001foreign everyone and welcome to the Three Village meet the cat at night I'm Gerard bringman from Suffolk region PTA and I'll be tonight's moderator uh Chrissy Centron also from Suffolk region PTA will be tonight's timekeeper and we also have Vicky algeri also here from Suffolk region PTA I'd like to go over the process that will take place tonight all questions were submitted by community members ahead of time the Suffolk region PTA has moderated the specific questions in order in which they are asked is that my discretion and I reviewed all in advance modifying or editing similar questions to avoid redundancy no additional questions will be allowed tonight I'd like to introduce the candidates alphabetically the first is Miss Gabriella alvanus okay uh Kristen gerando your Rhonda okay Jeffrey Kerman David McKinnon Karen roughly and Michelle
002Siegel okay the meet the candidate guidelines uh we use this for all of our meetings uh no letters or statements by apps and candidates will be read everybody's here so that's not a problem um moderator and timekeeper for South Region PTA each candidate will be allowed three minutes to make a presentation stating qualifications and reasons for running when the three minutes are up the timekeeper will ring a bell to signify that the sentence must be completed um again as mentioned earlier all questions reviewed any of those that contain personal attacks were discarded uh didn't see any of those and moderator will make the final decision regarding all questions you may not necessarily hear your question in a way that it was written similar or multiple questions were combined each candidate will get be given the
003opportunity to answer each question in one minute when the minute is up the time keep will ring a bell indicating the candidate must finish the sentence Feel Free at any time to have a question repeated if need be uh no rebuttals are allowed during the question and answer period and I'd like to ask that please don't interrupt any candidate while they are speaking all right each candidate will also be allowed two minutes to make a closing statement after the last question has been answered at this time candidates can make rebuttals the length of the program will be determined by the moderator prior to the beginning of the evening uh length of the program based a number of community members present virtual a number of questions submitted uh we traditionally go about 90 minutes or meet
004the cat at nights so the first 20 minutes will be the introductions because you're all going to get three minutes it's like 18 minutes right there uh we'll do about one hour of questions um figured six minutes a question we'll get about 10 questions in maybe we'll squeeze an 11th or 12th question um or any presentations will be made in alphabetical order questions will be asked an alternating start order so in other words the first question will go to miss havanas the second question will go to Mr Rondo third question Mr Kerman we'll start and so on and so forth already and then closing statements will be in reverse order so we do the reverse uh the closing statements will start with Miss eagle and work our way back down alrighty and the moderator reserves
005the right to end the program at any time if deemed necessary uh I've done about a dozen of these some of them got a little Wild and Woolly I never had to close one down so I don't think that's a problem but I had to mention it alrighty so we shall go into the opening statements and first opening statement will be for Miss albanus thank you hello everyone my name is Gabriella alvanos my husband and I have lived in the district for about 16 years we love our community and we have two children in the district one is in a 12-1-1 class and the other one is in a DTC class both are attend satoka elementary school I'm fluent in Spanish I'm more at one point I was an English language learner when it was
006called DSL so a long time ago I love learning new languages so I that inspired me to study Italian Greek and sign language I'm a strong advocate for Education as a foundation for Success while I have a strong mom who always inspired me to achieve my dreams and goals I had amazing teachers in the guidance counselor who set me out on a path to success in my career I now hold a Bachelor of Science in computer science and a master of arts in strategic leadership I have over 20 years experience working for four Fortune 500 companies and working with their Global teams helping Bridge technology in businesses areas driving company growth I ensure most of the time that the projects are done on budget and on time and in addition as an advocate for people
007with disabilities I work with organizations and individuals um in creating meaningful opportunities and strategies that force their accessibility and inclusion I strongly believe that every student regardless of their background should have the ability to access and access to opportunities that builds and supports and challenges them to excel in their academic learning and that empowers them to live and integrate to society with dignity respect and the knowledge to succeed in whatever they Embark to do I am here to give back to the community and I'm here to be in service of all of our students whether they're part of the English language program or the special education or general education or the gifted program I am looking to work with a parent staff and the community to provide professional and academic experience examine research data and
008Community input in order to make informed decisions ensuring our budget is more transparent sustainable and fiscally responsible our school district is one of our top districts in the island there's still a lot more work to get done and it's time to raise the bar to extraordinary in everything we do from academic achievement health and wellness providing all our students a safe learning environment a place for inclusion and belonging so our children can focus on learning reach their dreams and be better Leaders of Tomorrow I'm hopeful that after you learn more about me today and this evening that or in the next few days you will grant me the honor to represent you with your vote as a board of education trustee thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss duranda good evening my name is Kristen
009duronda first I'd like to thank the PTA for hosting this evening's event I'm a lifelong resident of Three Village I have two children my daughter Kate is a ninth grader at jelena's my son Carmine is a fifth grader at minasaki I myself a town attended Mount minasaki jelena's and graduated from word Melville I went on and pursued a Bachelor's of Arts at Muhlenberg College in both English and Elementary education and then further pursued my education at Allen college where I received a master's in literacy and special ed um I have been a teacher for 23 years at both the elementary and middle school level I've taught kindergarten first grade second fourth and I am currently a sixth grade teacher in an inclusion and enl setting over the past decade I have been widely involved in
010the community I've served on the board of play groups as a trustee I've also served as a member of both their financial committee and their personnel committee I've been the vice president of the minasaki PTA co-chaired sixth grade manasaki Soiree staff appreciation as well as some other events I've been a class parent or liaison each year for my children's classes and here in the Three Village Central School District I've served on the district's reopening committee during kovid and I am currently on the Dei committee at the Minnesota building level I have volunteered my services as a soccer coach with the Stony Brook soccer club I was recently elected just last week to the Three Village swim club board and I am also a member and volunteer of the American Legion auxiliary I am seeking a
011position here on the board of education for the Three Village School District because I am beyond grateful for the education that I received and the opportunities that I had as a result and I think it is um my time to give back to the community and to ensure that our present and future students receive the same excellent education that I did that they deserve thank you okay thank you ma'am Mr Carmen my name is Dr Jeffrey Kerman I am a practicing dentist I have been a member of the community for 46 years I have served on the board of education for 17 years I was president of the board of education for two of those years I am here to continue this District as it's been noted that it's a very very good District it
012can always be a little bit better we can always strive for better things this District we had wonderful with my two sons they both graduated award Melville with honors they went to college and graduated with honors they're both working very nicely by themselves now in in the real world and I want to be able to continue that for all students in this district and that means from the top our AP kids until until our special education kids and I firmly believe that we are a very good District that can do that and I want to maintain that you know for the for the the district and for the rest of our kids I am proud to be to run for this for this position this is one of the payback positions but it's also one
013of the pay forward positions because I'll be able to help with with my knowledge of being on the board for a good number of years and I strive to continue and hopefully we'll continue to help this District continue and even get better thank you I'm done okay thank you sir Mr McKinnon uh good evening to everyone here and at home I Am David McKinnon someone on social media recently dismissed me as the Recycled independent candidate my wife found this very funny this is the third time I'm running for board the advantage to being recycled is that I do not have to spend a lot of time telling you about myself I've lived in the district for 32 years I have three children go to Local Schools one is still at Ward Melville I work at
014the local University in our School Board elections one group of candidates are always selected vetted and endorsed by the leadership of the Three Village Teachers Association the tvta for many years almost no one would run against the tvta endorse candidates because they are literally undefeated except for one year when a former superintendent Mr sonodeka was caught spending District money at strip clubs the first year I ran for board it was a struggle simply to normalize the idea that running for the board as an independent candidate does not automatically make you anti-teacher or anti-education no institution thrives in the absence of regular scrutiny and review it is simply good governance to have a robust debate each year about the direction of a quarter billion dollar operation that has such a direct effect on the future of
