001resume public session at this time at 7:31. Would everybody please rise to the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of America to the stand. Mr. Le, would you Please read the safety message and the welcome ground rules. Thank you. Good evening and welcome to the April 28th, 2025 meeting of the Patrick Medford Board of Education. In the unlikely event of an emergency, please use the exits located at the front and rear of the auditorium to exit the building. Do not attempt to drive away as you may impede the arrival of emergency services. Please be advised that smoking and the use of vape products are strictly prohibited on school grounds. There are two public comment portions to the board of education meeting. The first will be for comments relating to the consent agenda
002items and or presentations. The second public comment section will will open for any topic you would like to bring to the board. During each of these public comment times, each speaker will have three minutes with no sharing of minutes. Please state your name and address when you approach the podium. You'll be warned when you have 30 seconds remaining and asked to conclude after three minutes. Please refrain from discussing specific students or staff members. to protect their privacy. These matters should be discussed with the appropriate administrator. Please direct all questions or comments to the board of education president. Thank you. Okay, moving on to item number six, presentation and reports. First, we have up employees of the month and we'll hand it over to Dr. Cole. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm delighted to present uh our
003employees of the month for this month. And first I'd like to welcome up is Maria Leon Paneros. Maria is a guidance counselor up at our high school. Maria, you received multiple nominations for this endorsement due to your positive impact, empathy, kindness, and advocacy, and working with the students at the high school. Your colleagues note that you consistently go above and beyond by purchasing token gifts for students in need, such as a soccer ball or flowers for a student who presumed in the play. In addition, utilize your free periods to teach literacy skills apparently to students uh exhibiting academic difficulty. Your presence at extracurriculars instilling value and belief in your students to help them reach their full potential. We appreciate the way that you are making meaningful connections to support students, parents, and staff. Congratulations on
004this welldeserved recognition. You will be receiving an employee of the month mug and a certificate of appreciation. So you can there. Maria, congratulations. I ju I just like to echo the words of Dr. Cohen. Uh Maria, you are a delight. Uh we are very fortunate to have you. You're kind. You're always willing to go the extra mile for kids. Uh we are truly very fortunate to have you on our staff. Congratulations on a welldeserved honor. Absolutely. And next up, I'd like to bring up Hillary Walker, TA at Medford. Hillary, how are you? I am good. Hillary is a former student of mine from Traymont many years ago. So, Hillary, you received multiple nominations for your unbelievable work ethic, your commitment and versatility to support a colleague who is absent on leave. Uh, this required you
005to translate entire day to support the staff during during their leave. You exhibit a wonderful disposition. You are well organized and you do not hesitate to jump in and assist wherever needed. You have consistently demonstrated a passion for teaching and I want to implore you to go after that in your future endeavors. Right? Don't give up on that. All right? And a commitment to being a team player. You truly wanted want the best for the students and your contributions have helped to support a culture of care for your entire team. Way to be an upstander and congratulations. And you know, I would just like to say too, Hillary, I know you've had to overcome some obstacles in your life and I appreciate the way that you've done that. You have a tenacity about you and
006you have so much potential. So, go get your uh your your goals. Go for them. Okay, don't hold back. All right, congratulations. Congratulations, Hillary. I echo those sentiments. Go and finish everything that you need. You'll be an amazing teacher someday. And thank you for whatever challenges you have faced have made you stronger, wiser, and more prepared to care and be empathetic for the students that you will deal with on a daily basis. So congratulations for your recognition this evening. Thank you. I invite up Dr. Jones and the board to take a picture. All right, three hours. I'm teasing you. I'm looking forward to it. Yes. Okay. Um on our agenda, uh next up is uh in item B is the homecoming presentation by the ASUS students. That's going to be made in our May meeting,
007not this evening. So we're going to move on to item number letter C which the disconnect debrief presented by assistant superintendent for instruction Mrs. Kennedy and Mr. Tulin and Mr. Tulin I know I see that. All right. So, good evening everyone. Joining me today is Mr. Tulin, our PMCT president, and we're going to be presenting on smartphones in schools. So, tonight we have a few items that we would like to discuss with you. The first one we're going to go over is Governor Hokll's initiative. We're going to debrief on our disconnected conference that we attended. We're going to talk to you about some facts um and research on social media and cell phones. We're really going to dive into some district data. We're going to be talking about yonder pouches and we're going to be
008discussing some of the next steps we have to take as a school district. So, if you have not heard already, Governor Hokll does have a distractionfree school initiative that's part of the state budget which still has yet to be passed. But if it does, we do believe that this um distractionfree school initiative law will come into place. And what this law is really covering is the fact that school districts K12 will have to put in policy that restrict cell phones bell-to bell within the school day beginning September 2025. What it does speak about is that there are some allowances which would be really based on students with medical needs um or if it is something that's on a child's IEP. But it also does speak to the fact that we do have to have board
009policy. It is giving uh latitude to districts to put into place what they feel is necessary for their school building. And it does say that that policy does have to be in place by August 1st. that may be adjusted um since the budget has not been passed and the law has not been approved yet and it's already almost May so that may not be possible and it does speak to the fact that students are permitted to have a cell phone if it does not connect to the internet. So a u old-fashioned flip phone is something within the law that would still be permitted within the school and obviously any districtowned devices would be permitted. But it is important to know that this is not just about cell phones. This could be your AirPods that you
010use. Anything that would connect to social media, an Apple Watch, all of that would be restricted bell-to-bell. And it does outline that it's not just in the classrooms. It does speak about passing time in the halls. It talks about the cafeteria. It speaks to recess. So, they're really when they say bellto bell, they mean bellto bell. So, this is some of the um bullet points. And I think it's important to know um if you look at that last bullet point, it also speaks to the fact that districts would have to um publish on their website um a report each school year that really talks about all the infractions that it face due to um bell-to-bell and students who are not following their policy. So again, these are this has not been officially approved, but we
011do believe uh that it will be approved. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Kenn. Um so if you remember, I think back in October, I came to you to the podium and I talked about the NISTIT conference that was upstate that I attended. And when we went to that conference, we felt that it was really worthwhile that we said to NICE, "You need to do it down here." So we put together a conference in March um where we had almost 350 teachers, parents, school administrators, school board members come together at the Huntington uh Hilton and everybody walked away with the same kind of understanding. Uh we did have the fortunate ability to have two of our students sit up on the deas uh Michael Damasi a nth grader he's the nth grade class president as well as
012Nai Dandic who's the 10th grade class president uh we felt that it would be great to bring them in as they were going to be the underclassman that would be living through the changes rather than bring our senior class president or our geo class president uh geo president that were graduating out. Um the students that were on the panel discussed a little bit about um the fact that it's not just the cell phone, but it's the text companies. The text companies are making algorithms that make the children want to uh keep communicating and to keep making those notifications go away. Um we did invite uh the high school principal, Dr. Rulitz. Um we had an assistant principal from the high school. We had a middle school principal attend as well as Miss Kennedy and myself.
013Um, so we first talked about some of the facts and nice presented information that was somewhat alarming on students. And I'm not going to read every one of these, but if you look between the last uh between 2015 and 2021, um, the percentage of children in the United States who own smartphones increased across all age groups. And as a bad parent myself, u my eight-year-old does have a smartphone or did have a smartphone three years ago. So, I am, you know, as I stand here, I, you know, I I got to be hypocritical of myself. Um, but in 2015, 11% of the eight-year-olds had smartphones, right? And that jumped to 31% and that's four years ago. And, and the problem is these things are becoming so much cheaper to add phones to policies, parents are
014just throwing them on and giving the the phone to their child. Um so if you take a look at that they surveyed a survey went out um amongst parents of where their children are spending their time on their phone. And if you look they're spending on average 4 hours a day on on their smartphone. You know you could ask a child today you come into the classroom and say you know what are you watching on TV and and in my day we would have said something like wheel of fortune. The kids respond now by saying YouTube. They can't identify the show, the channel, the topic. They just use the overarching headline of I'm watching YouTube. Um, other things that they're spending a lot of time on. I I was talking to students today. I didn't
015know about the app Discord, but that, you know, learned about that recently, but they're on all these communication apps that are constantly changing. Uh, Snapchat, where they think the messages actually disappear. Um, so they're spending lots of time um, just on their phones and it's impacting their social media. Um, if you take a look at the information that came out from a study in 2023, it says that uh, teens who spend more than five hours a day on social media were two and a half times more likely to express suicidal ideation. Right? And we're seeing that the social workers, the guidance counselors in our schools are reporting that there's a large increase in those kinds of thoughts. Um 2.4 times more likely to hold a negative view of their body and 40% more likely to
016report sadness. Right? It it's alarming what's happening to our students rather than being outside just playing uh with a ball or their peers. Um so why bell-to-bell restrictions? And as Miss Kennedy said, we're looking at at the high school like a first period, lock up your phone and and get it back uh opened around 9th period, not not in between the um in the in between the classes, you wouldn't have access to it. Um so again, I talked about the increase in anxiety and depression. Um also, there's pressures there's pressures from the students that they have to respond to their friends instantly. These children are not learning, right? And if we make this about learning, they're not learning that you can prioritize work and you can do this now and deal with that later. And
017I think we all deal with it in our own lives feeling like I, you know, Dr. Cohen emailed me at 7 o'clock, so I got to get back to him at 7:30 last night, then he writes me back at 8:00. And we never disconnect, right? That was the name aim of our conference. So we want to teach children that you can prioritize that moment. You know, we we've talked about mindfulness. We talked about all kinds of things in our schools the last few years and this is another piece of that in my eyes. Um, you know, you think about, you read the speech about what we can and can't do outside with with smoking. When I went to school here, the students could smoke on campus. Not that you were supposed to, but they did,
