001call this meeting to order of the uh Board of Education Pat Med business meeting at 7:32 would everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a little dis I I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands Nation indivisible andice for all good evening and welcome to the June 24th business meeting of the pat Medford Board of Education the last of the fiscal year um in the event the fire alarm system should activate please exit via any one of the marked doors proceed out of the building and away from the building please do not enter your vehicles and attempt to leave the property as you may impede the arrival of fire apparatus and smoking vaping and all kinds of other consumption of foul things is prohibited
002on school property and on public property within the state of New York additionally when it is time for public to speak we will be limited to 3 minutes per person with no sharing of time and please do not address specific staff members or specific students they should be taken offline with the appropriate administrator thank you okay moving along we have no uh number six we have no presentations or reports for this evening so we're going to move on to number seven where Brian frescon is going to make his ex official student member report final a good there any more FR us owners in the future there's there's one really cute one all right let's see clicker is going to work the last time come on make it happen here we go all right we're going
003to start with eagle yes all right all right Eagle hosted a um 415 student uh students and family members for a celebration of cultures from around the world each class researched a country and created a project with which was displayed throughout the building they also have performances on uh performances and food from around the world their theme for moving up this year was moving up his suite and Eagle also held a field day which we have a video from their opening ceremony it's it's quite funny and we also have a video from their kindergarten end of the year show so we're going to start with field day this is some pictures then that's [Music] poor she's get left was great it shars like a fish out of [Applause] [Music] water like mov oh my [Music]
004that was great all right now the kindergarten end of the year show [Music] Al righty that's all for Eagle South Ocean however South Ocean had their eighth grade dance and barbecue they also took part for the end of the year in the Cornell Cooperative relief K through 12 tree planting program where they had all grades participate in planting new trees outside inside the front of the building and then this is some pictures from the barbecue moving on to Kanan Kanan Elementary School welcomed the ALS ride for life with cheers and supportive posters there also their Glee Club performed at Kanan palooza Mr Epstein and his band also put on a wonderful show for the Kanan families then seniors from Patrick mford high school walk through Kanan on their final Senior Day Tour at Tremont tront
005has a lot going on so tront in addition to another successful Field Day in a few uh few yearend field trips they have created a community M uh mural in the cafeteria and create uh completed stem week challenges the Treemont Farm continues to grow each day with help from the Garden Club and volunteers from each grade level they are currently engaged in an ongoing fundraising uh fundraising effort to support two tront uh students with severe health problems in grades K and three their Community M uh mural spearheaded by Mrs go gold allowed each student to in the school to paint a portion of the world map on the wall in the cafeteria pictures of food students eat will now be added to the mural on their represented locations of origin although the painting is complete
006this moral will continue to grow each year grade five will be will also be creating another mural related to this concept on Monday they are starting a new tradition at tront each grade five class will leave a mural behind to beautify and educate students at traymont after they have moved up stem week at traymont was another success all students participate in their grade level challenges and learn valuable lessons about science and engineering grade five launched their student-built rockets in the courtyard with help from their teachers and all grades learned how to use basic tools and how to incorporate various aspects of design this is some stem weed pictures and then here's the community mural and then in Medford Medford held a national circus project which combines physical education with a circus skill it allows children
007to explore these various skills and to hone in on one of their interests the students not only learn the skills but in four short days were able to put on a performance in which their Scholars all participated in and then that's all but I have to say as we all know this is my final meeting as student representative on the board and I have to thank you all for such an amazing year it's something I'll always remember and I have to give a special shout out to the general Organization for providing me this opportunity um and to have this position and especially our our um outstanding adviser Miss Romani she is truly the Mind behind everything we do at the high school everything that that goes on whether it's homecoming Raider bowl or schoolwide events
