Board of Education Meeting 8/25/21

001okay good evening everyone welcome to the August 25th 2021 Board of Education meeting please welcome our superintendent Mrs pettisich who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the pledge indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh the fog I can't see thank you okay changes in the meeting agenda we have two I can't see replacement Pages item A6 and item number two move we're moving minutes number two June 15th to September 22nd agenda will be post this will be posted to the website as a draft per district clerk Mrs germano okay public participation this is going to be one of two 30 minutes okay and I'll call the time after I just read this statement for everybody so okay the board will now allow for public participation public participation is encouraged

002by the board and we will be permitted permitted for it will be permitted for district residents for up to 30 minutes those residents wishing to speak must have previously submitted a completed request to speak form with the districts with the district clerk each speaker may not speak more than once at any given board meeting it's the collective expectation of the Board of Education and District administration that appropriate to Quorum will be respected and followed at all times discussion of individual District Personnel board members or students is not permitted in appropriate language shouting and behavior that is disruptive and disrespectful will not be tolerated any individual demonstrating disruptive and disrespectful Behavior will be ruled out of order and asked to leave or will be removed from any board meeting the 30-minute public participation period begins now

003and the time is 7 32 pm and the first speaker is Ian Farber Mr Farber please state your name and if your District residents for the for the record thank you it's not on can you hear me now my name is Ian Farber and I am a district of Three Village and I want to thank for the opportunity to speak this evening individualism and individual rights are an important Cornerstone of American ideals as is the duty to protect one's fellow neighbors and friends it's when these two ideals begin to contradict each other there is a paradox for our own individual rights should not bring harm to others in the community during a pandemic an individual choosing to not wear a mask puts their neighbor friend classmate at risk my children wear masks indoors more to

004protect those around them than to protect themselves I hope their classmates will extend them the same courtesy after about 15 months of evolving data the evidence is clear that mask Works work best when everyone in a given setting wear them it is also clear there's a period after someone is infected but before they display symptoms when they are contagious this is known as asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic and it is during this time period that masks are most effective at preventing someone from unknowingly infecting others on August 12 2021 Dallas Texas and 19 surrounding counties ran out of pediatric ICU beds in response to this situation and the lack of mask mandates Dallas County Judge clay Jenkins said and I quote if your child is in a wreck if your child has congenital heart defect or something

005and needs an ICU bed or more likely if they have covet and need an ICU bed we don't have one your child will wait for another child to die end quote if preventative measures aren't taken the hospital beds in our region will fill up just as fast as it has in other regions we cannot let that the situation get to that point I've heard many attempt to downplay the impact of covid-19 on children by comparing percentages with adults by doing so fails to see the larger picture when you look at children and other illnesses children are not supposed to die or get severely ill imagine if covid-19 was a disease that only affected children and on average 200 kids a day were being hospitalized as we are seeing in this country and more than 500

006children have died including previously healthy children imagine that imagine when looking at it like that it becomes clear every precaution must be taken to mitigate this risk as with most tragedies there is a chance that people would come together United in a common cause a common cause to protect one another as the virus is our enemy not each other thank you for your comments next speaker is Christy McGuire please state your name and if your District resident please hi Christy McGuire I am a district resident Arrowhead is that a okay good evening Mr President and board members here I am again to advocate for parent choice I've already shared a lot of personal information and stories both here in this room and on the phone with members of the board you know where I stand

007so keep this as short as possible I'm not sure if you're aware but parents seeking Choice have had a lot of nasty slurs pitched in our Direction over the course of the last several months from and from the word used anti-maskers to anti-vaxxers to even more I really don't want to repeat it's important for those who still cannot understand that anyone seeking choice is seeking choice for all parents then let me explain I have no right to tell any parent what is best for their child likewise no one else has the right to tell me what is right for mine we should all choose what is in the best interest of our own children period now I nursed both my children for 15 months I was lucky to be able to do that I remember

008sharing a hospital room with a woman who was told constantly that was best for her baby to be nursed I watched her struggle to meet this expectation crying herself to sleep because she couldn't do what was quote unquote best for her baby it certainly didn't look best for the baby and certainly not for Mom I remember sitting there quietly thinking you're the mom you know what's best for your baby I didn't speak my voice then but I'm speaking my voice now we all know what's best for our own babies as parents I'm happy to know that certain people masking their child makes them more comfortable because they feel it's right for their family no one wants the right to wear a mask taken away from them why do I feel like I'm not allowed to

009be comfortable with my child without a mask because it's more comfortable for my family just in case it's about the teachers I am one so I can comfortably say that it's disturbing to me as an educator that I see more teachers coming out to express their concerns tonight than I did when our budget was up for a vote you know who was there I was I was quoted a news day for supporting you your colleagues the students and the great programs here in Three Village it's interesting that you're concerned for yourselves seems to supersede the concerns for the programs your students our children and the jobs of the untenured colleagues you've come to know and love have any of you asked your students how they feel I teach freshmen and seniors in a neighboring district

010and even though there are so many differences between those two age groups the sentiment was the same they do not like them they don't feel like they're preventing anything and that's the least of it there are conversations I can't even repeat because it would give you the chills and it would make you really devastated anyway I would like to say what's keeping us as educated from getting sick in school is that no one is sending their kids into school sick anymore how do you like that in my opinion you know we're not coming in as Educators sick anymore I've done it before myself it's not the masks that's doing that no one's sending their kids into school sick because people are afraid that should have been a long time ago that started and I've been

011I've done the same teachers already have the right to choose we have the right to choose to be vaccinated thank you we have the choice thank you Mr McGuire thank you for your comments the next speaker is Heather Coppola hi my name is Heather Coppola and I live in South Setauket I'm a three village resident I'm just going to get to it um I don't think I need to reiterate what I'm here for what I'm advocating for but since there are definitely more people here than normal and maybe that's because the union sent out an email to teachers asking them to show up here maybe that email was retracted maybe that's why there are more people here today but for those of you that are new that haven't been here for the last six board

012meetings I am advocating for Parents Choice now let me say I am advocating for Parents Choice that's for me and my children I'm not here to tell you what to do with your children a parent a child should have a parent should have the right to choose for their child what medical devices are put on their child and the right to choose what Medical Treatments they want their child to have we obviously have a very diverse population and opinion here in Three Village we can all agree on that and I've heard many times how Three Village values diversity and inclusion that's not just about the color of your skin it's including everyone no matter what someone's personal beliefs or opinions are that's not happening here when you cater to one group of parents that's not

013exactly equality I do look forward to hearing a plan on how all families can have access to an equal and fair education as a board of ed member you are supposed to be the voice for our community um I guess you can't answer me because this is in a forum but are you talking to the community are you asking because I can tell you with every email I have ever sent I have never received an email back from anybody well Cheryl has responded to every single one of my emails and two board members have responded to me but it's after reaching out to them I'm social media so as you're supposed to speak for the community but we're reaching out to you and we're not hearing anything back I don't understand how that's right obviously

014we'll just get to it the new governor has made it clear that she wants Universe Universal masking and vaccines for children this is fact she does not have the power to do so and has requested that the Department of Health Implement her mandate the Department of Health has not commented or mandated anything it seems unprincipled to me to speculate on this matter and create protocol purely around guessing intentions nothing is official if you're sitting here making a plan for the school year you need to do that as of today and as of today Three Village School District is still in control you have the power to make the decisions you say you follow the guidance from the CDC and AAP and if that's the case and I've sent emails about this then we need to

015follow all the guidance guidance says from AAP their suggestions their recommendations that schools should not start till 8 30. so if they're going to recommend masks then we also need to follow that recommendation to not start school till 8 30. they also have a recommendation for the amount of sodium in each child's meals so I'm actually going to foil and ask for all the sodium intake of every one of our meals that we provide to our kids they also actually have recommendations on teaching about the zombie apocalypse so my kids aren't learning about that that at Arrowhead and if we're going to implement things that they recommend then I want them to learn about that too anyone who needs this reminder it's important to trust your intuition especially when it comes to being a parent

016you are your kids strongest Advocate fight for your children thank you for your comments the next speaker is Betsy Knox hello I'm Betsy Knox I'm a resident and I'm also the librarian at Murphy Junior High School for the last 10 maybe 11 years the library is a place where students come in all of them there are 700 plus students at Murphy library at Murphy most of them have come into the library none of them in the past year I can only give you my Reflections on how we at Murphy and I believe every other school in this district has handled the mask problem no student of mine ever came in and complained about wearing a mask as a matter of fact several of them up to 40 I would believe although I didn't keep track

017came in and showed me I got my vaccination because they are old enough to get the vaccination out and they were proud to do it they kept there six feet apart they they tried to do remember their junior high so they you know would like to give each other hugs but at my staring at them they would step back but I do have to say that and I thank this board and the leadership team at North Country for keeping the protocol and for keeping our students and our staff safety and health of those people their top priority because that's what we need to do in order to stop what's going on in Texas and Florida I have two granddaughters that live in in Texas both of them thank goodness have been vaccinated but their grandfather

018who lives down there has also been vaccinated and he just got covered the Delta the other kind that they have down there so it's coming I think we we really need to you know batten down the hatches and keep our staff and students fast and also this is this is what we are doing we're following the science and we are actually keeping up with what the CDC and the State Health actually recommend thank you thank you for your comments Tim Howard next speaker Tim Harrigan I'm gonna put the timer on my head I'll add I'll add to the end so yeah yeah I'm sorry you want me to put them on board okay thank you thank you good evening my name is Tim Harrigan I have two daughters entering the 11th grade in a few

019days they are and continue to adjust to the chaos that's been thrown their way over the last year and a half as I had stated in an earlier correspondence miss pettisich Mr Carlson you are our Champions to be one of the few districts to open up and implement the measures you have put in place since then also Mrs Mirabella if you hear their guidance counselor worked miracles somehow managed to put 10 pounds of classes in five in a five pound bag for them this year I as well as my family and many in this room thank you for doing so I'm not going to throw any statistics or data your way we all know them by now and I'm not asking you to parent for me but rather offer you some advice and perhaps some

