001good evening everyone Welcome to our last meeting for the school year of 22-23 I'd like to ask everyone to please stand for a salute to the flag and remain standing for a moment of silence for the mother of Elaine Gianni I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible foreign thank you okay let's start with our agenda item D approval of minutes for May 4th 16th and June 1st item e acknowledgment and acceptance of financial reports and budget transfers is printed and item F Communications to the Board of Education Communications were received from Mark mihalik Gina dignon Steve lepolis Jeff Sims Marilyn Rich Julie raffeo Bob Nikolai Diane Calabrese Daniel Corey Louise radzicki Leslie valino Charlene Spinelli Dawn conlon Mary Ellen
002Humphrey and Susan Idol bush do I have a motion move second second all in favor aye aye okay and item G superintendent's report I'll turn the mic over to Mr McNamara great thank you Miss Reese oh it's loud tonight all right um welcome everyone uh thank you for being here tonight uh we appreciate taking the time uh we uh as we do uh each meeting like to start with some nice recognition of all the wonderful things going on around our district so we have two groups here tonight we're going to start with our uh some members from our music program our Wind Ensemble we thank them for taking the time for for being here tonight Mr avilas is here and I just want to recognize the outstanding work that he does with our students each
003and every day we are so fortunate to have such talented members of our staff that are so invested in their program and um and and give so much to our students and this year our Wind Ensemble you know as he continues to push and challenge them it just does absolutely amazing things the level of the pieces that they are able to accomplish each year just becomes more and more impressive and the opportunities that Mr avilas provides for our students is is truly tremendous the the outside conductor that they worked with this year and commissioned a piece for for our students I had an opportunity to sit in on that event for just just about about a half hour window and I I couldn't believe the the quality of the instruction our students were receiving and
004the feedback that they were getting and just how much they accomplished in the short time that I was there so it's those types of opportunities that um that that Mr Villas continues to provide anybody that's had an opportunity to attend one of our shows the the quality of our programs is just impressive I look forward each and every year to to our concerts and and uh and the work that that he does with our students so that coupled with The Talented students that are sitting here and the hard work that they put into the program is just an unbelievable recipe for Success so this year at the nisma competition they received a tremendous honor of gold with distinction and and truly just the highest recognition you can get and we wanted to take some time
005tonight certainly to recognize all of our students and certainly recognize Mr avalis and and the great work he does with our kids so I'm going to invite Mr avails to come on up to introduce our students tonight and I'd ask our students when we call your name if you could just come right up to to the stage come right on stage and just kind of assemble in the center we're going to take a picture of you a group photo and then we have certificates that will present to you but we're going to present them out in the in the lobby after the the group picture so that's the way we'll go through tonight so thank you for being here I also recognize that there is a chemistry regions tomorrow that many of you are cramming
006for right now so we're going to do our recognition do our picture we'll give your certificates in the hallway and then please feel free to continue on with your night to get home to study uh so we we thank you for taking some time tonight to be here so I'm going to invite Mr villasup to introduce thank you sorry I feel a little strange giving you my back so I'm going to turn around here um I'm going to first announce the students that are being recognized but before I do that I Just Want to Thank You Mr Magmar for the kind words I really do appreciate it and thank you all for giving us this wonderful opportunity to recognize our very talented band um so the way I want to do it is like a
007rock concert by instrument so uh you can deploy it all you want if you want but we're going to start with the Highwood one so on flute we have Olivia Belling Ashley favada Kylie Masterson Skyler mondelli and Olivia Sharer on oboe the very talented Madison Rodriguez flying solo our clarinet players Siobhan Finn Lorenzo Hilliard Kelly Hines Chamberlain karaki and Melissa lento our base clarinet player Anthony larrow next stars are saxophone players on alto sax Natasha magar and Shane Russo on tenor Charles Albano and the biggest saxophone Barry sacks Matthew Silverman he's got the right height for that instrument our very talented trumpet player is Jayden Diaz Ashley figarino Tyler Gershen goren Catherine Hennessy Ryan Horowitz Emma Nicholas and Brendan o'callaghan and a horn player who acts as four but she she does it all by
008herself Lauren Rochelle next is our low brass section starting with the trombones our trombone players James Karan Ryan Ferrara Emily karadki and a DTF has Rika our baritone player is Evan thull and Kendall copay and holding down the bottom Alex Como and Lance Lohman and of course we would not stay together without our percussion family uh Sophia Hilliard Andrew Pascucci and Matthew Riley Jaclyn Silverman and Alex Barr thank you and if it's okay I'd like to say just a few words um Mr McNamara already said a lot of the things that I was going to say but I do want to say that this year is a special year I've been saying this at concerts um last well this is considered our first normal year um getting out of the what I call the covet