008and drives I speak on behalf of my entire board when I say it couldn't have been done without her and we're not and we are so thankful to have her along this way and once again thank you all that concludes my final report may I I'd like to commend you Brian for doing an exemplary job in your role and truly reporting out through throughout the district on all the events um you truly took it to the next level um in so many ways shapes and forms um and we truly were proud of your your work this year congratulations on a job well done see you tomorrow and best of luck as you open a new chapter of Life congrats thank you right here we go um I would like to present you with this plaque
009uh the Board of Education of the Patrick Medford School District hereby recognized Brian frascona for the service and the participation as ex official student member of the board of education for the year 2023 through year 2024 school year presented on the 24th of June 2024 [Applause] man chairs chair picture I got 7 what I got 7252 what are we supposed to that's including those four positions those four positions you should be fine but we're still off cuz I have those she probably has one already congratulations Mr M good job got some thank you for raising find children okay all right so we're going to move on to item number eight which would be public comments on the reports but it would only be commenting on Brian any and consent agenda item okay Al righty U
010moving on to nine the consent agenda Dennis nothing is pulled from the consent agenda okay so can I have a motion I'll make a motion can I have a second that was kellyanne I'll second it bernardet okay let me scroll down a modified roll call tonight miss andr yes Mr jio is absent M Jennings yes m creger is absent Mr Salazar is absent M Smith yes Mr jenan yes the consent agenda was approved thank you okay moving on to item number 11 there were no actions arising out of executive so number 12 informational items uh first reading of policies 5144 and 6156 and that moves us on to number 13 which is superintendent's report Dr Jones thank you uh Mr President good evening to all in attendance there's not much by way of report tonight
011uh we have been flooded with so many wonderful things that have been going on in this District over the past month that if I try to report it out we'd be here a very long time tonight but I did want to highlight um what was going on with the scholarships that we gave away a few weeks ago to our um High I think it's almost 200 High School seniors we gave close to $440,000 which is more than doubled over the last three or four years so we're very proud of that uh giving the well-deserved uh money to the recipients was very exciting to see for the recipients and for the community Community paying it forward so I wanted to publicly thank the community uh for their generosity on that evening I also wanted to once
012again uh highlight the art and music uh Department um as well as the athletic department that had a very successful signing night for uh both the art and music students as well as the athletic students students this is the first year where they combined the effort and we were very excited uh to see that evening as well um there's just been so much the athletic teams are so many of them are going postseason and so many in the music department have achieved gold uh at status 6 with nisba uh we had the high school Wind Ensemble when go with distinction at level six we had the high school symphonic band goal with distinction level five high school concert band go with distinction level four High School Coral Ensemble go with distinction level six and the
013list goes on for like another 10 categories where we either accomplish gold or civil silver at um the levels with distinction so very proud of the music department in addition Scott Zari was chosen by schia to be the guest conductor of the division 3 West All County Orchestra not only is this an incredible honor for Mr Zari but also an incredible honor for our district our music department and the string department so I could continue on and on and on with all of the accomplishments that our students are are achieving in every way shape or form it's a very proud moment for a superintendent and I'm sure for a school board um to see all of these accomplishments and we're excited to get ready for graduation tomorrow weather is hopefully going to be very good
014tomorrow and we're looking forward to a wonderful evening that concludes my report Mr President thank you Dr Jones okay we're going to move on to uh number 14 which are committee reports uh buildings and operations is my group and we didn't have a meeting this month I think we're done for the year right Frank yes sir okay thank you um Finance um would be Mr denafo but he's not here so um Mr Maisy no there was no meeting since the last one either okay so nothing on finance districtwide technology that would be um Miss Smith um I think we reported on our last meeting at the last meeting and we haven't made met yet okay next year thank you extra curricular program would be trustees Jennings and Andrade all right so they discussed how um
015Mr kco and Mr Brickman are working together on the policy they will continue to work with it over the summer with feedback and updates and then um they'll send it out to the current members so that they can learn about it up to date and then um yeah it's the eligibility policy committee update um they already discussed that the policies put up maybe put into place in November and December um and the goals to have the policy bought for review to the fall let's see well we already that last week so we can just go into the so we we reported last last time about the the clubs and we were kind of talking about just different ways to have Equity across the board for all different subjects so each each Elementary School each middle
