001good evening going to call to order this regular board meeting of the balson spa Central School District Board of Education for June 26 2024 can we all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation godible justice for all like to welcome everyone here in attendance like to welcome all those who may be watching on the live stream for those of you who are here in the library if we have to evacuate the library for any reason there are exits on either side of me that lead outside and we have the exit that leads into to the hallway um there so today ends the instructional year for 2023 2024 we have celebrated student achievement our ele elementary schools moving
002up celebrations we've had our Middle School moving up celebration High School graduation ceremony yesterday at back it's been a very successful school year we've had many Great Moments I want to make sure I mention how grateful I and the entire board are for the support support that is given to our District staff and to all our students by so many so I'd like to start with all our parents Guardians and Caregivers for being so supportive of their students I'd like to thank the ptas the high school PTSA our many booster clubs and all those who volunteer at all the sporting events theater performances concerts science and robotic competitions and all the other wonderful events that take place during the course of the school school year I'd like to thank the Boston spa Business and Professional
003Association our Boston area Recreation Commission clubs and F interal organizations all the other businesses and Community Partners that we have out there and I'd like to thank our Head Start programs the malta branch of the Saratoga regional YMCA the Boston area Community Center for our prek and before and after school programs I'd like to thank our partner in law enforcement Sheriff zurlo Chief Bush and New York State Police senior investigator Werner for their incredible responsiveness guidance and support for our district I'd like to thank Dr Torina Parker uh the district superintendent of the Washington Saratoga Warren Hamilton osis for her and her staff's support and finally I'd like to thank Our Town supervisors supervisor young of Malta supervisor Connelly of Boston supervisor Ostrander of Milton all their council members and staffs and our village mayor
004Rossy and the town and Village trustees and staff members for all of their support I look forward to next year so let's proceed to our recognition superintendent Dua thank you very much tonight we have one student we recognized student athlete who's had a fantastic uh season track for spring so I'd like to call their coaches up so we can recognize Gabby bth this one one to uh the big one the big one all right it's it's good it's good okay um well thank you to the board um thank you to Mr sunus for allowing us to coach and then more importantly allowing us to recognize Gabby um if uh coach sunus was here he would talk about how I'm a stats guy um but I would be remiss if I didn't give you a quick
005rundown of our highlights and by quick I mean I apologize in advance for the lengthy highlights but I want to keep in mind that I'm only talking about championships and invitationals not including our dual meets or our regular meets of the season so first off let me just say um for any of you that were here for the recognition of the spring season our season was historic and I don't use that word lightly um the amount of Records we broke basically anything under the four 400 meter and under um including the hurdles has been broken by our team except for one this year Alone um in indoor we broke over 23 school records but I just want to highlight just Gabby I actually ran the numbers a couple times because I was almost confused by
006how many Gabby currently holds eight school records just in the outdoor season for track and field eight yeah you can a clap for that that's a really big deal she was on um part of the relay team that was the greatest Relay Team I've coached in 20 years and that includes 33 Seasons um with Patrina Harriet tati and of course Gabby they hold the school record in the 4x100 4x200 4x400 the SMR 800 the smr600 and the Swedish relay so pretty much anytime there was a relay that we could go to they would has to go and then they would run all of them um Gabby also won individually the 200 to Chen Envy which is another one of her school records and Gabby is also our record holder for breaking the 12C barrier in
007the 100 meter dash here's a big list of what Gabby was able to accomplish this season they're 4 by one went to the Glenn LS Invitational and came in first place um which is a really really big meet down near of the city um they also went to the nkuna medal relay and when we had a meeting before the meet I asked them which of the relays they said and they replied very very quickly all of them um not only did they win all three relays that they entered they broke all three school records at the same meet running back-to-back relays Gabby came in first place in the 100 at Colony relays their 4x1 came in first 4X two was second Sprint medley was second all at the colony relays then came the Edie meat
008which for anybody outside of the track world the Edie meat is like a preview of the state meet um it brings teams from all over the state sometimes even multiple States it was one of the biggest meets in the entire country at one point Co put a little damper but they're starting to build back Gabby was able to collect second in the hundred then she won the 4x1 4x4 and 200 so not only did she enter four events um she had to run prelims to get into those events so she actually ran seven times that day because of this amazing accomplishment she was awarded athlete of the me [Applause] Gabby won the double 100 and 400 sectionals and the 400's really not even one of her events she's just that fast that we could put
009her in and say hey go ahead and win this and she did um she was on the 4x1 and 4x4 at sectionals 4x1 came in second then the 4x4 um took first place to State qualifiers unfortunately we could not enter that relay um because several of our teammates were going to prom the same day um Gabby and Patrina are ranked number one and two in section two for the 100 they're also on the alltime list in the history of section two in the top five Gabby's also ranked number one in the section for the 200 which is actually her best event uh the 4x1 was ranked number two the 4x4 was ranked number three uh and the 4X two is the fastest team in section two this year the 800 SMR as well as the
0101600 smmr the Swedish relay also on the list for the fastest relay in section 2 Athletics this year um Gabby is currently ranked well was currently ranked sixth in the 100 and seventh in the 200 but more to come on that in a second and that's in all of New York State not just in our league or our section but the entire state of New York she also was the anchor on the 4x1 that was ranked number five in New York she ran lead off in the 4x4 even though they only ran it three times during the season they were ranked number 10 in all of New York State um due to the prom we did have two freshman subbing for the 4x1 for New York state championship meet because of Gabby and Patrina our