020insight to you and the board members you're all here because you believe you can offer and execute in ways on our behalf a safe and comprehensive learning environment for our children this being the case you've also experienced what perceived injustices or threats towards our children can do to a student body and Community as a whole from something like changing the colors of a graduation gown to suggesting having our security guards being armed in case of an imminent threat to today's issues which whether it be the budget Dei or masks you're all sitting in those seats because we felt you could rise to these occasions and many other situations that we don't see for the most part it's a thankless job and it's issues like the current ones we are facing that make you long for

021the days of gown color change as long as everyone here can look at themselves on a daily basis and ask yourselves am I doing the right thing am I putting students first and foremost or am I letting outside influences cloud my decisions we need you all to continue to focus on the only thing that matters and remember that these students have have parents that are trusting you to do so it's a big deal to gain a parent's trust much less an entire School District communication is key and goes a very long way a dialogue is imperative to gaining the trust from anyone when the only people that respond to our letters emails or phone calls are miss pettisich or Mr Carlson but never anyone from the board those aren't the building blocks of trust that

022we're accustomed to we meet monthly at these board meetings and most of it it's routine and quite frankly tedious we feel your pain but when it comes to the public comments and we're limited to three minutes and no response is given I guess as a rule due to time constraints I get that we all do at some point though you as a body need to have a correspondence with us the parents you're the you're the receivers of input and suggestions from us not the other way around we need to know that you're listening and unfortunately in today's day and age we expect that attention and response to be immediate I understand and have witnessed the breakdown of communication at meetings like this are mostly due to a perception of a one-way Street a dictation not

023a communication that's how distrust begins perhaps a public forum only meeting once a month would be helpful a workshop of sorts we need to work together let's figure out a way and build that trust thank you for your for your comments next is Karen Boucher for sure hello my name is I I okay hello my name is Karen I'm a parent um I'm a mother of five and my first last name please Karen breckert um I'm a mother of five um to the board members you have not really been clear on um what your stance is on masks for the upcoming school year um other than other than you have never shown I'm sorry can you please put that mask on for the future speakers thank you so much you have never shown us any

024facts data or science and coven has proven to show almost no risks to children at all four points to a million million children have been tested for covid .008 have died of covid and in 2018 according to the CDC um 480 students have died from the flu and you've never requested us to wear masks for the flu also um if teachers have the vaccine then then you know then they should be protected and so why why do you why do you make our children wear masks if they're vaccinated and protected um and also I I have done some research and found out that only n95 masks are protecting you if you're wearing a cloth mask it's not going to protect you um does anyone know what kind of psychological damage these kids have been through

025I mean if you're teaching them that the air that they breathe is toxic and can kill people when in fact they're they're not super spreaders we've all known that have you ever wondered about these kids wearing German infected masks and with while sweating what about learning to read seeing smiles and faces and just being a kid it's not about the safe it's not about keeping the adults safe like I said if they're vaccinated when was the when this first happened everyone was scared and this time we want answers before it was up to the governor and he has since left it up to you to the school district well now that he's gone he's left it up to you so we want answers and we don't want vague answers Let It Be A Parent's Choice

026I'm not anti-mask I'm just pro-choice thank you thank you for your comments Annette funici Vanessa did it again sorry so hi my name is Annette funessy and I am a three village parent I'm here tonight to stand up for my son's rights and all the other parents and kids rights that are being violated my son deserves and has a god-given right to a free education free of masks um if you want equality for all students then let's have it this is not equality if your child wants to wear a mask that's their freedom if my child doesn't he should have the same right these kids are being told that they have to wear masks to stop the spread of something that they don't even have I'm willing to have my time my son tested every

027week just so he doesn't have to wear a mask uh it is sad that kids are walking around and made to believe that if they don't have a mask on they're going to kill someone from a germ I think it's just terrible I think these kids have to work walk around with a burden on their back maybe not every child maybe some kids are happy to wear masks and that's fine but don't put that burden on my son he is 10 years old and he doesn't he shouldn't have to walk around like that all summer no masks basketball games soccer games practices Training South Carolina no one wore a mask no one ever got sick no one ever got covered guess what my aunt three weeks in the hospital with cancer fully vaccinated three weeks

028in the hospital now they tell us she has covid okay tell me where this science fits in here uh it's wrong it's not right and and we need to start with standing up for our kids our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us and our children and we're going to stand up no matter what the retaliary retaliation no matter what the pushback um we're gonna fight and we're going to be here for every board meeting and we're going to fight until we get what our children deserve the children deserve the right to not wear a mask at their desk all day long wearing a mask it's redundant the desks are six feet apart they have plastic around them it's disgusting it's abusive and I don't want my son to have to go through it

029again I think it's terrible he should have the right to go to school without a mask all right if you want him to wear it on the bus because they're all combobulated and they're walking through the hallways I can see but it went sits at his desk he should be able to take his mask down and breathe breathe it's wrong it's not right and I pay a lot of taxes I move from Middle Country to here doubled in my taxes for this thank you for your comments Robin Weinstein hi my name is Robin Weinstein I'm a district resident I'm a lifelong District resident a parent and a teacher for almost 30 years and I wanted to take this opportunity first and foremost to thank the Board of Education and the entire administrative team for Hercules

030and efforts in my opinion last year I am so grateful that my students my children were able to come to school and have the incredible high quality experience that they did whether students were full in or full out the academic opportunities and social opportunities afforded to them were unmatched and again I'm incredibly grateful I also wanted to share um I love my students I love teaching and last year was an experience certainly like no other I can speak for all of us I'm sure and my students were they never ceased to amaze me and they were phenomenal with the adjustments to their program they were phenomenal with the masks they were cooperative and kind and gracious and really felt uh you know they knew that they were helping to keep everybody safe and do what

031was best for our community our school Community they had frequent breaks with the masks they had regulated breaks the morning afternoon when they needed a sip of mortar when they needed time and we really pulled through together as a team and I am grateful again to the district for their continued work to keep our entire Community safe and I look forward to a time when we are not here but in the meantime thank you for for keeping that in mind that's what I wanted to share tonight thank you thank you for your comments next speaker Nicole Harris okay so hi everybody um good evening my name is Nicole Harris I am a district resident some of you may recognize me from other times up here at the podium I had a whole speech ready about

032curriculum and transparency and Board of Ed and communicating some of which Mr Harrigan spoke about before me before I even I'm just going off script now so just bear with me um before I even start um write you know a few speakers ago Tim had asked for more communication and that's one of the main purposes um of me being here today I think that this room is filled the Overflow room is filled we stand here for our three minutes everybody nods and smiles and we say thank you and then you know we walk away and that's it I know that there are other boards that interact they answer questions and I'm curious as to why I'm curious as to why do we stand here we ask questions um emails it's been spoken are not largely

033responded to except of course Mrs pettisic and a few others but mainly not so much I'm here to advocate for choice but also for fairness and respect we respect you are asking you to respect us word came out yesterday that the teachers union sent an email requesting staff members that work in this District to come to this meeting early so that seats could be taken so that District members would not be able to have a seat in this room I don't know if that is true but based on what happened when we walked into this room today I assume that it is because many of us were standing outside and while we were standing outside we came in and from another hallway District Personnel also did I've been here for the last few months that

034has never happened before so I'm curious as to why that would happen all of a sudden in this meeting which we know a lot of people were going to turn out for that is bizarre and that is unacceptable you are our board you are our government we trust you with our children and you don't communicate with us choice is choice choice for breathing air some children need to see faces you've heard all about the mass tonight I'm not going to keep going on that but it's all about choice you adopted a Dei program that was not mandated by the state you chose it you chose to make decisions without including the members of our district now forget about the taxes that we pay these are our children and we deserve a voice to take our

035seats to take our voices to to come up with a stunt like that and it is it is unbelievable it is unacceptable and we're asking you please we're not bad people we're not angry mobs just talk to us communicate with us we just want to know what's going on thank you for your comment okay this is going to be the last speaker before this public participation ends and that will be Susan Orange well I expect Ed thank you is this on hi good evening everybody my name is Susan Orange I'm a resident of Setauket and my granddaughter will be starting Pre-K at the Setauket school this September and that's why I'm here now I have nothing prepared because when I came here I was just coming as an observer but I felt compelled that I

036needed to bring up a subject that's very important to me and that's the curriculum transparency I want to know what is being taught to my granddaughter and to all the other children that go to the school district now my daughter who is in the other room did inquire and asked for the Pre-K curriculum she was redirected to the website now the website and I just want to add this is now my first rodeo with public schools because I raised three kids in the Roslyn school district and believe me I was very involved all those many years ago but but the uh the district website is very vague it's like things like well they will color it's not explaining to me and to a lot of parents out there exactly what influences are going to be

037directed to our children sometimes unbeknownst to us I happen to go on the Three Village uh School District website the other day and I notice there's a big page dedicated to d e i diversity equity and inclusion and I'd have broken advocacy and I I know what that is and I know where it comes from and I want to know and of course I don't expect an answer this evening but I expect to know how that because evidently Three Village is invested in that perspective other districts have abandoned that idea but it seems the Three Village seems to be on board with that and there are certain things within that perspective in that world view that are objectionable to a lot of families and I would like to know what is going to be utilized

038from that perspective in order to teach children in this district and I want to be able to see what books are being selected what the what is being talked about in the schools these one of the things my you know I taught five years in a private school and it was a small private school so there was a very very close relationship between the teacher me and the parents was that my three-minute warning Bell all right anyways I'd like to on the next board meeting I'll go on with this but thank you so much for allowing me to speak but that is my major concern and I believe the concern of most of the parents out there so thank you thank you very much for your comments okay so that concludes that first participation session

039and now we're going to move on to business so minutes one and three June 2nd and June 7th due can I have a motion second all in favor who is first can can you can the board um speak into the phone and say first and second to help Inger out thank you okay when you do when you do a first or a second okay okay so that's the minutes okay so next is the reports district-wide School emergency plan if I can have Jack blam our safety and security coordinator thank you thanks Board of Education and administration so before you today is our district-wide emergency plan required by regulations we create that plan you'll take that today put that onto the web page for public View it basically stays the same we change some of the

