001Thank you, Teresa. Uh, we're going to move on to item number six, which is presentations and reports. And the first one up is a presentation by the New York School Boards Association. Good evening everyone. Is that on? Good evening everyone. No. Still no. I can handle it. You should teach a voice. Kathy. Um, for those of you who don't know, my name is Cat. I am the area representative for New York. Others [Music] children members do here on Long Island. I can tell you for us the committee Congratulations from Bob Schneider, the executive director of New York State School Board, as well as Sandy Rufo, who is the current president of New York State School Board, whose message this year has been serving the whole child and that is emblematic of the programs that we
002are actually going to recognize tonight. So um I am the official recognizer. It is my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong that the actual details of the programs are going to be are going to be shared with you from staff members. Yes. Okay. So, I will not describe the program, but I will describe the process by which they got recognized. New York State School Board has staff that scour the media that um talk to board members and uh two of your programs got recognized because they are unique. One is a loop from a program that the Brentwood schools did which was acknowledging and recognizing the theatrical exploits of students but students who speak non-English and that's a unique setting um when we talk about culturally responsive education and making sure that children are seen
003and heard and recognized for the fantastic people that they are. So that's the first program recognized. The second is a home and careers program that has moved out of the hey you got to live at home to the hey you got to be in the business world and that is for all children not just for some children but all. And so your program that um served for ACES students is being recognized because you have now an industrial kitchen and it's a different thing to be in a classroom kitchen and an industrial kitchen. So kudos to all of you and to the community because community efforts support the construction of facilities like that. So um I have two banners and I ask that the board come out forward because I'm going to congratulate each of you
004and we'll take a photo hopefully. There's a photographer. There you go. It's great to celebrate good work. [Applause] Did I shut the AC up? So the um you tell me where to go. Did you text them? Yeah. Where would you like one? Why do they need Now this lady [Applause] Give me this. Yeah. Whoever your first Well, we'll do yours first. Something tells me these are the stars. The luminaries. Go right here. One more round of the applause. Thank you. Now, for those of you in the public, those banners are intended to be displayed and so that um they're celebrated in the locations or in the buildings so that people understand the good work you do. Oh, you want to say? So, thank you, Mrs. Romano, we appreciate you. We appreciate all your support for
005the Petro Medford School District and we just wanted to share with the community a little bit about what uh prompted us to uh be honored in this way. We have both Dr. Lucas here as well as Mrs. Michelle Marone and Mr. Nate Brinkman. And instead of us going into the slideshow because the one thing we we got honored for the commercial kitchen, we also have a similar program at the elementary level which I'm not even sure that Mrs. Romano is aware of, but we have an actual industrial uh uh place where it's actually as though it's a replication of a kitchen and apartment where our elementary children take field trips that are asis children. They come there and they learn how to set their place setting. They sort laundry. um they do all kinds of
006things which we'll talk a little about both because they're very similar. One is for the high school and one is for the elementary school. But one thing I want to do before I turn it over the to them is to also shout out our our maintenance staff because our maintenance staff actually constructed and renovated the entire space. So when we say when we say all means all it also goes for our staff. Our staff believes in the vision uh the mission the goals the objectives and everyone is a contributor to this warm welcoming environment that we have for our students and staff. So I just wanted to share that it's not just the teachers although they play a tremendous part part in this. Our administrators play a tremendous part but it's all of our staff
007and so we'll share a little bit about that. I've asked them to be brief given that we have two other presentations of great work that we're doing. So I'll ask Dr. Lucas to speak a little and then Mrs. slash uh Mr. Brinkman about the amazing work that they did with the Spanish production. So we'll start with our ASUS uh programs. Sure. So our ASUS students are our alternatively assessed students that require a specialized curriculum. The ACES stands for academic and career explorers and we do believe that all of our students can learn and find a vocation that's appropriate for them. At the high school, we do have a fully functioning working commercial kitchen that is now in place of one of our former classrooms. It has an industrial dishwasher, full range, hood, stove, walk-in refrigerator
008area, freezer. So, our students are learning how to do kitchen skills in a commercial setting and then have successfully transition some of them to go work in our central kitchen. So, really preparing our students to have an opportunity for vocational skills. We saw great success with this. Uh it is the home of the Raider Bean. If anyone has heard of Raider Bean, it's been um highlighted on Fox 5 News, News Channel 7, News12, all of the great things that come out of Raider Bean. And because of this success, we wanted to create opportunities for our littlest students. So, our elementary students have a fully functioning studio apartment with a dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, Murphy bed, and they can learn how to have independent skills in a home setting so they can be productive members of
009their family with some level of independence. We've been able to work collaboratively with transportation to set up a bus for the students to go into the community to buy groceries, come home, put them in the shelves, and really be successful members of our school community, but also their home community as well. Thank you, Dr. Lucas. Um, we're going to ask Mrs. Maron as well as Mr. Brinkman to come forward and tell us a little bit about the production and anybody else that they uh so actually Nate and I felt that um Miss Christina Molina and Miss Maria Sandival were the two best people to explain this process. They were the ones that fully um saw it through from beginning to end. So they're going to just speak a few minutes. So I'm Maria Senal and
010Christina Molina. So this marks our second year for Erasio Navves, our school's first ever all Spanish theater company with approximately 20 students in our company and the dedicated guidance of both of us as well as Miss Margarita Espada and her assistant Adrianne. Uh for our second production, we began preparations in July 2024. We collaborated with Margarita from Theatria Raua to select the play, assign roles, and prepare the script. After securing the auditorium, we scheduled our performance for November 22nd, 2024. It was a challenging start. Students returned in school in September, leave us leaving us with only a few months to prepare. Balancing rehearsals with students work schedules and family commitments commitments was difficult, but we assembled a dedicated team eager to bring the play to life. Once roles were assigned, rehe rehearsals took off. We
011practiced twice a week, increasing to daily rehearsals until 5:30m in the final two weeks leading up to the show. Students had the invaluable opportunity to work with Margarita Spada and her assistant who set high expectations teaching discipline, creativity, and the art of acting. To fully embrace their roles, students first had to understand the deeper meaning of Mujo, a very old man with enormous wings. The story resonated deeply with them, exploring themes of being different, misunderstood, and ultimately finding freedom. Through this experience, they became more confident public speakers and developed a strong sense of teamwork. Excitement grew as their hardworking together beautifully. While actors rehearsed, the stage crew worked tirelessly behind the scenes. They created a detailed program featuring student biographies to introduce the cast and crew to the audience. They also managed key production elements
012such as mic list, props, prop list, and wardrobe. To ensure seemingless transitions, they devised a clue list on chart paper to track scene changes and necessary props. Initially, the stage crew didn't fully grasp how crucial their role was until wardrobe, lighting, and sound were added. It took the entire team working together to make the production whole. We were fortunate to have Patchog Medford for High School graduate Briana Koshi assist with sound and microphones during the final week. She introduced us to the software that improved sound queuing, mixing, making transitions smoother and more precise. Along with her assistant, Jake, Briana provided patient and invaluable support throughout the process. One of our senior students, Sebastian Sanchez, took charge of lighting, going above and beyond and creating a detailed lighting list and annotating his script. He even dedicated
013his lunch breaks to fine-tuning the lighting and identifying bulbs that needed replacement, showcasing impressive dedication and attention to detail. To spread the word about the play, we distributed invitations to students to share with their families and classmates. It was heartwarming to see many stu many people bring them to the show. Our ENL director, Michelle Marone, was instrumental in making our show possible. She played a pivotal role in ensuring students had the opportunity to experience the performance during the school day and helped promote the production with our community. The day of the performance was truly special. Students spent the day rehearsing and that evening they watched their hard work come to life. The overwhelming support of our community made the night even more memorable. Local restaurants generously provided meals for the show and the organization FAME
014supplied snacks for our rehearsals. FAME also assisted with a concession stand on perform on the performance night further demonstrating the incredible network of support behind us. Witnessing the strong sense of community was both inspiring and affirming for our students. Erasu Navves holds deep significance not only for our school but for the broader community. Our goal is to send a powerful message. We have a presence and we have a voice. This program would not be possible without the support of so many individuals and organizations from the businesses that provided the food to the community members who attended the show. We are beyond grateful for everyone who stands by us. Sharing this production was an unforgettable experience. Even students who were not part of the theater company this year have already expressed interest in joining our next
015play. Meanwhile, our current members are eager to continue their journey together, strengthening the bond we have built. Through this program, we have fostered a true community. The patch theater Spanish company has been invited to see Brentwood's high school all Spanish show in April, allowing our students to support and connect with peers who share the same passion. It is incredible to witness the relationships that they have formed through this initiative. As adviserss, we also wanted to introduce students to the possibilities of a career in acting. To inspire them further, we launched a fundraising campaign for a trip to Broadway. Thanks to the incredible support of our Patchog Medford High School community, we reached our goal and we are thrilled to take our members to Broadway in May. Additionally, the support of Nate McMin and the school
016district, we have been able to continue offering workshops to spark students interest in theater. Our first workshop on March 7th was a success, attracting many new members. We are excited to host two more workshops this year, providing even more opportunities for our students to get involved. Our all Spanish theater company is more than just a performance group. It is a space where students connect with their heritage, build confidence, and find their voice. It reinforc reinforces bilingualism and cultural pride, offering students a sense of belonging and a platform for emotional expression. By fostering empathy and understanding, the company bridges cultural gaps and celebrates the rich richness of language and identity. We are incredibly proud to be a part of such a remarkable theater company, and we cannot wait to see what the future holds. Thank you
017so much. Okay. So, we do have a few slides. So, Dr. Lucas and uh Mrs. uh and Mr. Brinkman, are you ready? It's just a few slides. We just want to show a few pictures. So, as I spoke about, we did have uh the AC's apartment at the elementary. Just to show you, we wrote curriculum with our teachers over the summer to support this uh great room with some of the resources we use, such as Teachtown and symbol sticks. This is just a snapshot of some of the um symbols that the students use to match the actual items that are in the classroom with task analysis cards. Here's a look of what our elementary aces apartment looks like. I do joke that I can move in there sometimes after these late board meetings. It's perfect.
