001Good evening everyone. Today is Monday, September 8th, 2025. This is a regular meeting of the board of education of the Tahoe Union School District. Um, can I have a motion to convene the meeting? Le Next is um to a motion to convene executive session. Second, Joel. All in favor. Okay. So, we're going to go to executive session and we will be back at approximately 7:30. Okay. Welcome back everybody. Sorry for the delay. Um we had some very important business that just passed. I really was trying to keep it on track, but um we just had to continue the conversations that we were having. I'm so sorry. Um okay, so first order of business So the first order of business is board comments. Um why don't we start welcome back to school. It's been a very
002busy summer. We're very excited about our new team and excited about our team here. We've really been working very well together and making great progress that has been done short here also focused on being president and it was great to see the other trustees and our administration join the Friday night I'm also very excited to come out my wife and stepped off the Everybody, I don't have too much to say. Just welcome back. Hope everybody had a great summer. We're excited for the new school year and like you said, very excited about our new team that the work was done over the summer. I think we're ready for a great year and I'm excited about it. Yes, welcome back everybody. It's been a busy summer and it's great to have accomplished quite a bit. Um,
003and I'm excited for the 54th school year promising. and uh you know just know I was uh last week at the volleyball game varsity KV you know it's really exciting a very good team that was good to see lot of admin there a lot of my old colleagues and uh that's very exciting also you know making trip up to tester which also a lot of our admin secondary administrative staff was there as well. Great support. Uh and also I will be appointing a lot of new teachers this evening and staff for the extracurricular and I'd like to thank all of them for stepping up and taking this role. It's very important that our students have these talks and you know our staff is stepping up and uh I won't talk about summer break but I
004want to thank the teachers for the dedication to the district administrative team at Middle School High School for their hard work over the summer. It was a seamless start to the school year as well of course. Um, thank you to Chris for joining our wonderful district special director. Excited to have both of you. I want to thank the PTA for hosting our welcome back breakfast for our wonderful staff last week and of course all you do. Thank you very much. Um, just a couple updates on on the facilities front. Our summer construction has been wrapped up. um our new PA system. Hope students are enjoying it here now. Um we've done some additional security cameras over the summer as everyone knows and much needed work that unfortunately can't see because it's but anyway it was
005much needed. Um we had a board summer retreat this month as we always do every year and then traveling before Labor Day. It's kind of where the board comes together um and we set goals on how to move the district forward. Um the board is very focused on the needs of all students here at Taco. So we want to remind the community that we're always thinking about TCO to the next level. Um this college readiness, great reading programs, internship, and just overall academics. But this board is very focused and the retreat is probably year. So I'm excited for you to come. I look forward to working Um so in my opening remarks I would like to begin by thanking the teachers, the staff and the administrators for their work um especially this past spring. I
006know it was a time of great transition for the district um especially the middle school and high school. And I want to just emphasize emphasize our gratitude for the continued dedication, stability, and commitment to the students that you all gave. Um, and you know, you really still provided our students with the guidance, care, and education that they deserved. And we are I am very grateful for all of your support during that time during that time. Sorry. Um, I also want to acknowledge that this year truly feels like a new beginning for Tuck Health. Um, we have a lot of new board faces at the board. Um, we have a new superintendent and new administrators and our key leadership positions. Um, I'm very proud of this leadership team and the energy, vision, and commitment that they
007came in with. I am very happy so far with Mr. Roberts who has transitioned into his role. Um I want to just talk about how he's come in um with a thoughtful student centered approach and it's really appreciated and um so far I'm really really optimistic with um Mr. Roberts and what his team of leaders will do for our district. Um and I just want to really ask everyone that you join the board in support for Mr. Roberts and his administrative team because their success will be our collective success as a district. Supporting the superintendent and our new administration um will be a really important step towards continuing the forward momentum of this district. Um, so next, and Scott alluded to it a little bit, um, is that we set up our board goals for
008the year when we did our retreat. And I just want to go over those, um, so that everybody understands what the mission of the board is for the year and what we are um, trying to accomplish this year. So our first step will be um, in the strategic plan with our superintendent and our community stakeholders. Um developing a clear road mapap for the district and its future is important to us. Um we're going to align it with student success success and community values. Our next goal is communication and stakeholder engagement. We are going to increase board visibility. We are going to provide recaps of board meetings um hopefully by email to improve transparency and um we are going to make a point to reach out to um personally thank our staff um more often. We
