001Good evening and welcome to the business meeting um of October 21st, 2025. I apologize that we're a little late for the thousands of people that are watching us live online, but we had an internet problem, but we're all back and we're good and ready to go. So, let's stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> We're testing our resiliency. >> Yes. By the by these little popup problems. Um, I'd like to open it up first for public comment on any of the agenda items. Not seeing any hands raised, we are going to move to the uh treasures report. I'm going to say that the treasures
002report for July 2025 is available in the business office and then we'll move to the consent agenda. M >> resolve to approve the consent agenda items 2 through 8 as presented to the board at this meeting. >> Second. questions or comments. >> The consent agenda includes approval of the previous meeting minutes uh for the meeting on October 9th cseps placements, approval of the amended substitute listing, amending the board date for November. That meeting will move from November 13th to the 20th so that the board members and administration could attend the Westchester Putinham School Boards Association's re annual regional dinner. We're appointing members of the Putnham Valley Board of Education Audit Committee. Two new members this year, Mark Dexter and Dennis Bishia, joining Tom Sawyer, Barbara Paraly, and Janette Yeder. Amending the 2526 clubs and advisor
003stipen listing. A couple of name changes, but also including Liz McCormack as the eighth grade Washington trip adviser. Also accepting a generous donation from the PVEF and the Zamperland family. They're each donating approximately $400 each to purchase two sets of science research retractable poster boards. And that is it. Thank you. And thank you to the Putnham Valley Education Foundation and Mr. and Mrs. Zamperland. Um I'm sure that the science research kids will really will really appreciate having retractable poster stands. Um all in favor? >> I oppose. Extensions. The resolution passes. We're going to start our presentations. Dr. Lu, do you want to introduce the first one or >> I would love to. So our first presentation this evening will be the opening of schools presentation from our high school administration. So I'd like to invite
004up Mr. Matt Melo and Dr. Leticia Pet. Welcome guys. >> Well uh thank you for inviting us here tonight. Um this should be really exciting. I promised the the the senior representatives here little 67. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah. All right. Um, anyway, I that was much funnier in my head [laughter] than it was when I when I did that. >> I think you missed it's more of a middle school. You would had a whole room of kids laughing at the middle school. >> Yeah. Yeah. All right. All right. I I'll work on it for next year. [laughter] And and Mrs. Bolino, it's great to see you here. Um, yeah. I I you know, I'm going to, you know, not miss you. [laughter] Uh first thing that we all like to start with is uh
005we have two new staff members at the high school. I'm really excited about this. We have Kirstston McGovern um who's working in our RISE program. Uh it's our 1213 program um here. So a special education teacher and we also have Cat Morgan. This makes three cats at the high school. Um Cat Morgan is a special education leave replacement um working at the high school. We're real happy to have both of them. Um they're very excited to be here. Um, I know Miss Morgan is uh coaching modified sports as well, so they're really getting involved in what we do here at Putnham Valley. Um, and I think they're they're great additions for us. Uh, next, uh, we'd like to just, uh, you know, throw out there the Big Buddy program. Um, I don't know exactly what
006number year this is of the Big Buddy program. Um but we're uh you know excited that so many seniors get involved um in the Big Buddy program to help um usher in the freshman class and then be there for them uh for the entire year. Um the other thing that we have is we brought back something called the friends network and I'm going to just ask uh Elelliana um if she would just make a couple comments about you know her work with the friends network. Um, yes. So, this is uh >> Rise. Okay. So, the Rise kids came over here this year and I was asked to be one of their big buddies for the program. So, we meet every Wednesday and we do like a new activity. Two weeks ago, we did building scarecrows
007and they loved it. They get really into it. They think it's super fun. They love it. They always tell me they're like, "Oh, we get to go see our new friends." And they remember the kids in the hallways. So, they're really they really enjoy like getting to like be around like all the kids. And I love it, too. Like they come up to me, they run up to me and give me hugs. They're adorable. >> Oh, that that's that's awesome. I know. I've seen >> That's me braiding Natalie's hair. [laughter] >> I' I've seen you in action. And it's uh it's just great that that you're able to you know like welcome them into our school and really bring them into you know what we do here at Putnham Valley. So so that that was
008that was awesome. Really appreciate it and everything that all of you do. Any comments like what are your thoughts about the u the Big Buddy program? >> It's really nice to like make them feel comfortable and answer any questions they have cuz it it seems a lot more scary when you're that young but when you come in it's really not that bad. >> Nice. I know it's just beginning, but the last couple years when we've had students speak about the Big Buddy program, they said that sometimes it's hard for the younger students to reach out to them, you know, like that that to get that communication going. Is it getting easier or >> Yeah, we try our best to like reach out to them as much as possible because sometimes they're like, I don't know
009if I should or say something, but we try. >> That's good. >> Excellent. Thank you. Uh, the other thing that just happened was was Color Wars. Now, I'm sure most of you have an understanding of this, but I don't know if people like get the full like picture of like what a cultural event it is for our school. I like I'm amazed. I was just talking to them before about like there there seemed like there was a different level of energy this year. U you know, Elelliana [clears throat] suggested it because there's no cell phones. Um, I don't think that that was what it was. Um but uh but it it really is to see like um we unite through division, right? Really cool kind of thing, right? Each grade has their own color and
010you know, but it brings everybody together and it's something that people talk about for years and years and years. And when we have new staff come in, they are blown away by the whole entire day um and what's going on and what we do. We go all out for Color Wars. Um we stream it. the college, the kids that went off to college are streaming it um there and that's thanks to uh Mr. Mahoney who's here. Um and I know Miss Schutz and the uh TV uh production class. They they put on amazing production throughout the day. It's streamed all over the place and it's streamed to my mother's in an assisted living facility. It was streamed at her facility. Um you know, so somebody sent me a picture and you know, I got to
011see in the back of my mom and the you know, all these people and assisted living watching high schoolers from Button Valley, you know, uh, compete in all these different things. I'm going to attempt to show this quick little video of Color Wars. I can't wait for student. >> Hey, it's our turn. Are we excited? >> You really don't understand. I'm actually again. [singing] >> How do you feel that your class did this year's decoration? I think the inside was really good and the outside was slacking a little, but I think the best. >> Oh, I got to say, you definitely stepped it up. Um, I really like the fire truck theme for Red um and especially the other themes, but um this is a really great year for decorations. >> I think that everyone
012was super creative and have great ideas. >> And which one was your favorite? >> Um probably the gingers. >> Uh what do you think my favorite decoration is? Um, it's never going to at least know how to do it. And uh, what do you think? [music] Yeah. HEAT. WOW, I can hear the celebration from here. Congrats and senior class. >> All right. Uh, yeah. [laughter] And and you know, a great uh shout out to Mr. Mooney again, who you know, like the color wars was last Friday and and I went to over can you get me like a like a a twominute clip? Um and you know, lo and behold, about midday today, he sends over this clip uh of this. So, I I really appreciate that that you were able to make that happen.
013Um just like over to the seniors, give us some some of your thoughts about the color war experience. >> I think it's super fun. It's kind of the one day a year that everyone's super excited about and it kind of sets us apart from other schools. I don't really know any schools that like do this specifically and I feel like every kid's really excited about it. >> I agree. [laughter] >> I think it brings a lot of the students together, too, cuz we all have something that like we all love and we all look forward to. >> Yeah. Uh it really is. is. And like I said, I I guarantee you're going to be talking like for for years about this experience. You're going to be telling your children about this thing that you did
014at Button Valley High School, you know, uh 25 years ago or whatever it might be. >> Well, and you had guest judges this year, too, right? >> So, it was the 20th anniversary. And like another huge shout out to Mr. Scampoli, who's the one that really orchestrates the whole day. um you know really the the you know behind everything organizing the students developing the the you know getting the ideas for the the games and things that they're going to compete in. Um but he had a great idea the 20th anniversary about inviting some of our alumni back. So there were four members of the class of 2006 that came in and they were actually officiating you know the events and everything. Um and they did it with like such enthusiasm it was it was great
015to see. So, we had James Spring, uh, Greg Cruz, uh, Brian O'Gorman, and Chris Mojo were here. So, class of 2006. Um, and they were red. And it just so happens that the senior class was red this year, too. So, it worked out really well. >> Oh, that's great. >> I got to tell you, the the freshman, this was the best freshman color war setup that I I've seen in all the years. They really put it together with those minions and stuff for a freshman group. I I I thought they did great. I have to disagree on that. >> I I think ours was very >> No, no, I'm No, what I'm saying is that [laughter] for the freshman >> our freshman our freshman defending their freshman. [laughter] We'll show you pictures. It was great.