011two leaders and our Juniors on the team they were able to come in ninth place at uh New York state championships and they missed the finals by less than a second Gabby came in second here's where it's just amazing what she did at the New York state championship meet against the best runners in all of New York State she came in second in the 100 at New York state championship second second in the 100 Federation which includes all of the public and private schools second in the 200 state championship and then came back and won the 200 Federation which literally makes Gabby the fastest 200 meter girl in the entire state of New York public and private [Applause] schools to be on the Suburban Council All-Star list is an amazing accomplishment if you can sneak
012your way on for one Gabby did that three times this year she is a Suburban Council All-Star for the 100 meter the 200 meter and as the anchor of the 4x1 100 meter then she decided States was not enough she qualified for New Balance Nationals which is amazing in itself new balance is the meat um not only did she qualify she actually qualified in so many events that she had to pick four out of the five what she decided to do was she put the team ahead of herself and she decided to run three of the relays and give up one of her individual events that she qualified at the 100 met Dash Gabby decided to run the 4x1 4X two Sprint medley relay and the 200 in the entire nation we're talking about not
013the section not the Suburban Council not the state the country she was 34th in the 200 meter dash our relay 4x1 was 23rd our 4X two was 18th and our Sprint medley relay came in 14th at New Balance Nationals as a team because of all this um I tried to explain to her how big the award she got about being Times Union athlete of the year was I have coached 20 years I have coached I believe 34 seasons and the list that I've been a pleasure to come up here and announce no one has ever done that for me I've never had an athlete win that award Gabby is one of the most humble and hard workers we have right now she bought in this year last year she was along for the ride this
014year she's a completely different person as you can tell by her accolades um so when I told her that she won I don't think she understands because she is so humble how big of a deal the fact that she beat out multiple seniors and when I say multiple I'm saying double digits that are going D1 scholarships all these athletes that were at States they were at feds they were at Nationals and Gabby as a junior won Times Union female track and field athlete of the year I could not be more proud of this kiddo so really thank you come on up whiches character conratulations congratulations thank you so much congratulations that concludes our recognition that was plenty of recognition and is wonderful and we look forward to next year have a wonderful summer all right
015we are now at the time in our meeting for public comment Mr Williams thank you as I always do I will read our guidance for public comment the Board of Education welcomes District residents parents and other interested persons to its meeting Community involvement at board meetings is encouraged so that the board can better understand understand and represent the views of its constituents Please be aware however that information such as individual student information or particular Personnel issues cannot be discussed at public sessions of the board speakers will be called upon individually when recognized by the board president you'll be asked to approach the podium and state your name and residence statements are restricted to a maximum of 2 minutes and speakers will be notified by the board president when his or her time has expired the
016board and the District staff take public comment very seriously however the board will not respond to comments or questions during the public comment period the board asks the Public's cooperation in maintaining a safe and respectful environment and the board president reserves the right to limit individual comments if it is deemed necessary to achieve this speakers will please not make slanderous attacks on any group organization or individual a member of the board an employee of the district a member of the audience or a member of the public they will not use profane vulgar threatening or disparaging language or racial or ethnic slurs they will not disrupt the meeting with loud outbursts or other disruptive conduct or behavior either during the speaker's assigned time or at any other time during the meeting speakers understand that a failure
017to comply with these rules for maintaining a respectful and productive environment may result in early termination of the speaker allotted time a denial of future requests to speak and any other actions deemed necessary by the president of the board or where appropriate in the matter of health or safety measures the superintendent of schools Mr debuk would you please approach the podium the floor is yours Chris abuke six King Drive I realize there's a time limit on the comments so I'm going to have to break this up to two public comments uh but the reason why I'm here tonight is just to discuss uh an upcoming policy that's going to be voted on 3419 diversity Equity inclusion and belonging in the school district I guess I just had some questions with regards to this policy looking
018at it I could see a few things that might need a little bit change in the wording but overall I don't see too many problems with the policy seems like a pretty solid policy and I hate to say it should be common sense practices um but again I digress uh with this though I guess my question I have on here just a few I don't know if you have in front of you but I was looking at uh page two at uh number two under diverse schools and learning opportunities where it is stated uh one of the purposes of policy will be to eliminate the use of terms and phrases within district schools that perpetuate negative stereotypes and minimize student opportunities I guess my question is is there going to be a listing of those
019phrases who's going to determine those phrases I know we're a culturally diverse school and District so what might be offensive to one group of people may not be offensive to another and vice versa so again I'm just sort of curious what the buyin is going to be on know that's going to be an inmotion thing from year to year obviously uh the other question I have with regards to this is I'm also seeing on here uh with the student supports discipline and wellness uh employee programs and practices that constructively and appropriately enhance all students identity self-confidence self-esteem but maintain non-discriminatory non-discriminatory discipline policy season practices again I'm sort of curious what are those disciplinary practices is there going to be a list or a further guide that would be available to the public to see
020uh what's in place uh that could possibly affect their students within the school and then last but certainly not least here is Workforce diversity the district will work to create a Workforce that is not only diverse and inclusive but one that recognizes and values the differences among people as part of this effort the district will seek to one mindfully consider recruitment and retention of a diverse Workforce in all areas and at all levels thereby neutralizing stereotypes and preparing students for an increasingly Global society and two provide staff with opportunities for professional learning opportunities on cultural proficiency proficiency and awareness uh and I also like the fact that you're going to get a little bit of a uh Buy in here from building Community conversation by encouraging participation from all stakeholders so I guess my question