009dip was very very challenging for us and uh you know this group definitely stepped up to the plate and far exceeded the expectations that I um you know put it put it forth in the beginning of the year so I'm so so proud of this group uh for all they've accomplished my wife Carolyn uh who's sitting right here hi hi babe she reminds me every year for 17 years now she reminds me she says the kids are going to pull through don't you worry they're going to pull through and whenever I have doubts I have to remember that advice but this year was particularly important because it was a very very difficult year to get the band up to that very high level so thank you to my wife for always keeping me grounded [Music]
010our season basically or I should say our year culminated in in what I call a crescendo sorry about the cheesy joke a band director joke but it was a big Crescendo at the end especially with the three dates that we had uh on in May May 17th was when our composer came to share uh the piece with us that we were going to Premiere at the concert the 18th was the night of our concert and we premiered our our piece which we're very excited about and they did a stellar job in the concert and then that next morning we were at Mineola High School uh having our adjudication for Nisswa Majors which like Mr Magmar said we received the Perfect Score golden distinction so it was a true Crescendo up to the top and I
011think after that they were so full of joy that you know there was no way we can get them down from there so another big congratulations to our win Ensemble for this year I'm truly proud of you guys and I'll remember this forever thank you for for doing such an awesome job this year love you guys [Applause] okay it's just right there try to avoid being in that spot with it [Applause] all right thank you once again to Mr Villas and the Wind Ensemble fantastic job this year thank you [Applause] all right we also have with us tonight I want to thank all of our All County athletes for joining us this evening we have had another outstanding year on the athletic fields I thank Miss Keane for her leadership of our athletic department all
012of our coaches that just do an outstanding job with our our student athletes each and every day we often each year have the opportunity to recognize our All County teams and this year are adding our individual all-county athletes to that that honor as well we have a number of of student athletes that have achieved at the highest levels All County All-State designations so we wanted to take a moment to recognize them this evening as we have wrapped up our final season so we'll be recognizing students from all three seasons tonight we have about 50 athletes that we are we are recognizing so I'm going to invite Miss Keane to come on up to introduce our All County athletes and the same thing I'll ask when your name is called if you could just assemble on
013the stage and we'll do a picture with you as well location okay so these are in no particular order girls volleyball Alexandra Beck and Sadie reach Spring Track Christian mcandrew gymnastics Madison Abrams Eva laughman Kelly Huck and Shane Adams cheerleading Ava Lombardo and Jessica balconis boys basketball jakai Lester and Ryan Daly softball is Emma priest and Angelina bendetti wrestling is Darren Santucci Anthony Clem Joseph Clem Ryan arbite Tommy bonasera Jesse Van Orden Noah Cohen and Danny pedagnato winter track is Kristen mcandrew cross country is Catherine Killian Owen statlick Ian Frazier and RJ Miller girls lacrosse is Madison Alamo Julian Nicholson and Catherine Killian with also Bridget Smith and Olivia Nicholson boys lacrosse is Danny fasen will Grieves Jake Martini Anthony sakos football Nick Capelli Anthony sakos Anthony reali and Jake martini baseball Timothy Hennig and
014AJ Barty [Applause] girls soccer Madison Alamo Talia Valdez and boys soccer Kevin Kramer apparently they're all home studying for the chem regents Kevin Gates okay can you move this way a little bit is going on here there you go just make sure [Applause] thank you okay all right congratulations once again to all of our All County athletes [Applause] all right just one other recognition tonight one of our staff members unfortunately could not be here tonight uh Linda Scarano is our transportation supervisor she's retiring after 15 years in the district Linda has done a great job with our transportation taking care of all the busing needs for our students for for a a great period of time here we want to wish her all the best in her retirement so congratulations to Linda scurrana big big
015thanks to the community this is our first business meeting since our budget vote so we want to just thank all the members of the community that supported our budget uh you know passed with an overwhelming majority so thank you and we look forward to continuing great programs for our students for uh for next year a couple of introductions I'd like to make tonight we had at our last planning session had the privilege of approving a new appointment a new administrative appointment for us in the district we have a new principal of Forest Lake Elementary School he's here with us tonight and it's Mr Thomas Burke so I'd like to officially welcome him to the district okay um although I'm welcoming Tom Burke I'm actually welcoming welcome him back to the district Tom uh taught in
016in the Wantagh school district for 11 years was a teacher at Mandalay and also at the middle school I did an outstanding job here as a teacher and left to pursue Administration I was right right down the road in Seaford for the past nine years two years as the Middle School principal of Seaford middle school and for the past seven at Seaford Harbor Elementary School Tom is an outstanding educator he brings a wealth of knowledge back here back home to uh to Wantagh and we look forward to all the great things that he's going to do at Forest Lake Elementary School over the past over the next number of years so congratulations to Tom and welcome once again thank you um also a little bit later on in our agenda we're going to be uh