016[laughter] >> What was your freshman decoration? >> The red carpet. I remember that. Yeah, that was good. That was good. >> The the minions were better. >> Uh I I tie them. I tie them. I say they're about for every [laughter] politician. Every the politician, right? Uh but uh yeah. Yeah. It it was, you know, usually it takes the freshman a little bit longer to kind of understand, you know, what this was really all about, but I think they, you know, they were well prepared for that. And that has a lot to do with the class adviserss and how well, you know, they get everybody prepared. But, uh, you know, it was it was good to see the the senior class win. We did have the senior class lose um in in 2012 >> 2015
017>> um because I know one of them was my my son's year >> um when he was >> 2012. >> So [laughter] uh but it's nice to know that it's like a legitimate com competition. >> All right, I'll turn over to Dr. P. So we keep we keep the community involved at all in all aspects in the fun and the excitement in it but then we also want to have the community voice as well. So we have many opportunities to hear from the staff, hear from the students and hear from the parents as well. So the three opportunities that we have through in order to hear from everybody, we have vision quests on Mondays um where we invite about eight staff members. I think we're up to five staff members this year where we select
018staff members to come in and we have about 11 meetings um throughout each of the uh semesters and we ask them we pose a question to them to ask them how are things going to get their perspective and that's how we shift the culture and climate within the school building and we really get good feedback from them so that we know how how our new systems are going um which we'll talk about a little bit in our presentation And then we also pose some of those questions to our tiger streak which our which is our student leadership group. Um through our student leadership group it's a a volunteer it's a recommendation group where we get recommendations from eighth grade teachers all the way up to our um senior teachers. So they recommend students that would
019not typically take a leadership path but they are leaders. they see leadership within the students so that we get a full perspective of what's happening within our school community. These are the students that when incidents are happening um within our school community, we say how can we um share what's happening within our schools with our our students from a student perspective. How do we I think of one year we had where we were talking about the cafeteria and the panini line was super long and we said okay how do we get the the students to be able to get through the line faster. We had a ambassador lunch ambassador come and have a conversation with the um the director that was there so that we created an opportunity for us to have numbers and things
020like that so that they can get through the line faster. Um, so we want to get those those students perspectives in order to make changes within our school. This year we have three of our students, our 11th graders that are joining our building steering committee. So now we'll have more of uh their voice within our building steering committee. And then we have our building steering committee where we have our parent perspective. And so this year we have the building steering committee where it's within the school day and we're rotating through the periods so that you know e either Matt or I will be at that bu building steering committee and then be a part of the full voice. We don't lead it but we are part of it and then we're able to get a
021fuller perspective of what's happening in the building and be able to reach the agendas of all of our constituents within um our school community. So our tiger streak like I said we have student adviserss who demonstrate leadership. We try to you know get their perspective and find out solutions. And then we also have our bull and brownies which that came from uh Mr. Melo where we literally have brownies and we sit and we're not doing that other word but we're actually talking uh with the kids to get you know their perspective but we get two kids from each of the grade levels. So, we have a more of an intimate setting with them in our main office con conference room and we have that conversation with them on Fridays and really truly get to the
022nitty-gritty of what their perspective are within their um respective grade levels. >> All right. Uh so, you know, we have our core values that we uh developed a couple years ago. Um this year we're choosing resiliency. Dr. left um you know our admin team kind of got together um and the focus was going to be resiliency and I think that was really really interesting because last year at our vision quest meetings remember that's um you know like a random group of teachers that meet on a Monday um one of the things that they talked about a lot in those meetings was a concern that students aren't willing to like battle through you know tough problems and things like that that you know you you get this like no you know what I don't want to
023do it um or like just tell me the answer. Just tell me the answer. Um, you know, a lot of these kind of things kept coming up. Um, and so it just fit in perfectly with um what we talked about as an admin team with focusing on resiliency this year. Uh, you know, so so how do we, right? How do we foster resiliency in our students? And we talk about our vision quest. It's one of the things that we're going to talk about in vision quest meetings. Um, and it's one of those things that we want to talk about with our students. Um, you know, like our student leaders like, you know, what what is it? you know, like how do we do this? Why aren't we more resilient? Um things that I I just
024think think about in life, right? Um you're going to you're going to face things are going to go wrong. Um you're going to face challenges. There's going to be problems that you have to solve. Um you know, what are you going to do next? And are we doing what we can in the school to build those skills so that those students can be resilient, can face difficult situations? I mean, look, you know, doing a math problem is probably going to be, you know, not the most difficult thing you're going to face in your life. There's going to be a lot of other challenges, but learning how to fight through that math problem is going to foster the things that you need, you know, that resiliency to get through a difficult thing that might happen in
025your life at some point. Um, so we think it's really important that, you know, this is one of our core values and it's something that we're focusing on this year. All right. Uh we just had an assembly uh for the student body. Uh Mr. Mark Minewaver came in. Um he's an agent, baseball agent. Um he goes around the country and he does this why character matters um uh assembly to schools. We did one assembly with 9th and 10th graders and another assembly with the 11th and 12th graders. Um and I thought like he had something there that I thought really was this brave in behavior. Um, you know, a lot of times when we're talking to students, you know, about an incident or something that happened, you know, nobody wants to be a snitch. Nobody
026wants to be a snitch. And, you know, he talked to all the students about like, you know, like you have to be brave. That's your moment to be brave, right? Um, you know, with what's going on and being brave isn't easy, right? And he's like, you know, those are the leaders we want in this this community. Those are the leaders that we want in this this country. So, he did those uh assemblies and then he met with our Tiger Streak. You can see that picture in the middle. those two pictures pictures in the middle. Um he had you know during lunch he met with those the tiger streak and you know fostered more leadership opportunities with them. So we're really excited about that. Um you know a lot of good messages he brought in the
027whole social media piece. Um, and he talked about the stars that he represents, major league baseball players and such, and how, you know, he talks to them about, you know, there was one that ruined his career, um, you know, after about 3 years ruined his career because of the stuff that he had on social media. Um, and so he talks about those situations that he's seeing there and he talks about how, you know, you can protect yourself because the stuff that you might be doing now can still carry forward with you later on in life. So great message to give to the kids. And just to go back really quickly, he also um offered that like at the end of it if any students wanted to reach out to him that he's going to be
028able to help to connect with them and he would be able to continue to connect with them that if they wanted to do this kind of public speaking, this kind of character building, you know, in the future that he would be able to be um available to them at any point in time at like a a virtual situation um moving forward. So he was very open to our students and wanted to make himself as as accessible as possible even beyond just the presentation as well. Um JCK is a foundation that we have they have been a part of the Putin Valley community for many many years. I'm not too sure how long before I was here but for the three years that I've been here in the high school they have been actively a part
029of uh the Putin Valley High School. Each year that they have come here, they have supported our students in building their achieving mental health wellness. They've worked with our students just as a a presentation but also individually um in their in in their sessions um to really support them, you know, beyond just in these assemblies that if they really need one-on-one support, they have helped to guide them and to help them realize that there's no shame in in whatever they are going through. Each of the pres the presenters, John Tesstor and Kevin Mahon have gone through their own mental health struggles and they share it openly and they allow the students to feel a sense of you can come to someone, you can find someone to reach out to and have those um conversations with
030and to find help and support. So you can see that students that normally have a wall up end up you know allowing that wall to fall down so that they can receive the help and support that they are in. And we thank you know um Miss Gina Fry who helps to she's one of our school psychologists who helps to organize this and make sure that they come back each year to support our students. >> Yeah. One of the great messages that both uh Mr. Minew Weaver and the JCK Foundation had was was they said to the students um you know develop a relationship with you know have a trusted adult that you can go to for whatever it might be and I think that's one thing that we've been stressing for a long time at