015the district's children similarly when we began to ask questions about the District budget we're not attempting to defund education we are trying to establish a long-term financial plan that is sustainable creates some predictability for everybody and takes account of the large and ongoing declines in enrollment this year 30 teachers will let go this is not good financial planning for anyone it should be crystal clear at this point school boards are not and should never be about partisan politics parents all agree on the core issues we want the school to adopt optimal teaching practices and we want every child to feel safe and secure it is in the long-term interest of public education to be inclusive of everyone what is good for public education is good for the stability of our democracy and it is essential
016for the financial and social interest to the children of middle class and Working Families we need to ensure that the governing structure of our school district the school board is independent and doing its job if you elect myself and Karen roughly this year at a minimum you know that you are putting people on the board who do not give up easily when it comes to defending yours and your child's interests thank you okay thank you sir Miss roughly hi sorry you can't speak hi my name is Karen roughly and I'm honored to be running for the Three Village Board of Education before I get into a little about me I just wanted to thank everyone who was watching from home this evening like many of you David and I were very saddened to learn this
017event had to be live streamed we believe that an in-person meet the candidates night like every other district has done is an integral part of the electoral process and not allowing the community to participate is setting a poor president hopefully tonight you'll get a little insight about what I stand for and what I believe in and anybody can reach out to me with any questions that are not covered in this meeting my family has been District residents for about 12 years my daughters attend woodmova high school in julianas junior high school both of my children are in special education programs with the oldest also having a mix of general education classes we've been very lucky over the years to have wonderful teachers and teams who have worked with our girls and helped them become the
018wonderful teams they are today it takes a village to raise our children in Three Village truly encompasses that due to the programs my children were enrolled in we've had the pleasure of being a part of numerous School communities and enjoyed being part of each I've been PTA president of the arrowhead Setauket Murphy and special education ptas I was also the vice president president of PTA Council I volunteered for many district-wide committees including the budget advisory committee the Dei committee the school reopening task force and the subcommittee is on the school restructuring I've been chosen to sit on the parent advisory committee for the New York State education Blue Ribbon Commission on new graduation measures and have been advocating for Do no harm policy for Regent scores within our district prior to staying home with my
019children I worked with 16 years doing corporate Communications business continuity and crisis management for an investment Bank in these roles comprehensive communications security and the safety of our employees was Paramount skills relied heavily on leadership questioning solving any situation that may arise working with a team and managing large multi-million dollar budgets becoming a board member is very important to me because I want every family and Future Families to be able to experience the staff programs and experiences that my family has in order to do that we must start taking a close look at the budget to ensure that the district will be financially sustainable for years to come bullying diversity and inclusion need to be addressed and we need to continue to Champion those students who are looking at career Pathways instead of attending college
020my passion is to advocate for every child regardless of ability so they can have the best possible education and experience as possible we all want our children to excel academically but we also also want them to feel safe and included while doing so thank you to the PTA for moderating tonight and please remember to vote on May 16th and I'd be honored to be your choice of a new board member thank you okay thank you ma'am uh Miss Eagle you're up thank you so much to the Joint Council of PTA for hosting this evening my name is Michelle Siegel I'm the mother of two incredible if I do say so myself children um currently third and fifth grade students at Setauket School my husband a lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department in the
021Special Operations Division and I are both proud alumni of the Three Village District our families all still reside in the district and over the course of the next 18 years I will have seven nieces and nephews graduate through Ward Melville I'm incredibly proud to be raising my children here I hold a bachelor's degree in business and marking for Muhlenberg and have completed a study abroad program at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia I have over 20 years of professional experiencing experience leveraging operational and experienced data to drive business decisions and Implement strategies for Brands and organizations I'm currently the associate director of custom research and insights for a global Media company and in this role I oversee the qualitative and quantitative research initiatives that educate over 30 Brands and business divisions with
022evidence-based strategies I have extensive experience managing and growing teams that includes the professional development of those team members overseeing Department budgets and negotiating contracts on that behalf I've held many volunteer positions in our community such as being the president of the Board of Trustees for our local play group School a coach and team manager through the Stony Brook soccer program as well as held many class parent roles throughout the years outside the community I'm a Committee Member for our company's two percent Foundation which is giving back to and supporting volunteer efforts in our larger community and then a mentor for the athletes at the Muhlenberg Women's Soccer Club as a community member it is our civic duty to volunteer I feel passionate about having the opportunity to give back to a community that has shaped
023who I am today I'd be incredibly honored to be able to represent the voices of the entire District to make informed data-driven decisions thank you so much for your time okay thank you ma'am alrighty so we'll go into the questions and the first question will go to miss alvanos and that is um The Three Village School budget only passed by about 60 votes last year and failed the year uh failed the year before twice how would you reassure the community that you are truly invested in creating a school district with great academics but also respecting all taxpayers especially those without children currently in school or those who are older on fixed incomes foreign thank you all right so when it comes to the budget we have to be very mindful of what the choices are
024because there is impact on the road not just currently but long term so ensuring that academic achievement is still done we still can provide help within our school district um there are many talented people within the district or the ministers their teachers who can provide guidance and they can exercise their knowledge and flourish in in that aspect and as far as ensuring that our budget it's mindful for all our taxpayers we have to ensure that the programs that we provide are fiscally responsible and there are projects that we can do that don't even require any budget into it like d i it's a matter of in being inclusive and mindful of the ways that we approach our academic opportunities for the children and the necessarily some of them don't necessarily need to increase the budget
025okay thank you ma'am uh Mr Rhonda um I'm obviously very mindful as a lifelong resident that we have a diverse community population here um and so I support long-term financial planning to ensure that our funds are dispersed in a way that continues to support the rich high quality learning environment that we are providing for our students while maintaining fiscal responsibility I think it's imperative that we continue to analyze previous year's budgets for a historical perspective and I also support the continued work of the budget advisory committee they represent our community and they make recommendations based on a thorough amount of meetings and research so I would definitely encourage that to continue and also I would support more frequent spending projections beginning earlier in the year and spread out throughout the budget process all year long
026okay thank you ma'am Dr Kerman um according to the uh state law our budget is at its um where it's supposed to be as far as a two percent tax cap goes the two percent tax cap really isn't accurate our budget this year is at 2.65 which is what we're supposed to have and our budget um does fund everything that we need when we I was on the board still am we we formed the budget advisory committee and we will continue to monitor everything that goes on in our in our budget and spending as much as we can I am I've been on the audit Committee of the uh school board for all 17 years because I am very concerned to make sure that we no do not overspend but we have to continue to
027make sure that we have enough money and spend that we're supposed to be to maintain our District's um advancement and and doing well with all our students both you know regular and special needs thank you thank you sir Mr McKinnon so as many know I've been very active in trying to understand the budget the budget turns out to be quite complicated with a lot of competing demands here I've been on the budget advisory committee for two years running there's a lot of very right now the problem we have basically is that we have very low reserves that got us into trouble when we went into the covert shutdown we do had two lower reserves and we now need to increase the reserves quite a bit the reason here is is that the state is currently
028pretty flush with with money from covert but it's likely that state contributions are going to fall quite a bit and so what I feel right now is that the district has to be quite cautious financially ensuring that it can build up those reserves as quickly as possible currently we're not building them up very fast I feel that that's a mistake and we really need to invest more money on that thank you okay thank you sir Miss roughly hi um I think this year we are at a Crossroads with our budget um just to sustain us staying within the cap we needed to access 30 ftes and the community didn't like that obviously the teachers didn't like that in the staff we don't want that to continue we don't have any extra money in our budget
