make their decision about whether they choose to arrest or not arrest but if it is a criminal matter then
149it becomes theirs they enforce the law we enforce the code of conduct so why are there further constraints on the kind of data that we publish and make available uh there are the same reasons why we don't make data about uh student uh disciplinary incidents available regardless of what the type of incident is the state has a form that they prescri for us to report our data in many contexts the state will not allow districts to report data that has five or fewer individuals so that it is impossible to work backwards to any one individual so what that means is if for example 12 students took a test seven girls and five boys we would not have data for the girls or the boys because 12 seven you'd still be able to arrive at the
150boy data so all of that data would be suppressed so the one place where that's not true is in the reports that we do for Dasa that are published on the state's website and that we furnish the data to the state so the state is taking responsibility for the potential loss of privacy because it is the state's form that is specified but the school district if we were to do something and it was not the state's for then we would be the ones that were intentionally putting ourselves at risk of violating the federal Privacy Law which is known as fura and then a common theme in a couple of uh sets of questions tonight was where do we compare with other school districts uh I will tell you I meet regularly with my colleagues and
151what I will say for saset is that we have been consistent in how we rep rep the other districts may be consistent with their own norms for how they report there are other school districts that are experiencing similar challenges to our own at similar rates of experience to our own and I maintain communication with those colleagues of mine because we are all frustrated and we are looking for ideas and best practices from one another we are sharing Resources with one another and we are all committed to doing what we can to make this stop because it is obviously painful for everyone in the community uh whether you're personally affected or not it is a place that makes us all feel unsafe as uh Mr shik you said so um I'm sorry to report that it
152is happening in other school districts and I'm sorry to report that my colleagues and I are continuing to work at this but not at the place where we want to be where our school districts are Beyond this and I will say in closing that Every Spring we have the opportunity to hire staff and often I'll always Pro offer a candidate the opportunity to ask questions of me and more often than not candidates will say something along the lines of what what are you proud of St in scasa what what is it about this place that you like and they're trying to decide if this is a community they want to become a part of and I would always share how proud I was of how diverse our community was and how intentional Community was about
153trying to celebrate and that diversity and make everyone feel like they belong and this has been a hard year for that and I think I speak for many people in saying that I would love to see us get back to the place where we celebrate the diversity that is here and that we move through some of the conflict that has emerged Ed but I realize that's going to be difficult while students feel unsafe no matter who they may be and that means we have more work to do but I still believe that saset is an extraordinary Community I still believe that scit's diversity is its strength one thing I learned from observing the task force work is that while the members of the task force uh came from different fundamental identities they had tremendous respect
154for one another and I believe enthusiasm for working together and if anything they serve as a model for how we can move forward as a community irrespective of what the recommendations would be they illustrate by example how to work together despite those fundamental differences in identity that's the work that we're committed to that's the work that we're going to continue to do and um I think we should all want for that work to be successful thank you thank you Dr Rogers and I do concur as well I am proud of the diversity that we have here in saset and it it is everyone's responsibility to preserve saset as a beautiful Community for our children to to to uh to flourish in the district okay all right and um I know um Mr Powers has a
155few remarks so I'm going to pass it to Mr Powers Madame President prior to actually proceeding with agenda item number 15 you read a detailed statement this evening that laid out the parameters for speech tonight what is permitted what is not permitted uh you did so in a very clear and concise fashion the first five speakers this evening um complied with the directives that you laid out with the parameters that you set the six speaker did not a Board of Education meeting is a a limited Forum that means that not every form of speech is permitted here you are permitted to limit topics you were here to do the business of the Board of Education not just whatever happens to roll in for people to comment on this is the business of the board this
156the place where it happens you can certainly limit topics so that you can accomplish your charge your responsibility as board members you can also limit speakers if they start to stray off of the path that you have laid out for them you can speak to them you can direct them to stop and you can also enforce your policies which is exactly what you did this evening you were justified in doing so the first five speakers complied with the directives the six did not and you acted accordingly thank you this concludes um the meeting for tonight uh meeting adjourned thank you