031Putnham Valley. So their their message really resonates with us and with our students. Um now we'll get to the real exciting stuff. You guys ready? Um we have our five-year enrollment numbers. >> [laughter] >> Um all right. So uh you can notice here that uh there is a trend that the the enrollment is is um you know decreasing over the course of time. Um in 2022 graduating class 551 students in the high school and you can see this year 511 students um in the high school. Uh you know and I'll keep saying this I'll make my pitch that I do every year. And we have a lot of people that uh live in Putnham Valley, have had houses for a long period of time and their children graduated many years ago and they're still living
032here in Putnham Valley, which means that no younger families can move in and repopulate our school system. Um so I'm not telling you to get out of Putnham Valley. All I'm saying is, hey, maybe [laughter] consider maybe consider um sunny, you know, Fort Meyers or Tucson, uh Arizona, uh or or Jersey, I don't know. Uh but, uh but yeah, I you know, we do have lower enrollment numbers and I think it does have a lot to do with um you know, the way our our community looks. Um you know, and uh you know, I have faith. I feel like those things will change eventually one way or another. Uh here's what we call the Mr. Olivero slide. Uh this is our uh BoseCTTE student enrollment. Um you can see that the student enrollment is lower
033but so is the student enrollment in the building you know altogether. Um the other thing that I think is really really important to mention especially for all the 10th graders out there listening to this presentation. Uh, okay. Uh, so here's the thing that that that's important to know. At Boseies, the tech center is becoming more and more competitive to get in there. Um, so you know, things like grades in your nth and tth grade year, your behavior in ninth and tth grade will have an effect on the programs that you can get into or if you can get into a program because it's becoming more competitive over at Boseies um to get into those programs. So it becomes more important for students to stay focused to be able to get to those programs um at
034the tech center that they really want to do and that they thrive in. So um you know I think that that's something that's important that we look at you know as a school um and maybe develop a better understanding of what might be going on at Boseies um you know where that's happening. >> Matt, do we have a Boseies night like we have the IB? Um, so there is, so Boseis comes here and they do a presentation to all 10th graders every single year. >> They're not parents. >> Um, I don't think that there is a presentation to parents. >> Okay, that might be a good thing. >> I'd like that idea. >> I'm all for it. All right, I'll >> And maybe open it to grades earlier, like 9 through 10, so they can
035>> I I you know, I'm all for like I I would think, you know, seven through 10, you know, to invite parents in. um you know that you know get a better understanding of what the program is and I think we need to talk with Boseies a little bit more to communicate with them about you know they're not accepting as many students as they used to and what you know transitions and changes are going on over there um on this slide you can see the students that are going to the tech center um those are the courses that they're enrolled in over there um it runs the gamut of uh you know courses so I'm really impressed with the the diversity of um you know courses that students are taking. Um so they really do
036meet the needs of many of the students where we can't do that here at our school. So um you know being able to identify students that uh can take advantage of this and then making sure they understand what they need to do is really important. So that suggestion about a parent night um that's pretty good. >> Thank you. >> Matt, [clears throat] uh you know I'm looking at the numbers and uh I'm impressed. The diversity is really outstanding. I I see a lot of students opting for construction of electricity which is a tough course and that's one that that requires [laughter] I know math shocking but uh that you know stressing those grades at those you know in in the ninth and tth grade level is really important because you're right uh you know at
037least my contacts at the tech center tell me all the time the kids really require math and science to enter into many of these programs and if they don't have it they're not going to be accepted and uh these are great trades all of them to enter into and it would be a great loss if a kid just kind of h I'll just go to you know tech center and I really don't have to work oh you got to work I mean some of these courses are very difficult so I'm I'm I'm happy to see the diversity that you have and the numbers and I understand the lack of enrollment because your enrollment overall has dropped a bit especially the senior year enrollment. >> Yeah. >> So, um yeah, keep going on that path and
038also you know talking to Mr. to do Gregorio and uh doing a little bit of research on my own with the international balora program. I'm I'm hoping that our district can embrace some of the uh more uh trade center aspects of IB and I know that IB has those things to provide internships within the trades, things like that. It's a lot of work and I know that it may even require some extra staff, but I think for those kids who want to follow that path, that may be uh a very viable alternative for them. >> Yeah. I mean, currently we're investigating the middle years program right on our path to authorization there. Um IB also has what they call the careers program, the CP, um which is for 11th to 12th graders as well. um
039which meets the needs of you know students that might you know generally not be you know on a track for college or something like that. I mean there's you know different aspects to the the CP but >> has Vin ever mentioned that CP program to you? >> Uh yeah you know so like I can juggle three walls I can juggle three but you know when you throw seven at me I I'm I'm going to get buried you know at the bottom of that. >> I'm not sure I ever have a conversation with Vin that does not include the CP program being thrown in there somewhere. So, we're aware of the program and the career program at the IB program. Yeah. So, we're well aware of it and Vin is has been an advocate for it
040for many years. >> I'm a I'm a big advocate. I I think that's a great direction for us to go as as a district. >> To Matt's point, we could only have so many balls in the air at once, but I'm certainly not saying that it's not something we would pursue in the future. >> No, no, I I understand that, Dr. uh but uh you know that that that part of the population um if we can support them even more than uh you know what we do that would be great I think very positive. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. So like Dr. L said it's definitely been a conversation for for quite [clears throat] a few years. Just a matter of like you know when's the timing when can we do that? >> Um do
041you have any students who are in or have applied to the new visions program? the one where they accept where they get college credit at Boseies like they have a physical therapy and a nursing >> I don't see it specifically I didn't >> Yeah it's a great question I don't I don't know if we do right now I don't know if we do right now um >> I would have to check whether I understand the question I don't know whether medical assistant or intro to health occupations falls within that umbrella I don't think so. >> Um or if that's a separate >> program or not. >> It >> I think New Vision's Health is a separate program. We just might not have anybody enrolled in it at this time. >> Are you we had we
042had gotten the whole presentation on it. I know that we just sat through an IB course which is amazing, but I was wondering if um or you know when you have that conversation with the parents and the students bringing in that new visions program. I don't know if if you had quite the presentation that um we had on it at from Boseies, but it's really great and it they end up with like 18 college credits from Mercy or something. It's another >> Yeah. >> Great. Yeah. Again, we definitely could do like a better job of understanding, you know, what Boseies has to offer and how to promote it to our students. Absolutely. >> Matt, just a quick question about the Boseies courses. If a student is an IV diploma candidate, are they limited in being
043able to take advantage of the Boseis courses? They are. And that's just because of time constraints and course work. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because you need six IB like a student that goes to the Boseis tech center um usually takes like you know four courses here and then they take the rest of their coursework over at the tech center. Okay. So there's not enough time in the day for them to do the diploma, you know, requirements and and you know, uh, one of the tech center courses, >> but alternative would be for the IB for students to take IB courses, not necessarily diploma work and also access Boseies, right? >> Right. >> That's exactly what I was going to say. We certainly have students who go to the CTE program, but are enrolled in IB courses
044during those four periods here. >> Yeah, absolutely. And like we had a student two years ago that was a you know welding student over at the tech center and was taking IB music here at the high school um because he just he loved loved music and wanted to learn more loved playing guitar and all that but he wanted to learn more about you know all these other aspects the theory of music and all music from different areas and cultures and how it's put together. Um he just had a passion for music so he took an IB music course and he did welding over at the tech center. So great. Um it was a great opportunity for him. I'm glad we we had something for him to take advantage of. >> Thank you. >> That's why
045that uh IB concentration in business or or the trades uh would benefit th those kids. It really would because it would provide more opportunity for IB courses while they're at the you know the tech and and um that that would be a great thing and I I know it's a big bridge to cross but certainly we we've done just enormous tasks in the past. So >> yeah I mean hey sister just keeps pushing that rock up the hill you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] I agree. >> Uh here's a slide on on our numbers from uh students from Garrison. That's great. Um, so these are Putin Valley students from Garrison. Um, and you can see that we have seven freshman this year. There are 12 sophomores, four juniors, and one senior. So, 24 in total
046that are coming here from Garrison. Um, it's the third year that we've uh accepted students or have been a choice for students that reside in Garrison, the Garrison School District. So, we're real happy with these numbers. Um on the uh November 7th um we'll have the visit for the from the eighth grade over at Garrison. Um you know we'll do a whole kind of like uh um >> 17th >> on the 17th. Yes. On the what? >> No 17th. Yeah. Um anyway uh yeah. So they'll come over and they'll they'll get an orientation in the morning and then we'll do a presentation for their parents um at night. All right. So, MTSS, um, it is the multi-tered systems of support because, you know, academia has a lot of acronyms. It's the multi-tered systems of support.
