001meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. All right. also keep in mind that smoking and use of gate projects are strictly prohibited on school grounds. This evening's meeting includes two opportunities for public comment. The first comment period is designated for remarks related to the consent agenda and for tonight's presentations. The second comment period is open for comments on any topic you wish to bring before the board. Please note that public comment portions of the meeting are for comments only. If you have questions, you are welcome to share them. However, the board will review and respond to those questions after the meeting in a timely manner as this portion of the agenda is not allowed for dialogue or immediate responses. During each public comment period, each speaker is allowed three minutes with no sharing of
002minutes. Please state your name and address before beginning your comment. You will receive a 30 second warning and will be asked to conclude at the 3minut mark. Please refrain from discussing with students or staff members. To protect individual privacy, such concerns must be directed to the appropriate administrator. All comment should be directed to the board of education president. Thank you. >> Thank you. We'll now move on to the public hearing regarding revisions to the districtwide school safety. The board of education will conduct a public hearing in order to update the committee on recommended changes to the districtwide school safety plan. After presentation, members of the board of education and those in attendance will afford the opportunity to ask questions and make comments regarding the plan. The revised plan is the beginning on November 21st, 2025
003for a 30-day public comment period. The board of education may consider a resolution to improve the district 5 safety plan at this meeting and um director of security will make a presentation regarding the handcreen measures and protocols that are being implemented to protect our students and secure the safety as part of the public hearing presentation. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. So um we were required by the New York State Education Department to create a cardiac emergency response plan. all school districts uh in New York State. Governor Cole signed into law uh in 2025, July of 2025, requiring all districts to uh implement uh a cardiac emergency response plan. So, I'm just going to go through it real quickly. So, the purpose of this plan is to ensure a coordinated evidence-based response to sudden
004cardiac arrest and other lifethreatening cardiac emergencies. The plan establishes clear procedures for rapid recognition immediate CPR and prompt use of an ADD. The plan applies to students, staff, and visitors on school grounds and at all school sponsored events. The plan aligns with DEA's law, New York State Education Law, and public health law. A little bit of a background. Dea's law was enacted following the death of Deacius Anders, a 12-year-old student in Western New York who suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during his visible activity at school. Although the AED was present in the school building, it was locked and not immediately available, which delayed life-saving care. The purpose of patients laws to eliminate barriers to AED access and require school districts to formally plan for cardiac emergencies. The district cardiac emergency response plan will apply to
005all school buildings and all school grounds. The plan applies during instructional day and during school sponsored events, including athletics, extracurricular activities, field trips, and off-campus programs. The plan will integrate nationally recognized guidance from the American Heart Association and aligns with local emergency medical service response protocols. So, recognition of sudden cardiac arrest, district staff are trained to recognize warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest. Warning signs will include collapse, unresponsiveness, abnormal or absent breathing, chest pain, dizziness, extreme fatigue, and the absence of a pulse. Early recognition is critical to activating emergency response procedures and improving survival outcomes. In the event of a suspected cardiac emergency, staff are directed to immediately call 911 and follow dispatcher instructions. Building administration is notified at the same time emergency services are activated. All staff have access to emergency communication tools, including
006classroom phones with all call capability, portable radios, and access to the nurse's office, security, or the principal's office. AEDs are located in accessible and clearly marked areas throughout the school buildings and athletic venues. AED locations are identified on building level emergency response maps. Also, signage is will be posted at the main entrance of all the build of all the school buildings. AEDs are inspected, maintained, and tested in accordance with manufacturers guidance and public health law requirements. Each school building has a registered nurse assigned daily. Each building maintains a roster of staff certified in CPR, AED use, and first aid. All athletic coaches are required to maintain current CPR and AED certification. administrators, security personnel, bus drivers, monitors, and other staff at Maine receive voluntarily voluntary CPR and AED training. All staff receive annual training on