009are also going to um hopefully do some community meetings and forums which we used to do in the past um with the superintendent and um a couple of board members to try to create more open. Um our third goal is policy review and revision. We have um we're going to identify our outdated policies um that need revision and we're going to analyze and um try to create some new policies that we feel might be needed. And we're going to um ensure that all of our policies reflect current law best practices in the school district. And last um but certainly not least, probably the most important thing that we will do this year is settle the contract negotiations with all three of our units. Um we would like to finalize the contracts in a fair, transparent
010and sustainable way. We do feel that our units our st and teachers here are the key to our district and settling these contracts um is really the number one priority for the board. Um that is that's about it for our goals. Um, in closing, I just want to reaffirm our commitment to staff, um, and thank them again for the help during the transition. I know that this year is, you know, going to have some bumps in it because, um, all change does bring bumps. However, I'm really, really excited with all the potential that we have going. We are in a really good spot with a with a really good superintendent and really good new leaders and I'm so hopeful for the direction that we are heading for our little district. >> Comments from Superintendent. >>
011Thank you very much, President Howerin. So, want to welcome everyone back. Hope all of our students, families had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I know got a chance to spend time with the family and then we hit the ground running here at Taco. So it may have been the longest uh busiest four days worked week in a while but uh it was great we had we started with our two days of conference days welcoming all our staff back was great to see everybody in terms of the kind comments that board has shared to me it really is about the staff here everyone is just so embracing our students and myself our leadership team so really is a wonderful place to be and a great place for a leader to to work with our team and
012to forge ahead with our vision so I want to thank all the staff for that warm welcome that I've received support the board as well. It's tremendous superintendents and students moving forward. So kudos to you all. A little bit about this week and reflecting on some of the great accomplishments that the the team moved forward with. two days wonderful professional development in our superance conference days for our teacher and welcome all our staff time back in classrooms targeted professional development uh for our teachers opportunity to engage in weekly conversations about moving forward this year um as president said we we're focusing on the strategic plan we'll be sending out communications to our stakeholders getting more community input and and moving forward with uh various committees but also our strategic steering team to work on that
013process a little bit about this past week. Uh I really want to emphasize with the staff empowering students and all educators, providing high quality professional development and learning, uh creating leaders out of all of our staff, making sure that everyone steps above and beyond their roles and really doing uh everything they can to go above and beyond for students, which was part of the the keynote that I provided as staff focusing on and promoting a student- centered, equitable, and transparent culture. the high priority when students where student success and well-being drive all major decisions and continue to bring new learning opportunities here at Taco and programs that will support our student needs to make sure that we're offering worldclass educational experiences for all students will be part of our main focus. It was my pleasure
014to introduce the new administrators at the opening convocation. Great to have Mr. Fiori here, our new principal at the middle school high school. They're experienced in the ground running and every place I turn around standing there. So, it's great to have him. I don't know if he's blocking his son or he's leading his way, but he is everywhere and really connecting with staff and families. Great. And also our new director of special education is uh hit the ground running working with families meeting with, you know, different stakeholder groups talking about their journey in special education, meeting with teachers to really see where our strengths and what are some areas that we can grow in. We're excited about her leadership in that role. The opening day we had the pleasure of recommending or excuse me, introducing
015our several distinguished honores from our school district that have achieved 10, 15, and 25 years of dedicated service to Chucko. So, I want to give them a quick shout out on their achievements. They were recognized on the opening ceremony presented by the district. But congratulations to Juan Alvareo, Lauren Kosako, Sloan, Jill Coro, Stephanie E. those were 10 years. 15 years, we had Francis Sarali, Eric Sullivan, and for 25 years, we actually had a little shot of all the things that happened 25 years ago that I think the staff enjoyed uh from not quite Walkman's, but it was the introduction of iPads and some other trendy gear. But uh Jennifer Kochi, Deborah D. Francesco, Colleen Joyce, and Michael Oliver, congratulations for 25 years of service here at Tahoe, and they deserved all the praise and accolades