016school has the same amount of Arts music Athletics math Reading Writing all that so we have that across the board so we're going to still continue to take a look at that for next year and then we left off that we would like to start off in September with a questionnaire student survey in September grades 7 through 12 um about the mascot search and again just to go over from last time it was kind of something um like a ranking order one through five what's your favorite to choose and to make it super clear we're not um we're not getting rid of our name you know Petro Metford Raiders that's the same we're just looking for a mascot for the high school um so the choices that the committee came up with was animal military
017pirate Vikings Spartan or a knight that was what was listed here um if there's and then there was an O do you have anything else in mind so an open an open suggestion if someone wants to write something in so if anyone else here has a suggestion to add before September that's let open because this isn't this has hasn't happened yet um and then the idea was to go with the top two or three choices then to move forward with a design process that could also work it into a logo but the design proc process would happen from a professional that's are you are you including alumni in this process at all Yes actually but first with students to wean it down and then the top three choices I don't know whether I agree with
018that we talk to Mr to say so we starting off a student then it will go to staff um and administrators and then it will go after I mean it's definitely still up for discussion because it hasn't happened yet so I think you should think about that if there's feedback then we're open to feedback and we can relate it to Mr Brinkman and Mr crao for sure would we would are we only talking about the high school because two of our middle schools also don't have mascots South oan 7 through 12 so I guess we were but I right now it's right now it's just the high schol only Saxton has in yes or as I know we all adop the same any ones that be just something to think about okay yep we'll put
019that down um and then Mr CCO just wanted to make sure everyone's clear we're not replacing the name Patrick mford Raiders I said that already um r that was it really and then obviously it's the end of the year so um we will resume in September in September actually October all committees are disbanded as of tonight as of tonight well and it it is okay for them to continue to work on that policy is that is that okay with the board because yeah because your administrator is working on that that's fine they work can they include the certain specific community members that had started with them the prior year I don't see a problem with that but the committee is going to have to be reappointed in September or appointed in September to move forward
020but technically all committee work ends sign up so do they have to resign up for the summer or can they there's no summer they they'll sign up in the summer summer to be appointed in September but there but committees don't function during the summer right so if they wanted to continue policy Nate and Anthony want to work with certain members of the community over the course of the summer on this they're welcome to okay just yeah okay but it's not within the GU of the committee okay okay okay thank you thank you all right instruction and student support programs is uh trustee creger and Mrs Kennedy so we did have a final meeting where we shared out uh the committee had the opportunity to um talk about the first reading of the policy I explained
021to them that I presented um with the um board I actually had a meeting also following up with our uh teachers I met with the high school staff just to get some additional feedback on the policy so I will be recommending um some change as a result of the instructional Committee in addition to meeting with the teachers some minor tweaks to the policy that will be on our July agenda so I'm just um I got feedback from the high school there were some things that I thought were valid concerns one moving labs to be more formative assessments we did not have that listed so we're going to move that we also talked about um participation grades we had that going maybe um it will be every 10 days versus four times within a quarter so
022there was a little tweak there um there were some recommendations to maybe having more specific criteria for when work is late so there's consistency if late work gets sent in that there's a consistent um policy about how much can be deducted from a child's work consistent within a course the teachers felt that was necessary so there wasn't discrepancies there um and we also uh talked about having some more language that really spoke about how many days late before an assignment is not even giving credit like what is the grace period of course there's always extenuating circumstances and the policy will indicate that so those were um some of the takeaways from the feedback uh we also talked about long-term projects the policy said that we wanted grades to be within uh not to exceed 10
023days but we added some language just to say that if there was a long-term project or essays that required a little additional time we put some language in there so again um some good feedback from our teachers as well as our committee at our last meeting so I will propose those recommendations for a second reading for the board to consider for final adoption um and that's really what we we spoke about at our last meeting thank you Mrs Kennedy and finally would be legislation and that would be uh truste Smith tonight hi um legislative committee hasn't met but um uh a wrapup kind of of what we did do this year was um um we got some signage changed at midford elementary to still to to make Traffic Safety a a bigger priority so that