007recognizing and responding to certain cardiac arrests. An AED is present at all school sponsored athletic events. The certified athletic trainer is present at high school athletic events and selected middle school athletic events. For off-campus events and field trips, at least one trained staff member is designated as the emergency responder. An AED accompanies school groups when an AED is not readily accessible at the event location. So some of the emergency response actions in the event of an emergency staff will ensure scene safety activate emergency medical services. CPR initiated immediately by trained personnel when indicated. An AED is retrieved and applied without delay. EMS care upon arrival. AED data is preserved. EMS and hospital review when applicable. Parents and guardians are notified in accordance with district procedures. As far as documentation, cardiac emergency dissident are documented using
008district accident and incident reporting procedures. A post incident debriefing is conducted with involved staff. Each building maintains a venue specific cardiac emergency response plan consistent with the district annex law requires that the districtwide school safety plan include a cardiac emergency response provisions. The districtwide safety plan must be reviewed by the board of ed at a public meeting and the plan must be posted for public review and comment for a minimum of 30 days. Following the public comment, the plan must be adopted by the by board resolution. >> Any questions? Okay, we're going to make a motion to approve the districtwide safety plan where the district districtwide safety plan has been reviewed and revised by the district administration and school safety committee and the board of education held public hearing from the proposed plan on January
00912th, 2026 and completed the required 30-day public comment period. Therefore, appear to resolve that the board of education hereby approves revised districtwide school safety plan for the 25 to 26 school year and authorizing the district administration to submit it to the New York State Education Department. So, I have a motion. I'll make a motion. >> All in favor? I motion carries. Um, next we're going to move on to the presentations of Unifi Dr. Jessica Lucas and Mr. Anthony Graco for presenting unified banner awards to the following students and staff members that contributed to our achievement and being recognized as special Olympic champion national banner schools. Good evening. This evening we are proud to share a meaningful achievement as our member high school has been recognized for the special Olympic unified champion national banner. This distinction
010honors our school's ongoing dedication to creating welcoming environment that provides meaningful opportunity for all students and ensures that everyone feels valued, supported and included. This honor is the highest level of recognition you can receive through unified sports. It celebrates our excellence and leadership in creating inclusive communities. We are one of only two schools in all of Southern County who has achieved this and only one of nine in New York State. Since we launched unified sports in 2019 has been on the forefront of inclusion revolution. Students with and without disabilities have come together as teammates, leaders, and advocates building a school community rooted in acceptance, belonging, and pride. This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication of our staff, our coaches, adviserss, and of course our students. All that give their time, their passion,
011and their heart to make unified sports such success. Together, we have proven what's possible and we inclusion. This banner belongs to all of us here. It is a symbol of the culture that we have built together. Uh a special invitation to our champion school is one that can champions exemplify the inclusive school climate. One rooted in collaboration, engagement, and respect among all students. Next step schools that earned the national banner recognition have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 nationally recognized standards of excellence developed by a national panel of leaders of professional Olympics and educational community. Tonight, many of those individuals that helped in our program success are here with us tonight and we invited them to come up here uh to be recognized. So, please join me and Mr. Chicago in honoring
012these students and their staff their commitment to inclusion teamwork and we'll hear a little bit from so we'll now hear from some of our unified athletes and partners as they share the impact of the unified physical education and athletics have had on their school experience. Um and just again a special thank you to really everyone. This is a uh this program really is the work of many um staff, parents, everyone in the community has has contributed and it's something I'm exceptionally proud of to be a part of and it's it's truly a joy to to watch it look forward each and every day. So first our who's our first student. So um please just introduce yourself and then share your greatest memory of participating in athletics. My greatest memory is spending time with my friends.