018right? And the county made a law for that. the there's been people petitioning that that social media should have that disclaimer just like your cigarette packet has that the US journal says that this is going to lead to this and it hasn't come out yet but they're going to keep trying to put that there's definitely a nexus there. Um moving on we is another just quick uh glimpse of where they're seeing children spend most of their time on the phone. It's not like they're there learning uh phonics. you know, some children are using abstraonics, but the majority of them, they're not using it for those reasons. Um, we're also seeing lots of cyber bullying. If you talk to the administrators in the buildings, they are dealing with cyber bullying and and some children don't even
019fully understand that definition. Um, but they are dealing with that more and more often. Um, and it's really difficult. More than half of the students are reporting that they have some kind of cyber bullying experience. Um, so what can we do if we don't have these phones in our hands? We could get our checkers out and our chessboard out and we could actually talk to one another, right? You go to the high school in the cafeteria, it's not perfectly quiet, but it's quieter because the students are using their phones. That's the way they're communicating. Let's go back to actually having to have some conversations. And if we could get those conversations to happen in the social realm, they'll be much easier to happen in the classroom realm. And when we want to have a a
020nice conversation over pros and cons of something or, you know, different viewpoints coming out, the students need to be able to talk to each other and and they will go back to doing this. The schools that have reported that they've um gone to a cell bell-to-bell cell phone restriction have reported that the kids come back alive. Um, there's a great book, if you haven't read it, called The Wretched Stone by Chris Van Ellisburg. And it talks all about how these sailors bring a rock onto the stone. It's symbolizing a TV back in the day. Now it would symbolize the phone. And how they they basically um just stare at the glowing light and they don't they don't respond to anything and that when they got rid of it, their lives come back together. Uh, and
021that book has been around since I've been teaching. So, take a look at if you get a chance. Um, and again, we were looking to promote the children developing their social skills. Um, we also are worried about instructional time. I know at the last board meeting, uh, a resident said something about just put the shoe organizer in the front of the room. Children come in and drop their phones. As a classroom teacher, the members that I work with, their biggest concern is, well, first of all, who's going to hang that on the wall? Is the wall going to be able to hold up that? And what happens when that falls down and $30,000 or the phones fall to the floor? or what happens at the beginning of the period or the end of the period
022when I take Francis's phone and Francis takes my phone. Who's in charge of that? Um so there's a lot of concerns over that um kind of mindset of how to handle it, but that's what's been done by teachers to just get this going in in the past, right? Some teachers have just taken that initiative on their own. Um so we want to maximize your instructional time by not having uh the phones on the students uh accessible to the students. Um there's broad support from law enforcement. Uh we'll talk about that later in a minute about what happened um at South Ocean. But law enforcement feels that if there's all these phones on the scene, there's a lot of people getting communication from a lot of different people and they need to be the ones that
023deliver a message in a time of crisis. So there's a lot of support, like I said, from law enforcement for this. 85% of the teachers that have been surveyed by NICET are pushing that. Miss Kennedy is going to talk about that in a moment. And I think parents recognize, you talk to parents, they'll tell you their children shouldn't be on the phone during the school day. Um, so I think they recognize there's excessive use. Um, and just don't know where to begin to solve that problem. Um, so I have an assignment for you. I have a I'm going to ask you to take out your iPhones. People in the audience could do the same thing. If you take out your phone, I I know how to do this on an iPhone. and you go to
024the settings section and you click on screen time. So it's it's settings. Click on screen time. Home and screen. That one. It's like the it's like the gear right down here and you scroll down. So it's purple. It's screen time. It's under Yeah. Focusing. There's a thing called pickups. And And when you don't have to do it now, but take a look at when you get a chance. Pickups are the first thing you do when you pick up your phone. It's going to tell you how many times a day you pick up your phone. It may be alarming to you and it's going to tell you what app you open up the most. Um, take a look at when you get a chance. It it's a little alarming when you have 250 times that you
025picked up your phone to answer a text message or in other students, you know, it's that they went on Discord or um YouTube or at my son's case, the MLB app that keeps telling him the score changes, right? They're getting notifications for all kinds of different things. All right, you can look at your trends and we can leave the rest as homework because I'm sure some of you are going right now your minds are going, "Wow, I'm on my phone a lot more than I realized." Right? So, I think I'm going to turn it back over to Miss Kennedy. Right. Do I have it time? I'm sorry that can't be. They're very busy looking at their phones, Mr. Tulin. So, presentation over. This is what happened. This is exactly what we're talking about. Where's that
026shoe organizer, Mr. Tulin? All right. Lock it up. I'm giving everyone their yonder pouch. So, we were really just trying to pull some of our own referral data um from our deans. And we just really wanted to kind of give a snapshot of where we are. And this graph really represents some of the referrals that we've had in school connected to social media. um how many were connected to um really non-compliance. So you can see here at each of our level how many um at the middle school we had um a total of 933 referrals or school incident reports. 171 of them dealt with non-compliance dealing with cell phones. So you can look at this data at the high school to date. We had a total of uh 2,339 referrals and you can see 88
027were for non-compliance 23. And I do want to put uh we'll speak to this a little when we get to our own board policy. So we we do have some inconsistencies currently within our own school buildings as how we deal with non-compliance and how we are dealing with cell phones and um AirPods and and at the high school. There's a little bit more leniency than there is at the middle school level. And we'll speak to that when we get to our board policy and our code of conduct. So, we did want to ask the teachers some questions, myself and Mr. Tulin. We we put a survey together and we wanted to really get information from both the elementary, middle school, and high school level. We had 291 teachers reply to our survey. And you can
028see that pretty consistently. We had 30% of our teachers at the middle school. Uh 40% were high school teachers and another 30% who responded were our elementary school teachers. So we we did ask our staff how they currently handle cell phones in their classrooms and you can see 127 of them say phones can be used for educational purposes only. So there are teachers within our school district that are allowing students to use for educational purposes only. We do have 89% of our teachers who say phones must always be turned off. So there's that discrepancy that I told you that even within our own classrooms, teachers are handling it differently. Right? Phones do not have to be used for educational purposes because we issue onetoone devices. So, anything that can be done on a phone can
029be done on our district computers. And we did have 58 of our teachers say uh phones are allowed but must be on silent. And I think Mr. Tulin just spoke to you about distractions. So, even though sometimes our phones are on silent, it it has different notifications. So, maybe it's vibrating or maybe it's giving a signal to students as it's sitting in their pocket. Again, a distraction. Every time something vibrates or something goes off, you your tendency is you want to pick up that phone and not pay attention to your classroom teacher. So, how often do students attempt to use their phone for non-instructional purposes? You can see that uh we had 25% of our our staff said never, 24 rarely, but occasionally was 22% and 29% of our staff said frequently. When we asked
030about um do they believe cell phones in classrooms are beneficial, clearly this this graph speaks for itself. it. 82% have said it's mostly distraction. They they felt there was very little benefit for students to have their cell phones in their classroom. Then we talked about um have they observed any of the following issues related to cell phone use. We we asked if there was increased cheating, maybe some cyber bullying, social conflicts, positive engagement for learning and reduced uh student focus and intention. And you can see that we had 199 teachers say that it reduced student focus and attention. Again, this was a question that teachers could have multiple responses for. So they may have done uh reduced detention and also increased cheating. So there were multiple responses that could be given for this question. We
031asked again would uh teachers support a schoolwide bell-to-bell ban and you can see 82% of them completely agree. It is important to note that if this is law then it it doesn't really matter what we would like to see. It's a law that we have to implement. Um, and as I said when I spoke about that initiative, the one thing that I'd like to point out is that part of that policy which we'll speak a little bit to is you have to include within your policy at least one way of how you're going to store cell phones and smartphones within your um district. One of which can be lockers. So the the law does speak to the fact that lockers is a permittable storage for uh smartphones or watches. It also indicates that the governor
032within the budget put about $13.5 million for this initiative. Um, so again, a lot to still be heard on this initiative and what is going to be coming down from state ed because as you know oftent times there's a law that puts into place but it's an unfunded mandate, right? So they are saying if this law does get approved they're they're she's committing to at least uh $13.5 million for school districts. We did ask about cell phone and if they felt that if it was restricted, did they feel that the computer devices that we've purchased for our students would meet their uh educational needs? And you can see 67% said yes, it does. And uh 26% meet some of the needs. Well, that would be a question that we would want to know from our
033staff because everything students would have to do um is available to them. So, we were very interested to to know a little bit more about that question like what is missing? What else do you need? And so, should this be a law? Those are things that we would have to ask. So, do you encounter compliance um when asked to uh put their phones or devices away? And you can see that um 27% said they never um have to encounter non-compliance, but you can see that frequently we had um teachers say yes, occasionally or frequently they've dealt with that. and how does it take to when how long does it take to resolve? So, one of the things Mr. Tulin spoke about was loss of instructional time. That often happens when there's a non-compliance issue. When
034students come in, a teacher may ask them to put it away and a student doesn't want to put it away and rather than starting teaching, there's a disagreement between the teacher and the students. Sometimes deans are called. So, you do lose instructional time when you're dealing with non-compliance issues. You can see that it says less than 5 minutes. 47% said less. But look at the other percentage, more than half. 53% say they're losing between 10 minutes, sometimes five, or sometimes greater than 10 minutes. If if you put that into a percentage, that's what Mr. Tuling came up with, that 20%. That's a significant amount of instructional time being lost because we're constantly asking students to put their phones away. So, this was uh just in terms of non-instructional space use. We we looked at the
035lunchroom because the lunchroom is the one place that I would say our students are using their phones mostly in the lunchroom in study halls. So, we asked the teachers specifically um if they were a lunchroom, you know, assigned to do lunchroom duty or if they were in a study hall. And you can see that we had uh this represents the certain number of teachers. And you can see phones must be turned off and are always put away. Phones can be used for educational purposes. Phones are allowed but must be on silent and and phones are frequently allowed without restriction. Again, there's that inconsistency. We do have a policy that says phone should not be visible. That's our policy. But yet, we know at the high school it's very hard to enforce that in a cafeteria