024people can't make a left off of think it's Dalia any longer um which was quite dangerous um so there's a no left turn sign there um we've talked about um um um oh cell phone towers we've reached out to the major carriers um I don't know if we've gotten any reply but we've reached out to the major carriers because cell phone service in that area is terrible um so we're trying to see if we can get somebody to step up um um and and help increase the that that um um there's been some con discussion around uh Charter Schools there's some confus it's not confusion there are two organizations two entities that can approve Charter Schools we are advocating that only one of them be it and it be the region um um not uh
025Regents and Sunni um um what else was the other one the zero emission buses is going to be a conversation for a while um uh as as good of an idea they may be um the planning is not in not in place the infrastructure is not in place and there's going to be a lot of people trying to get them to slow down on the deadlines because those deadlines are rapidly coming as to when we need to have zero Mission buses full fleets or like starting any new buses acquired will need to be uh zero emission um good idea but badly executed um that's about it unless you can think of something else Dr Cohen that I missed no I think that was a good summary we did get some responses from the cell phone
026carriers we'll continue that conversation into next year okay uh but they are looking at upgrades systemically additional antennas on towers that may help and some other uh they have some other solutions that may be a cost to the district but they have some proposals that will dive a little bit deeper into next year thank you oh and we also uh do the the the hard work by business office and um uh Mrs deliva we we were approved for um uh free lunches for the school district uh for the next I think it's three years um and I think that's uh at the legislative level they're trying to get that past the whole like New York state law which would be a great thing thank you trusty Smith moving on to item 15 discussion topics there
027is one listed for this evening talking about recess uh being utilized or recognized as instructional time and also field testing over the the course of the school year recess time had come up earlier in the year and field testing came up a couple of meetings earlier from today and what happened was we had conversation and um conversation between Dr Jones um trusty Andrade and myself going through a letter writing campaign and the suggestion was made that we go through New York State School boards Association and write a resolution so with that being said I reached out to uh Kathy Romano who was our area 12 representative for New York State School boards and asked her how to proceed with such a uh task and she put me in uh touch with Brian fesler who's our
028government relations department adviser with NBA and with polar soal who's the policies leader for um nisbar as well and what they did was they told me what we had to do they sent me actually a proposed resolution and bylaw Amendment kit which where we put down what we would like to see happen and the reasons why so I've already circulated a letter to my to the our board about field testing and I now have a letter for for um recess time and I will circulate that tomorrow and what I would like to do then is send both letters to Mr fesler and Miss soal to get the process started is everybody good with that hello yes okay all right so that's that thank you very much for that opportunity um moving on oh sure yeah
029of course sorry no that's okay um and and there a couple of things that we have to be mindful of um coming up to the Forefront I know one of them is I know we got a letter and I can't find it but what the um maybe the Mandate of the excessive heat in the room I know a lot of um people are opposed against that I'm almost positive that New York school Birds was opposed to that I believe so only because I I have I yes they are because what happens is what they're saying is the reason why they're oppos it is because when it reaches 88 degrees the teachers and the students now have to vacate and then where are we going to put them I have the whole letter and I guess
030I forgot it on my couch sorry um but I know we got it in one of our emails and I just can't find it that we got the letter and that's how we printed it out for it so if I can find it if not I'll scan it and I'll send you guys CU they are opposing that I know the second thing that's probably I don't know if it's going to come next year where Governor hoko might say no more cell phones in schools yeah so I know that's something that we have to look up oh so wait they you can have a cell phone but it has to be a flip phone I don't know why but that's what she said so um I know that's something that what's that on flip you can
031text on a flip phone I don't know what the reason for the flip phone is compared to a regular cell phone but I know that's something that maybe coming starting then next year or so and just to go just wanted to say there's been a lot of uh articles about this um and this is something that Mr tulan and I have been talking about um so we know that this may be something that's coming this way uh we're just trying to sort it all out and we were having some conversations so I'm glad to hear that it's being discussed in other places as well because we do need to be prepared in the event that that does happen yes and then the other two things I encourage everyone to go to the Border region site