013Um I'm I'm and I'm when I'm feeling defeated my they bring me up and tell me I got this and I can win means what it mean when I when I went when when I went in hell in golf that was so also so good memory. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, just just introduce yourself to everybody and please share what your greatest memory is. My name is Leon and my greatest memory was participating in uni school because I get a lot from that. I believe it and I like taking a bus to play against medical school. I remember coach travel coaching and coaching and helpful and coach giving me my number. Hi, my name is Sophia. Um, my greatest memory was during my first week of school. I tricked on blue and everyone started calling
014me Superman. Hi, my name is Holly and my greatest memory is when an athlete made a shot of work during our game and everybody was cheering even the other team. And our second question for each is what does it mean to you that Patrick met High School's unified champion national batter? It means that everyone comes together to play a sport and it is really cool and it and it's recognized for Yeah, big joining everyone sport and participate together. To me, it means that Pman is doing its best to prioritize inclusivity and really ensure everyone has a place to do it. It means a lot because I feel like our school tries to be very inclusive and now you're putting in the work and being our fans for it. I don't know. Oh yeah. I must
015have Absolutely. >> Yes. You guys have anything Look at the camera. That was great. >> Thank you. >> Good. Thank you. Yeah. You might do that first. Thank you. Thank you. How are you? >> Good. >> Yeah, Coach Traa. Congratulations. How are you? >> Good job, Riley. Thanks, Good job. Thank you so much. >> Thanks. >> I just also want to point out I teach the audience and she was not able to make it last month when we highlighted our employees of the month. So now you can stand up. Congratulations on the recognition. Next, we're going to move on to the fourth by a little bit about policies. Okay. Um, talking a little bit about also empathize informed as well as taken seriously in discussions that have influence on them. >> I appreciate that that
016the expectations as well as the limitations are fully um showing setting boundaries but also allowing students to participate in discussions. Addition. In addition, this application process is especially inclusive offering um different application methods. Whether it be including a cover letter or resume, an essay or a video of submission. I think that this recognizes the different strengths um and communication style that one may have um as well as the requirement of having clear petitions. This would reinforce that the student members truly represent the student body um not just themselves. And most importantly from this, I think that this will allow students to feel heard um establishing that sense of communication between the board and the student body overall allowing a safe space for their opinions to be shared. Um this past month I had the opportunity
017to sit for a virtual conference with Mr. Sosi. Um it was an exitio summit and in this conference I learned a lot about fostering connections with my school community. Um and one method in particular that really stood out to me was um creating a feedback survey. So in the conference we got put into um breakout rooms with other exitio students from different districts and one student from the Supreme Court shared that she has a survey sent to all students um with 24/7 submissions where students can submit like almost like blows and grows whether it be positive or negative feedback and things that they want to see um change me about. and she said that she really felt that it allowed for students getting to her building to have a safe space to share their opinions.
018I feel that having worked on the cell phone survey with Mrs. Kennedy. I can certainly say that a survey is a way of getting your response. Um I think that having a survey making like this available would be to submit ideas and concerns relating to any topic rather than just one will allow for new conversations to go out to the board. um as well as analyzing some data that can be shared out overall benefiting um the student body and >> thank you. Um next we're going to move on to public comments and reports and agenda items. So that means three minutes per person totally no more than 60 minutes and it's just author of any requests that you saw or any questions on um I just wanted to uh two things was one um was
019being recognized last month and I know that you're now but I did want to address something that um met together with um that they um implemented this year as uh as staff as student advisory. Um it has been really wonderful seeing these things where the kids are encouraged to go to support each other's um sporting events because sometimes some events will have more of a a turnout than others and the kids are excited to do that and they take their pictures because they're allowed their cell phones in. So, they do their selfies and and they take pictures and they post them and every every team is sharing all these posts and it's just it's a really nice um it's a really nice uh you know and it brings the kids together. Um, so I wanted
020to just, you know, thank her for that and just say, you know, kudos to another wonderful thing. And again, I I know I spoke about community, you know, several times, but you can see like when they come up and they present, everybody's faces have smiles and and your heart can't not be touched by it. So, it's just a phenomenal program and I just want to thank our district for, you know, doing all these wonderful things. Okay. Then move on to the consent agenda. So I have a motion to accept the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor? Okay, there are no items removed from the consent agenda for separate vote and there are no actions arising items exact. So the information is the poly policy first reading. The following policies will be circulated for
021first reading. that there are no changes. The policy will be included on the February 23rd, 2026 public education agenda, 4116.1 duty officer function and procedures, 4411 remote access comput, and 6181 displaying as we move on to the superintendent report. All right. So, first and foremost, happy new year. This is the first time we're seeing the community returning from our holiday vacation. So, hopefully everyone had some rest and relaxation with family and friends. And we wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. I'd like to first acknowledge our unified uh presentation. It is an honor to work in a district that has unified sports and really um embracing all students. So I'm so proud and honored that we have won this award. So thank you for uh Dr. Lucas and Mr. Krakco for making this possible.