018Um, if we could just show the video on the left, that will [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Mr. Rob, can you just ceue up the other video? Is that one ready? Sure. Thank you. And the next video will be the um news clip that highlights the commercial kitchen here at the high school and the work that our students are doing within that space. if you could just click on that hyperlink. That's the video. [Music] Our kids can fold those uh flannels very successfully now with the washerd dryer that we have. And we don't let them use hot pots like that for safety purposes. group of special ed students on Long Island have a new opportunity to learn valuable career skills. The school is now home to a commercial kitchen which is helping them prepare for jobs
019in the culinary field. Fox's Jody Goldberg got to see them in action. Freshly baked cookies can be smelled down the hall and between classes. You can count on a line of students and staff outside the patch of Bedford Raider Beam. The cafe is known for its coffee and cookies. Can I get a cookie and a coffee, please? Is there like gooey in the middle? They bake more than 200 a day and consistently sell out. It's a testament to the hard work of the more than 35 special needs students. Hey man, can you play these cookies for us? Thanks, buddy. They come in, they prepare cookies, sell the cookies, they prepare coffee. The cafe was created during the CO 19 pandemic when many of the work sites they'd normally visit were closed. 14 chocolate chips left
020for teachers and support staff. It was a way to facilitate vocational opportunities during the school day. A lot of these students through their younger years struggle with academics, so they don't find a lot of success. Then they come here and they find out they're like rock stars. I like doing the cookies. I love helping out with the dishes. Perfect. And success has been sweet. The students just moved into this new commercial kitchen thanks to a federal grant. The kids are experiencing a true fully functioning commercial kitchen in a nice smaller nurturing environment. So hopefully they can transition into the workforce. Cracking to the bull. One day I would like to work in a kitchen because I worked here in the Raider Bean for a little bit and I know how to do it. The Raider
021Bean business has made more than $40,000 in profits. Now all of that money goes to the kids for field trips, scholarships, and of course the creation of new recipes. It's an honor. I just like doing my job. The students are supported by teachers. Good job helping out. As well as their peers. They mean so much to me and I just love seeing them make new friends because every day we sell cookies, we make new friends. Thank you. Eating their way through an enterprise one cookie at a time. Jodie Goldberg, Fox 5 News. So, those are our two instructional spaces that are vocational for our students. I'll turn it over to Mrs. Marone to go over the musical and Mr. Brinkman. Can you open the top PowerPoint, please? Thank you. And then it's probably slide seven
022maybe. There we go. Okay. So, this is what uh Miss uh Molina Dwarte and Miss Sandival were speaking about before. Arasun companyatro once upon a time theater company um was again founded about two years ago um you know with the support of Nate we've been able to offer the students such a great opportunity to explore their their passion and their um abilities uh this is the cast um this year at the beginning and at the end and then they had some assistance with set creation um I believe this was Margarita's husband Correct. Um the owner of the theater company helped out with uh the creation of the props. And then uh like they had spoken about before, practice, practice, practice makes perfect. Um the top at the top left and the bottom are during the
023performance weeks. And then the top right is what they were speaking about earlier, how Nate has been able to find some funds to help them continue practicing um their skill set and doing some workshops through the spring so that it can prepare them for the fall. And that's it. Thank you. I just like to say that we're incredibly proud of all the unique opportunities for our children. Uh we couldn't do it without our staff members who are committed and dedicated to all of this work and to our amazing students for the time they have devoted to this. We are so very proud of you. Keep up the amazing work that you're doing. Uh we expect great things from all of you. So congratulations to all. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Jones. Okay, the next presentation
024will be the Raider Academy and that'll be presented by Dr. Hchburg, administrator on special assignment. Uh, good evening members of the board of education, cabinet, and community stakeholders. For those of you who don't know me, I am Kim Hutchburg. I am the administrator for our Radar Academy that started this school year. So, I want to thank everyone for allowing me to have the time to present our program and what we've been working on this past school year. Since September, um, the Radar Academy has really focused on three main priorities. Relationships, consistent academic, I'm sorry, relationships, consistent attendance, and academic performance. So, here's a look at what we've been doing this school year to reinforce those priorities. This is our Radar Academy staff. I'm Kim Hutchburg. I'm the administrator. I have Miss Ronnie Tveris is our
025social worker full-time up there. She's here with me tonight. She'll speak a little bit. Um, these are all of our staff members, but we do have a few here tonight supporting us. Uh, Mr. Hassan, our support teacher, is here. I can hide. Miss Sherbat, our English teacher, is also here. Mr. Clearary, our social studies teacher. And I don't think anyone else made it. That is that's our staff. and without everyone there, we wouldn't be able to do what we do day in day out. Um, we really came together as a family and you'll hear a little bit more about it later on. Um, this was where we started. So, we started brainstorming, I guess, the 23 24 school year. We started looking into what type of program we wanted to develop here in Pat. This
026was our brochure that we used to kind of explain the program and what we offer to give parents an idea. But really our purpose for Raider Academy and what we were looking at to start this was really getting kids back in school. We had students who when we look at the data have been out of school for a considerable amount of time or maybe were a little school avoidant and we wanted to get them back into our buildings and support them and meet them where they were at. So we wanted to provide that supportive flexible learning environment that really empowers some of our atrisisk students to overcome their challenges, develop essential skills and obviously achieve academic and personal success. So we were really looking to empower them to take ownership of their education. We want
027to encourage their intellectual growth. We were making it more of a student centered but still giving them their aca ac academic and educational challenges. We were sensitive to varied learning styles really providing that emotional and socially nurturing environment to everyone and being conducive to a safe and supportive learning environment promoting community and really making those connections to careers and future goals. This is just some background data just so that you know where we are currently and where we started. So, at the start of the school year in September, we had 14 students after a long summer reaching out to families, providing tours, really trying to expand our student population. One of our students was parentally placed on homeschooling this year. One student moved out of the district. We had five additional students join us throughout
028this school year, bringing our current enrollment to 17 students. We were fortunate enough to have one of our students graduate in January. Five of our students were previously placed on home instruction for an extended period of time during previous school years. So we do have um one student was on home instruction for two years prior, another one was for three years prior, but they are currently attending the program consistently with us. nine students um would have attended an out of district placement either a Boseies or some other out of district pro program but with the support of Raider Academy we've been able to have those students remain in district with us here at PatMed some attendance data. So right now our attendance rate if you look at the 2425 school year with our group of
029students it's just our students there at Raider Academy we have an 84% attendance rate. um we'd like to see it higher, but we've seen great growth since September to now. And in 23 24, when you look at the students, they um cumulatively had a 63% attendance rate. Misaris and I average about one to two home visits per week. So, um typically if a student hits two to three consecutive absences, we will then go out and make sure what's going on at the home, trying to see the students, and encourage them to come back into the building. Um, we do also do daily phone calls to families for attendance. So, if a student is not there by 8:30 in the morning, the families are contacted to see if they're sick or if something's going on, they're
030running late or how we can get them into the building. Some great data for you. Um, these are the courses that we offer currently at Radar Academy on the lefth hand side. And then we did an academic average for marking periods one and two for the students. And as you can see, they are being successful academically as well and passing all of their current classes. I'm going to let Miss Taris talk a little bit about the wellness room. This was the room that we designed for our students um to utilize throughout the school day for support. Hi, my name is Ronnie Tiveres. Wow, this is really loud. I'm sorry. So we have worked uh really diligently with a lot of our students. Currently right now out of the 17 students, nine of them have mandated
031counseling supports. However, all students are seen pretty regularly if not um you know on a day-to-day basis and uh frequent check-ins. One of the main things that I think that um we take a lot of pride in is not only the attendance, but the academic success of the students and them knowing that there's going to be somebody consistently in the building that is there to help them throughout the day and throughout those challenges of either anxiety, depression, and some of the other challenges that they may be dealing with um some building issues that they might have had at the high school. So, we've been very fortunate to have them in the building. Um, one of the main things I would say is, you know, building trust with the families as well as with the students.
032So those daily phone calls, I would say they're actually as early as 8 am uh or 7:50 because our our bell rings at 7:54. So once the bus comes, if I see that the student did not make it off the bus, the earlier we can make the phone call, the faster we can make the impact on getting them in the building or then going out to doing home visits um to assist the the parents with getting the child in and engaging. Um, we also maintain consistent communication with the parents. Um, whether it's with their supports, their outside supports, whether they're seeing any specialists in the community, um, outside counseling, psychiatrists, or any other people that may be helping the student, we really try to collaborate with them as frequent and as possible to help them.
033Um, another area is our daily group discussions during lunch. So, during lunch, we have some nice downtime. Sometimes students utilize that time to either complete school work or any classes that they might have missed or struggles with. Um more recently we've been been playing a gim kit just to kind of get the students engaged whether it's a gim kit on um you know healthy coping skills, healthy eating habits, um sometimes just even dogs, informational stuff, but just to kind of uh keep our day kind of going. Um so that's another time frame that the students get seen daily. And then this school year alone from January uh from September to now we've had about 515 wellness visits. So looking at the data from last year from the high school to in comparison to the data
034from the high school to now we've seen that the high school data rates from the wellness room has decreased. Um ours has been on the higher side. However, we've been able to get a lot under control with just the students gaining a lot of trust in us. Um, and not having to come in as frequently for checks and also building on those coping skills that they've been working so hard on. Um, let me just see if I want to add in anything else. I think I think that's that's good. Oh, you're here. Okay, perfect. Oh, and then just to share a little bit. So, the room that you guys the pictures that you guys are seeing there, we had the wellness room. So there that furniture was ordered by the board and by the district.