016from our entire staff. Thank you to our community partners who were there in full force uh speaking to all of our staff on the opening day. We had a CPA, SEPTA, and our athletic council representatives there. And thank you for all of the support for the welcome breakfast. and then the new new administ new administrator even partnered with our PTA once again stepping forward and providing great support um bringing in a tremendous amount of community members. We probably had about 200 plus parents, guardians here to meet myself and our new members of the administrative team. Uh it was posed to me that we'll have a couple in a slight gathering and everyone came out in full force. It was great to see this entire library full standing room only and great questions that the parents
017asked about education. We got a chance to get to know myself and the new administrators and looking forward to journey together. So that was the great experience for me and to see when parents were asked to come out they show up in full force and I really think that is the uh the calling part of this district community that it brings forward. So very appreciative of that. Moving forward, I'll do a little bit of a highlight last week. The the main highlight was our students coming back. So, students coming back uh preK through 12 on Thursday. We had a great smooth opening. Students coming into classrooms. They were smiling. Everyone was uh very excited to be back. Everyone, our staff embraced our students and you can see the smiles on everyone's faces. So, that's what
018school is all about. So, I'm really excited that we got to experience that. and kudos to so many of our high school students and many of our little ones. They felt so confident coming up to me uh introducing themselves. Hi, Mr. Roberts. Said their name, great eye contact, just looking in the eyes and and had the confidence to come up and introduce themselves and to welcome many students in other schools don't do that. They do that here with pride. So, great job to all of our our teachers and parents and families for for raising those accomplished youngsters that are just confident. And I think that's what I saw with with a lot of our students coming in confident in hitting the ground running with school. We did have a little bit of learning curve with
019some of the lockers. Um combination locks you may or may not know are a little outdated for some, but um our students are taking that in stride and uh the new cell phone policy which I thought could be a little bit of of a learning curve. Our students have done it with flawless execution. You know, I haven't seen it be impactful in a negative way by any means. And in quite the opposite, as I was going through cafeterias and watching our our students interact and play in the recess area here at the middle school, high school, students were having conversations, they were talking with each other. They were throwing the ball around outside at recess and they weren't tearing down the phone. So, that was really encouraging to see. And I think obviously the regular
020impact of just less disruption in the classroom, more engagement, focus on what's what they're learning, not necessarily what social clicking at different times. I think our students were really engaged in that and I think kudos to our administrative staff and our teachers. I think they did good implementation grade level meetings and went over the expectations. Uh and as of now first week through I think it's been very successful. We continue to support students and making those choices away and following. But overall really great launch to this school year and really proud of our students that the start of my report for tonight. More comments at the end, but great first week. >> Thank you, Mr. Robert. Um, you brought up a couple things I forgot to mention. I had to remember to mention. Um, but
021I do want to thank the PTA for the support with the welcome of the new administration. Um, it was a great event. Thank you very much um for supplying the um the refreshments for it. And um I did tell Ben, we usually have a very small turnout, so don't feel bad. And I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the room and saw it was full. Um and I really want to thank all the parents who came out for that event. um and just to embrace our new administration and give everyone the chance to get to know each other. Um it was really it was it was really a very very good event. So thank you. Um I also want to thank all of our 12-month employees who worked tirelessly over the summer, our custodians,
022our business office staff, our clerical staff, um our administrators. It is it's one of those things when you when people find out that you work They always say, "Oh, you get the summers off." I mean, for 12 months employees, it's like, "No, we don't. It's actually our busiest time." Um, so you are recognized. Thank you for all of your work. Um, business office for getting all the supplies in, custodians for cleaning the building and making it ready for our students. Um, admin staff for all of the important work that you do to get um, everything ready to welcome our students. So, thank you. Um, and the last thing I wanted to mention was in regards to the cell phone policy. Um, thank you to all the students who are abiding by the policy. I know
023it's not easy, especially for our older ones. Um, but one thing that we have decided as a board also is that when we are at the meetings, we are not going to have our cell phones. Um, we feel that if students are not allowed to have them while they are in school and supposed to be paying attention that we also will have hours put away. So, um, for those of you who may be used to being able to text or anything during meetings, we are not we are no longer I had I he already had the speech on his cell phone, so I did give him a pass for today, but going forward, we will not be having our cell phones um on the table. Um, and that's it. Okay. So, um, comments from the