036in hallways when you have hundreds of students in one location. So, we did ask the teachers to share some of their thoughts and you know the board can read through this but I think the majority of the teachers really spoke to the fact that um they're constantly reminding the students of the school policy. We have to threaten them to put it away in the phone caddy. And again, there was that consistent message of it shouldn't be allowed in the classroom. So these are some of the comments. Uh you have all of them in front of you so you can spend some time reading them at your leisure. And then we also asked them for some recommendations. Give us some of your thoughts. And here were some of the responses. It would benefit the kids to
037ban cell phones. They felt that it would uh reduce bullying, vaping and other non-school related issues. It did speak about the fact that um students are frequently trying to play on their phones and wear their AirPods during class time. They felt like sometimes they're very disrespectful when they are approached to put their devices away. Um and you can look at the last bullet, second to last bullet really speaks about the fact that um we grew up without cell phones and you know many generations did and it's not necessary and it's distracting to the learning environment. I would say I did share with some of the trustees I am reading the anxious generation. It is an incredible book. I think Mr. tool and has it under here as well. And I think it it does speak
038to the fact that uh Gen Z is a generation that really has been impacted the most by social media. Um, and it has much more research than what we presented and some pretty significant statistics on the harm that social media has really um done to our students from uh really sleep deprivation, social uh interactions. It's it speaks a lot about anxiety that it's caused, frustration, uh lack of attention. So again, great book. Um, and I'm reading it as a parent, but also as an educator and is quite alarming. So I think I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Tulin. As we started to talk about before with law enforcement, we had our issue, which we tend to call swatting. Um, we had a a bomb threat back in I want to say September if
039I remember right um at South Ocean Middle School and if you remember it was a little bit more different uh difficult than normal because it was at arrival. So the students weren't in their specific classroom they weren't with a specific teacher and all the students had their cell phones a all the students that had cell phones grades six through eight had them out and we had to evacuate. remember that we moved over to Bay Avenue Elementary School and and everybody that I spoke to said that it went really well, that everyone did a good job, but the biggest issue the teachers reported to me was that the students were on the phones with their moms and dads and the mom and dad are not at the scene. So now students are getting information on what
040to do from their mom and dad or their emotions and their anxiety are rising because mom and dad don't know what's fully going on. and they're hearing what the children are telling them and now the children or our our students are not able to they're not able to console themselves because the person that's supposed to be consoling on the phone is not able to console them and they can't hear directions. Um so if we had our phones restricted in some kind of bell-to-bell procedure like the yonder pouch we'll talk we'll talk about the students would have their phone on them and when the event was over or when we were to safety and and we had everybody accounted for we would then be able to release the phones to them. That's the difference between having
041them in their locker where when you have to evacuate, these phones are now stuck in the school and the parents can't communicate with their children when they want to. Um, that's that's the benefit of going to a yonder pouch. And then this happened to me as a as a parent, right? I know I I'm a parent. I'm a teacher. All right. I'm also a school board member. Um, so I could tell you where I live in in the West Hampton Beach School District, we had the same problem where they had to evacuate two schools at once and they had to send schools to different evacuation sites for dismissal. And now the parents are watching their students on Life 360, right? Knowing where they are and rather than wait till the students get to the dismissal
042site and be ready to take attendance and know that, you know, Francis went with this parent and Bernardet went with this parent. right now. They're just plucking them off the road to pick their kid up because they know where their child is at all times and and they think it's okay. Now, the school doesn't know who is where and and some control gets lost, right? So there's there's a lot of benefits to restricting communication so that the person in charge whether that's law enforcement, the superintendent, the principal can communicate effectively to all the teachers, to all the students and safety becomes paramount and the number one priority. Of course, communication needs to be a priority, but the safety needs to be the first priority and then getting the communication out to the parents and having
043control over it. We don't need the parents at the scene giving everybody a hard time or causing traffic jams and not being able to get first responders into the scene. Right. So, it's another piece that we have to consider. Um, it's a tough piece, but we have to consider it. M, you want to talk to the honor? So, I Mr. Tulin did show you this I think uh a few months ago at one of our board meetings. This is a yonder pouch. Uh, I don't know Mr. Tulin, if you want to show uh our board trustees how it works. Again, we were scheduled to go to Smithtown Middle School. Unfortunately, we had a reschedule. Smithtown is the one school district in their middle school that are using yonder pouches. They started this a few months
044ago at our our conference. There was another school out east in um Sag Harbor, much smaller school district, but they have also purchased yonder pouches. So again, we wanted to at least show you and demonstrate how it would work. Um, and then how it's used. So you want to So this is I'll pass it around. This is the first pouch that the majority of the students would have if you chose to go this route. And in this pouch, you simply take your phone, slide it in the pouch. Say we do that first period. You hit the button here. It's very much like um the metal the sensors at like Macy's or department store. You lock it and now my phone can't be accessible. The end of the day or if there's emergency teachers have the
045key student puts their phone to the magnet unlocks and they go home. Right? So you can picture if every teacher on an emergency evacuation had their go bag, took their magnet out, it's going to take a matter of two minutes to have every student have their go bag. If you had a student with a medical exemption, a lot of our students have, not a lot, but a good portion of our students have the Dexcom for diabetes. This pouch is the same pouch except that for a second, it's consistent velcro. Pretty loud when you open it in the middle of class, but you know, it's there. So, I'll pass these around um so you can take a look at them. So, again, um we would consider this as an option. Some schools have considered this as
046an option and we wanted to just again share with you how this particular device works. We also wanted to share with you how the cost of a yonder pouch would be. So we wanted to kind of give you a rough estimate. They are about $2550 per case. Obviously, um we do hear that Boseies may even be putting together some type of shared service, so prices could be reduced, but it would cost Patchoke Medford if we were to purchase these devices for all our students at the secondary level, just over $100,000 for the devices. Again, it is important to kind of really just review with the board. Obviously, we do have a policy that speaks to the acceptable use and that really outlines how we're utilizing district computers and networks. So, we do have that policy
047in place. We do have our code of conduct. So our code of conduct which is approved by the board um each August does outline that really we are um not students are not authorized to use any type of social media platforms or they should not be visible during the school day. Again you can see that it is embedded in our code of conduct. But in speaking to our deans at the high school, um we are a little bit more lenient with the students at the high school. But what happens is some teachers are very strict with the policy. Some teachers allow the students to use it. I would say if you're up at the high school, we do have a lot of students in our hallways currently with um their um AirPods in. So that
048is not something that they're really enforcing at the high school because it is very difficult to enforce during the changing of periods with 2400 students in the hallways. So again, anything um the AirPods, Apple watches, uh phones would go into a yonder pouch. Again, that's one option that that districts could consider. But the the law would require at least one option within the policy of how a district intends on securing iPhones, smartphones, um, belltoell. And I think one of the things that is important to point out is in a cafeteria, we talked about those pouches in the front of the room with the calculators. You can have 300 students in a cafeteria. a pouch is that's not a feasible option during lunch periods. It's just not. Um so it is important for us um our
049next steps on what we have to do as a district. Obviously we we have to make some decisions on um the implementation. How are we going to handle it? If this law is passed, we would have to develop a board policy. The law says the policy is supposed to be in place by August 1st. Again, I'm I'm hoping that that will be delayed a little since something has not officially been passed. We would have to update our code of conduct. We would have to have board policies which would have to include uh a plan for non-compliance and how to handle that. And then we would have to give notification to our community. So again, a pretty aggressive timeline should this law be in place, but Mr. Tulin and I felt it was necessary to really
050share with the board where we're at at this point. Thank you. I have a Can I ask a question? So if um if we decided to go this route with the the pouches, each child carries their own pouch and then whatever their last period class is at the end of it, the teacher would unlock it for them and the students would go back and forth with their pouches just like to all their classes. It's like another piece of uh equipment that they have. And if they go to Boseis, same thing. They would take it to Boseis or whatever Bose's policy is, but we would have to unlock it before they went to Bose. The minute you leave campus, it should be unlocked, right? Some districts have open campus, right? So, if a student left for
051lunch or or whatever reason, you would want to okay open the the unlock the doesn't have the same policy, then we would have titled to make their own policies. what we do here on yonder, but even if they did, we would have to open it before they left. Okay. Um and then when they arrived at Boseies again, they could use our yonder pouches. I would think that most of it, they would have to purchase it because some school districts may not have purchased it for their own Yeah. Do students take them home? It is. Yes. That is the the model that Yonder uh puts out and and that's because, you know, we put Miss Kennedy together and I if we put our pouch in a bucket at the end of every day after Taco Tuesday,
052mine's going to look horrible and then she gets my, you know, Taco Tuesday pouch and she's not going to want to touch it, right? So, you know, just keep that in mind that, you know, for sanitary reasons, they're suggesting that it goes home with the student. And it it's also part of that teaching model that the children have to be accountable and that they indeed know they're distraction-free. I could see some parents, me in particular, telling my kid, "I'm going to lock your phone up. You won't get it back till the next morning." You know, if they're misbehaving at home. Now, I know you haven't been to Smithtown, but you said they use them currently. Wait, not Smithtown Middle School. Did you talk to them about it? what their reflection was on the whole process
053and how they so Mr. Catz Neil Catz who used to be our assistant superintendent for HR he is over there he said in the beginning there were a few bumps within the first you know week but it's been very uh quiet and going very well but we plan to go over there to speak to the teachers and to see it in in action we're hoping to get there maybe after the testing there was conflict, but Kevin has reached out to the union president over there and will be going to visit and they they've shared the same thing that their students have come back alive that the hallways are buzzing and people are talking and that they're less zombie- like, you know, not that they're zombies, but that the children are like this and that when