032because the Blue Ribbon does have all of their PowerPoints for the pathways of um the different diplomas and what they came um up with their um what their decisions are the graduation measures so it'll be under that and then they also have the path forward literacy instruction initiatives for New York state that um they're also talking about so those are kind of two PowerPoints I think are beneficial for didn't get that what's that what was the second one the path forward for like literacy and science of the science of instruction of reading I can also send you the um I had the opportunity to watch the board meeting on the Blue Ribbon committee so I can send you the link um also for the live presentation so you can um hear the presentation as as
033well as you know seeing the PowerPoint so I can forward you yeah I can forward you both of those um so it seems like as as you had said um there's some changes changes are coming that's for that's for sure um and I will say that they're really moving away from even bunching credits together where right now it's very specific you need three credits in this they're looking to like cluster them a little bit to give I think more student choice they really didn't Define that but that's what I'm anticipating that'd be like stem courses and those stem courses can consist of a lot of different courses so I think good things I think it's going to take a minimum of two years because it also ties into Essa and um accountability so there's a
034lot of I think work that still needs to be done but I think great things will be happening for students in terms of pathway options thank you trustee Jennings okay moving on to number 16 which would be Community comments Mr Logan again you're limited to 3 minutes per person I will warn you at two and a half minutes and no sharing of time doesn't look like it right now check on okay so we have no Community comments so we're going to move on to number 17 which is board comments trusty Smith thank you um uh congratulations Brian um I thank you um I wanted to address quickly the uh the flip phones thing the reading that I've been doing um has been there there's a a a bunch of research out there now saying that
035um um recommendations are to limit cell phone smartphone specifically to ages middle school and up Social as a as a whole like we've we've messed we've broken our kids' brains by giving them cell phones and access to the entirety of the human knowledge too soon um so that's there's a lot of science there's a lot there's a lot of good evidence that this is this is a good way to go there's also going to be a lot of push back cuz we've we used to it um so that's going to be a big conversation um so there's that um and congratulations to everybody thank you trusty Jennings yes um congratulations to Brian um tomorrow's going to be great and then congratulations to Teresa because I know Sarah's graduation tomorrow um and then um just to
036add on to the sports are 4x1 um they had gone to States and they did really well they made it all the way up to the the final and um ran their hearts out so that was um a big accomplishment for for them so and if you want you could watch a really cool guy Quincy Wilson who is a 16-year-old who is in the final tonight of the 100 wow I mean the 400 sorry the 400 the finals he's finals of the 400 he does go to Bolis so hopefully he makes it to the Olympics that's crazy that's awesome trusty Andrade um I just want to say congratulations Brian and congratul ations to the class of 2024 looking forward to graduation tomorrow it's going to be a beautiful night it's always a beautiful day so
037that's super exciting and I'm thankful that Mark got the ball rolling for the um resolutions that we're going to send out for Recess Recess as instructional time I don't know if that who knows but it needs to be said and it needs to be asked in my opinion because I think recess is super important for our kids 20 minutes isn't enough they they need more time to play it could fall into social emotional learning so I've been very passionate about that for a long time and of course field testing it's just another thing not to put any pressure on administrators or superintendent but to say to our state like hey what are we doing how much testing do we really need we don't need to be we don't need to be doing that we need
038to be teaching in the classroom and talking and having conversations and learning so thank you for getting that ball rolling and thank you to the board for looking at it considering it and being on board so and it was a great year we're it's another year in the books yes three August next week or two weeks two weeks thank you all right um my final comments for 2024 is just that it was a great year we got a lot done um it was successful in many many ways for a lot of people put their hands Into the Fire and got stuff done so thank you to everybody that was involved with all the positive changes um looking forward to graduation tomorrow it's going to be a beautiful event it's a culmination of hard work through
039a very very challenging four years for this class they were the ones that entered the high school in the midst of covid that's when they came in so we'll talk about that tomorrow and um thanks for everybody for coming and that's it I'd like to make a motion to adjourn second I'll make the motion all in favor I I oppos motion carries motion carried good night everybody thanks for coming