040procedures based on practices that we are with the federal government or the state government it has a it also has the pandemic response which is not covered specific it doesn't involve masking it just talks about our pandemic response which we should have because we may encounter something else other than covid as the future moves on but it's basically the same as it's been we update the people that are on the Committees we update some of the changes in protocol as you know we've been very very strong with our lockdown our lockout our responses to emergencies and I I think we've been very successful again with the support of the board we would like the community to take a look at this it'll be on the webpage hopefully after uh shortly after this meeting take a

041look at it and I'm going to ask that you try to support it take a look at carefully and approve it at the September 22nd meeting so I can get it up to New York State thank you thank you very much uh anybody have any questions on the board you do not go right ahead if any parents have questions regarding this emergency plan who should they reach out to yeah we created a we created on um an email address that they can email so when you go to the website to view it you can email any questions that you may have and it will go to Mr blown okay perfect thank you oops sorry okay so next up is reports and this is the district-wide school emergency oh my gosh I'm so sorry I just

042repeated myself next up is the items for board discussion okay it's my first real meeting um 2021 2022 school year very very important um this is going to uh hopefully answer everyone's questions um our superintendent is now going to present the administrative recommendations to the board of education for the 21-22 school opening board members may ask questions at any point during the presentation please feel free I encourage the board to ask questions and get out there members of the audience uh please uh do not interrupt the superintendent during the presentation with questions or remarks directed at horror members of the Board of Education we want you guys to hear what the opening is going to be from Soup To Nuts And there's a lot it's not just about masks or about sitting three feet apart

043that's obviously part of it but there's a lot more and so I'd like to everybody to give give our superintendent and the district and we're in our community the respect and let her get through this and then we're going to ask lots of questions thank you at the end I just want to clarify do we have another public session after this okay perfect yes we do thank you Miss and to the board of education and to the community um I've written um many many notes here and um that's because I want to be detailed and make certain that I don't miss anything in our discussion today it is way too important um for for that to happen so I want to start off by saying good evening and um we recognize and understand the tremendous

044degree of anticipation and anxiety surrounding plans for the 21-22 school year well any new school year brings challenges and feelings ranging from apprehension to excitement the past two years have been unparalleled in comparison to typical School openings I think everyone would agree with that the struggles of navigating a public health concern while making certain that our students stay engaged productive happy and supported has been a top priority along with making certain that our schools remain safe and that all in our school Community students staff and their families are kept healthy last year we were successful in meeting our goals and while we had cases of covid Representative of numbers across the region we were one of the very few school districts in on Long Island and probably in New York state to begin our year

045five days a week in school that accomplishment doesn't belong to me to the board it belongs to all of us we did that together well we were most hopeful at the end of June and looked forward to the upcoming year with optimism I know I did especially having a normal prom and graduation for our students the summer had different plans for us clearly the rising infection rates and the transmissibility of the most highly contagious Delta variant has thwarted many of those plans that we had hoped for and I think I speak for everyone in in making that statement the number of covet cases that we had over the summer in our summer Recreation program which is a six-week program was 20. last year last summer we had zero so I bring this um to your

046attention because I think it's important we had one cohort of kindergarten students that became infected within a very short period of time last year as I said there was not one case during the the summer programs same same time frame six weeks 20 cases I also want to point out that right now the seven day average for Suffolk county is 4.2 percent which is a 46 increase over the last two weeks that's critical that's really important information to know our district has been spending a lot of time studying assessing researching speaking with our chief medical officer doctors from the University Hospital in all of the Salient issues that are integral to opening a school and opening our school safely so without further Ado I want to thank the board of education for the opportunity to

047present the 21-22 school year opening plan and I want to preface my remarks by stating that the presentation is based on administrative recommendation but it is also based on state mandates and law so I'm going to just ask if we could go to the next slide thank you three village priorities obviously we all have priorities on that we set forth and if you'll see on the the four priorities listed I'm not going to read those to you but I am going to reference them it's imperative to emphasize that the balance of academic achievement with social and emotional Health and Welfare the focus on the whole child and the importance of recognizing and addressing the Confluence of factors especially in view of the pandemic is critically essential efforts to support and nurture the experiences of both

048our students and staff will remain a priority last year we offered both full in-person and remote learning options as all of you know it is most important that we support our students who are returning from that remote option back into our schools and not allow them to be integrated with their peers I'm sure that for some it was a lot of social isolation and so we want to make sure that they're supported and later on in my presentation I'll talk about some of the social and emotional supports that will be in place all health and safety protocols remain to providing a continuity of support to assure that in-person learning achievement and social and emotional support can occur will also remain a top priority next slide thank you the school district documents guidance documents there are

049four and you've heard me many of you who have corresponded with me or have spoken to me on the phone have heard me speak to these documents the Department of Health to the Centers for Disease Control the American Academy of Pediatrics and most recently our state education department summary guidance that came forth a couple of weeks ago I want to state that we recognize that the issue of masks has taken center stage in navigating the complexities of the pandemic I also want everyone to know that their voices are being heard and and we want you to feel heard with regard to the sensitivity of this issue we know that nobody here wants to be wearing a mask I think I can speak 100 for all of us we would love to be in a different

050situation and not have to be masked but we have to understand that we have some responsibilities and as a school district we are an educational Institution when I went to school and anybody all of my colleagues went to school we didn't go to school to be medical and health professionals and so now we are charged with making some decisions about these critical issues for the health and safety of our community and so we do need to rely upon the CDC the Doh and the American Academy of Pediatrics to help guide those decisions in what we do as we all know yesterday our new governor um Kathy Holcomb made a statement that she was going to immediately be directing the Department of Health to Institute Universal masking for anyone entering our schools I do believe that

051that is going to happen there is no doubt that she will be speaking to the New York State Department of Health and we expect that guidance very shortly the district will be following that guidance and we will be masking students indoors and when we speak about Universal masking I just want to be clear that is at all times when a student is in school and I will get to talk a little bit about on mass breaks because I know that I've heard from many of you that last year mask breaks were not done on a routine basis that some teachers gave them some teachers didn't and that some students especially at the elementary level felt somewhat intimidated or disinclined to raise their hand and ask for a needed Mass break that will not happen we

052are going to be speaking with our leadership team which are our building principles and our building principles will be communicating with each of their constituents their staff as well as their parent Community to let you know about how Mass breaks are going to happen in a safe way that's going to keep your children healthy and that will not end up quarantining students unnecessarily so I I want to make that statement I also want to let you know outdoor masking will remain optional we had I visited our summer programs many times throughout on the this past summer and I often asked oh my goodness that student it's 95 degrees why do they have their mask on and the answer to me was the child chose to leave it on the staff let them know that they

053could remove it so we will make it optional for anyone when they are outside and I know some of you have asked about physical education a good question I've spoken to Kevin finnerty who is our executive director of health and physical education and he has expressed to me that he will be working with the phys Ed staff as much as possible to keep the kids outdoors I also want to say when a child is tired and feels that the mask is too much they will be allowed to sit down and take a mass break so and the desk Shields I know that all of you will be happy about this they have all been removed they no longer are in place physical distancing last year as you know according to the Department of Health we

054were told to keep children six feet apart which we did we were one of the only school districts that were able to do that and keep students five days a week in school which was one of the reasons why a lot of school districts did not have the ability to do that however this year the new guidance is that it's three feet I want to assure everyone in this room that the children will be separated by three to four feet minimum of three to four feet in every single classroom in Three Village and um they ins um for chorus and for um any wind instrument playing which is generally banned it will be um six feet if you remember last year that was 12 feet so they've reduced the um physical distancing for that and

055we will keep those students separate for any of you who have children in orchestra that remains at three feet because um they are not singing or or using a wind instrument so contact tracing I think is um very very um important um in compliance with the stated regulations the district will continue to report all positive cases of covid-19 to the Suffolk County Department of Health um in addition we will share this information with the school Community I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing my voice on Mondays and Fridays we're going to do the same routine that we've done in the past and on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday if we have any cases I will post that information to the website I want to keep parents informed what that information will include is where

056the cases have taken place as well as when the student was last in school we I also want to assure you that if your child is a close contact we will be in contact with you or if we think that your child might have been exposed in any way we will make sure that you are given that information because we want to keep you safe and keep your your any family members that you have as well as others that you may have come in contact with so that you can notify them as well um remaining consistent with the CDC guidance students in classrooms who are at three feet apart of an infected student as long as they are masked they are excluded from the definition of a close contact I'm going to show you a

057chart in a few minutes this exclusion however does not apply to adults interestingly adults must be six feet apart from each other and that means they are to be six feet apart from the students I know that that's going to be theoretically very difficult or practically I'm going to say maybe in theory they think it's okay but practically it's going to be very difficult to accomplish remember we have some students coming into our district who are only three years old so we know that there is going to we're going to have to work around that as best we can um which is another reason why the masks um could be very very important especially when it indoors is there any indication that they're going to revisit that definition of a closed of a close contact

058at some point they they actually may revisit that they have visited that on this year because a close contact last year was considered anybody who was within six feet for a period of 10 minutes this year on a close contact actually is somebody who is within uh three three feet or unmasked but six feet for a period of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period of time so it could be five different times that on three different times with five minutes that you were near someone so teachers I've spoken to a lot of teachers and they say well I love to circulate around the room and I said well that's fine but you just can't be with a particular student let's say for 15 minutes by their desk because then you could be considered and they

059could be considered a close contact but circulating around the room is is definitely um permissible so I think there is a possibility that that could most definitely happen at some point and at the at the secondary level does this knock out the kids whole schedule like this like that ring okay so I'm gonna go to that chart because I think that would be helpful thank you okay so I want to give um kudos to the West Babylon School District I called their superintendent she had done a presentation I said I really love your chart I think you did a really good job so we changed it slightly but um so I give kudos to West Babylon uh so let's look at the chart on on the left hand side where it says class one where

060the desks are all three feet apart and in our classrooms as I said they would be three to four feet apart so the student in the middle let's say becomes um covet positive the students surrounding them if they are amassed would not need to quarantine those students would not need to quarantine because they are not considered a close contact of the student who is positive but if we look at the chart on on the diagram on the right hand side what you will see is the students are unmasked and then that means that all of those students the surrounding students would also be quarantined along with the student who's positive because that student because the students were unmasked and they would be considered a close contact the issue of quarantining is is difficult in many