017the board is going to be making a motion to approve uh uh a new contract with the members of the wut and I just wanted to take a moment before they do to recognize the negotiations team and Rich colavita from the WT I want to thank them for their uh their participation in the process we we you know we started meeting several months ago and the dedicated professionals that were committed to that process really worked in partnership with the district to really achieve what I believe is a a really good result and I just want to thank them for their commitment to that and to keeping things moving along with us and really engaging in a nice interactive conversation throughout so I just wanted to thank them and appreciate the work that rich and his
018team did over that time so thank you rich um and uh then lastly for me we're going to be approving I know and I know some of them are here this evening uh some of our uh new uh teacher hires as well we have a number of them present tonight so I just wanted to take a moment to introduce them uh to our our community we have Laura Carlson is going to be a new guidance counselor with us at the high school some welcome and congratulations to Laura Laura dubo one of our art teachers she'll be at Wantagh high school as an art teacher we have three new elementary teachers that will be at Wantagh Elementary Grace Hostetter Kyle Sweezy and Jillian Leroy so congratulations to the three of them we have a new uh
019Orchestra teacher at the elementary level Michael vannoni so welcome to Michael a new science teacher for us Casey Clark new home and careers teacher Alex Valentino and Chris Wasson is our physical education teacher he's part-time currently he's going to be moving into a full-time position for next year and he'll be working at Wantagh elementary school so congratulations to Chris Jeanette peruka will be joining us as a new speech teacher Anna Gagliano as a special education teacher and Christina soledek a new math teacher at Montauk middle school so congratulations to all of our new appointments and welcome to Wantagh and that ends my report for this evening I'm going to turn it back over to mrish some McNamara before we move ahead with our agenda because we're in the middle of our finals we're going to
020ask Nyla if she'd like to do her report now so she can skip out and uh go study thank you good evening everyone as you wrap up yet another another successful school year many students at the high school were recognized for their outstanding effort inside and outside of the classroom at the junior Awards 20 Juniors were rewarded with scholarships and awards from various colleges and universities throughout the country similarly dozens of seniors received Awards and scholarships for academics character and community service the business department also announced 19 seniors that have earned a Career and Technical education endorsement 15 seniors who earned their entrepreneurship endorsement and eight students earning the accounting endorsement lastly valedictorian and salutatorian cat Killian and Nora Toscano were honored at the Nassau County Council of school superintendent's breakfast along with other outstanding
021students throughout the county this recognition also extends to our athletes at our 30th annual Varsity awards banquet the physical education athletics department celebrated the accomplishment of 460 student athletes who've had outstanding Seasons at the conference County State and National level over 40 Awards of scholarships were given out to wanta's deserving student athletes also in the month of May the physical education leaders held their annual blood drive it was an amazing event as many students and community members took part in the drive and donated a total of 57 pints of blood opening up the month of June the annual art show was a great success the art show featured many works from talented artists in grades 6 through 12. parents and students had the pleasure of walking around the high school gym to admire the effort
022and creativity of many students in the building finally as we say goodbye to the senior class of 2023 the high school took part in college sure day this seniors got the opportunity to show off their future school pride by wearing a shirt that was representative of their future college or university additionally on the last day the seniors have their own barbecue in the courtyard to spend times with some of their teachers and classmates one last time before starting College thank you that's all I have tonight thank you very much Nyla thank you I just want to thank Nayla and Sean for all the work this year in representing uh the the Geo so proudly uh for the for the past year so so thank you both for your work this year [Applause] okay and again
023before we go forward with the agenda I just have another statement to read this uh this month uh as we are going to be approving a resolution in our agenda regarding the mascot issue that many of you are aware of as most of you are aware on Tuesday April 18 2023 the New York State education department enacted a new part 123 of the regulations regarding the prohibition of the use of indigenous names mascots and logos by public schools the regulation regulation took effect on Wednesday May 3rd 2023 it states that no public school in the state of New York May utilize or display an indigenous indigenous name logo or mascot other than for purposes of classroom instruction as a result of this new regulation the Wantagh school district is one of the approximately 60 school
