001so i'm going to call to order the public hearing on our district-wide safety plan so everyone can rise and do the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all in case we have to evacuate the library fire exits are back corners leading outside and the doorways leading into the hallway this is a mandated presentation on our district-wide safety plan and i don't know if there's any other preface or contextual remarks that we need to say about it the safety plan and i think maybe you'll speak to this has numerous components of it some of which are kept very confidential because of the nature of them being part of the
002safety plan exactly so this is ed martin good evening the state education department implemented the save regulations schools against violence and education primarily in response to incidents at columbine the state register legislation was the first time and that it came out as a statewide mandate that required background checks of school employees fingerprinting classroom violence intervention and prevention training for all certified instructional staff the creation of a district safety team creation of building level safety teams building level safety plans and a district level safety plan so tonight i'm here to tell you about the district level safety plan it's required under 15517 of sed and it's highly uh prescriptive so there's not a lot of latitude that the district has other than that the state education department gives the 17 components that we have to address
003in the district safety plan those 17 components transcribe into the plan that's been out there that you've reviewed for a month to each of the chapters that are in that that are contained in that document so just why safety plan means a comprehensive multi-hazard school safety plan that covers all school buildings school district boces blah blah blah addresses crisis intervention emergency response and management at the district level and has the contents as prescribed in paragraph c1 so c1 actually gives us those 17 components which are each of those subsections in the dual school district safety plan when you open up the safety plan you'll see those 17 components and the district's required to make a statement a non-specific statement that says that we have something in place to address this issue and hear some information
004on it so that the public would be aware that we've got something in place so what you have here is that document the building level safety plans which are also required which are done with the building level safety teams are specific to those buildings they also protect it under so they are not foilable they are protected class or confidential documents for the use of those buildings they're developed and refined annually by the building level safety teams the district plan went out for a one month review by the district safety team no comments came back because it is so prescriptive it's pretty much a rollover from year to year and that's the document that's here in front of you tonight for approval and that's it i know you said generally there's not any changes were there
005any changes for this year from prior years in this year yes we did make a change to make reference to the two full-time school resource officers that we now have in the school district and i believe that there was one change in one of the required locations of the hazardous materials locations within the district for emergency response purposes so it's been modified to reflect the addition of two full-time school resource officers thank you do any of the board members have any questions and the building specific documents those are communicated as appropriate within the buildings that is correct the uh there's a template that's also provided by the state for that which is more of a starting point a jump off we have numerous uh 60 pages of specific response action plans that that are a
006district template that get tailored at the building level so that if this we're going to evacuate for example well the milton terrace one will say where they're evacuating to if this should happen and who are the people that are in charge if that happens so it is right down to the nuts and bolts of the actual execution of the operational plan okay again any questions okay we do have the opportunity for public comment on the district-wide safety plan is there anyone from the audience who chooses to could you approach the podium please i'm just wondering if that is we actually started the start of the trend and required special state ed approval because we were the first school district in the state that made the move to the classroom function of security lock on our
007classroom doors which means if you close the door in any of our classrooms and push the button that door is locked to the outside you do not have to go out into the hall because our concern was we had faculty that were out there fumbling with keys if there was something going down in the hallway that put them at risk so close the door push the button and you're good to go sure okay not hearing any other public comment uh district clerk is there any other function we need to do regarding our no there's a public hearing there's just the vote you just go to the next meeting right we have a resolution in the resolution in the the regular business meeting thank you very much thank you very much does our clerk have any
008counsel or advice as to whether or not we should wait until seven o'clock our official announced starting time for the this following public hearing we did have that posted yeah so therefore you can move straight to your regular meeting okay we will give mr dre a moment to sit okay so i'm going to adjourn the public hearing on district-wide safety plan and we don't need a vote on that i don't think so we are adjourned and then i am going to call to order the regular meeting of the boston spa central school district board of education meeting september 7th just a point of information for those coming in we did recognize the the flag and did the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of our public hearing on the district-wide safety plan i will reiterate