021again is who are all the stakeholders what group are you looking to gather as stakeholders to sort of weigh in on this uh what are you looking for in recruitment retention what do you consider a diverse Workforce what are the criteria for that uh and what are some of the programs that you could be providing staff with and I should ask maybe some of the students with to uh you know create professional learning opportunities but more importantly cultural proficiency and awareness uh so again you know any any guidance uh you know this is a well uh open policy to allow you to adjust I'm sure as as it is given but is there going to be any you know subdivision of the policy that will be available to the public to see to see what
022criteria and again who's weighing in on this criteria is it going to be the board or is it going to be a subcommittee uh so forth and so on uh so just something to consider before you vote on that policy and like I said to be respectful of your time I'll save my other half for the second public comment thank you thank you for your comment it's now the time in our meeting for our Student Government report so I see a familiar face and I see a new face is it time for introductions good evening uh you all know me I'm Ben skillings uh I'm the new student government president uh and this is I'm CR senzo and I'm the junior sergeant in arms she'll be accompanying me next year um as a part of
023the board um she'll be just learning how to do all the stuff like I was so that she can hold a position next year when she's a senior um so to go over what we've been doing and stuff we've had a meeting already as summer has begun and we're just planning all the stuff for homecoming and and everything because it happens so early in the school year I think it's like the second or third week homecoming is so we're doing we already did one meeting and we're going to do another one August 15th and we're just um putting out all the things we already ordered most of our stuff and got um our checks in so we didn't have to like wait on any money which is good um what else did we do we
024also are planning on doing a lot more volunteering this upcoming year we're going to uh make sure we're not just like doing homecoming and then like being in like kind of like a recession for all of winter and not doing anything I think it's really important that we like indulge in the community and try to do more Community Based things so we're looking at more volunteer opportunities in a collaborative effort with NHS um so we've discussed that with um Miss Carlson who's the NHS adviser so that's looking good for the next year and overall we're just really excited to have a good next schol year it's is wonderful do we have any questions for our Student Government Representatives yes welcome um it's not a question I just wanted to say what a delight it is
025to have students part of the board um I did see you yesterday working very hard in the heat at graduation so it's it's really nice to um have your involvement in all of our events and it was great to see Katie recognized yesterday graduation so thank you for what you do for the board you guys for any other questions so yes welcome and we look forward to your reports and participation at our meetings during the coming year have a wonderful summer have uh fruitful planning sessions there's a lot to don't so much to do we're doing it all it was easier sitting in the seat at the end of the table you you you've moved one seat over over but over quite a bit more work okay well wonderful um you may excuse yourselves if
026you so wish um from our meeting thank you for the report next up is our approval of minutes may I have a motion to approve the minutes for the June 5th 20124 regular meeting so moved second any amendments or discussions addition excuse me any amendments or additions not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions the minutes are approved next up is our superintendence report thank you very much Mr fno members of the board uh tonight I am going to provide an end of the year update on our district goals and so what I've tried to do is um go back and take a look at the presentation from September 6th um and compare that to kind of where we ended up I gave a midyear uh kind of review um and so
027this will be the end of the year review so um you know always we like to start with you know our our our motto here um that we're always looking to partner with families and the community to help our students become well well established well-rounded adults and our goal of a meaningful diploma for all students so something that we strive for at all levels to make sure that we're giving students Pathways to be successful in what they choose uh and so on to on to the goals uh and so part of our developing our district goals um what we tried to do was identify both short short-term and long-term goals that will have positive out comes for students so we really wanted to ground our decisions when we talk about goals and what's going to
028be best for our students um and so at the beginning over the summer and at the end of the summer into the fall we identified some District goals family and Community engagement um mtss addressing chronic absenteeism curriculum instruction assessment Dei and our capital building projects uh so I'll start with family and Community engagement so uh one-year goal to try and engage our parents and caregivers um to enhance School students stud uh student School experience and so you see our action steps here to try to provide more Workshop offerings collaborate with our Community Partners launch our new website um and so I've kind of organized it as the goal and then the end of the year update here um so as you know we did have a very successful a little bit late but a very
029successful launch of our website um but sometimes you don't want to rush those things to make sure everything is looking good and clean and so far I've heard nothing but positive feedback um from our website um that is something that we going to continue to develop to make it a much uh more user friendly and create that interface with the community so they can find things easily we can get the messaging out um you know if folks are curious about the district a particular building a department there's going to be a lot more uh resources posted uh as we move forward with the new website um we've continued to expand our Community Partnerships um so you know these are some of these are wellestablished um events that the district has had but we've really expanded
030to try to bring in more of a Community Partners so the Scotty's closet and community resource Fair we had a lot more Community um organizations come in and provide resources for our families um that attended the Scot's closet uh the wellness Expo I believe we had 47 uh groups so that was a really well attended um event uh we had our career fair um at Wood Road Uh Wood Road Milton Terrace believe we had 34 uh different entities and and organizations myself included that spent the day with students talking about you know our job and what they do and answering questions um and uh principal Robinson created the high school stakeholders Group which was pretty successful this year he's looking to expand on that um then we we we pulled in uh we didn't do
