001of Okay. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming. We need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 52026. Steve Kathy, all those in favor? >> Yes, >> everyone. Okay. Okay. Dr. Farrell. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. A few quick updates before we begin our formal presentations for this evening. First is update on our capital construction projects. Tonight, the board of education has included as part of their agenda um to approve the SRA for the technology capital improvement um at the uh junior high school. Tomorrow we will send um this information to our architect who will then send it to the state education department for the building permit. Once that project is approved, I will likely be asking uh for a
002special quick board of education meeting uh [laughter] probably next week uh just to approve uh the bids, right, for the work. Yesterday, uh Miss Galante, our architect, the building teams, right, we went through the bid process. We want to award them as quickly as possible, right, so that they can begin to um order all of the product, right? Everything needed for the junior high school project. So, just bear with me. I'll likely be requesting an extra meeting to approve those bids. As a follow-up to our charter school public statement um that we recently made, uh letters were sent to all of our elected officials on behalf of our board of education and our administration team sharing the same information um that we shared, right, that Mr. PL shared during the um public statement portion of
003our board meeting. Uh should there be any follow-up or requested meetings, um we'll let you know of that, right? I would coordinate that and I would coordinate that with Mr. Polo to uh to join me to participate in those meetings. Uh an update on graduation. Senior high school families who uh requested additional tickets have issued an additional ticket bringing their total of graduation attendees to six. Junior high school families who requested additional tickets have been issued two additional tickets. Just reminding everyone that the junior high school graduating class is smaller, right, than the senior high school class. Um so of course then those families would have a total of of seven. Um we're looking forward to all of the end of the year festivities obviously that are coming up between obviously field days have already
004started. Um the secondary level we'll be having theirs coming up as Grace was just sharing with me. Um and of course again you know graduation and all the um end of the year exciting elementary, junior high school and senior high school events. Before we pivot to tonight's recognitions and to our presentations and an update on um UPK, um last week uh with an incredibly heavy heart, um I shared the devastating news that one of our senior high school students uh Leora David um has passed away. Uh Leora is a caring, friendly young lady who was part of our West Balon senior high school committee community um for the last two years. On behalf of the entire school district, the entire board of education, um I extend our heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to Lero's family
005and friends. Thank you all who have supported her family, who have supported our students, our staff, and our faculty here at WB. This point, I'll pivot to Grace. [snorts] Oh, great. Great. Um, sorry. No pressure. >> Excuse me. Um, good evening everyone. Um, as a student body, it has been evident in the past year, few years, and especially this past week that there have been times where we've needed help. Um, we appreciate the support that the school has offered and provided during these times of need and we're so grateful for the counselors and teachers that have provided support that we needed. Um, as we approach the end of the year, we hope to wrap the school year up on a positive note and make the most of our last week of classes. So, Yes. So,
006we have a few special surprise recognitions scheduled for tonight. First, I would like to um invite up and congratulate Mr. Pillo who is being recognized by New York State School Boards Association and our board of education for board excellence, governance, knowledge, skills, all of the time and dedication that he puts forth, not just for our board of education but really the larger entity, right? The concept of boards of education and governance, right? So on behalf of New York State School Boards Association, I proudly present board excellence award to Christopher Powell from the West Bablon School District. Come on up, Mr. [applause] Powell. I purposely didn't tell him because he would have said, "Do not do this." [laughter] >> No heads up. No heads up. Thank you for all that you do. >> Okay. >> Yes.
007Thank you, speech. >> Definitely. [applause] >> Okay. So, you know, as we mentioned beforehand, right, we are in June, right? We are closing up the school year. Um, I will not be here the last meeting of the school year, June 23rd, because my daughter's graduating from eighth grade. I will hold it together, but I will not be here. Um but I I wanted to um close out this meeting by acknowledging a few uh a few of many right special individuals who have helped us out right um throughout the school year. So I would like to at this point in time invite um we all know that I don't know for a long time now we have been uh streaming right our board meetings. I wanted to take a moment on behalf of our board of
008education and our admin team to acknowledge Savannah um who has been working uh during our board meeting nights, right, to live stream our board meetings. It truly has been a great pleasure to work with you um to have a consistent West Babwan student and employee, right, um with us every night helping us stream. We truly wish you all of the best as you begin your next chapter. Savannah, please come on over. [applause] I like the walls. [laughter] Okay. It is with it is uh my distinct honor to publicly recognize and thank Grace Goel for her historic service as the school district's first ever student exopicio board member. Stepping into a new role is certainly never easy, but Grace handled this responsibility with incredible poise, incredible dedication, and incredible leadership. Throughout this school year, she has
009served as a vital bridge between our student body and the leadership team. On behalf of the board of education and the entire admin team, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to Grace for communicating with us, for amplifying our student voices. Grace went above and beyond by actively communicating with students across all levels from our elementary schools to our junior high school and of course our senior high school. Grace, we thank you for your service, for your leadership, and for your unwavering commitment to your our school district. We wish you all of the best as you begin your next chapter. Please come on up. [applause] >> So, we have this plank for you. >> Fancymancy. Thank you. Wait, let's come on. Is this good? Yeah. I think we need a I think we need a
010picture this way. Yes. Let's come this way. [laughter] [laughter] >> [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Oh my goodness. Okay. And our last recognition for tonight is for Kath. It is with profound gratitude and the utmost respect that on behalf of our board of education and our administration team, we recognize and celebrate Kathy Gizmerick for her extraordinary 15 years of dedicated service on the board of education. 15 years. We know that school board governance requires immense commitment and Kathy has selflessly dedicated an incredible amount of time during those 15 years away from her own family to advocate for, protect, and elevate our West Babylon school community. Throughout that time, Kathy has worked handinand with boards of education, administration teams to navigate through complex obstacles, negotiations, budget challenges, hurdles of COVID consolidation, sensitive student employee matters. I truly
011could go on and on, [snorts] always keeping the the district's best interest in mind and working with the team. On behalf of the board of education and admin team and the entire WB community, we extend our heartfelt thanks to Kathy Gizmerick for 15 years of exemplary service. And on a personal notes, Kath, I want to thank you for your unwavering support. And I'll leave that at dot dot dot. Your presence on the board will certainly greatly be missed. Please join me in acknowledging Kathy. [applause] >> Come on up. >> You want to go up there? Go up there. >> It's the roll. >> [applause] >> Okay, that's it for our recognitions for tonight. this point I would like to pivot the program over to Mr. pain. [laughter] [gasps] >> There won't be no. >> I
012do have some cards which I will pass over. >> I can give you a card later. >> Thank you. >> And thank you family for joining us and surprising her. >> So, thank you. It's a tough transition here, but I I I know I've worked with Miss Gizwick for so long. I'm going to invite her up if she wants to do the presentation for me. She's seen it enough times. I'll take that as a no. Okay. Figure give you the option. All right. So, each year, um, are we doing the code of conduct first or the does it matter? >> Okay. So, uh, these actually relate well together. So, it doesn't matter which one we do. We're going to be talking about the code of conduct and the adoption of it for the next meeting
013as a policy and revisions that were made. But we'll start off with the uh district committee which we um are going to give a just a very brief overview of the uh discipline committee that we had this year. Some of the things we worked on and some of the venues and areas that we want to continue to work on. Of course, here's the committee me uh members. It was a group of people that met several times throughout the year, gave their own time up. Uh a lot of interesting dialogue. Um and I want to review the main topics. We covered a lot of things, but these are the things that we spoke the most about. First, we spent a lot of time just reviewing data. We're going to give you a very very brief over
014overview of the data and and certainly as the board of education, you can have access to all of it. It was lengthy. We probably spent two or three meetings just kind of going over different disciplinary processes throughout the district, where they occur, um what groups of students, um transportation based pieces, unsupervised pieces, and we dug deep into the data. We talked about the code of conduct, which we're going to be doing tonight. As I said, we talked about the importance of district-wide uniformity. Um, we spoke about disciplinary consequences and then we gave some recommendations that I'll give to you tonight, as well as some future topics and ongoing work that we'll be working on with the committee next year. This is, like I said, an unbelievably brief snapshot of some of the data we looked
015at, but this is um out of school suspension, and I know one of the pieces that comes with this is superintendent's hearings. Superintendent's hearings are out of school suspensions. They just extended out of school suspensions. Um, but any of the data that the board wants uh wants, Dr. Leonard Wright has been phenomenal and his team. They get us everything we need. They were unbelievable at putting together presentations and so I'm going to offer his services to you too. Ask whatever you want and he'll get it for you. Uh this is a brief overlook of the out of school suspensions by building um from 2024 256. There's some changes there. You can see the high schools the first bar, junior high school and then the elementary schools. um high school, junior high school decrease, slight decrease.