024districts in New York state that is impacted the current nickname of our school's Warriors and the logo includes a representation of a Native American figure as a board of education we understand that the current logo may be offensive to indigenous people and that a change needs to be made we do not want to offend anyone with our logo and will have a process in place to have it updated the district will be removing the indigenous logo and imagery over the next two years as required by the regulation a committee of various stakeholders will be recommending new imagery to replace the indigenous imagery currently in place however we believe that the district's Warrior's name is not in violation of a new regulation that was established by the Board of Regents and for the past several months
025the district has engaged in conversation with the State education department about this at this time the response from New York State education department continues to be that if the Warrior's name is a Vestige of a Native American logo it can no longer be used as a board of education we continue to believe that we can successfully Rebrand the Warrior's name a name that our community takes pride in and at the same time this will allow the district to mitigate some of the significant costs involved in this unfunded mandate during the past several months in addition to discussions with the State education department the board of education has consulted with legal counsel on multiple occasions we have also consulted with other school districts that use the warrior name as this is the last Board of Education
026business meeting for the school year the board is forced tonight to pass a resolution regarding the mascot regulation the regulation requires action by June 30th 2023. the resolution the board will be voting on tonight states that the board will follow the mascot regulation however it also states that should the mascot regulation be repealed and or determined to be unenforceable by the commission of education and or any Court of competent jurisdiction the Board of Education will immediately reinstate the warrior team name and authorize its usage in a manner unconnected with any indigenous imagery this effectively reserves the board's right to pursue a legal challenge if conversations with the state of education department continue to stall the board will need to make a determination as to the best way to proceed we will be reaching out to
027community members to ask their thoughts on pursuing a legal challenge to this nice and regulation fighting this issue with the state however May ultimately prove futile nicet has made it clear that there are no longer any avenues for exceptions the district must comply or it must engage with the state in a potentially lengthy and expensive legal process and while our consideration of partnering with other Long Island districts that find themselves in a similar situation might somewhat mitigate that expense both our legal counsel and special outside counsel have indicated costs could run into the tens of thousands of dollars with a limited chance for success we will continue to keep you updated as we move ahead and just to clarify this regulation allows us two years next year and the following school year so by the
028end of 2025 is when we would need to remove all the imagery and the name we aren't looking to remove the name at this time so pending any determination that we are hoping to receive we don't plan on taking steps to remove the name until we are told 100 that we need to so just to know that although we're passing this resolution it's still giving us the um it's giving us the rights to keep the name until we are told we cannot do so okay on to our agenda item H report of the administration item H1 Personnel actions instructional staff item h1a resignation B appointment to special assignment C probationary teaching appointments D appointment to part-time teaching positions e-annual stipends and F appointment to Summer personnel do I have a motion second all in favor
029all right item h1g requests for leaves of absence H Precision of Club extracurricular appointments I appointment to Club extracurricular appointments J appointment to coaching assignments and K appointment to instructional substitutes do I have a motion second all in favor all right item h two Personnel action Civil Service item h2a retirement a letter of resignation for the purpose of retirement has been received from a member of our civil service staff we wish Linda Scarano health and happiness in her retirement and thank her for her many years of dedicated service item h2b resignations C request for leave of absence D appointment of civil service personnel and E appointment of non-instructional substitutes do I have a motion move second second and all in favor all right item H3 contractual and other authorizations h3a funding of reserves for the
0302223 school year B Wantagh C for tract Center courses spring program c special education service agreement d Health Services agreement and e-related services request for proposal rfps do I have a motion second all in favor all right item h3f related Services agreements G special education tuition agreements age facilities use agreement I fire alarm Services J Omni group service agreement renewal and K Wantagh supervisors Association agreement do I have a motion move second second all in favor all right item three L memorandum of agreement M memorandum of agreement c s e a n RFP for external audit services oh RFP for internal audit services P RFP for claims audit services and Q 2023 24 real property tax levy can I have a motion second second all in favor item h3r acceptance of internal report s centko
031bid T increase in school meal prices U extra click I'm sorry extra classroom activity Charter V donations it's recommended that the Board of Education approve a donation for the New York Life Foundation of nine eight it says eight says nine uh checks totaling 210 dollars to the Wantagh School District these checks represent donations made by individuals who participate in the matching gifts program of the New York Life Giving campaign uh that we accept and approve a donation from John's crazy socks of 192.98 for the pupil Personnel Services life skills department and that we approve two donations from The Mandalay Elementary School PTA of 577.80 and 609 for the fifth grade field trips on May 12th and May 15th the district appreciates and is thankful for these donations do I have a motion second all in