031the Scotty 5K this year but we had a larger um uh larger turnout for the family Color Run which we pulled in some other District Partnerships um and so this is something I'm I'm quite proud of uh We've really expanded our parent workshops and informational events so the first one here uh the parents's partners webinar Series this was super successful we ran 10 webinars um that ran uh on a particular evening and we did get a really uh good amount of traffic to watch those webinars but where we really picked up a lot of viewers we we had the license for 30 days so you know webinar one would R would run the night it was supposed to run and then we'd have that license and and folks could go in Access through our website
032and watch those webinars for addal 30 days and so um Kevin Flores reached out to the parents's partners and and um the woman who runs it actually said that our district was the highest um as far as viewership over the course of the 30 days so we had a lot of families um use this and we're going to continue this next year topics will vary um and it's really great because it's kind of like an alard like if there's something that you're really interested in you can watch it I think Word of Mouth spreads a little bit and then people say oh you know I should watch that too and then they're able to access it for 30 days uh this is something that we've done right under your nose for for many years uh
033I actually love this every time I go I learned something new um and for those of you who aren't familiar it's just a a a teenager's bedroom is set up and we usually hosted here and set up in the corner and they hide different sorts of paraphernalia or Vapes or different things like that and we have parents kind of go through and try to identify these things and then there's a presentation on you know the not only the dangers but what the the new trend is or the new things look like to kind of give some more information and some more resources to our parents um James as Warriors is something um that we've partnered with a former employee for suicide prevention um we we had Uncommon Sense Internet safety presentation this year uh then
034we had a couple of special education um presentations for our families so promoting improved sensory regulation at home and behavioral supports for our children uh along with the substance use education and prevention and so one of the things that we're going to look to do next year is is we're always looking at ways to improve our attendance at these events um whether it's potentially providing food food or Child Care we've tried that uh one of the ideas that we're thinking about is doing um sort of a a parent resource conference day on a Saturday like a half day where we can bring in a few of these different entities and have kind of a conference uh event where folks can come in and go to different uh talks and maybe we can have some of
035these talks you know repeated um you know every couple hours so that's something that's in the work so continuing you know I know this is a one-year goal but it's going to be kind of the the philosophy of our district we're going to continue to expand upon our family community engagement um so multi-tiered systems of support uh is what I'll talk about next um and so again one-year time frame just to kind of assess where we were at this will certainly be expanded upon in next year's goals um but you know a couple action steps here complete the internal audit ensure consistency PD for stakeholders um and so our our our audit as you know was completed by Dr CIS uh the findings and recommendations were presented to administrators to the board and she also
036presented to all the building faculties at various meetings throughout the year um ser have been ad administered not only to administrators but also building level staff um we have policy 7212 our our multi-tier assistance of support that was adopted on on May 22nd and we've also created the district level mtss committee uh that has been created and began meeting in the spring um this is these are the members of our district level implementation committee um so this this committee has met twice in the spring we'll continue to meet um next fall and we'll continue to expand upon from here we're going to have several uh different building level committees so we have a pretty good representation of uh administrators teachers from different departments um but we're always T trying to look and refine and we'll
037potentially add some more um committee members to The District level team but also start to push into the buildings uh next year as we move on with um with this addressing chronic absenteeism so you know obviously the goal to to address the absenteeism in order to um improve academic achievement and success we all know if our kids are here here they're going to be successful um you know I was at uh Middle School moving up today uh and and Matt's message to the incoming nth graders was to be present um you know be here and and and be present where you're standing you know Focus come to math class focus on math go to English class focus on English um but really to to be present so he had a nice message for our students
038this morning um and so kind of the end of the year update so attendance matters campaign was launched across the district um all four or excuse me all of our buildings have made reducing student absence of priority um several of our buildings in elementary schools uh in the Middle School have begun attendance recognition uh and we're not shooting for perfect attendance but just improved so sometimes at the elementary level uh talking to a few of the principles that they saw such an improvement by recognizing our younger students for improvement over you know the course of a month over the course of six months that it just kind of fed them to to want to come to school and become recognized so it's not that you have to be perfect but we just need to show
039Improvement and so as we show Improvement we keep building upon that and expanding upon that and hopefully this will start to move the needle um you know some some of our buildings um saw great Improvement this year in absenteeism some you know are still working through kind of how to refine and have that kind of oneon-one relationship with students and families to kind of prioritize education but we're all working on it um and the important part here is it's not just a a oneperson show our principles are collaborating with their building leadership teams uh and and all of them have goals at improving student attendance um curriculum instruction and assessment um so you know continue to identify areas for improvement this time frame is three years so this year our action steps we're looking to
040identify gaps creating opportunities for feedback providing PD and having those measurable goals and so um you know the elementary level we we started uh K5 District grade level curriculum meetings um and the in Target was to improve student writing across the K5 curriculum and so we had several meetings in the fall and and had a few workshops um to kind of supplement the curriculum for that but out of that also we we were able to revamp the Elementary report card um and so that was something that was kind of under construction for you know about four years um but the there were some members from each grade level that provided a lot of great feedback and input um and we were able to develop and finalize that for and that'll be implemented for the 24