016Elementary schools, we saw some increases, but overall the trends are there. You can see where most of the discipline is happening for out of school, and you can see correspondingly how it works its way as the grades go on. We also wanted to give you a very quick look at the um out of school suspensions by incident types, and this is across the district. So, not to get into it, but you know, you're talking about um altercations, insubordination, other you know, sort of bullying or things that go on. Um, and you can see this distribution from one year to the next. Um, stuff that you want to dig in more, but I just wanted to give you a sense of what the committee looked at. Uh, and and we looked at much much more than
017this to come up with what you're going to see tonight. So, the code of conduct is where we spent probably our third meeting uh, going over and talking about and not the code of conduct so much as what it says um, but what it's designed to do uh, and and what we could might be able to do better or better how we might better use it. So, one of the things we talked about was the code of conduct is really designed to create progressive consequences with uniformity. It's a K12 document like we're going to talk about later tonight. You're going to hear me say it again. So, it needs to have a tremendous amount of flexibility, but it has to provide some consistency across the district, which we'll talk about in a little while. It's
018obviously designed to modify or even at times um set boundaries for student behavior, but it's also really establish a comfortable learning environment to all students K12 as well as create and maintain safe learning spaces. So, this is what the committee used as kind of a guiding piece with the code of conduct. This is what we felt it should do, not necessarily that it should spell out in every letter and word, but what it's designed to accomplish. And it's up to us as a district, the board of ed, teachers, parents, students, administrators, um, all, you know, staff in the building to help do that. This district uniformity piece became a big thing for the committee and and we spent some time doing what are seemingly small things, but I think had a huge and a large
019effect and will continue to have a large effect. Believe it or not, every building used its own referral forms. We changed it for next year. were all going to be using exactly the same referral form, whether it's kindergarten, first grade, all the way up to 11th and 12th grade. We picked out the important pieces that we wanted on that form so that we can record data and use data constructively as a district to look at discipline no matter what building it's in. And we also looked at the use of e-hool. E-hool is a phenomenal tool, but dependent upon how you use it, it has the capacity to store more or less information. We talked about the uniformity of every building using e- school the same to store that information. Similarly with DASA reports, we wanted
020to make sure that all of our schools were reporting uh DASA incidents correctly um and going through the process correctly. A DASA report is different than a behavioral referral, but it's an equally important document that needs to be stored and kept uh differently, but that it does have consequences and it has true meaning. And this was a big one. Um the suspension process [snorts] implementated we implemented this year, we're going to implement more of it next year. the importance of um not just premeings before kids are suspended but post meetings. What do we do when they come back? Um and it's different building by building and and nothing you know was conscious but the idea that as a district we should be doing the same thing with suspensions with these pre and post meetings to
021make sure that when kids come back we're sending the right message. We're putting things on the right track. Um and and we're going to be developing this as we go. But that pre and post meeting was a big conversation. Uh and this was one that is going to go on honestly for probably forever. Right. continuity in duration and use of consequences. Um, and more specific to grade bands. In other words, when this happens, what do we do? Probably if a first or second grader does it, the same behavior or similar behavior might be different if an 11th or 12th grader does it. But the concept of all of us kind of being able to talk to one another and this is what these meetings were very very helpful for and be able to tell stories
022about this happened, this particular case, this is what I did and this is what I ran into. That's an invaluable tool that every committee member felt we should continue to do. In other words, some buildings don't get to talk to other buildings um in the particularly in the K12 grade bands, but the junior and senior high school are isolated. They have their entire grades in one building. They don't have anyone else to talk to. But it's nice to be able to communicate as a district with what we're doing and we did that in the committee. Disciplinary consequences. There was some significant changes that we at least started to talk about and I think as a board of ed um uh you've done tremendous work with this as well. This is what we kind of established.