022We appreciate all the effort. You two were very instrumental in bringing this to our district and we appreciate that. uh generation citizen. I'd like to let the community know that our district was in New York City this past weekend um last week and we actually uh had a winner. Addison Ruben won student change maker award. So congratulations to our generation citizens group. We had two projects. The students were working on a safety which is really looking at the safety of Apple Lane and Short Street where they were working with our local police department and also they were presenting on an app that they're looking to promote advertising of clubs and sporting events. So those were the two projects. They do have a uh presentation this Friday. So I know our board trustees, many of you
023may be attending that. I will also be attending that this Friday at our high school. Um, exciting news this weekend that I received from our director of athletics. We had an amazing track uh team events. We had three of our students break some uh district records. So, Common Jennings, uh, congratulation trustee Jennings, uh, in the 1,000 meter, set a new record for Patrick Medford. Evan Frasier set a new record for the 300 meter. Colin was the 1,000 meter and Jeremy Nuome with the shot. So, congratulation to all of our athletes who set new records. That is such an accomplishment. Um, this week we'll be starting our elementary winter concerts. I also will be attending and I know some of the assistant students will be attending as well. Our concerts prior to vacation were amazing. I
024know I saw a lot of our community there. The students always seem to um amaze me with their talents and as well as our teachers. Um, I did have the opportunity. I'd like to congratulate one of our community members, Michelle Laam Martino. I was reading in the advance, she she won the Long Island Advance Inspiration Award winner. So, congratulations to Mrs. La Martino. She does a lot for our community in the district and um within her local community. So, that's that's an honor for her and her family. Also, we are Thank you to the high school uh Miss M, our assistant principal, for putting together some vaping um presentations that started today at our high school. As I shared with the community, vaping is an ongoing issue that we are battling with our students at
025the high school. I'm very transparent on that and we've been working on bringing in new programs for our students. That was today. It will be tomorrow. I will be up there tomorrow to sit on those presentations as well as a parent workshop that we scheduled for January 20th at 7:00 in the high school auditorium. I will be sending a reminder out to the community. It is vital that our families partner with us. Um we can't solve this problem without you. So I hope that we have a nice showing for that. And I am um very pleased to announce, I know I've been reporting to the board multiple times, but we did receive word that the Patrick Medford School District was um awarded the Emerald Culinary Garden and Teaching U Grant. It's something that we were
026working on at Sheline Elementary and we are um the recipients. We are the first school on Long Island to receive this farmtotable grant where our students will be learning culinary skills at an elementary level and that is an award of a half a million dollars over five years. So, thank you to the Tmont team for making that possible and for Dr. Kelly um working with me on that. It required a lot of um collaboration and the team up there is going to benefit and it ultimately will benefit the entire school community because we're starting it small and and hope to grow it. So, we're hoping to break ground on that in April and potentially have it opening up in September. That is an aggressive goal, but we're looking to accomplishments. So, congratulations, Trayon. Congratulations, Dr.