04125 school year in the fall so you know the old um report card there was kind of a crosswalk which was you know a little bit wonky for parents to kind of put things together this is a lot more simplified um and really aligns with the curriculum that we have so uh we'll be implementing that in the fall um as you know we're able to offer two superintendent conference days one in October and one in April um and these were developed as uh you know our our PDC has been here to present that what we strive for on those superintendent conference days is is to to listen to our staff and to really offer workshops that are going to be meaningful for them um so we had a couple board members attend uh one of
042them and you know the one in the fall was a little bit more robust than the one in the spring um but in the fall we we were able to offer 68 workshops in the spring we're able to offer 33 plus a mandatory uh workplace violence training that we all had to take um but we'll continue this practice and so when we talk about curriculum instruction and assessment um this this touches everything that we do um and so so you know for next year there's going to be focuses on um some uh PD related to special education our mtss uh Dei and so you know our our pdcs are working on what types of professional development opportunities we're going to offer not only on superintendent conference days but also throughout the year so sometimes I
043shouldn't say sometimes we offer a lot of like 10-part Series so we're refining that this summer to be able to launch that in the fall um as you know with our building um principal um uh updates for for their goalss they've all created measurable goals aimed at using data to increase academic proficiency our technology department has partnered with the high school to Pilot um an AI instructional group uh they'll be presenting at a later board meeting on kind of their findings and some of their recommendations with with artificial intelligence um and then to kind of you know compound onto the programming that we offer um from the student support side we've also had a lot of various evening events including reading and math game nights school and grade level transition programs whether it be from
0445ifth to sixth grade 8th to 9th our ptech uh and also financial aid and FAFSA informational nights for our students who are preparing to apply to colleges um so uh diversity equity and inclusion um and so the goal for this was to develop a plan and vision that supports ongoing efforts to further diversity inclusion and Equity across our district you know time frame of three years so year one um we kind of had some action steps and so the district steering committee um has been created and meets monthly um they started meeting um probably right around January and so out of the first couple meetings we created three subcommittees um within within that initial District steering committee and the subcommittees focus on policy the vision and surveys and so as we move forward in this
045we plan to solicit stakeholder feedback through both student and parent panels um and so we're working through how do we want to get that word out whether it be like an application or some sort of um you know we're using exemplars from other districts who have have done it before um the Dei steering committee uh you see it's a good mix of Administrators and uh staff teachers Tas from all different levels uh Elementary Middle School High School uh these folks are super dedicated um you know the meetings are are energetic but there's also a lot of work that gets done in a very short amount of time because they're so dedicated to this particular topic uh and so policy you know 3419 diversity Equity inclusion and belonging in the school district is currently tabled for
046the mandatory 28-day read period um what I just mentioned we're working on several PD develop or professional development opportunities and that's kind of to be a priority for the district starting in 2024 and we're currently developing surveys that are going to solicit feedback from stakeholder groups across not only the district but also um our surrounding community and our final uh goal was the capital project um and so uh initially the goal was to begin the process to determine what will be included on the capital project by engaging the stakeholders so uh three-year timeline and we're coming up on year one uh solicit stakeholder feedback and so the update for this is obviously the the architect selection process has been completed and the contract has been executed with ch Arch CS Arch I completed um internal
047meetings over the past few weeks um with building principles and department heads um Music Arts Athletics um and I met with them with the team from CS Arch to talk about you know needs and wants and kind of an internal assessment uh the next step is they're they're going to kind of come in and do their building assessments uh the CSR team is ready and able to meet with the board over the summer um and and we're going to begin to develop surveys to solicit Community stakeholder feedback as we move forward uh with our Capital project and so all these things kind of fit together into our commitments and and really the the big commitment that we have is that we're we're here to maximize success of our students uh and these kind of tenants
048are are where we want them to feel safe and secure in our buildings and on our grounds we're committed to prioritizing student family community engagement uh building our students leadership capacity across the district and region and also committed to delivering that highquality curriculum instruction to our students um and so that is the update and I'm happy to take questions questions please from the board members all right um yeah so uh with regards to Chronic absente is you know first do want to recognize that a lot of the buildings uh did a great job addressing the individual aspects with each individual students um personally I would like to see more of uh Community Based programs and initiatives uh one I feel like it buil it creates awareness to the issue at hand that I feel like
049a lot of people may not be aware to and also I think it builds a stronger and a larger support system uh to address the problem uh so a question would be any plans currently to take more of a community based approach yeah I mean I I think you bring up a good point you know it's not just what we do in the school but what we were doing for families and caregivers and parents outside of school to kind of help them address maybe you have a child who doesn't want to come to school what tools are we providing to help them you know it's one thing you know as a principal I would make house house visits and you know that only goes go so far I can only go and do that a
050couple times or or we can send Transportation um but we're not going to do that every day um it has to be a partnership with families and so uh some of our schools have moved to sending um attendance letters but also providing them some resources when they send the attendance letters and we're certainly going to expand upon that but I I think your point is key you know we got to make sure that our families understand that attendance really does matter and they have to do everything they can on their end to get their students into school um and and if they can't we need to know what the barriers are you know we can solve a lot of problems if we know about them uh and so kind of maybe removing the stigma and