054this is down, you have to say hi, you have to talk and it's forcing it. I um just want to share that about the week before spring break my teacher and I'm a TA. We decided to take the kids' phones. We're in a Bosei setting. So we have them on a table because it was too heavy to hang. And what we do is I have now it was a little learning process but I am checking them off in the morning and then when we go to the shop I check them to see who gets them again and they're losing points for participation and within we got a lot of push back the first week the second week now they're just kind of putting them in. and I'll say, "Hey, I don't have your phone, your
055phone." They'll put them back and they're doing their do nows. The amount of the work that they're doing first thing in the morning instead of it taking 20 minutes and sitting there is their productivity is up, their conversation skills are up, you know, it really we can see a drastic difference in it just within the last couple of weeks. So, good to hear. I I think that goes back to the reason for the AM bell to the PM bell, right? Because when you get your class back to life, I get all I we need all the classes to get back to life and get back. Well, the problem like you said too or you is when it's not a law and it's not a policy, we have the problem like we have one parent who
056came in real hot and was waiting for us in the parking lot because we took their kids' phone. So, we have one student who has a small child at home. So, we made an exception. He holds his own phone, but if we see it out, then he's losing the points like the other students were. Um we have one with um ADHD who has it in his 504 he can listen to music so he's allowed to keep his. So and they're not even pushing back on well they have theirs and they have theirs. They you know they're do they're really doing the right thing. But you do have those parents or those students who say I'll take they get 10% 20 points participation a day. There is one kid who will not give it in the
057morning. So it's 10 points. It's 10 off. And then he also holds it and uses it in front of us. So the teacher is now taking five points off for that five points. He's in the negative. He's getting a zero every week and a grade a he will have seven zeros in his grade. But that's his choice. But think about what will happen if all the schools across the state come into line with this. That's everybody's going to be dark. There's going to be nobody to talk to, right? So there's going to be no messages back and forth. There's going to be less of a need and less of a desire to have it. So if everybody if this does come through with the governor's office and if not and we all work together across
058schools, which is why NISET is really trying to have, you know, we started this when I came back to you in September. This wasn't in the legislation, the pro pros legislation. It was the teachers saying, "We need this. If we all do this, we all align, then the students are gonna have nobody to talk to during the day and they'll go back to focusing on our lessons. It'll be a new norm. Yes. And that is the problem. The problem is, you know, in my setting, some of the teachers say, well, you know, they can use it as an educational tool. If they're doing computer repair and they don't know what they're doing, they can use it and do this or they can take a picture. So then you have the one class who allows it
059and the other class who doesn't allow it. And it just, you know, then you just get more of those fights and arguments back. So you really do need it to be unilateral and have the support of everybody standing together. We did um Santa Barbara did share with us that they had purchased because there's a lot of questions. What happens if a child shows up to school without their yonder pouch, right? So they did purchase extra yonder pouches should that happen to a child. I think they actually had like a different color different color to it. Um that's one way they handled it. Other school districts the students had to into the main office for the day. So that would actually be part of the policy that a district would have to you know have in
060place like what would happen if a child didn't comply. Is a parent required to come up? Is it you know one one you know notification as a warning a second infraction results in something? So the law does outline the fact that you would have to policy that would really spell out what the consequences were for non-compliance. And then that data has to get reported every September to the community. Now, my other question is, what happens if someone takes it home and they press that little button by accident? I can think of something. I think you learn the hard way the first time. Um, I'm being serious. No, I'm I'm just being serious. Devil's advocate. I don't think it's going back. I think they're taking a risk. I think they will only do it once, but
061I don't know. You you you know my son personally. We we've done we may press the button just to see what the button does. Yeah. Well, they're going to do that in class, but um you know, I did go on Amazon and I did buy a magnet that was really strong and I could not get that to open. So, you know, they're going to have to come back to school is the only answer to that question if they really need to get their phone, you know, that I know of right now. I'm sure there's going to be a will and a way and they'll figure out how to open them that you know right hopefully not without a scissor and that would have to go in the policy that if you destroy your pouch just
062like if you destroy the textbook what you need to do right you lose your school ID we charge them two or three dollars right so that will be something that we would have to talk about and I think trusty Andrada you asked a question about the 7% on the district one to one device earlier you know the question went to everybody so like we have rooms like the music department has specific high-end computers that do certain things of music and our art rooms and I think our AP computer science there's and tech we have certain CAD software some of those classrooms are th those students are not using the one to one device they're using a standalone device in their room that's a a much higher power device that that services those needs some of
063those kind of things have come up in there that we don't have the same software on our onetoone as we do on our schoolbased equipment Are we anticipating that this will be um uh issued to the child and they keep it for one year and then we replace it or they keep it for more than like the time that they're in a school or have we thought about that yet? No, we we haven't. I think it was really just sharing with the board if that's even something that the board would like us to even consider or if that's something they're thinking about or if everyone um is even aware of the very compressed timeline that districts have been told uh that this is coming in September and if we are considering something like this it
064would require us to to really act on it sooner rather than later. So, it is really just something the board would have to consider. I would say that um to Mr. Tulin's point, just like we issue you a computer and it's yours for three years or four years, this would be your pouch, if you lost it, we would have to issue you a new one. And I think I think it was Scary Schools, which is up by Albany. They shared that after a certain period of time of going through this process that it just became accepted that you don't use your phone. You probably didn't need to lock it anymore because you you just got used to that you don't you know that you just put it away, right? And and that going dark and
065nobody's communicating. It's it's not notifying you anymore and you've detoxed or whatever the right word is. So, you know, I think to to that point as well, we don't know what will happen in two or three years that we may not we may get to a point where we don't need to have a pouch, you know, that we just know that we're turning them off or we're somehow distraction free. Thank you. I want to say I read that book a year ago. Working on it. That one. It's a good one. I I do the audio book. Um and and um um our our the we broke their brains basically is what I got out of that out of that book. Um and we need to we need to do what we can to fix that.
066Um it uh what one of the things that I pulled out of that book is recovery time from distraction. Um this thing goes off multiple times and on the watch too because if it's linked, all it has to do is buzz and then I'm distracted. And then those of us with ADHD and have trouble reacting and recovering. Anyway, I think this is going to make a big difference in our neurodeiverse, easily distracted kids. Speak about all the notifications and it was really telling you like almost every minute some type of notification is going off. Uh it also I would say that uh the book also speaks about executive functioning skills. Have students have lost executive functioning skills. um something that we really need to get back to. So again, great book, but we did want
067to share this presentation um with the board. Can I just I I just have two two things. First, well, I just want to say something and then I would love to hear some thoughts maybe from Ella just from a student perspective, but have there been any conversations with students about this? Like before we say September 1, this is what it is, like are is there any prep going into conversations or kind of letting them know that this is coming down the pipelines, how they feel about anything like that happening yet. You know, I don't I don't have an answer about conversations, but I could tell you what my classroom is like. I mean, just today somebody's Discord sound went off, right? You know, and so pretend it's Lori and it's, you know, she takes out
068her pocket to look and then I say, "Lori, I need your phone." Because, you know, they're not allowed to go off in class. and I take her phone and now the other kids are picking on Lori that you haha you lost your phone so now I'm like well you you put your phone on my desk too right so I I think kids know that I I wholeheartedly believe they know they're not supposed to be on and I think they're okay with that but they can't they don't know how to deal with that feeling that I've got to answer that message so if you ask kids yeah I don't need to be on my phone I don't want to be on my phone but you know when when get that message. Go because this is what
069they do. Go meet me in the bathroom, you know, and we can go coordinate that it. So, but we can talk about having conversations. I just don't think they've happened. But I guess so. So, to that point, I think the first step was to notify the board that, you know, this appears to be something that is definitely coming down the pipeline and we have to begin to prepare for it. So kind of prepping the board by saying what was learned from the conference, what data we have here, the direction that by law we're really going to have to go and you know what are the next steps. There likely would need to be a committee of of folks of teachers perhaps some students maybe I'm not sure but there would definitely need to be a
070committee because you have to talk about not only what this looks like you know from a cost perspective from an implementation perspective and from a consequence perspective what happens invariably when students uh some don't comply Hi, how does the code of conduct get enforced with that? What do we do? So, I think there is an urgency given that if the legislation is not extended for an implementation time frame, it's saying August 1st. That's not giving us a lot of time to prepare for the start of a school year. So, the first step was to have the conversation with the board. Um certainly then there will need to be um and probably in a social studies type class it would probably make sense to begin to have these conversations and um it it is definitely a
071news item as it relates to the governor's budget and the legislation and you know you can certainly tie it to uh some kind of social studies class and so there there's an urgency And you know, right now it was optional in the current year, but it's going to possibly be something that we don't have an option for. I have one other question. What um the at the high school the kids use do they still use their phones for the bathroom app and how would that be impacted? ID that's on the district device. District. Okay, got it. Thank you. What about our fourth and fifth graders? Fourth and fifth graders. We don't really see I don't really believe our data is a concern. I don't believe you would be necessary at an elementary level. Typically, you