024business manager, right? Um, Thank you to the board and to Mr. Roberts and to our whole administrative team. School got off to a really great start. As um Mr. Betti said, we did a lot of work this summer. Um from cameras to the PA system to work on the roofs and the tunnels and even at some doors. It was a very busy summer. Um we have an amazing 12-mon staff. Our custodians and cleaners can just make anything happen. They're fantastic and our clerical staff and business office are truly remarkable. Um they were very flexible this year with abatement and us having to go to codle. Everyone really um took it very well. Um while was really busy this summer, there's nothing like the opening of school and being around the kids and having the teachers
025back. It's truly magnetic. Having the buzz going on during the day and being lucky enough to be in the building and walk through the halls and see the work that we're doing is is really a gift. Um I did have the pleasure to view lunch. Um students are taking advantage of the free lunch. It's very exciting. So parents, we have a YouTube video on our YouTube site that explains what is included. We'll send some other information out. Um and kids were really engaged during lunch. So it was it was very nice to see. So >> thank you and thank you for all of your work during the summer. That was a lot going on for you. Okay. Um comments from our community partners. So this is where our PTA SEPTA and athletic council came to
026speak. Which one would like to go first? Alex. Hi. >> Oh, Alex. >> Yeah, just this is your first time. Just say your name and just say what you're representing. >> Oh, no. Um, my name's Alexandra Campana. I'm here representing the taco stop. Um, which we're currently still pre-charter. We're working towards charter which hopefully might happen in November. Um, so this past weekend we hosted our first event with the support of the PTA which was fantastic. Um, we had a great showing. parents came um and we had staff uh come as well, some teachers. It was really really lovely and um I think the parents and the students really enjoyed it. Um and so we want to just also say thank you to Sue Warhouse and the PTA for all their support because they really
027did a lot to help get us going um with that. And um that's really it. And our next meeting is going to be September 29th at 7:30 on Zoom. So, anyone who would like to join who hasn't received any our emails or would, you know, want to get involved, they could probably reach out to like the special ed office and they could contact me. But we'll also be at all the back lines. So, you'll get hopefully our information then. Thank you. >> Thank you, Alex. And I just want to encourage the community to please join SEPTA. Um even if you do not have a child with um special needs, it's really important to this new program and um all that they are going to try to do for our students. Um it's one community together
028and it's really important to support SEPTA and athletics. My name is Jessree. I live at 11 Gford Street and I'm here representing the athletic council. And on behalf of the athletic council, we would like to welcome you all to the 2526 school year. The athletic council will be at back to school night where we will be selling membership and stadium seating. If you purchase a black and orange membership for $100, you will receive a lawn sign. And we're really proud of our lawn signs and we feel like they definitely promote school spirit and the sense of community. Um and it's really fun to see these around town. So um if you do purchase a black and orange membership, this is what we will deliver to your house. Um this information for membership will also be
029displayed on our social media pages. So follow that. In addition, we will be selling homecoming t-shirts. Again, they're not ready yet. Um so please again follow our social media for information on that and we are usually really flexible with with getting them these people once they reach out. Um homecoming will start the week of September 29th. Um and we also recently started a grants process whereas coaches can apply for funding to go towards their teams for items that maybe the district not fund. So, um you know, you've seen the you know, items that you've approved in the past such as multiple use um athletic pages, maybe warm-up shirts, maybe team dinner, and coaches will apply for these um for a grant and we will review it and it will be brought to the board for
030approval. Um and lastly, we've been collaborating with Mr. and look forward to another successful school year. Um, supporting all Taco. So, thank you. Just put that tiger sign right next to my thank you for um big grants also. Those will really go far for teams that don't have a large fundraising. So, thank you. >> Hello everyone. I'm S I'm the president of the PCA. Um, and I'm very happy to be here kicking off the new school year. I want to mention to the community, you may have seen um some information about a new platform that we're using. We've been m we've migrated our directory from schoolb. The new platform is called membership toolkit. You don't necessarily even need to remember that because if you just go to tuopta.com, you'll see um the new website and
031everything is right there. a lot easier to navigate. Um, as I said, we've migrated all names over from schoolb. So, your um your contact information should be in there. If you go and hit the register button, um, it may recognize your email address and then you just need to take some steps to um, verify your information. Others will need to create a new account. Um, and it is all secure. We um, if we do have new accounts, we actually need to approve them as admins and that's the way avoid any kind of rogue uh people who want to be part of our our directory. So, I do want to um just mention that that was one of the things that we looked at when we decided to go with this new platform was the the