029so we really need to seriously be looking at something for cost savings or something that's going to bring in substantial Revenue that is going to help our district in the future if we cannot do that we are going to be seeing more excesses over the years and then that is going to affect our programs so we really need to sit down and see what we can do for substantial savings or substantial Revenue to make sure that our programs stay the same our staffing stays the same and then start increasing what our programs are which would be great to do um so thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss eagle so balancing the needs of today with long-term planning is required and necessary for a thriving Community it applies to not only the budget but all
030aspects of our community and District my experience for managing budgets does not mean we do a copy and paste from the previous year and just adjust it requires a diligent audit I believe it is necessary to make sure that our expenses are meeting the needs of our investment by using key metrics to evaluate I would continue to educate myself on the budgeting process and I do believe that the the committee work should start earlier in the year so that we can discuss long-term projections and have more frequent check-ins thank you okay thank you all right question number two we'll start with Mr jaronda and you'll have to bear with me a little bit because I'm trying to combo some of these to the second question we'll focus on reorganization of the district um it's my
031understanding that the board is currently considering moving sixth graders to the junior highs ninth graders to the high school and then also there's a concern that um this school buildings are about 50 percent of capacity so would there be any consideration for maybe Closing one of the elementary school buildings so basically what we're looking for is your opinion on reorganizing reorganizing the school districts in either of those two ways and you get to go first ma'am um I think the reconfiguration is um a one of the most important issues that our district is currently facing um I appreciate the surveys that went out asking all constituents all stakeholders their opinion and I think the community teachers staff Administration even students came back in full support of reconfiguring our buildings to meet our present day needs
032um I think the recommendations that many of the Committees who have devoted so much time and effort to these changes would be imperative in helping make an informed fiscally responsible decision about what would best suit our District's financial needs at this time as well as supporting the students academic and emotional and social well-being okay thank you ma'am Dr Kerman uh we have the strategic planning committee we had many many meetings and there are the school board is now considering uh reconfiguring The District in that aspect of moving the sixth grade up and moving the ninth grade up but we also have to take into effect the late start time and when we combine these two issues it does cost money and it can be an expensive proposition so we are looking into it more deeply
033to make sure that we don't run through any problems with that but other than that our district probably should be reconfigured we are not planning on closing any elementary schools as at this time at all but we have to look into stuff like that and uh that's basically it right now okay thank you sir Mr McKinnon so I attended most of the reorganization meetings um I supported the the consensus here to move from nine to six to Junior and the nine to high school the problem we have at the moment is that there's fairly low capacity in a lot of these schools down to 42 percent in one of the schools almost all are below 50 percent the incoming classes are much smaller than the outgoing classes at the moment we're looking at 40 declines
034in over over the entire range of K-12 inevitably we're going to have to close a school I think everybody really understands that it may be best to repurpose it in some way ideally in a way that makes it a revenue generator but we're going to have to do something regarding the start times and the reorganization that can be done relatively inexpensively if it's given sufficient it's thought thank you okay thank you sir Miss roughly hi I attended most of the restructuring committee meetings and I am in favor of moving sixth to the junior high school and Ninth to the high school um as far as closing a building I don't think we should close a building we should definitely repurpose the building and that kind of goes back to what I was speaking about before
035with the budget we need to be doing something that's going to give us a cost savings and that will be generating Revenue by repurposing a school you can rent it out to a BOCES program or expand our Academy where we get tuition in and we're going to need that going forward so we can enhance our programs and keep our staff and keep everything that that the way that it is without letting anybody else go thank you okay thank you ma'am uh Miss Eagle yeah thank you um so as I said in my introduction I look at both operational and experience data for a living so clearly we've could we've collected The Experience data we've asked the opinions of every key stakeholder across our community however before opinion can be formed I think we have to
036do the operational data and that's going line by line and understanding not only the cost but the savings implications as well as the implications it may have on all areas of our entire District that we maybe have not yet considered so I'm obviously incredibly open-minded to understanding all that but as someone who needs data as well as experience information I think we need to look at both of those sides in order to make an informed decision for not only the next year but looking at the long-term success of our district so TBD on my opinion until I have that thank you sir okay thank you ma'am misodanas so when it came to that decision I went to the research and I actually looked up research data in North Carolina was one of the first states
037that implemented that model and they did a study on it and it showed that students Elementary School sixth grade is the most moved to a middle school actually reduce their academic performance and affected their emotional and behavioral aspect so I understand that the community that's what they voted for I'm not sure if everybody had the same data available to them and if that and if they had that data would they have changed their mind however even though that was not my first option when I uh submitted the survey if that's the case to move forward I would like to see that the board and the staff does consider the emotional academic impact that this will do to our children that they provide the appropriate support so we don't fall under that statistic okay thank you
038ma'am thank you Okay the third question that we have is salaries are the district's largest expense and great teachers with experience are one of our greatest assets currently over half the teachers in District have over 20 years experience putting them at the top of the earnings scale well less than 15 percent have been here less than five years these are the teachers that are now being laid off due to declining enrollment what could you do as a board member to help keep our role of teachers more consistent and diverse with respect to experience and financial sustainability uh and that first that question will go first to Dr Kerman there really isn't much that a school board can do about that um we are unfortunately letting go of the 30 teachers of 30 ftes because of
039declining enrollment and with continuing declining enrollment we're going to be needing less teachers unfortunately so we do have to figure out a way of um utilizing what we have in the best possible means possible so that all our students again get the best education possible and that is basically my answer okay thank you sir uh Mr McKinnon so this is a tough question it's an emotional one for a lot of people it's absolutely true that we're going to lose the best young teachers from the system if we stay on the current path the current path is is that the costs of the district vastly though the increase in costs vastly exceed the increase in Revenue most of that cost is associated with salary increases the only thing that is going to bring those two things
040in better alignment is to reduce the rate of salary increases we can't enforce that as board members I think we should ask for some reduction from the various stakeholders here in salaries increases in order to protect the younger faculty I feel very strongly about this that we should do something to protect the younger faculty but the way the system is set up is very very hard for the board to actually do that thank you okay thank you sir Miss roughly hi nobody ever wants to lose any staff member the new teachers that are coming out of college have great ideas and you know they're bringing something new to the district where our teachers have that have been here for a while have the experience and the knowledge um to work with all of our children
041so we definitely don't want anybody to be leaving but we do have a problem with the expenses in this District increasing more than uh you know what we're taking in we are subjected to the tax cap which is around a two percent tax cap our salaries which are one of the largest components of our budget have raise increases that are well over that tax cap so every year we're starting off in a hole and unless we get some sort of savings or Revenue it's going to be very unfortunate that we're going to have to keep letting people go with the declining enrollment until we get our taxes and our budget under control thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss eagle so the teachers are the backbone of our community they are what is who are
042with our children every day and they should be applauded every single minute um you know I look at I do a lot of extensive research around employee experience and I don't believe that it'd be any different in the school district about retaining uh retaining individuals who are employed they need support they need to be heard and they need to be able to feel that they have the tools to do their job effectively you know when it comes to the budget obviously we would have to the last thing I would want to do is have an impact on our on the individuals that are in the classroom with our children every single day so I think it comes down to long-term planning of the budget to see what other things and that can go back to