072know, students have it back at the elementary, but we don't see it as much of an issue where we could put it in your and hang it in your classroom. Um, you're dealing with 25 students at an elementary level. of the school. They seem to pop up around fourth and fifth grade, usually around the holiday times and it's the watches or the AirPods. Yeah. I was just wondering cost analysis wise like if we had to I think as Miss Kennedy said I think if we have strong enough code of conduct that it can't be visible, can't be accessible, that it needs to be left in the child's backpack. I think at this point we would probably have good compliance. Right now it's the watches that we just need to be able to say you can't
073wear that. um and put put that in your backpack and you right now I I you know we can say it but not always happening and we need to be clear concise on on that and I think we'll get instant compliance on that and parents will save a few dollars. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So I personally have had I agree with a lot of the things you're saying in school sometimes especially in my first period health class. I know I'm taking health as a senior, but my first period health class is so sad to me because the second my teacher stops teaching, everyone goes straight to their phones and doesn't communicate with other people. And I think that's a big comfortability problem coming from COVID especially. I feel like because we were so
074isolated. I feel like a lot of students don't know how to interact with each other. And I think we use our phones as a reliance as kind of like a mask and a way to hide from other people. But I do have some concerns with this new policy. I'm concerned about if we're limiting the use of phone in the school day. I'm worried that's going to increase the screen time after school because students are going to feel like they need to catch up on what was happening because maybe they've been thinking all day about how many notifications did I get, how many likes on my TikTok did I get, etc., etc. And I'm worried that that's going to overcome the afterchool hours and that's just going to increase the screen time because you're they're losing
075the screen time in school. I'm also a little bit I don't know if I'm concerned if that's the right word, but I personally see myself as liking to learn when it is when it is correct to use my phone and to have that taken away from me and not necessarily learn when it is acceptable to or when it is appropriate to. Um maybe like after I leave high school and go into the workforce or go into college. I'm just a little bit like I would have I would love to see more teaching when it's appropriate to have the phone and when it's not, but I also understand that school it's not appropriate to have the phone. So, I don't know. I'm like back and forth with both of it, but I really agree with a
076lot of the things you're saying. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Kennedy and Mr. Tulin. Okay, we're gonna move on to item number seven. Report by exeicio student member Ella McCann. Hello again everyone. Hello. I hope you're all doing well. Welcome to tonight's business meeting where we where we'll be talking about the happenings in our buildings this month. In the month of April, Tmont ran an I Ready principal for the day challenge. They would like to congratulate Lucas, Zoe, Paul, Owen, Elliot, and Khloe. These students have had the most time on and lessons passed in the respective grades. They will now have the honor of interviewing to be principal for the day. Tmont also ran Tmont Goat Raffle for Tmont's Goat merchandise. The lucky winners of the goat raffle are pictured below. Thank
077you, Mrs. Rcona for organizing. And finally, Tmont is very excited again to be partnering with the Center for Environmental Education and Discovery in Brook Haven. This brings their students together and families for the Bob White quail project where they will be incubating 12 quail eggs in their STEM lab starting April 21st. All classes will experience hands-on learning with the chicks and gain an understanding of why this species is critical to maintaining balance in their Long Island ecosystem. At Oregon Middle School, Mr. Bacon and his students were recognized for the Patriots PEN efforts. This is an outstanding achievement for all involved as students had the opportunity to demonstrate the power of their voice in democracy and in schools. Patchog Medford High School students recently recently submitted competitive business proposals to the 8th annual Patchog Youth Professionals
078and Patchog Medford High School business plan competition. Four Patchog Medford High School pitches placed sharing $3,750 in prize money provided by the Kowanas Club of Patchog. I personally had the amazing opportunity to take part in this competition and I am honored to have tied for first place. First place was awarded for the business professionals for busy and pure smile. Bus buddy was developed by seniors such as me, Hannah Nuzo, and Gabriella Porier. It which is an app that allows students to see in real time when their school buses arrive and enables parents and bus drivers to see when the student is on the bus and when it has disembarked. Junior Marilyn Cruz and senior Juliana Owens developed Pure Smile, a biodegradable alternative to plastic toothbrushes that includes a built-in holder with biodegradable floss, improving the
079environment and dental health. The toothbrush includes a replaceable brush head with charcoal in infused bamboo bristles on top of an aluminum handle. Third place went to Shave Straw developed by seniors Kevin Halgo and Luke Louie, which tests for the presence of any foreign substances in a drink to combat drink spiking. Plus Avenue, a proposal by senior Ryan Daly for vintage clothing store for plus-sized women was also awarded an honorable mention. At Eagle Elementary, grades 3 through 5 students started state assessments on April 23rd. Students in grade 1 prepared special messages for their third and fifth grade peers. And all grades from third to fifth grade students received a tiny turtle on their desk the morning of the assessment. And Miss Scill and Miss P prepared a silly encouraging message for the students. Eagle students visited
080Oregon Middle School for their Matilda play preview and for a tour of the building in preparation for their transition to the middle school. Thank you to Oregon for hosting our fifth grade eagle scholars. Also, Quackerjack, the Long Island Ducks mascot, surprised their students with a visit at dismissal to get them excited for the game on May 13th, where their chorus students will sing the national anthem. On Wednesday, March 26th, Bay Elementary School hosted its annual multicultural night, and it was an extraordinary celebration of diversity. The event brought together families, students, and staff to appreciate and embrace the rich cultural tapestry that makes our school community unique. Some highlights included diverse food tastings, cultural performances, cultural exhibits, and sharing of cultural artifacts. Overall, Bay Elementary Bay's elementary schools multicultural night was a resounding success, highlighting the
081beauty of our diverse community. This event not only educated the attendees about different cultures, but also fostered a spirit of collaboration and understanding. We look forward to next year's event and the opportunity to continue celebrating their mult our multicultural identities. Kanan's principal for the day fundraiser was another huge success. Students entered a raffle for the chance to lead the school of Mr. R and their lucky winner, second grade Kyler, did an amazing job. From attending meetings to handing out I Ready awards, Kyler rocked the day as his as the principal. Our recent also their recent Kanan Keenan talent show was a huge success. Students showcased their incredible talents in a variety of performances including singing, dancing, telling jokes, martial arts, playing musical instruments, and even performing skits. It was a wonderful celebration of students creativity
082and hard work, and we could not be prouder of their courage and talent on stage. On Friday, March 28th and March 29th, South Ocean students took the stage to present Finding Mimo Jr., a delightful and memorable performance that showcased their talent, dedication, and teamwork. South Ocean has launched a new schoolwide PBIS initiative as well, rewarding students with tickets for positive behavior noticed by the staff. Tickets can be exchanged for prizes at the school store, encouraging a positive and respectful school environment. Also, on Monday, April 21st, South Ocean proudly celebrated their students of the month for February and March. These students were recognized for their knowledge and critical thinking skills. And with that, thank you. Here's to another month of great involvement, support, and spirit. Thank Thank you, Ella. That was wonderful. Okay, we're going to
083move on to item number eight, which is going to be public comments on reports and agenda items only. This is the community's time to be able to speak about what's been presented thus far. Limited to three minutes per person to a total of no more than 60 minutes and there will be no sharing. If anybody would like to come up to ask a question or make a comment about the agenda items at at this point. Okay. Thank you. Then we're going to move on to um number nine, which would be a motion to accept the consent agenda. I'll make the motion. I'll second. Thank you very much. That was M uh Trusty Denafhrio and Trusty Andrade. All in favor? Any negatives? Okay. 70. Thank you. Right. Okay. Item number 10, there were no items removed
084from the consent agenda for a separate vote. Number 11, there were no actions arising out of executive session. Number 12,formational items. Okay. First policy reading um item uh policy number 2452, title 9, sex discrimination and sex biased harassment. number 4410, technology acceptable use policy, and item number 4420, which would be computer controls policy for financial software. They're up for first reading. Okay. Number 13, which would be the superintendent's report. Dr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. President. Good evening to all. I'd like to first start by saying, Ella, you you did such a commendable job. Uh there's uh less I have to report on tonight because there was so much that you reported on. You almost stole some of my thunder, but you did an phenomenal job as you always do. Kudos to you on your great
085reporting. I'll I'll capture a few things. Um we had our first annual middle school math olympiate competition. Kudos to Dr. Deli and all of our teachers who were involved in the first annual middle school math olympiate competition. It took place on Tuesday a few weeks ago at Saxton Middle School. Uh we implemented this an enrichment club this year with funding from the title four grant and the math Olympia provided monthly problemolving contests for students. Um all three student all three middle schools participated. It was a wonderful day and it ended with pizza for all. So it was even better. Um you know I would also like to say the third edition of the district newsletter was released. A lot of great information in that newsletter. I encourage everybody to read it. Uh we will be
086releasing another special edition which would be the budget newsletter that should be forthcoming shortly. Um Mr. Macy has been uh moving around the district with his road show with uh Mr. Tulin uh making sure that he is going from civic associations, PTA meetings, um and to teachers and staff all throughout the district to convey the message of what is included in the budget. So, thank you for your tireless efforts, Mr. Maisy. Um we a few weeks ago on April 6th we had our using our V voices 5K mental health run that was a phenomenal success. We are excited that we were able to host that. Um it was on a Sunday and it was inspired by PS I love you day. The event raises mental health awareness and fosters inclusivity in our community. So we're
087thank you thankful for all and even Mrs. Kennedy and uh Trustee Jennings uh took place and to uh participated and u kudos to them. I I I don't remember what the category or were you tied or Yeah, I believe that. I I drove past Trusty Jennings on the side of the road one day just like running down um a major uh avenue uh or thoroughare just just running away. I think it's in the jeans. So kudos to them for participating in that. Uh lot of information relative to the budget property tax uh report card had to be filed no later than today. So that is done. That information will be available in all the buildings uh if it's not already. It is very good. Thank you. [Music] Um, I just also want to commend our
088Skills USA team. Um, well, that was discussed already, but just doing amazing amazing work. I'm just uh so appreciative of all the hard work and autism awareness uh month. Um, we've had a lot of activities within the district for autism awareness. The great news is I could go on and on and on with reporting the wonderful things that are happening in the district this month and every month. Uh but I'll stop there and conclude the report. I know we're getting into the exciting season where there are a lot of activities particularly for our seniors that are coming up in the weeks to come. So, we look forward to a very exciting month of May that is uh about to start in a few days. Thank you, Mr. President. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr.