051and helping build those relationships and helping have those open lines of communication are really going to help our building level teams whether it be principles or counselors or social workers come up with you know ideas or if there's a true barrier that they can't solve for come to me come to Brian come to transportation we can try to do our best to figure it out to make sure we're getting these kids to school other questions okay um when you talked about the capital project do you have an estimation of when you are going to be um sending out the survey to the community stakeholders so right now I think uh a a fair timeline would be the fall um you know work on it kind of you know have have CSR meet with the board
052take take into account our internal kind of feedback and meetings that we've had and then formulate some surveys that we can put out to you know staff families but also the community in general um I'm envisioning right now probably three different surveys to kind of hit all three different stakeholder groups and I'd like to get those out uh you know fall early fall okay thank you I guess just kind of piggyback onto that still maybe um schedule for next may vote for any Capital project approvement yeah I mean I think that's something that we'll have to discuss you know this summer you know we GNA basically what CSR is doing is is they're gonna kind of pull everything together and then as as the board and myself we're going to make have to make some
053decisions on what we want included and that's going to really kind of dictate you know when do we want to go out for a vote um so at this point I'm I'm not I'm not ready to kind of commit to a timeline on when we're going to put the vote out but we're taking all the steps um to to move that forward um and as soon as we we make a decision we we'll start to kind of communicate that out okay all right other questions I think I have and we've talked about this in Prior meetings just um it'd be very interesting to see exactly what kind of data we have to support whether we've had progress or regression or stayed level on um the attendance issue and then of course we're always interested in
054academic achievement and we look forward to once the is compiled from the the end of year this year getting an update on uh you know what that ends up looking and next year we'll have the regular schedule of the uh the updates from the uh beginning of year assessments middle of year and then again the end of year absolutely I think that's all we have okay thank you thank you very much for the update [Music] committee reports we had an audit committee meeting yes thank you Jason um the audit committee met today to go over internal audit from uh bandio and Company if I'm saying that correctly uh Tim was very helpful in uh presenting the findings um we he audited or the company audited purchasing controls uh over the year um mainly uh as
055a as a different area each year that we that we uh review uh focused on purchases less than $20,000 since the district felt comfortable with theol controls that we have in place for larger purchases um audited the U Boston um Boston spot policy and procedures and did not see uh anything with those they were in order uh did have some minor documentation ation emissions uh that were unrelated to the bids or the actual purchases themselves uh and the district will be implementing a corrective action plan for that documentation correction so um that's all we have any uh questions for from the board members no all right thank you thank you very much Mr Ryan correspondence correspondence to the district we had 15 total uh this time period 11 emails uh one uh on a discipline
056uh disciplinary appeal two related to the heat index uh one related to facilities use one related to residency one related to a regent exam one related to employment um one praising uh students who qualified for um the rowing national championships and three appraising staff at Wood Road we have three phone calls one regarding student matter two regarding uh testing accommodations and then we had one letter um letter appreciation for some of our staff members and all they do for our students thank you correspondents uh to the board since the last meeting the board has received five emails one was regarding the Wood Road career fair one regarding uh temperatures in schools during the school day one regarding use of athletic fields one regarding the New York state school board's advocacy for Public School swimming pool
057funding and one regarding a Personnel matter it's time for announcements Mr Williams there are no announcements Fade to Black Fade to Black that's appropriate any announcements from board members liaison any anything okay uh old business any old Business from The District No the board members Mr Ryan Yes Jason I did want to um review I know it's being tabled for the 28 days the uh Dei policy 3419 um first I want to say I think it's a great policy I think the intent and what the district is trying to do with this is is um very good for our students um the one thing that uh the lines as the district recognizes that students have been historically marginalized and kind of going back to where Dei came from I think 2019 2018 from the board
058of regions and the one thing that just didn't sit always right with me is they were saying there was systemic racism in education in this time period which um and at the time they didn't give a lot of examples for that um they did then in 2021 provide a um a workshop document that um provided a couple more um uh clarifications for what they meant by that um there's four bullet items and I'm just going to read through them real quick um just for the board members awareness and I'm sorry again the source for this is the source is New York state board of regions framework on diversity equity and inclusion in New York schools a call to action this was April 2021 um and it's in our Dei uh folder thank you so much
059yeah um so it first starts with saying that the board of regions um you know what's in their purview uh for New York State ISS the board um obviously for educational purposes but then also says the board may also exercise its Authority by adopting policy positions on issues of significant educational and societal importance um educational yes societal importance I'm don't think it in my opinion that it should fall under that but um that's where they're they're going with this and it's my uh my comments for tonight um so they go on to to talk about um a Confluence of events that has brought us to this Reckoning of of why they feel Dei is important um and uh bullet number one the senseless brutal killing of black and brown men and women at the hands
060of law enforcement and the ensuing demands for real and enduring racial Justice in the face uh of this inhumanity uh uh bullet number two a dangerous spike in violence aimed at asian-americans Pacific Islanders fueled in part by lies that attempt to link the Asian Community with the creation and the spread of Corona virus uh bullet number three A Renewed wave of discrimination and hateful rhetoric directed at those thought to be of somehow not and their quote quotes not quite American um including but not limited to Jewish Americans Muslim Americans lgbtq individuals individuals with disabilities immigrants and refugees especially those arriving at the southern border and bullet number four the terrible toll of covid-19 has had on our lives communities and school systems uh the disproportionate impact of this pandemic has surfaced and further exacerbated longstanding