047It's the way that we support our our students. Um, academically, behaviorally, social, emotionally, we have our student support team, which comprises of Mr. Melo and I, our school nurse, our school psychologist and our social worker. That is um where we keep the pulse of the entire building. But then we also have our student facing team which is our classroom teachers. Um we make sure that we meet. Um this year we are meeting a little bit differently. We have developed some collaborative um time for our teachers in the high school which is super hard to do when you're in the high school because you know in the middle school you have teams. um when you are teaming up within um your grade levels and then in elementary you know you have your grade you you have
048your your grade level uh team of teachers but in the high school we've made it our our um mission to ensure that we can have our teachers meet collaboratively and so with that this year we've built that into our schedule and so we use that collaborative time to now meet with our teachers um for our MTSS time and we're working with the teachers to find out more about our students in the classroom to see how we can work together to identify what are the needs of our students and to ensure that we can be able to um find whether it's an enrichment or whether it's a uh remediation or support for them. Um, right now we're also looking to expand those opportunities into talking with some of our coordinators to see how we can build
049in some supports within the the general classroom settings that we have within our building. And we're also looking at we have a district-wide team to how we can have a two-way communication between the district level team that we have in MTSS and our building level teams that we have throughout the the the school district. So, how we represented in the high school? How can I share the information that's within the high school with our middle school and our elementary school teams? So, we know that, you know, it takes a village, but it also takes a valley to help our students. So, this year we have our New York State law that um really supports the mental health of our students as it relates to um cell phones. We um had all we had a guiding
050policy that we already had within our school. So students were familiar with that um practice that we had in school. But this year we also have the law um that came into practice within our schools. We have worked with our students and our staff to ensure that we are enforcing this law within our school buildings. Um I will tell you in talking with students and and in just looking at the school building, the building is a buzz. What I see during the the um community lunch is that students are talking with each other. When we met with our our vision quest, we see that within the classroom setting. Uh in every vision quest that we went to, teachers were saying we're seeing more time on student learning. Now, you know, obviously there's varied perspectives within
051the students saying whether they like it or or or or don't like it, but overall in general, when you look, the students are eating more because it's like the food is like they they're eating more of the food. That's what the food staff is saying. Um I see kids engaging with one another. They're like really being kids and that's what they were saying um in uh the vision quest meetings. So we are seeing very positive um interactions and and and results as it relates to the internet enabled uh devices. I'm also hearing positive results from parents. So when I have to communicate home when um students are not necessarily following the practices and then they have to be reminded that we do have this new law um and even my conversations that I have with
052the students you know hey guys let me just remind you um there's positive um reactions from the parents as well. I to date I have not had a a negative reaction um from the parents. So um hopefully we'll keep on that that track. I just want to point out that you know that picture is staged. I know the last time you saw an adolescent with their [laughter] phone on their ear. I'm pretty sure neither of my boys were aware of the fact you can speak to the phone on your face and then it'll come out of the little speaker instead of walking around the house on speaker phone all the time. So that's how I knew this was stage cuz nobody actually puts their phone on their ear. >> Can under the age of at
053least like 35. >> Can we get an update from the the students? What's your take, all three of you, on how that's good working? The the phone? >> Be honest. That's why you're here. >> I mean, it's fine. And even if we didn't like it, there's nothing we can really do about it. So, we just kind of have to suck it up. >> Do Do you realist do you find that there is more socialization going on amongst students? I think we were always social like regardless of the phones or not, but it definitely gives an extra push cuz like you can't go on it either way. So there's no other option. >> Um I agree. I think uh every that we are talking more. I feel like my grade specifically and like my friends, we've
054always been pretty social. So not much has changed, but for some people it has. I I I like that one comment that uh it seems you're becoming more social over time. You know, you're getting used to that. Not texting or messaging, but actually >> what's that? >> It's nice to have a break from it. >> Good. I like that. >> And I would probably agree with them in what they're saying. their grade is probably more social because what I've seen over time is the older the older students more senior students they tended to be more um more social amongst themselves but the younger grades who fell into that category of students that got locked in you know during that co time and that kind of thing you started to see them more social especially when
055I was in the middle years you know you started to see them more on the so the the devices um and also at our last meeting they also said students are using email more and learning how to use it more too. So when they do use some form of technology they're also learning how to use it better more w with more with more usefulness with more resources. Yeah. >> So I get the social piece. Talk to us about the impact in the classroom the attentiveness your ability to focus on. Do you notice a difference there for without having that distraction in your hand or pocket? Um, yeah, I think the classrooms are a lot better. Everyone's a lot more focused than before. >> Um, that's the point. >> Yeah, that's important. >> That's the main
056thing. >> I think we all joke around with each other more because like we're not all looking down, but so like the classrooms are louder. We're all like talking to each other entire time. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um next uh you know uh just a little bit about IB. We had an IB information night tonight. I thought uh you know um it was uh really well attended and it's a great information for people to get to get an understanding of you know what the IB diploma program looks like. Um I'm not going to go over all these things but uh yeah you can see that overwhelming 100 out of 135 seniors taking IB uh courses which you know we talk about senioritis start to eliminate that. Um and then uh yeah
057the average senior completed more than three IB courses. So, uh it's really good. [clears throat] Um the attempt rate 66 students uh over the course of the last 5 years, six years have attempted the Ivy diploma, 55 have gotten it. Um so that's great. um you know when we talk about success rate when it comes to the uh IB diploma and uh you know when we talk about the celebration these outcomes reflect the dedication and perseverance of our students and teachers it's a lot of work you know whether you're taking the full uh diploma or you're taking a course or two realize that it's a lot of work for everybody that's involved and it's been very successful um you know one of the things there are there are five uh Putin Valley students at Cornell
058right now. Um you know five and you know I don't know if we had one um over the first you know 20 years. So it's pretty amazing to look at what the IB program is doing and the opportunities that students have moving forward. I know we're talking about, you know, this is like the upper echelon of students, but I mean, we have a student at University of Rhode Island that was accepted into BEu, but the money that she was receiving to go to URI to go to I'm sorry, Pro Providence. The money that she was getting to go to Providence made it cost like $5,000 a year. So, she chose Pro Providence over BEu. um you know so like students are getting these kind of choices and this kind of money um to be able
059to go to you know these uh institutions which is a big deal um it's a great statement by uh somebody from the class of 2024 as a biology major taking IB bio is greatly uh helping me at the moment everything we are learning is essentially a review of what I've learned in uh IB bio so I'm performing very well on biology exams as a college student IB has also helped me a lot with uh proper formatting of papers and citations. In my English class, I also find that IB English has helped me so much with my writing and I'm scoring well on writing assignments. So, and this isn't uh you know, this isn't a diploma candidate, just somebody that took IB courses. Next, we have started our our our journey into my middle years program.
060Um uh the middle school received authorization last year. The middle year's program goes from sixth grade to 10th grade. Um so currently a lot of my time and energy Mr. Oliver spent on um you know organizing the staff um and you know developing this understanding of the NYP program um which is a little bit different than the diploma program um you know so we're going through that process with the staff and it's a major commitment by everybody involved um you know to kind of make this shift uh to what you know IB calls their approaches to teaching and learning and you know how do you infuse all those things into your classes in ninth and tth grade. Um, one of the things that I want to note like a lot of our ninth and tth
061grade teachers also teach 11th and 12th grade. So, they also teach IB courses already and they're, you know, while they're doing that, they're also learning how to like shift their units, their instruction to an uh my mindset. So, we're asking a lot of them. Um, and I I think it's great that they're stepping up to meet that challenge. Um, and developing this understanding of the benefits of all this for all students. Um, I think this is just going to, you know, give more students access to more diploma classes in 11th and 12th grade. And then, you know, that's then going to help them above and beyond when they graduate from Putnham Valley. Um, what have we done over the summer? uh uh Cat Schutz, our uh NYP coordinator, um led uh four intro to IYP
062training sessions um for our teachers. Um we had our launch day on the 27th, so superintendent's conference day. We spent the whole day with our two um uh adviserss from IB um you know the whole staff kind of getting involved in um everything my um we've sent staff out to trainings um and we've developed collaborative time and you know every week we have collaborative meetings um with all the different groups to go over different aspects of IB with them. Um we focused uh the last two weeks on approaches to teaching and approaches to learning. Approaches to teaching focuses on six um you know uh concepts when it comes to learning and approaches to learning focus on the student side [clears throat] uh of that. Um and uh we started with the unit plan subject group
063overuse and like I said we're looking at all those other things. So, um you >> um another another new um tool that we're using this year is Smart Pass. Over the years, we have went from paper passes to digital to to digital systems, but it was like a QR code, but then we didn't have cell we don't have cell phones anymore. So, how do students use passes? I know this was talked about at the the the last board meeting, but probably not in the positive light that we see this in. Um, working for our students and staff this year, but it's a way of being able to write passes for our students and being able to ensure that students are having more time on task and being in the classroom and being able to have
064more task on learning. And we're seeing it working very well for our students now because we're able to identify which students are spending more time outside of the classroom that need to be within the classroom. And it's really helping to have really personal conversations with students, which I get the opportunity to do. So I get to spend time with my students and say, "Hey guys, let's talk about these classes. Let's have these conversations." and I get to sit with them and talk about which of the classes that they're coming out of the most and say let's talk about why this class or what is the reason why we're coming out of the class so often how can I help and then then having those conversations with families and having those conversations with their team of
065teachers to then work that MTSS support system that I talked about earlier to better help them to get back in the classroom and for me that's why I think Smart Pass works so well for our students because it's really an intervention system as well as a way of talking about how yeah we did the paper passes before and we've always looked at students going out of the classroom and in the classroom but it was on paper before. This is just a 2025 digital way of doing passes that's quick and easy too for teachers because the students create their own pass. Then either they are just creating it, it's sitting at their desk or they turn and face it to the teachers. They come in, they log it off and then they go back to learning.
066It's not something where the teachers are stopping to create a pass, write a pass and all of that. they quickly do it. And then if the teachers have a club or an activity, they are able to quickly put a whole pass system and have the students move from one classroom to the other. If there's a student uh support, if the psychologist needs to to see them, they'll write the pass to the students so that the student can come and see them at at a designated time period. We've even used it for our um student leadership group so that the teachers knew that this group of students were coming to see them. They already had their passes. We didn't have to write all the hand passes and get them to from point A to point B.