043my earlier statement around putting up success metrics around how we're spending our money and making sure we're getting the investment on that return outside of salaries so thank you okay thank you ma'am uh Ms Sylvanas you're up next so during the pandemic I had the opportunity to see live classes with my youngest child he was in first grade at the time and he had a new teacher it was amazing how she handled 20 plus students fully you know organized schedule and he was actually in the wrong class and when they changed it into the appropriate class that he was supposed to be I ended up asking to go back to the to the teacher that was only like a year or two into the school district so I understand that Talent is there and if
044we have to let go new teachers we're we're losing talent and nobody would want that so we need to find alternate Avenues of revenue for our school district and when we consider contracts going forward we have to think about how is this going to impact our staff how is this going to impact the education and you know the talent that we're going to be losing if we don't do something about it okay thank you ma'am Mr Rondo I agree with what most of the candidates have set up here um unfortunately the board the board does have very little leverage in this particular area salaries and benefits are obviously our largest line item in the budget we are truly blessed here in Three Village to have outstanding teachers and staff working with our children every day
045both are most experienced and the ones that are coming in brand new full of excitement and eager to educate and work with our children every day obviously the declining enrollment has caused this unfortunate let go of 30 FTE so I agree with the fact that we need to start thinking long term in terms of how Cuts Like This are going to impact our students and look for other areas and other ways that we can make adjustments okay thank you ma'am all right the next question a little controversial um given current events in the country there's a lot of discussion about curriculum and two things that pop up quite a bit are certain school districts Banning books in their High School libraries and then also the teaching of critical race Theory uh what are your opinions
046on either of those two subjects and we'll start with uh Mr McKinnon or you can handle both subjects too it's thank you for giving me the most controversial one first [Laughter] um book Banning I'm not a fan of book Banning uh Banning a book spanning of ideas it really goes very far it's largely counterproductive I understand people's desire to protect their children to keep them innocent for me when my having my youngest children was one of the nicest times of my life just spending time with um walking around seeing the world and I I understand that impulse to try and protect them from the outside world the problem is the libraries and the schools are really not the problem it's the internet the social media there's this vast stream of data that's coming into their
047lives which clearly disrupts them emotionally the schools really aren't the problem here and so focusing on that is not really going to be a big impact on their lives regarding CRT I actually read Candy's book I can't see that it's ever going to have any impact on schools frankly okay thank you sir uh Miss roughly hi um I do not agree with Banning books um at all I think um books are in the library for students to take out and their parents um should be speaking to their students if they do not agree with what they're taking out of the libraries I do agree though that if you have an issue with something that's going on in your classroom either it's part of the curriculum or something that they're working on a flyer or video
048please speak to your teacher I've done it many times it's something that you know didn't go with my family values and the teachers will work with you so if you approach them respectfully they will work with you on things that maybe you need tweaked in your classroom so I would definitely urge parents to reach out respectfully to your teachers to have to talk to them and see what's going on for CRT our district doesn't teach CRT um so that's all I have to say on that thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss eagle so our Librarians and our staff are dedicated to selecting the best books for our the children and to align with the curriculum I do agree that you know if parents have a concern whether it be about certain content or the
049level of maybe potential maturity of their child at any given age that they should reach out and have that open dialogue I have found throughout this entire District that our educators are incredibly communicative either at the start of the year throughout the year and so a parent should obviously have an open dialogue and that should be encouraged as it pertains to CRT that is a theory that is taught in law school and not applicable within our district okay thank you ma'am Sylvanas okay so when it comes to books and I know you mentioned it had to do with the high school level but I think books um you know everybody goes to excel books so if there's any book that is not appropriate for a child and it is a conservative apparent the parent has
050every right to bring it up to the the teachers and then if it needs to be escalated I know they're currently there's a committee that looks into that and then the board gets to decide and take a vote on it and I'm I support that just to make sure that there is oversight in case something goes um you know an appropriate book is out if there is um some at the high school level there's also an opportunity to to provide I guess some sort of accommodations if need be so that's something to also consider not just necessarily people with disabilities are able to get accommodations teachers sometimes do accommodations for in other scenarios so that's something that can be accomplished and it's a way of inclusion anyways and as far as okay thank you ma'am
051Mr Rhonda uh I ABS I do not support banned books um I do however support upfront curriculum transparency which I think our district does a wonderful job of if you've ever attended any of the open house presentations provided by teachers in our district or looked at the syllabuses that come home at the secondary level uh teachers are very transparent about what is happening in their classrooms and the sources the resources and materials they will be using so if at any time a parent has a concern about something their child might be exposed to I think they have the right to First address that with the teacher I have found in the past all of our teachers to be very receptive to those dialogues and I also am happy that our district for when those things
052move forward to the next level have in place a committee with Dr buscari leading it that allows parents and teacher and Dr visari represent representatives to view the material and decide whether or not it's appropriate okay thank you ma'am uh Dr Carmen you get to close this one out I get to close this one out um I am not in favor of banning books at all I'm a voracious reader and I'm always carrying a book with me I always I'm a reader and I don't believe in banning books as far as CRT goes we don't teach it in our schools but what everybody else has said here is very very true if you have a question you go to the teacher and you discuss it and just teachers are very very willing to discuss things
053with parents and that way you could possibly work out a solution for your individual child but I'm not in favor of abandoning books and I'm we don't teach CRT thank you okay thank you sir um the next question deals with bullying apparently over the last two months there's been significant bullying allegations many community members feel what is happening now is not effective minimum consequences for the perpetrators and victims are being made to change schools classes Etc what are your views on this and this one will start with Miss roughly hi I absolutely agree with that over the last couple of months we've had two lawsuits regarding bullying in this district and almost every single parent that I know their child has been bullied in some way over the course of their education it's very sad
054um and something needs to be done um to stop that so I'm not exactly sure what that should be um but we really need to sit down look at what we're doing and looking what we can change maybe pull in some of the teachers because they're seeing it day to day and ask them what they think would help more um but the second part of that question um about I guess the bullying victims that need to move classes or whatever that is happening and it's not fair um so the people that are bullied and the victims should not have to change what they are doing because people can't control themselves so this is definitely something that we need to look at it's very serious not just in our district but across the whole entire country
055but we really seriously need to do that and sitting on the Dei committee we're going to be hopefully looking into that next year thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss eagle um I agree I recognize that it is an ongoing issue within the potential issue within the district as well as Nationwide I think accountability um I I think as a member of the board it's our responsibility to ensure accountability is held throughout the entire district and while I know at the elementary all the way through the high school we have fantastic programs that address such as I'm looking at the wall right here between our stars and our Patriot pride and I know we're constantly looking at how we can best support the mental well-being of our students however I think everyone has to be
056held accountable both from within the home all the way through through the district I do feel that the use of potentially cell phones should potentially be looked at especially as it pertains to cyber bullying so it'd be something I would be interested in digging into a little bit deeper thank you okay thank you ma'am uh Miss alvanos so my children have experience at some point some level of bullying because of their disability so I think it's important that we provide support not just for the person being bullied but also for the person doing the bullying and I say that because you know so children and they still need to be advice on what to say and how it their words can affect people and how it eventually can affect them as they grow up with
