001all right good evening today is monday october 18th 2021 this is a regular meeting of the board of education do i have a motion to call the meeting to order cynthia second laura for a favor all right let's start with the pledge of allegiance all right we'll jump right into comments by the board we have a little bit of a lean staff tonight um both therese and laurie could not join us tonight so it's just the three of us so we'll go around and do comments and updates on committees and things of that nature cynthia first um i kind of just wanted to comment on uh the homecoming weekend which uh i usually i don't have um kids who do those things but i really wanted to go to see what it was i mean
002it was absolutely to be honest was amazing the school spirit and just seeing all the community come together i mean i just wanted to say thank you to the school and i don't know everybody who was involved but it was really an unbelievable weekend all around and it it kind of just made you feel really good about uh our community our school the staff the students it was really just a nice place to be so that's kind of what i'm that's all i have right all right yeah so i just want to piggyback off cynthia that was a really a great homecoming week thank you to administration the teachers and parents that volunteered cooking and setting up things and um you the smiles were just amazing the kids between the parades and this and every
003game was exciting i tried to make all of them and each one one was more exciting than the next so thank you to the students and and the faculty and everyone that involved in making a really special homecoming i felt i think the energy was there for sure absolutely um and then also i'd i'd like to give two updates um two committees have met since we last had a meeting so i'll just give a brief update um the facilities committee had a meeting and um so we got updated on the coddle field design which i also understand there's some user groups that have met since wheat since the committee met um but basically it's moving along really nicely we discussed a little bit of the uh timeline that things are going to take place so
004the sed the new york state sed i believe is um is going to happen this month in november yes yeah that's what we're hoping for coddle and then middle school high school december with the timeline being the field is going to start to work in the winter times and then by june-ish it looks like that might be completed so we just talked about timelines and some other design things for example the cafeteria they worked in changing up a little bit uh the outside looking a little bit more like the that blue box that we have um just some continuity so a little different than the original rollout but still still beautiful and very exciting so that's moving along nicely and i believe um faith you were going to say the user groups have yeah and
005that was very helpful yes right yeah so they talked about design and brought the teachers in and administrators and really it put all the heads together to give some more up input and options so and then the finance committee um also met and um we just got a review or a um an overview of our audit that was conducted and we uh it's great to say that we got the highest marks you could get and um the bonadino group will be here the next meeting to present um to the district so those are the two updates from me all right great yeah i don't have too much i was actually going to also mention about the homecoming it was already said but it was an amazing turnout and really great to see um everyone everybody
006come out the football game was packed it was just great it was a great weekend so that was awesome um i also wanted to mention i don't know if i'll be redundant to you dr goodman but i know there's been a lot since the last board meeting there's been a lot of um we received a lot of emails and a lot of concern about the towns um um considering the or considering the marijuana dispenser law that so the i guess the state passed a law about how you can open up a marijuana dispensary as long as your town doesn't opt out of that most of the towns um in our area have opt out of it the tuckahoe town board is considering a resolution i don't think they call it a revolution but an opt-out
007and i believe they're going to be voting on that on november 8th so i guess there was some concern um about that not happening um so some of that concern came to us as the board and uh to the superintendent as well um you know just concerned that it may not that the town may not opt out of it and what that impact that would have on our kids and and you know because most of our kids obviously a lot of our kids live in taco and even our kids that live in east chester obviously um or in tuckahoe a lot so we were a little concerned about it as well um we did draft a letter um from the board and from the superintendent unanimous letter obviously um expressing our opposition to a dispensary
008being allowed to be opened in tucco and and us urging the town board to vote um to opt out that letter went over on october 8th so just wanted to give an update on that that we did try and take a proactive approach on that i know we did make some outreach superintendent talk to the mayor all indications are is that likely the support is there by the town board to opt out but of course we won't know until they actually vote but we just want to let everybody know that we as a school board did take a proactive approach and did um draft a letter and sent it over to let let it be known that we'll work against that for the safety of art and the well-being of our kids so that's that