035So we appreciate that space that was being utilized and given to us. Um you'll see a lot of the on the bottom left you see a lot of the pictures there of the students. I in the beginning of the year I had the students kind of share a picture of something that made them feel happy, something that they like, a picture of themselves. Um so it's really nice to see like the families um them with their pets, they're with the siblings and stuff like that. We have some alternative seating there as well to be able to give students an alternative option if they're having a hard time in the classroom. They can always use this space as well as um an additional space. On the right corner, which you can't see, there is a high
036top table as well, which um allows for another alternative uh seating arrangement. One of the things I think you kind of go into. Yeah, that's okay. So, go ahead. Sorry. So, we also designed a cafeteria. So, we asked the students in the beginning of the school year if they wanted like the individual tables to have more of a homey feel or if they wanted um like a lunch table from the cafeteria downstairs. The students voted they wanted to keep this setup. So, they've kind of made the room their own. But um you know, thanks to Dan Irwin and his support, we were able to set up a real process to get the students breakfast and lunch on a daily basis. And none of it would be possible without uh Tony Dugen and the staff at
037Saxon for their daily supply of meals and helping us out when students don't like the lunch or want something different or they want a little extra. So um it's been you you know a flawless process that we've kind of developed there. Uh we started uh our school year really with open house uh with our families and we were fortunate to have an amazing family turnout. our staff was all there. But this is where we really started building our meaningful relationships with our families, hitting on our foundation of that ongoing communication and support and really hammering our home our importance of attendance. Um, so it was a great night, very well attended. We do continue with like monthly team meetings. So we will meet with the staff pretty much on a monthly or bi-weekly basis depending
038on the students. And then if needed, we do invite the families in for team meetings as well if we're encountering any um difficulties within the school year. So, it's been great to have that support from the families and staff with this with the kids at the high school and at Raider Academy. We wanted to be lock step with the high school. So, whatever they did at the high school, we wanted to allow our students at Raider Academy to experience and do as well. So, um they've taken a lot of initiative themselves to decide on what they want to do. So, Halloween they decided that they wanted to dress up. Obviously you see Mr. Varys, myself and Mr. Hassan. We also engaged in the activities as well. Um so you know we'll do whatever everyone wants
039up there as the family. Um the students themselves wanted to participate in trick-or- treat street at the high school. So they asked can we have a classroom? Can we do it? Sure. Miss me and Miss went with it. Um the students voted. The theme that won was um Nightmare Before Christmas. So you'll see in the middle there too, the art teacher, Miss Wakefield, allowed the students to kind of design the backdrop and do some of the artwork for the room that was there. The students also took the initiative to think of some of the ideas of tattoos, um temporary tattoos, the uh I'll go with um coloring activities and also handing out candy to the the kids within the community. It was a great night and I think for our students it really put them
040outside of their comfort zone and really trying to use those coping skills to then utilize it outside of Raider Academy. We've also been on some field trips and um this was probably their favorite again voted on. It was between a bowling trip for physics or the Riverhead Aquarium for marine science. So our marine science teacher Miss Daminger and myself, Miss T and Miss Dr. art went out to the Riverhead Aquarium. We utilized some of the things that they've been learning about in the classroom and making it into a fun-filled day of classroom outside for them to kind of show and experience what they've been learning about in class. And I think it was another what we heard from a lot of students was pushing outside of their comfort zone to go on a field trip
041and do things that they typically would say no, I'm not going to or they wouldn't come to school that day. So, it was a great day. Um, and we learned a lot while we were there. So we've done some breakfast in November and December. So prior to breaks, we're trying to give students that positive conclusion to each academic cycle while giving them something to look forward to. So um we all kind of cook. Um so you see Mr. Pearson up there cooking, Miss Tavveris and Mr. Clearary. Um really celebrating our students achievement both academically and socially. We're acknowledging all of their hard work and dedication. We're getting those authentic interactions between the students and the staff. It gives us time to really connect with them, get special interests, whether we put on a movie in
042the background that everyone votes on or some music. And these are some lasting memories that I think these students and the staff will carry well beyond the classroom. So again, staying lock step with um the high school and things that go on, we decided to vote on a spirit week and the students chose the days of the week and these are some highlights of it. anything but a backpack day. Um, dress in your best 90s outfit, character day, ugly sweater day, and also we had the Polar Express pajama day. And we had some active participants, and it was a fun week before the break. Um, this was Miss Taris's idea. She said, "Let's make a holiday card." Okay, let's go. So, um, I don't know if we got much resistance. I between staff and students.
043Everyone went inside the box, took their picture, and then we were able to send the holiday card out um from Raider Academy, and we also printed a copy and sent it home with each student and family. But it was a cute idea again with our family vibes to send this out as well. Um, I know Miss Varys might want to talk a little bit about this, but um, on a bris Sunday in December, we all met up uh, in Padog thanks to Miss Charvat and her willingness to set up a team of students and herself to participate in the Kuanas 5K toy trot. Um, again, this was us building upon the superintendent's goals to obviously build and strengthen our relationship within the community and be part of this where the students really felt like they
044were part of collecting nearly a thousand dollars, a thousand gifts for the needy children. But I think um, one of the students that did it is here and I think they can say they were pretty proud at the end when they finished and they accomplished that goal at the end. Um, and I know we are planning to have a team put together for the mental health run in April that's going to be here at Pat. So, Um yeah, so so far we have about six or seven students that are planning to participate in the mental health run, whether their participation is going to be walking, running, andor helping with volunteering. Um I think a lot of our students stand behind um we're walking, yes, but I think a lot of our students stand behind the
045mission of the mental health run and the importance that it brings um especially with our population. But the students have done such a great strive with just even coming out for students that didn't want to be in school to now students wanting to hang out with us on a Sunday morning at 8:30. Like I think we've come a long way because these runs are really early. So we have uh again seven students at least as of right now signed up to kind of participate with us come April for our big walk or run. So again, our students um we have a couple of students in the program who really think that teaching may be in their profession after they graduate. So they asked us, is there any way that we could work with the middle
046school students and do some projects? So you know, with Miss Kennedy's consent, we um we started to develop some projects and we went down to the ASUS classroom in Saxton and in December we made some reindeer food with the class. So they worked on, you know, building their own colors, their reindeer food, measuring it, and setting it up to take home. And then in February, we went down and worked on making Valentine's Day cards that they can give to someone special. And the students plan in April or May to go down again. They want to make friendship bracelets. So we'll go down again and do some more projects. And and it's a wonderful experience on both sides just to see the kids get excited when our students come in and them given the opportunity to
047teach the class um that they that they like. So PS I love you week was a big week for us here and standing behind the message of you know a brighter tomorrow begins today. So Miss Tiveres worked with the students and staff to really develop some projects and activities that could support PS I love you. So each of the students got a balloon that they were able to write a um positive message on and they would be displayed in the hallway. We had a beautiful balloon arch which you'll see in some of the uh next photos. But each of the students wrote their own message. They had it displayed there. They decorated the hallways. They put up posters to say PS I love you. Built the uh chains and then also had little hearts everywhere.
048Several of our students went outside of Saxton to put the PS I love you message on the fence for anyone who came into the building to get that message. Um and then we culminated at the end of the week with everyone wearing purple and kind of celebrating the whole culmination of PS I love you week. So I do have two parents who are here to speak and I do have two students who want to share a little bit about the program. Um I can start with Mr. and Mrs. Gargano who are the parent of one of our 11th grade students. Good evening and thank you for allowing us to speak on behalf of Raiders Academy there. You're not giving us enough time to tell you how grateful we are for Raiders Academy and what it's
049done for our daughter. Um, let me share a little bit about Demi. Before Raiders Academy, uh, she experienced bullying and has extreme anxiety. Uh, going to school was emotional struggle. Getting her to stay there was an emotional struggle. Um, it was a battle every day. She didn't participate. Didn't feel she was smart enough. you know, broke our heart. Yeah. Um, thank God for Raiders Academy. She's been there since, uh, October and she is thriving. She's happy to go to school. She participates. She raises her hand. She comes home and shares all of her work with us. She's made honoral two months in a row. She participates in anything that they they're doing. And more importantly than that, a child that thought that she wasn't good enough honestly believes in herself now when she never did.