032privacy and security. Um Bronxville uses um membership toolkit as does Gsdale and I talked to people from those communities on PTA um before we decided to go with it. So, we're really excited about it because it's it's a lot easier. But please do go and activate your account. Um and once you do, please go ahead and join the PCA by paying dues. Um joining the PCA does not necessarily mean you need to do any volunteering. Of course, we love that you you know, if you want to, we've got plenty of opportunities, but we it's really more about the support and the dues because that this is one of our biggest fundraising campaigns of the year. And as Allison said, I do encourage everybody to um to please join SEPTA and PTA. I know I'm asking
033people to do two sets of dues, but if you know these are the the funds that are really the baseline for all of the things that we do throughout the year and I will say that that that meet and greet um on Saturday it was it was just so it was great and and Alex has been fantastic to work with and the whole army of people that he has already mobilized um it's just very cool and I think the community would be really proud to know how every so many people have embraced um this idea of the SEPTA and Alex has made such head such a short amount of time. That's been great. Um, so I do want to say again, thank you to the community and school relations committees um committee for providing the
034the refreshments at the meet and greet of the administration last week as well as for the teacher um and staff breakfast at the superintendence conference. I want to thank the welcoming committee for decorating the schools uh for the first day of school as well as their planning of the uh the meet and greet day. Um this week we'll have spirit wear uh starting at back to school nights and we that throughout the month. Um, our spirit wear is is really um, fun. It is every year, but I liked the email that you might have seen gone go out earlier today of new year, new gear. So, I'm very sucked in by that. Good marketing email. I'm definitely going to be spending some money there. Um, let's see, just a couple other things. Our room reps
035are actually recruiting for room reps down at Codle. So please um parents down at codle look out for those flyers and those emails um asking for your help being liaison with teachers. Um then for the teachers our grant applications are due on um September 26th and so we do hope to see um some great new ideas coming in for that. Um and then that's really it. Our first um executive board meeting is tomorrow night. So I will be back next month with loads of uh updates for you. Thanks. Thank you, Susan. The PTA has been extremely generous to us in the recent years and I mean you guys are always so great and we really appreciate it. So I really encourage everyone to join as a member um because they really do give back to
036the district in so many ways with their time with money with grants um and it's just I mean I might be partial but we have the best PTA. >> Thank you. Um okay, first recognition of the audience. This is for agenda items only and um just a reminder that we have a three minute time. >> Hi. Um is it on? No. Okay. Leah Vander, 14 Deerfield Avenue. I'm a middle school high school parent. I just have a quick question on the agenda also just for the benefit of the people watching. I there were a lot of um like staff getting assigned to the different clubs moderators and obviously the offerings are great. I remember last year in the budget the high school was supposed to add model UN. I was just curious if it's just
037an administrative thing of like they haven't figured out who's doing it yet. So yes, there will be other other recommendations coming forward, okay, before the club start in October. There's a few postings that have to go out and we're waiting for a few advisers to sign up for those clubs. will be clubs that will be recommended for hopefully action. >> Thank you. Um I have a high schooler here. It's fine. Um I was uh wondering about what is the process for um getting um on the planning committee and all of that. What will the process do? Because I always hear, oh, we handing things out. We're sending things around to have stakeholders. I never see them. I never see any of those limitations. So, what is the process for that? >> So, what my goal
038is I'm going to be presenting to the board my process to them all in the past. I believe emails have gone out communicating with the committee. So, we will use some of those communications and then there'll be a selection process for applicants. Uh and then the steering committee will refine that recommendations that can look at potential community members that may have applied and then we'll select a certain amount based upon we have good representations from all of our various stakeholder groups. So a certain number of teachers, administrators, parents uh in the community and then we'll make those recommendations for those be coming from my office very soon. But um I'm going to review those with the board just to make sure that's in line with what their process has been in the past previous strategic
039plans and then we're going to we'll launch that and make sure that everyone's communicated so we have ample opportunities for everyone to volunteer and then the selection process will take place there after >> and who's on the steering committee >> and how are they determined? Who's on the steering committees and how are those members determined? >> No, I can speak again the past jump in from what's happened the President, but um what I believe is we have a set number that the the board has has selected the past. So four or five administrators, four or five teachers, four or five community members. Um based upon the previous documents that I've seen, those individuals apply for those in terms of the permission they have interest in in joining one of our advisory committees and the board
