001We're just waiting 2 minutes so that the live stream starts on time at 7:30. Good evening everyone and welcome to our Wednesday, December 10th, 2025 board of education meeting. At this time, would you please rise as Katie leads us in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you so much. Uh, Miss Jano, any changes to our meeting agenda? >> No changes. >> Thank you. All right. So, that will take us to our student and staff recognition. We call up to the microphone, Mr. Finity for our fall sports awards. Okay, good evening. I'd like to thank the board of education, our central administration, and the community for taking the time tonight to honor our athletic teams and individuals who competed this past fall. We just had another great fall season filled with many accomplishments and some historic achievements.
002Many districts are fortunate to have one or a few teams make the playoffs. Every [snorts] single team of ours made the playoffs this past fall. Our field hockey team was a county finalist. Our football team was a county champion and Long Island finalist. Our cheer team won their county championship, finished third in the state. And our boys cross country team won their county championship, finished second in the state, and earned a bid to Nike Nationals. In addition, Anthony Anatol winning his own individual cross country championship. We also had several individual student athletes compete at the state level and earn earn a high awards who will be honored tonight as well. Most importantly, every single team was recognized as a New York State Scholar Athlete team this past fall. In addition, we recently earned the Scholar
003Athlete School of Distinction Award from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association for having all of our teams earn scholar athlete status from last year. This is our sixth year in a row of earning this distinction. This past fall, we had many student athletes earn all league, all conference, all county, all state, and even all-American status. Tonight, we will specifically honor several students and teams for the athletic achievements. At this time, I would like to introduce Liam Micheller for to highlight his rookie of the year award. Liam Micheller, if you can come on in. Come on in, LIAM. [applause] You can stay right there, Liam. [snorts] Uh, our boys volleyball coach, uh, Mr. Brian Ooni cannot be here tonight as he has parent teacher conferences at Murphy. Uh, but I'm going to read
004his speech. It's been a crazy 365 days for Liam. Literally the day before his freshman season, he tore his a ACL riding his bike, delaying the start to his high school volleyball career. But that didn't stop Liam. He worked hard through physical therapy and the weight room to get himself back and healthy for his sophomore season. I'd like to say that when Liam fell off that bike, he got back on it, but dad popped the tires and chained that bike up to the garage. Liam became a force this year and led our boys team to their fourth consecutive Final Four appearance. As a result, Liam was named Suffach County boys volleyball Rookie of the Year. Congratulations, LIAM. [applause] [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> And now I'd like to introduce our girls JB the coach Josh
005Aberg to highlight his coach of the year award. [applause] Coach Aberg, whose dedication and commitment have had an incredible impact on the Ward Mobile girls volleyball program. Coach Aberg brings a level of preparation, energy, and passion that truly elevates our athletes. He doesn't just coach to win. He coaches to develop. His focus is on building strong fundamentals, instilling confidence, and fostering a general love of the sport. His practices are purposeful. His experiences and expectations are clear, and his belief in each athlete is unmistakable. The [snorts] growth we see with his players is a direct reflection of his work, ethic, and standard that holds to himself. Uh on behalf of Coach Haley Blunt and myself, congratulations, Coach Aberg, on your coach of the year award. [applause] CONGRATULATIONS. Come on. I'll take a picture. >> [applause] >>
006And now I'd like to introduce our boys soccer coaches Roco Vetro and Tom Whitehead to present Ethan Boreno with his awards. [applause] >> All right. Good evening. Tonight I'm very fortunate to be able to stand here and speak about Elliot Burggo. In my opinion, the best male soccer player to ever play at Ward Mill High School. Elliot has been a key member of the varsity boy soccer team since 9th grade. Captain his past two years. You know, last year we stood up here, he was all state. this is nothing for him, you know, but uh last year up here at All State and he had 28 goals in his career and uh you know, constantly trying to prove ourselves, set goals for ourselves and uh this year he finished his career, he scored 25 goals,
007led one in goal scoring. um had a hat-tick in the All-Star game uh and basically he finished his uh career with 53 goals and 21 assists, making him an all-time leading goal and point scorer for Melville soccer and um which is pretty amazing. Uh this year besides, you know, you know, getting all those goals and you know, being MVP, he was all conference, all county, all Long Island, all state, all region, and as we just found out yesterday, all American. All right. AND UM [applause] so only 110 boys in the entire country who play high school soccer was all American and he's one of them and my opinion one of the best ones of them. Um he's one of the best strikers I've ever seen and combined with intellectual ability really sets him apart from
008the rest. He will receive academic all county this year as well. Uh with an overall weight average of at the time, I don't know if it's still the same now, 101.65. His ability to balance school with soccer truly makes him a role model for any student athlete. When I see when I see Ellie, I see the little seventh grade boy I met with that big smile and determination to be the best, constantly setting goals for himself, always working on his craft, true superstar ahead of his time. and um his amazing skills paired up with his unique work ethic, motivation, desire to win and be the best is what truly sets him apart. For the past four years, I've been screening with Coach Whitehead. Go Elliot, you know, from the sidelines. And uh now they can't
009do it anymore from the sidelines. I will be doing it as I watch as we keep watching his him conquer whatever comes next in his career. And um I'm so proud of him. Congratulations, Pal. Going to miss you big time. [applause] Ellie Fuia all world. He's great. Thank you. THANK YOU SO MUCH. [applause] AND NOW I'D LIKE to introduce our varsity field hockey coach Shannon Sios and field hockey player Hadley Tory. [applause] Good evening everyone. I would like to first say thank you for letting us acknowledge the following student athletes before you this evening. What an amazing accomplishment they have all achieved through their years of dedication and hard work. The young LA lady standing before you right now is absolutely no different. This season alone, Hadley has racked in the awards more than any
010other Ward Melville field player has. She was named one of News Day's players to watch at the beginning of the season. She then received all state honors from the Suffach County Field Hockey Coaches Association last night along with being named as one of seven exceptional senior athletes at the dinner. Hadley received the all academic award that goes to the player on a team with the highest GPA. And lastly, Hadley last last night was recognized as Suffach County's defensive player of the year. News Day has also selected Hadley for the All Long Island team as well as their all Long Island player of the year. What a resume, right? I feel it's important that you also know a little bit about Hadley. So, please forgive me, but this young lady deserves the words that I'm about
011to say now. Hadley is a remarkable young lady both on and off the field. She is an amazing athlete who not only has natural athleticism but who has a work ethic like no other. Her pure love of this game is contagious and it is an absolute pleasure to coach. As we ended our season recently in a game that I never thought was possible for our team this season, the county championship game for the fifth year in a row, four of which Hadley were a part of. I reflected on the reason why it happened and all signs pointed towards Hadley. Hadley knew last year when our season ended that there was going to be a lot of gaps to fill and it would be a huge role for her to take on. She did this with
012such grace, honor, and class. She is the reason our team signed up for winter and spring league. She is the reason our numbers were what they were during our summer pickup practices. She was the reason our very tight games ended with a win. She was the reason our practices were as focused and productive. and she was the reason we made it to that county championship again this year. Hadley is so balanced when it comes to this game. She is as strong of an attacker as she is a defender. She is just as strong of a student in the classroom as she is on the field. She is respectful to all those she comes in contact with and appreciates all that she is given. But she also works just as hard because she knows that it
013is a true reflection of the person she is today. Hadley could have easily played division one uh level field hockey, but from the start she knew that she wanted to focus on making her college experiences as wellrounded as possible. She will continue her career at Mbury next year where I have no doubt that she will make an impact right away as she has done for us here at Ward Melville. As our season comes to an end, the question came to my head that was how are we going to fill Hadley's shoes next year? The answer is simple. Simple. We won't. There is no way to replace someone like Hadley because no one will ever be as truly remarkable as she is. What I can say is she has left a lasting legacy for our program
014and what it truly means to represent Word Mobile Field Hockey. And her leadership, example, and heart will forever resonate with all those she has gotten to play with. Thank you, Hadley, for all that you have done. My only hope is that you were able to gain from us just as much as we have gained from you. Congratulations again. [applause] [snorts] >> [applause] >> Okay. Okay. I'd like to now introduce our girls soccer coach Joe Marquetta, the highlight player, Nory Corzeno, and JV coach, Casey Schmidt. [applause] They know who knows who. >> Okay. It is truly my pleasure to be here tonight to speak on behalf of Nory Corzeno. Nori has as a as a freshman and a sophomore has been a key asset for our girls varsity soccer team the last two years. This season
015our team finished in the Suffach Final Four with a 14-4 record uh 15-4 overall only to be knocked out by the uh eventual state champions. However, outside of that one team in an impressive defensive stand, we uh conceded only five goals versus 16 opponents. Um 11 shutout wins within that, as well as um only allowing no more than one goal per game, six shutouts for the last um six games of our regular season play. I [snorts] mentioned these stats tonight because Nori starting at the center back position uh on defense for our team was at the core of that defensive unit. It really does take the entire team to defend effectively on the field and Nori was at the uh core of that defensive unit. Even though it it is hard to make defensive play
016stand out on the field, uh Norway was able to stand out making her highle defensive capabilities um really shine in terms of highlevel skills. Um scoring goals usually is what attracts attention on the field. However, um Nory's high level of skill grit on the field to win the ball on defense while marshalling our backline and helping our buildup play on offense as well as even adding to the scoreboard herself by scoring some goals of our own on our team set pieces was able to attract attention for her. These elements of play are what earned Nory all county honors this season. However, just a couple of days ago, all state teams were mentioned as well, and Nory was named to third team all state, making her uh putting her among the top teams in all of
017New York State for the AAA big big schools. But beyond just her soccer ability, Nori always demonstrated a highly competitive mindset and maintained a demeanor and even an emotional intelligence beyond her years. and she really was professional in everything that she did. And all of this was absolutely reflected in her composure on the field. You know, in most in most documentaries about big-time players, they very often uh express how much extra work that those athletes put into um into their craft and you know, whatever form that might take. And in in the case of Nory, that is her big-time approach to everything that she does in soccer, doing [snorts] what needs to be done and very often going well above and beyond um for her team and her teammates in particular in the realm of