032favor item h3w budget increase X disposal of obsolete books why terms of employment Z salaries for non-represented employees a a transportation agreements VB 612 Association license agreement CC destruction of ballots do I have a motion move second second all in favor all right item I is unfinished business there is none item J new business J1 approval of committees on special education and preschool special education recommendations item two policy revisions and item three New York State education mascot regulation do I have a motion second all in favor can I please have a motion to adjourn second second all in favor okay that completes a very lengthy agenda we're going to move to our reports from our groups anyone here from a foundation for educational excellence how about Forest Lake PTA Mandalay PTA Elementary PTA PTI SEPTA
033thanks [Music] um I'll make it quick um we had a very good year SEPTA this year we were able to award a few grants we were able to award 12 scholarships this year which was wonderful uh congratulations to all the winners um we had a wonderful meeting last night we've had some great speakers this year and we had a wonderful meeting last night where our friends of SEPTA appreciation Awards where several staff members and community members were honored it's always the best meeting of the year um and we just want to encourage people to consider becoming members next year contact us with questions we have a new board coming on and they're going to be great new ideas pushing forward making changes so it keep keep keeping in touch with us come to our meetings
034check out our website look at our social media to get information and just thanks so much and have a great summer everybody [Applause] foreign for the recognition of Staff last night the friends of SEPTA Awards always so well done and always so appreciated by our staff so I appreciate them taking the time to to do that for us so so thank you PTA Council Sports booster club bandwagon yeah she comes thank you Brandi and drama club uh before we open the mic to to the public I just want to take a quick second to say uh thank you to everyone this is my last meeting as president this year I'll be on the board next year but not as president so I just want to just take a quick second to say thank you to
035everyone it was a pleasure working a little more closely with our Administration our unions board members and I think my Trustees for all their support throughout the year thank you to Elaine and Diane and Carlene and the admin offices and I just I appreciate the support from the community as well so thank you all now we will [Applause] open the um the mic to the public if anybody has anything they want to address good evening my name is Marilyn Rich first thank you so much for the update on the mascot I thought that was very informative and I appreciated the information there um I'm here tonight I've stood before you many times at these these meetings almost exclusively to defend parental rights I have never advocated for the removal of a book I believe in
036the freedom of of speech freedom of expression on our rights given to us by the Constitution Constitution of the United States I also believe in protecting my children which is why I have followed the process to make a formal complaint and request for the removal of the book fun home by Allison bestel from the high school library I'd like to express three areas of concern first and foremost the content Graphics of this book fun home is billed as an adult graphic novel novel and has multiple content warnings that it was not suitable for students under the age of 18. the illustrations are of sexual acts that should not be available or distributed to minors especially in a school environment New York State Pinot Laura article 235 has various Provisions that prohibit the distribution of obscenities
037to minors these images in the book are pornographic in nature and fit the definition of obscene as outlined in the New York State penal law the images from this book were actually flagged for violating Community standards on Facebook yet they are available to our children in the library the Father Figure an adult in this book has sex with minors last I checked that's pedophilia and still a crime my second concern was the response I received from the director of curriculum Miss Winans and I quote there are materials in our high school library that are only made available to students upon request after they have demonstrated their understanding of the context of the material and meet the level of maturity required end quote I'm not sure who's giving you the right to determine the maturity of
038my children my husband and I are the only two adults that can determine that which faculty members are going to have a conversation with minor children on such adult matters in this book including oral sex homosexuality pedophilia and suicide how exactly would that conversation happen and what appropriate way are you going to ask my son if he is under if he's ready and he understands to read about oral sex with accompanying pictures and graphics these matters are to be Scott to be discussed at home with parents when parents feel their children are ready not with faculty members my last concern on this is the process I am confused as to how this book made it into the library to begin with after a long conversation with the director of humanities Miss rossly I learned the