061educational inequities predominantly impacting black latinx Asian indigenous and poor student populations and students with disabilities uh additionally school closures um and the resulting learning loss of the most U the most marginalized students compound existing learning disparities leading to the potential for poor life outcomes and lingering long-term effects the reason why I wanted to state that is only one of those bullet points talked about education which I see is the the the the purview of the board of the Board of Regents um and I kind of want to have a um so I'm happy with where we landed up with the Dei and and the policies and and the implementation of that uh particularly when you review um other guidance uh in this document is the danger of a single story which I think we their
062definition be like what what our history has been taught and how we need to really expand the history from different perspectives I'm in full support of that that's um really one of the Main Stays of I think the DI policy that the district can go go forward with that um I just want um it to be to be noted and I don't know if I really have any recommendations for the policy change and I'm bringing up with my board members for them to think about it over the next couple weeks until we vote on it um at the next meeting uh just about the history of this and kind of the separation of the critical race Theory systemic racism um that was kind of at the high level but where we ended up in the
063Dei realm of supporting students uh as positive okay thank you thank you any questions for Mr Ryan um so um yeah obviously I'm not going to be voting on this matter as this is my last meeting but I will make a suggestion that uh based off the bullet points you described uh it may not be abundantly cleared but there is some intersectionality between what you've discussed and education so if you care to take the time upon yourself I mean you can look into um you know papers and whatever else that may discuss um where those two May uh meet up so other I'm confused on what you're questioning to be honest the questioning is is the policy says the district recognizes that students have been historically marginalized historically could be it depends on the time
064frame right so does it mean the last 200 years doesn't mean um the last 20 years doesn't mean the last 10 years and I would say definitely since um you know the civil rights moment of 1960s there have been great strides in reducing racism in lots of different organ organizations um education being being one of them the Board of Regents in my opinion has the purview of education and I think they're kind of expanding their um their Philosophy from this so I'm that's why I'm trying to separate the where they're starting with the critical race Theory U Mantra to where we end up with the with the Dei I just wanted to make sure that our policy is looking forward and Not Looking Backward I just don't understand why you keep having to say critical
065reace theory this policy that was written by the committee really is very you know light it doesn't it doesn't bring in any heaviness at all and and you're bringing in the heaviness the heaviness was come from the board of region but our policy does not bring in the heaviness but the policy is stating that students were historically marginalized right in in in 2019 when when Dei was first being proposed I didn't see the board of regions providing specific examples of what they were referring to of systemic racism in education um is there any any examples something think yeah you know I guess um I just want to make a process comment um based on being part of one of the committee members which is that we made a really clear and conscious effort to focus
066on the students in our district and their experiences and the values of our district and the the values um that folks were wanting to see implemented and so that that was our Focus right like that was our focus and and I will say that we um it was a really positive experience and I I just appreciate everyone's willingness to talk about their different experiences um and we we did hear about students experiencing marginalization experiencing bullying experiencing instances of um not feeling like they fully belong and that came in all different shapes and forms right um and so again I think from a process point of view if we can focus on the students in our district the the needs that they all have to belong I I just think we're going to be better for
067it so um that would be my preference to to stay focused on that and and I think again the policy can be um you know policies can always be improved but I'm I'm really proud of what we came up with I think it's good I think it's clear I think it speaks an everyday language I think it's not uh F like we're not it's not um it's not theoretical you know it's about our students our teachers our staff our community and our values so so for me that that's a pretty good starting point thank you for your comments uh so thank you Mr Ryan I think your comments were heard and um we have another two weeks to um think about and uh deliberate and then we'll um revisit at the next meeting thank you
068any other old business okay on to new business have a motion to approve resolution number 589 district and Building Safety plans so move any discussion yes Dr Dr du I know we um usually appr on annual basis I believe any uh updates since the the last time from year to year from year to just just essentially name changes on on we had some transition some turnover right so the updates were were essentially name changes but nothing um nothing to the actual plans or anything that like the building physical buildings or any of the evacuation plans or things like that okay thank you any other questions not hearing any all those in favor uh I opposed extensions resolution number 589 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 590 agreement Boston area Recreation Commission so
069mov second any discussion I just wanted to say how important the services that bark offers to our community and uh thank all of their board for the work that they do on behalf of that organization absolutely heartily agree uh any other discussion comments not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 590 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 591 agreement Professional Services so mov any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 591 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 592 agreement Professional Services so mov second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 592 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 593 agreement Professional Services so mov second any discussion
070not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 593 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 594 extension of bid and contract Food Service program so Mo second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I opposed extensions resolution number 594 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 595 Award of bid tires so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 595 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 596 six scholarships dissolved so second any discussion i' just like to comment that we absolutely thank um the folks who initiated and sustained these scholarships over the years and um certainly was appreciated and it certainly was to the benefit of our um our graduating students so