023There are these these are the disciplinary consequences, right? bus classroom seat change, removal, before and after school detention, lunch detention, in out of school suspension, parent meeting, phone call, student meeting with the principal, with the teacher, with a dean, um and removal from event or decrease participation um in a particular uh club uh activity or event. Um we started to talk about the use of these and believe it or not, some of these were used in some buildings and some were not. And again, getting back to that uniformity, we felt we need to continue to have a dialogue on how disciplinary consequences are used. And I'm going to share with you in a little while toward the end of this, some of these may seem more or less punitive than others, but for some kids,
024the most punitive piece on here, out of school suspension, might not be a big deal. And some of the least punitive on here, like removal from an event, might be the most or the the hardest thing you can do. So, this concept of rating disciplinary consequences, we spent time on because for different kids, it's probably going to be different. and we wanted to take advantage of that um given all the parameters of of what's available to us that we're we're being consistent and we're being uniform, but that we're also tailoring some of this discipline to meet particular kids uh needs as well as what might affect them or change their behavior the most. That was probably one of the more enlightening things that I found from the committee itself. So, here are the recommendations and
025this is kind of the end of the presentation. um the continuation of the deans position. The entire committee was grateful and thankful for the support from the the deans of students in the secondary level and of course they they would ask that um the support of before and after school programs. This is where um and we're going to talk a little bit more about this when unstructured supervision time. A lot of our discipline occurs coming to school, leaving school in areas where there isn't much supervision. So before and after school programs are very helpful for some kids uh staying out of trouble. Um and support for unstructured supervision time. this was the one that makes the most sense. But hearing uh the different buildings talking about it, we have to continue to do work. The
026vast majority of our suspensions occur in unsupervised locations, which you would say, of course, that makes sense. But when you see it on paper, you're like, that's beyond making sense. It's probably 80 90% of the discipline that we get. So the more that we structure that we can provide during these supervised times or at least taking advantage of it, we need to do some of that maybe in the form of programs. Some of it honestly is in the secondary level just keeping kids out of the hall when teachers aren't there to supervise. It doesn't sound like a big change, but it's a big change and I think it'll have profound impact. The last piece I just wanted to share with you on behalf of the committee is the future topics, the continued work that we're
027going to do, restorative practices. This isn't um this isn't anything other than it doesn't change the disciplinary progress, but it but it makes kids aware of what they did and how it affected the community, how it affected the school, and how it potentially affected fellow students. Sometimes we get so caught up in the discipline that we forget to talk to kids about what they did and the effect that it had. And the committee felt this was an important piece that we need to make sure that we pursue. Um this is the decreased unsupervised uh unstructured and unsupervised student time to decrease disciplinary behaviors. It doesn't mean we're going to be on top of them all the time, but if there are areas or times where students are completely unsupervised, it becomes a problem. There's there's
028not even a doubt that that's the main recipe for disaster. Um, this is that piece I was telling you about individualizing disciplinary plans. We made that up. I don't know if that's a thing, but if it is, I'm going to take credit like the committee is. Um, IDPs were calling them. But making sure that discipline is the most effective for particular kids. And some of that may mean, you know, I'm going to say this, five after school detentions is better than one day of inschool suspension. For some kids, that's going to have a more profound effect. Or even lunch at the younger levels. They like going to lunch. They wouldn't like four or five lunch detentions which has no impact on any academic classes, no impact on their record, you know, for the most part.
029It's not going to show up anywhere, but it may have a profound impact on them and change the behavior. Um, of course, one of the future topics is increased parental involvement. Um, and then supporting diverse student needs and and some of the committee members were were excellent at recognizing that and I'm just going to use students that may have um disabilities that trauma-based uh instruction and professional development is probably going to be a big topic for us trying to, you know, try to make sure that yes, we have to discipline kids, but we have to take into consideration how to react to them in different situations given some of their needs. So that's that. I don't know if there's a question slide. No, it just ends. But you can ask questions. is perfectly fine. >>
030Um, so I have a quick question in terms of the electronic phone ban. How did we do with discipline? >> I know we hired deans for that as well. >> Um, I think the entire state is I'm going to give you the answer for New York State. It was unbelievably successful and not not much discipline wise at all. It it be it didn't even become a conversation here when we looked at the data. >> So, and Grace, you can speak to it, but >> I don't want to put you on the spot. It was something that No, it was good. I mean, it was something that we anticipated beforehand. Dr. Farley was excellent with the the principles at at kind of proacting it and >> perfect. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You you gave an
031example of um making decisions on what the disciplinary action should be based on the individual, you know, five days in versus one day out for an activity. >> What how do you make that determination? So that that was a an interesting conversation because there's no right or wrong way to do it. So you know I'm gonna I'll use you, Mr. Po. You hate um losing lunch, right? So there has to be some equivalence here, right? It can't just be, well, we're going to give you a lunch detention and you I'm just going to throw you out of school. >> Is that a weight joke? >> Right. [laughter] Maybe. Um I like lunch, too, now that I think about it. Um but the idea is to try to uh get in the mind of the student
032and say what's going to have the maximum effect with the minimal impact on the academic day and the building itself. And we truly believe and and we've shared this, you know, the board of ed of course we've talked about this. We truly believe there are ways to be more effective with kids that don't necessarily result in um and and look, it's going to happen. There's going to be some in school or out of school suspensions for some offenses, even though we want to start low. We know there are some offenses that start pretty high. Um but for the most part a re-evaluation and doing that I don't have a set formula. I think it's going to be knowledge of the student as well as kind of look we can I'm going to make it um
033you know five lunch detentions equals I'm saying this two after school detentions which five after school detentions equals one day of inschool. Not that that's going to be ironclad but some sort of scale where it becomes you can look at and say okay we can work with this. >> Yeah. I I just you know then what happens is I just can see it and I know that this has been the case as you know is the parent says well this happened to my child and >> but this child did almost the same thing and this was their punishment and and it >> gets brought to us but we're not in they're making that determination or in the the mindset of the students at that time. Um I you know I don't know do you create
034a policy in which the board cannot diminish a consequence or a disciplinary action? I don't know if that's a legal question but um you know because we get those requests to make exceptions to determinations made at a building level. >> It's an appeal. >> Yeah. And I mean I guess you you know can you put into policy that the board would not diminish the determination of this >> because then you would just be appealing that anyway >> be no appeal. Right. The due process would be lost if we did that. >> Right. Right. All right. >> Yeah. I think it's it's upon it's a the burden is on us to make sure we mostly make the right decision us being the schools the discipline team >> without going completely out of you know overboard where