027Kelly. And I see one of our teachers there. Uh so thank you Crystal for all your help in getting that done. Crystal when we had a visit she was um outside with all of our chickens and showing them. So I think that sealed the deal if you ask me once they saw all the the livestock. That was it. So congratulations uh to the entire Tmont team. So I think that is my updates trustees. I'll turn it over to our assistant students to see if they have anything else that they'd like to share. >> I really don't have anything other than to say happy new year. Everybody enjoyed the holiday. As uh Mrs. Kenny said, we have concerts coming up the rest of this month. I'm looking forward to two of them this week at Kanan
028and Eagle and look forward to uh those concerts as they've been doing an outstanding job throughout the holiday season. Thank you. Just briefly, um our building administrators and our directors are working with Dr. Deb Duca and Dr. Rich Hawkins um to assist with chronic absenteeism at the schools. Um just briefly, if a student misses approximately 15 days of school for the entire year, they're considered chronically absent. So, this is something that we are working closely with them to really find ways to get our students in school. Uh the secondary uh team met with them last week and actually tomorrow. uh Dr. Jul and Dr. Hkins will be with us for elementary. >> Good evening. Just a couple quick updates to let everyone know some exciting happening with bond projects. Uh as I reported last month,
029we're moving ahead full steam, but now it's really starting to take shape. So, some of the more notable things are regard to the high school. The bleachers and grand stands will be delivered within the next few weeks. looks like maybe early February you're going to see the team putting roll in and they'll start with some of those anticipation of having to be done for the latter part of the spring season. So that's exciting. U along with the completion of the interior work for the gymnasiums. Uh with regard to the theatrical projects, the schedule now has been intentionally set for high school to be done during the month of February. Saxon will take place during the month of April and then Oregon in the month of May. I assume we can get some preliminary work done.
030Otherwise, we'll flip that with South Ocean. But we did want to get Oregon done to do a future stars camp returning this summer again to Oregon and we'll have one of those two schools done this summer in May. And then the last piece is the uh much anticipated HVAC work for the new new ventilators. Preliminary work has already begun. They've already been doing wiring here during the Christmas recess, doing a lot of the electrical work um in in uh South Ocean and some legal. Uh and the anticipation is that now the kids will be equally ordered and those projects are slated to begin. So it'll be exciting now for the community to see the next phase and we're just getting a little bit ahead of us as we talked about this is when we will
031start the borrowing piece and the initial essence on what's the trust is done for us but um we're going to have that information share to update the community as to what we projected first referendum and now we're going to see this really coming you hear more about that during the finance uh and operation Good evening. Uh my CAD, which is the Long Island Council of Alcohol and Drug Prependants, presented to our sixth grade students at the middle schools this past week. Um their presentation was focused on social media and mental safety. It was an interactive presentation that helped students better understand how social media platforms are designed to capture attention, the role of the dopamine in motivating online behavior, and the average amount of time that teens are spending on social media. Our students explored
032this concept of digital footprint, including the risks of oversharing and the permanence of online content. Presentations address online safety concerns such as privacy and security, cyber bullying, and potential legal and emotional consequences of sharing inappropriate content, including sexing. In addition, students examined the impact on social media that has on mental health, including stress, anxiety, self-esteem, and pure relationships. The program emphasized responsible online decision-making, empathy, and values based on behavior while encouraging students to seek support from trusted adults and take action when they feel that they are unsafe online. And we're going to continue our partnership with Black and coming in throughout the year. Thank you. Next, we're going to move on to community reports. Um, we build in operations and finance, but we had a joint meeting together. Justice. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. and
033practicing it. Okay. So, we had a meeting on January 6th of a joint meeting with finance and budget and operations. Um, we talked about the bond project and Mr. you jump in if I'm not saying this clearly, but the HVAC um project at South Ocean Bay and Tmont um as well as the lighting projects at the secondary schools were recently left let out to bid. The original estimate was $35 million is now projected to be $21.7 million which was a savings um to the taxpayer um from about $75 annually to $25 annually. Um, we discussed the energy performance contract. Um, we reviewed the energy conservation measures including solar panels and LED lighting. Um, and this is a savings of just over $1.2 million and released in the district. Um, and then we discussed the Bay
034Capital Reserve project. Um, the contaminated soil um with the asbestous removal that was carried away uh cost the district approximately $500,000. Um and then we just discussed that new new options will be presented for review um for us to decide what to do moving forward and any um changes would go out to the community for a vote if I'm >> if need and districtwide technology. >> Um for districtwide technology, we had our last meeting was it? So we haven't had a meeting since our last >> extra. All right. So, we had extra pickler on the seventh and we talked about the three um logos and graphic design for the mascot that we were going to look into. We had to bring it back cuz we had a lot of people on what it looked like.