057this type of behavior so I've um talked to the teachers and the administrators the principals and I've asked to please provide more support from the social workers to speak to the to the class at a you know broad level to provide more information on you know what words can do what actions can do and how it affects the person you know being bullied and how it can affect them ultimately if the behavior doesn't stop so I think more of that would be definitely helpful for the school okay thank you ma'am Mr Ronda as others have said bullying is certainly prevalent Nationwide now in many districts not trust hours however I believe that a very strong collaborative approach to combat this which includes the professionals who are trained in these areas like our crisis response teams
058they are constantly creating and inviting proactive social emotional education and support into our schools I agree that this needs to be done on both sides for the victim and for the bully and I've also been very pleased at the building level as part of the Dei committee with the collaboration between staff parents the students themselves to help promote respect and dignity inclusion and Equitable treatment and access to programs and opportunities for all the students I think the younger we start instilling these values in these lessons the better off we'll be in long term okay thank you ma'am uh Dr Kerman um I am very much against bullying I think it's very very bad and uh we do have the adasa laws which is dignity for all students act which um we have to make make
059sure we enforce and it is uh we we do work with our staff we have psychologists in all the school buildings and it is important to work with both the bully himself or herself and the victim of the bullying to see if we can modify and change their situation and that's very very important for all students to feel comfortable in their building so that they can get a good education okay thank you sir and Mr McKinnon so I was on the Dei committee my hope when I uh joined that was that this would be a vehicle to address bullying particularly given the eye for inclusion here the committee conducted a survey of the students I would like to see that survey or something similar to that survey conducted each year what's needed here first of
060all is some data just trying to understand what's going on understand what the Baseline is so that you can then figure out what works over time there's all kinds of suggestions and Frameworks here that that might work but we actually don't know what will work we actually need real data that we can use to follow what's going on there just should be an ongoing survey of what's going on depression and anxiety makes students particularly vulnerable to bullying I think the very bad outcomes are these students that are depressed and anxious we need to be more effective at identifying those students students with mental health issues and really just take them out of the system and deal with them very directly thank you okay thank you sir all righty the sixth question [Music] um is what
061do you what do you see as the major issues facing our district today and how do you plan to address these issues if you are elected or re-elected and we'll start off with Miss eagle so the top priorities I see from my perspective is ensuring the emotional well-being and physical safety of all students students need to flourish and find success in whichever pathway they choose leading up to and after graduation so around that obviously you know kind of building off of what the conversation we just had you know a closer look at the emotional well-being support that we have for our students another priority is balancing the financial needs of today with long-term planning as we addressed earlier especially as we just spoke about the Reconstruction restructuring due to declining enrollment um I would say
062those would be the top two priorities okay thank you ma'am uh El Sylvanas so I think being able to provide us their safe learning environment for our children is very important being able to provide them with the resources that they need so they can they're able to focus on their academics instead of worrying about any bullying or feeling that they don't belong in addition to that I also feel that the budget is very important so addressing alternate Avenues of income to improve our budget will be something that we should definitely look into okay thank you uh Mr Rhonda uh thank you um I think that the safety and well-being of our students and staff are Paramount I think re-examining and constantly having conversations about enhancements related to our policies and protocols to protect our students
063and staff on all levels is Paramount I also believe right now our district fees is a very unique situation with simultaneously trying to reconfigure the schools and provide for a later start times which will also Aid in providing better mental health and overall health for our students so that done in a fiscally responsible way is is really what I think we are up against and most important for us to focus on okay thank you ma'am Dr Kerman obviously the most important thing is for all the safety and education of our students we have Wellness rooms now in the schools so that the students can actually go in there and and unwind a little bit one of the things that we should be noted is that our school district is right now probably the Paramount one
064for safety there are other school districts who always look at us for what we're doing for safety because of our security system and because of what we what we have implemented as far as that goes so we are a safe environment we can always be a safer environment but the most important thing is to make sure we educate every student as best as possible okay thank you sir uh Mr McKinnon okay there's been a steep decline in state rankings in elementary literacy and math in New York state so these are very large declines in rankings and so inevitably this is going to drag down our district we need strategy to distance ourselves as best as possible it's not as straightforward as best as possible from this Statewide decline for literacy seems like there's problems with
065the curriculum particularly the Lucy Calkins curriculum it seems to be flawed we need to move towards an intra a comprehensive phonics program for the math education it seems mainly we need to focus on Specialized getting specialized Math teachers into the schools the long other issue here is long-term financial planning I'm pleased to hear everybody has taken this up as a cultural against the problems that we face when I brought up long-term planning on the back I was shut down this is absolutely critical that we start to do long-term financial planning the problem is the contracts nobody wants to really address that but it has to be addressed if I was elected to the board I would address it okay thank you sir and Miss roughly hi I believe some of the top priorities are going
066to be obviously the safety of students and our staff with that I would roll in our expanding our Dei program to include bullying um the long-term budget planning is absolutely Paramount because we really can't do anything if we don't have the money to do it restructuring obviously over the next year or year and a half two years three years is going to be key and it's probably going to be on top of everybody's Minds thank you okay thank you ma'am okay question number seven how would you support and ensure equity and inclusion for all students in the Three Village School District and how will you ensure that every student feels safe seen valued and heard in school including those that are lgbtq and we'll start this one with Miss alvanus okay so Dei can be
067something that can be misunderstood it can be put a little politicized but Dei comes down to being able to provide an inclusive environment a place for opportunity for growth for everybody and even at home people that might not even be supportive of the AI that everybody practices at a home you have a child that has more need in one area but it needs help in another one and you know the child is the opposite you're going to provide the appropriate support for the child that needs in an area and not necessarily the same approach for both so if you need a math tutor for one child you're only going to spend it for the for the child that needs it so that's a way to provide Equity so same thing applies for our school you
068provide the areas that the child needs support and that's across you know whether you are part of the you know especially the Cajun program or whether you are a part of the IG program so it you need to be able to provide appropriate accommodations to to provide that so the child can focus on their learning instead of having to worry about you know any type of bullying okay thank you ma'am Mr Rhonda just repeat that question just the way oh sure how would you support and ensure equity and inclusion for all students in the Three Village School District and how would you ensure that every student feels safe seen valued and heard in school including those that are lgbtq I think it get a top priority to preserve the educational equity and continuing Improvement so
069that we're providing opportunities where all of our students come to school feeling safe and they can learn in an environment that provides them the opportunities to become good citizens critical thinkers productive and positive community members again I think reaching out to the um the crisis response team that we have who is trained in this particular area um is is Paramount and I myself I'm an excellent listener and advocate so anyone who would feel that they had a concern or a need that they would like addressed for the safety and well-being of their students or others I would be happy to listen and collaborate with to find find a solution to these problems okay thank you ma'am uh Dr Kerman I think uh we already are very very concerned about the safety and uh the comfort
070of all our students and we do anything that we can to make the students more comfortable and feel safe if there is a problem the student of course has to either talk to the parent or talk to their guidance counselor and there has to be a result resolution of that problem but every student in this district has to feel safe every student in this district has to get a good education and that's our desire and that's our goal thank you okay thank you sir Mr McKinnon I happen to know a few LGBT OB LGBT teenagers and I've talked about their experiences in the schools and I'm going to try and represent their views as best I can they don't want a lot of attention paste on LGBT issues by adults they do want some representation