067It was a very efficient tool. So I feel that it has worked positively. Now there's some glitches because it does have like a flex opportunity so that if there's a flexible way, but that's something that we're going to teach in as we learn more and more about how the system is is working and some of the things that were brought up at the last meeting. I don't see it that we're looking at it in that way. the since the last meeting uh I did a lot of research. I also contacted one of the sales reps uh of Smart Pass and uh we had a nice conversation. The biggest thing that [cough] I I don't like big government. You need to understand that. I got problems with Albany. I got problems with people telling us here
068in this district uh you know what to do and when to do it. And I also have problems with uh authority figures that try to you know oppress everybody else. Smart Pass. The one positive about it that I really like is that god forbid in an emergency situation, you know where every single kid is. And that is a true health and safety issue. And I wasn't aware of that. And that makes a lot of sense to me. So, god forbid there's a, you know, the worst scenario that you can imagine. You know, Johnny Jones or or Betty Lou are out of the classroom. Oh my god. We got to let the police know. We got to let people know that two of our students are not where they're supposed to be. That is a lifesaver
069and and that I support. I I don't like to micromanage. As I said, I don't like that authoritarian nonsense. I I do request and um it's just a suggestion. I've spoken to some of the students, especially when I was here for Color Wars, uh asked them what they thought about it. Most of them just kind of shrugged it off. They Well, it's a pass. it's easy. It's no problem. And I was happy to hear that. The big concern, and I don't know whether it's a myth and or you know, an urban legend or what, they say that every pass that happens gets sent home to the parent. Now, I'm hoping that's not true. And my suggestion would be I would only have those parents who request to have access to Smart Pass have it. I
070would not make it in mass because these are young people who are getting ready for the world of work and when they're at college, mom and dad is not going to be there to know whether they're going to classes or not or when they have a job, mom and dad not going to be able to know whether they're, you know, in attendance. They need to learn that responsibility within the institution. So, you meeting with them uh is great. Um, you know, you you're out of class a lot. Uh, we're seeing that. What's going on? I love that. That That's a great approach. I I just don't like the big brother coming down and and making the kids unless the parents request it. If they request it, the parents have the ultimate right. I believe if
071they say I want to have access smart pass, God bless them. Otherwise, deal with it in house. That's my one suggestion. >> So, yes, smart pass has an opportunity for parents to have access. right now that's not turned on. Um they do have an account system. Um the notification system has the ability for parents to turn it off or turn it on. You know, um we have had discussions about how and which groups of parents would have access to that and would it be used as an intervention tool that if students are in that process of where they really need an intervention that would it be those parents that would be the parents that would be able to use it. But at this moment in time, parents don't have access to it, but they do
072have access to their attendance in general. Um, and where we do have conversations about their attendance um, right now because they're still, you know, underage and we do have to monitor how they are operating within the school system to make sure that they're getting their education. >> Okay. But how how are you guys dealing with it? It's okay. I mean, has it impact you at all? What I'm hearing is it really doesn't. I don't know. It's It's not that big of a deal, but >> can you speak a little louder? >> It's really not that big of a deal. >> It's not? >> No. >> Okay. >> Other comments? Anybody? >> Just like the phone. There's nothing we can do about it. Yeah. I hope >> Well, this is a little bit different than the
073phone because there's, you know, the govern the governor is not saying that this system has to be used in school where cell phone is absolutely a rule that we can do nothing about. But, um, like we want your honest feedback about how it's going um, and how you feel, how you genuinely feel about it. >> I think for like certain students, it's just not needed at all. >> What's that? for certain students it's not needed but for some like it it very much is and it does help them and it helps you guys but like >> for us three I don't think anyone's worried about where we are it's just like >> how >> yeah but the thing is it's not hard to do >> how very easy >> how were you doing passes last
074year let's say >> just asked to go to the bathroom we would go to the bathroom and we come back >> unaccounted you you see that's the the one part I like about this smart pass and and you heard me at the last eating. >> Yeah. >> I thought this was the devil's tool. Uh but doing the research, I understand the health and safety aspect. >> You just going out and saying, you know, can I have a pass? Yeah. Go. We don't know where you are. You know, and this would record exactly when you left and when you returned. I like that aspect. I do for your safety because in in this this tough world today that we live in, the scary world at times, >> we need to to know where every student is.
075That's >> when I was assistant principal here, I always thank God that on my watch nothing tragic happened. But there's no way you could ever know that. And this >> and that's one of the key factors passes in general be they paper or digital is to always know where the kids are because we're responsible for the students within the nurs I'll be honest. >> I want to jump in about that piece because while that >> while this system may give us more oversight of where kids are >> let's get closer to Mike >> they oh sorry while this Wow nobody has ever said that to me that's amazing. Um, while this system may tell us that a student left class, very important in an emergency, like you say, they may or may not be where
076they said they were going. >> True. >> So, I'm just saying like this is not something that I would depend on. >> Correct. >> Completely in an emergency situation. I'm sure that there are other protocols in place to make sure that bathrooms are swept and, you know, that we have BERT protocols in place to make sure that buildings are safe, right? Um, you know, I I love the fact, thank you for the insight that you've provided tonight. I think that that is really important is to understand the why behind we do things, right? Um, you're using that data for really positive reasons. Um, let's say that there is one particular class that kids are just going to the bathroom all the time. Well, there's something going on with that class and that needs to be
077dealt with, right? um if it is a particular student, maybe that student has something going on that needs to be they need support, right? And so I I love the fact that you're using it for that MTSS reason of providing support, not necessarily the big brother oversight, >> right? >> Um at the same time, I I do teeter between the idea of the fact that they are also going into the world and that they need to be able to have a little bit of freedom in some capacity. Um, and that perhaps I'm just saying this is not this is not my decision to make, but perhaps it doesn't need to be for every single student in the building. Maybe the intervention is applied as it's needed. And so, um, that's just kind of my sentiment.
078But if you guys are saying that it's not really that big of a deal, my bigger concern was a teacher stopping instruction to then go on the computer and approve a pass. Like I like that can't >> be a thing. Now I you know so a couple things here right um one of the things that we were lacking last year the year before right was consistency right there were some teachers that would have a book in the front of the room and the kids would sign in and out there were other teachers that would give kids a pass some teachers would be like oh here's the classroom pass take this with I don't know how sanitary that is you know take this pass to the bathroom next take the pass [laughter] all these different methods
079and and it really was born out of like we tried doing the QR codes every room had a QR code this is COVID, right? Every every room had a QR code. Kid could take their phone, they could QR code it. Um, you know, now we can't, you know, and there were some teachers that you still use that method for students to go to the bathroom. Um, so we were all over the map. Um, so there was no consistency with what we were doing when a kid was out of the classroom. And then like we talked about, you know, if we need to account for students, >> who's out, where are they? The other thing that we're lacking with the consistency now is each floor we have a hall monitor. That hall monitor is in this
080fishbowl area. Um they're you know in the past they'd see students coming through. They don't know where they're going. They don't know where it came from. Hey, where are you going? Teacher said I could go to the cafeteria and get food. Teacher didn't say they could go to the teacher said you can go to the bathroom. Now the kids's down in the in the cafeteria. They're getting food. They're heading back up. So the home monitor didn't know, right? You know, if the teacher just let the kid out of the pa bathroom, out of the classroom without a pass. Teacher had the monitor had no idea where that student came from, where they're going other than ask that student a question. And now I don't know, right? And now the the teacher's like to the home
081on why'd you let them go to the cafeteria? And they're like, I had no idea where they're going. So we actually have a system now where the student fills out the pass. They turn their computer to the teacher, asks the teacher, can I go to the bathroom? Teacher says yes. They click start on the pass. Right? Just to clarify because I think it's some confusion. The student clicks start because I observed the classroom today in the high school. Several kids went to the class. The teacher never other than giving a nod, go ahead and the students hit start and turn their computer around. The computer the teacher never stopped teaching. >> Okay? >> So it's it's totally driven by the students. Okay? >> Right? They sort of get a verbal uh permission from the parent
082from the teacher, but their teacher is not stopping instruction every time a kid has to go to the bathroom. And that's a huge shift. >> Actually, the old method of filling out a pass was much more disruptive to the to the learning, right? I got to go to the bathroom. Now, as a teacher, I've got to write out a pass so the kid can go to the bathroom, right? U you know, so that method was definitely disruptive, you know. Um this is way less disruptive to that to that process. >> I know the monitors love it. The few monitors I spoke to, they said it uh it really helps them uh you know, in fairness to the student that uh listen, I'm I'll go to the cafeteria and they can look Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah.