035So, we're going to um bring it back before we bring it up and really um bring this to the board. And then we decided to break next meeting we're going to break it to three subgroups. want to talk to me about a community art show. Um to see how we can work with maybe um PAC for that and maybe how like kind of what we can do with that. Um talking about district signs and how we can do the signs, what kind of signs we're going to put up and where we're going to put them. and then talking about maybe narrow maybe um for the past having the community tend and kind of different forums and then kind of looking at our school day to kind of break it up between extra um extra help
036and clubs. Um next up is instructional and student programs. >> So with that um our last meeting was December. We have not had meetings until last year. Okay. Um, uh, we met a couple days ago, I think. Um, and had a a presentation by Gregory Walls from Long Island charter school, charter schools. Um I will be sending a suggested regulation that they're offering to um advocate for legislation uh requiring charters schools need to be approved by the impacted communities. Um um um informationally uh Long Island schools for the past 40 years 85 school districts lost 539 million 53 million59,000 two charter schools patch Medford uh over the past four years paid somewhere in the vicinity of 73,000 and that was 163% increase to charter schools. that's not coming from our student because we've had how
037many students going to charter school? >> 15 students going to charter schools. So, this is this is a significant issue. Um, and it's going to be pushed um and our next meeting is going to be on public legislative breakfast on February 1st. >> Huh? Saturday. Feel free to think any um board discussions or updates. Next, we'll move on to public comments. >> Hi, my name is Abby. I live in South Prospect in Patcha. I have two kids in River Elementary and I'm one of the youth services librarians at the public library. Um I'm here to express my concern and the concern of several other parents and community members about the reduction in library services at the schools at the elementary school. Um at our kindergarten and first grade students have had library three times so
038far this year. My older student has done it 13 times this year. Um it's my understanding that the decision to reduce library hours had a lot to do with um the New York City mandate was to provide more physical education and I absolutely agree that at that young age like physical education is a huge priority. Um but some schools like Tron for example were able to provide like library for their kindergart this year and also um um so I'm curious about why some schools had more library lies than other schools will not. Um we also the other parents and I am curious what the intentions are for the school boarding the um evolution. Um, and we're just looking for I think Hello. Um, I had some concerns about the lack of bathrooms or available bathrooms
039at the high school for our boys. Uh, I know that there's an issue right now with plumbing, but I'm wondering like what we're doing to fix it or how soon is it going to be resolved because at this point there are no available or open bathrooms on the second floor for the boys to use during the school week. Um, I will end this with 20 advice, but it is a map of the voting with the times that are available when they're aids there, when they're not, if they're pulling people, if they're not. So, I know we're short statute people right now. There's some situations that happen. Um, but some those uh toilets aren't functioning. Some of the bathrooms are closed because the stalls can't be used, but we don't have them open because the urinal
040like I just curious what we're doing to resolve that issue. And it's taking right now because the kids are having to make a pass and go halfway across the building about 20 minutes to go to the bathroom and it's taking half their class time, literally half their class time to go to the bathroom. Um so I'm just hoping that we can resolve that soon. I also had a question regarding the um recent hall sweeps and bank searches that are going on at the high school. Like I know after today's incident and I got the message regarding situation at the high school that I'm not saying it's not important to check our school kids and monitor their safety. But I am a little concerned about why we are putting false sweeps and searches together and making
041that like something where if you get caught in false sweep that you're automatically searched. I'm not sure that that's something that we should be doing or that I want to say legal, but it doesn't seem right. So, I'm just concerned that maybe we need to address Thank you. >> It's interesting that just brought up. >> Yes. So, it's interesting that that was brought up the hall suites and bag searches and those types of things because I actually reached out to the high school this week on the way to school. Uh me and this week my daughter had a lot of anxiety. She's like, "Please, we got we got to get there." I'm like, "There's traffic from Buffalo. I can't drive any faster." And she's like, "But mom, I got to get into class before they