071this is actually very close to the view of majority of adults if you survey them they want LGBT kids to be fully accepted in the schools but they don't want too much emphasis if you think of this from the perspective of 12 year old just really realizing or starting to realize that the LGBT I think this makes a lot of sense initially they're in denial then when they recognize and accept that their LGBT they were fearful of rejection from their peers parents and grandparents then when that hurdle is crossed they just want to stay under the radar like almost every other middle schooler they need some representation to provide goal guide posts for where their life is heading finding out your LGBT is not a walk in the park the conventional certainties us to some
072degree are now Out Of Reach thank you okay thank you sir Miss roughly hi um I think this little ties back to the Dei committee as well all of our students need to be taught from a very young age that they need to respect the others in their classrooms respect their teachers respect their peers have acceptance for people that are different um people have different abilities or different views on different topics and that's okay and they need to understand that they need to respect that I think we need to speak with our students and ask them what is going on and what we can do to help them I think that's really what's missing is that we don't have that forum for the students to come together to let us know what's going on I
073also think that we might need to do a little better letting the students know where they can go I'm very lucky that my daughter goes to the counseling center and our Counseling Center is fantastic and I wish that every child knew that they had that resource and felt comfortable enough to go to because that is really what's going to help you so I think we need to work on that as well thank you very much Miss eagle sure it's the responsibility of the district to ensure we support every subversity every student has the opportunity to have an equitable education that aligns with their individual needs and every child and staff has the ability to feel included and bring their true self to school every single day so ensuring equity and access is done through measurement
074what gets measured gets done so this could be done by measuring the usage rates as well as potential interests and programs but measuring the experience of the individual students as well and then really once we have that data is when you can build evidence-based strategies that inform the programming and what else our children need okay thank you ma'am alrighty um question number eight what do you feel is the best way for the school district to address the anxiety and mental health issues that have become more evident post covet that many of our students seem to face and we'll start that one with Mr Rhonda um like I've mentioned in some of my previous statements I think that we have a very strong mental health Team in our schools I think that we need to emphasize
075a collaborative approach between the mental health professionals the students and the parents so that everyone is involved in the conversation to do what is in the best interest of supporting that particular student and I also believe that we need more proactive social emotional education and support rather than reactive okay thank you ma'am uh Dr Kerman oh sure what do you feel is the best way for the district to address the anxiety mental health issues that have become more evident post covet that many of our students seem to face I think our district does handle those issues well now but there's always a better way of doing it and we have many psychologists in our district who help the kids the kids have to be able to know that they can go to the psychologists or
076the Committees to help them and also the parents have to be aware of that also so they can bring the kids to the committees or tell them to go to go to the psychologists Etc so that's what I believe okay thank you sir Mr McKinnon so I actually questioned the premise of the question the question here a little bit it's not post covered anxiety and depression rates have increased since the eyes of the video phones and social media there's pretty good data on this particularly in girls there's about a two-fold increase in rates of anxiety and depression since the introduction of the funds the funds aren't going away and I don't really have and no one else that I'm aware of has a really good solution here um it's certainly important for the school to
077have psychologists to to identify and help students out but I think ultimately we need to move some of the Professional Services associated with psychological support off campus in fact this was Karen's suggestion so I won't say too much more about this um I I wish I had a better answer here it's really a problem I I this is one of these things that I've thought quite a bit about I myself have had my own issues with depression it's just really a huge problem that is not easily fixed okay thank you sir um that's roughly hi um I believe we definitely need to increase the social emotional learning in the classroom um I think kids need to know that they can go down to their social workers or their counselors or the Counseling Center or their
078guidance counselors and speak to them they're available a lot of kids don't feel comfortable going down I don't know why because they're all wonderful so I think we need to instill in the students that it's okay to go down there and get help if you need it um what Mr McKinnon was talking about is that a lot of school districts across Long Island are partnering now with health clinics northwell Health Clinic has partnered with a bunch of schools comac which is close that offers Mental Health Services outside of the school so it doesn't replace anything that's going on in the school but if there are students that need extra help if they are identified by the school and then sent to this Clinic where the parents can get information and help for their student because
079if you have a child that has any of these needs you know it's virtually impossible to get a doctor's appointment and I think that would be very important for our board to look into setting that up with our students okay thank you ma'am Miss Siegel so this would be a critical area where I am nesbert and I would rely heavily on the guidance of our counselors our psychologists and and Educators that are with our children every day seeing what is happening I also think that this is a critical moment to have Bridge the bridge between parents at home as well as our Educators to ensure that we're understanding the severity on all aspects so you know if elected this would definitely be an area where I would need to educate myself further and really have
080large discussions to understand the needs and how we can best help our children okay thank you ma'am and Miss Adonis so I think we can work with our staff with the social workers our psychologists in the area they're great they provide emotional support um social learning environment support ways to identified any behaviors with peers how to best support our peers how to break down the stigma how to provide informational maybe workshops or talks during the school or maybe after school and we can also work with outside organizations non-profit organizations that work in this area that I specialize in this area and there are many ways to do this but the best way would be to discuss get input from the community in areas that they may need more support but overall it's breaking down the
081stigma okay thank you ma'am okay question number nine is well it's the question that no one's really going to want to answer but we're going to pose the question anyway question number nine if the school budget was not the pass where would you look to make budget cuts in the district and we'll start that off with Dr Carmen that's a very difficult question there are alternatives number one if the budget doesn't pass these the Board of Education can look at the budget again and see where we can cut and lower the budget if we have to the other alternative is to just present the budget the the budget a second time and see if it will pass the second time the third is just go to a contingency budget a contingency budget is a budget
082that would cut lots of our stuff but that would not necessarily need a passing vote from the from the voters so be very careful how you vote this uh this time for budgets because the budget that we have now we think is very very good and is adequate for what we need so please vote for the budget thank you okay thank you sir uh Mr McKinnon so as Mr Curran said Dr Cohen said there is a second vote if the budget doesn't pass if the budget did not pass on the first vote I think the board would then have to go to the voters and say look this is our plan to put the school district on a more sustainable path part of that is to move forward repurposing the school finding revenues potentially finding
083revenues for that but there has to be a long-term plan here we went over and over this with the BAC that we need some certainty for the taxpayers is this or just going to be a constant increase in in um in taxes without any end given that there's big declines in enrollment and without some Financial certainty without a long-term plan that is open that everybody can inspect and see how it's going to work I don't see how you can easily retain the confidence of the taxpayers and so i i as everybody almost has said here we need a long-term plan for the budget okay thank you sir um it's roughly hi if the budget does not pass this year and we go through the second vote and does not pass again we will be in
084contingency um we're going to have to reduce the budget by approximately three million dollars and that's going to be very tough to do I don't believe there's that much excess in any of the budget lines I mean yes there might be certain positions that we can move off or certain programs that we could postpone but from looking at the budget we looked at it substantially I really don't see where we can find three million dollars that is not going to affect our students so I think we're at a Crossroads like I said we need to start looking at the long-term issues with our finances because we do not want to touch anything that has to do with our students right thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss eagle I do support you Year's budget and
085I know based on what everyone has said before me that if we are at a contingency the large implications that it will have I think we're at a very very pivotal moment in our district with what we have um potentially on plans for the restructure early start time as well as the other things that have been mentioned so it's finding that balance between understanding where we are present day and thinking about the long term and we still have all that work to do to understand all the financial savings or cost savings that could come from any of these restructuring so I really think that we need to like I said I do support this year's budget thinking long term about where we go over the next year next two years next three years so um