018leadership in all aspects of the word um and in practice and on game day. And that is what earned Murray the SUFFK Division 1 Defensive Player of the Year award this season. In light of all of these outstanding qualities that Nori possesses as a player, uh it's no surprise that she's also attracted the attention of higher level teams, not just college level. Uh I'm speaking about one in particular the Gotham FC Pro Soccer team and the NWSL Pro League who have won two of the last three league championships who have also called up Nori into their player pathway program where she has represented very well and where she has also been named MVP on two different occasions in their training camps. Further endorsing Nory's quality as a player and as a competitor. Uh this is
019my first season coaching girls varsity soccer here and I can still remember the very first practice session where I just happened to call upon Nory uh before even knowing who she was or knowing her name to [snorts] demonstrate a training exercise and watching her performance that day um not just in that one exercise but overall uh it was clear from day one that she was going to be a great player for us and she's completely surpassed all those expectations in so many ways. easily earning the respect and admiration of her coaches, her teammates, and really all the members of our girls soccer program here. [snorts] Uh they all know who Nory is. And so on behalf of our girls soccer program and our athletic department, please join me in honoring and congratulating Nori Corenko, still
020just a sophomore, on all of these outstanding accomplishments this year. [applause] and and we have another member of our girls soccer program here who would like to uh present to you this evening, our JV coach, Casey Schmidt. Casey has been recognized this year as the League One Junior Varsity Coach of the Year for Girl Soccer. However, Casey is no stranger to this award as she was the recipient of it last year as well for League 2. This is Casey's second year coaching our JB girls soccer team. [snorts] Um, and this was another successful season for them as well. In the league standings, they finished in first place with a 14-2 record. I personally had the opportunity to watch the team play on a couple of different occasions and can attest to the high level of
021performance they're putting forth on the field, which is uh part for the course for Casey's work as a coach. uh because at the same time some of our former players were putting forth similar performances for our varsity team this year as well. In working with Casey on the field, she is very organized, uh very effective in the delivery of coaching points, be extremely knowledgeable, uh with her extensive background in soccer, and she maintains high standards for our players in this program, which I feel is very important. And you know, in general, Casey just brings an energetic personality to her work, gaining the respect of her players and her colleagues alike. Beyond that, Casey is a true competitor and a true team player in the program sense of the word in that she's always willing to
022do what needs to be done for the benefit of the program overall. In addition, Casey is also a physical education teacher in this district, wielding the same diligence um getting herself involved in various district services to positively impact three village students in many ways. uh further affirming her value as a three village member. Speaking for myself personally, uh I really enjoyed uh coaching with Casey this season, my first year here, and I am looking forward to many more successful seasons with her as well. So again, on behalf of the entire soccer program and the athletic department, please join me in congratulating Casey Schmidt on this two repeat of the JD coach of the year. [applause] >> [clears throat] [applause] >> And now I'd like to introduce our girls swimming coach Chris Gordon to highlight Kate
023Geronda and Jacqueline Vince Aguire who competed at the state championship. [applause] Good evening. [snorts] Thanks for having us tonight. Tonight we recognize two extraordinary senior captains, seniors and captains, Kate Geronda right here and Jacqueline Vincua, >> [snorts] >> um, who have left an indelible mark on our program. These two young women are not only incredible competitors, but they are also remarkable leaders and truly great people. First, let's celebrate Kiranda, a 5-year varsity athlete. Kate's dedication and talent have been evident year after year. She has consistently been a pillar of our success, qualifying for the state meet three consecutive years. [snorts] She was a key member of two league championship teams and one county championship team. For the last two years, she has guided this team with a steady hand as one of our captains. Next,
024we honor Jackie Vinciguara. As a six-year varsity athlete, Jackie's commitment has been unmatched. Her powerful contributions led to her to be, I'm sorry, led her to become a league champion two times and a county champion once. This year, both Kate and Jackie reached the pinnacle of high school swimming achievement by earning All State honors their senior year. A testament to their drive and competitive spirit. As captains, they exemplified what is what it means to be a leader, pushing their teammates to be their best while fostering a positive and supportive environment. Kate and Jackie, as you both get ready to head off to college, please know we will we will miss you very much. [snorts] You have set a high bar for excellence and character. We thank you for your commitment, your leadership, and everything you've
025given to this team. We wish you the very best in your next chapter. [applause] >> [applause] >> And now I'd like to call up Isabelle. Horn and coach Gavin Biggs. We'd like to recognize Isabella Horn for participating in the girls cross country state championship. [applause] Our cross country coach uh Tom Youngs could not be here tonight as it's uh parent teacher conference night. So I will read his speech. It is my honor to recognize freshman Isabella Horn for her exceptional athletic achievement this fall. In her very first season competing in cross country, Isabella earned all league, all division, all county and qualified for the New York State Public High School Championships and the New York State Federation Championships. Isabella, your dedication, perseverance, and sheer grit have culminated in an outstanding performance. This is a wonderful
026accomplishment that reflects countless hours of early morning practices, challenging workouts, and pushing past the limits of physical and mental endurance. Qualifying for the New York State level places you amongst the elite runners in New York. You have represented our team and our school with honor, pride, and sportsmanship. Your discipline is an inspiration to all of us. This young lady is one of the hardest working, toughest competitors around. Yet to her teammates and coaches, she is one of the most kind-hearted and free-spirited individuals you will ever meet. It is with great honor that we recognize and applaud Isabella Horn on her outstanding achievement this past year. CONGRATULATIONS [applause] [applause] here as well. >> [applause] >> And now I'd like to introduce our back-to-back twotime Suffach County Champions, boys cross country team and coach Ryan Duca. [applause]
027Thank you. >> Good evening everybody. Standing before you is arguably the best cross country team Ward Mobile has ever fielded. Um, this is started, this whole journey started back in last June when I sat down with the boys and we established a couple of goals that we wanted to accomplish this year. Last year we won the county championships for the second time in school history and the first time, excuse me, first time in about 50 years. Um, we went to states, we came in sixth place and we sat down and said that's not enough. Um, they wanted to win counties again. They then wanted to go on and win the state meet. Uh, I think what they did this year was every high school's dream. They competed in the league and won every single race.
028They went to three separate invitational meets starting with the pre-state meet up in Queensberry. We came in first place there. Came back to Long Island, competed at the Suffach Coaches Invitational, took first place there. and then went up to Bowden Park in Winger Falls and competed at the section one coaches invitational and came in first place there. We then went on to our county championship where led by Anthony Anatol who won the race overall, we came in first place and won the county championships for the second time in as many years and the third time in school history. Then we go on to the federate or the state championship where we didn't come in sixth, we came in second place. Unfortunately, we were fighting some colds, but they battled through it and they ran great
029coming in second and earning their way into the Federation Championship the following weekend. The Federation Championship is held up at Winger Falls and we went back for the second time this year and finished second place there as well. Fortunately, losing to the same team that beat us the first time, but they didn't know we were going to get our revenge. So, in that race, the Federation Championship, we also compete in what's called the National Cross Country Regionals. It's a comboed meet. So, the top two teams and the top five individuals that are not on one of those two teams qualify to go to what's called NXN, the Nike Cross Country Nationals, where the top 22 teams go to compete uh in Oregon. And for the first time in school history and the third time in
030Long Island history, we qualified to go. NXN is every high school runner's dream across the country. And these boys right here before you qualified and went on and competed very valiantly. Uh Anthony Anatol finished 42nd overall. I believe that has opened up a number of doors for him and his his phone has not stopped ringing since. Um on top of that, Anthony and Andrew Se are all state athletes and all Long Island athletes. Congratulations boys on a wonderful season. I know we have a lot more to give. [applause] >> [applause] >> And now I'd like to introduce our backto backto back three times. I'm game day cheerleading Suffach County Champions and coach Georgia Curtis and Maggie Harley. [snorts and applause] [applause] [cough and clears throat] >> So many of them. Our [laughter] varsity cheerleading team
031is made up of extremely dedicated athletes who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment throughout the fall game day season. Through their hard work, our team went 3-1 in the regular season and captured the county championship for the third year in a row. What makes this accomplishment even more special is that no other team besides Ward Melville has ever won a class A game day county championship. Every year, this group continues to raise the bar and make history. They showed up every single day ready to work. They pushed through long practices, early mornings, tough setbacks, and big goals. And they did it together. Their dedication, resilience, and heart are what earned them the right to call themselves county championships. County champions and represent Section 11 and Ward Melville High School at the state championship in Troy. They made
032it to the final round and finished third in the entire state in the class A division. The varsity cheerleaders will continue on with their traditional routine during the winter season. We want to thank the board of education, our superintendent, Mr. Finery, and our amazing booster club and community for always supporting the sport of cheerleading. Us coaches are so incredibly proud of the work ethic and achievements put forward by the varsity cheerleaders. [applause] Before we take our picture, I'd like to also recognize Coach Gurtis as um she was also recognized as coach of the year. AND UM >> [applause] >> UH, COACH CURTIS has transformed our cheer program into a championship caliber team who competes at the highest level. In the last few years, our cheer team has won multiple county and state championships and has
033placed the highest ever at Disney. Um, more importantly, Coach Curtis has installed important values with her team such as dedication, teamwork, and uh, perseverance. Our [snorts] cheer team not only competes with precision and intensity, but they always stick together and know how to support each other and be a team. Because of these accomplishments, I'm very proud to announce Georgia Curtis as uh [snorts] once again game day coach of the year. [applause] I'm not on top, [laughter] two Congratulations. [applause] >> Congratulations. Okay. Okay. Yep. Yes, we need to make room for our football team. I don't know how we're doing >> John. Are they coming? The team they coming in. Start. You should send the team in. >> Trying to get them down. >> Two big teams passing each other. How would you see my Okay.