035we put you in a position where you have to make that decision. >> Yeah. It just becomes tough because you know, oh yeah, you know, I was a good kid and you know, >> which is why I think we fell into this, right? It becomes much easier to just say, okay, in school you're out and and you kind of mathematically just go through a piece, but effect the effectiveness and I think the the impact on the kids, it's worth us taking a chance, >> right? Understood. And at times when you would go to a more restrictive taking you out of school thing, you might be doing something that would not waste all that instructional time because it might be something that would right >> in a way consecr >> and a big piece that came
036up u Mr. I was, you know, was and this came up with the code of conduct is this concept of um progressive discipline, right? Which is an important piece, but given I I purposely put that chart a little out of whack because the concept of those things falling in a line doesn't linearly doesn't make sense anymore. You know, there are some things on there that they're close enough where you know what, how many days of in school equal an out of school suspension, even if you don't like both of them, right? Um so this ability to kind of flex is what we're going to need to to use and to be able to work to. So yes, sometimes some stuff is going to come, you know, no progressive. You're going to you're going to do
037something violent maybe and it's going to be an out of school suspension. It's not going to be a lunch detention, but there are some places there we're going to work and, you know, try to tweak it where we can get it right. Okay, we can move. Oh, here we go. So, why don't we talk about the code of conduct while I'm up here? This is what we do every year. Um, it's a policy. Obviously, we review it. is pending the board of education's acceptance and approval, which I believe it'll be on for next uh meeting. So, we're going to go over tonight some of the changes, go over the process really quickly. This was our timeline. We started May 3rd, we had district stakeholder meetings. Grace remembers the days when she was there. She loved
038it. Um May 14th, [laughter] we had a public feedback meeting. Um a couple people were there. We then opened up the feedback to the public from the 14th to the 28th. We got some feedback. I'll share that with all the feedback with you tonight and then obviously tonight. Um you can hit it. Uh this is the committee. A lot of people again helping. Um phenomenal and you can hit it. This is where we allowed people to give feedback with a maximum amount of time as well as being able to view that presentation that I had given uh remotely. They can view it on the website. The code of conduct as you know but for the audience it's roughly uh 43 pages 22 sections. It is an an actual policy and it's an active policy on
039board docs. Anyone can access it. These are the 22 sections. feel free to read them and memorize them. Uh all Roman numerals. So it definitely as we're as a committee we're looking at we're like what's an X1? Oh yeah, now I know what that is. >> Uh hit it. >> So the revision of course was done at the stakeholder meetings and then with public feedback which then went back to the committee. I brought all the public all the public feedback I brought back to the committee electronically to get their uh feedback. Um any revisions that were made are coming to you. Nothing will be done is done to the code of conduct before we review it tonight and you see it. Um, however, I just lied to you because minor grammatical changes, of which there
040seem to be more than I can imagine, are done without your permission. Anything that didn't that didn't change the structure, but just changed a capital here or a comma there, um, was changed, and we're not going to go over it tonight. Um, but here is the public presentation and feedback and the committee's feedback. Um, so what I'm going to do is when I go over this is anything in red and struck through is going to be removed. Anything in blue and highlight is going to be added. and the section that remember those Roman numerals I just shared with you. This is the section and sometimes subsection you'll see on here where you can find it. So rather than walk you through all 40 some odd pages, I'm just going to walk you through the changes.
041Section two, um this one was a result of some of the trips that we now take that are out of state, it was decided to change another state um to another location because now we also go to different countries. So that wasn't a big one, but enough where we decided to change it. We added this completely under definitions which is in section two as well. Just to reiterate, school staff means any district personnel, school employee or other school personnel unless otherwise mentioned because it just comes up several times in the code of conduct. We probably don't need this but the committee decided to add it just to make sure everyone was clear on what it is. Section three, students rights and responsibilities. We removed work to develop strategies to control our anger. We felt this
042was something that the district and the building should do that some students may not have the capacity to do this on their own. We'd love it if they did. Doesn't mean they can't. We just felt it wasn't a policy piece. So, this was removed. Section four, essential partners. Um, this you're going to see one or two more times. Um, parents will ensure that the children are here to New York State and we added Suffach County because there are some subtle changes now with ebikes. We're going to talk about in a few minutes that Suffach County has. Um, and then we also talked about on and off school property that they adhere um to the laws off school property as well of course on it. So this one was um section six prohibited student contact. We
043talked about insubordination as it as it results in skipping detention. And there was a nice change here. Same similar piece but failing to attend detention or in school suspension. Uh the student the absence must be made up at the principal's discretion. But the committee was finding and this was a a rather lengthy discussion was that some uh kids or parents were missing detention were skipping or missing school not skipping were actually um absent on the day that they had it with the idea that they wouldn't have to make it up. Wasn't here so have to do it. So we thought it would be better to put it in policy pending the building principal's discretion of course right if they're sick and something happens the building principal may say they're in a hospital there's no way
044they could have made it. Um, but if you missed detention, it just isn't automatically excused because you were absent that day. Same section. Uh, we talked about the cell phone piece. Uh, Dr. Neville, under the provisions of New York State Education Law, we just kind of blanketly put in under the provisions of New York State as a new piece. Again, um, prohibited student contact, same section. This one always comes up. Um, this is really a grammatical piece. So, examples, just bear with me here. The beginning sentence says example of disruptive conduct include and not limited to and then the old statement said students or parents may not bring grammatically. It's kind of a grammatical piece not limited to bringing balloons to school. It makes more sense as you read it that way. So it's almost
045a grammatical piece but there was enough of deletion there that we felt we just wanted you to see it >> so you can enjoy it. >> Uh we just took out health here. um figuring that um you know well-being or well-being or welfare of others health is kind of implicit in that and again prohibited contact this is that I said this would come up a few times this is on or off school property in accordance with New York State and Suffach County laws for the use of ebikes scooters anything like that uh we changed text here used to be electronic text to electronic communication because we just covered ourselves and said there's probably more than one way to to electronically communicate so just cover it all. And this is kind of an AI thing. I
046I mean it covers a lot, but um we put post or create pornographic pictures we took out of students or school because we felt it was anything of that nature is going to be a problem. But this is the idea of um what do they call them? Deep fakes. The idea of people, it happens unfortunately of creating pictures or videos of of other students or people that aren't true and and obviously unacceptable. Section seven, uh, disciplinary penalties and procedures. Um, this is the one I kind of talked about in the last presentation. Um, this was a feedback from the community. It is understood that some infractions may result in a penalty that is not necessarily the lightest penalty that could be rendered. This is that progressive piece that we talked about just in the last
047presentation with the idea that some penalties are going to start off high no matter what. Um, given the nature of them. Um, so that it's generally understood that not we're not always going to start off with the lightest infraction that was on that list that I had showed you from the previous presentation. And this doesn't seem like a a big change. This is um this is one this is from a community feedback as well. Will be progressive change to May. And this does change the nature of this entire paragraph um because will means you have to do it. May means it could happen based on the offense and the grade level and the kid and all that. This actually affords um is is better for the students and we think the code of conduct overall.