040looks at those applications and makes uh recommendations to make selections based upon the number of volunteers that they receive. So the board is going to be making the decisions about steering committees and who's going to strategic to plan. >> It's going to be one one committee. >> And so last year we did send out an email to all um to the email list the whole blast um asking for applications. The steering committee was one of them along with a few other committees. Um we did have quite a few applicants. I'm sorry that you didn't see it because It did go out and we did have questions. >> I just can't see it. I just want to make sure I'm on some of these committees. >> We did um select um some members of that and
041I was going to ask you that you were planning to still use because that committee didn't really get off the ground too much because we ended up um with the superintendent search >> and so um I do know that those people who were selected are very interested in continuing on it since they were selected last year. Um you want to open it up to additional comm community members. That's certainly um understandable and and welcomed. Um but it did go out and there there is a committee and there are several community members. I just want to make sure that when we have these committees and they're selected that they really are representative of everyone in the community, not certain groups and certain folks. I just want to make sure that they're they're properly formed and particularly
042when you're talking about a strategic plan that drives, you know, the blueprint for how we're going to be moving forward. And we've come a long way uh in the district. I've been here a long time now and I don't want to see us go backwards. I want to see us go forward. So, it's important that we everybody and making it public that I definitely would like to serve on that committee u particularly for strategic plan. Well, moving forward is definitely the goal of all of us. Nobody wants us. Thank you. Okay. Um, the board of education of the Chuck Unifree School District motions to approve consent agenda items two and three. Do I have a motion? Any conversation? Okay. All in favor? Business of the board. Adopt adopt policy 2245 exeicio student board member. Resolved
043that the board of education of the Tahoe Unifree School District adopts policy 2245 exeicio student board member as attached to the official minutes of this meeting. On September 5th, 2024, the governor signed bill uh Senate Bill S909018A amending the New York State Education Law to allow for the designation of students as extraio members of the school board and clarify and clarifying with student members and permitted to do or permitted to do. Sorry. The law requires school districts and to designate at least one exeicio student member on their school board. The bill repeals the sections of the educational law that currently call for school districts to submit a referendum to voters to determine whether the district should have an exeicio student member. This law will take effect on July 1, 2025. The exeicio student board member
044will be elected during the GL election being held on September 15. Do I have a motion? Second poll. All in favor resolved that the board of education of the Tahoe Unifree School District approved the attached budget transfers. The budget transfers are available to view um in the public section of the agenda on board docs if anybody was interested. Do I have a motion? Second. Scott in favor. Um approve an agreement. Resolved that the board of education of the Tuco Unifree School District hereby approves an agreement with Edgar Panita for photography services for the 2025 middle school and high school graduation ceremonies and photography services for the district events for the 202526 school year at an amount not to exceed $2,350. Do I have a motion? Second, Pete. Any conversation? All in favor? Approve a taxi
045settlement result that in the matter of the taxity taxi proceeding proceeding brought by Chester Heights Gardens condominium Q concerning properties located at 18-96 Oregon Avenue town of East Chester identified as section 80 block one lot 7F-18 to 58 7G-60A to 96. The board of education hereby approves the proposed settlement as recommended by the town of East Chester. That settlements will result in an estimated tax refund not to exceed $60,8467 and the district is authorized to make such payments upon receipt of the signed judgment. And be it further resolved that the district authorizes in uh an increase to account A1964-400 refund of real property taxes in the amount of $20,729.98 and a corresponding decrease to account A864 tax charity reserve in the amount of $20,729.98 to be applied in accordance with the applicable law for the
046payment of legal fees. expenses and taxp um approved disposal of public property resolved that the board of education of Tuck Unifree School District in accordance with the policy 6900 disposal of public property declares the following textbooks to be obs Quantity 35 title physics and principles and problem ISBN 97800788072313. Be it further resolved with the board of education of Tahoe Unifree School District authorizes the disposal of the above by um offering for sale to local municipalities or local nonprofit organizations or selling at a public auction or sale. Otherwise, they will be recycled in the most environmentally appropriate Do I have second? All in favor? Um, personnel recommendations. Resolve that the board of education school district approve personnel recommendations A through second. Any comments? All in favor? Thank you to all the staff who volunteer to um
047run the clubs. It's much appreciated. Second recognition of the for any matters that you would like to bring to the board. And again, just a reminder that there's the three minute time 14 Dearfield. I'm a middle school and high school parent. Um I um well, one wanted to thank the board for all your work and the new administration team. It's definitely really exciting to see school back open. And as much as my children were not excited a week ago, they've been really so far. So, um, uh, I had two quick things. Uh, one is I just want to reiterate, uh, my interest and I think other people's interest in an ability to participate in board meetings via Zoom or some platform like that. I know you have like much bigger priorities, but just wanted to