009and then um over the weekend i know there was also some concern about um the high school field the start time of of um the rec league being out there a little bit earlier than than what the policy allows so this has been a little bit of an issue i know the superintendent addressed it directly so i think it's been resolved for the time being but it does bring up i think a little bit of a greater issue that i do think we should bring to the facilities committee i know we talked about it last week yeah i mean last couple months ago but there's just quite a few different issues i think that are bubbling up with this you know the the the issue of sometimes uh things starting earlier than they should um
010then also the issue of you know how we want to um in general attack public use of our fields especially with the with the money we're investing in the new field at coddle and then there's also been the you know the uh the care of the field and and folks kids getting on the field when they're not supposed to and and how the field is being treated so i think there's you know whether or not we should be having more sort of you know camera coverage or more you know physical presence there so i think it's time to really address this head on in the facilities committee so i'm going to recommend that we take that up and that maybe we you know it's going to be in a meeting and just to talk about
011all these issues see if there needs to be any policy change or if we need to make some recommendations out of the committee to to the district to the administration about what we can do too short we're spending a lot of money obviously to to make our fields nice and keep nice and we want to make sure that happens so anyway just wanted to address that um so that's that's all i got so turn it over to you dr goodman okay so before i get into my uh report i just would like to read the letter that um mr catherine and i wrote to mayor dino and the village board of trustees dear mayor dino and village board of trustees we understand there is an upcoming vote about whether or not the town or the
012village will permit marijuana dispensaries in our community the taco union free school district board of education and superintendent are opposed to this measure we understand there is sentiment among village leadership that feels similarly and we encourage our village to join the large number of neighboring communities that have elected to opt out of permitting marijuana dispensaries and cafes in our community marijuana has been called the gateway drug and for some marijuana has adverse physical and psychological risks we are working with the town towns of east chester tucker and bronxville in a coalition called stronger together representatives from these three towns promote long-term health and wellness and foster programs to eliminate substance abuse among our youth additionally we work with our law enforcement officers in our elementary dare program having a dispensary in the heart of our
013village sends a harmful message about our community's values our district understands that bringing in new businesses increases revenue and that this benefits our school district and students we are excited by new stores opening in spaces downtown at your upcoming vote we hope that you and the trustees decide to support businesses more in line with the efforts being made to promote safe decision making at our schools we encourage the village government to opt out of permitting marijuana dispensaries and cafes in our community we ask that you join the growing number of westchester communities such as bronxville east chester yorktown lordsman ordly and mount kisco and saying no to this measure we appreciate your efforts to hear from all constituents and thank you for considering the district's unique insights into what is best for taco students respectfully
014dr amy goodman superintendent of schools and mr peter caston board president and we are speaking for the entire award in this letter and now i'll start with my report good evening taco school community and board trustees i'll begin this report by recognizing the board of education on the first day of school board recognition recognition week this week is dedicated to recognizing the dedication of school boards across new york state takaha's board of education is comprised of hard-working committed individuals who support the schools in our efforts to prepare every student for excellence taco staff students and leaders thrive because this board has a strong child-centered approach overseeing district operations i appreciate your thoughtful consideration in setting the district's direction and your respect for public education and public service school board trustees are volunteers and we are
015fortunate to have volunteers with an unwavering respect for our students and our staff this and our community especially this evening at the conclusion of our meeting we will celebrate with some treats that are a small token of my appreciation tonight additionally the boer will vote on resignations for the purpose of retirement tonight marks the first step in our send-off which will come culminate in a celebration of their years of service at the school board meeting on april 19th but tonight we vote on their retirement and to vote them into retirement at the end of the of the year we wish them luck and tonight we will move to accept though sadly but really happy for them the resignations of diane mitchell carol di lorenza di rienzo monica dabolito kim durbin jennifer scrivo and kathy mosher