048This is another will or may and I know these seem silly but they're big changes. Uh the first suspension will result this is um eligibility procedures section 20 will result in the students nonparticipation in extracurricular event. Before it was may result that's the first suspension. So think sports. So, a US suspension um in the past may result, now it will result um the students nonparticipation while they're suspended, not anything more or less than that for the purposes of this policy. And then these changes were um for subsequent suspensions for a period of up to two weeks commencing with the date of suspension before it was mandatory two weeks, which didn't always make sense given the time of the year or the time in the season. It just might not have fit. So it's up at
049the discretion of the uh principal and of the athletic director of the coach of the of the you know of the club um advisor up to two weeks for the second suspension and then uh the third suspension again using the term up to um to give the flexibility um for the remainder of that semester. You know if you're if you're suspended if you have three suspensions and it happens the first day of the semester or it's it's 40ome days. if it's um your third suspension, it's the one day before the sus the semester's up, you're only suspended one day. Like it just didn't seem to make sense. Uh this one was a change, not a big one. Um but it used to be um attendance um and lateness for participation in extracurricular activities. Um you
050had to be in school by the conclusion of period 4, but we acknowledge that there are some kids who may have to be in school, might have to be removed, and then come back to school. So, we change it for a minimum of five full periods. You have to be in school for five full periods. If a kid unfortunately has a doctor's note and they leave third period but come back fifth period, they're okay. And that's it. Questions? >> One question on the kind of the committees revolving committees we have when we [clears throat] have like resident representatives on a committee. Is there a way we could discuss it, I guess, but send that through let's say PTA or post that on the website that we're looking for a president parent member on the committee
051obviously during the day I would assume most of the time but to have to have that included >> yeah to um for all of the in general all of the in strict committees that we request that we have representatives to go through the PTA to request a representative >> or or to make make it make it more known that there's an opportunity to participate and what that criteria is not asking to change it to I mean if it's meeting it >> usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays at three that's the time uh I guess to to to see what kind of participation we would get >> on that I don't know how you guys feel just because I saw it said parents >> and you know I didn't remember seeing uh search for that. >> I
052I will I'm just going to interject with this committee because every committee is different. The nice thing about this is we go out to public presentation. So, everyone has an ability to to voice. I'm not saying it's, you know, perfect. >> Um with committees that you don't have that it certainly is a different tenor to it, but for this one, everyone has an ability to give feedback and and people >> the community feedback. No, I I understand. I just when I saw and and other committees we've established like the the long range planning committee we had you know parents >> that were that were involved and obviously that was a a lot >> bigger undertaking I think but this is pretty extensive policy so I don't mean to diminish that but I'm just curious if
053we could do something to make it more known >> when those when there's those committees that >> have resident parents I don't know what you guys think. >> Yeah. Yeah. No, we can definitely go through in terms of PTA, that's a general piece, right? Um, you know, as Mr. Payne mentioned, in terms of in this case, >> the opportunity is there across the board, right, for everyone to jump on and the same um for our district emergency team, right, that uh Mr. Hley does, right? There's a public forum, right? And it's the same process where everyone posts, but when maybe that isn't the case that the the, you know, kind of a large scale opportunity for everyone to to provide input to go through the PTA. >> Yeah, >> sure. >> Okay. I will throw
054in for this committee and and Grace may blush, but having the students there is phenomenal. And I and you can lie right now and say how great it was, but the students there provided tremendous for this in particular given how close it is. And particularly when we get to the dress code, the students are tough. Like they're no joke. Like they just uh they're like, "No, we can't do that." I'm like, "Well, we have to kind of ease into it." >> What was some of the What was some of the the feedback you you received from the the community? >> The community. A lot of the feedback centered around some of the wills and mays, you know, some of the um the will do it versus there, you know, some feelings of um if you're
055going to say that it's progressive, I think this was one of the general sentiments. If you're going to say something's progressive, but every time some kids get in a fight, you automatically give them out of school suspension, that's not really progressive. So why not just say, you know, if it's, you know, say that it's going to happen or not happen or the response of the committee had was then make it may that it may happen. So it's not will, >> right? So generally centered around that was the majority of the community feedback. >> Okay. >> Clarity type stuff. >> Some clarity pieces and and it got into some of the pieces they got into which really hit the disciplinary committee was more of how maybe different buildings are responding to things as opposed to a
056code of conduct piece. >> Okay. >> So all right. >> Thank you. >> I'd like to say this is the last you're going to hear from me, but I think there's one. [laughter] [clears throat] >> Thank you, Mr. Payne. and uh he mentioned in terms of obviously meeting throughout the year but he didn't emphasize it as much as um I would like to so I will now to share again a big thank you to the whole group right because that discipline committee meant extensively right to consistently review a lot of different reports right and as the conversations emerged and went in different directions and we discovered different things and it was uh it would be great to know this data and then there went Dr. right and for the following meeting pulled up reports for
057us for us to really dive deeply and and and address those. So a huge thank you to Mr. Payne and everyone involved in in that group. So >> all right statement um all right statement of residence on agenda items only. Any resident wishing to share a statement, please come to the podium, state your name, address, any organization you may represent. You can also write this information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Any responses will be given after all statements. Questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. Nope. Okay. All right. Uh we need a motion to approve
058the consent agenda. Steve, Kathy, all those in favor. It's everyone. Okay. >> Okay. No policy review. Old business. >> Mr. Payne is going to provide us with um an update on UPK. >> Okay. So, this is not a presentation, so stop me at any time. Um just to give you the board of education a quick update on where we are at UPK. We have obviously 72 in district position slots that we talked about one in each building. So that just means 18 per building because there was a little bit of confusion with some parents who felt that if they were within the 72 they should have a slot in their building. But it just doesn't work out mathematically right based on coincidence. Some buildings are going to have more of the 72 that were selected
059um in that lottery system. They're going to have lower numbers. So some buildings definitely filled up quicker than others. But um just to let the board of education know because of this process, we sent in invitations uh last Monday for 50 people um because we wanted to make sure we gave time people time to respond and buildings didn't fill up where the 72nd person said I want this building. But then we have to wait a week and find out that it's filled anyway. So we sent out 50 invitations on Monday. We sent out another 20ome on Wednesday. I think we sent almost another 30 or 40 at the end of the week Friday. And this week we sent out the remaining uh few that are left um to make sure everyone in the lottery got
060it. Um what that means is the first 50 the week has expired. Um we gave them one week to make decision. It doesn't mean they're off completely. It just means that their slot could potentially go to a next person on the list. Um so everyone um who responded pretty much is responding with indistrictments. And I'll talk about that in just a minute. But don't forget we have the 40 slots um from the Lindenhurst, the Peewee um and then the 16 slots from uh the Icelip location, Southshore. Um so the the idea now is we're going to next week see where our next 26 come back um to make sure that everyone has a chance to respond. Um but it looks like right now all of the buildings are filled, but not every district person, not
061every parent got their own catchment district. So there are now parents that were offered in that 72 other buildings other than their catchment and we tried to go the next closest building. Um but toward the end there were a few instances where I'm going to use I'm going to say JFK and Santa. I'm just using them because they're the farthest apart. >> There were people that were offered in one building the other one because it was just the only one that's left. But as of right now every single in district slot is filled. Um not many of the outer districts are filled. There's probably uh five to six that are filled right now. I expect that to change in the next couple of days as more people respond. Um, there were 136 people totally in