034Now, I'd like to introduce our county championship football team and coach Chris Bolt. [cheering] [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Yeah, there's a lot of them. [applause] All right. Um, uh, I'd like to begin by thanking the board of education and the administration for having us in tonight to honor these boys, uh, for their accomplishments this season. the the community support that we had all season long uh has been phenomenal. Uh from attendance at games to local businesses, you know, donating to our dinners and and hosting us for dinners. Um it's it's really something special to see football uh as something that that really matters to the residents of Three Village. So that that means a lot to us and and we really appreciate that. Um that sentiment from the community is in no small part
035due to the gentleman that you see in front of you. This was a historic season for Ward Melville football. Uh it was our first uh season ever winning 10 games in a season at 10 and two. UM [applause and cheering] these gentlemen have also maintained a standard uh that we've had in the program for quite some time. uh winning a county championship for the second time in 4 years. Uh keeping in mind that before these two county championships, the last one was in 1987, uh should tell you uh where the program is now. Uh and again, it's it's because of their effort and hard work. Uh we also finished as the seventh ranked large school in the state of New York, which is our highest end of season ranking that we've ever had. [cheering] [applause]
036We finished second in the Ruckers Cup voting which is given to the uh what's voted on as the best team in Suffach County by the Suffach Coaches Association. So Savville won that uh you know deservedly so. Uh we came in second in voting which is the highest that we've we've ever reached since we won the Ruckers Cup again in 1987. >> [applause] >> Uh, additionally, several of our Patriots were honored with postseason awards. Uh, Joe Carpowitz was given the award for the best wide receiver in Suffach County. [applause] Quarterback Hudson Filbrick is first team all Long Island, which is the first time we've ever had a junior uh be named first team all Long Island by Newsuesday. [applause] And there are a ton of other uh accolades these guys have gotten. Um you know many
037of them individually uh some team accolades. Uh we set records a bunch of kid different kids set records this season uh from from the school's perspective. Uh and so again it was it was a tremendous year. Uh but while I'm up here, I also want to uh point out that all the accolades aside, uh these are just a great group of young men um who continue to to represent the program and represent the district uh in a positive way all over the community. Um, you know, they have you throughout the past couple of years that you would have seen them outside of Stop and Shop and Sat Talk, uh, conducting food drives for local food pantries, uh, volunteering at the Stony Brook Veterans Home, uh, on multiple occasions, uh, and spending countless hours. I think
038if you added it all up, you know, it would be hundreds, if not over a thousand combined hours, uh, that these guys have donated to to youth football in in the Three Village area, uh, and different different clinics and things like that. So, they deserve a tremendous uh round of applause from everybody, please uh for all they've done. [applause] [applause] Uh and and they'll continue to do it. Uh I think if uh we have a clinic coming up, Hudson Filbrick has his actually his own uh charitable organization called Pass It Forward. Uh they'll be running a clinic soon for for the youth in our community. um and and they were just uh at the veterans home uh on December 7th. Uh so again, they're going to continue to to represent the program uh and and
039represent you know, their parents as well uh in a positive light, which is uh you know, is exactly what you ask for. Uh and as a result, I'll end with that I am uh I'm honored to coach these guys. Uh it's been a pleasure uh and I'm very much looking forward to all the success they have in the future. THANK YOU. [applause] I THINK EVERYBODY. >> OKAY. >> YEAH. >> OKAY. >> If you guys are standing in the back row, try and stand with the person in front of you. Everyone look this way. Congratulations. [applause] [cheering] [applause] Congratulations. >> Okay, that's that's it. Thank you both. Okay, I apologize about the length of our presentation, but as you can see, we have so many great things going on in Ward Melville Sports. I'd like to
040thank our parents for all your support, our student athletes for all their hard work, and uh our dedicated coaches. On behalf of the athletic department, thank you for providing us with this opportunity to highlight these great accomplishments. It gives me great pride and uh pleasure to uh be our athletic director. Thank you, [applause] Mr. Finney. Congratulations to you and the entire athletic program. Your leadership has been immense in making sure that the success of this program has grown as much as it has. Thank you again. >> Congratulations. [applause] >> All right, the accolades are just going to keep on rolling for a minute. Dr. Biscari, we turn it over to you for all state musicians. >> If the parents of the football team want to leave, you're welcome to. [laughter] Okay. Well, at this time,
041I'd like to uh invite up our director of fine arts, uh, Miss Ashley Aer. Good evening, members of the board of education, administrators, parents, students, and community members. I'd first like to extend my thanks to all of you for uh taking this night out of a very busy concert season to be here so we can honor you. And I'd also like to thank all of our parents and the community as well as the board of education for your continued and quite endless support of our music program. Without you and that support, we wouldn't be here. So, thank you. The NISMA or New York State School Music Association Allstate Festival held each December in Rochester is one of the most distinguished opportunities available to high school musicians in New York State. For those who may not
042be familiar with this festival, each year more than 6,500 high school musicians from across the state prepare and perform highly demanding audition solos at NISMA adjudications. From these auditions, only a few hundred students, those who earn the very highest scores and commendations from adjudicators and teachers, are selected from the all-state ensembles to form the all-state ensembles, the symphony orchestra, string orchestra, symphonic band, wind ensemble, mixed choir, treble choir, and jazz ensemble. These ensembles rehearse and perform at the NISMA winter conference in Rochester, and they showcase the finest student musicians the state has to offer. Being selected either to participate or as an alternate places a student among the top young musicians in all of New York. This year I had the privilege of attending the conference and witnessing firsthand the extraordinary level of artistry these
043students bring to the stage. It was truly inspiring and a testament to the hard work, passion, and dedication that programs like ours here in Three Village helped to cultivate. Tonight, I am especially proud to recognize 11 of our 11th and 12th grade musicians who were selected to participate in this festival or named as alternates. Their talent is matched by their leadership within our music program where they have taken active roles in shaping our ensembles, supporting their peers and contributing to the strong musical community we celebrate here in three village. Now for our honores, as I call your name, please come forward to receive your award and remain standing so we can take a group photo after. Maria Gabriov. [applause] Congratulations. Sorry, it's a bit of a long walk. Ji Wuhan, [applause] Benjamin Ma, [applause] Julian
044Moore, Ariela Mossi, [applause] Charlie Cerna, [applause] Gian Sugimoto, [applause] Gabrielle Wong, [applause] Benjamin Freedenberg, [applause] SHANNON ORE [applause] and Jins Su Zoo. [applause] And while we're at it, let's give them another round of applause for this amazing accomplishment. [applause] We're going to walk up to the front field. So, congratulations to our students, but we also want to congratulate Miss Aer. This was her first year as being the director of fine arts for the district, which is not a role that has existed before, and she's truly embraced both the music end at the same time, and has done a wonderful job. So, thank you, Miss Oer. [applause] >> Absolutely. Congratulations again. So, we're going to move on now to our school news. I'm going to call you up by school, starting with the elementary schools. And
045if you could go to that microphone on that side, please. We'll start with Arrowhead. Good evening. My name is Madison Lombardi and I am a fifth grader at Arrowhead. I am happy to share the fun and exciting events that has been taking place in this past month. For November, we celebrated the character tree of thankfulness. Every day, a quote about thankfulness was read over the morning announcements. And at the end of the month, one one student from every class earns a character trait award and the winner's pictures post are posted on the character trait bulletin board. On November 7th, the entire school participated for jeans for troops and raising money for GI GoFundM. All of our second graders went on a field trip to the one room schoolhouse. Our prekers participated in a Friendsgiving celebration.
046On November 25th, our special education students celebrated our second annual balloon over Broadway parade. Good evening. I mean, good evening. My name is Lily Pearson and I'm a fifth grader at Arrowhead. We are happy to share the fun exciting events that have been taking place this month. Our December character trade award is generosity. In December, we are looking forward to our winter concert on December 18th. The war mel warn Melville carolers visiting our school on December 19th and a wide v variety of the other winter and holiday celebrations. We are having a candy cane sale to raise money to buy toys for for toddlers. Irahead is collecting gently used or new coats for our annual coat drive. Our wonderful PTA will be hosting a holiday boutique for our students in spirit week. >> [applause] >>
047Excellent job. Fantastic. All right, Masaki, you're up. Good evening. My name is Declan Butler and I'm a fourth grader at Masaki. I have some good news to share with you. This year, Masaki is proud to announce to introduce a new club, safety patrol. Students in the groups are learning important school safety protocols and assisting our younger learners during arrival and dismissal. This club promotes leaderships, responsibility, and community service. In the coming weeks, safety patrol members will begin wearing special Mosaki safety vest to help identify student volunteers and highlight their important role in keeping our school safe. Students in second grade recently went to a field trip to the Long Island Museum one room schoolhouse where they stepped back in time and experienced what school was like in the 19th century. Students solved arithmetic problems on
048slate boards and played traditional games from the era. They also explored explored aspects of farm life and local communities through primary sources and handdraw on object investigations. Students fully immerse themselves in this journey back in time by dressing in period appropriate attire for this special trip. In honor of the season, gratitude and giving, students are participating in a variety of meaningful service projects. Our student council is once again joining with Murphy Middle School in holding the annual stuff bus campaign. Schoolwide drives invite students and families to donate new toys in the spirit of the season of giving to the Gerald Ryan Outreach Center in wine dance. Our fourth graders are leading a holiday food drives in support of Long Island Cares. Their goal is to donate 250 lbs of fresh food and they've and they're
049cro close to reaching it. To support the effort, students are selling handmade bracelets to raise funds. And families also have the option to purchase a food item through a QR code, which is delivered directly to Long Island Cares. The students are passionate about the mission of Long Island Cares, helping families celebrate the holidays with dignity, comfort, and a full table. Fifth graders had their first collaborative guidance session with guidance counselor Miss Clark and media specialist Miss Kinsley. In the library, students participated in a cyber bullying lesson using Near Pod and a common sense media lesson design. They [snorts] explored different scenarios, identifying upstanders and bystanders and discussed appropriate responses for each situation. Our annual holiday boutique is in full swing this week. Students have the opportunity to visit the boutique with our class and select
050special gifts for their loved ones. A big thank you to our amazing PTA for organizing the boutique. And to our fifth grade students are helping their younger buddies with their holiday shopping. Thank you. [applause] [applause] Fantastic job. Okay, Mount, come on up to the microphone. >> Good evening. My name is Aubrey Deljouro and I'm a fifth grader at Mount and a member of the student council. I'm excited to share some amazing things that have been happening in our school. PreK classes had their big Thanksgiving feast. They work so hard making decorations and sharing food with their families. The whole room smelled delicious and the prekers students look so proud. Next, the kindergarteners celebrated their Native American day. Family and friends joined in the celebration. They learned about Native American traditions, made crafts, and even tried
051some games. They had a great time exploring history in such a fun way. Our first grade classes had a special animal visit. Real life animals came to our school. The first graders learned about how animals live, what they eat, and what they I mean how to take care of them. Everyone loved getting to see the animals up close. The fifth graders went on a field trip to Commerce Plaza. They got to experience what it's like to have real jobs, run a business, and even manage money. It looked like a lava. One of the best events this year was our annual balloons over mount Thanksgiving parade. The students made amazing floats and the whole school as well as families and friends cheered as they paraded around the bus circle. We sang and shared some holiday songs
052and got a sneak preview of our upcoming drama production. It felt like the real Thanksgiving parade in New York City, only made by kids and more awesome. Our PTA hosted the animal basket dinner fundraiser at the park bench. Many families and staff attended, raising money to support our school community. Finally, our student council hosted the great give back. Students collected items for Mount's food pantry so families in our community can have what they need for the holidays. It was inspiring to see many kids helping others. This fall has been full of learning, helping, and celebrating together. I'm proud to be part of a school that does so much for our students and our community. Thank you and have a h a wonderful holiday season. [applause] Really great job. Okay, NASA, come on up. Good evening.