083>> Exactly. Exactly. Right. you know, so now the monitor can look on they can monitor um you know what's going with the students in the hall. Um so that becomes a much better scenario like you know we talked about like there's this option to make it available to parents, right? Um I don't know what you know we haven't figured out the process to get that to them because it's a separate code for each parent. We'd have to like individually you know email out these codes or whatever. Um but but you know push that aside for a second. You know we had conversations like you know when when and how would we use the parent thing right it was very you know funny for me at the beginning of the year to tell the students hey
084we have smart pass and your parents are going to have access to this and they're going to be able to see everything that you you know every time you create a pass. Um that never really was the intent of any of that. Um you know we were still talking about how things like that might happen and we didn't even know how we could possibly get it out to the parents. Um, so it wasn't really up until a week ago that we or two weeks ago we had discussions with uh Mike Lee about what would be a way to get these codes to parents where they would have access. Um, you know, so we're not even at that point yet to talk about parents. >> My own advice, Matt, is I would not do that unless
085the parent requested it. Seriously. >> Well, so that's one side of it, right, that I'm talking about there. And then there's the other re reality and again this comes out of like our vision quest meetings, right? We're meeting with teachers and one of the things that the teacher brought up about, you know, parent access to this. They're like, you know, these kids these days, you have to realize, you know, every one of their parents has like life 360, right? So, they're monitoring where that kid is going all the time. Like, right, the parents sitting there monitoring everything, you know, and now like in school, you're going to monitor where they're going, like how much is enough for these kids? And you know that came from a teacher, you know, in one of our vision quest
086meetings, you know, sitting there going like, you know, like like try and put yourself in the shoes of these students these days, these children where they're they're being monitored in everything that they do, right? Like why are you driving 55 down peaks road, you know, like they're seeing those things and they're instantly contacting the children. They power school. I you're just, you know, I just checked your grades. you know, why did you why did you get a 68 on the, you know, living environment test? And now that kid's trying to go to another class to learn and they're all jammed up because they're, you know, parents are yelling at them about a test they got in the class before. Uh, you know, it's instant access and they're constantly hounded with it. So, like, yeah, I
087think this is one of those things we we need to listen to everybody, right? we need to like have an understanding um be empathetic to people while still trying to maintain a secure safe place and you know be able to account for the students if there were an emergency right I think that's the that's the extreme I think in large we just want to know who's out of the classroom and where they're going because it's creating less tension among the staff >> and it's giving us some consistency throughout the staff right >> and I can also imagine with students in high school changing period to period it's really hard without a monitoring system to know which students are going to the bathroom multiple times every period. One teacher is not going to necessarily be able
088to identify that, but on the whole, you probably can. I really liked what you said, Dr. Payne, about using that pot that parental feature perhaps as an intervention, right? Like if a student is showing that they need more support, then maybe now school and home also knows when they're out of the classroom. Um I would suggest that perhaps it could be a topic at one of the steering committee meetings to float this to say hey how do we best think it that feature of the program could be used and just continuing to get feedback. The only other thing that I would say is that if the purpose of this is to identify need and support that that happen that it not just be so that kids have to fill something out and a teacher has
089to approve it but that the data be used for for real support. Um, so you know, whatever structure that looks like, you know, whether it's once a month or once a week or whatever, looking at that data with the people that need to see it. I don't even know who that would be. But just to be able to make sure that we are putting those interventions in place for students >> and and I I always feel like anytime we are changing something, always getting the input of everyone, including the student because anytime that if we were going to be inviting the parent in and we were saying that, okay, we were adding this. I think it's important that the student know that that be a part of the process because it's not supposed to be
090a gotcha. I I don't believe in the I gotcha. Even with the cell phones and things like that, when we're saying that parents are going to be a part of this, the student already knows that, hey, now your parents are part of this process because here you're you may not be following the state the the the law. So now you are a part of this conversation as well. So leaving them out of the process, I don't think that is an effective way of helping them along their journey. So yes, they would be a part of the entire process as we move along. And I don't think it's a one-time conversation because this also is a new tool >> that we're using. >> Absolutely. >> Ladies, do you find it difficult to use the system? I
091mean, is it It's fairly easy, I would think. Right. >> No, it's not. >> It's not. >> Yeah, it's not hard. It's just the only thing that I think we like had a problem with smart pass like in general is Mr. Melo brought up a good point like we live in an era where like technology follows us everywhere and we like grew up with technology and our parents track us and all this. They're constantly texting us. So I think this kind of just like felt like another like thing on top of all that that was like controlling which was probably brought out like us wanting to rebel a little bit. But like at the end of the day if they're going to make us put up a pass on our computer like it's like we'll
092do it. But yeah, >> also we went like I think why everyone was so upset at first is cuz we're seniors. So we went through like 3 years of complete like no we could have our cell phones. We didn't have to smart. It was just there wasn't as many restrictions. So now this year it's a little different >> but it's not like that for the underassman for example. But that's why like originally I feel like everyone was really upset about it but now it's get gotten better. >> Yeah. the the health and safety issue can't be uh denied on that. And uh that's what swung me over because uh like you I I I truly believe that young people need to be prepared for the real world and the real world isn't going to track
093you. If you don't go to your job, you get fired. If you don't go to your classes, you fail them. I mean, that's the real world. You don't have mom and dad in the background, you know, supporting that. And uh those are important lessons to learn. Uh, this sounds very minor though. The way it's described, you you just click it, you're done, and that's it. And god forbidden in event of an emergency, at least we know that you're not in the classroom where you're supposed to be. And that's important, especially if if uh law enforcement's involved. They need to be told that. There's a couple students out there. We don't know where they are, but they're not in the classroom right now. >> All right. So, community service um another new tool that we are
094using which thankful to Dan Mahoney who spent several hours um creating this new tool. Um it is in-house created the tiger tracker. We were working with another company. Um it had a lot of bells and whistles that we didn't necessarily need. Um and we just needed specific items to really log the 40 hours that students needed. and um Dan worked to create this tool so that uh teachers and students as well as the supervisors of the community service will be able to easily track those hours for students over their four years within the high school. And now we have that tool and a whole tutorial for kids to learn it. And as they work to access it, he can tweak it as we go. So thank you Dan. Go Dan. Love that. All right, just
095a couple um upcoming events. October 22nd, actually that's tomorrow. Um we have a kind of uh college financial aid night. Um so I think we have somebody coming from Pace University that will be here to talk about the uh college financial aid process with families. I don't think we did it last year, so we're able to bring it back this year. And what we're actually working on with Mercy um college uh you know Mercy University now um is uh Mrs. Keller and guidance. It's unbelievable. she reached out and uh they're going to be able to provide a multilingual uh presentation on a separate date. So, you know, we have uh you know, a lot more multilingual families in the district on a separate date. I think it's going to be in November. We don't have
096the date exactly, but in November u there'll be a college financial aid for our multilanguage um learners or families um so that they can have access to that information as well. Uh, November 7th, end of the first quarter. And November 7th also, that's Friday. Um, we have the fall drama Arsenic and Old Lace. Um, it's Friday and Saturday night at 7:00 and Sunday at 1, I believe it is. Um, uh, Garrison Parents on the 17th. Um, the 24th is the 10th annual Gratitude Festival and the 25th is a fall spotlight award. Um, that happens right before our Thanksgiving break. That's all I got for everybody. Outstanding. [applause] Great job. >> Any any questions? >> So, I have like a burning question just about um cuz I'm a high school mom and like it's my first
097rodeo in high school as a mom. So, um I not tonight, but I just love more information about um possible college credits that students are able to earn while they're here. I don't know if we have any sort of partnerships with outside universities um or colleges where they do blend kind of like a blended credit ability for students to rack up some credits while dual enrollment. >> Yes. Um, so I would love to know more about the opportunities that our students have in that area and also in internship like what what possibilities are there for them to go out into the world and try their their hand at their trade that they want that they think they want to do before they actually set their their foot into that area. Um, I would, um, also
098love to see a little bit more academic data, class fail, uh, class pass fail rates, um, regions, uh, fail pass rates, um, AP exams, how those are going. Like I would, I just in the future, maybe at next year's presentation, would love to see like some historical data about how that's going. >> I would, you know, I I feel like there's so much like data that it's not necessarily an opening of schools presentation. If you want me to come back and do a data kind of presentation about, you know, region scores, APIB, all that stuff, you know, definitely. I just feel like we'd be here for another hour. If I were to do a presentation, you know, based on that. So, um, you know, let me know, let me know when you want me back
099here. I'll come back. We'll come back and we'll we'll talk data. >> So, I could jump in and relate to that. Jackie is scheduled to do a full data presentation that'll cover all three grade levels and we'll certainly invite our principles back to be part of that. Okay. And I likely tomorrow will actually be sending the board uh we have sort of yearly data requests. >> So while attendance and graduation rate and all that stuff is in there, test performance including AP and IB exams are on there. I've actually been working with Janette to collate it all together to make sure that we have everything. So um master schedules, roster sizes, we have a whole list um that was developed several years ago during our board retreat. So, I'll be sending you likely tomorrow a
100huge uh email, lots of attachments. Some of those some of those things you're looking for are attachments in that file and you'll have that tomorrow. And then Jackie will have the opportunity to talk more in depth during her board presentation. Perfect. >> Um which will likely be in the next meeting or two. >> Yeah, sounds great. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. Good presentation. >> And just thank you both of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> So, I like to give the final say. Oh, do you want to leave? >> No. What do we got? What do we got? I was going to bring up I was going to bring up Smart Pass again. [laughter] Um, no, my public service announcement was, "Please, nobody introduce Sam to Life 360 cuz just for you