039book has been here since 2016 and it may have been requested by students due to its popularity at that time it seems to me the vetting process of books may be too lenient who has the final say on a list of books for the school library or I was getting mixed answers on that are readings attached to the book listings when the approval process is occurring if so did we ignore the content warnings on this book because they were very clear fun home is an adult graphic novel with graphic nudity pornographic imagery dysfunctional characters and adult references that most kids probably wouldn't even understand it doesn't belong in a school library there are numerous books in the current catalog that are adult in nature I would like an explanation with Clarity the process in place
040to allow a minor child to read these types of books thank you thank you Marilyn [Applause] good evening my name is Christina nicoletti as a parent I wholeheartedly support any parents right to protect their child from what they perceive to be threatening or harmful which begs the question are books harmful Studies have shown that children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better in school than their peers who rarely read studies demonstrate that pleasure reading is linked to increased cognitive progress over time the research on student selected reading is robust and conclusive since read more understand more and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read and as essential aspect of becoming a real reader is knowing yourself as a reader made possible through wide
041reading driven by access to Abundant books and personal choice according to a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts study nearly half of all 18 to 24 year olds read no books for pleasure fewer than one-third of 13 year olds read daily teens and young adults spend 60 percent less time on voluntary reading than the average studies also show that reading increases empathy in 2006 a study was published that Drew a strong connection between reading fiction and better performance on widely used empathy and social Acumen tests for example a 2014 study showed that elementary school and high school students in Italy in the United Kingdom became more empathetic toward immigrants refugees and gay and lesbian people after reading Harry Potter in their work the researchers explained that the World of Harry Potter is characterized by strict
042social hierarchies and resulting prejudices with obvious parallels with our society people without magical powers are discriminated against in the series for instance I think the many benefits of reading and specifically book choice are well established let me start by saying also that Librarians don't pick books willy-nilly we get and clearly I'm speaking from experience a budget we pour over book reviews we think of our collections we consider our patrons so let's talk about the book in question fun home a New York Times Review called it a pioneering work pushing two genres comics and memoir in multiple new directions and fun home quietly succeeds in telling a story not only through well-crafted images but through words that are equally revealing and well chosen the for those of you who haven't actually read the book it tells
043the story of a young gay woman's relationship with her closeted gay father who she believes has committed suicide and I believe the part you're referring to is a song in the musical that won a Tony Award it's a journey of understanding humor and empathy and quite frankly a beautiful book you may disagree it may not be your cup of tea and you may not want your kids reading it so might I suggest you not read it and tell your kids they're not allowed to read it which might I add is the express line to having them actually read it any Flowers in the Attic fans in the audience I mean that was the 80s book that no one was allowed to read and we all read it book Banning and removing its access for all
044students however means you are stepping into my role as a parent a place you have no right to be take care of your house and I'll take care of mine you clearly fear that your moral code should dictate and that's a very slippery slope to start books all around the country are being banned books like Charlotte's Web because talking animals are demonic Harry Potter because of Witchcraft Hop On Pop because it shows disrespect for parents so where do we draw the line did you just say lesbians did someone yell that out from the audience excuse me sir please don't interrupt thank you and therein lies the problem throughout history book banners have never been the good guys of the story you can't suppress free thought no matter how hard you try and the people leading
045the book Banning tend not to be the readers and their kids I'd be willing to bet most likely haven't ever checked out a book from the high school library why am I so confident about this because readers don't ban books we abandon books when they stink I mean I'm not a Colleen Hoover fan but if you like it read it I don't care we don't prevent others from enjoying them because reading is awesome it provides mirrors and Windows Windows to send to other worlds and experiences and mirrors that reflect our own experiences and perhaps make make us feel less alone everyone deserves to see themselves represented are there sexually explicit books in the high school library yeah probably quite a few because it's part of The Human Experience I'm less concerned about one what young
046adults may or may not be reading about and more concerned about what they're actually doing instead of clutching our pearls about a book on a library Shelf let's keep on top of our kids social media because that's what's concerning to me trust me if fun house allows even one gay student to feel represented in our school then I say it stays because the library is for everyone and quite frankly I don't need you protecting my kids from a book my kids need protection from intolerance and ignorance thank you for your time [Applause] hi my name is um Belinda Rodriguez wasn't planning on saying anything today but this is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion any book banned for any reason take the opportunity from my child to read it if there's a book that I don't