053My name is Lena Money and I'm a fifth grader at NASA Cake and a part of the NASA Cake Student Council. I have some good news to share with you. Our preks had a delicious feast and our NASA cake students had a great time shopping at our annual holiday boutique. A winter concert is scheduled for Thursday, December 11th. The student students have worked really hard preparing for this evening which will feature music from orchestra, band, and chorus. This Friday is a winter family fun night. >> [snorts] >> This NASA cake students are looking forward to a fun night filled with creative crafts, seasonal games, and sweet treats. December is a very busy month. We have our second grade holidays around the world celebration, holiday parties, district caring, orchestra and band performances, and the word melo
054players production of Charlie Brown. So many fun things to look forward to. So on behalf of the NASA cake students and community, we wish everyone a very happy holiday. >> [applause] >> Excellent job. Okay, so talk it. You're up. Good morning, members of the board of education. My name is Vetta Murphy and I'm from student council and I'm excited to share some of the amazing things happening at Satake Elementary. First, our third graders held their annual Thanksgiving balloon parade. Each student designed a balloon float inspired by their favorite book characters. They marched around the bus circle and through the halls and the whole school came out to cheer them on. It was so much fun to see all the colorful and creative designs. Next, our PTA hosted Wingo night. It was a huge hit. The
055students and their families came together on family connect night to play Wingo, eat pizza, and enjoy time with one another. This month, wait, our big gym is turning into a holiday themed mini golf course. Every student will get the chance to practice their putting skills while walking through a festive decorations and listening to holiday music. We can't wait to try it. Our student council also celebrated World Kindness Day in a special way. We created a positive pins, each with an encouraging message. Throughout the day, students clip these pins onto one another to spread kindness around the school. Any money raised from this project will go towards some of our upcoming student council initiatives like creating a conversation cart, adding a second indoor recess room, and donating to the Jamaica relief fund. Lastly, Sataka Elementary School's
056family connect night is now live on the goodschase.com blog as an example of what's possible when family engagement, fun, and fundraising come together. We hope to inspire other schools to plan exciting events just like this one. We are really proud of how our school continues to come together to spread kindness, support our community, and makes the talk a great place to go to school. Happy holidays. [applause] All right, how about another round of applause for our elementary schools? That is hard to get up there and do. All right, middle schools. We will start with Jelenus, please. Good evening everyone. My name is Lucas Delarpio. I'm an eighth grader at Gelinus and I'm excited to be here tonight. I'm here to share all the exciting things going on at Julenus lately. On November 10th, an internet
057safety presentation was held for the sixth and seventh graders. Kids learned about risks of social media, like how addicting scrolling is and how your digital footprint follows you. In honor of the Patriot Pathway meeting for the eighth graders, the guidance team brought out the guidance wheel during the eighth graders lunch period. Students were encouraged to spin the wheel which had prompts like that the students answered like I'm thankful for and I feel lucky because the students favorite part of the wheel is once you answer the question you get a piece of candy. These patriot pathway meetings are helpful to the students to let them know what opportunities they have open to them at the high school. Concert season is underway at Gelenus where the seventh and eighth graders performed on Wednesday December 3rd. The sixth
058graders also have their concert this week on Monday December 8th. The showcase concert will be held on December 16th. The orchestra, band, and chorus all shine thanks to their amazing teachers, Mr. Mailer, Miss Stark, Mr. Meyer, and Mr. Deparzio. The Gelina student government has been busy helping those less fortunate with their food drive, which just passed, encouraging classes to donate food to families that need it most. With the help of the amazing students at the school, the drive was a huge success with Miss Sarola's class leading the charge, donating 103 food items. Since the holiday season is rolling in, the student government has announced the toy drive running from December 1st to December 15th to support families in need around the holidays. For every toy donated, students receive an entry to the lottery with the
059winner getting a special prize. The more toys donated and families helped, the more entries a student has in the lottery. Starting this coming w Monday, Julina student government will be hosting a winter themed spirit week. From white out day to cozy pajama day, the students are looking forward to representing the school. Thank you for listening. I'm happy to be here and I hope you all have a great rest of the holiday season. [applause] >> Excellent job. Thank you so much. Come on up, Murphy. You got this. >> Good evening. My name is Matthew Doyle and I'm an eighth grader at Murphy Middle School. Our sixth and seventh graders had their first concert in Murphy Middle School. Our eighth grade concert was also held and it was wonderful. Our showcase concert will be held on December
06015th. These are the students in wind ensemble, chamber orchestra, jazz band, and mixed choir. We hosted a family STEM night which was attended by hundreds of Three Village students and families. Murphy also held their kindness breakfast for students that were recognized as making an outstanding contribution to our school or community. The staff nominated 22 students and a breakfast was held in their honor. We had our first seventh grade field trip for this year. The English department or organized this event for the students to see A Christmas Carol at Theater 3. Hi, I'm Luke Santhramo, an eighth grader from Murphy Middle School. Student government collected toys and will be stuffing a bus with toys for the Wine Dance Outreach Center on the 16th. Murphy held a food drive for Thanksgiving. Baskets were made and distributed for
061families in need in the community. The Murphy guidance department is hosting a raffle basket fundraiser until the 11th. All money from the basket raffles will go towards holiday gifts for our Murphy families in need. The Murphy musical will be announced at Friendley's on December 16th. The Murphy Wind Ensemble and Shaber Orchestra will be playing for the students and staff as they arrive into the building and the mix choir will be singing throughout the hall throughout the halls for all to enjoy the day before break. Thank you and have a good Christmas break. [applause] >> Thank you so much. We had a little bit of a lastm minute change, so Dr. Back is going to do the academy for us. We're about halfway through the second marking period now and classes are progressing well at the
062Three Village Academy. On November 17th, we h we held our academy awards to honor students with perfect attendance and outstanding achievement in their academic and social development. Last week, students started extra regent exam review sessions for some of our students that are testing in January. November was another fun and productive month at the Three Village Academy. We held a food drive to collect toiletries and canned and boxed food for the needy. We donated some of the items to the Three Village Central School District's food pantries for our needy families and the rest was sent to the Long Island Cares Regional Food Bank. This year, we had a competition between each of our four classes to see which grade brought the most items to the food drive. Uh the 12th grade easily won, contributing more than
063the rest of the school combined. It was an impressive hall of donations for a small school. On Tuesday, November 25th, the academy held our annual Thanksgiving feast. This year we dedicated an entire day to special activities for the occasion. We played all sorts of games from video and card games to cooperative escape room scavenger hunts and of course a giant volleyball game with the guidance of Christina from the from Triery. Students used students used food and frosting to make cute turkey cupcake tops. The lunch was a true feast. So many of the north country uh office workers contributed food for us. It was a delicious and plentiful buffet, including traditional Thanksgiving dinner items and desserts. Not overlooking the meaning of the holiday, all of the students participated in gratitude activities, sending thank you texts and
064thank you notes. The staff and the students at the academy again want to express our gratitude to all the staff of the North Country building who cooked for us and helped make this a great day. From one celebration to another, this Monday, students at the Three Village Academy were visited by the Polar Express. Students boarded the simulated train car and were rewarded with a holiday show with stories from actors, sweet treats, and holiday singalongs. Afterwards, the students all gathered for a grand hot chocolate bar. The staff and the students at the academy want to recognize and thank Dr. Scandlin for purchasing the Polar Express experience for us. Dr. Scan, thank you for your generosity and always supporting the academy. [applause] >> Thank you so much. And now we turn it over to Katie for the
065high school. >> Hi, good evening. I'm excited to be back to deliver another report. So, I just wanted to congratulate all the athletes that we saw tonight. Or Melville has a really great student population of athletes that were really incredibly talented. So, we saw them tonight. So, just wanted to give them a little shout out. Um, but at War Melville last week, a couple of the student government board members and I had the privilege to attend the Compassion Without Borders conference hosted by the Suffach County High School Principles Association. This was the second year our school attended and I would like to extend our sincere thanks to the administration for sending us again. This event offered our student leaders a valuable opportunity to connect with peers from across the county. We got to listen to
066amazing keynote speakers and engage in meaningful conversations while attending breakout sessions where we learned about teamwork, compassion, and how to lead [clears throat] with empathy, reinforcing our commitment to positive student leadership. We were also lucky enough to welcome Dr. Scandan, who recently visited student clubs to promote the district's task force initiative. This outreach represents a great step in encouraging student engagement and spreading positivity, and I know Dr. understand this message resonated with a lot of our students and I'm pleased to share that many of of my peers have already taken the initiative to sign up. Earlier today, all the 11th grade grade students gathered in the auditorium for a compelling assembly featuring guest speaker Carl Wilkins. Mr. Wilkins, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, shared his firstirhand experiences with us.
067His message encourages our students to embrace understanding, respectful dialogue and empathy, to recognize shared humanity, and to foster civil discourses that brings people together rather than divide dividing them. I believe this assembly was deeply meaningful to our students and resonated with many students today. I also wanted to mention that I'm proud to announce that our yearbook pro program at War Mobile High School has once again earned national recognition at the Nashville convention. Our yearbook club has been working very hard these past few months by interviewing students and updating us with important information and surveys for our class. And I'm so glad they recently got recognized for their amazing accomplishments. Additionally, we recently held the inter induction ceremony for the Ro Kappa Honor Society or Social Studies Honor Society. And this prestigious honor recognizes a select
068group of students with a strong interest in social studies who also excel academically in those classes. and I want to congratulate those students for all their dedication and achievements. Looking ahead for some upcoming events, we have two major music concerts coming up featuring our school bands, orchestras, and choirs. Our jazz bands will perform this Friday night and our honors ensembles are scheduled to perform on Wednesday, December 17th. The district's annual electric light parade will be held on December 14th and Warren Melville will be participating. and I encourage all community members, families, and students to come out and support us. Tomorrow night, parent teacher conferences are happening from 5:30 to 8:30. And this is also a great way and a great opportunity for families to connect with their children's teachers. And finally, Warren Melville is looking
069forward to our spirit week that we named the seven days of spirit that is happening from December 15th to 22nd. And it should be an exciting time and I encourage everyone to get involved. We're mobile super excited for all of our upcoming events and yeah, thank you. [applause] >> Great job as always, Katie. Thank you so much. All right, that is going to bring us now to our program update presentation. Dr. Biscari. Uh so, thank you. When uh we first rounded the corner and saw all the people that were here for um the board meeting, we got excited that uh they were coming for the educational services program review uh presentation, but apparently that wasn't the case. But thank you for those who [laughter] sticking around. Um we appreciate it. Uh Dr. Raldi and I
070are thrilled uh and excited to be able to present to you about all the wonderful things that are happening uh within the world of educational services. Uh for those of you who don't know, we um we oversee the curriculum and instruction for the district. Uh but our job is a very big one. Uh and we're going to go through some of our highlights for this evening. Uh and and the things that we're excited about for opportunities for our students moving forward. Um our vision and goals from last year remain pretty much the same for this year. Um last year we spent a lot of time working with district committees on reconfiguration um and building our uh curriculum in which we'll show you in a little bit. Um and this year we're trying to put those
071things um and reflect upon them as as we move forward. So one of the big things is the reconfiguration feedback and alignment. We decided that at this point we are not going to um make any changes to our program having moved the sixth grade up to the middle school and the nth grade up to the high school until we've run a full cycle. Uh so we'll be looking at this in the fall to get some feedback from folks about uh the program of study to see if there are things that we have to tweak. But we thought it was very necessary for us to run through an entire cycle before uh we start to change anything. Um, so in reconfiguration, we could sit up here and we can tell you the feedback uh based on
072like bulleted items. Uh, but Dr. Raldi and I decided to go out and start to interview uh people within the district to kind of get their feedback rather than us present presented to you. And I want to recognize uh Reagan is here. She was one of our interviewees uh from the high school, a ninth grader. [applause] Um she was a great sport. Um, I also want to recognize Denise Nash, our uh, PR coordinator. She um, she followed us around with several cameras. She had about two and a half hours worth of video footage that she narrowed down to about 9 minutes. Um, so we feel like we put together a nice little package uh, of feedback from the students and the teachers about reconfiguration and the things that we can uh, improve on kind of
073moving forward in what they had to say. So, we just wanted to share a brief video with you um of the students and teachers and um show you. >> Yeah. It gets confused. What does the uh the computer gets confused? >> Yeah. >> Look at that. I was like, "Wo >> wo >> I really I really thought that uh that we had to wait a whole another year until we got to come to middle school and all of this, but when they did when they said that, it was like it was like a dream come true because wo [laughter] and then when I heard about it. I was really excited that I was going to move up and I didn't need to stay in elementary and I was just really excited along with some nerves.