101guys are aware, all those things that he said your parents won't be able to follow in college. If you have Life 360 on your phone, they'll be following you in college." [laughter] Absolutely. >> They'll know whether you're in your dorm or you're in class and where you are. So, if you have if you have Life 360 on your phone, all those things Sam said are incorrect. So, don't don't don't let that worry you. Um, [laughter] no. What my comment was really, and I know this has been um a focus of yours for several years. I really appreciate the efforts you guys put into getting um providing opportunities to hear student voice, teacher voice, parent voice. I think it's essential. It's something that we continually hear from all groups that they want to be heard and
102they want to be part of the conversation and they want to um feel as if they they have a say. And I I just I think it's outstanding what you guys do in order to create environments and opportunities for everyone to feel that they have a voice. So I did want to recognize that and thank you both for >> to that point. You had student voice in your IB presentation tonight which was a great addition. >> Oh that was so great. >> You know you had you know students live from their college dorms or wherever they were. Um none of them were in a bar. So that [laughter] was good. >> It's Tuesday night. Okay. >> Um but um you know like I I I appreciate always hearing from the students. So I appreciate you
103adding that to your IB presentation. >> Yeah. I'll just say I think you know Dr. Payne and myself I I feel like our job here is to support right my my job as a leader in the building. Dr. Payne's job is to is to support whether it's teachers, students, parents. That's that's what we're here to do, right? So I don't have all the answers, you know. Um I I definitely can can create chaos. Um you know, but uh but you know, the bottom line is like we care about we care about the students and we know that if we can support all those different groups, the staff here at the high school, the parents, then we know that the students will have the supports that they need to be successful and we'll continue continue to
104strive to support all those different groups. That's what we do. >> Question for you. Um you mentioned the staff for the staff leaders program. um are is CSEA involved in that CSA our partners. >> Yep. We invite you you name it. It's so that random group of any staff members you know that everybody is a vital piece right um you know your custodian might be seeing something that you know somebody else isn't seeing and it's important to involve them in those conversations. Um without a doubt. >> Thank you. >> Could you go back to the my page? Um, no. Before that, >> is this going to be easy? >> There was a the the SGO like I finally learned the the the IB things. Now you're giving me more things I have to learn. >>
105Yeah. >> SGO's are >> subject guide overview. So basically it's a like it's it's a look at the whole >> right >> year. Okay. So it's just it's kind of like this this global view of the year for that subject. see your >> Okay. >> All right. So, yeah, subject guide overview. I know. Like IB acronyms. They do. It's It's unbelievable, right? Yeah. [laughter] Um I think they just make them up to to mess with us. >> No, actually, you know, you do get it eventually, but the first time you see it, it's a little Okay. >> All right. That's good to know. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. >> Great job. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. Thank you all. Have a great night. >> Thank you for all you do,
106guys. >> Yelcome. page. >> Huh? >> Beware. Finally. >> Oh, it's on the next page. >> Um, >> so we're the next thing on our agenda is the second reading of the policy series 1000. Um, just for listening public, the policy series 1000 deals with philosophy goals and objectives. The policy committee met on September 29th to review the recommendations from the New York State School Boards Association. The first reading was approved by the board at our October 9th meeting and the second reading document presented at this meeting incorporates those recommendations. So, do I need to read what they are? >> Well, we can spare everyone the readaloud cuz it's 57 pages long. um the entire policy. But yeah, I think we covered what the topics were primarily sexual harassment and bullying policies. >> Um covers
107all of those um items and things related to such and uh it's obviously available on board docs for anyone to review. This is our second reading as you had mentioned. So there'll be a resolution later in the agenda asking the board to adopt this updated policy >> and after they're adopted, parents can get them on the website. >> They'll be updated onto the website. Yes. Okay. [snorts] Okay. Um, student representatives, we've heard from you tonight. It's been a great meeting. So, do you have any other things to report? >> I think we covered most things. Just the big thing was Color Wars recently, which was super fun and exciting, but other than that, I think we covered most. >> Okay. >> All right. Dr. luck. They didn't steal your thunder. >> I thought they were
108going to go for the board recognition week first, but um so I do want to recognize the plants that are before our board members and each of them received their certificate of appreciation. Uh this month is our board appreciation month and I do want to just take an opportunity to recognize the fact that these individuals who sit on our board of education do so at uh and receive zero compensation. um they do it just because they believe in public education, they believe in students and they believe in our community and they commit hundreds of hours of their personal time in order to ensure that the students of Putnham Valley receive the best education possible. So I just wanted to thank them for their um time, for their volunteerism, for their willingness to take on something
109that I for one can greatly appreciate is nearly all the time a very thankless [laughter] job to have. Um, but I do understand the underlying vision and the thought and the support you guys have for public education and for the students of Pton Valley. And for that, I wanted to thank each of you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I got to keep talking. Sorry. Um, so we had our first responder, our first first responder appreciation event, and that was during our football game. We arranged for a flyover, which took place perfectly timed with the national anthem going on. And then he uh again buzzed the crowd. I know some were a little concerned on his way back through, but um he is a professional and does that for a living. Good. >> I
110was a little upset at my own son's homecoming game um that I noticed there was a helicopter hovering overhead. >> So I don't know how other schools are biting off our fly over, but apparently they don't only fly over our game. So I was a little upset about it. Um we had Color Wars. I think we spoke a lot about that. Always very exciting. and slightly terrifying event for me. But I do in the nine years that I've been here give the students all the credit in the world that you put students in the most chaotic environment you could imagine possible in a public school setting and they're able to handle it and get through it without incident each year and I'm greatly appreciative for that fact and it is very exciting to see uh
111high school just prior to this it might actually still be going on for all we know high school had their IB information evening so I know that Dr. Dr. Payne, Mr. Melo, and Vindy Gregori were up there. It was very well attended and it could be 5 hours long if we allowed Vin to just keep talking. Uh, so that's why it could still be going on. But a great opportunity for parents to come out and learn more about the IB program, how it's not just for the IB diploma candidates, but what it really means for all students here in Pnner Valley. Uh, the lower Hudson Council of School Superintendent had their meeting. It was actually held at PNW Boseies. It focused really on two things. One was the schools without borders, really the the collision
112of private and public schools in state championships. And we invited the director of New York State Public High School Athletic Association down. Um I don't know if he'll ever come back again, but he did sit there and and um >> take the punches, >> answer lots of questions from superintendents, but the second half of the meeting focused on our advocacy efforts and making sure we were aligned in terms of what we were advocating for for this upcoming year. Uh CSA held their fall retreat at EF Macy which a beautiful facility right down in Briercliffe. Um and it was opportunity really it focused a lot on college the college acceptance process the financial aid process writing a college essay. It's actually a really interesting and informative um session for me especially cuz I have a son
113who's a junior and that was all very very relevant for me. Um started a library board. I'm sure we'll hear more about this later. They held a public meeting um inviting in constituents from across the community. I know they've had several public meetings inviting different constituent groups in. Uh Dr. Chan and I attended the electric bus transition forum down in White Plains. There was representatives. It was not a bus salesman convention um which I knew going in. It was actually an opportunity for schools to share case studies. There was politicians there. There was representatives from the three major um electrical service providers that were there. And it was really an opportunity to talk through the process, share stories, uh um pros and cons that different districts who have already made this leap are going through
114and uh really have an opportunity to become [snorts] further enraged by the timelines. I'm speaking for myself about that part. Um so as I had mentioned earlier today, I I was in the high school observing a teacher. So, it is that time of year. So, all of the administrators, including those up at this table, have been busy in classrooms observing teachers and hopefully providing some meaningful feedback. As we look forward ahead, we have our upcoming superintendent conference day on election day, November 4th. So, Jackie has done a tremendous job in planning that event along with our other um teacher and school building leaders. And just a quick look ahead at some of the upcoming events. We have our next first responder appreciation event is our equipment and apparatus event. It'll be held in the middle
115school uh parking lot, but of course it is open to high school students. Um we are hoping for a surprise visitor coming from the air, which will be not the Westchester County police helicopter. We have our next first responder appreciation event at the elementary school on 10:29. So I think that's Thursday the 29th. Uh all first responders are invited to come in and read to elementary school students. This this event has really taken on a life of its own. Um we now have first responders that I think are certified teachers or should be. Um we now we allow them to ride motorcycles into our building. Um fine. We now have first responders who started in a classroom reading a book about being a police officer are now in the auditorium with like nearly a hundred
116kids giving presentations including hands-on uh things. So, it's really taken on um a life of its own and it's an awesome event. It's very well attended by the first responders in our community and there may also be a special visitor at that event as well. And then just some other announcements. The Education Foundation has their trunk or treat scheduled for Sunday, 10:26 here in the middle school parking lot from 2:00 to 4:00. And they do have a rain uh plan to go to the ambulance corps if necessary. The high school annual art club fundraiser uh ceramics day is scheduled for November 1st and that goes from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. here at the high school. Middle School Blood Drive is November 3rd, 2:30 to 7:00 p.m. And we already spoke about the theater works
117production that was scheduled for November 7th, 8th, and 9th. And uh just for students, schools are closed on 11:4 during the Superintendent Conference Day and again on 11:11 for Veterans Day. That's my give back to you guys for using smart pass. So diligently [laughter] I appreciate. And uh some other quick updates. I know that Barbara participated in the the NISBA resolution voting. It only went till >> 10 p.m. Oh, see we're making we're making progress. I think they shut off >> they shut off the mics for some of the districts and keep it moving. >> We've learned to not extend debate. >> There you go. See, [laughter] they shut off the mic. >> Uh this upcoming weekend is the New York State School Board Association convention. I know that um Crystal and Barbara are attending.