042lock the door." What's the nervousness? You know, she's never late to class. She's never had a history swept up in the hallways. But I guess not only are they taking kids who are late at the bell by locking all the doors, they're kind of bringing them to one central location, which could happen very far from where their class actually is located. Then they go there, they get written up with just notified that you've been late and you can only get a certain number per day or per week. I don't know how that all works, but then they have to go back to class. So now they're not only a minute or two late, but they've also missed so much of their class time going to the central location, getting their passing class. And she did
043mention that in addition to the hall weeks, which I don't want kids wandering, we have to make sure kids pass on time, that a lot of kids are getting ded because of their cell phones. And um I said, well, you know, aren't they pouches? a copy of that using them during this time when they're getting into trouble for host and she said no they're searching bags at that time so they're kind of conflating the get on time with searching bags and my understanding about policy is really where I'm most concerned I read through the policy policy 5100 all that whole section and we're not supposed to search bags and so this is a kid you know I got to take this with a grain of salt I don't know if our buildings are searching backpacks,
044they're allowed to feel the outside of the bag. They can ask a student to open the bag in the event that they have reasonable cause from a reasonable source that there's suspicion that they have something. So, it doesn't seem like being late to class unless their AirPods are in at that moment is a reason to ask a student to open their backpack or to see their number. So, I just I came in today with that question, but I had reached out to Dr. R. I spoke to a dean of the high school. I'm waiting to get back um over the phone from Dr. R. He did message me. I know today was a busy day. We're hoping to talk tomorrow, but the dean that I spoke with, she said, "Well, you know, we can search
045their bags and that isn't the policy. So, if it's not being used appropriately, Dr. R and I can talk about this more and hopefully you guys on the board and the administration can all have more conversations. Even during um very metal detectors, you know, they're not supposed to search the bag. There are policies about how that's done. You ask kids at least twice to please show you anything in their bag. How other people need to be with you when you're going through items, how they tag and pet. So the policies are pretty clear. Hopefully, you know, this is just kids saying, "Well, they took my phone. They're mad about it." You know, rather than people not following policy for their kids. Um, talk about being in elementary, too. Get them, you know, aware of how
046danger it is for the high school. Congratulations. I think that's fantastic. Thank you. I had to play but um as well prospect um I have a first grader and sixth grader my biggest concern is um literacy education um especially um status um these kids are not seeing actual novels. They're not holding books in their hands. Um I have my my girls love reading. Um but my sixth grader hates hates hate school because she can't have um and that's so heartbreaking. Um you really need to get books back in the hands of these kids. Um and I have wor technology education. Um I worked in the IT department school district for several year several years. Um, but it needs to be balanced. They need to have books. They absolutely need to hold novels and read. So,
047my name is Michael. >> My name is Michael. I'm a student at Valley School. And I know it's apparent to address some concern about mages. And I feel like if you're not doing anything wrong, then you shouldn't have a problem with your bag search. If you're getting your phone compensated for it not being locked in your pouch, but it's New York state law that your phone is supposed to be locked in your yonder pouch. So I felt that I felt I should be trans and yes it is a policy that you know sometimes you feel like separate students being searched but if you're searched and somebody's finding you bad that's in trouble then that is your problem. You're the one that have that in your bag and should not be in school and if you
048feel that you're late to class and that's taking away from your education then you shouldn't be late to class. Thank you. Okay. The board has to go back into exact session. So, we are going to um go to session. I'll make a motion. Second. I'm sorry. Say that again. >> No, we're going to do it after. Hey. Hey. Hey.