048bring that up. I think um a lot of comm more community members would participate and like publicly address the board uh they didn't have to be here physically. Just something to think about. Um the second thing that I wanted to bring up and and I think it's kind of I've just been thinking about it. um you know I'm not an educator but I am curious like as you um work on the communication you mentioned and the strategic plan um obviously as parents we know technology changes education but I for one as a parent would love to kind of know the board and like our administrator's view on live instruction versus video instruction you know like when a teacher like obviously there's videos you could watch the lesson But you know what I mean? Like we
049we're I'm old, right? So my teachers like taught the lesson on a board and I'm I'm just curious like if we have any standard ex like expectations for the staff on a video lesson versus um them delivering the lesson. not expecting an answer right now, but it's just something as a parent I'm really curious about because, you know, I I I find myself saying to my kids like, "Well, when I went to school was like this, but I know it's changed." >> For my standard in terms of education, you look at the teaching student engagement. So how the educators deliver the content using different video components to really engage them using clips uh kind of highlighting the parts that students are going to get excited about that they make the lesson come alive and then
050from there focusing on student discussion and inquiry. You know those are the best parts of education I think and that's what our teachers do a nice job of. So if I'm answering your question about holistically like watching the full video or a lesson or something or again I think what I've seen it used to most is the small video clip or small visual image and really promoting the discussion thereafter within the class and teachers that are doing the best job really engaging with students the ones that get them to dive into that comparison. >> Thank you. Just about to zoom real quick. You're saying you're saying >> yeah participate because obviously you can watch it live right you know you could probably just it's not a dial but you know the live organized chaos to
051say something right I guess there more community interaction with the something. >> Yeah. I mean, trust me, I I know there's more important priorities, but as far as I know, it's allowed like legally, right? It just has to be, you know, I've looked into it, but I don't know how many districts do it. And um I wouldn't want I don't could be a double-edged sword as far as participation, but I just know this is a lot of people, you know, sadly. >> Yeah. >> I'm not sure. So I have watched side to side I mean I've watched a lot of different school districts board meetings and I haven't seen any do that. Um also I feel that it does kind of change the dynamic a little bit. It is um sometimes when people are are
052online they like to say things that they wouldn't necessarily say if they were speaking. Um, and so to to keep everything professional, I just prefer I I hate I feel like people talk over each other in Zoom. I prefer one to convert. >> No, no, no. Yeah. I I trust me, I I totally get it. And I think your as a board, you said one of your goals or, you know, things you've already decided is maybe sending out recaps, you know, communications that that could help well as well. I'm just saying that there is like power in public comment >> but it's hard to get here for a lot of people. So that's all you suggest and I think the way they do it correctly I don't know if you're suggesting sending in question but
053I think the way it is with the screen set up they're on the screen so they are making their question. So, so it's it's not like they're definitely a logistic carry over comment board. Um so do you have anything else for you? No. >> All right. So board comments. Um and I'm gonna start you guys don't mind. So one of the ways that um when I talk about community engagement and reaching out and this idea of an email is um my idea and I'm hoping I'm going to be able to do this. It's not just like an idea but that I can actually bring it forward is to basically say you know here's probably going to be month But once a month, say, you know, on September 8th, the board had this meeting. Um, here
054are some of the things that were discussed with the link to the YouTube to watch the meeting. Um, but just, you know, a little bit more community engagement of saying here are some things that happened and, you know, if you want to see more, watch the YouTube and you can see more, which then I think hopefully will get people will get people a little bit more engaged and we'll encourage people to either send in questions um that the superintendent or I can answer um or that they will be encouraged to come to a meeting and and speak um when they see that it's really not as terrifying as it seems. Um, but you know that's definitely part of the communication. >> I mean we are always you can email at any point and if you
055were to um ask to meet we would um If there's a problem, we always recommend change command. That is, you know, going to your teacher, to your building administrator, to your superintendent, and then to the board. Um, a lot of people would be surprised that what they think the board can handle, the board really can't handle. So, um, you know, but it is always best to chain a command, but yes, we are always open to um to having conversations and leading you into the direction of people who could help you if we can. Um just build on what just we talked about in the field of more communications and more transparency and more engagement with our board members. We talked about doing a better job this year also of pre um announcing our workshop topics.