089Jones. Okay, we're going to move on to item 14, which is committee reports. We'll first start with buildings and operations, and that's going to be Trusty Kger. Mine is easy. We haven't met. We're meeting on Tuesday, May 6th at 400 PM. And I do remind you all at the district office, but I also do remind you all to keep clicking on that capital improvements button on the front page, our homepage of the district website to keep up to date with everything that's going on with our capital projects. Thank you, Trusty Kger. Up next would be finance and that's going to be uh Trusty Denafhrio. So I'm going to defer to Mr. Maisy. Unfortunately, I was unable to make the meeting uh having to be on the phone with our worldwide distributors on tariffs. Anybody want
090to know about tariffs and talk to me after the meeting? Good evening. uh the uh primary topic that was discussed at the finance committee meeting was uh the second step toward our progress on the electric bus mandate. So my team and I had met with a consulting firm earlier in the year and they are primarily an architectural construction and uh energy efficient uh team of con of uh professionals and they specialize in the electric bus mandates for uh school districts and and other um entities. So, we had them come in because uh I I'll cut to the chase and tell you that they're able to help us with the next phase, which is our big phase is planning. And there's a lot of costs that are involved with with this with regard to getting our
091uh district upgraded to be able to receive uh the charging stations, uh the electrical upgrades. Uh some of the other things are um electrical distribution and they do a transportation analysis and we had a very comprehensive review uh that I had received my team. We then shared it with the finance committee in advance as a preview to them coming to the bay May meeting to make a presentation to the board of education. It'll be a reduced uh presentation in terms of its scope but very thorough in terms of what they're able to accomplish for us and there is no charge right now to us as a district to do this and embark upon this which is good now because as I shared in the budget process when we were going through this we are nearing
092now the end of when we can make the purchases of gasoline or diesel buses which would be uh and by 2035 we need to have our whole fleet electrified. So, this is part of our process now to work towards that goal for our own buses. Um, and I think it's going to be very exciting when they share it with you just what they're able to accomplish on our behalf. The process takes about six months. They're going to provide a very complete analysis for us and then a follow-up meeting will commence then uh roughly in December of this school year. That was the primary uh discussion topic for the meeting. Uh we also spent um some time sharing some information on the grants with the committee just to show like I said what the financial impacts
093were now that the grants have all been uh utilized and how we did that especially our focus was on the school improvement grants and the COVID related grants and those monies that's something that I have also incorporated into my budget presentation so it's it's worthwhile to show um the community uh all the groups that you heard Dr. Jones mentioned and also the finance committee just how we were planning all along instead of waiting to the last minute. This was part of our three-year plan uh to make sure that we fully utilize the funds but also were prepared uh for their eventual um disappearance. So, we're in really good shape. And then speaking of the budget, I just reminded everyone about some important dates. the budget hearing, which is a comprehensive overview of all the information
094that was shared uh with the board and the community throughout the budget preparation season. That is next Wednesday, the 7th. That's taking place at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium. And as a reminder, the budget vote is Mon Tuesday, May 20th from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Thank you, Mr. Maisy. Moving on to letter C, districtwide technology. We didn't we did not have a meeting last month. Our next meeting will be May 15th in the South Ocean conference room. Moving on to item D, which would be extracurricular program, which is um Trusty Jennings and and uh Trustee Andrade. So, um we had the discussion of what we were going to come down to. Um we came down to three because the students picked land animals. So we came down to three of them which
095is a horse, nail, buffalo and wolf. We will um then send on a survey to students, staff and um teachers and then after that we will bring it out to the community and then we will go from there. Thank you Trusty Jennings. Okay, moving on to Did I leave it? Good. Okay. All right. We're going to move on to instructional and student support and that is going to be trustee Salazar. We held our uh committee meeting on Thursday 24th. Um the basis of our uh meeting centered around continuing conversation of the grading policy. Uh Miss Kennedy came to the grading policy. Well, our um we've been trying to focus our attention on uh what we wanted to uh adjust, what our biggest needs were, and we kind of decided that um we wanted to examine
096the homework policy as well as uh the weight of summitative informative exams. Um, Miss Kennedy came to us at the last meeting with a variety of options uh, regarding the policy uh, with a range of different percentages for summitative, formative uh, homework as well as um, discretionary um, percentages that would be allowed to deter be determined by the department. So, uh I don't know how much we want to get into it because we're going to discuss this more in a uh I guess in our next section, but we did conclude our um conversations and came to a consensus uh about a recommendations we want to put forward to the board of education. Uh basically what we came to uh the decision was we like to recommend changing the policy to where and like I said
097there's going to be more specifics around it but uh we're going to use a sliding scale that is to be determined by the uh departments with a minimum of 60% being combined with the formative and summitive and a maximum of 70% uh combined formative summitive. Um this also allows a lot of more discretion amongst the teachers um which we thought was necessary given that a lot of the uh curriculums are different. For example, you have an art class that might use less formative and summitive which would allow this would allow them to focus or use a heavier weight on um you know class participation or projects. uh this leaves a little bit more to be determined by each uh department. So uh that's kind we got I guess we're going to discuss that in a
098little bit and kind of uh give you a little bit more details on that in the discussion we're going to have in the next section. Um but I do want to thank Miss Kennedy. What she did is she created a uh Excel sheet that made this very possible for us to make a good decision. uh she brought us a bunch, like I said, a bunch of different options about what it would look like and she presented us with uh different levels of students and how they would perform in each of those options. So, it was very eye opening and I think it made it pretty easy for us to make a decision. So, I think we're going to discuss that in a little bit, correct? Yeah. Yeah, we're going to discuss that in the next
099section, right? Just so you can help me run through that because I don't want to, you know, step on Well, we can do that. Like I said, it's going to be discussion in our next section. So, I think that's right. But we're going to take that. So, uh, we'll be back to this in a little bit. Thank you. Oh, when's our next meeting? Our next meeting is going to skip the May, right? Yeah. Okay. So, our next meeting is up in the air right now and we will be in contact with everybody soon. Thank you very much. Thank you, Trusty Salazar. Up next is letter F, that's legislation, and that's going to be Trustee Smith. Um, we did not meet in April. Our next meeting is scheduled for next week, but um there might be
100some uh conflicts, so we're gonna we still have to talk about when we're going to reschedule it for. Thank you, Trusty Smith. Um we're going to add one extra committee on um to the report was because last month our order committee met and um Trustee Denafio would like to uh speak about that meeting. Thank you, Mr. President. Um, as the community knows, the district uh by law has a district audit committee. Uh, this is made up of three community members and two board members as our charter has defined them. Um, myself and President Negrron serve for the board. On the community is Mr. Philip Railing who's in the audience tonight. Phil, and along with Anthony O'Brien and Ron Ardo. So that's our committee. So our internal auditors provided which the board voted tonight to accept
101on the uh risk assessment report and we covered areas of information technology, password and payroll, um special education, pupil services, facilities and operations, transportation and extra classroom funding. That's a pretty extensive uh process that we go through with the auditors. And special thanks to Mr. Maisie and his entire team, Doren Lamb and Nicole Simmonello who do an outstanding job of along with of course our internal auditor um Miss Brower. Um what's her first name? Adrien. Adrien, I don't know if I got this. Sorry, Adrien. Uh who do a great job. I mean it's so intensive that they go through all these records and the auditors check everything. And of course we came out with flying colors as we have in the past and you know just something the community needs to know that the you
102know it's this is a separate external committee that reviews this. This isn't internally us doing it ourselves and again having members of the community involved in it is very important and we continue to do that. So again, we have another set of uh tests that'll go on for the the next um next year. And again, Frank, was there anything you wanted to add to that or something I missed or No, just that um that the next uh the next meeting we're going to be doing what we do each every five years for our professional services, and that'll be to conduct an RFP for our external auditor uh who typically reviews the district's financials. So, the committee is meeting that. We've got the uh bids out there now. We're going to be reviewing those responses and
103sharing it and having the committee uh interview the uh the firms that put in for that and make a decision as to who should be serving the district in the next five years. That's on June 10th. June 10th. June 10th. Yep. And just to show that, you know, the board has it does its diligence on not just accepting um anyone. We go through a a tough process of the RFP and reviewing all the auditors who come across. Um and again, I think we have some of the best auditors that are available for for us. So, um again, thank you to the community. Thank you, Philip, for the job you do. It's again volunteer position coming in and spending all these hours uh with us and um you know, to Anthony and Terron as well. Thank
104you, Trusty Denafhrio. Okay, we're going to move on to item 15 which would be discussion topics. We have two this evening and we're going to start with first letter A is the exeicio selection process that has now been implemented and we're going to talk about some ideas. So I'm going to start with uh Trusty Jennings. Um yeah, I I don't think we actually have and correct me if I'm wrong. Um I don't think we have an actual ex officiated student member policy. It kind of just ties in with our policy. So um I know a lot in here, you know, Jennifer shared BOSIE is where um their student member will be coming to work sessions. So I don't know if that's something that we want to do to have our student member come to our
105work sessions. decides um there was a sample of our you know of the board policy that we do have to implement and and start to come up with it of what's like what's our process our process right now I believe and correct me if I'm wrong Ellen is that it's just the go president correct yeah so whoever the president is and then if you have dual presidents or co-presidents how does that work out do they both come is it just one and How are we going to work that out? I know last year we had dual, right? Last year. Yeah, last year they had dual but only one person came, right? So, it's almost like would they rotate and do it? So, it's time I know we probably will have to do this in a
106work session because it's a longer conversation. Um, I know Jennifer has shared Boseies because Boseies came out with theirs. Um, we had the webinar which I know um trusty Andrade will share some of her notes. Um, and that was that was a good webinar. I did I did watch it and listening to the students um come and I know some boards um at my uh NASA suffk we did um bring this up there's a lot of them that do have um members some of them have nth and tth graders they serve for two years and then they you know then they rotate so how long will they serve for so I think it's a lot of consideration to take in do we change the process that we have you know what does it really look
107like so maybe LA you and maybe help me in this process. When you guys you have to apply like your junior year to become the president of the GO and then they automatically tell you you're the ex official member. So this year, this past year, I'm actually a co-president for GO. It's me and another person. Um I just said I wanted to do it and I got elected to be the GO president and the exeicio board member within GO if that makes sense. So GIO rules the whole entire like it looks over all the other clubs and organizations. So anyone who wanted to vote could have attended that meeting and voted for me to be the ex official student member and vice versa. But it also takes recommendation from the go advisor. That's like how
108we've run it. But it's not really like a constitutional set in stone thing for us. So I don't know. Okay. And I think the other thing to look into is that, you know, sitting down with whoever the member is and knowing their role and what their expectations is. I don't I'm assuming that happens, but just kind of what their role is, what meetings are like, and what you know, I did want to add here, if I may, that the SUFFK superintendent are actually convening a meeting. I believe it's either May or June. Uh so it would be upcoming soon where there uh where we're extending an invitation to the newly appointed exeicial member to ensure that they are appropriately trained for the roles and responsibilities and that they're all hearing the same message at the
109same time. So I did reach out to Dr. Rosilowitz a few weeks ago to make sure that the date for me knowing who that would be, assuming that it may be a little late to modify the protocol for this year, but for all the discussions you're having is for the subsequent uh time frame that we would have somebody there in time so that I could make sure that our representative ative is present for the meeting with the suffix superintendence that will have it. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely have it. But you have it, too. So, thank you. I didn't remember off the top of my head which meeting it was going to be. Yes. Are you finished color or you have more? Can I can I share my some of my takeaways, my notes? Um, okay.