050She sees that she can accomplish anything with enough hard work and determination. And she sees the proof in all the effort that she's put through. And I I owe that all to Raiders Academy. The staff is wonderful. And I really don't know what we would have done honestly if this program was not there. I don't know where we would be today. So, I can't say enough for them and I thank them with all of my heart for what they've done for our daughter. Yes. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Gargano. Um, we also have Mrs. Mirs here. She's also the parent of another 11th grade student. Good evening. Thank you for the time. To summarize my son's sophomore year would probably be politest to just say it was a disaster. So I beg to come to
051Raider Academy. Here we are. I think things are different. My son does attend school. It's not every day that he's able to make a complete day, but he no longer comes home disgruntled. He's not cursing. He's not yelling. He's not any of that. Um, he go he gets up. He goes to school every single day. He may not. I don't know. Jonathan's a rough one. So, for me, this is hard. I'm here tonight. My son actually had a mental health crisis today. This has been trending for about two weeks. Correct. He knows that Dr. Hodsburg will stand in my shoes and play mama bear when I can't do it. It's a huge difference. It's made a difference in the family unit, the way he interacts with my husband, myself, his younger brother. I don't know
052where he would be without this. That's really all I want to say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mirs. We also have two of our students who were brave enough to come in here tonight and make a statement. So, I'm going to start with Ben Phy, who is a 12th grade student. Yeah, sure. Hi, my name is Ben Phy. I'm 18 and I'm a senior attending Raider Academy. In my life, I have had many struggles. In my prior years of schooling, I had terrible attendance. In 11th grade, I was in audit status before the end of the second quarter. I was out for months after hospitalization. And during my CSSE meeting to get approval for an IEP, Dr. Dr. Hodsburg had mentioned that the pet school district was starting a program for kids like
053me who struggled with mental health issues. Because of my circumstances, alternative alternate placement was necessary and Radar Academy has helped me to grow and achieve great things. The staff at Radar Academy are extremely welcoming. Mrs. Taris has been immensely helpful with navigating my struggles both as graduating both as a graduating senior and a person. She is extremely down to earth and realistic with me which helps ground me and bring me back to the moment. She has been here for my recovery and has seen my progress. Uh sorry uh she humors my ideas and I genuinely and I feel genuinely valued as a student attending the academy. Dr. Hodsburg is extremely accommodating and motivational. She has help she has held me to high standards and helped me achieve my goals. I achieved such pro such progress
054throughout my year at Raider Academy that I was selected for student of the month. Mr. Ha Mr. Hassan does dances for me when I go to class. He also tells like terrible dad jokes, but it's really funny. He lightens the mood and makes the classes go by smoothly. He always makes me laugh and for that I am grateful. He can be serious at times and very supportive. I feel as if my progress as of now would not have been possible without Raider Academy. I see a future and I'm set to graduate which I could not even fathom in the past. I'm going to Suffach County Community College in the fall to major major in either bioengineering or biochemistry. I hope to do something in medicine or medical robotics. I want to use my skills and
055interest in healthcare and science/math to save people's lives mental health or otherwise. Great job, Ben. And we also have Sophia Lagona, who's another 12th grade student here tonight. Hi, my name is Sophia Lagona. I'm 17 years old and I am a senior who attends Raider Academy. Raider Academy has helped me to focus more on my academic skills because when I was in the high school, I was surrounded by bad influences and almost went down the wrong path. When I came to Raider Academy, it gave me a chance to make my own choices that I knew I was always capable of. When I was in the high school, it was very easy to fall into temptation. Now, while at Raider Academy, there is no temptation as the school is a lot smaller. I don't get in
056trouble for others behaviors and there isn't room for negativity and drama. Everything is focused on self-improvement at Raider Academy. This applies to attendance, academics, and personal well-being. My mental health has gotten better due to being able to talk to Dr. Hodber and Miss Diver. Everyone in Raider Academy has their own personal challenges, and I feel like I'm not the only one facing challenges. And I Oh, sorry. And I know that some students may be struggling, but we push through it and support one another. One of the biggest obstacles that made me feel depressed was the was that I always looked at other people and wished I could be more like them. But now I realized that it's not about others. It's about me focusing on myself and my own priorities. I am that smart girl
057that I always wanted to be. I really like that Raider Academy celebrates everyone's birthdays. Some students might not have a family to celebrate their birthday, and this is something that the staff does because they care. I really liked the aquarium field trip because we got to see all the animals that we learned about in class. I like the prayer cards that I read when I am struggling and they always make me feel so much better. I recently started attending credit recovery at the high school. Upon returning to the high school, I realized that not much has changed with the people I used to hang out with. But I did realize that I am more independent now and I can sit and focus and complete my work. My mom no longer gets negative phone calls from
058school. And now she is more stressfree because I'm academically and socially and emotionally doing better in school. After graduation, my plan is to attend Suffach Community College and I am looking to pursue a career in the medical field and ultimately become a pharmacist. And I hope to attend St. John University. So, I just wanted to say thank you. I mean, you can see what this program has done for the families and the students, but as an educator myself, I'm so happy that I got the opportunity to work in this program because it brought me back to why I wanted to be an educator and building those relationships and being with the kids. Um, I have to say thank you obviously to the board of education and the cabinet for making this program happen. Um, Dr.
059R, thank you. You support the program. You support me probably on a daily basis. and also to Dr. Louisa and Dr. Kelly. I mean, Saxon has welcomed us with open arms and um we truly appreciate them accepting us for that. So, thank you. Are there any questions or Dr. Hodchburg and Dr. Brazilitz and all the teachers and Mrs. Tiveres just you're changing lives every day. I couldn't be more proud of our students that are on they're collegebound. They're uh striving to reach higher heights and face the challenges that they have and overcome them. What a beautiful thing to overcome. And um this is true epitome of a culture of care that we create here for all students because all students matter. So I'm very proud to hear about this amazing program and the progress uh
060that has been made for our students that have struggled and I'm so delighted that we have this in included as a permanent program in next year's budget. Thank you so much. I just want I just would like to say that um hearing the testimonials from the parents, those of you that are in the audience couldn't see the expressions on their face. They feel it's obvious that they feel blessed by this program and the students have come up and shared their experience and how well they're doing and how they're motivated and their self-esteem has improved and the program really is making lifechanging things for all these kids and more importantly not only the students but their families and the people they encounter to show that they can do whatever they set out to do. So, I
061want to thank everybody here that made this program happen because it's amazing how much it's really made a difference. So, thank you and thank you Dr. Hushber and your entire team. Okay. All right. Next up, the ease program presentation by Dr. Goldstein, director of preschool special education. Um, okay. Thank you so much. Um, we wanted to start by just thanking the board of education, Dr. Jones, and all of the cabinet members, um, for supporting us with, uh, when we come to you with these ideas and, and we always have your full support. So, we really are appreciative of that. Um, so these are just a couple of things we'll talk about tonight. Um, Dr. Dand is the principal at the building where the ease program is held. Here she is. Um, but I'll jump right
062in. So, in terms of the history, the ease stands for emotionally and academically supportive environment. Um in 2021, our district was part of a targeted skill group um to address least restrictive environment and out of that we developed a special education committee um in the beginning of 2022. Um and we really were focusing on least restrictive environment and we noticed that we had a lot of children who were attending out of district programs and one of the things that came out of the committee was why don't we think about starting a program for our students in our district. Um we also looked at some of the student needs postcoid. We noticed that there was an uptick in students who were entering kindergarten who um were displaying some challenging behaviors that were interfering with their participation
063in general education um and with the with their learning in kinder. So the profile um we worked with the committee and we established a profile for the students who would be in the class. We visited another local school district who had a similar program and um then Dr. Dand and I sat on cse meetings for some of the students who had been in Boseis to try to get a sense of um some of the students strengths and needs. Um so the classes are 812 special classes. So they have a maximum of eight children, one teacher and two teaching assistants. The children all have average cognitive levels. Um they have high level of management needs. So they do require some flexibility, positive behavior supports. Um, and we really needed to focus on those social emotional learning
064needs. Um, we c we use a trauma-informed approach in the program um because we know that um the kids are just facing a lot of different things in their personal lives and we want to be sensitive to that. So when we put together the program, we wanted to have a small class. Um we have a dedicated social worker, Miss Plugman, who's here tonight. Um she provides SEAL lessons, she does counseling uh with the students, she does parent training for the families. She also provides crisis response as it's needed and she is trained in um crisis prevention intervention. We also have a teacher on special assignment, Miss Kaiser, who's also here. Oh, she had to leave. Okay, she was here. Um she also provides support in the classes and coaching for the students. She provides um
065crisis responses as needed and she's also trained in crisis prevention intervention and um I think all of the classes have Miss Kaiser as one of their top rewards. So when the kids you know earned to the top Miss Kaiser is one of their uh preferred uh rewards. So um the kids also have opportunities for mainstreaming. Um they join special area classes and lunch with the general education students at their grade level. And then as the students are progressing with their um ability to cope and regulate, they're mainstreaming it to general education classes for certain subjects that they might be um strong really strong in. Um we also as part of the program have um met we meet monthly with each teacher at each grade level. So Dr. Dand and I and Miss Pluggman meet with
066um the teachers at the grade level once a month just to talk about how the students are doing academically um socially, anything we need to assist families with. Um those are, you know, things we talk about at our monthly meetings. So our we have three classes right now. Our kindergarten class started with three students. Um by December we had seven. um one student moved into the district from another uh location and then three children came from general education. Um our grade one class started with four students who came back from a Boise program and then we had a student who transferred in in October. Um we had six at the max. Right now we have five because one of our students moved to an ICT class. So um they were able to kind of develop
067some skills and kind of move move on. So it was great. Um then we opened a third class in January. Um in December we noted that we had a couple of students who kind of uh would need that smaller setting and then we also had another student who moved in from another district and we were able to use the current um FTEEs that we had in the 2425 budget to develop a third class. This class has um the three students, one teacher and one teaching assistant. And we have a couple of our teachers here today. Miss Morvito is here. She's our kindergarten teacher. And Miss Sansone is here. She's our third grade teacher. Okay. All right. Um, so overall with opening the program, we kind of estimated about $750,000 of costsaving by having the program
068here in the district. Um, in addition to the kids just being part of our school community and part of our community at large. So, here's Miss Kaiser doing what she does the best as her seal coach um with all the little kids and and they they just love Miss Kaiser. So, that's all I could say. Um and here's Miss Pluggman with uh the the little guys um doing some of her SEAL work. Um, you know, it's really like pivotal for the program to have these additional staff members that are dedicated to the program because they're able to really um respond on the drop of a hat and support the kids through whatever is going on and develop relationships with them and help them develop relationships with each other. So, we've uh developed some expectations that
069are through the program in all three classes. Um this helps us use common language. If a crisis responder has to come in, everyone knows the same language. Um so these are our expectations for the classes. These are a couple of the classroom management system. Um the first grade class uh earns the Lego men moving up and then the kindergartens has monkey moved ups. So they use that classroomwide. Um in addition they some of the kids also need some individual things but for the most part the kids are um using these classroomwide systems. We also have some other systems green choices and red choices that are common between the classes as well. Um again it helps if Dr. Dan is going in the class she's able to use that same common language among all three classes.