074I was like excited but also very nervous cuz like it's a big change like getting used to like switching classes and like being on time and like it's like a lot more like weight it felt like but once I got here it was much easier. I was like kind of excited because we've been in that school for so many years. It'd be nice to like do something more. I was excited because we've been in Mount for so long. Then at the same time, each year I connected to all of my teachers. So I guess it was kind of sad just leaving them and going to a whole different building. >> Did you feel ready? >> No. You didn't feel ready at the time? And how about now? Do you feel like you were ready for
075it when you made the transition? >> Yeah. How so? >> Um, I thought it was going to be very hard cuz I thought my classes were going to be like upstairs and then downstairs like all day. >> But I only have two upstairs classes and the rest are downstairs and they're not very far apart. Initially, I wasn't like the biggest fan cuz I was like kind of scared to just like be in a new environment and like always going into a new school is scary, but initially I wasn't the biggest fan. >> And how do you feel about it now? >> Now I love it because of all like the new kids and the opportunities that you get with sports and different clubs. I think it's much beneficial, very much beneficial. >> I was really
076excited. Honestly, I really wanted to come cuz I always wanted to have like the four years of high school. So, I was really excited. Great. You have any >> I got very excited cuz I have a lot of older friends up at that high school. I have a lot of senior friends. So, I was excited to see them and I was also excited to get a little bit more freedom than I did in the middle school. Um, but I was also very nervous and sad to leave the middle school because I had some younger friends there and also I wanted my last year in the play at the middle school. So, but I was very excited to come up here switching from class to class because it makes the day seem a lot shorter. So,
077but now I'm always on my campus. I'm like, "Oh my god, we got to get on this project. Oh my gosh. >> Yes, it really does. Yeah. Coming here, I got a lot of help from a lot of people and I feel like it's really nice. They did a good job. There's a lot of people that you're going to learn to know are like going to be your friends and the tables like at lunch you're going to be like the table that you sit at. You're going to make friends with a lot of new people and you're going to like expand your friendships a lot. I would say it's definitely a lot easier than it seems and it's not much different. Like it's kind of the same instead of just like picking a language and
078then going. We get to have a class called intro to world language and we get to learn a little bit of each language. Switch to classes and meeting new people and I have a bunch of new friends now. So that's really nice. >> Probably initially finding classes, but after like two days it was like the same as the middle schools >> to just not be scared because it's not scary and to get involved in clubs because I did get involved in clubs but after like 2 weeks and I feel like I should have started like initially. >> I really like that I was able to make a lot of new friends because the two middle schools conjoining was like a really good opportunity for me. There is a bit of a heavier workload but I
079definitely feel like I learn more. So that's also helpful. >> I was a little bit nervous that like all my grades are going to start counting now like for my transcript and stuff. >> And if you were to give advice to the incoming ninth graders, so the current eth graders coming here next year as ninth graders, what would be your great advice for them? >> That it's not as bad as it seems and that um it's really it's not bad and that you're you're going to be fine up here. Like everybody's so welcoming. Everybody's nice. is in between periods, opening my door, looking out and seeing these kids get around on their own. I mean, you know, we went from walking our kids to PE in elementary school, watching them get off and on the
080bus, walking them to their buses to them having to do it. So, I think the level of responsibility that these kids have is so much greater, but they've risen to that occasion. They've absolutely risen to it. So, watching them do it is the coolest thing. And they also have older kids to look up to, too, which is great. So, um I think just as a whole the opportunities for independence have been awesome for them. >> Yes. One of my biggest nerves was that I wouldn't be able to connect with the students anymore because there's not enough time. >> Um but I try to find those couple minutes in the beginning of class just to ask how was your weekend? What are we doing this week? Um does anyone have any questions? Just I think it's
081so important for them to learn a system. I had to learn a whole new system also. So they once they get a system going, some of them had um an all day binder, some of them wanted a morning and an afternoon binder. So I said, "Pick a system, try it. If it doesn't work, you try something else." So that's what's you know, it's important. You give and take. It's like trial and error. >> Yeah. Our administration, they have been great. They've uh very thorough and uh last year we went to a national conference in Nashville. So there also have been different uh regional conferences that staff were able to take part of and just learn the the new middle school model which has been phenomenal. >> Um I set up my classroom so that they
082had to talk to each other. So instead of rows we did groups where they were facing each other and I had a lot of uh community building at the beginning of the year uh where they could just get to know one another and talk. Have having my students be the youngest in the building. I now have 3 years of of teachers to to talk to say what can we do to kind of thread and scope the instruction to get them where they need to be where. >> So it was a slow process. We definitely took our time um got involved with the community. We had lots of meetings where they came in, gave some feedback, um, discussions with students, and then we had a whole middle school like strategic planning committee where we had teachers
083come in from all over the district and they would meet with administration here at Murphy. we all came together and we did a lot of detailed planning down to what courses they were taking, what did we think the bell schedule would look like. Um, just trying to make sure that we factored in as many of the changes that we would be seeing as possible in advance. I'd say there's been little teeny things. Um, so things like the students running in the hallway. Um, I don't know if we anticipated the speed and the energy that they would come in full force uh in the halls, but we've been having discussions on a regular basis about that. And as time has gone on, they've definitely slowed down a bit in the hallway. >> As the principal, I
084wasn't sure what I was getting with these new sixth grade coming up. I I was anticipating maybe a group of nervous, timid kind of kids. And the first day of school was the exact opposite. The kids were personable. They were polite. They were nice. They were excited. And I was myself and the staff were just so pleasantly surprised with just how um I don't know ready they were. And uh we were have like all hands on deck ready to go. And they they were great. They were fine. So that was a nice pleasant surprise surprise. It's been awesome. like their energy, the fact that, you know, they were here over the summer literally in, you know, cases decorating, decorating their classroom, all hands on deck. Just their their energy, their smiles, their just excitement to
085be here uh has lifted the whole building up and and and it's just great to have again new people introduced who are excited to be here and uh the whole vibe of the building has been excellent. Certainly um you know our staff has stepped up in a major way to be as flexible as possible. We have teachers who are maybe used to teaching in in one classroom space now they're you know moving from you know classroom to classroom throughout their day maybe two different classroom spaces that they're teaching in. So we certainly appreciate the flexibility and and I think for a for a group this large um that we need that kind of flexibility. So that's been you know a challenge but again an opportunity for our staff to shine and I think they've done
086a great job with it. I made something called a GPS positioning system and it was like it's like I write down how like I write down my periods and how to get to those classes and what to do in between that. So it's like first period go to art, second period go down the hall the course is right there and then third period go to health. The GPS really helped me on my first day. >> That's good. Your your own personal GPS. [applause] [snorts] Where did we go? Here. We were on [snorts] Yeah, the PowerPoint. Thanks, Okay, >> thank you. Yeah, so as you could see that I think they said it all. We got a lot of great feedback. Um it seemed like anticipatory anxiety was the biggest um fear of people going into
087the change. Um but this is one of those things that that we're proud of as a district, right? What we do best is collaborate. And when we had our teachers, administrators, uh the students, the families, uh participate in in this um reconfiguration, this pretty big change, uh everybody rose to the occasion. We're we're very proud of the program that we we've developed, the opportunities for our ninth graders, and the transition year for our our sixth graders as well. we feel like we put something in place that helps them transition to uh support them in being secondary students and and we're extremely proud of it. So, we look forward to talking to everybody again in the fall uh and seeing if there are any tweaks or improvements that we can make. Uh we realize that it
088was something that we were not going to get uh 100% right out of the gate. U but I think I think we did really well. Those kids were not paid anything for uh for for their comments. That that was natural. And and I think the biggest takeaway feedback that we did get um was that they they felt what's that? Whoa. Yes. Um they felt as if um in asking what what can we do to make the transition easier, they suggested having students be ambassadors to the the other students coming up, which made a lot of sense. Uh now that we've had students that have experienced that change, uh we're going to definitely take their advice and and seek their um their advice in uh you know talking from from student to student rather than adult
089to student. And plus they said that they listen to each other more than they listen to adults. So, um, our our vision and goals continue. Uh, some of the goals that are up here, including expanding CTE offerings, uh, capacity building of our administrators, uh, and and some of the datadriven decision-m uh, come from both board of education goals as well as, uh, Dr. Scan's 360 survey and some of the feedback that we have received. So, we we've made goals that are aligned um completely with with uh with those uh goals that others have set. So, just so you know, our curriculum, this is a big project that we've been working on. About two years ago, we had uh somebody come in and uh it was a curriculum consultant, Angela Ler, and she helped us design
090collaboratively um what we think that our curriculum should look like inside of our district. So, as you know, there are New York State learning standards, which is a prescribed curriculum, and our job as a school district is to create our own local curriculum based on those New York State standards. So, we we worked together. We decided what was going to be useful for uh our teachers uh and think about uh a form and documents that that were going to be utilized on a consistent basis. We want to create a similar curricular experience for all of our students, no matter what. If they're in third grade at Arrowhead or if they're in third grade at Masaki, if they have uh teacher A for uh for biology or teacher B for biology, we want them to have
091the same curricular experience. Like obviously teachers are going to have their own personalities and have some freedom to do the things that they want, but we wanted the the core of what they were doing uh to be similar no matter no matter where they were. So that aligned to some of the instruction and we're currently working on um assessments and common assessments within um some of our courses. We we created math benchmarks last year for our grades three through six, our final exams we utilize. So now we're going to be able to take that data from the assessments and we're going to use it to inform our instruction, uh adapt our curriculum, revise our curriculum, uh get other resources if students aren't doing well in particular areas. But we're proud of this. So that was
092two years ago. So this is our third our third year of the the change over to the uh >> Yeah. So we kind of set we set a self-imposed goal of having this written curriculum uh within five years of the time that we had the curriculum consultant in. So this is currently year three. That gives us two more years. And hopefully what I'll show you now is is a is a great start uh to where we're headed. So thanks to Dedra Ruben trunk uh she did a wonderful job creating an intranet for uh the people within our um within our district. So uh employees have an opportunity to go to this intranet and really what it does is it serves as a mechanism to document internal processes by department but it also allowed us to