118I don't know if anybody else is, >> but Crystal and Barbara will be attending. And we have an upcoming Westchester Putnham School Board Association uh annual regional dinner. And that is the rationale for we'll be changing the uh the meeting date for a board meeting because it would conflicted with that and there was another conflict associated with that. You want to talk a little bit about what that the rise and read and rise rise and read. Yeah. I'll mess it up so you can go. Go ahead. >> Uh, we will be having a read and rhymes event. Our community liaison alongside Carrie Berdette who's our scholastic coordinator at the elementary school will be hosting an early literacy program for families who have children uh birth through 5 years old um to teach them key skills
119for reading with your child at night. So, it'll be offered in both English and Spanish. And um it'll be that evening as well before our board meeting. I believe it uh maybe goes a half hour into the board meeting, but it'll start before the board meeting begins. >> So, while we do our best to not have conflicts in the calendar because we changed the board, we essentially changed our board meeting into their scheduled time. So, uh there will be a little bit of an overlap, but they do start before us. So, we'll have the opportunity to come. >> Are they going to videotape it? Do you know? >> I don't believe there's a plan to to stream it or video provide virtual um opportunity, but we can certainly attend before the meeting begins because it'll
120be going on for about an hour and a half before the board meeting starts. >> Oh, great. Okay. >> And my last one we already spoke about was the Garrison evening. Uh eighth grade students coming to the high school on the 17th and then the parents invited that evening and it's always a great event to show off. And our favorite part which we actually get the probably the greatest feedback from is the fact that our students lead the parent tours that evening. So our students take the parents around the building and show them off. So uh that's it. Thank you. [snorts] >> Okay. Time is flying by. It's almost November. Can't believe. Okay. New business. Uh item number one, please. resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools to rescend policy 0110.1 sexual harassment
121of students and approved the second reading of revised policies from series 0000 philosophy goals and objectives as per document 83/26 which includes policies 0100 non-discrimination and equal opportunity uh an equal opportunity policy 0110 sexual harassment policy uh 0110.2 2, sexual harassment in a workplace. policy uh 0115, student harassment and bullying prevention and intervention policy 0115-R student harassment and bullying prevention and intervention regulations and newly required policy 011 sexual harassment guidelines under title 9 policy 011-E sexual harassment grievances under the title 9 exhibit exhibit definitions in policy 011R- sex discrimination and sexbased harassment under title 9 regulation grievance procedure. The document is attached to the agenda and official meetings minutes of this meeting. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Extensions. The resolution passes. Number two, please. >> Resolved on the
122recommendation of the superintendent of schools to appoint Karen Cruz to a 7-week long-term substitute position as an ELA teacher at the high school/ middle school effective November 7th, 2025 through December 23rd, 2025 or sooner at the discretion of the board of education at the substitute salary rate of $225 per day. Miss Cruz holds special education and social studies 7 through 12 permanent and ELA special class SE statement of continued eligibility certifications. >> Second >> questions or comments? >> We are still grateful for Karen's inability to effectively retire. So, she is back again [laughter] back >> uh but we greatly appreciate her willingness to step in. we anticipate will be a 7w week uh leave replacement and we're thankful to have a senior tenur certified teacher in that classroom supporting our students. >> Excellent. All in
123favor? Opposed? Abstensions. The resolution passes. >> Okay. I'd like to open it up for public comment on any topic. Good evening everyone. My name is Joe Ferrara and I'd like to talk more about the hall pass situation. [laughter] In all honesty, um I just want to thank uh the board as well as administration for coming to P Valley Libraries community conversations. A lot of good um information is coming out of that. Uh we do have additional sessions coming up next week, next Wednesday and Thursday evening at 7:00 uh at the library. Uh we have invitations out to your clinical staff as well as the social worker staff uh cuz they might have input and and uh uh expertise and kind of some input that that that might be of of benefit to the town as
124well as to the library. Uh and also anybody who is interested general public uh feel free uh go to puttonal library.org and you can register to to come on out. Um beyond that uh I want to thank definitely want to thank uh the board trustees uh members that came out on Wednesday and on Thursday of this week had a really great frank ongoing conversation. I hope those conversations continue. I think uh the partnership between uh library and the school district is uh only beneficial to both. So I want to thank you. >> Thank you J. >> Thank you for the invitation. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh any other public comment? Uh upcoming meeting topics? We have November 11th the admin reports. >> Yeah. So, November 11th, we are scheduled for the facilities and operations presentation.
125>> 13th. >> Uh, sorry, the 13th. >> Oh, 13th. >> I just copied hers. >> Which is now the 20th. >> Which is the 20th. >> Which is now the 20th. Yes. So, the 13th meeting was the one that was rescheduled for November 20th. And that will be a facilities and operations presentation as well. As I mentioned earlier, we have to schedule in the data presentation. So, if not that meeting, likely the meeting thereafter. Is that the only meeting we have for November? >> I was just looking that up. >> It's just one in November. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Just one in November. December. >> I know. So >> holidays >> one December. >> One in December also, right? Or >> one one in December. >> One December. Yeah. >> We're I did ask
126I know maybe previously we had technology and um >> building grounds. >> No, we have buildings and athletics. So, buildings and grounds is going next meeting. Definitely there's a lot of opening in schools um information that Dave wants to have the opportunity to share. What we've done in the past is we've done separate athletics and technology presentations for opening of schools and then did another a few weeks later athletics and technology presentations for budget. So, what I've asked them to do is kind of streamline those two. we move them to the end of the opening of schools presentation, which is technically the beginning of budget presentations. So, they're going to essentially um cover both of those topics in one presentation. Excellent. >> So, we're looking to streamline some of the presentations. So, that is a
127change uh for those two. So, I don't want you to think they got missed this first go round. They were purposely pushed to the end so they can do both at once. >> Okay. Good. >> Sounds good. And whenever possible, if we could just do one presentation as opposed to two or three, that would be great. >> So that's what we have to discuss because >> we'll never have time to do the data one if we don't fit it in somewhere. So we have to try to figure out when is the right opportunity, maybe a shorter presentation to go along with that one or whether that needs to be a standalone one. So that's why we're trying to figure out where to best slot that in. That'll be a long presentation. Um that that mean
128that it should have its own tech. Tech goes very fast. >> Maybe we'll make that December or we'll push the budget once. >> Michael Michael buzzes right through. >> Uh any other board comments. I'm excited about the conference this week. >> Yeah. >> Barb and I will be together for hours on end. >> Learning. Learning exciting. >> Yes. I but it's hard to choose when you look at all the options that you have like which one is the most important which one do I really want? >> Yeah. >> I don't know. >> Public service announcement parent teacher conference info at the elementary school has gone out. So everybody make sure to sign up for your elementary parent teacher conference for November. >> Okay. And we talked about the play also, right? >> Yes. >> Okay.
129>> Um I have a PTA plug. They're still looking for middle school volunteers um for Red Ribbon Week and the middle school book fair >> which is happening right now. >> Yeah, they just send out a lot of connectad emails. So just anybody watching three people uh if you want to volunteer >> do so. >> I meant to ask Dr. L or Jackie how is the pup doing uh over at the uh elementary school now? the pup. I will defer to our pup expert. >> So, my understanding is he's doing very well. The blue path trainer um who you met at the board of education meeting a couple weeks ago has been in the building um helping to train all of the different handlers and ways of handling Mason. He has passed students in the
130hallway and the students are being very respectful to Wave, which is what we do right now. um as he is transitioning and learning um we are very excited and he has been transitioning in slowly. So he comes to work a couple days a week and he stays in his office where Alex Goffman, his primary handler is and then um you know the trainer uh Britney comes in and does some you know uh exercises and activities with him to move him around the building and teach people how to um handle him. And soon he'll be with us five days a week. We did buy him a tiger costume for the Halloween parade. U so he will be fully integrated we expect by the end of the month by the end of next week and uh looking
131forward to him to start visiting classrooms and seeing students. So that'll be really exciting. >> Oh, that's great. >> I will say that Ella saw him the other day in the hallway and said that she respectfully waved so that she didn't scare him, but she was very excited. So >> he's wonderful. Just wonderful. Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. I'd like a motion to convene an executive session for one matter of collective negotiations pursuant to article 14 of the civil service law, the Taylor law. No business will be conducted after the executive session. >> Second. >> Good. >> Thank you. >> Good to go. >> Um, good night everybody. All >> in favor? I. >> All in favor? >> I I >> Thank you.