110I don't really need to share that. So there is a on NISSBA's homepage has a bunch of resources about this if anyone want to go and take a look. So some of my takeaways from from the webinar was the student board members voice is just as important as the elected board members in the community as far as any discussions that has any bearing on their education. They're not a voting party, but they can certainly participate in discussions. Um there was two students present in the on the webinar. So we got to hear a lot from them and they they just mentioned one of the students mentioned that there is a disconnect between school board and student body. So that was a way to kind of make that connection and for I guess the student body
111to even know the school board a little a little better. Um students can be elected or selected. There were two different ways. So both school districts did it differently. Um one of them went through like a an election I guess as like for GIO if you go through an election it was the same thing. Um and then they were elected the seat on um the exficio seat for the school board wasn't necessarily the the president but it was a a seat. And then the other one was a selection process where anyone could fill out an application, any student, and then it went to the superintendent and the board to make a decision. Yeah. I don't know. So that that were that those were the two different ways that these two schools did it. Um and
112I think that's something that when we're writing a policy, we we we do need to include the process of what we're going to decide to do. We did have another out, which I don't have with these handouts, so it must be on my desk. No, we had another one that had the different ways the choose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's I mean in here too, they gave some statistics. I'll just share this and this was in the the handout too. Um some are elected as student president that was 8.6%. Elected by student body was 18.1%. selected by the high school student government was 18.1%. Selected by the high school principal was 37.9%. Selected by the superintendent was 19.8%. Selected by majority vote of the school board was 13.8%. So it's it really does run a
113run a gamut of how it's done. And they there's no right or wrong way. It's really what we all decide as we what we want best. Um Sorry. Go through this. Diana, can you pass that one down to me? This one? Yep. Yeah. I want to Yeah, there's pros and cons to that, too. Um that that's basically it. But these students were um invited to attend board retreats, work sessions. So, so one of the one of the student members said that how they view it is that there's not seven board members and one student member, it's eight board members. And that's really how they treat their exeicio. So, I mean, we've we I think we do a good job and we've done it for so long, but I think there's even more that we could
114have our students bring to the table. I also wanted to add, I've had a lot of students, especially this year, come up to me and say that they're very interested in having this seat, but they're not necessarily involved in GO and they were wondering if there would be a new alteration for them to have the same opportunity. So, I don't know if you wanted to take that into consideration as well. But like a lot of students want to go into politics when they're older and they wanted to get involved this way, but they're not necessarily wanting to be involved with the entirety of GIO. So, I feel like that's an important and valuable piece of Yeah. And I think I think also they some of these schools they do have a seat on go if
115they're to to communicate, right? And then also what I thought was a great idea was one of the schools um as a junior they would kind of be mentored. So they would sit as a junior being mentored. So their position would be junior into senior year and then you would kind of move it up like that. So it would be a junior and a senior. So that's that's the gist of it. Thank you, Trusty Jennings and Trusty Andradi. That was very informative. There's a big discussion ahead. So, I'm sorry. I just want to add. So, I'm guessing we're going to have to have a work session to to complete this and and work this out. Okay. To be further, yeah, but I think it's also important to know that our district has had has been
116using an exopicio student before it was mandated by this, you know, um to have it as part of the practice. So, we are ahead of the game now. You just have to really formulate a way to make sure the policy is written so it's consistent from year to year. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. So, we're going to move on to the uh second discussion topic that uh trustee Salazar touched on in his report for um instruction, but now we're going to have a a greater detailed conversation. So uh our current policy as it is is uh we have formative taking 30% uh of the uh grading policy summitive 50% uh it's up to the department's discretion uh for 10 to 20% and homework is up to 10%. Um this is with the exception of
117art class which is formative is 40% summitative is 40% the department discretion is up to 20% and homework is 0 to 10%. The reason why this was put into place was to create equity mostly among the departments. Um we just wanted to make sure that grading was fair. We didn't get, you know, uh two teachers in the same curriculum, same, you know, type of thing that they're teaching to have two different scores or two different grading policies or it was completely uneven. Um and and it achieved that. But we did hear the community community has come out and has expressed some concerns and we examined those concerns through the committee throughout this entire year. Um so through those discussions we like I said before we kind of came to the conclusion like we wanted to
118our our big concern was one the homework we we thought some of the kids were getting a little beat up and we wanted to maintain the kids motivation for doing their homework. Um currently they uh if they're a day late how many points off is that like 15 the first day. What's it not homework? It was any type of long-term assignment assignment. So it was 20% reduction, right? 40% reduction and then a 60% reduction. Thank you. So that was that was expressed those concerns were were expressed. Uh so that was one thing uh we we discussed. The other thing too we talked about was how, you know, we were concerned about, especially at the intermediate levels that that early secondary, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, those middle school levels. Um, it's it's viewed by something
119that it's a little it's a little unforgiving for students, especially those that are poor test takers. And that was that was expressed by a number of people. So with that in mind uh we we ventured and started to try and come up with some type of amanable uh conclusion to this whole thing. So as we you know progressed through this uh we kind of concluded this week and Miss Kennedy came with us with four different options and through our discussions you know we had I'll give you a little example of the the ranges that we talked about. Uh the the first range we talked about was about um we we're changing the summitive, formative, pretty much everything on that list to max out at 70%. So summative would be 30 to 40%, formative would be
12010 to 30%, homework would be 0 to 30% and sorry, homework be 0 to 20% and it' be up to the discretion of departments for 0 to 30%. Okay, so that was one option and and like I said there was four of I don't want to go through every single one of them because, you know, there's a lot of numbers there and I I count my fingers and if I run out of fingers and toes, I I have a little trouble. So, uh the one we did come to the uh agreement on that we did like the most it it provided a lot more autonomy for the um for the department. So we kind of discussed that the uh we like the idea when we looked at uh how the summitive was 30 to 50%
121formative was 10 to 30% department discretion was 0 to 40%. That's the biggest thing uh that's probably a large change in there. Um it allows us to say even at the younger grades you know the up to the department they can the testing would only can have the possible uh minimum of 60% which would reduce it by 20%. Um even still when we were looking at all these percentages and all the different types of kids the range between uh the options that we got was maybe what five points I would say. Yeah, four or five points even. That that's the greatest difference between these that we saw. Um so they were all fairly evenly weighed out but but this one kind of lended us to believe that it allows us more options to uh to
122bend more given certain circumstances. um you know like we said an art class has the ability to weigh more on class um participation whereas say an AP class might be more weighted heavily for um you know getting them ready for college and taking more assessments. So it allows for that flexibility as well as maintaining the consistency we wanted between the uh between the departments. So our request and our um we're trying to uh suggest to the board uh to change or adapt the grading policy to this third option where we have summitive waiting at 30 to 50% formative 10 to 30% uh department discretion 0 to 40%. What this would do also um is that we'd also have to go back in and uh discuss our homework policies because that would have to be taken
123out and we'd have to amend that and put it into the grading policy. Um because our current policy says I think it's no more than 10%. We are not allowed to wait more than 10%. Um this would give people the opportunity or the the departments the opportunity to put it up to 20%. or uh right is that what it was that we up to 20%. Right? We wanted language specifically that homework could count no more than 20%. But if we were going to raise the department discretion up to 40, it would give some teachers the ability in if they wanted to to count it as 20% out of the 40 for department discretion. So that was the the big uh change we were looking at. The next thing we looked at too uh like I
124said was the homework and we wanted to kind of maintain kids motivation for completing their homework because sometimes we feeling like discussion brought us to the point where you if a kid is taking off you know 20 30 points within that first day or the percentage uh it really kind of hits them up and and they feel defeated. So we want to keep them motivated to complete their homework. So we discussed lowering it by a certain amount of points uh per day late like five points for the first day uh 10 points second day 15 points third day and the fourth day that's when we decided that it would be um you know they receive a zero. So there is still accountability there but the kids are still motivated to complete their homework. Okay. Being
125Yes. Yes. Yes. Correct. Late work. Late work. Late late assessments, right? Is that what I mean? Long-term assignment. So, let's say a teacher was giving a project that was going to, you know, and it was turned in late, the grade on that project could get reduced. So, it was any like long-term what we did put in was specifically not assessment. So if a child, let's say, was absent and haded to come back to make up tests, they would have the ability within the marking quarter to make up their exams with no penalty. What would happen is if a child did not complete their assessments within a marking quarter, they would get an incomplete until they made it up. So there would be no reduction, but if they didn't complete it at the end of that
126marking quarter, we couldn't give them a grade. They would get an incomplete until they made it up. So, we did um add some language just to be very clear that the reductions did not come off of formative or summitative assessments. It was for, you know, long-term projects and assignments. All right. So, that that's kind of what we came to. Um I'm trying to think if there's anything I missed. The only other thing that came up that some of the teachers expressed and um we looked at some of the survey data was regarding participation and um the way the policy and this this went back to when um Trustee Kger sat on sat on the committee for two years. There was discussion about participation that many of our community members felt that participation is very arbitrary
127that sometimes parents didn't get an idea of how teachers were coming up with that participation grade and then at the last minute it was being factored into their grade um GPA. So what our policy now says is you we encourage participation but there has to be some type of rubric that if it if a parent did question you as to how did you come up with an 80 you would have some data to say this is how we came up with an 80 and it wasn't um based on behavior. It wasn't based on attendance. What they were saying is it was very difficult because they had to do uh a participation grade four times within a marking quarter. So we discussed reducing that. So it would encourage more teachers to use participation and they didn't