093create a curriculum repository which was one of the goals that we set out with and within that curriculum repository um we're very proud to say that we're making great progress here. >> Yeah. So I just wanted to show you some of the things that are in here. So within this um you know uh teachers staff members can go into the ed services part portion of the internet and in there are the processes that they have to follow uh for things that are related to ed services. Um but the biggest thing that we did create was this curriculum repository. We were constantly fighting with binders and who has the curriculum for this and people had different documents. So once we decided on what the form was and and and the elements that we wanted included in
094our curriculum, then we started building them out through curriculum projects over the summer and throughout the year. Um so as you can see for elementary, we're listing all of the categories that are in here uh in the content areas and we're breaking it down by grade level with other resources that are available for for our teachers. Again, this is something internally that we're using and you could see some of the curriculum documents that we did create. Um, this is elementary literacy. We have the the time that it was um that it was established so that we can go through our review cycle. And the two main um components of this are the scope and sequence documents which are going to give you an overview of the year and what um h about how many weeks
095things would be taking. Right? So, we're looking at trimester 1. This is kindergarten literacy and uh they're doing it uh they broke it down by weeks. So we have curriculum writing committees and we have some of our kindergarten teachers as well as other people um who contributed to this and they created this in the format um that that we decided upon as a district. So you see September, October, November uh within the trimesters and these are suggested. We're we're not holding people to, you know, it's week four, you should be on unit one, week three. But in here, especially with the turnover that we're going to be having with the amount of uh teachers that are go going to be retiring in the next couple of years, this is also going to help us with
096that transition for a newer teacher to be clear with the expectations of what is expected of them to teach in their grade level. So you see here, um, every course has a scope and sequence. it'll break it down for them for the entire year of what the year looks like at a glance and within um those documents we have um those essential elements of what we spoke about before. So each module there are several different modules or by topic or unit we have desired outcomes here and uh we have essential questions and big ideas that are related to to the module or or the content that we're working on. So we've aligned it to New York State standards. Uh and that information is here. Um we also have aligned it to the elements of the
097science of reading for literacy uh including fluency, phonics and word recognition. And then as it gets down towards um towards what the students need to learn, we also decided that we needed to uh have a component that connected what we were doing to the computer science and digital fluency standards. Because if you remember a couple years ago, uh that was a mandate that we had to take the standards outlined in the computer science and digital fluency standards and apply them across grade levels. So instead of producing a whole another standalone course that would take our students out of the classroom um or doing something outside of the core, we decided to implement them in library as well as all of our other courses. So I know Miss Ruben wants to build um a database that
098we can start searching to make sure that all of these standards were addressed in each of the areas. Uh and we also included social emotional learning standards. So we took the standards from there and applied them into each of the units as well. So some examples of some of the assessments are in here uh for folks to utilize and then we have learning experiences. So these kind of are the um the objectives for the particular unit with the resources that are uh available for from the district that we have purchased and have aligned to our curriculum documents. So like I said, this is a monumental task uh and we're very hopeful that we meet that fiveyear deadline to have this for every single course for every single content area within the district. Uh for the
099secondary, just want to show you a quick example of that. >> [snorts] >> their curriculum documents are housed in the secondary and again by content area. So um we can look at the seventh grade ma uh the sixth grade math. [snorts] So again they took all the documents same thing they actually have the syllabus in here and it's just broken down by unit. There is a scope and sequence document. so that all of the sixth grade teachers know what's going to be expected of them throughout the school year. And then within there are the units and those units again are going to be broken down. So quarter 1 for about 12 days. Again this is going to depend on uh the teacher. There is some variability in here. Um so they would be able to
100click on th this particular unit and again see those same elements that they would in any other content area which would be >> [snorts] >> those key ideas. Um the essential questions and big ideas as well as the standards alignment um the social emotional learning standards, the computer science digital fluency standards, uh any assessments that they've included and then here we have what the students will be able to do and the resources that are aligned to those particular um those particular objectives. So again, we're very proud of the work that this is being done and this is being done collaboratively. This is something that um our teachers are involved in, our administrators are involved in and that we're involved in. Uh and we want to make sure that like I said that everyone's having a
101similar curricular experience. >> Thanks. >> Thank [snorts] Nick taught me. >> Nice. Thanks, Nick. [laughter] So that is a brief view of our internet. So, what the what the public will see was they're not going to have access. Uh, obviously, there's assessments and everything else that are inside of here, and it's proprietary for what we designed. Uh, but the the um the community still has uh the essentials of learning for our elementary program. So, that's going to outline the things that are expected within each of the grade levels. And then they have syllabi on the secondary level. So, we still communicate with them uh in an easier to understand um way so that they can still see what's being taught inside of our classrooms. So, last year we went through our elementary program. I just
102wanted to point out uh that the elementary program is going through some crazy changes. So, we have a lot of uh a lot of things going on. We have a new literacy program that we just established um last year and this year we have a new math program. So there have been some great changes and our teachers are on top of it and we're looking to support them in any way that we can. Um I wanted to point out that we still do have a fifth grade departmentalization model uh and that's to get our students ready for sixth grade and and where they're going to be changing um classrooms more frequently. in uh our elementary schools. Typically it looks like they switch they switch teachers for social studies and science. [snorts] Um and then we
103also have our steam um class that we created for all fourth graders which is really an enrichment for all philosophy. Uh but embedded in there are the things that people like to see within enrichment which is our individual uh or independent research projects as well as uh some multid-disciplinary approach. So, uh, Miss Varach has done a great job. She she teaches all fourth graders in the entire district, uh, steam curriculum that she designed with some of our former steam teachers. And, um, what what she's done is aligned the the research project to our new HM literacy program as far as some of the writing that goes on. So, she's looking for those interdisciplinary connections. So they kind of build upon uh what's being taught and its application of those skills um within within steam. And
104I I had the great opportunity of going into her classroom and seeing the students and the engagement that's going on and the excitement that's going on. Uh so it was great to see and uh she has been a tremendous asset to the program. She well she is the program and we appreciate all of her efforts. So hi Miss Project. [laughter] She loves when you say thank you to her. So anybody that walks past her if you can say thank you for all of your effort. She loves that. [snorts] >> All right, Dr. Renoli. >> Hi. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um, oh, oh, excuse me. So, um, I know that, uh, Dr. Biscari already touched upon a few of the things that I'm going to get into, but I'll go a little bit deeper. Um,
105we have many goals and we're so excited to have Gina Schwarz as our literacy coach this year for elementary. She has been so essential in uh really making sure that our teachers feel confident, comfortable, um excited for our new program that we did uh adopt last year uh h into reading and but just remember we're it is a program. So our teachers are our teachers and um they utilize that as a resource. So um our curriculum is what we write and that's what Dr. Biscari just shared. But our teachers are what makes our curriculum so so wonderful. So, um, a few things that we've been working on with our literacy coach, uh, Miss Schwarz has been modeling lessons. She's been doing training with teachers. We have great grade level, um, meetings that we work with
106teachers to go deeper into the science of reading, um, and using our resource, uh, to help us get there. So, um, she is, uh, the one who makes sure that we utilize those documents that Dr. Pascari just shared with with us. Um, bringing teachers back to that, making sure we're looking at the standards. um she has model lessons in in all different areas so far. We're also going to have more model lessons um targeting more small groupoup instruction uh because we know that's you know the key to any of our differentiation and what our students really really need. Um we're going through Scarsboro the Scarsboro rope that I shared last year uh during this presentation. I wanted to show you the visual again but for time sake I I'll just I won't be so so
107excited as I as I always am to talk about that. But um she's going through each and every one of the strands to make sure that our teachers are very confident in those areas. Uh we spoke about our math the new math program that we're using as a resource to support our teachers. Um we have done curriculum writing. We did a revision last over the summer to make sure that our resources aligned to the curriculum document that we initially created with our our older version of a math program that we had. Um Dr. Biscar spoke about the benchmark assessments. So now they'll be grades three through five. Uh our sixth grade teachers are going to be giving the students a final as secondary schools do. Um our students we we actually did a really um
108we did a deep dive with our building administrators to uh look at the data from last year because we did give it the first time last year to our students in grades 3 through six. We looked at the data. We uh look to see if there are any instructional gaps that we want to look at. Um shifting into this new program that is extremely uh aligned to New York State standards, which we're not always used to, but this is um directly aligned to the standards. So, uh less tweaking for us to do, which is which is wonderful actually. Um we were able to go uh dive deeper into that data and and see where we have to uh maybe explore additional resources to close some of those gaps. This I won't go so deep into
109but last year I also share with you in the New York state uh literacy briefs we we did a lot of work around literacy uh shortly after the that came out in about April last year the New York State came came out with numeracy briefs so it's really focusing on best practices in mathematics um and it's from K through 12th grade that they're looking at us um diving deeper so I won't go into the whole road map but it's really helping us uh lead our instruction um for all of our math courses. And this just like Scarsboro vote for our literacy. This is these are the best practices um in mathematics. So um more of the conceptual understanding of math, not just the memorization of those of those areas. It's really making sure students are
110confident, they're strategic with what they're doing in math. Um, and really that was one of the reasons why we're shifting and moved to a a different program to help support our teachers and our students in that area. And my favorite um, so really the crux of every single thing that and and you know everything that we do in educational services, anything that all of our staff do, this is really the the the heart of it. Um I I mentioned this last year as well during the presentation, but we've been doing um a lot of work around this. So our MTSS is what was formerly our RTI plan and and uh response to intervention. Um this is just a little bit more elaborate to say um we're looking at the student as a whole, not just