086yes thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss aldanos so if the budget doesn't pass then our kids are definitely going to be affected I mean 30 full-time employees being let go it's it's already going to have an impact but if we go back and decide and look at the the numbers and decide okay where do we get the 3 million from um how about instead of thinking okay where can we get that Revenue going forward from okay and then decide our next contracts look at them how is it going to affect them and ensure that that's not going to put us a negative going forward so instead how do we make up for it okay thank you ma'am uh Mr Rhonda um I support this year's budget based on the many presentations that I've seen
087Mr Carlson give to the community as well as the recommendations of the budget advisory committee if our budget fails and we put up the same budget I think we're looking at the same consequences that we've had historically before I think a failed budget means the community is displeased they have concerns and I think that we need to listen and respect that my concern about a failing budget would be we are moving in a Direction Where We want to reconfigure our schools and simultaneously change our start times for the benefit of our students and that would obviously be impacted as well as any of the academic programs and other opportunities extracurricular opportunities that we provide for our students okay thank you ma'am alrighty question number 10 um there will be some contracts coming up in negotiation
088teachers administrators Etc what in your opinion is the appropriate length of a contract to be negotiated one year three years five years and why do you feel that way and we'll start with Mr McKinnon okay I can generally say that I have never ever thought about this question um they're traditionally been three years I can't see any reason to really change that three years is a reasonable number for financial planning I don't think it's really a matter of the length it's a matter of what's in the contract um these contracts that are coming up are going to be very tough because as everyone has said we've got financial problems in the district it's frankly ridiculous that we have financial problems in the district we're one of the most or one of the best funded districts
089in the country it's a lack of financial planning over the last decade last two decades is why we're here um it's going to be very difficult to unwind that we've got commitments that we simply can't pay I think everybody understands that I think that's partly why nobody was all that anxious to run for board this year in fact um how exactly it gets fixed is going to be an interesting problem for all of us thank you okay thank you uh Miss roughly hi um yeah I really also never gave much thought to this question but I think three years is fine I think that's typically normal for most of our bargaining units I don't see any issue with that I agree with David that it's really what's inside the contracts that is the most important
090and coming there are a few contracts that are going to be coming up within this term and we're really going to need to sit down when we're negotiating to make sure that what we're doing and what we're giving and is going to align to our financial needs in the future and it's going to be very important thank you okay thank you ma'am I miss eagle never thought of this question either um but I do feel three years is appropriate given when you think about a mutual investment in each other from both an employer and an employee um we are you're making an investment in their development as well as they are with your their time and their background so from a continuity standpoint and we spoke earlier about the importance of continuity in our children's
091education so I you know I definitely feel that's appropriate okay thank you ma'am uh Miss Sylvanas I think that three years is okay I wouldn't say any longer than that but it's not it's not appropriate just because when when we go up out of the economy the economy you know changed significantly from last year to this year so being able to forecast what's going to happen financially you know in the community and in the school district can have a big impact on you know the contracts that have already been done so anything beyond three years should not be considered and when we do the contracts we should definitely think about okay so what what's the worst case scenario that could happen and will the budget be sustainable on the worst case scenario okay thank you
092um Mr Rhonda I'm largely in agreement with what the other candidates have said I think they'll end up the contract is appropriate um I share the same sentiments as Miss Siegel that continuity and good faith from all parties isn't very important in having a collaborative workable discourse I also believe that the length of the contract allows us to plan long term and ensure for our fiscal responsibility in terms of things that are coming up related to factors in the district as well as factors outside the district such as inflation okay thank you and Dr Kerman we all have to understand that the contracts are negotiated and it is a negotiation between the district and the uh the um people who are working for the district as far as the length goes uh sometimes it's better
093to have a contract for two years sometimes it's better to have a contract for three years sometimes it's better to have a contract for five years because the longer you have a contract like that the steadier is the district as far as changes if you want to go into negotiations all the time negotiations are not a very pleasant aspect to go into because there are very many different things that we have to discuss in contract negotiations so I would guess three years is fine but just remember that every contract is negotiated okay thank you sir alrighty all right I guess we have time for one more question alrighty question number 11. do you have or are you thinking of proposing any initiatives or worked on the change to approved the aspect of the Three Village
094Schools so in other words you kind of your wish list if there was one thing you wanted to bring to the board that you don't see right now that you'd like to get done uh this is your chance to bring it up and we'll start with Miss roughly I think a few things I would like to do in the very beginning is first I would like to take a look at the policy on communication with the community from the board I believe that if somebody is taking their time to speak to the board and um ask questions that they deserve an answer maybe not that same night but at least at the next board meeting and it should also be done in public the questions asked in public it should be answered in public unless
095it's a confidentiality issue I would love to start and be part of the legislative committee that the president of the board was talking about for a few board meetings I think that's very important for advocacy with our school district for our community members our staff and our district I also would love to talk at the beginning of the school year about the Do no harm that the board did allow this year but we need to make that permanent going forward and the earlier we do that it would help our teachers figuring out grading for the year thank you okay thank you ma'am Miss Siegel so like with any new job what would you do immediately once you uh started that job so I would continue to educate and connect with key stakeholders to learn about
096here from their top priorities and concerns I would align with other trustees on the board of education to determine key objectives and how we're going to measure implementation processes understand and review all amount elements and implications of the restructuring which we spoke about earlier this evening and really review the current state of the district's emergency reduction prevention and intervention plan so those would be my top four priorities upon a new position okay thank you ma'am uh Miss salvanos what I would like to see is if we could add more alternate educational career paths for our students not everybody you know would want to pursue a career going to University so having those in-house would be great and then we have BOCES but bringing those some some of those into our school would definitely help our
097students and we can also have some additional revenue for our district some others nearby school districts could you know send those students to our school district instead of having to go all the way out east or where it's too far for them I would also like to see that do not harm policy be permanent and I also would like to see a 15-1-1 class added to our special education program we currently do not have one and it's a bit of a struggle to go from a 12-1-1 to uh you know either DTC for some of our students I would also like to improve more transparency in the way we do our meetings and be able to engage more with the community have the ptas members or presidents participate and have more of a voice for
098the community in our board meetings okay thank you ma'am Mr Rhonda I'm not running for the Board of Ed with any prescribed agenda that my priorities if I were elected would be first to continue to educate myself about the position and what my primary role as a board member would be I would certainly reach out to veteran and experienced board members to you know seek their expertise on District district-wide issues I would ask questions I would see clarification from all constituents most importantly I think I would look for speaking to the voices that are not being represented who who should have a voice and someone advocating for them and I certainly agree with I believe the president at the one of the most recent board meetings was talking about reinstating the legislative committee for not
099just local action but Statewide actions so that our district can have a voice as it affects what happens here okay thank you ma'am Dr Carmen may I hear the question again please sir oh sure do you have or are thinking of proposing any initiatives or worked on to change and improve the uh an aspect of the Three Village Schools is there something that you haven't gotten to yet that you want to move forward with or there's really nothing that I myself would change right now I mean we we are as I said a very good District we do what we're supposed to do we teach our kids like we're supposed to but we can always do better so we must keep an open mind if somebody has a good idea we have to listen and