047want my daughter or son to read whether it's in Forest Lakes Library the high schools Library guess what I parent my child at my house and tell them do not take out this book we have discussions to talk about what's going on in society in the past and if there is something I don't want my kids to be involved with or to read I will parent them that's my job we're talking about rights of parents but I should allow you to take books out of a library that takes the right from me to allow my child to read it and the fact that someone in this meeting would yell out lesbians like that's such a horrible thing that their child shouldn't be exposed to therein lies the problem in this community everyone should be accepted
048for who they are and should have the right to be represented whether it's on a want or sports team a want to a club and a book in a library so shame on you and that's all I have to say I should be able to parent my child the same way they can parent theirs thanks [Applause] I stand Here Again to talk about the student IDs that should be worn at all times on the student in the Wantagh School District stood here through the prior years and explained why the children should be wearing IDs and to the present day still no IDs the superintendent and the principal Etc they all wear their IDs to ID them to ID themselves as an operating room nurse I must wear my ID it must be present at all
049times in order for me to enter and walk through the hospital I don't understand why this has not been put into act in pawantua I had the same issue with my son years ago when he was a student here kids from the other schools would come spend the day in class with their friends nobody notices who comes in and out of that revolving door the principals cannot stand outside in the morning and wave and know everybody who comes into the building how about when the students leave for lunch does anybody recognize anybody that should not be with them now it took one teacher to say to the student you don't belong in my class please leave so where did the student go he probably walked around the halls remainder of the day and again nobody
050even noticed last month the same incident happened somebody was walking the halls and going to class with another friend who attended a different School the same day May 19th I sent an email to the superintendent to Pappas and to gazorn are my feelings are the school IDs it's a poor safety issue here in the Wantagh schools these children should have their ideas on them at all times the surrounding school districts must have their IDs on them if they don't they get a call home how about My Friends School District in Babylon they must have their ideas on them their badges are their way of entering they get scanned into into school they know who's in the school building and who is not and if they don't have the school ID they have to pay five
051dollars wouldn't that be something on Sunday June 4 there was an article in a Newsday regarding a few kids who got into the great next school and plan to attack another student can you imagine I thought our children are supposed to be safe at the schools I am asking the board to have an IDs one for the 2023 school year I do not want anything to happen to any child especially my child who walks these halls I lead for safety in your hands for seven hours of the day and sometimes her safety is compromised I am asking to implement the IDS for September Amy Christman [Applause] thank you I'm Gene DiBiase I think it's important that all everyone has rights and what I also think is the kids in the school some of them graduated
05217. this book was for 18 and up I actually did a search about 30 books I was dumbfounded at what I saw and there were adults were stated they were for adults they all should be out I'm all happy with what that woman stated that they should read the books if they would like to go to the public library not in the school it's good to say something else and I forgot I forgot thank you Mr biasi I never intended to get up my name is Leslie volino I graduated from this great institution in 1979. that being said my only issue with this book is that it's for not not for minors and 87 of your kids here 87.5 are minors okay four years nine tenth and 11th they're all under 18. half of your
053kids in 12th grade are under 18. I am one of them I've I've graduated at 17. and kids don't need to see it it is porn girl underneath underneath [Applause] hi good evening I'm Gina dignan um before I forget I just wanted to ask if there was any update on the Roosevelt claim from the basketball games of racism against Wantagh and Lynbrook so I was just curious to see if there was any kind of update on that and just to um piggyback off a fun home I'm just reading there's um an excerpt here this book contains alternate sexualities alternate gender ideologies profanity alcohol use suicide commentary inflammatory religious commentary sexual activities and sexual nudity it says right under the image of the cover that it's in a adult graphic novel then there's a Content warning
054here you are about to access material that many I'm sorry that may contain content of adult nature and the word adult is in all caps these files may include pictures and materials that some viewers may find offensive if you are under the age of 18. or if such material offends you or if it is illegal for you to view these materials please exit now I just thought that was interesting um there's lots of adult material that wins Awards there's lots of adult material that is made into a play or an album that doesn't mean we should be allowing our children access to it unfettered yes some of us do actually read books that doesn't mean they're appropriate for our children to read children to read their children we should be protecting them not giving them