061ways first of all it's a major disruption to a child's educational program secondly it's it's um It's upsetting to parents It's upsetting to students when they don't have that contact with their teachers and parents of chill young children who need child care will now need to find someone to watch their children during the day those are those are significant issues that we need to consider and that is one of the reasons that masking will actually help us to limit the number of students who are quarantined do we have any discretion in quarantine no we do not have any description and actually the school district I want to clarify something the school district doesn't quarantine the students the Department of Health quarantines the students we report the information to the Department of Health and the Department

062of Health makes that determination not the school district we identify the student as a close contact based on information that has been given to us so if that student that let's say the students were unmasked and those students were within three feet of each other because they're in the classroom for a period of six and three-quarter hours let's say in an elementary school there would be a close contact so it's been suggested by some that what if we were to permit a student s to sit at their desk unmasked but if they did and someone tested positive at the secondary level that would result in like 50 or 60 kids yes that would result in 50 or 60 kids being quarantined that is correct can I ask a question so if one kid has positive

063in the class can parents opt to receive notice for that opt to receive notice that one kid in this class got test positive if right so we have to be very careful on because there are HIPAA laws that would not really permit us to tell another parent or others on who the positive student is but we um and again if you're in an elementary school and many of our Elementary classes have 20 21 some 18 17 students and one student is out they're gonna that would be pretty easy to figure out who that individual might be but if someone is has the potential to be a close contact we will be in contact with those families if the family allows us to share that information and some families have been very forthcoming and saying please

064you know feel free to share the information then we certainly will do that but we have to be respectful of of those laws thank you when it's when it's live you know I know the notice goes out but is that a grade level thing or what is that when the last one goes out when that's classrooms right no names right but to shower's Point well we have to we we just have to be careful because um a student with lice may not be out of school necessarily they could get treatment and be back in school we have to be very careful and and actually um there was notification recently that in with regard to lice I don't necessarily believe that we are allowed to share that information anymore yes or no more letters coming home

065in the backpack no those yeah because of um significant HIPAA laws with with all of that um so I'm going to move on um to the temperature and questionnaire screenings I know um some of you may be cheering me at this point I I hope um those Health attestations that you all had to do for your students those are gone um so to read this to our relief I think um you know who I think is going to be the most happy though will be Mr Bernhardt at word novel High School um so but we do ask parents um before you you just ask yourself those questions that we've asked you um in the past just to make sure that you're coming to school that you don't have a fever that um your child is

066not coming in we're asking our staff to do the same to kind of self-monitor so that we know that that is on this situation however visitors to the school during the day will be asked to complete a health attestation because you're coming in from the outside we want to make sure that you're coming into our schools where our students and staff are that you're safe and that you've filled that out sometimes you'll go to a store I know I've been to some stores um in in New York City um and they've asked you to fill out a health attestation form so it's kind of going to be like that if you come during the day the district is going to use the CDC flow chart um to assist in decision making it's similar to the

067CDC flow chart that we used last year I'm not going to go over this it's very detailed but it'll be up on our website if you want to reference it if you have any questions regarding the CDC chart you can either call on Miss Dr Mason you can call me or you can check with your school nurse they would be able to help guide you if you have any questions with regard to this particular chart it will be up on this whole presentation will be up on the website along with the chart so tomorrow uh yes tomorrow so vaccinations and testing um at this point there is no vaccination requirement at this moment in time however those of you who listen to our governor speak yesterday she has announced and I quote to require vaccinations

068for all School personnel with an option to test out weekly at least for now as you know in New York city mayor de Blasio had made a statement that he is requiring vaccinations for all staff on beginning September 27th so I think that this is you know Governor hokel may be following somewhat in suit of that so I um I think that will be a wait and see I I don't know I can't um really elaborate on that at this point um the district will re request and we have of our staff it's already started to ask them if they could let us know if they are vaccinated our staff has been wonderful in completing that I will say in the first day that we put that survey out we had 350 responses and that

069was during the summer so I haven't checked that recently but um I do believe that our our staff has been fabulous in on supporting our goals to keep everybody health and health healthy and safe and on although I don't have specific numbers because we are not at this point allowed to ask that um I would estimate between 75 and 80 percent of the Three Village staff overall staff teachers and and non-instructional our entire faculty is vaccinated at this point uh the district will not require testing unless required by the Suffolk County Department of Health last year some of you may remember there were some school districts overhead being one of them and Hampton Bays another and I believe Islip all were required because of high transmission rates within their communities to test students randomly and

070to test their faculty randomly so according to Governor hokel she's also said that she's launching a back to school covid-19 program to make testing for students and staff widely available and convenient I don't quite know what that means I've asked a number of people and it seems a little nebulous so I think we're going to just have to wait and see and as more information comes forward we will certainly keep you apprised on that but at this point there is no requirement for for testing of students so Transportation um the district will adhere to the transportation guidelines that is provided by the Suffolk County Department of Health and the CDC um some of you probably are aware that there is a section 361 of the Public Health Service as act which requires that masks be

071worn on public transportation any of you have taken a train will probably know that you must wear a mask so that includes buses as well if you remember last year there was distancing requirements it's interesting there's um some of the guidance says that they should be distance others say that they don't however we will do our best to distance the students as much as possible siblings can sit together on the bus as they have in the past and so this may be something that may make all of you happy as well um the cafeteria will be back in use for our elementary school students I know that this is kind of something that's special for kids and and we want to make sure that their experience at school is as normal as possible so we

072will be having the students at the elementary level back in the cafeteria we are keeping them six feet apart because they're eating and we want to make sure that it's as safe as as possible the junior high schools and the high school have the same protocol that they had last year we put the desks in those venues and that will be the same at the junior high school we'll use the auditorium because we have so many students and the cafeteria and that they I know Miss Keenan and Dr biscari on rotated the students through that at the high school we give a little more flexibility those students can go outside and eat lunch if they like um and the students do take advantage of that last year so remote instruction the district will provide of

073course a five-week in-person instruction but we will not be offering a remote option this year we feel strongly that students need to be in school it's important that they're here however I do want to state that should we have to Pivot to a remote option a classroom a school the district we are prepared to do that and we are capable of doing that and that can happen within within hours within a day it isn't like when we first all went out in March of 2020 we are prepared to do that and we can do that if if need be um students with doctor doctor documented medical reasons will be permitted to remain on home tutoring or will be given home tutoring so if a student is medically compromised and cannot be in school that student

074will receive home tutoring in compliance with our district policy another positive in trying to make things normal for our students we are going back to lockers at the secondary level I know Miss Kean and Dr biscari have been working on a system to try to avoid congregation at the lockers but I think the students will be excited and give them a sense of feeling like their school is more normal than it had been in the past and a place to put their belongings um at the high school um Dr gold and Mr Bernhard are also working on a system and we're going to make it by choice at the high school because some students at word Melville High School do not necessarily choose to use a locker so we will give that as much space

075in between lockers as we possibly can to avoid congregation in those areas cleaning and disinfection will remain as it did last year we will follow all protocols that we did if a room has an infected student or an affected staff member on that space will be clean and disinfected within 24 hours as some of you may know who have children in athletics our Athletic program did start this week the students have been fully participating it looks like we're going to have a normal season last year as you remember they kind of truncated the seasons and put them all together we didn't start until after the um sometime in January February but this year right now it seems like we are having a normal Sports season um we uh if you recall in the early spring

076we were testing high-risk athletes um it was for uh football and basketball and volleyball um that at this point is not being required if that changes we'll get that information from section 11 um and from New York state but at this time there is no requirement to be testing high-risk athletes we will use our lockers for our Athletics as well and we will permit spectators at indoor and outdoor activities if they're indoors The Spectators will be asked to be masked if they're Outdoors obviously that won't be necessary we will be live streaming our varsity and junior varsity home games we will not be live streaming the away games and the reason is because a lot of school districts live stream their games so we kind of jump on that and it really is kind of

077like redundant for us to do that that's what we've learned so and I also want to talk about parent attendance at school events this is last year one of the things that made I think all of us very sad is that our parents felt very excluded from our schools and believe me we didn't do that with deliberate intention it was a safety protocol but this year we will allow parents to come into our schools during the day to participate in activities we will during the day ask though that you fill out a health attestation form so we know everybody's safe and you would need to be masked but you would be invited to come into our schools during the school day in the evening obviously on health attestations we're not going to require that but

078we just asked that if you are there we will try to enforce as best we can as physical distancing because that will be important we don't want people in our community beyond our staff and our students we don't want our families on becoming ill so use of building by outside groups we will allow that as well and they will be asked to fall follow all health and safety protocols as in the past so can I just ask a real quick question so um groups such as Three Village basketball they will now be permitted they can actually call to starting tomorrow yes if the board approves the adopts the plan as written yes they may so um and the last but certainly most definitely not the least is the social and emotional learning piece I want

079to give kudos especially to Aaron Connolly to Don Mason for all of their effort in working with their our counseling support staff to make sure that our students will be supported throughout the year we know that there are a lot of issues that come forth as a result of the pandemic Beyond The Masks there are also anxieties that happen about Grandparents becoming ill or family members becoming ill and children need to be supported and feel secure and safe in the schools and that will be a major priority along with we've already started reaching out to our remote families to help them integrate back into school and those things are already in process that will happen throughout the year and anytime I always encourage a parent that if they have any questions or there were worried

080about their child to please call our school psychologist the the guidance counselors at the secondary level at the sixth grade level we have a guidance counselor and social workers I also want to give kudos to our Board of Education in all the time that I've been here when many school districts were pulling back even during difficult budget times from their social social workers their psychologists and cutting that staff our district kept adding that staff because they recognized how important that support is to the students that we can't look at students from just one particular angle of academics but it's also about their social and emotional growth and giving them the support they need by having those individuals in place to help guide them so um that really concludes I also want to mention Miss Connolly