100understand what what the idea is and if it can be implemented then we implemented but we also have to remember that the purpose of the school district is to educate our kids and make them educated for either college or a career or whatever it is and I think that's very important I think we should just continue doing what we're doing thank you okay thank you sir and we'll close this out with Mr McKinnon okay so there's some things you can do straight away I I the first thing I would try attempt to do was to implement a code of ethics for this for the school board members uh this should be strict anti-nepotism law bylaws there should be term limits um it would be good if there was a declaration of any Financial dealings with
101bargaining units I would ask the community for suggestions on this we need to restore broad confidence in the community in the board there's a variety of reasons why this is not not there at the moment but one of them is concerns about just the the running of the board the ethical aspects of the board this is a straightforward thing to do it should be fairly un problematic to create this kind of ethical code and I would uh push for that essentially straight away okay thank you sir alrighty so that wraps up it's 8 30 that wraps up the questions we've got about another 10 minutes for closeout so we will start with the you have two minutes for your closing statements and we're going to go in reverse alphabetical order so the first closing statement
102goes to miss Siegel thank you so thank you so much for hosting this evening and thank you to my fellow candidates um I would also like to thank our teachers our staff in our Administration there are no words or enough gratitude for the work you do every single day for our children and so my students here is thank you our district is at a pivotal moment of opportunity and I feel that my excuse me I feel my ability to listen and hear all perspective perspectives to make informed data-driven decisions would be an asset to this community I would hold myself accountable couldn't talk to myself in a respectful and collaborative Manner and always make decisions that keep the emotional well-being and physical safety of our children at the Forefront to allow than to flourish and
103find success in whichever path they choose after graduation I think as adults we couldn't learn a lot from the children I had the pleasure of spending to a field day I saw children from different classes and grades showing each other kindness support and compassion I know this district is incredible and my hope is that you view me as someone who will work so incredibly hard advocating for what is right being able to make tough decisions when they're needed and continue to push for academic Excellence thank you so much okay thank you ma'am Miss roughly thank you to the Suffolk PTA for moderating tonight's event I would like to touch on one final thing is everybody's deciding to vote for the board of education is about District vision and upholding our policies and being an extension
104of the community the most important quality of any board member is their character and integrity what they stand for who they are as a person and what they've shown the community they advocate for for the last 12 years almost every day I've worked to make this a better Community my dedication to the students and programs is unwavering getting elected to the Board of Education should not be influenced by who is endorsing you who's paying and running for your campaign or your political affiliation but have everything to do with who you are as a person and how you represent the community community members and staff near a few need to feel safe and not worried about their conversations being recorded confronted in their homes having their careers threatened or silenced at public meetings whoever you decide
105to vote for please vote for who you think would best represent the values of this District as each vote is important for the future of all of our children also please remember that you're voting for three individual seats there is no block voting and each person is running individually for an open seat the top three voter mats will be your next board members good luck to my fellow candidates and I hope to earn your vote on May 16th thank you very much okay thank you ma'am uh Mr Mr McKinnon you're up I'd like to thank the PTA in the district for running this meeting I am a strong supporter of public education public education is essential for maintaining Equitable access to education for the children of middle class and Working Families us to retain broad
106support for public education however the schools have to provide a high quality education at a fair price to taxpayers and the school system and the school board have to legitimately represent the interests of all stakeholders our district currently faces significant financial problems despite being very generously funded by the community we can't afford popular upgrades to the academic program we're seeing layoffs of teaching staff and we are the only District in New York state to be cited twice by the State Comptroller for inadequate Financial Reserves none of this would have happened if the board was more representative of the community these problems greatly limit our options going forward we need independent voices on the board to represent the collective wisdom of our community and to maximize the return on our significant investment in public education thank
107you okay thank you sir Dr Kerman well one of the things that Mr McKinnon just talked about is really not true because we have our reserves our reserves were spent to keep our school district open for covid we were one of the only school districts in the United States that kept our schools open during the coveted pandemic and we used our reserves to do that what we are doing now unfortunately because of the state law is trying to pay back on those reserves and build them back up again so that's one of the reasons why the reserves are down and why why that's happening was because of covet but we were open during covet and that was very very unique for for this for the uh for schools all over I believe that our school
108district must continue to educate every student and do the best job they can with every student and that is the most important thing that any education any any school district can do we are doing well but we can always do better so thank you very much okay thank you sir and Mr Rhonda I also would like to thank UTA for hosting tonight as well as the moderators and the timekeepers for indulging us here on a Friday evening despite the challenges Three Village Still Remains a very special place to live and send our children to school as we've mentioned tonight our schools receive significant recognition for the work that they are doing our students are flourishing in and out of the classroom as a direct result of the deep investment of our Administration our teachers our
109staff the parents and our community this is a group effort as a trustee I would be very honored to know that I am supporting our president and future generations and continuing the standard of Excellence that we are known for in a safe productive environment and by making sound informed decisions that are rooted and based in facts rather than speculation okay thank you ma'am and Mr alanos you get to bring us home well thank you for hosting this event and thank you everyone at home for listening and doing your due diligence and getting to know each one of us before you go to vote on May 16th being part of the board is a very serious responsibility and it should not be taken lightly it is not just about the decisions we make it is about
110the leadership character we portray when we interact to make those decisions and how we interact among our community with our staff and our students and it's about our commitment to ensure we do the audience work to make informed decisions as part of being invested in providing welcoming educational environment that will inspire and prepare all of our students to be the best leaders of our tomorrow in whatever career they choose to pursue all our students deserve a safe learning environment a place of inclusion and belonging so our children can focus on learning reach their Highest Potential and be better Leaders of Tomorrow and prepare to provide a new diverse and Creative Solutions backed by business technology and Leadership experience that can help breach gaps I'm aware that women not always agree on the how but I
111know ultimately we have the same goal to ensure our students Thrive that we provide high quality education to all students with safety health and wellness always in mind it is time that we come together and we raise the bar to extraordinary in everything that we do from our academics to health and wellness to safety and transparency and making our budget more sustainable and fiscally responsible it would be an honor to represent you to work with you and bring your concerns to the board to continue to elevate the quality in education the safety of our students and the staff and to provide more transparency to all I know some of you may still have some questions that were not answered here today I would be more than happy to answer any questions if you reach out
112to me directly thank you okay thank you ma'am okay so to close this out first I'd like to thank the candidates a for their willingness to serve the community and also for giving up a Friday night to answer the questions from the public uh shame we couldn't do this face to face with the public but this is the next best thing and I also want to thank you all for recognizing the rules and the guidelines this is I've done about a dozen of these and this is the first time the timekeepers never had to ring the bell [Laughter] I mean just I mean you saw the time card go up you finished your sentence you were done I mean she's sitting right in front of us it's hard to ignore to be honest yeah it's
113oh you'd be surprised I mean it's not getting not a sentence and we've had people trying to get all the paragraphs and so this was very good I'd like to also thank the Three Village School District for their technical support uh gladly greatly appreciated and I'd like to thank the community for some excellent questions I don't think there was a softball question in the bunch I mean they were all and that's what the community wanted they wanted to test you they wanted to really get down to the nitty-gritty and find out where you uh stood on the issues and I think you all uh came out pretty well on that already so does the PTA Council have any closing words very hard to find volunteer appreciate everything everybody had to say tonight a lot of
114wonderful things and thank you so much and thank you okay so to close it out just please get out and vote on Tuesday have a great evening get home safe thank you so much okay okay for the folks who are out there the polling will be open from 6 a.m till nine pm at the high school thank you foreign thank you