055access to any filth they feel like looking at and yes they will have access to it everywhere else but why are we in such a battle over protecting our children's innocence do they not deserve it I mean it's it seems like it's pretty common the sense but I guess it's not have a great summer everybody thank you hey guys good evening everybody um Matt susco uh went to a resident alumni uh first of all I just wanted to commend you guys really for you a great job you've been doing especially those of you who volunteer you know for the position I know you guys do a lot that we don't even hear about usually throughout the year that doesn't really make the headlines but with the mascot issue it's kind of the gorilla in the
056room so like really explained it good today and I'm very confident and I'm I'm almost pleasing what you're saying but just remember it is the gorilla in the room so just try to go as hard as you can against it because your tenure is going to be remembered by not this only but this is the biggie so if you just fight it even if you don't win in the end which you stated um at least people will be like they did everything they can you know with negotiation I if it was me up there I I would fight on both terms the mascot and and the name but uh just try to do the best you can you know what I mean that's it because you know since 1956 it's been our uh mascot so
057it's going to be weird in the beginning when we get rid of this and they say presenting the want or waves like you know it's going to be awkward in the beginning it's going to go on for a while so if we could keep it in the end it'll be nice that's all uh the only other thing is I was supposed to bring uh the the uh the wanta Warriors mascot Chief wonto here last week we got approved by our state senator uh you know asked to do it and then when I was on the way here I got turned around so I like if possible like if we could bring that mascot to the glass as it was supposed to go to so I was told that before it made it here the phrase
058was used we don't want to poke the bear meaning Albany but I want you know we have to poke the bear if we tell them that we don't approve of this so maybe that could make it there even if we lose this mascot God forbid at least to educate the kids on what no our history is all about here but other than that thanks so much I appreciate it [Applause] anybody else okay thank you everyone I see no one else will close the public comment period just to respond to a couple things in the book uh the IDS Mrs kreisman thank you for uh I know you've been an advocate for that uh and and that is uh in in process for this for September uh part of the budget that was approved was one
059of the that that is a new security initiative I want to thank Dr gazon and Mr chippo for their taking the lead on that to bring the IDS to the secondary level so that that is in the works so thank you um uh as far as the the mascot issue goes uh Mr susco you know I think the statement kind of encapsulates that um and uh we we appreciate you sharing your opinion on that and then as far as books go you know some of the questions that came up uh we you know we did have uh several requests uh to uh in in terms of complaints about the book fun home uh and that review of that title is underway so there's two parts to that one is a question was asked about uh
060what's the process for book approval uh we'll share a little bit about that and part two to that was what's the process once a a complaint is made about a a resource that's in a library so I'll let Mrs Winans share a little bit about those two items for you good evening everybody buddy the board of education has policies that govern the selection of Library materials policy four five one three and to manage complaints about Library materials policy 1420-r material selection process new material selection the district utilizes multiple journals and online data bases backed by the American Library Association these include book lists horns book horn book list School library journal and carcass review these resources support our media Specialists and collection development diversification of resources and readers advisory during the ordering process Follet and
061Mackin programs provide additional reviews and readers advisory prior to purchasing our library media Specialists participate in six Consortium meetings facilitated by NASA BOCES Consortium members include library media Specialists from around the county memberships to Lister provide additional up-to-date information regarding existing text collection develop development and readers advisory once materials are received an additional review of the text is completed and Library placement is determined our library collection is regularly evalued evaluated to ensure it remains relevant and up to date our library media Specialists assess current materials collect reader staff and Community feedback and identify areas in need of improvement the high school recently received several formal complaints regarding the book fun home by Allison bastel the book entered the library in 2016. the formal review process has been initiated all complaints have complaint tense have been
062contacted for further information and the Review Committee has been gathered the committee consists of Administrators teachers and parent Representatives once the committee agrees upon the review of the text and placement this information will be shared with the superintendent of schools it is important to note that Follett our checkout program currently allows all parents to add notifications to our checkout process parents can limit access by contacting their library media specialist and then one question I apologize I didn't address Mr Degen you'd asked about the Roosevelt claim nothing new to update the community on that uh it's it's in process with Section 8. once they issue a notice of claim it also hampers my ability to to talk about it further but I don't have anything new to share it this time thank you thank you all
063for attending tonight have a great evening thank you have a great summer