070So some of our successes we've had three rock stars of the month um at Medford. Um, and you know, if you know Dr. Dan, you know that they're, you know, they're achieving the same, you know, criteria for Rockstar of the month, you know. [Laughter] Um, and then we also have two stu two students, as I mentioned, who are moving to less restrictive classes. One is moving to general education with um some additional support and the other is moving to an integrated co-eing class. So, um, we're really proud of that. Um, and then as our next steps, we're going to do some curriculum writing over the summer to look at our SEAL program. Um, we're going to be using the Scribble Spot Scribble Spots program. And, um, during the summer, we're going to work out and
071kind of flush it out a little bit for our program. We want to try to increase our parent participation, um, and in our parent training and trying to think of some other creative ways to do so. And then, you know, we'll be continuingly ongoing the need for um any expansion in the 2728 school year. But, you know, we we're both really um we I think we're all that are involved have been really thrilled with how the students are doing. Um our teachers are doing and I just want to shout out Miss Wood here is here too. She's the school psychologist for Medford. So, um we couldn't do it without all of our dedicated teaching assistants and teachers and um the kids are just are just doing so great. So, thank you um for letting us
072share about this program and I guess there's any questions or and Dr. Danic here if there's any questions for her. I just wanted to say that one of those pictures is my old student and I am so excited to see that he's back in district cuz it's just exciting to see that he can made it back here and in that picture looks like he's doing awesome. And I love the scribble spots because I do that in my classroom. So that's awesome, too. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Thank you. So I'd like to commend Dr. Goldstein, Dr. Dand, and um and all of the staff members that have worked so tirelessly to make this program also a success. One of the things that you see is a common thread here um that
073all of our children don't fit into uh one mold. They have a lot of things going on in their lives. And what you can see truly is what we're conveying is that all really does mean all. And there is something special for every child to meet every child's needs. And that our children are thriving as a byproduct of the dedication and hard work of our administrators, our teachers, our support staff and our parents and community who allow us to be creative and to ensure that our children are indeed in the least restrictive environments. And I will say that in 2022 there were some areas that we were identified within our special education department with so many of the programs that we have instituted. We are a district that is diverse, large, and we are uh
074we have met all of our indicators to date. We are in full compliance special education wise with all of our indicators. And there is about what 19 of them. Okay, I'm a little early, but that is a herculean task for a district of this size. So, we're very proud of the accomplishments and the care and concern that all of our administrators, teachers, support staff have made to make all mean all, all means all a true reality in our district. Thank you all for being here and sharing your stories. Just quickly, I would like to um just kind of piggyback on what Dr. Jones was saying about all means all is that we realize and this program associates with the individual needs of each child. They're not put into a box. Everybody gets what they need
075on a daily basis and that's why they grow the way they do. So, thank you for everything you do. Okay, next up, we're going to have the report by our exeicio student member, Ella McCann. Hello everyone. Welcome to the March 24th, 2025 business meeting. My name is Ella McCann and I am the exeicio student member of the board of education. Tonight we will be taking a look close look at the events in all of our buildings since our previous meeting. On Wednesday, March 12th, 2025, Bay Elementary School held its annual school talent show, BA's Got Talent. This was a resounding success, showcasing the incredible talents of our students and bringing the community together for an evening of entertainment and joy. This year, the event featured a diverse array of performances highlighting everything from singing to
076dancing to gymnastics and comedy routines. This evening was a celebration of creativity, confidence, and community spirit. It provided a platform for students to shine and showcase the incredible potential within their school. They look forward to next year's event where they hope to see even more talents and creativity on display. Kudos to everyone involved in organizing and participating in this fantastic event. At Oregon Middle School, the wellness classes took a field trip to Topgolf. All the students had an amazing time and expressed their gratitude for such a fantastic day. Mr. Lake was particularly pleased to receive a compliment from the field trip coordinator about the students excellent manners. This outing not only fostered a sense of community, but also provided a great opportunity for social emotional learning while allowing everyone to try something new in a
077stress-free environment. It was heartwarming to see them so en enthusiastic and supportive of one another throughout the day. Also, Oregon celebrated PSI Love You Day with a volleyball game that all students attended watching the staff play in their championship student team. Barton Elementary School was honored to have a number of fifth graders participate in band, orchestra, and and chorus for Skimeia this year. In addition, they had three orchestra students participate in Lispa. Eagle Elementary School also had a lot going on this month. First, they had a secret staff spirit week that brought some extra fun to their building. During Dr. Seuss week, Mr. Foley visited Miss Donfrio and Mr. Dapole's grade four class to read Dr. Seuss's book titled House Mouse, Senate Mouse to connect with their social studies unit. After the book, students were
078able to ask the councilman various questions about his role and responsibilities. Thank you to Neil Foley for his participation. Also, Miss Mo and Mrs. Lud Decker's class wrote persuasive letters to Miss Scill and Mr. P and Mrs. P's class about beginning new traditions at Eagle. Bradley Ozach's letter was chosen and the class put together a St. Patrick's Day parade for the building. Grades K through two created balloons to march with and we had an even specialer bag piper guest lead the parade. Thank you to Mr. John Owen, Pat security guard, for volunteering to share his musical gift gift with his Eagle scholars. On March 6, Tmont hosted their annual their fourth annual multicultural night. This year, the students really planned the event. Miss Highland ran a multicultural nightclub and the students played a massive role
079in ensuring classrooms were organized, had resources, had a plan, and stayed on the timeline. The displays you will see, the artwork, the research, the exhibits are all made by the children. They are so deeply proud of them. This is the manifestation of their ideas, their creativity, and their skills. In addition to navigating digital literacy, they wanted to give students an opportunity to practice onhand skill hands-on skills, collaboration, and problem solving. Thank you to all of our teachers for their expertise with lessons and projects, volunteers, and donors, the chorus club, and the students for coming together to transform this building into a DIY Epcot. At Kanan Elementary, the kindergarten students celebrated a special Q and U ceremony. This joyful event marked the joining of the letters Q and U, who are almost always together in words
080like quick, quiet, and queen. Through songs, stories, and creative activities, students quickly learned how you and you and Q are partners in creating many of the words we use every day. It was a fun and memorable way to build early literacy skills and celebrate learning together. Also throughout the month of February, Kanan Elementary proudly celebrated Black History Month with engaging classroom activities that honor the achievements, cultures, and contributions of black Americans throughout history. Each grade level participated in age appropriate lessons and projects designed to deepen the understanding and spark meaningful conversations. These classroom activities not only celebrated black history, but also encouraged our students to appreciate diversity, show empathy, and become thoughtful members of a global society. We are so proud of the curiosity, respect, and enthusiasm the students brought to this month-long celebration. On
081March 13th, South Ocean Middle School 6th, 7th, and eighth graders participated in a character matters assembly, a meaningful event designed to emphasize the importance of leadership and personal integrity. During this session, students gained valuable insights into their how their actions today can shape their future, and they explored the long-term effects of using social media responsibly. Also on February 12th, the PTA organized an exciting volleyball tournament, bringing together students and staff for an evening filled with friendly competition and team spirit. Participants engaged in several thrilling games, showcasing their skills and enthusiasm. The event was a fantastic success with families coming together to cheer on their favorite teams, creating a lively and supportive atmosphere. It was truly a memorable night of community bonding and school spirit. also not pictured and a special shout out to the Patrick
082Medford High School music department for their success for their successful pops concert this past week. I am so proud to say that I was involved and we are all so happy with our performance and of course thank you so much for listening to the events this past month and here's to another month of greatness. Thank you. Okay, next up, um, public comments and reports on agenda items. Um, so at this time, the floor is open to anyone who would like to comment on the consent agenda and or any of tonight's presentations only. Each speaker is limited to three minutes with no sharing of minutes. Mrs. Deiva will maintain the clock and inform you when there is 30 seconds remaining. This public comment portion of the meeting provide an opportunity for our community members to share
083their thoughts and concerns with the board of education. Please be mindful that your comments are expected to be courteous and must remain respectful. We welcome and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Anybody want to come up? Okay. Well, we'll move on. Thank you very much. Okay. Moving on to number nine. I need a motion to accept the consent agenda. Second. It was Kellyanne Jennings. First second. Who second? Francis. Francis. All in favor? I. All oppose. I. Any exception? Motion carry. Consent. Agenda is approved. Okay. Okay. Moving right along on to item number 10. There were no items removed from the consent agenda for separate vote this evening. So then we'll move on to item number 11 um which is policies for first reading. No, that's 12. No problem. Okay. I'm sorry. Um so
084the policy for first reading is 6145.6 Six, attendance, student conduct and academic eligibility for the participation in extracurricular activities. So that's um for up for policy up for first reading. Number 12, there are two actions arising out of executive session. U Mr. Leva, the first is whereas on January 22nd, 2025, the board of education received an appeal from a student suspension imposed by the superintendent of schools on January 15, 2025 regarding a student named in confidential schedule A. And whereas the board of education has considered the the appeal solely based upon the record before it. Now therefore, be it resolved, the board of education hereby denies the appeal of the parent of the student listed in confidential schedule A with respect to the superintendent suspension of the student. Be it further resolved, the board of
085education authorizes the district clerk to send a letter to the appealing parents notifying them of the board of education's determination and their rights to appeal such determination. I need a motion to accept. Second it. All in favor? I Motion carried. Next is be it resolved that the board of education hereby appoints Lori Kennedy as our interim superintendent of schools effective July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 on the terms to be negotiated by the parties. I need a motion to accept. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed? Motion carry. So, I'd like to speak first by saying that as you all know, a few months ago, I announced my retirement. And one of the things that's critically important is to stabilize the district and be able to move forward in a way that is as
086seamless as possible in a transition. Lori Kennedy has been a member of my cabinet and I have worked with Lori for over 15 years since I arrived in the district. Lori and I both arrived back Lori back me for the first time uh 15 years ago in summer of 2010. Um, and since that time, Lori and I have been cabinet members together, various capacities, and I believe strongly and unequivocally that she will carry the mantle on an interim basis, and the board will speak to what uh the next steps are. Mr. president. I won't steal that thunder from him, but just to say that I have an amazing cabinet. They work tirelessly. We've worked together to accomplish a lot of great things in this district, and I personally want nothing more than for us to
087continue the great work um that has been cultivated together as a team. And so I'm happy that during the transition process that Mrs. Kennedy will be able to effective July 1 begin the work uh while the board uh endeavors their larger plan. So I'm going to decrease so Mr. President can increase. Thank you very much Dr. Jones. So, I actually the board of education and I um we put together a prepared statement to share with everybody. So, I'd like to read it. It wouldn't it shouldn't take too long. Um so, as we approach the end of the school year and prepare for Dr. Jones's retirement, the board of education has been actively working to ensure smooth leadership transition for the 2025 2026 school year by choosing the interim superintendent noted Mrs. committee as well as
088establishing the process for selecting our next permanent superintendent of schools for beginning in the 2026 2027 school year and beyond. Mrs. Kennedy has been an integral part of the Patchuk Medford School District family for over 25 years. She began her career as an assistant principal at Saxon Middle School, then served as a principal at Oregon Middle School and Kanan Elementary. Mrs. Kennedy has been the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the past 15 years. Throughout her tenure, she has played a pivotal role in the success of the district, and we are confident that her leadership will continue this positive trajectory. We look forward to Mrs. Kennedy bringing her decades of expertise and enthusiastic support for all our students, faculty, staff in her new position. Regarding our next steps, our primary goal is to
089ensure the stability of our district and to build upon significant progress made under the leadership of Dr. Jones, Mrs. Kennedy, Dr. Cohen, Dr. Lucas, and Mr. Maisie. We believe it is essential to maintain the values and the culture we have been carefully cultivated here. A culture that celebrates and honors the strength found in the diversity of our students, faculty, staff, and our community. We have already begun the process of selecting a superintendent search firm and anticipate finally finalizing the selection within the the upcoming weeks. The process for choosing our new superintendent will be comprehensive. It will actively solicit input from stakeholders including parents, students, faculty, administrators, staff, unions, support personnel, and community members. Our aim is to initiate this process in the summer of 2025 with the selection of a successful candidate plan for the
090spring of 2026 with the appointment beginning July 1st, 2026. We will keep the community informed at each stage of this process, including the timing and methods used to gather the community input. In this time of uncertainty and change, we are excited about the future of our district, our students, and our community. We thank you for your continued support and partnership in our mission to deliver quality and comprehensive education for all our students. Thank you for your time. Okay. Um, congratulations, Mrs. Kennedy. Thank you. Okay. We're going to move on to We move on to item 13, which is superintendent report. Sure. And I I uh will say that with this appointment, there will be a posting tomorrow morning uh for the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction that will be happening right away. We recognize
091that there is an urgency, but similar to my transition over time, I trained Mr. Massie uh while I was in the superintendent's chair and before and yeah it was a long time he was but um he has now um he is now um yeah I like that word he has blossomed he he loves to self-promote himself and we all are accustomed to that thank you Mr. Massie, that was great. Um, and similar, uh, uh, Mrs. Kennedy will follow suit and do the same. And that is part of the, um, building that culture. Uh, we've invested a lot in training our staff and we look forward to that process. So, that will be posted tomorrow. Um um there's an urgency in all of that to ensure that there is a seamless transition. Um I think that
092tonight I just feel that this meeting conveys the essence of the work that's being done here in the district. I couldn't be more proud of every member of the cabinet, every administrator, every member of every unit because it just shows how united we are and what the fabric and DNA of this district has become. And I know unequivocally that the cabinet will continue the the work that has occurred and continues to uh develop over time. And so instead of me um talking a lot um right now, I think the goal is for me to seamlessly transfer, do a lot of the hard work to make sure that everything is buttoned up as best I can and to defer a minute or two so that uh Mrs. Kennedy can say a few words. You got to
093get used to this talking on your feet. First, I'd like to um really thank our board of education and and Dr. Jones for your trust in me. Certainly, my goal is is to make the transition. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you and and finding our our new leader. So, I'm certainly here to support our community and the entire board of education while we transition and and work to find uh our permanent superintendent. And to our community, certainly uh thank you for your support and to all my administrators there. I look forward to to working with everyone. Um as I said to the board, um it's been an honor serving this community for 26 years. Uh it's home to me and um it's really important that we leave um our jobs.