062the lottery, families, students. Um, and obviously we have room for 128 of them. So, that's not bad. We got almost every person in the lottery. Um, there's a couple weight lists that I just want the board of ed to be familiar with. So, you have 128 slots, but you had 137 people in the lottery. Those people are automatically on a wait list, right? Those people that got numbers from 129 to 137. You have people, another 17 people that signed up after the lottery that don't have any lottery at all, but are on another weight list. And the the the more confusing piece now is parents who refused a placement in this first round will still go back on the weight list on the lottery weight list based on their number, not on the other weight
063list for the people that were not part of the lottery. So, just to make everyone aware, a parent might have said, you know what, I can't get into Santa POG. I want to be in Santa Pog. I'm going to pass up my opport, you know, my opportunity, but if Santa Pog opens up, I want you to use my lottery number so I can go into there. So, that is a technique that we're offering to parents and it seems to it's the fair thing to do, but it is, you know, it changes the nature of that weight list significantly. >> Um, I think that's it. I mean, I can ask answer any individual questions as it comes up with UPK, but you know, barring the fact that I understand how difficult it is for parents to
064have to wait for this process, it just with all the variability, this is the most variability we've had with UPK. you essentially have four in district locations, right? That's new to us. We never had um UPK at South Bay. Um and now you have two off-site um which we had we used to have zero. So, it's just a lot of moving parts that we're trying to make work for everyone. >> How do you um these the because we had a difficult time last year. We had no outside providers. >> How do you the ones you have, how do you be the first on their list for next year? How do how do you >> It's a good question because everybody's going to start scrambling. >> Yeah. Um I don't know. I mean, you know, obviously
065tremendous help from Ingred Smith from with the R, you know, with the the contract process for getting the bids. Um it'll still have to go through that. So there's no way to guarantee anyone anything. >> Um but I think just hopefully the nature of the relationship and the reliability, you know, we're going to assign someone in district to make sure we check up on every single kid. Obviously, not just in district, but out of district as well. So maybe that relationship I would hope might foster a better sense of, you know, let's deal with West Babylon. >> I just because I know there's some districts that don't offer it yet at all. And I could just and I right I see the I see their >> their pages and their social media, you know, the
066outrage occurring and um I just was like it's going to get tougher and tougher. But >> the big game changer this year is the change in the money, right? The money bar none. We would have no outside providers if the state didn't increase that amount. Um, and pending the funding, it's really going to determine too how many outside providers. >> They doubled the money, right? Isn't it? >> They didn't double it. It went from 62 something. It was two different grants. >> Two different grants. Yeah. 5,400. >> What now is is the equivalent of 10, but we're allowed to take a few hundred dollars out for supervision and pieces like that per kid, which we're going to use. So, it's it's a three or 4,000 difference per kid, >> right? You know, I I was
067on a webinar, state budget webinar with New York State School Board Associate. Maybe that's why they gave me that certificate. >> So, uh, [laughter] they had they had a Q&A at the end. Yeah. Yeah, I might have been the only one on there. They uh No, I'm just kidding. It was actually really good. Um they had a Q&A at the end and I did ask the question about the the funds for UPK stating is there any conversation at the state level about there being flexibility for that to be used and that is part of the discussion and it seemed to be that that's obviously a concern every district has. I know I don't know if you've heard anything since since the state budget passed but they're giving you all those funds and it can only
068be used for a specific purpose, >> right? It still can't be used to enhance, right, or increase space, right, which is the number one ask, right, for school districts, right? We can't use it for construction. We can't use it to expand and to add several classrooms, right? Um, but yes, the vast majority of school districts are asking for funds to be able to be used for that >> as well as loosening some of the restrictions with needing bathrooms within a certain distance from a room. It's not >> not some of the restrictions. Correct. Yes. >> A lot of criteria set with that. Yeah, >> Mr. P, just quickly, you've spoke about the new being able to wait for your home school essentially. Um, I know historically if children don't attend the UPK program for a
069certain amount of time, they get removed. Is that correct? Or is there some kind of a guideline with that? >> So, the difficulty is if you take the slot and don't go, you can get thrown out because there's strict guidelines on how on attendance, right, from the state? >> Okay. >> So, if you pass it up though, you'll give you you'll remain in the pro you'll remain in the wait list. You still may have an opportunity at some point. >> Okay. So, how long would that go on before the people that are on that like second weight list would then be put? >> So, this is similar to what we did last year, but we didn't have as much much variability. We allowed them to stay on the list the entire year. If they passed,
070then we just went up the ladder. Um, got it. Okay. >> Right. But they never got no one got thrown off unless they were withdrawn from the program, then they got then they were off because they their number was removed and then it's out completely. >> Okay. Thank you. >> On a monthly basis, we have to provide reports pretty good attendance, right? And that's directly related to the funding for UPK. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, we're probably going on six, but it's been different every year and the and the funding process, right? So, it's it's, you know, I remember we talked a little bit about it. The amount of money that we've gotten has changed dramatically. The number of people that were interested has changed dramatically. So, and the rooms that we've had have
071changed dramatically. >> Do you remember the first year how many people Yeah, I want to say something like [snorts] 70 something. >> That's what I thought. Okay, thank you. >> So, >> okay. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Payne. >> All right. >> Um, >> new business. >> Yeah. New business. [laughter] >> New business, Mr. Pan. I'm sorry. >> No. >> Here we go. >> So, new business, right? Um Dr. Neville, we were chatting about um kind of having the team have a discussion with regards to looking forward into next year's school district budget and election, right? As we know for this is specifically only having to do with the school district budget. Um we have two voting locations here and at Santa, right? Um and um Dr. Neville requested just for us
072to have that conversation about do we want to continue right having in terms of the two locations um or should we begin to have a discussion about do we want to have one main location right you can take it away Dr. have one additional details there. >> Oh, no. The thought just occurred to me. Any opportunity perhaps to have some cost savings if um we could just take a look at possibly combining the two locations to one district location and maybe getting the conversation going early so if we do decide to have one location that the word gets out very early on in the year. >> So, it's really from a cost-saving position. So the cost um to consolidate you know maybe and have one location this is assuming that we would not bring over
073any additional right from one spot to the other would be about 2100 or so right in terms of less um and then maybe a few hundred 300 $400 in terms of um from a food perspective right so um we were guesstimating about estimating can using the exact people, right? About $2,400, right? Accounting for food and accounting for the salary, right, associated with the personnel, not moving anyone over. Now, let's say that we did move one or two, right, to have additional assistance in the one spot, then that 2400 would likely be closer to like 1,900 or so to 2,000. Um, those are approximate but pretty solid, right? because that's using exact salary, right? Um that Miss Magnar calculated out for me. >> I think it's good to look at the savings. Tough balance to not
074make it an inconvenience when you have, you know, when you have such low turnout, you know, I I go to I vote at Santa Pog and, you know, I during the day I, you know, read what's going on and oh, there's low turnout and then I go there at night and I waited online last time. That's just the time of the day, you know, when people go. You wouldn't want I don't even know you can do that in this room have this is the only place but um we'd have to really I think weigh out that savings versus an inconvenience or perceived inconvenience which can sometimes be an issue as well. >> Yeah. If it if it's going to be you don't want [clears throat] to just ah I just got home >> deter people.