071thank you again for all the years we were able to have these scholarships all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 596 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 597 budget transfers so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 597 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 598 placement of students with disabilities some second all uh any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions resolution number 598 passes I have a motion to approve resolution number 599 placement of preschool students with disabilities so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed exstension resolution number 599 passes resolutions number 600 through 618 are recognized as a consent agenda for the
072purpose of Board of Education action may have a motion to approve the consent agenda resolutions number 600 through 618 so mov second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor I I opposed extensions the consent agenda resolutions number 600 through passes any other new business none from me I would like just to mention that a um document with some information was handed out and the superintendent has a copy and all the board members will get copies for their review Jason I just want to recognize steuart Williams for all his service to the district uh thank you very much steuart you'll be missed yes steuart has been a part of our board meetings for many uh years and he's been a part of just about every single District event at 7 a.m. 7 p.m. 1100
073p.m. Saturday Sunday for decades and we are absolutely um very uh thankful for your service I believe now we're at the second time for public comment thank you and uh all are present who um uh heard our guidance at the beginning so we can just uh commence and Mr debut would you approach the podium again again Chris abuk six King Drive thank you Dr Dua you answered most of the questions I had for my first public comment so I am all set there which actually brings up an issue again I agree that uh you know this is uh an important policy uh added in the the the be for belonging in there for deib uh again one of my concerns is and this affects mostly my family and other families as well this is a
074growing District when we were here in 2008 it was my family and one other Jewish Family in the entire District it is since grown both many of your faculty are currently uh Jews and unfortunately there's still a huge issue with anti-Semitism uh just this week alone there was violence outside of synagogue in California this month alone on June 11th we had the Brooklyn Museum director Ann pack her Co-op apartment was vandalized with a sign that said calling your white supremist Zionist then on 610 there were Mass thugs that got on the subway down in the city that my wife travels a lot down there also saying if you're a Zionist please stand up now is your chance to get off the subway May 9th my son recently just played for the graduation ceremony and was
075recently accepted into the Saratoga youth Symphony I've got to do my own little recognition there as well he makes his school proud he makes me proud unfortunately a family he's also teaching uh Orthodox Jewish Family that are members of the Saratoga habad one being the rabbi it's the rabbis family their young girls were chased out of Congress park by the little known group all of us that decided that they are now supporting Palestinians uh that's their latest cause and they agree they decide to chase young kids out of a park and then it gets a little bit closer to home because again that belonging I i' wish my son could be here but he doesn't like staying for these full meetings uh especially schools out uh but here you can't really see it but just
076here on Boston a a very well-traveled route both for when I dropped my one son off and my other Sun rad the Bus and many times would walk by there's a ceasefire now sign that was up it's been taken down since school's been done but it was up and I just want to read something just real quick that was echoed by a rabbi up in Saratoga recently because this is real this isn't a game the same synagogue I went to that my kids learned Hebrew in and did their Bar Mitzvah and now has to rotate in private homes where they teach Hebrew because they're afraid of being attacked and I just want to Echo this sentiment that was said here the only thing standing in the way of a ceasefire is Hamas a terrorist organization
077whose reason for existence is to eliminate Israel and kill Jews for this reason alone calls for a ceasefire are not a commitment to Human Rights they're not an effort to preserve life instead it's a demand that Jews not defend themselves from genocide to pretend otherwise ignores the reality of the situation and is deeply anti-semitic and an outright denial the indigenous connection and natural and National rights excuse me that Jews have to Israel now the problem with this sign if what I'm hearing is correct belongs to somebody who's on the Dei steering committee that's a problem that's a real problem in my eyes that's why asked earlier what's going to be considered harmful because my kids don't feel like they belong right now and that's not this District that we have wonderful Administration wonderful teachers again
078it was one of your uh colleagues or I should say a member of this school district that got the first manora put up in the village in the first manora lighting very proud of that and it will be up every year but yet unfortunately when I'm being told that there's a member of the steering committee and I'll just put it out there member of this board who put that sign out in front of their house I have to question that policy and I would ask that one person out of at least respect for the slowly growing community of Jews within your community and in your District that feel targeted right now and don't feel like they belong in their own State their own country even in their own County that you at least recuse yourself
079from voting on that policy thank you thank you for your comment next up is our uh associations time we don't have a representative from any of our associations um PTA announcements oh yes so it is the end of the school year a lot of our PTA showed their appreciation for staff holding luns in each of our buildings um and now summer is here but that does not mean the ptas will take a break they are actually planning on all events for next year so you can always reach out to your school's PTA to help out and don't forget to sign up for your ptas next year okay thank you any other liaison groups okay so I just want to take a moment here at the end of our meeting to recognize Tim turbak for his
080three years of service to our district to your valuable additions to our board dialogues and our our board discussions and um we have a small token of appreciation for you which I will bring over in one moment but um we very much appreciate your service and um you know certainly we are all volunteers and it's a fair amount of time and it's a fair amount of concern and worry and uh we again just thank you so much for your participation with our our district and our community and it's been to the the best for everyone it's been an improvement for everyone having you on the board so thank you so much yeah now it it's a absolute pleasure it was an absolute pleasure to serve on this board uh with a lot of uh these
081great colleagues and uh you know just one voice of many so I'll just happy to be a part of that so thank you well good thank you much so we do have reason to go to Executive session we will not be returning to open session afterwards our next meeting will be our reorganization meeting on Wednesday July 10th I need a motion to adjourn to Executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person so mov second all those in favor I I we are adjourned