009again our exits from the library are in the back corners outside and also the doorway that leads into the hallway if for any reason we had to evacuate the library so first off good evening to all those attending in person to those watching on the live stream i'm thrilled that our school year has begun seeing the pictures posted on our district website of students arriving in the buses pictures of students with our staff and administration and sros were absolutely wonderful to see it's great to see the enthusiasm in both the students and our staff members so classes are in session the academic work has begun for the year fall sports there have been some games that have already taken place at the varsity and junior varsity level modified practices are underway all the extracurricular activities
010should be available to our students this year and many thanks to all our advisors for the clubs and extracurriculars and our coaches for the sport to support our students in these endeavors i do want to address that we have had some transportation delays in terms of dismissals from schools arrivals at bus stops at homes in our first two days the inconvenience to parents we absolutely recognize and apologize for traditionally on the first day at least there are some delays we have communicated that out yesterday it was a little bit longer than anticipated and later in the meeting dr duke is going to speak to that describe the efforts being made to achieve improvements each day and my understanding is that from all reports today was better than yesterday i also want to address the resignation
011of our interim superintendent dan connor last week though unexpected with every challenge comes an opportunity and the board quickly announced to our staff the intention to appoint dr john leo duca as the interim superintendent so that staff would have a leader and a single point of contact for support during the opening days the resolution to make that appointment official is on our agenda tonight and later dr duke will speak to the planning and actions that are already underway to make sure that our high school is properly supported during this period as he transitions to our interim superintendent and with that we will move on in our agenda do we have any recognition from the district tonight not that we're aware of any recognition from board members any particular activity okay our student government selena hi
012for announcements today we have our spirit week coming up for the week of monday september 26th we do have it printed out on the table as you walked in it has been sent to all of the elementary and middle schools and we will be hanging up posters in the high school shortly we also have themes for every day and we will have hallway decorating for the classes and clubs as well as the opportunity to do window decorating that you'll be able to see from the outside of the school this year during this spirit week on tuesday september 27th we have our pep rally and powder puff game from 6 to 9 p.m during our pep rally we have a bunch of fun games planned like a pie eating contest musical chairs tug of war and
013more and for powder puff it will be directly after the pep rally um we are charging five dollars for admission and our rain date is wednesday the day after on friday of that same spirit week we will have our street fair before the homecoming football game we will give clubs and student class councils the opportunity to be vendor or be hold boots and like backyard games and possibly a face paint station for school spirit we also are hoping to get vendors from the community so that there will be food present before the homecoming game and then on saturday the day following the game we will have our homecoming dance that will be october 1st and we plan to decorate in the morning and hold the dance that night and i think that's it for us
014recently after we finish our spirit week during september we plan to hold a lot more volunteer service during the months of november and december with toy drives and food drives for thanksgiving great and just confirmed the street fair is the thursday night um that would be the 29th i think i believe it's right before the homecoming game on thursday but i will double check it's on the friday before the game yes mid-afternoon i am sorry so it's friday september 30th i believe and that is held in the bus loop out front okay wonderful any other questions for our student government representative thank you very much for the presentation and i imagine you have homework already so feel free to excuse yourself from the meeting we are now at the time in our agenda for the
015first opportunity for public comment thank you so we do have people signed up for public comment the board of education welcomes our district residents parents other interested people to its meeting community involvement at our board meetings is encouraged that the board can better understand represent the views of our constituents please be aware that information such as individual student information or particular personnel issues cannot be discussed at public comment sessions of the boards speakers will be called upon individually when recognized by the board president will be asked to approach the podium state your name and residence statements are restricted to a maximum of two minutes speakers will be notified by the board president when his or her time has expired and for those of you who have been here before i generally try when we're at