075>> Yeah I'll go later or and then later becomes oh my neighbor was just there it was a line and then they don't come and you know we've had elections decided by one vote here. you know. Um, so yeah, it's a great way to look at something to definitely see what we could do. Now, we own the machines, right? That's >> Yes. >> For as long as they work, >> correct? Sorry. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, there's still a there's still a process of service. There's still support. Yes. Which for this year, right, as a as a region through Eastern SuffK Boseies, we were able to establish kind of a joint um contract process for that. um that was only for this year, right? So, we have to take a look at whether that will happen
076again for next year or whether it'll be an individual process, individual meeting by each district >> because this this parking lot would be an issue if it was the only place because we had games going on, right? >> Yeah. I mean, thankfully it didn't necessarily interfere because we were able to, you know, pivot and have the families go and park, right? Um, we had a playoff >> right >> game, but we were able to do that, you know, nice and early and send messages to families to go. >> Yeah. So, it's possible it might not even be either of the locations we currently use. >> It might if you wanted something more centrally located possibly, or it might be a different area of the high school where you don't have to walk through the entire
077high school. Yeah. >> Again, it's that trying to weigh out that >> somebody's pulling up and there's not a spot and they just drive away. You know, I'll come back later and that doesn't happen. It's almost so many variables. But if we could save something, it's a plus. >> Yeah. [snorts] >> Well, we have the machine, so I would say definitely we would still utilize them. So whatever the line is, >> right? We would need we would need to bring over more workers to >> the same amount of people. >> Well, we wouldn't necessarily have to bring all of them over, right? But we would, like I mentioned beforehand, we would reduce the amounts, right? But we would certainly bring over, you know, I wouldn't keep it the same number of people in the one
078location with the added machines, right? I would we would want to add additional people. Um, so there would be definitely some savings. Um, >> great. >> So, food for thoughts. No action right now. Food for thought. >> Got it. Okay. >> Okay. Statement of residence. Uh any resident wishing to share a statement on a general topic, please come to the podium, state your name, address, any organization you may be representing. You can also write this information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments about individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will be given after all statements. Any questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting.
079just uh I was just gonna turn that mic on for you. Hold on. Sorry about that. >> Hi, my name is Rebecca Cisro, 95 East Shore Drive, Babylon. Um I'm here because I had a very interesting experience last week. I was lucky enough to be able to attend um a DNA barcoding synopsium. my son's AP biology class that's ran by Mrs. Durban. And I brought the poster because I don't even think the words that I can express are just amazing. If you want to pass it around, the work that these kids did, I was blown away. They not only have doing preparing for an AP exam, she's preparing them for regions exams, labs throughout the year, and they're doing research. three things simultaneously and I was just wowed like how did you get the deal
080and these kids were giving presentations and talking to people and it wasn't just our school this is our first year that we got to go but the schools in all the surrounding areas participate so I said you know Mr. I think this is fantastic. What happens next year? She goes, "That's it." What do you mean that's it? And she said, "No other teachers do research, but colleges do look for, especially if you're going into the STEM field." And today we're STEM oriented. My ninth grader tomorrow might be tech again. But either way, you know, colleges are looking for certain things. So when they say, "What kind of research did you do?" And my son can say, "Yeah, I did research in ninth grade." and college like MIT like well what did you do the other
081three years and my concern is what happens next and from what I understand it it's a lot that goes into and I I get that part of it on the teachers end as well as the students and they did I believe visit going through sparks one year or spark through Brook Haven Lab and it flopped midway because it was an afterchool or weekend thing and it fizzled out before the research was even concluded. So that was a disappointment to hear. So my concerns are what happens next? What what's going to lead him next year in chemistry, AP chemistry? What kind of research is going to happen? And I was told there's nothing on the on the planet at this point. How do we make that happen? >> Okay, >> thank you. >> That's my question.
082I just want to How do you make it happen? how how what can I do as a parent? So that's why I'm here. >> No, no, we appreciate the feedback and then >> yes, >> Dr. Far and her team will evaluate and see what >> Cool. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks. Go for the post. >> Is that it? >> Hi, how are you? My name is Lillian Ari. I'm a parent. Um, so I just had a couple clarification questions on UPK. Um, I know there's been a lot of discussion at last meeting and behind the scenes, so I appreciate all the time and planning that's going into coordinating UPK efforts. Um, so one of the things, Mr. Payne, that you mentioned tonight was that all of the invitations had been sent.
083And I just want to clarify that only the 72 or so in district invitations have been sent because there are still parents in that 137 that are still waiting to hear back. Is that correct? >> I'm sorry. Complete. You can complete your statements and your questions and after all statements. Sorry. Sorry. Um and then my additional questions are um how are we handling um people who accepted their placement but still want to be um zoned or um assigned to their home school. Um I know it was mentioned that there um are some parents that maybe declined because they didn't want to go I think the example was JFK to Santa. Um, so if their home school is JFK and they were only offered a remaining seat at Santa Pog, they accepted that seat at Santa
084Pog, but now they would like to be on a waiting list. Is that a separate waiting list? Is that the same waiting list as those who declined altogether? Um, and then how are we handling um twins in the lottery? Um, is that something that we're keeping their lottery numbers together? Um, how are we comparing to other districts in that process? Um and do we have any twins um in this lottery? Um and then um is there something that we can do to maybe publish some of this data? Again, I know we've reviewed, you know, kind of um past years and the number of weight listed and the number accepted um but also maybe uh numbers on the weight list and now that we are making a division between in district and out of district, I
085just want to make sure that this data is also accessible to parents. Um and then lastly, um just community child care providers. um how are we maybe kind of doing anything as a community to help them with this process because I know there's been concern from parents that they have to let their daycare providers know or backup preschools um you know and these these preschools are already asking and requesting for um decisions and there's funds behind that. So kind of what are we doing there? >> Is that it? >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. I just I'm just gonna I'm just gonna I'm gonna do something I've never done. Okay. I'm gonna go off. So, uh off off the quum a little bit. Um I know you spoke at the meeting and I'm on social media
086as well. I've seen your dialogue and I want to address you face to face because you could I'm very accessible so I I never received an email from you or anything and that's fine. Um >> everything you're you're you want with universal prek. I don't think there's a board member here that does not want the same things. What we have to balance is something that's considered a fully funded program right now. We cannot by ourselves turn it into an unfunded mandate. As it stands right now, the state wants by 2028, 2029 every child to be offered a spot. That if if that happens tomorrow, that's an unfunded mandate. That means that regardless of how we're given money or not at all, it has to happen. They're still deciding because they give, you know, a million
087and a half, $2 million to different districts. Whatever you don't use for the tuition cost of that child goes back to them. It's not discretionary spending. >> We can't incur costs on top of something that's supposed to be fully funded at this point. We want the same things that you've expressed your opinion on. Uh we've had discussions about UPK for years. Uh as Mr. Payne mentioned before, it's been going on for six years. We've looked at a lot of different options. We've been talking about it. We want the same things. We have to wait for some direction from the state. Uh we talked uh a few months back about making space at the high school was not an idea that a lot of people were keen on. We're in a holding pattern at this point.