016as the board members have talked about today the past weeks have been marked with memorable homecoming celebrations after an energetic pep rally kicked off the festivities our students and homecoming court marched through town with teachers staff and administrators and a lot of community members coming out it was really an amazing event students were on trucks on flatbeds we walked i don't know up the biggest hill [Laughter] and um the smiles and the excitement really i've never seen a homecoming like this our students competed in homecoming games and each one was very exciting and was cheered on by their community really that football game referees and even news people who were there said they've never seen anything like it with the spirit we were packed with taco school district residents additionally last monday i along with
017some staff and our student leaders participated in the eastchester columbus day parade our marching band and football teams representing our school district and that was really fun too even in the rain looking ahead we have board workshops planned on data analysis project-based learning and college preparation we are also working with our taco equity team on addressing matters of equity and with our district health and wellness committee on monitoring the covet 19 pandemic we continue to be optimistic about all of this and we're optimistic about what awaits tuckahoe as we continue to lead the way thank you thank you dr evan and thank you for the kind words about the board recognition week and and that's a really nice display it's very nice of you it's not necessary but thank you very much appreciate it all
018right next we have comments by our business manager right yes hi um just to piggyback on what miss banky was saying before we are coming along very nicely with the capital project the coddle designs are pretty much done and we're hoping we'll be submitted to scd next month we had user group meetings where we invited end users teachers and staff to give input on the drawings and designs we started looking at more detail in the middle high school drawings and a vision of what we anticipate for this room and for the cafeteria and the facade outside so there's a lot of exciting work planned and we're hoping that those designs will go to scd by the end of the year it is looking good at scd right now so we are hoping for a quick
019approval but nothing's a guarantee with that and also on this board meeting um the board will vote on the audit report we had a fantastic audit i'd like to thank our amazing business business office team who are instrumental in getting us ready for the audit and we had no findings so it's really good and bonadio will be presenting at the next meeting on the audit great good stuff thank you all right next comments by the pta miss millie hi everyone i'm susan mille i'm the pta president i would like to join dr goodman in saluting you guys in board of ed i think it's called school board recognition week i wish the other two trustees were here to receive the accolades you guys really do an amazing job and it can't be stated enough that
020you guys are volunteers serving three-year terms and the work that you do is not only what we see on tv but a lot of work behind the scenes and it takes a toll it does i know that um and i thank you i'm glad it's you and not me um thank you for all your leadership all your hard work one of my goals as pta president has been to try to create greater awareness in the community about the work that you do and about the role that families could play by being more engaged with board activities i would like to you know try to do more but for starters the pta launched a new newsletter in october first i think was our first edition we've gotten two newsletters out so far and in this most
021recent edition we had a column about the board of ed and what you the work you do the role you play and how people can get involved and i hope everybody will read that because i didn't know what i didn't know when i started here you know i i spent the first year or two not understanding what the board of ed did and what my role as a parent could and should be and i would like to raise awareness because i think a lot of people just don't know what they don't know so i want to help continue in that effort because you guys definitely deserve recognition and we as a community are stronger when we have more input from a broader slice of the community board of representation so thank you um also this
022week we're excited in-person dance classes started today and we have 150 happy students between grades k and 12 doing pta dance this year so we're very excited about that and also this week we have the coddle book fair underway monday to friday also as in years past students will shop with their classes and there's information on our website and in the principal newsletters and so forth about how to prepare your child for their shopping trip so this is both a fundraiser for the pta and a nice opportunity to promote literacy among cottle students and this year the selections we we had our new dei committee the diversity equity and inclusion committee give input to the selections to try to make sure that all students see themselves in the selections that are available to them since