111their academics, but um you'll see this is something that uh Dedra and and I created. um it's about behavior, academics, the whole the whole package of of a child. So um when you look at that pyramid, you can see the the bottom tier uh which is really our tier one is when we're giving our tier one classroom instruction, we are differentiating it uh to every student's uh needs and levels within the classroom. And then when we meet as a team and discuss uh after our universal screeners and uh other assessments that we do if students need additional support, we call that the strategic level which is tier 2, which I'm sure a lot of you have heard and I shared last year uh and Laura Pimemental has shared in her presentations as well. And then
112we get a little bit more intensive and that's our tier three where if students really need that extra support in this in a small group um maybe just two students or so um that's what we do to to support our kids. Um we are looking at our criteria. We want to make sure that we have what Dr. Bascari was saying as far as curric similar curricular experiences. We that also goes into how we tier our support to make sure that every student in all of our elementary buildings um as well as our secondary buildings are receiving the same services um and not you know one is getting more than the other. So looking at the criteria uh we currently use I Ready as our diagnostic assessment for math and we use Ames Web as our
113um our literacy. So, uh, we as web have actually just reormed, um, the the national the national norms. They reormed and it hasn't been done since before co. So, um, I know I don't want to steal Laura's Laura Pel's show, but um, that has changed um, drastically the national norms. They've, you know, our percentiles have uh, definitely um, decreased. So, not not three village, but as as a nation. So, we're looking to see how we can um make sure we're still keeping our three village uh ways going, but also um making sure that we're um sticking to a tiered support system that that works for all uh portrait of a graduate. So, this is a statewide framework. It was adopted in July, this past July, and it's under the broader New York inspires plan. So,
114I'm sorry that it's so small up there. Um, but I could read of around to to help you uh see of what the state is saying at our graduate should look like. Um, sorry, let me I can't I could hardly see it here, too. So, academically prepared, obviously, we're we're always uh ready for that for our students. Uh, creative innovators, critical thinkers, executive uh effective communicators, global citizens. I can't even see this. Reflective and future focused. So, those are what the state is is sharing with us. Hold on. Sorry. I need this to move. Okay. Um they're also looking and talking about nothing has been fully adopted, but looking to a one diploma model um with giving different pathways to our students. know see whether that looks like CTE pathways um other enhancements to their
115diploma we have yet to really know and iron out with on at the state level. So we will wait to see what else they can they will share with us. Uh I'm not going to go into all these things. Uh speaking of CTE um these are the two CTE pathways that we currently have that you're aware of. So, we have our marketing and we have our child care education program. And the exciting news to share is that we have additional CTE pathways uh for the for next school year 2026 2027 where we're going to have students be able to take a pre-engineering um or an automotive technology uh CTE pathway. So what that looks like for our students is for the automotive they would take automotive one, automotive 2, automotive 3 um and all as
116with all our CTE uh classes uh our pathways you have to have career financial management that's a mandate from the state. So along with those three courses they would get um that that pathway on their diploma which is very exciting. And then for pre-engineering the classes that they would take is um design and drawing for production principles of engineering robotics one drone technologies and of course the C the career and financial management as well. So, um I know it says here it's contingent on college articulation agreements which we are literally right we are right there uh making sure that our agreements match to what we need but um we don't foresee any issues for the 2627 school year oops sorry >> well thank you and thank you to Dr. Renaldi for uh she did the
117lion share of the work with the applications is quite the process but the board uh charged us with uh setting a goal of increasing our CTE program. So we're very proud that uh we're at the precipice of doubling our CTE offering. So we see that as beneficial for for our students there. There was a board meeting where we're having a conversation and um I think part of it was um I remember talking about how we're great at preparing our students for college readiness and that we could do a little bit of a better job with career readiness. The CTE pathways do that. Um and I think that's also going to help with the graduation measures as we get more information as they're released. We're kind of trying to get ahead of the curve a little
118bit to provide our students with various pathways towards graduation. which we may have to still tweak uh but we'll have to wait for the state to really come out with that. So in the same vein we we also are looking to add some AP courses. So cyber security uh is a new AP course that the college board is coming out with uh from uh our technology department. Our technology department does not have any AP courses currently. So, we feel like that's going to bring in uh a group of students that um may be more GPA conscious that have not participated in these courses because they don't have the same waiting. Um but with this cyber security um course also comes a credential that validates the the professional skills. So, it's an industry um recognized uh
119credential that they would get upon completion of this AP course. In addition, we're looking to add uh AP business and personal finance. Again, we don't have any business courses that have uh AP um courses related to them. So, we're excited to be able to provide this uh for uh some of our students and again capture hopefully another uh group of students that that may be looking for those AP type courses. It's our only one for business. And then social studies is looking to add human geography uh an AP course in there as well um to add to what they currently offer. And then finally, uh, you've already heard, but we're doing the construction over the summer for in the Ward Melville High School Library for our Bloomberg lab. Uh, so we're hopeful that we can
120get this up and off the ground for our business students to utilize, and we'll do some curriculum writing, uh, and professional development upcoming. Uh, but again, with this, uh, students have multiple opportunities to earn industry recognized certifications in, uh, you know, uh, finance fundamentals and market concepts. So, we're trying to do a lot of things um to bring it to our students. We feel like they're great opportunities. We'll see how how the courses fill when we get to the uh right before scheduling when when students are picking their courses. Uh but we feel like it's a nice balance and um you know, we're working hard to make sure that we're working within the regulations and providing our students with these true three village opportunities. So, thank you very much and we'll field any questions if
121you have any. >> [applause] >> So we'll open it up to any questions or comments. This is amazing. Just a quick question. Is it quote pre-engineering? Is it because of state requirement or we are we think that we're not at engineering level yet? So it when we fill out an application, it needs to match up to the curriculum that the the college also is uh we're working with Stony Brook for that uh college credit. So it has to be the syllabus there, but also there's a lot of requirements when you're looking at the courses that we already have and where that fits in the CTE world. Um they're very specific. So, um it's not that we could never look at another type, but um for what the courses are that we already currently have, uh
122we're made for that's the model that we're made for. So, the pre-engineering is where where we're at right now. >> I see. It's very good. It just sounds like engineering already. So, [laughter] >> thank you. >> And it it pretty much is. I think it's one we're one of, I think, three schools on Long Island that would be offering the pre-engineering, and it's just the code that the state came out with that that that's what determines it. But it is it is engineering because the course that that we're aligning so that we can get Stonyie Brook credit is their engineering course. >> I just wanted to thank you the teachers for the amount of work because I'm looking at this and I'm thinking back to my days when I was at three village. Unbelievable. I
123mean there we were with binders and folders etc. And now to see this congratulations. >> Thank you. >> I agree the curriculum repository is amazing. I can't even fathom the amount of work that's gone into it, but it seems brilliant and logical and clean and I love it and all of the new opportunities for our kids between the CTE and the AP courses are fantastic. So, thank you both so much. >> Great job. >> Thank you. >> I also want to thank all of you and uh start with the administration, the faculty and the staff. The transition from moving to sixth and nth grade was truly a herculan effort by getting everything done. Uh a lot of people are involved in this at every level. three years worth of work, a lot of people on
124the ground doing it. The families as well for their support and the students in particular because they're the ones that actually had to do it and get there and work on it. So, the positivity that we saw there, there was, as you said, there was a lot more video to be shown. The woe was probably the best response that we saw the whole night, but it was amazing to see the um the energy that was there as well. and going to the schools. There was this great fear that the the middle schools were going to corrupt elementary school the students and they were going to come up and they were all going to start smoking cigarettes and putting packs in their sleeves and you know hanging out with the the you know the jets and
125the and the gangs in the parking lot. That didn't happen. It actually took the eighth graders and made them eighth graders again. And that's amazing to see. And our ninth graders now have opportunities that every ninth grader 75% of them in the state of New York have. So it's putting us on an equal plane with a lot of the schools we compete compete with in this state and in this region. So I can't thank all of you all the all the f the administration the faculty the staff the parents and students for believing in this process and getting us there. So thank you to all of you >> getting it done >> and I thank the board too for the support because the goal was set four years ago to move and we finally got
126it achieved. >> I just wanted to add my thanks. I think you guys do a tremendous job and the amount of work that administration and the teachers do to prepare all this is just astounding. Um, I think the repository is fantastic and just coming because I'm a special ed mom. I think having all that in there, especially for our DTC classes, so the teachers can get in there and look at it and see what's coming up. I think that's going to be very helpful. Um, you know, the new two new programs that that we had this year with our Steam and our literacy coach, all I've gotten was complete great feedback. The parents are loving the fourth grade steam. I've heard from some teachers that love the literacy coach. Um, so I think that's two
127great additions that we're having. Um, and of course, uh, the CTE program. So, thank you very much for working on that. I know that's really, um, a lot of work to get that up and running. Um, and of course, you know, because I love CTE programs, maybe we'll continue to double it as we go. [laughter] But thank you guys very much. [applause] All right, moving on our agenda to item 7A. Uh, the board is very appreciative that we were given the opportunity to attend virtually the New York State School Boards Association's annual convention. To save some money, we decided to not have all of us go and not have any of us go in person. So, a few people did attend some sessions. Thankfully, they've been recorded and so the rest of us can now
128um view and participate in them. So, I will just turn it over to any of the four of you who went if you had anything you wanted to recommend to the rest of the board, anything that was a highlight, anything you think we should skip. So, it was um You want to start? >> Yeah, I'm going to be very quick because we've been here very long. Um so I did um pick some courses that I did which were prioritizing student mental health, uh the superintendent evaluation process, district goals, uh reimagining community engagement. All of them were great. It's really good hearing from other districts throughout the state what they're doing compared to what we're doing. 99% of the time we are doing far and above what the other districts are doing. So which that's great.