016close to the three-minute mark to um ask the speaker to please conclude their remarks i certainly don't gavel anyone quiet at two minutes exactly the board and the district staff take this public comment very seriously however the board will not respond to comments or questions during the public comment period board asks the public's cooperation maintaining a safe and respectful environment board president reserves the right to limit individual comments if it is deemed necessary to achieve this speakers will not make slanderous attacks on any groups organizations or individual a member of the board an employee of the district a member of the audience or a member of the public please no profane vulgar threatening or disparaging language or racial or ethnic slurs we've never had a challenge with that in our district and please do not
017disrupt the meeting with loud outbursts or other disruptive conduct or behavior either during a speaker's assigned time or at any other time during the meeting speakers will be given the privilege of the floor while they speak and the floor is theirs speakers understand that a failure to comply with these rules for maintaining a respectful and productive environment may result in early termination of the speaker's allotted time denial of future requests to speak and any other actions deemed necessary by the president of the board or where appropriate if in case of a health and safety measure the superintendent of schools first up for comment aaron tarisi i'm sorry we're just going to try and make sure this is a little louder so everyone can hear you thank you so on august 3rd this board voted in
018favor of the policy on student gender identity um i spoke at that meeting and i voiced my concern that parents were not notified of this policy before it was being voted on i know it was posted for the minimum amount of days that it needed to be posted but parents were not aware that it was posted i also voiced concerned about the policy itself stating that it would be put all students at risk including our transgender population i also asked where the parent school collaboration was why are the parents not included in the decisions that are affecting their kids on august 4th an email went out to the entire district and was also broadcast on channel 6 news saying some parents feel transgender students are dangerous i along with many other parents have asked the
019author of that email to retract his statements as that was not what was stated it has been 34 days and still has not happened so i'm here to set the record straight that that is not what those parents myself and and the rest of those parents were implying that email alone has divided our community those that were not in attendance believe that that email they believed it and they were angry at the parents that that were able to attend little by little the truth of that meeting the one that was conveniently not live streamed is coming out and a trust has been broken in our community since that meeting i've sent three follow-up emails with questions i've been told they were shared with the entire board not all of those questions have been answered and
020the ones that have been answered were not acceptable solutions i asked about gender fluidity does our district abide by that do they believe in that is that something that you know if a student says one day that they're a girl and the next day they're a boy is is that something that our our district is looking into and if that's if they believe in that i also asked if a student any student trans or not harms someone in the bathroom what will happen the response was that he or she will have consequences but my question to you right now is what what about that victim what about the victim that that it already happened to in my eyes if something happens to even one student the board should be held accountable for not taking proper
021precautions for being reactive instead of proactive for lack of collaboration and cooperation with parents and members of the community and for putting our children at risk i'm again going to ask the board which i've asked in my emails to consider a parent committee so that we can discuss decisions and collaborate together to do what's right for our children we teach our kids how to collaborate and cooperate and work with others and i'm unsure why the board isn't setting that example as well i would like to ask each and every one of you what is your why you chose to be on this board why was it to divide the community to have control over the policies being approved to cause disrupt anxiety and fear or was it to bring the community together make our district
022a place that parents want to send their kids make our district one that stands out in positive ways help our students thrive in a safe educational environment that's what i want to ask you today what is your why thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment jason savaria my name is jason savaria live down the road at uh 936 route 67. i challenged the book titled genderqueer back in early may of this year i'm still waiting for for a decision from the committee that was formed to review it the decision is now just about two months past the 60 days i was promised i'd like a decision on that from that committee as soon as possible so my daughters came home from school yesterday after their first day and my youngest came in and this