081will be doing a parent University again with different topics if you have ideas of topics that you would like to see covered in the parent University I strongly encourage you to reach out to her and I know she would be very helpful in trying to put something in place that would meet those needs so I want to extend my sincere thanks to the board of education to to the parents on to my colleagues and and to everyone who is here and I know that we may all stand on very different positions about these issues but I know that our advocacy is for our students I know that is the one thing that we are most definitely United in and I just want to say you know I I feel that we have one common enemy

082and that enemy is Coveted and we have to pull together to try to defeat this as best we can so thank you I appreciate the support and the opportunity to speak tonight thank you choose any board members have any questions sure okay one more question so regarding uh remote instructions so if parents feel that maybe there's a case happening in the home or maybe some other case they prefer to keep the whole keep the kid in Home temporarily what's the channel to do that if if a parent um feels that they would like to keep their child home temporarily they can home teach their child for a period of time they would contact Mr scanlon's office and he would help them with that process the student then could come back at any time they're always

083welcome to return to school if there are particular extenuating circumstances and we um Mr scanla and I are working with a few families who have extenuating circumstances within their families to provide support to them so that they because they do have immunocompromised situation within their home we we don't want them to feel abandoned and not supported by the school district thank you you have any questions I do not it's one comment I think you know you did a great job putting this together you also mentioned in the beginning as far as the mass breaks and I know that that's a major concern with the parents a major concern especially for the elementary schools you know I was principal of Murphy so for junior high school students to go in the hallway you know bring his

084mask down I mean they do it you know and and that's fine but when they're confined in a classroom all day long in an elementary school with a mask on I mean that is a lot so I'm going to just hope that you know the administration knows that teachers will know that these kids need Mass breaks often because even sitting here now for almost an hour and a half I mean I need a mass break and especially those little ones that go into needed so I just like to reiterate that and Mr viso I completely agree with you and as I said at the beginning I know that younger children are not always inclined or feel nervous about asking for that mass break so we have to give that opportunity to them to be able

085the the cheat that needs to be very teacher directed in in helping those students and done in a safe manner so that the students aren't ending up in a situation of being quarantined so we um I I do have some plans and ideas that um will be shared with the uh building principles and they in turn will communicate that to each of their parents and on their parent communities and also to their staff so we are all on the same page moving forward and that we don't have some teachers who are doing it and others aren't and sometimes I have to say in defensive teachers they weren't really sure last year there were a lot of unknowns for all of us and so we kind of were trying to find our way through this process

086but we know more now and we know what we can do and what we can do safely so um thank you I do have a question but I need to direct this comment to the individuals that are in the gym please put your masks on this is a first warning if you refuse to put your masks on and respect our policies and procedures at Three Village School District you will be asked to leave thank you now my question speech services so there's children children will be wearing masks and they're in speech and that that's a hindrance obviously what are we doing there okay so um we recognize that um students need to be able to see their speech Futures and on this beach pathologist so the speech pathologists wear a special mask which allows their

087their faces to be seen and we also have shields that are on wheels that we can move in front of the student and where the um speech pathologist and the student are separated so that the student can remove their mask to see some of the um to see the teachers face and the teacher would be able to see the child's face we know that in those circumstances we need to meet those individual needs of those students we need to make sure that their services are being delivered in a way that will allow them to be productive and make progress absolutely and Dawn Mason is in the back she's yeah yeah and confirm that okay so I'd like to actually say a word uh to Dawn Mason um Dawn Mason um is pupil Personnel she is

088in charge of our nurses um but more famously uh and and and knew due to covid um she is our coveted liaison to um the district and the Department of Health and has had a hell of a job keeping up with uh September um through June last school year of all of the covid cases uh the quarantining um of course doing a fantastic job literally a 24 7 job that most districts actually had to hire individuals to do that because it's more than a full-time job newly created brought To Us by covid um so I just wanted to give her a shout out that the board appreciates all of her hard work the late nights the calling of all the all of the parents and dealing with the Department of Health and producing everything on

089the uh on the uh what's that called the the Department of Health dashboard um yeah covet has done a lot it has done a lot and um it has caused has caused a lot of extra work um obviously um first for certain people um our superintendent is one um and Dawn is another and of course there's there's many more but I wanted to just give you a shout out Dawn because um you deserve it and we appreciate what you're doing and you're doing a phenomenal job and unfortunately you're going to have to do it again for another school year um thank you thank you Miss bevlinka and I will definitely second that in rounding Applause um I also want to mention that Don has established such a wonderful relationship with the Department of Health leadership

090that when she makes phone calls to them or she texts them or emails them they get back to her right away which is something that most school districts do not have the opportunity to do so that has been because of Dawn's efforts to reach out and to establish a really facilitative relationship with them so thank you does the board have any other questions for in reference to the school opening plan I do have one one question what um what would happen if a student were to arrive in the morning without a mask so if a student arrives in the morning without a mask um they would be asked to put a mask on um if the student has indicated to us that um mom or dad has asked I'm sorry I have to interrupt you

091I'm really sorry but I'm gonna this is the second warning and last warning for the individuals in the gymnasium in North Country administration at this particular Board of Education meeting you will be asked to leave or you will be removed if you don't put your masks on please be respectful of our policies we're all wearing them if we want to or not so if you'd like to stay which we would like you to stay please be respectful and put your masks on last morning um so um if the student says well my mom and dad have told me not to put a mask on the student would be um asked the parent would be contacted we would either have the school nurse guidance counselor a social worker or the building principal make contact with Mom

092or Dad and ask Mom or Dad if they can give the child a mask to wear if the parent says no Then we will ask the parent to pick the child up I know that there has been some discussion that the child will be suspended I am telling you as I sit here no building principle will suspend a child for doing what their parent has asked them to do with regard to mask wearing we are not going to make the child feel like a victim I we will not do that so the child will be kept separate until the parent comes and picks the child up the I hope that we work together I hope that that doesn't become a situation but I I want you to understand that the school district is not violating

093a child's right to a free and appropriate education by telling the child not to wear a mask when that is the Mandate and that is the expectation that is something that a parent should not be placing their child in that position and I think it's important I know we we are advocating for our children I know we want them to be happy and be safe and we do too but we have to understand that we have regulations that we need to follow and we need to be respectful of everyone's we have a social responsibility so um I just want to be very clear that we are not going to be suspending your child for doing that thank you Cherry yes for any parents who have questions regarding this opening plan they should address to miss

094paddish is that the channel I think it depends on on what questions um the parents might have with regard to the plan um in some cases they may want to be addressing it to me um in other cases they may want to be reaching out to their Elementary to their principles whether it be at the elementary junior high or High School level certain questions um depending if a parent asks me a question you know I think most of you have come to know that I I respond so yeah but I I would say some questions may not be really apropos for me as much as it would be for someone else but I if a parent asks a question and I think someone else might be better equipped to answer it I would just direct

095them to someone else so I'm I'm fine yeah thank you I did mine all during the presentation all right okay thank you you're welcome items for board action adoption of 2021-2022 school year plan can I please have a motion second all in favor motion passes okay next is number five and that is policy Dr Baum can you please come to the podium thank you so before you you have uh four policies that are up for a second reading this was these were discussed at the previous meeting 45 13 45 26 5390 to 40. um today's policy today's policy 12 30 is up for you for a first reading more or less uh takes into consideration the past practices of our district and reorganizes the policy so that it is broken up into various categories such

096as resident speakers the Quorum and what expectations we have for members of the public as well as outlining the responsibilities and duties of you um the board president as well as emergency and special meetings of the Board of Education the board subcommittee met on this uh recently and approved of it and moved it to you for your consideration this evening thank you Dr Baum board members do I have a motion to move all five policies for approval motion second second all in favor just to be clear we're moving them through the second reading we're moving them through okay I'm moving them through yes um all in favor okay motion passes okay number six approval of contracts with outside providers for special education services Jeff Carlson uh yes in fact if you'd like uh Miss Bill

097blanket it takes six seven and eight uh all at once they'll all have to deal with special ed service contracts is there anything you want to speak about in reference to any of those General uh various types of special education tuition uh and some cases outside uh Services all in accordance with um IEPs okay so we'll take that one so we'll take six first okay okay uh can I have a motion first so moved second uh all in favor one abstention motion passes number seven and eight we'll do that together can I please have a motion so moved second all in favor motion passes okay uh Jeff Carlson can you read us our acceptance of donations uh yes we have several uh the first is a check for one thousand dollars in recognition of the

098gymnastics teams uh section 11 Championship win from Suffolk transportation service you may remember from a couple of months ago uh we had received a uh similar um donation from Suffolk Transportation uh this uh team was inadvertently left off the list so this additional thousand dollars we also received a check in the amount of 250 dollars from uh some Setauket Elementary School students Abby Paulo I'm sorry if I pronounce the name correctly Brooklyn polis Haley polis and Brianna thomasic uh who all the private fundraiser to purchase uh some um uh Elementary size lacrosse sticks called Fiddlesticks uh few sets Setauket Elementary School I would just like to read the brief letter from the students uh it was addressed to the uh building principal uh Karen Mizell Dear Miss Mizell over the past few months me and

099my friends have worked together selling bracelets and bookmarks we would like to put the money toward buying fiddlesticks for the lacrosse section of PE we can't wait to use them next year from Abby Brooklyn Haley and Brianna so that was right that's wonderful yes I have to say Three Village does have um such a tremendous amount of volunteerism from our students from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade absolutely excuse me is there a problem we're good okay uh we also uh Maureen Reyes a district employee uh donated an office desk and three filing cabinets and we also received a check for one hundred dollars donated by Joel and Betsy Ziegler to the ward mobile high school scholarship fund in honor of Linda bergson uh High School uh guidance chairperson who retired recently yes thank

100you Jeff number nine acceptance of donations can I have a motion please second we can't hear so please keep the door closed thank you who was first who's first you first who is second okay good all in favor motion passes okay Jeff Carlson Declaration of surplus equipment uh we just have a few things some uh youth-sized uh vests from the pool uh um at welcome high school and two uh a printer and a shredder from uh North Country uh business office uh in uh non-usable condition move second okay all in favor motion passes okay appointment of 504 chairperson at the secondary level for 2122 school year Kevin Scanlon yes we're pointing this evening uh Dr Salazar to be the 504 chairperson of the secondary schools for 2021-22 school year okay can I can a second