129Um, and I just wanted to say I think this was a great opportunity because now it's virtual for us to participate, especially because the next two years it's in Buffalo and we're not going to be able to go up to Buffalo. So to be able to have the opportunity to view this online, continuing education and professional development for anybody is essential. So I think we all should be doing that. Um, but there was a little hiccup because they are not online anymore. They've disappeared. So we need to that's something we need to work on for next year because that uh that's not us. Nispa did that. Um so if we are going to be paying for that they should be on there for an extended period of time. So thank you. >> Agreed. >> Thank
130you Mr. Goss. >> Yeah I in a couple of sessions I think some of the ones that were most informative for me were the ones that demonstrated or talked about what are the factors that affected our state aid. Um and there's a number of metrics that go into it that that were quite uh informative. What was really um the details in terms of how these calculations are made and I [snorts] think the one takeaway for me was that it's not a raw number. It's actually done relative to the rest of the districts in the states. That that was important to understand. And we talk a lot about you know the amount of state aid that we receive. um how that's factored, how we how we receive it, whether or not we are a high poverty
131state or a low high poverty district or a low poverty district. I think it that kind of information, you know, metrics about people count, attendance, um wealth ratios, right? How these factors are computed, what are some of the factors that go into the computations and then how that affects our state aid was educational for me, but I think it would be informative for the entire district and and our community to understand those. So if if there's a way to get that information out to the community, I would encourage that. Um I think that's important. >> Thank you. All right, we'll go this way. Dr. Lee. >> So I tend to feel one and one actually concerns me is the zero emission school bus and they actually have a pretty clear timeline when to make it
132happen. I think we do need to try our legislative committee harder to get funding for that otherwise our budget in the next few years would be terribly affected. Another thing is I really enjoy the fireside chat with commissioner because with all those questions and her answers we can get some idea what the direction they want to go. Frankly I don't think it it helping us much. [laughter] It's really towards a lowinccome district rather. I I hope that this can change in the future. >> Thank you. And Dr. Scandlin. >> So the critical point that you raised with that piece with the electric buses is that the regulation is from the governor's office and supported by the legislature and the senate. U so they they are the ones who put it forward. The state education department
133had nothing to do with electrification of buses. So I think a lot of that uh is going to and it's 2027 that the new buses all new buses have to be purchased as electric buses and by 2035 all the buses in the state of New York for schools have to be changed over to electric buses. So that is going to be a massive expense. Uh and the funding that they're claiming is going to be there. I hope it's there because it's going to mean if they're going to be buying these something else is going to be coming out of the budget again. So, we need to be very vigilant with this and I think you're right, the legislative committee and speaking to our local legislators, but there's this blind faith that this is going to
134work and I'm concerned about where the money is coming from for all of it. >> All right. Well, thank you all very much. We appreciate it and thanks for the info. All right. We're going to move on now to our long-term planning committee selection. Thank you very much to everybody who applied. We had a lot of really great applicants. It took um took a lot of study and consideration and we're really very appreciative. So in no particular order, I will just read off the 10 who were selected. Roger Reyes, Wuhan, Andrew Marches, Christristen Crop, Alina Welsh, Christopher Yedron, Muhammad Talab, David Stern, Alex Trested, and Jamie Han. So thank you so much. We look to have a meeting probably in January and you can anticipate getting some more information from us shortly about that. We
135move on now to 7C. Um, as you know, we've been talking a lot for a long time about the possibility of repurposing um, one of our buildings um, both because our enrollment is decreasing and to be more fiscally um, effective. So, what we want to do at this time is formalize the discussions um and empower the administration to begin a more vigilant um interaction with uh the real estate community to see if we can perhaps lease or sell uh one or some of our properties. So, do I see a motion for that? >> So, move >> a second. >> All in favor? Thank you so much. All right, that takes us now to our public comment period. Uh, we do have one. So, if you could come over to this microphone, please. Jay Showfeld. >>
136This one over here, please. >> The one that says public. >> All right. >> Good evening. I'm Jay Shfeld. I live in South Sat. I am a uh Ward Melville graduate as are um as are my children. Um, so I've been here a long time. I came to the uh workshop actually wanting not knowing it was a workshop and wanting to speak on something else. But after hearing what I heard at the workshop, I think I just wanted to share some uh comments, reactions, opinions on some of the things I heard. Um and this I'll kind of go in order of the presentations just because that's I think the easiest way to go. I came in when Mr. Carlson was talking about the fund balance. Um, and you were talking about it in dollars and
137and you're trying to make comparisons to other districts based on the dollar amount. And I really think that it's kind of more useful to do it on a percentage basis of your budget rather than on dollars. Um, you know, cuz to account for different sizes and whatever. I'll, you know, like to say if we and know some small school district m let's just for example, have the same fund balance like probably one of us is doing something wrong. So, you know, you you really I think it really needs to be on a percentage basis. And I'm pretty sure that the state controller like looks at this stuff periodically and tells us when we're too high or too low. And I don't think I've heard anything in a while. Usually, you know, those things make the
138newspapers. I don't think we So, I I'm, you know, we're probably still in the right range on that. Um, so that was one thing. Um, second thing, next thing was, um, uh, so, Superintendent Scan, you spoke a lot about a lot of programs you'd like to add. Um, and that's all good and we should be evolving. Um, but and maybe this wasn't the forum, but I didn't hear anything about and neither from you nor from the board. And maybe this wasn't the right place about what's not working, what's maybe served this purpose, um, what's, you know, undersubscribed or whatever. you know, you gave like the need for let's say you you talk about business courses that there's a lot of interest in business courses, but just knowing where we are um there's a certain amount
139of periods and actually a declining number of students. So, it's not even a zero game. The pie is actually shrinking. So, if there's more interest in business classes, there just has to be less interest in something else. And you know, the math is math. So you you know I I would encourage you guys to like kind of look at that a little closer. Um let's what else was there? Um let me think of what else I heard. Um there was something from this side of the room, one of the gentlemen. I don't remember which one of you about staffing and how you're looking out 10 years. And maybe that's common in schools. I don't know. But it seems that um wow my time goes fast. Seems that though we we can't be planning for students
140who haven't been born yet. Um it just kind of I think 5 years is a more realistic thing and I think if you look at the percentages of distribution of teachers that you I think you said a third of them might retire your time is up. Thank you. >> All right. That seems kind of normal for um you know for you know over a 20 30 year career that >> Thank you. Thank you so much that your time. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity. >> There we go. All right. All right, we do have one uh email to be read into the public comments from Stephanie Wernern. As an active, involved, and very vocal parent, I need to take advantage of what may be my last opportunity to publicly comment via emailed
141correspondence. It's very disconcerting to know that the board will no longer be accepting comments via this route as it's not easy to attend every meeting and I have a lot to say. I continue to monitor the incessant chatter regarding the possibility of adding armed security to our school buildings and my stance remains the same, a staunch no. What does plague me though rather the non-existent violent plots is the consistent vaping issue that is rampant in our secondary schools. Perhaps rather than considering a very costly and unnecessary change to our building security, the district could tackle the threat to our children's lungs, brains, and hearts that swirls around the secondary bathrooms. An [snorts] investment in vape detectors would be a wise implementation to improving our children's safety and is a more immediate need. I dare any
142administrator to claim that there is no vape issue in our secondary buildings for that would be a colossal fib. It is also a call for our security and those who have duty periods outside of the restrooms to do their due diligence and halt this disgusting and illegal the Federal Post Act and New York Clean Indoor Air Act behavior. Let's put the funds we do have to better use, not on arms and turf, but detectors to stop the growing bait problem. Novel idea. No. And that concludes our public comment period. Seeing no items for board action, we're going to move on to our policy section. We'll turn it over to Mr. Mistki. >> We have uh item number 10, which is uh the public comments at schoolboard meetings. This policy uh has been reviewed by the
143policy committee in consultation with legal counsel. Uh number 11 is >> actually can we pause there for one second? I'm so sorry. Uh regarding uh policy number 1230, uh do I see a motion to wave second read? >> All in favor of waving second read. Second. Okay. So we will wave our second read and continue on with 11 A. Uh 11 A throughF uh represents the board's continuation of the review of policy manual through the 5000 series and includes student policy goals, rights of students with disabilities under section 504, student complaint and grievances, attendance, compulsory attendance ages, and entrance age. Uh these policies have been reviewed by the policy committee in consultation with legal counsel, and I'm available to answer any questions that the board has. >> Okay. Do we see any questions about any
144of these policies? Okay. Do I see a motion to approve them? >> A second. >> All in favor? No opposed? No abstension. So, those policies are approved. And moving on now to our consent agenda. Do I see a motion? >> And a second. >> And we will begin with B and C. Miss German. Uh B is the minutes from the business meeting on November 5th, the board of education meeting. and C is from the uh workshop on November 19th. >> Thank you so much. And beginning with D, Mr. Carlson. >> Uh thank you. Item uh D is the uh approval of the extension of of our agreement with the town of Brook Haven to provide uh in in case of emergency uh sand, salt, and general repairs is a contract we into every year with
145them uh for emergency purposes. We generally don't need to use it but we like to have it in place uh especially for the sand and salt uh just in case. Uh the next item is uh authorization to participate in two different cooperative bids. Uh one is uh with Nasso Boseies the number of contracts and then another is the town of Iceland. It just gives us more avenues to um make purchases from. We look for the best price uh anywhere we can find it. Uh the next item is acceptance of donations. We have several uh first is uh $1,600 in Stop and Shop gift cards from the Stony Brook Community Church uh for families in need. Uh we have a check for $2,500 from the Three Village Dads Foundation to help some uh support some of
146our middle school students uh needing assistance with endofear events. A check for $4,500 from the Three Village STEM Enrichment Foundation to the Ward Melville Robotics Team. uh $1,000 from the Sata PTA for recess equipment and $5,050 in Amazon, Target, Stop and Shop, Kohl's, and Walmart gift cards from the three village retirees for families in need. Uh the next item is declaration of surplus plus equipment. We have a few items uh from uh North Country, two uh maintenance uh vehicles uh that are in no longer uh usable condition and an oven in our academy uh uh to be upgraded to one that's appropriate for the their u uh fact uh family consumer science uh classes. Uh the next item is declaration of surplus textbooks. We have uh a number of uh well quite a few uh
147from all most of our schools. Uh these are all uh uh for uh uh uh programs we're not using. Uh we don't need uh use these anymore. Uh items I, J, KN, L, and M are our financial reports for the months of July, August, and September. These were reviewed uh last month by the uh board's audit committee. And that's all I have. >> Thank you so much. Any questions for Mr. Carlson about any of those. Okay. Uh for N, we turn it over to Dr. Dresky. >> Yes. Uh N is the appointment of the new DASA coordinator for the 2526 school year. Uh this is as a result of um Dr. Kersh as she begins her new journey as the arrowhead elementary principal. As a result, we will be replacing her with Mr. Mr. Wells.
148>> Okay. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. >> And beginning with O, Dr. Biscari. Uh yes, O is uh curriculum writing projects for the 2526 school year to add to the repository that we have for classes that are currently running. Uh P represents the new courses and course name change requests for next year. Um Q the appointment of committees on special ed revised uh list of members. R is the appointment of impartial hearing officers which were seem to be in the season of revisions for impartial hearing officers. And S is the uh I'm sorry it's Dr. the breki. >> That's all right. You can take it if you want, but I'll be happy to take it. Um, as is protocol for your approval is the recommendation for uh an administrative intern at Jelenus Middle
149School. >> Thank you. T, recommendations of committee on special education subcommittee and 504 accommodation plan meetings as dated and U, recommendations of committee on preschool special education meetings as dated. And V on forward, we turn it back to Dr. Dreski. >> Yes. fees the memorandum of agreement between the three village central school district and UPSCU uh for the three village maintenance and operations unit. Uh their contract has now uh been officially ratified and goes from July 1st 25 to June 30th, 2029. Uh W and X are resolutions uh denying the one-year um retirement incentive extension as with the employees identified in confidential A and B. Uh why is a resolution uh recalling an excess teacher? We've had the uh we've had the need to uh move one of our perm subs to being a full
150perm sub. This is a math teacher who is excessed and somebody who needs to uh teach an additional class. Um Z personnel items instructional uh we have two instructional resignations, one instructional leave of absence, five instructional appointments which include uh teaching assistants and part-time teachers, seven additional instructional substitutes, appointment of winter coaches, appointment and adjustments of three co-curricular sponsors for the 2526 school year. several annual and hourly extra assignments, two teacher tenure appointments, and one teaching assistant tenure appointment. Um, double A personal items non-instructional. We have one non-instructional retirement, 10 non-instructional resignations, uh, six non-instructional appointments. Uh, we have several non-instructional status changes as well as, uh, additional stipens and six and six non-instructional substitute appointments. And >> and what I would like to do now, if you would bear with me, is I am
151thrilled to recognize and congratulate uh the following employees, which you are soon to vote on their midyear tenure. Um so, uh Neil Malo is a teaching assistant who I believe could not make it today. Uh but we have Kim Gunda, guidance counselor, and Kayla Muglia, social worker. [applause] I think that's the only reason they stayed the whole time. So, I'm I'm just I'm just guessing. >> You are troopers. A >> It wasn't the Ed services. [applause] >> I know everybody's clapping, but I don't think it's official until the board votes, but I >> I don't want to ruin that parade. >> We go hugs, flowers, and then we vote. >> Exactly. Okay. >> All right. Do we uh All in favor of everything in our consent agenda, >> sir. So, what was M again? I
152think we did we skip it. M transfer funds. >> Yes. Did we cover that one? >> Okay. Oh, that was part of the monthly financial report. Okay. Okay. Perfect. That's fine. I'm in favor. >> Okay. So, all in favor of the consent agenda one more time just so we have it official. Thank you so much. All right. That being said, do I see a motion to adjourn? A second. All in favor? All right. Have a lovely holiday. >> Now it's official.