056That's something that we've got away from doing where we announced we have a workshop but the public announcement would say that making sure that we do that so that if the topic is something of interest to watch the workshop My own personal opinion is that workshops are more important to watch and to listen to than regular business. It's where the real meat of what's going on in the district um is discussed. So we don't we don't allow any public comment during um workshops. But definitely if you watched them and then sent in um a comment for us to consider, we would get that to you and you're certainly welcome to come to the next board meeting and then follow up with a comment. Heights and service exactly what you just said is what I'm scared
057to comment on is I don't know if there's what the rationale is but you're right the workshops where all the juicy stuff goes on but the public is shut down like yes we could watch them but that's when we want to chime in with questions while the administrators are in the room talking about it giving their presentations And if we come to the next general meeting to pose a question, those administrators are not in the room anymore. Um, and I know those meetings tend to go really long. So adding a public comment would make it even longer. But that's always been a point of frustration for me is that that's when I want to ask my questions while the principles are there or you know the administrators are there. So I don't know if there's
058anything. >> So that was actually something that I did raise during the retreat. Um, and we discuss this because being where you're standing um used to be a huge pet peeve of mine. Um however I can tell you that very quickly. So for our retreat we had um somebody guide us from um NISLO which is New York State School Board Association to really do like a good thorough training because we are such a young board on the team with the exception of Pete. I don't mean his age, his years of service, >> but you know, really to give us a really good thorough training on what a board is supposed to do and and the things that and how we should um um conduct ourselves. And when I brought that up, the NISBA um consultant
059was like, "That's not a good idea, and I do not recommend that." um mostly because it it could bring in um a lot of negative feelings. You know, if you have somebody who is um angry, you know that administrator is kind of caught off guard. Um also, they're not prepared to answer those questions if you're going to come up, right? So, all it really does is to get back to you back get back to you where so if they're presenting something and you're watching it and then you're sending your questions, we can forward those questions to them. They can come up ample information to answer your question and give food for thought on how to answer it rather than being on the spot and like you know having to just turn around and say I'm
060gonna have to get back to you. >> If I can just add that too because I think it's a good point though about a workshop is that it's really meant to be for the board to work on things with administration together in public view. So, it's really not meant to be. That's why we don't comments because it's supposed to be us doing our work um in public view. um if you make a public comment become something other than that something so that's something topic that's of big interest but I do think going back to what we said before if we're doing if we do a better job of communicating workshop topic ahead of time then you could email in to me board that was that one particular whatever whatever particular question might be or or
061something you'd like us to explore during that work that's perfectly fine ahead of time I would love if somebody brought up or ask this question or explore this topic in this larger topic working that's probably the right way interaction but again you need to work top in order to do that so do a better job of that >> another part um and this is to get back to point um and kind of justed it um doing the town halls. I did mention that part of our board communication um efforts we're going we're going to try to get back to you know a while back president we did a couple where it was two board members superintendent and then the superintendent also chose an administrator leaison to be included and people submitted questions and it was
062like just a town hall meeting just and it was informal it was not televised um so it gave people a little more relaxed to ask questions that they felt were important and you could also send them in ahead of time. Um, we actually required that the questions were sent in ahead of time. Um, so that if you couldn't make it, at least you knew that your question or concern was going to be um addressed. So, you know, just different ways that we're we're trying to baby steps, but we're doing Few follows for me. So I wanted to point out the board on the agenda tonight did accept the resignation of Dr. Quenbush. So just wanted to highlight that for a second. So unfortunately due to some unexpected personal situations involving her family wasn't able to
063remain in her position. So with regrets we expected accepted her resignation. We've already posted for that. We're looking to We'll be getting our hiring process in the various future back in as soon as possible later this month from 19. We'll start interviews with our full committee and then hopefully bring another great uh director of curriculum and technology to the district. So just share that as an important piece of information. I did mention it at our parent meeting the other evening but I wanted accepted her last day will be the 12th year. Um looking forward to the student joining us um after the PO elections next later next week and then having them come for our upcoming workshops and board education meetings. I think that'll add a great dynamic to our board here and getting a
064student perspective on on different topics forward to that. I also wanted to highlight the uh the PTA event and SEP event this past week. I great great feedback from Missy was there but also kudos to our soccer team. The boys and girls were there assisting and really making it a great community event. So just another way of our student athletes and students being leaders. Um you see it in and out here at Tahoe which is amazing. I got a taste of my first football game here at Tahoe the other day and as well as many other athletic events and uh the school spirit is phenomenal. Um there's so many people that traveled up to Chester. I thought I was in West Texas um to believe that. But it was a great great feel to see
065just the community come together and support our students and for our students to cheer each other on in every every venue, volleyball, boys and girls soccer, got to go to tennis next week and looking forward to that. But just uh celebrating our students doing doing a great job and I'll highlight that next week we have three students that were recognized for this book accomplishments also. So kudos to them and we'll make sure they recognize those student announcements and shout out as well for their accomplishments. Okay. So, motion to adjourn the meeting. Second, all in favor? Okay. Good night everyone. Thanks for coming out.