101all in favor motion passes okay Personnel action uh education law I'm going to do 12 and 13 together because this is Personnel so there won't be any explanations personal action education law 913 examination of employee named on the attached schedule A and B can I have a motion motion second all in favor motion passes 14 approve approval to accept small claims mediation agreement Gary dubrowski yes thank you uh as a result of a an employee overpayment uh the district sought to receive their funds the employee ex-employee refused so we successfully mediated in small claims court okay can I please have a motion second all in favor motion passes oh what do we have here five five yes one get the phone out one now you get the full amount back oh we didn't yeah no

102they they reduced it we meet we mediated it yes did somebody like steal money no no they were overpaid okay and they refused to give the money back I'm correct oh they left the district they left the district so we were forced to go to small claims court and receive it was it the district's fault that they were overpaid uh it was as a result of he left during a time when um the check was already given payroll was closed for the holidays and there was no way to retract retract the receive the check back because it was a direct deposit right but did did the employee put in false hours additional hours that they shouldn't or did the district make a mistake it's just made a mistake okay it happens I'm in HR I

103have a payroll department it happens that's no problem just let's get it out there okay Personnel matters uh instructional Gary yes uh on the agenda for your approval uh we have many many items first uh two retirements one of a teacher one of the teaching assistant we have five ta resignations we have four full year unpaid uh four full year requests for unpaid leaves we have the reappointment of uh 10 of our perm Subs as you know we have two perm Subs per Elementary School and we have additional positions such as district-wide music two Math teachers one Health one for Zed one art four Tas and two additional leaves of absence for a music teacher and an elementary teacher so who are the two retirements one teacher one ta one teacher and one ta who

104are they let's let's celebrate them for weekend uh Rich machine is retiring from Ward Melville as a math teacher he's given us 21 years of his career here so congrats regulations rich uh Jeannie coonington has been here for 18 years as a teaching assistant in NASA cake congratulations to both of them um do I move one separately then too okay okay uh well okay second all in favor motion passes uh number two non-instructional Gary not a structural yes we have uh several hires and non-instructional first we moved um two sub-custodians to two permanent positions one at Setauket one at Arrowhead uh we had unfortunately some very late lunch monitor resignations about about six so far on the board agenda tonight is uh transfers so people going from different positions in terms of scas that are

105getting an increase in hours as a result of moving from one building to the next we have one replacement clerical person in the business office and two clerical individuals who have a upgraded change of title okay can I have a motion please I'll move that second all in favor motion passes 16 recommendations of committee on special ed subcommittee and accommodation for 504 plan meetings of can I have a motion you're not gonna read the dates no all right I'll move it 9 10. second second okay all in favor motion passes 17 recommendations of committee on preschool special education meetings of can I have a motion please so moved second all in favor motion motion passes okay so now we're going to talk for a minute before we go into the next public participation uh informational

106items of interest does anybody have anything they'd like to say or put out there I could start if you'd like with a very benign one and that thing has become uh convention so uh the municipal convention in October for the Board of Education and um requires a delegate that will vote on behalf of the of Three Village Central School District with nisbah nisbah is the one who they go and advocate for all the districts including ours uh in DC and Albany wherever they need to go thank you so um I would like to um nominate Sue rosenzweig to be our um Three Village delegate at this convention for nisbah first a second sure okay that's true okay um okay is it all in favor okay motion passes congratulations Sue I think you'll say it's quite

107a few hours to vote for uh for the district um all on legislative um why don't you talk about real quick because you you're you know better than I do it's just it's a it's a series of initiatives that nisbah is contemplating and they you know maybe at a future meeting we'll discuss other positions okay let's talk about the YouTube videos oh so obviously this is the first meeting since the YouTube videos were taken down over two weeks ago um there was nothing hidden nothing hidden about this this was not a a plan in any way um and uh it's not a board of education um item in in sense but they were taken down two weeks ago for the start of the new 21-22 school year and all the YouTube videos that are going

108to like tonight um they will be up for the 21-22 school year uh the entire year prior to covet there was no YouTube videos because we didn't have to do that all it was was an audio and it's attached if you go back 10 however many years you'd like to on the website uh under Board of Education under the meetings there's an audiophile and if you click on it you could go back to however little years you'd like to and you'll hear us speaking um and that's just the way it's been for forever then covet hit and we had an executive order we had to do live stream that wasn't our choice uh or our decision it was great but that we had to follow that mandate so we did that and of course those

109were posted we're still doing it just so you know there is no mandate anymore I mean I'm sorry there was no Executive Order anymore no and there was a school districts do not have to do live stream but we spoke about it and we all agree that yes we need to continue the live stream and we are happy to do so and if anybody would like to chime in feel free but that's what we're going to do and I think the YouTube video should stay up they are staying up they're staying up 21-22 school year they're staying up um well actually we should keep I think we should just I don't see any compelling reason to take them down what do you mean next year ever ever ever okay well I guess we could talk

110about that if you'd like okay I don't think that we should take them down okay [Laughter] can I just say something yes the district clerko we actually put the audio files on for the last year since we took down the YouTube videos we put the audio files on so if you want to go you can go listen to all the audio files instead and just are you going to do public are you still um accepting public participation via email I don't know what does the board want to do okay everybody good the answer is yes so for me I just you know on the on the public notice include the your deadline I believe is one o'clock yep so keep doing that and um and I will read the emails when they yeah if if

111we get any that's fine um what else planners for the junior high school not the high school right just the Junior High School junior high school will have planners I'm getting questions from Junior High School parents if the planners are going to uh if we're doing planners and we are like we do every year they just are going to be a little late won't be there until the end of September um and does anybody else any any other items of interest to speak about so several parents ask about the board replying emails do you want to explain how it works yeah let's talk about how that works I have had people state that we haven't answered emails and I've requested them to send me those emails and I've never received them every email that the

112board specifically the board myself alone or the board only has been answered we've never not answered answered an email this one over here I've asked you for them and I haven't received them and we can talk about it later if you'd like that's no problem but I'm not we're not ignoring emails we're answering every email we receive you on the other hand is taking six to eight hours a night not a day because she's working during the day and she's taking six seven eight hours a night answering emails and sending them out the next day or however she does it I I really don't know how she does it um she doesn't eat she doesn't sleep so I don't know but maybe you can explain again to everyone so when an email is sent to

113the board and the superintendent this is what happens so if I'm included on a email correspondence um which also lists the board members I respond on behalf of the board um so if you send an email directly to the board of education and our district clerk on Mr Mano is on there many times Mr Mano will respond for the board after I'm speaking with board leadership about a response so I wouldn't what I would say to parents is if I'm responding on behalf of the board then you might not expect you would not expect a response from the Board of Education as well because then you would be getting eight different responses as opposed to just one response and if I'm not sure of how the board would want to respond we discuss it yes

114we have read and answered every single email that is the that is the truth and if there was an email missed I apologize in advance but I'd love to see it um I you know no one is trying to not communicate communicate is the most communication is the most important it's key to any any sort of relationship and this is a relationship with the school district and the community and our staff and our students and and everybody involved so um what I'd like to do now if it's okay with you we could we conclude we have concluded now our business portion of the Board of Ed meeting that is all over and now we're going to take our last uh 30 minutes for the next public participation so I'm going to read this again because

115I I'm I feel like I need to not I want to thank everybody in this room for being respectful I really do appreciate it um but um residents wishing to speak must have previously submitted the request to speak form which we already we know uh basically what I just want to say is discussion of individual District Personnel board members of students is not permitted inappropriate language shouting and behavior that is disruptive and disrespectful would not be tolerated any individual demonstrating disruptive and disrespectful Behavior will be ruled out of order and as to leave or will be removed from any board meeting the 30-minute public participation period begins now and it's 9 13 pm and the first speaker is Adam dumel thank you good evening I'm a resident of the district in the last two years

116from 2018 to 2020 we've lost kids from the age seven zero to 17 to flu deaths more than we have for covet yeah we sit here and we talk about putting Mass on our children we didn't do it from 2018 to 20 2020 why are we doing it right now two studies came out one from the CDC in late May early June with 90 000 Elementary age students across 169 Georgia school districts both with and without mass mandates it failed to show any independent benefit or statistical impact of mass mandates there's another study out there it's from Duke University 1.28 million students 160 000 staff North Carolina School Districts they said Mass work they only studied districts that had a mass mandate they didn't use districts that did not have one what kind of junk

117science is that in August we got a letter from the superintendent and she says oh the state is now giving us the option to choose but we're going to defer to the Suffolk County Department of Health then three weeks later we get a letter back that says the Suffolk County Department of Health says we recommend mask where's their science where is their research why are they not attaching any of their research to it I just gave you two studies here that I took 20 minutes in a smartphone to find yet the board can't get any information from any of these health science about any research that's done to show that mass work or their long-term effects on younger children which I have two of them if we're going to use this ridiculous science in 2018

118636 children died of car accidents from the age of 2 to 12 0 to 12. in that case I demand that the parents are not allowed to drive their kids to school and must use public transportation if that's what we're going to find we're not going to let parents choose to use a mask or not over ridiculous research that isn't that there's no facts based behind it and if there is I would love for somebody to show me something that has facts behind it because nobody has the fact that you're taking parent choice away from parents are from kids in their youngest ages when we all know that you have to see and you have to talk and you have to see facial expressions it's ridiculous the fact that you guys can sit there as

119a board and not make a decision yet and every time something comes down you punt it to another non-elected government organization and now I think that's ridiculous as well if you guys want to be on the board we demand that you take a leadership role I would rather you all on this board right now vote for a mask mandate so at least we know where you stand so I could have some more respect for you because you're making a decision I know Dr Carmen did two years as a captain in the Army I myself did time in the Marine Corps I'm also a lieutenant in the New York City Police Department I make decisions and I have to stand by them I can't punt them to other people and that when they're wrong say oh