023the last board meeting we had school picture day at cottle so all the coddle kids got to have their portraits taken those will appear in the yearbook and they can purchase packages and such our room rep committee organized placed all the room reps with the cattle teachers and facilitated introductions with them our hospitality committee hosted custodian appreciation day where they provided gifts goodie bags with gift cards to thank our custodians for their amazing work especially in this covid context our middle school committee hosted a virtual principles coffee with dr linehan for middle school families and those are the things that have happened and then coming up later this month our ways and means fall fundraising subcommittee is hosting a family photo shoot on october 23rd we have a photographer in our community joe pregiato who
024donates his time for an entire day of photography and it's a great fundraiser for us and it's so generous of him so i want to give a shout out also coming up and this is where everybody really needs to pay attention is we have our halloween event at cottle is coming up on october 29th it's going to build on last year's drive-through by being an outdoor walk-through experience and um it's going we're sending out a sign up genius so that families can register for a time slot as though you're going to the jack-o-lantern blaze or something and additional information will be included in that announcement but i want everybody to keep tabs on their computers because they will soon be getting this announcement and i'm sure we'll want to pounce um we also will need
025volunteers at the halloween event and we actually have a couple vacancies this week for the book fair if anybody would like to volunteer and we welcome middle and high school students as well who are looking for community service opportunities those are our main things the other thing i just want to touch on is we also took a stance on the marijuana dispensaries in tuckahoe i started with a just a quickie email to um the village and we're now drafting a formal letter to submit later this week also opposed to encouraging them to opt out and this echoes the position of the new york state pta not just tuckahoe and now on your agenda tonight i hope you will agree to adopt a donation that the pta would like to make our math and science committee
026solicited grant requests from the math and science teachers late last school year and honored some of them last year and tabled others and one that we hope that you will agree to adopt is we would like to donate a telescope this was requested by mr g lorenzo the earth science teacher with the intention of hosting family night sky viewing events which is exciting me so much please say yes we're donating 800 towards this purchase and we would love to partner with mr g lorenzo on scheduling those events with the community i think it would be fantastic um and then on the subject of donations i want to thank all of you for one other thing which is in honor of school board recognition week it's our custom to donate a gift to the district in
027the honor of the board of ed and you guys are asked by our community school relations committee to choose the recipient and i want the public to know that you were kind enough to donate it back to the pta specifically towards our building bridges program which will happen in the spring and we're very grateful for that so thank you for your faith in that program we're very excited i'm sorry for taking so long i had so much to report but i do hope that everybody will read our newsletters because i'm trying to consolidate all of these communications in one place and thank our communications committee for creating those new vehicles for us thank you so much great thank you susan thank you very much for all the kind words too for us appreciate it in
028the donations and for the nice pr yeah i think there's pictures in that in that bulletin too of us is that right susan is that pictures is there pictures of us in that bulletin as well well it's the same picture that's going around yeah just the picture that's great thank you very much it's way too much honestly i think we all feel the same way but we appreciate it all right so that brings us to our first recognition of the audience for agenda items only anyone want to speak about agenda items no agenda items only hi wd francisco tta president and come on andrew carlosuno secretary to the tta so we're really here to thank you tonight thank you for giving the teachers the opportunity to rise to the challenge of the pandemic and providing
029us with the resources necessary to keep our classrooms and children safe it is through our partnership that we are able to overcome the many obstacles that have challenged all of us during this trying time i recognize your constant desire to always do what's best for our students and rest assured we educators are always looking to continue to provide a safe environment where each student has the ability to thrive we are all stewards in our service to provide the children with an education and we want to thank you for volunteering your time and your passion to the tucco community and we look forward to a productive school year thank you thank you so much thank you very much thank you thank you very much really really nice thank you [Laughter] [Music] yeah watch the chords there