023is a conversation that we had i said hi sweetheart how was your first day of school she replied it was good but i had to choose a pronoun i said what do you mean you had you had to choose a pronoun my daughter responded in my enhanced math class we were asked to form a community circle and put our book bags outside the circle the teacher told us to be truthful then the teacher said when it's your turn you say your name and your pronoun i responded so what did you say my daughter said i used she her i said why did you use a pronoun my daughter said i felt like i had to because all the kids had to to which i responded how did that make you feel my daughter said i
024was very uncomfortable and confused why i had to use a pronoun this action happened to both of my daughters in seventh and eighth grade both shared eerily similar stories both confused and both left feeling very uncomfortable so please tell me again who is protecting my daughter's mental well-being while she's here where was her opt-out choice my daughters were not given a choice to opt out the teachers forced an ideological belief on my daughters that left them feeling extremely uncomfortable and confused way to go teachers lastly at the last board meeting i asked the president of the board to resign for sewing division in our community using the district email system i see that the president is still sitting at the table so i'm asking again resign the actions of the president are not indicative of
025a leader thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment charlene dubuc the only voices can't be those of bigotry and socially constructed ignorance let's take a stand against parents who speak out and hate i can't believe parents in our community want to do harm to trans kids these are a few quotes from local community members each in direct response to the divisive email that was sent out by the board president on august 4th this email claimed that the parents who spoke up at the meeting on august 3 used harmful and out-of-date rhetoric concerning trans youth the truth though is that parents came to that meeting and asked the board to put a pause on voting on new policies to instead get feedback from the community and to ensure that parental concerns and questions were answered
026before moving forward now i don't know or even care what's being said online but how dare you link the comments of concerned parents who are at that board meeting to a bunch of trolls on the internet the trustees on this board were voted in to lead a leader does not shame those that they are tasked to lead they guide and educate them a leader listens to concerns they provide clarity and offer solutions a true leader does not divide they unite instead the email sent out by this board on august 4th has pitted community member against community member most of us did not attend the last meeting on august 24th because we're not here to face off with fellow teachers and parents no we are here to make sure that this board is doing what's right
027for our students and to hold this district accountable the strongest schools are those with active parents teacher collaboration and administration that supports relationship building among different stakeholders i attend these meetings to ensure that my kids go to a school that provides educational excellence a positive environment and helps to poop to prepare them for adulthood tonight though i am here as a scottie and i refuse to be divided by my from my community board i ask that you all remember our district motto educating everyone takes everyone [Applause] thank you next up steve galish my name is steve gillish and i live in the town of milton this will be my fourth time addressing the board of education meeting here in boston spa i've attended nearly every public meeting at this school since last year august of
028last year since that time i've noticed a deterioration in your relationship with the parents taxpayers who have come before you you have resorted to name calling labeling instead of listening and considering opposing views your public meetings are frankly a rubber stamping formality not once in the past year have heard anyone repeat anyone on the board dissent or object to a proposal not once every single time a vote is taken is completely unanimous this is clearly something wrong with this picture i've never in all the years i participated in meetings or sat on boards where everyone agreed with everything more often than not someone had an opposing view or an alternate solution to a challenge but not here in boston spa this year has been challenging for this board but it's challenging due to mostly in
029part poor decision making and irresponsibility in may of this year a parent discovered child pornography in the high school library in july of this year a long time teacher was arrested for sexual abuse of at least four children under the a under or around 13. in august you chose to amend and adopt a disastrous policy to allow biological males and females to share bathroom locker rooms and even involved in sports all the name of inclusion you have placed our children in danger and i'm not talking i'm talking about all children boys girls transgender non-binary all children finally just before the beginning of the school year the acting school superintendent suddenly resigned for personal reasons i think many of us can appreciate as to what those personal reasons might be i do not speak to unite
030tonight in order to berate you or the sake of the public humiliation nor do i nor do i speak to bring attention to myself for any acclimation in this community instead i want to again offer a solution one that will help to reunite the community and to provide an opportunity for the board to lead with unity this is not a new suggestion but one i feel is urgently important and must be mentioned yet again a number of parents have begged pleaded with you as a board to consider a parent advisory board to come alongside the school board to be a liaison to the community and to support the transparency and accountability tonight you have another opportunity to not just listen but to truly hear the concerns of those who have spoken and to respond with