120we didn't get a chance to make the decision they made it for us the whole point of this board is for you to make decisions for the all the parents of this District not to punch punt to some unelected government bureaucrats and make their choices just so when it comes down to next year you don't have to say you were for or against it you could sit there and be potted plants and act like oh we didn't make a decision we were forced to do it show some leadership show some fortitude and show us that you guys want to lead us through this pandemic and not just punt it to other organizations that we have no idea how these people got into Power because we chose all of you up there right now thank you

121foreign I think the superintendents opening School plan was very clear in reference to uh to that no I thought so um next up is Gene Brunson [Music] good evening I'm Jean Brunson I'm a parent in the district I'm a resident I am relieved that there will be Universal masking in schools this year and I want to commend The Three Village leadership for proactively reinstating masks this summer when it became clear that outbreaks were beginning without them thank you for ensuring that all our kids can safely return to in-person learning because as we know if one person is masked and the other is not there is a risk and we have to be honest there is a risk that a classmate or that classmate's grandmother could die because someone did not mask up we have to

122be honest with ourselves even if we're not going to be honest with our children about that healthy students will now be less likely to quarantine and many with sensitive medical conditions will still be able to access their education as safely as possible while protecting those including my own children who cannot yet be vaccinated it will also give many children safe access to special education support that was not possible at home this is a powerful example of educational equity and that's what I really want to speak about tonight in a baffling display of ignorance and bigotry I have heard members of this community claim that Equity itself is somehow discriminatory Equity means providing different supports to meet differing needs this support does not confer advantages it simply removes barriers Equity does not require equal outcomes it

123requires equal access Equity might include academic support like resource room instruction math tutoring or a specialized approach designed to help your child with dyslexia learn to read so he can access his Learning Materials in every subject it may be an aide who gives your autistic child a stem break to relieve anxiety so that she can then return and focus on her lesson or a teacher that ensures that the classmates know how to be respectful of her communication differences or a Bus Matron who helps her be safe on the bus and in the parking lot but Equity also applies to Temporary circumstances that could affect any child Equity could be the school district providing your child with free use of a musical instrument or a band mask when your family is going through a hard time

124and can't afford to rent one could be an intervention to protect your child if they're being bullied as well as interventions that help the bully change their behavior it may include your child getting support from the school psychologist because he's having difficulty coping with the illness or death of a loved one Equity may be your child dictating her essay to a teacher who scribes it for the state test because she broke her writing Arm playing soccer absolutely any child could need specialized support at some point in their educational career and a focus on Equity ensures that that support is there if and when your child needs it thank you to superintendent pettisich Dr gold and the three village board for your ongoing support of diversity equity and inclusion efforts and I hope that our entire

125Community Rises to that challenge thank you thank you for your comments [Applause] okay next up is Kate Davis they're getting her okay oh okay Lisa benke hi I'm Lisa banke I'm a resident um I didn't really think I'd be at a board meeting tonight I just saw the sign out on the road and like I haven't been following any of this and I feel terrible to say that because between my husband and I we have seven kids that came through this District our foot is out the door our daughter's going to be a senior this year and I'm so grateful that she was able to go to school five days a week as was my son who just graduated I don't like masks I honestly don't see that the science is there for that but

126I'm going to respect other people's opinions about it my daughter daughter is just happy knowing that she can attend school even if it is in a mask when she leaves the building The Masks are off and let me tell you most students most kids most families those masks are off the minute they get out of the building that's requiring them to put the mask on so how much is it really helping and with regard to the contact tracing you mentioned that it's going to be better and that may be the justification for you deciding to mask up for everyone that will now with contact tracing you won't have to quarantine the entire class well the minute they get out of that room those masks are coming off they're off in the hallway they're off on

127the bus they're off outside of school they are still with these same kids that they are friendly with all the time and I can guarantee it I've seen it in the last year and a half people are not wearing masks when outside of these areas that are demanding they wear them and we're still in the same position I believe that we're not seeing tremendous numbers of covid happening and I know there's a variant out there and I'm sure that a lot of people are concerned for their families um I just think people should do a little bit more of their own soul searching and think about these things I don't have a young child anymore in school I think I'd probably pull them out if they had to wear a mask every day because I

128think it's very unhealthy psychologically emotionally and I just they're not the ones spreading things I just don't feel that it's right I myself I'm going to say Point Blank I got the vaccine I felt pressured from doing it at my job I work for a higher education institution where they're mandating this for students but not staff here it sounds like you're going to be requiring staff to do it and not students and I'm grateful for that because I don't think students necessarily should be under that mandate and I believe that's what I saw on your presentation that that is not going to be a mandate for vaccines nor testing just the masks so at this point with it but being just the masks and my daughter is a senior I'm not terribly upset I you

129know I know she's going to throw that thing off the minute she leaves and she's already had covet so she's built up her immunity so I'm not so concerned about that um but I'm just grateful that we have this District that we were able to come to school five days a week and that we will continue to do that and I hope for a prom this coming year because it's my daughter now so thank you so much thank you for your comments okay next up is shoshana hershkowitz thank you for your time um I'm not going to speak about masks tonight I am the daughter of a health care worker in public health just please state your name and if you're a resident I'm sorry shashana hershkowitz I'm a resident my kids uh I'm from

130South Setauket um I'm not going to speak about masks as I said I come from family that works in public health I had a mom who was hospitalized during the pandemic and I believe that my parents were elderly are still here because of safety protocols I will focus on the area that I am an expert in which is education I'm on year 23 of my career I've been in both public and higher education and I want to talk about diversity equity and inclusion and I'll build a lot on what Gene said earlier there was concern about the word Equity versus equality and I just want to give a real brief explanation both are worthwhile goals equality means everyone gets the same access let's say in this District everybody gets a Chromebook Equity is what happens

131when that family can afford the internet rendering that Chromebook useless and our district works with that family to make sure they have some sort of internet access or a way for their children to use the technology we've given every kit Equity has been a part of public education for as long as we know particularly in the form of special education so if you're coming here railing against Equity you're railing against 504s and IEPs and English language learning and OT and PT and wheelchair ramps and the IG program and I can't even tell you how many thousands of kids in this District alone have benefited from that type of equity in education including mine I'll speak really briefly about the D and the I inclusion in my own classroom as a public educator means there is

132no barrier to entry in my class if a kid can't read music if they don't speak if they're not an English if they're an English language Learners I teach International students they find a way in they can't read music we find a way to work with them no one is barred entry based on ability or where they come from or what they can or cannot do at the moment yet diversity is all about the music I program it's not just programming who I lovingly refer to as my dead guys my Mozart my Vivaldi my Bach the things that are absolute Staples it's programming music from around the world it's making sure that my students see themselves reflected in the music that they learn and that they study and finally I'll say this I'll give you

133a real quick example in my classroom when we study South African choral music we look at not only the notes and The rhythms and all the things we would normally do we also look at the history and the context we read Mandela we read Trevor Noah and then we go and we look at videos of kids singing that music together today black and white which 40 years ago was inconceivable and we talk about that how that is a point of reflection for where we've been and reconciling the future and Lord knows after tonight we need reconciliation in this community thank you thank you for your comments okay the next speaker is Haley vones h sorry what'd you say okay next speaker is Jim savario came in just in time just in time we don't have

134to go get you Jim salvio a resident of uh Setauket well I'm not here to comment on a mask mandate I am here to advocate for parents abilities to make good choices for their children the following is from the district website as a district we're committed to addressing and dismantling discriminatory discriminatory treatment under Fair and unfair policies and bias practices based on race gender religion ability and or sexuality we will cultivate acknowledge celebrate and honor the cultural differences of our students staff parents and community members we do this with respect self-awareness authentic engagement and a willingness to learn from one another I'm wondering how that mission statement somehow differs dramatically from what families have been successfully teaching their sons daughters and grandchildren for Generations those critical Golden Rule lessons have come via example set in

135both words and deeds from moms dads Aunts Uncles and grandparents with that in mind it's crucial to remember our nation especially over the last 60 plus years has made remarkable strides in stifling unfair policies and biased practices based on race gender religion ability and or sexuality we've gone from segregated water fountains and restrooms in Washington DC in the 1950s to Martin Luther King's epic I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. to Historic civil rights legislation shortly thereafter 50 years after our Capital was stained by those fountains and bathrooms Barack Obama was serving the first of his two terms in the White House it's hard to believe that that kind of positive dramatic change could have taken place without many millions of families over multiple Generations promoting a sense of basic fairness

136through a do unto others as you would have them do unto you mantra which brings us to discussions of critical race theory in our district I was a board meeting I was at a board meeting flip the page when we got the complete assurance that that would not happen trust but verify kind the guy led me to review the no longer available list of recommended readings posted by the anti-racism and social justice task force I was stunned the list did not reflect the promises from administrators and board members there would be no CRT in Cleary Village two examples come to mind one author is an avowed trained Marxist whose organization called for disrupting quote the western western prescribed nuclear family structure another declared the only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination I just like

137to close sorry just let me I'm going to just say that finish up with this thank you very much the next speaker is Richard werder Richard number the next speaker is Kimberly biello balello sorry Kimberly Bello and I'm a resident of Three Village after the opening plan that you presented tonight I still want to know for the group of us if there is still a possibility that there is any slight chance that the children sitting at their desks besides Mass breaks can have their masks down and if that's possible parents sign a paper accepting responsibility if their child has to quarantine that's first and I know I'm not going to get an answer now I'm also concerned about Mass breaks my daughter was in kindergarten last year and it was inconsistent Mommy we did get

138not get Mass breaks today and I said well why did you not say something and her answer was I was afraid and it's not her teacher's fault because her teacher is the sweetest woman I have met and I'm pretty sure it was just the general aspect that she didn't want to be that kid and I know that there's other kids in her class that felt that seem exact way I'm asking that we make sure and I know you've stated how important the mass breaks are that they actually get them and whether or not that's each child has a paper on their desk where the time and it's initialed when they get those so we know that they get breaks I'm not having my daughter come home with nosebleeds again with rashes around her face she