030oh my god thank you so much very soon thank you thank you so much thank you thank you so much appreciate it thank you very much thank you so much thank you so much thank you thank you very much beautiful yeah very nice please stay for cake yeah save birthday we have a big cake everybody should stay for cake people at home should come on in for cake yeah like a wedding that's how you do it with the food we have food at every meeting we might get more people it's not a place to stop filling up here all right great this is really really nice thank you this is awesome all right let's jump into our consent agenda so motion to approve can send agenda items 2 through 11. do i have a motion
031laura second cynthia any questions or discussion about our consent agenda nope all in favor all right okay business of the board prove a rape resolve at the board of education at tahoe union free school district hereby approves the provision of a police officer by the town of east chester to patrol and direct traffic on middle road and siwano boulevard before the school day and to be present for certain school district events including but not limited to athletic events and elections at a rate not to exceed 75 dollars per hour for services rendered per signed police officer not to exceed thirty five thousand dollars for the 2021-2022 school year do i have a motion second laura any discussion this is pretty standard for us yeah okay all in favor great all right next accept the donation
032whereas the tuckahoe union free school district has been informed of a donation to be made to takahoe middle school and sakaho high school and whereas the district would like to accept such donation it is hereby resolved at the board of education to accept a donation from the tahoe pta math and science committee in the amount of eight hundred dollars do we have a motion cynthia a second laurel any comments thank you very much again for that appreciate it all in favor all right approval proposal resolve the board of education approves a proposal from jumpstart tutoring to provide sat or aact prep for the 2021-2022 school year not to exceed 35 000 to have a motion cynthia a second laura any discussion on that all in favor all right approve a transfer result the board of
033education approves a transfer not to exceed 35 000 from the state of angela carpello fund to into the general fund to increase the general fund revenue budget line a2705 gifts and donations for an amount not to exceed 35 000 and increase the general fund budget appropriate appropriation line a 2110.400-02-1001 regular school contract contractual high school caterpillar donation s.a.t prep for the amount not to exceed 35 000 for the high school s.a.t prep courses do i have a motion cynthia second laura so thank you very much to the cara palo funds every year they do this for us and makes makes the tutoring um possible so we appreciate it very much i just want to just just add to that just so that i know that um i believe dr lanahan's email may have mentioned it
034but just so that people are aware that that jumpstart will give a practice or they give a um an s 18 an a c t and then they meet with the students and they go through that and pick which one uh they seem to fit better for and then the tutoring begins and it's groups of three so just groups yeah i mean some people are very familiar with jumpstart and someone has never heard so i think it just it's helpful just to let the uh parents know that it's a wonderful service to take advantage of that and um surprisingly not everybody does yeah it is surprising and i think they should i think that this is um you know even if you just even if it was to take the sat the practice sat and
035a ct just to get a baseline and they can always decide to do it other a number of ways but it's it's really a great tool and they they do a great job of breaking down the scores so i encourage parents if they're listening to to take advantage of that so thank you absolutely yeah very good all in favor okay accept an independent auditor's report results of the board of education accepts the district's independent orders report for june 30th 2021 this is the report that mr sparks was talking about before do i have a motion laura ii cynthia any discussion all in favor okay and then that brings us to a personnel recommendations except uh yes so there is a resignation of one of a teacher on this and the teacher is still here she
036just was appointed in two different tenure areas so i know that some people may be thinking that the teacher is resigning we know everybody who's resigning for retirement this is just residing so she's just in one area which is special education okay okay very good so resolve that the board of education the tuck ohio free school district approves personnel action items a through m as outlined below do we have a motion cynthia second laura any discussion so i too would like to just congratulate those teachers that are retiring again we'll we'll recognize them more in april but um it's always bittersweet when that happens you know it's happy for them but it's always sad i know you guys looking out experienced where the teachers go my son was in kindergarten yeah no there's a lot
037of big names on there so um so congratulations to them bittersweet for the district obviously so we'll talk about that more in april um all in favor all right great pretty short agenda that's really pretty much it that brings us to our second recognition of the audience for any uh items at all takers okay and that's it and adjourn the meeting do i have a motion to adjourn cynthia a second laura all in favor thank you very much please stay for cake [Music] it looks like we've decided away from josh