094Um it's going to be hard for me as I transition into my last year next year. So uh it's just really special to end my career like this. It's an honor. It truly is. So thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on now to uh item number 14, which is committee reports. And uh first up is buildings and operations. Um and that's uh Jennifer Kger, our trustee. Okay, so we had our meeting we had our meeting on March 6th. Uh we spoke first about our interf fund transfer projects which you guys can find online under the budget workshop presentation number three. Uh then we went into our EPC update and the we have some structural challenges in our roofing as far as our solar panels go. So our architects are researching options for
095these buildings as well as solar car ports. Um, then we went into our bay update and our bond update, both which are online on the website in the top right corner in the red box that says capital improvements right there. So, you can all click and see everything that we discussed. And that was a wrap for the meeting. And do we have another date yet, Frank? I don't think so. I believe we set one. I think because it's budget season, we were going to get back to that. We'll let the community know. We will have a date soon, but we don't have it yet. Thank you, Trusty Kger. Um, up next is the finance committee, and that's Trusty Denafhrio. So, we're looking for our next finance committee meeting. I think Mr. Maisie is trying to
096target for April 10th. So, we're going to try to make April 10th the date. Um, a lot of my work business meetings have been running very late, but I'm going to try to maybe we'll make that 6:00. Might help if we make it six. That's what we did last time. Yep. Okay. All right. So, six o'clock on the 10th. Thank you, Trusty Denafhrio. Okay. Next up is uh Districtwide Technology. Um, that's my committee. We had our meeting on March 19th. Um, I regret to say that I was unable to make the meeting personally because I was in another meeting prior to that ran over and by the time we got done, uh, the meeting was over. But with that being said, I reached out to our director of technology, Mr. Richroth, and he gave me
097a u synopsis of what had happened at the meeting, which I will share. But the uh first part on the um artificial intelligence information and policy I will go into more detail in our April meeting um because we don't have another um technology meeting until the month of May. Okay. At the most recent committee meeting, they continued discussions on the development of the artificial intelligence policy. Following the last meeting in February 5th, the committee members reviewed articles on AI and existing AI policies. Based on those materials, we were then asked for feedback in the form of a survey. Using the input of the survey as well as the guidance from our district attorneys and policies from other organizations, a policy was drafted and shared with the committee. It's the committee's task now to review the
098policy, give their feedback, and at that point in time, after the feedback is reviewed, and we use it to refine the policy, at that point, we'll share it with Mrs. Kennedy and Dr. Jones for review. Okay. Additionally, at that meeting, they discuss the upcoming computer-based testing for state assessments in the spring. This year, third grade students will be included, meaning all students in grades 3 through eight will participate in digital state assessments for math, science, and ELA. The final portion of the meeting to discuss this year is addition to the SATs being digital, the College Board will also administer the AP exams digitally. the technology department with the AP teachers to address their concerns about this being a new implementation. In response to their concerns, several additional supports have been been implemented. Uh one of
099them being um re relocating from route room 216 for testing to older computer classrooms in rooms 220 through 224 where where more charging stations access purchasing power strips, additional charges and providing loaner laptops on testing days. So they have prepared for this particular um issue in a uh in a comprehensive way to make sure the students have access to everything they need and they can move forward on the testing. Our next our next meeting will be on the uh 15th of May and that will be in the conference room in South Ocean Middle School. And again, I will give more information on the AI policy in our April meeting. Thank you. Okay, moving on to extracurricular program which is um Vice President Andradi and Trustee Jennings. Um so at our meeting we continued with our
100mascot discussion. We had sent a survey out to the students and the students had picked a top choice of um a land animal. So now we're just coming up a ways of how we're going to go out to the alumni and community so that they can have um their voice also. And then we're just working on that and maybe coming up with a a mascot um committee. And our next meeting is April 23rd. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next up would be the in instructional and student support programs and that would be Hold on. Who is that? It's me, Francis. I'm sorry. You got no problem. Trusty Salazar. I apologize. So, um, we've had two meetings since our last board meeting. One in February. I think it was the 13th and our last meeting was
101March 13th. Um our first meeting before this was uh we took a deep dive into the grading policy. Uh we examined it maybe uh discussed some possible changes and on our last meeting on March 13th we really kind of uh dove into the specifics of it. Um our discussion has centered around um three things basically. Uh the first one we talked about was the homework. Uh we discussed how homework is currently 10% of this uh of the grade and we discussed a possibility of perhaps changing it or increasing it. Um we also discussed perhaps uh putting in a sliding scale for homework um regarding percentage to allow teachers a little more autonomy for different courses but having consistency within the course. Um we also discussed um implementing changes for uh middle school. Um we talked
102about how middle school is a transition period for our uh kids and how our expectations are a little bit different for them. So we are taking a look at maybe having a little more flexibility in that range. Um we also discussed of informative assessments and how there needs to be language where no assessment can be weighted extreme uh very heavily. Um, you know, we've heard from the community in the past how there are some instances where our students can be graded on, you know, five or six um assessments. That would be the entirety of the grade. And we kind of want to have a discussion about that um and how it maybe can be uh corrected. Um we also discussed how maybe um the shifts are implemented and the teachers become more comfortable with alternate
103methods of assessment. Um perhaps getting more acclimated because you know a lot of the assessments that we're seeing now are typical and traditional assessments. um you know multiple choice questions and we kind of want to expand upon that um so the kids can have a better uh way to exhibit their uh mastery of a subject. Um so we kind of are taking a deep dive into looking how we're going to amend these subjects. Uh we do have another meeting coming up and that will be in April. I think we talked about uh the date is going to be adjusted a little bit from the last one. It currently is the 10th, but I think we might change it a day or two before. Uh, but we'll we'll keep that um and make that public soon.
104Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Salazar. Next up is legislation and that would be Trusty Smith. Um, our meeting was on March 13th. Um we um uh debriefed a little bit on the Longwood on the legislative breakfast at Longwood, but we reported on that at the last meeting. Um overall it was largely some uh bipartisan support for the schools. Um um we talked a little bit about uh the the changes in federal policy um uh uh that the exe recent executive orders um which are there's a lot going on in there. Um um but the potential impact on the schools. Uh Dr. Cohen shared a bunch of uh articles relating to the Department of Education staffing cuts as well as an article by uh Attorney General uh Leticia James regarding DEI and uh uh her uh
105u opinions about the legality of what uh is they're trying to do at the federal level. Um um we're going to try to get some u uh the uh the position statements um from uh uh Doug Smith and Senator W. Um and then we're going to talk about that at our next meeting. Um uh there was a update on our state budget. Governor Hokll's budget is five $252 billion with 37.4 billion allocated to schools. Overall, there's a 4.7% increase in school funding. Um, our share is basically flat this year. Um, so we didn't get a a big bump anywhere. Um, uh, Mr. Maisie has been, uh, doing budget presentations and, uh, PTA council, thank you, Pam, is going to be do hosting a, uh, on Tuesday, April 8th, they will be hosting Mr. Maisie uh,
106will be doing his budget presentation for all whoever wants to come see. That'll be at Saxon Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Um, the zero emissions bus natural gas buses issue. Um, uh, New York State Assemblyman Robert Smelon has co-signed an opt out bill. Um, and Dr. Cohen shared a YouTube video. There's a a video on YouTube about that. Um uh there there there is uh they're considering trying to push the deadline uh to comply to 2045. I believe the deadline now is 2030 something. Yeah. Um uh the extreme heat legislation um that has been signed and should go into effect September 1st. Uh that's basically if the temperature reaches 80 some odd degrees in a classroom that classroom they have to certain measures need to be taken within the classroom. and if it's over over a
107c another degree, then we need to evacuate that classroom. Um, this is an unfunded mandate. We are in okay shape with that because we've already our community has already um approved air conditioning for the buildings, but that's not going to be in place for quite some time. Um, so there we talked about some of the obstacles in complying. Um, we need to we need some more direction from the state about how they think we're going to be doing that. Uh the cell phone restrictions, we talked about that. Um the Governor Hokll's budget includes 13.5 million to implement this bell-to-bell cell phone ban that she's that she would like to have happen. Um Lori Kennedy has attended a disconnect conference along with two of our high school students. Um Mr. Tulin, Mr. Rosilowitz, Dr. Louisa, and
108uh Mrs. Moscow. Oh god, I'm gonna terrible. How do I say that name? Thank you, Macowski. I apologize for that. Um, there going to be more discussion on this. Um, uh, the changes to the regions. Uh, Mrs. Kennedy has also done, uh, an update to the community about the changes in the regions exam. There is a YouTube video on that. Do we have that hyperl anywhere on the website? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um um uh Manny Fuzzus shared some concerns over the battery storage facilities. I think that's turning into a non-issue. Am I right? Okay, I might be right. We'll look into that. Um we're going to talk with uh Joey's going to check with Assemblyman uh Dphano and Councilman Foley for some updates. Uh we also shared several uh articles about um what's happening
109at the federal level. Um and Mr. Zelden and uh the the state and assembly one house budgets have come through. Uh they I think they were voted on on the 12th. Um overall there's a there's a lot of things that they did but um quickly uh they're increasing the minimum foundation aid from 2% to 3%. Yay. Um the capital outlay exception threshold for building aid has been increased from 100,000 to 250,000. This is in the senate one house budget. We'll find out what the house does what the the other one does. the assembly um increasing in Bosey's adable salary cap from 300 to 30,000 to 60,000 from 226 to 27 to 28 29 um uh increasing funding for library materials aid um um multiple adjustments to the zero emission bus requirements included granting state ed
110commissioner the authority to approve an unlimited number of implementation delay Blaze. Um, uh, and there's a whole bunch of stuff. It's, um, odorvoice.net. There's a whole bunch of stuff in there. And our next meeting is on, uh, we're not having an April meeting. Our next meeting will be May 7th. That's what I got. Thank you. I'm going to jump on. Yes, ma'am. When she says our air conditioning is not going to be done, what were the word you're going to use for a while? for quite a while. I I urge you to look at the capital improvements part of of the website because we do it is in stages. So, it's not going to be all out there. We do have schools slated for January 2026, 26 27. Um then we have two more for
1112728. So, if you check out there, it will be done. We we will be working on it, but we like she said, we are ahead of the game because we're in ahead of the rest of the state who are not up to the part with plans completed like we are. Mr. President, may I just say something regarding the capital projects? We're very pleased. Thank you. Um that we are receiving expedited state approval on many of the capital projects that are in tow. Um, and as a byproduct of that, there will be a lot of work that will actually be going on this summer. We're not yet up to the part where um the the cooling system and the ventilation systems will be going on. We recognize that um cost escalations may be a factor. Um
112but we're monitoring all of that very carefully. But a lot of our projects have been approved between last week and this week. And there are expedited plans to uh hopefully be awarding bids within the foreseeable future and starting uh a number of the projects that were already approved in the bond this summer. Is that correct, Mr. Macy? As Dr. Jones mentioned, we've been pushing that out in phases to SED. Um, focusing on not just the HVAC projects that you heard Trusty Smith talk about, but also the theatrical upgrades for the lighting and sound and then um the athletic field upgrades. And we've been working on all those concurrently with our architects and our and our team. uh we meet every two weeks to go over this and we've been getting uh very good results in
113and comments uh right back to SED. So we're hopeful um and the bay and the bay project too, the bay edition uh as well. So, we're looking to have all that done and and if times are right, we'll have the Bay HVAC project approved at the same time uh as the Bay addition so we can do that uh put that out to bid at the same time and receive the economies of scale associated with such a project and also look to secure uh one vendor for mechanical, one for engineering, uh one for um electrical, things of that nature. So, yeah, we're moving along very nicely on this Good. Okay. Thank you very much everybody for your input on these committee reports. Next up is item 15 which is discussion topics. We have nothing additional added
114there. So number 16 will be community comments. Okay. At this time the floor is open to anyone who would like to address the board of education on any topic. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. With no sharing of minutes, Mrs. Dever will maintain the clock and inform you when there's 30 seconds remaining. The same rules of etiquette in making your comments that applied in the first portion of the meeting also apply to the comment period as well. Thank you. Hi. Hi. Good evening. Good evening. It gives me great pleasure to address this board tonight. I apologize for being a little sleepy. They just came from my 2-hour class from the Patong Medford Library, Miss Cathy's crafty creations where we did tons of projects. It took me five and a half hours yesterday project preparation
115to get all of our project completed. We did everything from shamrocks to uh lions and lambs for March. Anyway, um I'm here tonight because I would like to first of all thank Dr. Razulovich for uh extending me the the privilege of being the 50th year graduate on graduation day, June 26th, along with Jennifer Kger, Trust Kger's husband, Jack Kger. So that's a a great honor to accept that. Um that that's that's definitely a privilege. I would also like to say um the cell phone business. Come on. One of my friends who I graduated with is a Cath Catholic school teacher in California. They put a pocket up at the front of the room. Maybe Patrick Metro could do this. Put a pocket chart up at the front of the room. You students drop their cell
116phone in there when they come in. They take it when they leave. Boom. It's done. Simple. Why do we need to spend that much money on it? That's crazy. Anyway, um I'm here. My main reason for being here tonight is to address first of all our superintendent, Donna. You and I go back a long way. I You came into this district as that business official. You turned this this district all the way around. I mean, you are the expert at finding money and I thank you for that. It's given me a great pleasure to serve you on our um along with President Negron on our Negron, sorry, uh on our our committee um of um of that. So, I thank you for that. But and uh if if you go and if you guys go
117into the Patrick Medford High School office, when you enter that office and you look to your left behind the secretaries, you're going to see all of my blings. And that's I call it my business. Joe calls it my hobby. I'll sit there from seven at night till 4 in the morning listening to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers's greatest hits or ABBA or Rock of Ages. And I do my blings. So Donna, this is my message for you. Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you. My humble honor. Oh, I still smell the gorgeous. I know. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Jones, President Negron, Joseph Lo Shavo, president of the great town of Medford, uh, past member of your day, the Patrick Medford Board of Education from 1999 to 2014.
118currently east and suffach bosei member since 2003. Uh the comments I make tonight I make only on behalf of myself as a private resident. It is with bittersweet reflectiveness that I make these comments. Bittersweet because I in this community, Dr. Jones, owe you a great debt for all that you've done for this community. bittersweet because we're going to be losing you and bittersweet because we're going to be moving on. So, congratulations Dr. Kennedy. In the year [Music] 2010, we and I say we, Trusty Denafio and myself hired you uh as a business official. And at that time the business office was, I guess you could say, filled with interims, great people, but you needed someone to take ownership of that. And that's where we felt Dr. Jones came in. And we could not have been
119more correct. You took that office and you ran with it and you did great things. So several years later after I left and I found out that you were going to rise to the uh ascend to the superintendency, I could not have been more happy, more proud. Yet I knew you were going to do incredible things as you've done. So Dr. Jones, congratulations. You are a class act and thank you for all you've done for this district. Hi, good evening. This is my first meeting, so I'm not sure how protocol works. Do I give my name? Like, how does Name and address? Oh, I have to give my address out loud. Okay, we let's go there. Okay, so my name is Kalia Clark. I live in Medford. Okay, so um who's keeping track of time?