139cried today because she just does not want to deal with the mass in school this is not normal our kids should not have to suffer through this on another note besides those points I want to know if kids will be communicating outside their classroom with other kids at recess will they have that socialization between classes because we all know not everybody's together that they had in class last year also I want to know if Dr Sussman will still not be communicating with parents when exemption forms are given in and if there is not a mandated plan who knows what happens what will be the plan from the district what will be your stance if the governor does not say or Doh does not say this is the Mandate for Mass what's the plan of the

140board because it still will be the ball in your core to make that decision for our kids the next thing is hold on one second let me go through my notes Here with the exemptions from last year do they carry over to this year that's an important thing do we need to keep for parents that had them last year for their children do they need to reapply again for this year so we need to have that clear communication between parents and the district to know what they need to do because I mean school starting couple days thank you thank you for your comments um can you answer on the mask exemption question please any any mask exemptions that were in place last year um would carry over to this year unless there is anything of

141significance that a parent would share with us those would remain in place if if the board can ask their Indulgence um with regard to keeping cohorts separate we are doing our very best to do that we know at the secondary level cohorting is almost impossible because students are going from class to class and they take different courses so at the elementary level you know one we we know that many of the students felt isolated from their other peers something that I would like the board to consider is maybe at least having two classes together at recess I wouldn't say all four or all three because we have to do um we don't we have to work with the Doh to do contact tracing and we want to make sure that we're doing it with due

142diligence and and that if we don't want to miss a particular child but I could see where the students would have more interaction with each other they will have that opportunity within the cafeteria because we're going to have more than one class in the cafeteria at one time so hopefully that answers some of your questions how does the board feel about that suggestion and yes totally agree okay good next speaker Tara jimbovo okay Greg Gary wait oh I'm sorry I'm gonna put my glasses on now Tara g-i-a-m-b-a-l-v-o okay all right sorry okay Gary Nemeth because this one's not a resident good evening my name is Garrett Nemeth I'm a resident of East to talk it my kids go here I'm very happy with this District my kids are happy we've had nothing but great experiences

143I'm a physical educator I'm a teacher for 26 years I'm so happy that Dr Yandy Farrell set that example for you because she's my superintendent which is fantastic but I'm here to talk about something that I truly believe is there's no scientific facts and I'm sorry to bring this up to your board and everything I'm very happy with you but Dr fauci even said Mass don't work right I teach I love it you can't see my Expressions you can't see the teacher that I am right now you can't feel me right but the kids can once we go outside I turn that mass down you would all fear them I love teaching I love the kids they love me they want to see me they want to feel me and that's what I just want

144you to know about and think about it try to think about that right now because we could go and debate everything all day long we all have our different views politically whatever it is and that's okay but just know a teacher though 26 years and my passion is phys Ed outside in the gym and relating to my kids that I love I couldn't do it this year I I made the best of it they did they want the masks off and I don't feel their risks let's just say that all right let teachers go and everyone else but thanks for letting me sing that's it I just want to teach all I'm telling you right now I want to go to West Babylon I want to take this off I don't want to teach the

145kids I want to see their smiles and I want them to feel me and I want my kids to do the same here because I I have nothing but unbelievable experiences at this school I love it it's great so thank you very much get rid of the masks be the leaders sorry thank you for being a passionate teacher we need more like you [Music] hi I'm Marie De Janeiro I live in Stony Brook my children are currently going to the schools and I just want to say I'm glad to follow that because I'm also a teacher and I could not imagine myself doing anything else I started the school year last year ready for anything that it was going to to bring on um like I said it I've been teaching kindergarten for over 20

146years so I was unsure of what to expect within the first couple of hours it was very apparent to me that the children might as well have been wiping their butts excuse me for saying that but they might as well have been wiping something else with their mask because it was so disgusting and it was extremely difficult to stay on top of that and make sure that they all had new masks all the time and so you can understand my point of view here that I am advocating for mask choice and I understand that some people want to wear a mask and I would never want to take that away from them um I I don't want to have I don't want to force people to either wear it or not wear it I think

147we should we should have a choice um as far as I heard someone earlier say that the kids want to wear a mask my perspective of that is kids are most likely trying to be a people pleaser or trying to do the right thing or trying to show that they want they trust us they trust the adults to make the right decisions so I don't know if we should heavily rely on people saying that kids want to wear masks um and lastly the vaccine I am again this is I feel very strongly about this I think this should be a choice I very much hope that the district does not make a decision on mandating vaccines for children this is not a vaccine it's an experimental gene therapy and it's brand new and I feel

148uh absolutely terrified of subjecting our children to that thank you so much [Applause] all right so that um actually we are right on time at a half an hour and we're all finished as far as everybody getting a chance to speak the name I spelled you lit and that's not you that is you Tara g-i-a-m-b-a-l-v-o you you just put Tara G on it correct okay I don't have a tower G that's when it was verified that's what it came up as the address I guess no I don't understand do I have a sheet power no that's her sheet she put Taraji she didn't fill out the information the complete information oh yeah last time when it was verified we just have to verify that she's a district resident okay you District president yes I am

149okay so Tara G and okay she needs to say the whole name okay my name is Tara G Russo and I am a three village resident good morning members of the um good morning well I'm exhausted because I actually cannot breathe from this thing from being in that awful hot room so sorry good evening members of the board community and teachers that showed up to support I want to start by asking a simple question I've watched plenty of Board of Education meetings and the one major difference is they actually have a dialogue with their community I think if you came up here and we just stared at you after you expressed your concerns it would get pretty frustrating wouldn't it so I ask you tonight do something different listen acknowledge answer our questions I'm here

150to get an update on a topic I spoke about last meeting probably two meetings ago this topic was BrainPOP let me just remind you about the horrendous material that our children have been exposed to this was the video about the BLM using a cartoon character to influence our children quote it isn't about blaming the police when an officer abuses their power that's just a symptom anybody remember this I've heard districts that have heard about this they actually removed the videos 35 videos to be exact so I stand here tonight and I'm asking you the board for an answer has this been looked into has anything been done I think as a community we deserve an answer when will we get an answer that isn't a simple copy and paste response or an attitude from a

151certain staff member when we call to get answers this group that was here labeled as racist or the angry mob is not going anywhere we are just parents looking for answers we demand answers give us that respect thank you okay so we're going to be addressing if you want to come back to the next meeting in September we're going to be addressing um Kevin scanlon's actually going to be addressing the um the brain pop and some other things um do your children attend an elementary school or a secondary level Elementary would you know which school Arrowhead okay um so if you want to come back uh there has been a committee's on BrainPOP and some very interesting statistics that we're going to share with our residents and our parents um about that at our next

152meeting okay thank you very much you're very welcome and I just want to just make it clear um so that we all understand the school opening plan that our superintendent went over the beginning of the meeting that is the plan that is the plan because we have a mandate from New York state that is going to direct the Department of Health and it's going to happen in the next couple of days from what we are told and instructed so you know I understand we understand um about the masks and like we agree with you no we don't want to wear the masks either um but it's not us not listening or not wanting or just trying to fight parents because we feel like it we have to follow the law and that's unless something changes

153in the Department of Health doesn't um abide by the uh the governor's Direction which I highly doubt um but again anything's possible this is the plan and um you know I think that we're doing as much as we can to make it as somewhat pre-covered as you know since March of 2020 um to 2020 graduation graduating class um from meaning K through through 12 that would that that finished that year out that was that was that was rough that was rough um 21 was better graduating class again K-12 everybody moving up okay it was better but was it pre-covered no not at all so we're trying hopefully 21-22 um we'll be even better you know we always want to get better and try to get it back back to pre-covered as we can but there

154are things that we can do and there's things that we can do um but whatever we can do especially for all of our students we're going to do it that's a hundred percent um do you have anything you want to add just so I I also want to state that um as there there are changes in there are things that do shift and if you all remember in June we made shifts because things were lightening up in terms of infection rates things were much more positive which led us to allow for a normal graduation I'm going to say of our entire graduating class which was almost 600 students at Ward Melville High School a normal prom so we do shift with the information that comes forward and we also have to realize that we may

155have to shift the other way if necessary but we have to be fluid in this plan right now this is the plan but we have to be ready to change and make those pivots whenever necessary and we're not going to remain stagnant we're going to constantly evaluate and reevaluate as we go through this year I just want to make that commitment to you the other thing in the last prior speaker I'm sorry I don't recall your name yes oh yes thank you and and thank you for your service to kindergarten children I will say teaching a Kindergarten class is probably one of the most difficult things that anybody can do um but I love to work yes I I do want to state that the school district would never be in a position of mandating

156a vaccine for a child that would not be a local decision that would come from the Department of Health or from New York state so as a school district we would never be in a position nor would we of that mandating vaccinations for children that as just if all of your immunizations that come forward and those immunizations that you have to meet each year those are not um something that the school district mandates that is from New York state so I just wanted to clarify that the governor has made a statement about vaccinating adults we still don't have information on that and she also made a statement about testing which we still don't have any specific information about so and I also want to make one other statement someone had mentioned that we would vaccinate

157or test children without parental permission I can assure you that will never ever happen so I just want you to have that reassurance thing okay I'm going to allow you to answer ask the question and then we're going to adjourn go ahead telling people follow the teachers you're mandating the master no no okay okay the governor has has put out a mandate she's directing the Department of Health to also do the same which is supposedly from what we hear are going to be in the next couple of days if that happens every school district will have mass mandates in New York state that's not us that's the New York State okay listen there's it's not back and forth I allowed you I allowed you excuse me I allowed you I okay we're not doing anything

158illegal we're following the governor the state of New York New York State Department of Health as soon as they uh put it out you know officially and that's what we're doing and if we don't they could shut us down they can fire all of us that's correct if we do not if we do not follow a mandate so does anybody have any other questions from the board or a discussion I just want to say one other thing you know I think we we've all recognized that um that our superintendent has spent a lot of time answering questions at all all hours and we're very appreciative but um I also want to and this is probably going to irritate you Diana but on just on behalf of the of the board I want to recognize that

159you've also spent you've talked to hundreds of people and you've talked to people from other districts you review all the research that that people send you reach out to us to ask our opinions your leadership through this has really been exceptional and I just I think you're doing a great job and we appreciate you thank you [Applause] foreign okay second meetings adjourned have a great first day of school