128feel that it was too burdensome when they're doing their grading. Um but we indicated that we would want at least one of the participation grades had to be entered before progress reports. So when we're reporting to parents, they would have a sense of how kids were doing with participation if it was going to count. You couldn't just put the three grades in after progress reports. So it was a way for us to be actively. So we did discuss possibly reducing that from four to three or four to two. I think the conversation was Yeah. And it's we were like you said before, it's got to be measurable too that that we want to take away the subjectiveness out of it a little bit. Um, are you going to give us those numbers? Yeah, we're going
129to send you. Yeah, we're going to say numbers. Is it going to be in a Yeah. So, I what we felt was we really wanted to explain it to the board first and um I have the policy with the track changes that I could certainly send out in the Friday update so you could visually see what we have just explained to the board. Great. And the amazing thing that she put out there that I loved that I sat there and played with for a while is she gives you just a little template, an Excel sheet that has all Well, I she sent it to me and it's got uh all the formulas worked into it. So, you can actually input a certain student's grades and see how say they say they messed up and bombed
130one test but were getting 90s, how would that affect their grade, you know? And it was it was fantastic. So, I do want to thank you for that. Made it made it easy to see and uh and measure. So, those nice comparisons. I remember the charts to you know the AB and C students. Was there was there any discussion of um extra credit or I know test corrections I I know this year we heard from parents we talked about that about that. Was there any changes on that or that's still discretion of the It's always been the discretion even before this policy. So, we never mandated test corrections, but we we um did discuss that we can change language to say we um we encourage test corrections, but we really can't force test corrections or
131retesting on teachers. It's not something we we have historically done or we should because retesting is really very unique to each you know in an art class retesting may be very difficult or drafting an essay that's part of the writing process. So that's always been at the discretion of our teachers. I think it should be uh kept that way but the policy can say that we you know we truly encourage um test corrections as as a district right and it's a learning tool we we were talk we had that discussion about the use of uh test corrections as well. So yeah this is just our uh initial conversation amongst the board. We've been going over this the whole entire year. we want to put to you guys then hopefully start moving forward as you know
132as such. All right. Thank you so much Trustees Alazar. Okay. Um moving along we're going to get to community comments number 16. At this time the floor is open to anyone who would uh like to address the board of education on any topic. Each speaker is limited to three minutes and no sharing. Please state your name before speaking. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, now we're going to move on to board comments. Um, all right. So, I Francis I, Trusty Salzer, I think that last time they said that we're going to alternate. Wait, who starts? It's fine. Go ahead. No, I'm teasing. Go ahead. You can go. It's fine. You want Listen, you know. All right. So, it's fine. You want to start at this end and work our way down? Oh, you leave me
133last. All right. is also trusty Andrade or vice president. Sorry. I don't really have anything to say. I feel all discussed out. So there you go. Trusty Denafhrio. Easy to use and follow. Trusty Jennings. Um I just wanted to go over um some things um just for to talk about regionalization and the update on what's going on for that. Um they've had some meetings. There have been 28 districts that have opted in. Um they have a little thing called notice, think, wonder with protocols. They do some gallery walks. Um there's small and large um discussions. Um there's also some pre-planning, debriefing, and post-planning. There's um definition of the words with focus areas of enrichment, graduation, workforce, start and change. The next steps are the superintendent and and the are the designines driving this process and
134convening to a larger community with the um focus areas. Then hold on that was allies. Uh moving on to NASA suffix. We talked about the New York story budget and maybe next year how we can advocate for maybe um the budget to approve a little bit faster to help districts um confirm the state aid so that the revenue from the budget. So, it'll help us to do our budget and get a little faster. So, maybe we can start advocating for um that there are four districts piercing the cap this year. Um then there's the um new school board members. That's on June 12th at the Beth Page Heritage House. Um and then um then we just went over like I said Dr. Jones said June 2nd is when these um suffix soups are having their
135school board member um meeting and I know there was a policy webinar but I think we had to pay for it because that's May 7th. It was virtual. So hopefully they'll send that back out so that we can um because I know they were going over the policies for the smartphones. They were going over student policy. So hopefully they'll be sending that out soon. And then July 18th at 5:00 PM is the deadline for the resolutions. So Um just any resolutions whatever districts wants to put the resolutions through. Yes, I'm sorry. July 18th at 5 October 16th will be the virtual business um meeting but July 18th they have is the deadline for the resolutions. Thank you. You're welcome. That's all. Thank you Trusty Jang. Appreciate it. Trusty Smith, I don't really have a lot
136to to say. Um um but I did want to ask uh Mr. Maisy um I know that regarding the uh electric buses um um county executive Roma on the 9th uh had a little speech on I think it was the state of the county and he specifically called out the um electric the power companies for having inadequate substations. So that's nothing to do with us, but I don't know like that might be something that we need to consider when we talk about upgrading power. I think that's the whole island. All of the schools starting start putting this in. This is going to be a real issue. Yeah. Without knowing the specifics, I'm I'm going to guess that what they're looking at or talking about is with regard to um uh common space areas like you
137know because that's one of the that's one of the concerns is when the buses go out, do they have enough of a charge to be able to go out and return? If not, are they going to be able to charge somewhere? our focus um what they're going to focus on for us is they're going to look at what our usage is and have in-house um uh charging stations for us and show what those requirements would be and what the district uh would need to do in terms of an electrical upgrade here in house. Okay. But it's a great point. We've been we've been talking about infrastructure and the ability or lack thereof to support the the transit of electric buses for a while. Um there is some informal data though coming back from some of
138them uh particularly on the um without getting too far into the weeds. One of the things that they do very well is they're looking at buses in a worst case scenario. So I mean they're looking at in cold temperatures in the dark because when the buses are drawing and using more electricity, but some of the some of the early data that's coming back is some of the uh districts upstate have used them and been a little bit better than anticipated. Oh, excellent. So we'll see. Like I said, there's still a lot. Like I said, still very early in the process. Okay. Thank you. Welcome. I get to go before Trusty Kger. I get to go before Fran finally. Um I just wanted to say thank you for all the presentations and for Mr. Maisie with
139all his work with the budget. Um and that we just have about two months left to the end of the school year. I know my class, we actually have less than seven weeks of class time, so they're going to fly by. We're full of sports and arts and APs and regions and music, and I just look forward to everything that this exciting time has for our kids. Well, I was going to say all that, so I'm not going to say much more. Ditto. No. Um, I I want to thank Mr. Tulin and Miss Kennedy for their presentation on the cell phone legislation. Um, at one point you said, you know, we need to kind of change this, for a lack of better word, detox. And I I think that is the best word you can
140possibly use is detox. Um, you know, and I think this is it's a hard thing. We're swimming upstream with this whole thing, you know, because we're fighting technology, fighting kids, and they're much more savvier than we are with these whole things. So, it's it's a definitely a difficult battle. But, um, I think this new legislation is beneficial. not for nothing, but it's it's going to help us just it gives us another back. You know, if if we have any issues with anything, we can say, "Well, it's not us. You know, this is a state, you know, law. We have to follow the law." So, it just it kind of helps, I think, us the schools out in that way. Um, and hopefully, you know, from there, we can it gives us money so we can,
141you know, work at this. So, hopefully we start moving in the right direction. I like to see a little at least it's something uh towards the issue. And I I definitely think it is a bit of an issue and I think that's all I have to say. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Trusty Salazar. To um continue with what you just said about the uh cell phone usage and such and thank you, Mrs. Kennedy, Mr. the tool and the presentation was great and I think that um the real presentation that was made to us tonight to understand all these things if the student body understood this and I'm talking about from in my school in Eastern SuffK Boseies they don't understand all the negatives and their biggest thing is this not even we have
142cell phone lockers and they have to actually take their phone and lock it up and I think they have high anxiet about not having the cell phone in their hands. They feel it's their property and they want to hold it. So, the fact of the matter is is that with the Yanda pouches, they get to hold it. They get it's with them all the time. They know where it is. They feel safe. It takes a lot of the anxiety away. And um I think it'll be a very good transition and less of a battle for the students to understand that the cell phone shouldn't be used in school. And I also believe based on what you said that over time not using it will lend to the point where they're not even going to miss
143it. So I think that's great and um I just wanted to thank you for that presentation. The next thing I wanted to share with the community is that um officially tonight we have engaged a superintendent search firm for our next superintendent that will start in July 1st of 2026. So we did our due diligence. We had a process. We interviewed some firms. We went through a lot of resumes and um we selected one that all the references that we reached out to were very very happy with them. Very detailed, very specific. A lot of reporting, information was vast and we're very excited about the process that's going to be starting and there'll be more news to follow and the community will be kept up to date and involved in the next steps on what goes
144on with the superintendent search and the uh selection. So, I just wanted to share that. Okay. So, with that being said, um I'd like to call for an adjournment. Uh Mr. President, I wonder if we should set a date now for our a for a work session for all of these things that we've talked about that we talked about. So, I think it's I think the best way that we've done that is when Teresa has set out a couple Teresa will send out some dates and I think what we do is we back it in. Does that work for you, Teresa? We can we can adjourn the meeting and then ask after because I think we need to settle it now rather than doing it through an email and asking it because we need to
145get all this down. Okay. As soon as possible because we need to get these policies done that one has to be done before after we adjourn. We'll sit around we'll stay around and we'll you know get it done. Okay. So, can I get a motion for an Can I get a motion for an adjournment? I'll make the motion. Second. Okay. So, is all in favor? I Okay, so Trusty Denafhrio and Trusty Salazar is the first and the second. Thank you everyone.