120Can you just give me my two minute and my one minute, please? Because I have three things. Okay. So, um, first with this being my first meeting, I actually enjoyed it because I did learn a lot, but also I was very concerned about the superintendent position and I'm in education and I know that right now it's a turbulent time in education on all sides and I won't get into the national piece of it, but there are there is a lot of impact happening directly and indirectly in K through postsecary. Um, President, you talked about the next superintendent, and I look forward to um, hearing the competencies that the board discusses with the search firm in regards to the next leader. I know that we've heard a lot about the acronym DEI, but in hearing the
121presentation tonight, I want to call out the words diversity, equity, and inclusion because in all of these presentations here, that really is inclusive of everyone. I have children in the district. I have one child that loves to go to school. Um, is a star at everything. I have another one that's probably like, I have another 12 years of this. Eh, I don't know if I can do it. However, um diversity is not just the racial makeup. It includes gender. It includes ability. It is the full gamut of the word. Equity is a seat at the table. Inclusive uh equity is equal. Inclusive is a seat at the table. So, just from my standpoint as a parent, I am hoping that the next superintendent will have those terms not just in mind, but has a true
122understanding of what that what they mean. Um, I also hope that the next superintendent is able to offer a vision. Not saying you did, you didn't, but is able to build on um being able to lead through uncertain times. Um, I have one minute. So, these are uncertain times. Um, the next thing is acute financial acumen. Um, Dr. Jones and I may not agree on everything, but what I do know is that she um knows how to, as the previous speaker said, find money, and that is very important. So, I'll stop there with that with my last couple of seconds. Um, I just want to ask two questions. We talked about programs for atrisisk youth, but I was wondering one if there has ever been consideration to beginning a if it hasn't already happened, a
123gifted program for elementary students, but also um an assessment of the kindergarten um policy on no homework. I understand that there's a holistic view to that, but I I work in higher education. I also understand that um when children aren't set for that first grade, there becomes a gap. Um and while I understand the emotional uh social learning and and having children come home and um work with their parents, sometimes that's not the reality. And I think not having homework, having been through it twice, not having homework in kindergarten really is not the um best thing. So, I'll stop there. Okay. Thank you. Good evening, Pam Peterson. I've missed you all. Um, just a couple of things. One, um, Mr. Negron, you mentioned that there was going to be technology for testing now for the
124math. I'm just going to suggest just in elementary for myself when you know when teaching elementary um I'm just hoping that they would be able to also have paper and pencil next to them because that does help in that process. I know Mrs. Kennedy you know that but I just would be remiss in saying it. Um another thing is something that I had um spoken to. So I don't know if I spokeen spoke here about it or not but um I'm just making a suggestion a recommendation that um committee applications would be um now towards the end of the school year. So committees can schoolboard committees I'm referring to um can start in September and that we can do if necessary any work throughout the summer like we have in the past. Um, and Bernardet,
125if you don't mind, I'm just going to use that example that over the summer she was able to meet with a few legislators about a light in front of, you know, about a situation in front of Medford Avenue. And if our committee was was able to still work throughout the summer, we would have been able to um to just be able to be there for more support. Just one small example. So, um, just a recommendation. Um, and now I'm putting on my, uh, PTA council president hat. And, um, this year, uh, Mr. Maisie is going to, we're going to collaborate with one, um, budget presentation for the PTA. We are going to do it on April 8th at 6:30 at Saxton in the auditorium. Um there will be a flyer um on I guess social
126media um and inviting all everybody is welcome to come but we're going to be presenting it through our PTAs. We are also um if necessary we are also going to be doing another meet the candidate night um on May 7th after the budget hearing. So, um, we confirmed that this week as well. And, um, I would like to, you know, at one point meet just to, um, collaborate what we did this year and what we can do for next year. And Dr. Jones, I'm not saying goodbye yet because it's March. So, you got a few more months. But thank you. Thank you, Pam. Good evening, Peggy Fuzzis Medford. Um, I'm just here to say the board has a tremendous task ahead of them uh going forward to select a new superintendent. I've been through it
127before. I know how much time it takes and I want to wish you the best, Donna. Uh we have seen such great changes while you were here and I want to congratulate Lori. Uh we too have seen a lot of changes since you were here as the well in I don't know what 25 years ago. Um I believe you were expecting one of your children up on a stage. Yeah. Yeah. So, with that being said, I wanted to congratulate you, to say to you, we're still here until July. So, we will see you. And to the board, you have a great task ahead of you. And I wish you a lot of luck. Okay, if there's no more comments from the community, we'll move on to board comments and I'll start down at the end
128of the day is with Trustee Salazar. There was uh quite a lot to acknowledge in that um in this past board meeting. Um, first off, um, it's great to see our Spanish language program thriving. Um, it was great to see our, uh, students, you know, our individuals get up and speak about that. Thank you, Dr. Lucas, for your update on the progress of our ASUS program. Um, I want to thank Dr. H. Hotchber for presentation on the Raiders Academy. It was great to hear from the students as always. Um and it's great to see their accomplishments and the confidence they have in front of everybody. That was fantastic. Um thank you to Dr. Goldstein for her presentation on the ease cat uh ease program. Um it's just a testament you know we talked about the
129DEI. Um and it's great to see how you know we are implementing it and how we are you know raising all of our students up to this and giving them a chance to succeed. Um so that's it. Thank you. Okay. Oh, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. I'm not done. Oh, sorry. Uh, congratulations, Lori. And we look forward to working this year. I don't know how I cut that one out, but it's great. And, uh, we're looking forward to next year. Thank you. Okay. I always piggyback on Fran because he always says what I want to say, but I wrote mine out this time. So, I just wanted to thank Bless you. I wanted to thank the Raider Academy students for getting up and speaking. Um that is a tremendous accomplishment for children and it
130just shows how um that has made such a difference in their lives and to be able to stand in front of a crowd and use their voices is just absolutely amazing. Um we finished up a great concert season including a successful Flapjack fundraiser which was a lot of fun. Um, we look forward to the new uh musicals coming up. Uh, spring sports is kicking off. As a parent that sat here in front of the high school, I couldn't believe the amount of children that were coming out in all ages, little little kids, big kids, middle school, high school. So, we're all looking forward to that. Um, the fantastic presentations showcasing what makes us special tonight. We're great. Um, I know we we all speak and say the same thing, but we're ahead of the curve
131on so many um different levels of meeting our students needs. And as a veteran member of the special ed committee, um, as an educator, a board member, and as a special needs parent, it's just wonderful to see all those plans that were ideas that we just had in those meetings in Saxton come to fruition. So, I I'm proud of us and there's many of us in the room here that are sit there. And lastly, I want to congratulate Lori on her new role and I look forward to working even more closely with you and um with you uh while we transition in forward into looking for Dr. Jones replacement, which uh we as a board have made a priority and plan to take all the community input that you guys have to give us. So,
132I just wanted to say thank you. So, we're not here all night. Ditto. Um, congratulations, Lori. I'm so happy to have you here. Um um the um the presentations about Raiders Academy and Ease and the Kitchen. Um I love what you people are doing with this population of our students. It's so important and I'm so happy that you're here to do this work. Um I have a a child who would have benefited from the ease from the um from the Raider Academy. Um and uh uh like u Jennifer said, having a kid with anxiety who doesn't want to go to school get to the point where they can stand up in front of a room full of people and and speak about that. Kudos. Thank you. Um um regarding the um the the Champions of
133Change Awards, thank you very much, Mrs. Romano, for being here and staying for the whole meeting. Thank you. Wow. Um um I was like honored to serve on that committee for three years. Um I did not get to vote on that. I but I but but that I had the chance to like just drop a suggestion in and and and the committees thought that what you've what you're doing there and what we're doing here was worthy of this award. I'm so happy that I was able to do that tiny little thing. Um um the musicals, I'm very much looking forward to going to those. And um um ma'am, you were talking about the DEIA. Yes. Yes. All of that. Yeah. Yes. That's all I'll say there. Thank you. Um, yeah, I like the Radar Academy
134and I like how it came to fruition and how the students also want to be involved both here and where they are. Um, as a special education preschool teacher, I love the East program. I think that's great that they're um coming back to the district and learning what they um can achieve in that kind of classroom. Um I was speaking with Mr. Brinkman about after the pop concert because um people have come up to me and said how wonderful that concert was and they couldn't believe that our they've been to a high school and never got a standing ovation. So it was nice to see that our kids got a stand ovation. But I was saying to Mr. Brinkman that maybe we should put in for our students to um perform at the NISMBA conference
135and maybe that's something that we should kind of look into so that they can go and um either perform like they did that night. Um and I know one of the teachers was also saying that he was looking into that and something that's been on their mind. So maybe that's something that we could put in for and look into since I mean because that was an amazing performance in all categories. It was an awesome thing. Yes, we are in New York City, so it wouldn't be that far for our students to travel. Um, yes, and I look forward to all the musicals. Well, of course, you know, when Francis goes first, he steals all the thunder. So, again, we'll give again ditto kudos to uh to Kim, to Lori, Michelle. I mean, we forget Michelle
136over there. Of course, Nate. Um, guys, you do such a great job. just thank you for everything you do. Keep it going and just just keep growing those programs. It's great. Um to Mrs. Kennedy, she knows what I'm going to say. And the reason that I'm here for 18 years is because of Mrs. Kennedy because when she was the principal of Oregon, I was upset about something as all of us parents are. Something was going on. I'm all upset. And she says, "You know, Mr. Denafhrio, you should run for the board. Okay, great. And here we are. So, Lori, uh, great. I know. I mean, it's a great plan. The board's done a great job of of this transition from the standpoint of giving Dr. Jones some time to work with you and of course,
137um, your successor as we work down that plan as well. U, Mr. Negron, great, um, great presentation of the next steps. I think it the community really deserves to know where we're going. Um I know in the past we didn't do that all that well. So Mr. Negron, great job in making sure that we lay out exactly the plan and letting the community know now and as we go along uh what's going to go on with uh Well, let me was a full collaborative effort. Yes. Yes. Everybody had their two cents in there and it was great. Um so yeah, thank you. Thank you. much to say. So, I d owe everything that everybody said. I'm very proud to be part of this district and see and reiterate all the great programs we have. It's
138a big district. Sometimes we hear great things, sometimes we hear not so great things. And when you hear this and what's really going on in the buildings, it really it hits home and it's makes me really proud to be a resident here and have kids that went through this district. So, thank you to everyone who is involved in that and congratulations to Lori. Okay, I'll Okay, I'll finish up. Um, of course, everything that everybody has said that I would would take another 20 minutes and just say the same thing. So, I'm not going to do that. But what I will say is that if you take a look at all the presentations and reports tonight, um, every one of them, including, um, our exeicio student member, Ella McCann, was about every student in this district
139from seven elementary schools, three middle schools, and a high school, and everyone that enters those doorways every day. It truly is all means all. Every child has the opportunity to flourish. Every child has the opportunity to succeed. And the efforts put in by our faculty, staff, administration, the cabinet, the superintendent, as well as the board making sure that, you know, everybody's, you know, on task is um it's an amazing accomplishment for what you have done. And I can't get out of my mind or my mind's eye the look on the parents' faces when they were talking about their children that were going to school and being successful when they didn't want to go to school. You know, um you stop and you think about the difference that you make when you get up in the
140morning, you look in the mirror, what life am I going to change today? You really are doing that. You're making a change in someone's life. and it makes us proud that um we're part of this community that this deis all the way from one end to the other is all has one thing in mind and that's the success of the children in this community. So with all that being said, we just keep going the way we go, making sure we continue the way we continue. And the number one focus, someone said to me that when you hear something or somebody brings an idea to you, the first question you ask yourself is how does it affect our students and our children? And if you think about every one of these programs, every one of them,
141that's what was in mind. How will we make a difference? and God bless us for what we've done and thank you for everything that you have done. And Mrs. Kennedy, thank you for accepting the position and moving forward with us. And we know that you won't skip a beat. And with that, um, can I get a motion? I wasn't going to say that. I'm kidding. second. Hi