088So uh I know you've been, you know, very vocal and you it's I'm appreciate your passion for it and compassion for it. Uh but we have to really iron out what's what they're going to allow us to do with these funds before we start knocking down walls and ripping up floors and getting ahead of ourselves. Um we had um a few years ago we had a budget that was gutted and we have to just be very conscious of not jumping to incur cost for something that the state might say, "Oh, you can use this or you're going to get a grant for this as long as you that's that's really where we're at with this." I know I know you you're looking for other answers and maybe we'll get some of that now. But from
089a board perspective, that's what we're on the record of expressing our concern with is making space that we're not going to have the funds for. >> Sure. >> But I just wanted to, you know, >> thank you. >> Say no, no problem. I don't know if there's anything else we wait or that's it. Is there any other statements of residents? >> Okay. Okay. So, um, a couple pieces in terms of, um, twins, right? Um, so twins, uh, not just in terms of our district, but other school districts as well. Um, each twin has their own, um, lottery number, right? There are definitely times when, um, we have siblings that it could be a number four, right, in the lottery, and then an 89 or 127, right? That absolutely, um, actually has happened every year. Um
090do we have twins? Yes, we do have twins, right? Um and then those families have to make those decisions, right? You know, with regards to >> the board of ed was aware last year where we were in the position to separate twins. We are making every effort to keep them together while still respecting the order of the lottery, which is why this the ability for people to pass up places, which then opens up other things, is going to help us. The big piece is the number of the twins, right? If one twin is number one and one twin is number 128, it becomes an impossibility. But as they get closer in number and we have openings, we're trying to juggle it where we keep the twins together as much as possible while still respecting the
091lottery number. >> Um, a couple of um, pieces. There's no um, secret to the data per se, right? Um, so similar to I think maybe a couple weeks ago, right, we created a Q&A and we did a look back period with some data in the last couple of years of number of students in district, you know, number of students on that went through the lottery. Um, so as the information kind of completes out, we absolutely can put something on the website to reflect total number of students, right, that are in the program. Again, it's no secret. We pay the state, right? The state pays us, I should say, right, in terms of um the funding for the seats. So it is data that we have to provide to them, right? in terms of how many
092students are in our program and how many students are in out of district. As Mr. Polo and Mr. um Payeyton shared beforehand, this is the first year um that we have partnerships without a district. That's not out of lack of trying, right? Because we did, you know, look for and and and seek those partnerships beforehand, but none had responded, right? Um so we are happy that we have those um in place. I would say that in terms of some of the uh so that's the publishing data, right? Um the um community, right? Um the child care piece, right? Some of the outside um locations do have the ability to offer AM and PM child care program, right? So, if that is something that is important in a family uh needs, um then those programs, right,
093may be more viable for them than maybe the indist program because they do have the option of an AM childcare program and a PM childcare program that the family would be able to um to to pay. Um I do understand and as Mr. um shared beforehand that um you know the the the timing piece right of other entities and and deposits right coming into play um that that it is tight right now right these places are saying like okay give your next deposit right and whatnot so we understand that dynamic for um you know it's it's a tough piece and I happen to I consistently kind of go in and out of a couple of the offices that are handling all of the calls and they're on the phone with families as one is okay
094we're still thinking about we're considering this, we're considering that, but we want to call the next one, but we need that response first, right? So, it is a constant piece that um a few people are are handling and addressing and doing those phone calls and emails, right, to immediately communicate with families so that we can get that going because we do understand that families need to also make decisions with regards to the outside um you know, entities. Um so we're moving that along as as quickly um you know as we can so that families can obviously in terms of make make those decisions for next year right um we've already you know we talked about a couple of different changes right there that was a recommendation with regards to the lottery changing a numbering system
095versus names um starting a little bit earlier in terms of kindergarten right and then UPK that still doesn't change right that the in district number of seats that number there right um as special education meetings happen right? Um solidifying in terms of that number in the absence of solidifying it at a smaller number, right? Um uh that that will happen later on, right? Um and certainly that would likely still happen if we say okay, you know, in in March we have two in district classrooms and then the rest are outside. Um and then in May, oh, we have an additional two. now envision the process of undoing because you're going back in terms of the lottery order right so it's a kind of a catch 22 right in terms of that process particularly when again
096it is you know there isn't a seat necessarily in terms of for everyone and there's preferences in and out so I would um say that in terms of any follow-up questions we can certainly you know have a conversation Mr. we can have another conversation, right? Or Miss Curling, right, to to continue the conversation of some of the other spec specific questions. Um, and in terms of the um research, right, um, we agree. Is she here? >> Okay. Um, in terms of the science research um, program, just an amazing group of students, right, in the AP course in Miss Urban's class, an incredible amount of brain power, as I say every time I walk in there. Um, you know, it is it is a a challenge, right? because you do need to have um the individuals,
097you know, go through the the training, the time, the desire, right, to continue that program. But we absolutely echo the same um wishes and sentiments, right, to to want to enhance and continue that. You need the student participation and you need also the personnel willing to do the training and the time to do that. So, we we agree um and um it's it's a ongoing conversation. And I would say that next steps would be having those conversations at the building level, but we need the personnel to do those. I don't know if you want to add anything to that, Mr. Payne. >> We tried to earlier on we tried a science research pro project similar to what was talked about and it just we couldn't get the participation both from the teachers and from the
098students. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, not that we shouldn't still look, but that was definitely pursued. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I'm going to actually suggest >> Oh. Yeah, sure. I don't know how to answer. >> So, I'm going to This is going to be kind of a little bit definitely off. Um, we're going to um make a motion to go into exec motion to go into exec uh a post exec, right, for individual um for contract um matters. Um and I'm going to suggest that we throw in there, we'll do so in about six, seven minutes so that we can have cake first on behalf of Kathy and Grace. So, We have cake. Then we're going to push everyone out so that we can enter post executive session. >> Have a piece if they
099would like. Correct. >> Exactly. So, yes. >> So, what was it? Motion to go enter into executive session for individual employee matters. >> Yes. >> And that was it. >> After cake. Correct. >> And parent request after cake. >> Kathy. >> Katie. All those in favor for the post exec and cake. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. Have a good night everyone.