031open-mindedness part of the open mindedness is to consider the positive impact that a parent community advisory board will have on our district we have many talented and gifted individuals who could provide significant support insight and valuable solutions to many of your challenges in our district i strongly request that you consider the benefits of this opportunity for the board of the district and the community in closing i firmly believe that you as a board need a new direction as of right now the policies you have in place regarding the new gender policy will not succeed they will fail no matter the frequency of your amendments like it not like it or not all of us are going to be held accountable and will be held accountable you will be accountable to the voters the parents the
032taxpayers of this school district for the decisions that you have made in will make you will be held accountable for standing we on the other hand will be held accountable for taking the courage and standing up for truth and for the well-being of our children the community but even more important we will all be accountable to god thank you christopher dubuc good evening ladies and gentlemen on the board chris dubuque kaelin drive boston spa as you heard tonight there was obviously a lot of concern amongst the community based on what happened after the meeting on august 3rd in the letter that went out on august 4th and i was listening to a few people speak i usually come unprepared and just speak from the heart and what comes to mind my mind as i listen
033to other people speak and this reminded me of a speech that i had the privilege of being present to you back in 2021 that our former superintendent i've had my disagreements with him but i have to give him credit for that speech it was a great speech and i suggest if you weren't there as i do see some new faces that weren't on the board at the time and did not witness that speech find a recording of it i'm sure you can out there but what was discussed during that speech was false dichotomy and what we need to teach the class of 2021 and all future classes is to stop falling into camps blm back the blue republican democrat provacs anti-vaxx pro mask anti-mask life is not black and white there is always shades of
034gray in between and unfortunately when we go and we support the narrative towards one policy and demonize the narrative of those who may disagree with that policy especially in a public forum that doesn't build community that polarizes community and one thing i've learned working with kids and also being a father they're always watching us they're always learning from us teachers support staff administrators they're watching this board they're watching decisions you make they're watching notices that you put out to the community and unfortunately we're setting a very dangerous example when a letter goes out that says there were members of the community that were both out of date and harmfully pushing a narrative again that trans youth would be a danger to any youth that was never said that was never brought up at all during
035that meeting i witnessed every single speech and again you ask well what's we just want to be inclusive we want to support everybody we want to support their emotional learning i will end with this one story i just want to tell you of an incident that happened last year i understand where you're coming from as a board i understand what comes to mind when you think of some of the policies that you're voting eye to and i remember my son in middle school last year was in a class and again it was during pride month and the teacher was just doing what she thought was probably right at the time and was passing out flags for all the students to show that they support everybody in their community in their class my son did not
036take one of those flags and unfortunately the backlash he got from his fellow students calling him homophobic you name it it was disgusting and my son his older brother my other son is openly gay so why would he need to take a flag to support a community when he has nothing but love for his brother and when his brother wasn't supported in his own community at times my son was the one to ask him would you like to play minecraft would you like to spend some time with me yet he did not feel that same love from his community all because he would not support the narrative that you need to accept this flag in order to show that you support this community so one thing i do whenever i come to these meetings is
037i provide a solution i have foot mouth disease i'll be the first to admit it but sometimes when you're a leader you have to admit you made a mistake you probably shouldn't have put out that email i did ask for a response on there i wrote in person because again it's not too late to shift this narrative there's many people here in this community that were negatively impacted by that email that went out that were demonized in their own community now's your chance not through email not through a public notice and maybe this is my out date thinking apologize in person tonight to everybody here and at home who may be watching that's true leadership thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment that just concludes the first i'd like to make just a point
038of clarification because on multiple occasions i've been hearing about this the email and what it said and what it didn't say just so my board members talking to them that we did get communication prior to the october 3rd meeting that had language of extreme concern and violence to it as well as in that meeting i will say on october 3rd the giant narrative was concerned for your children and the cisgender population i totally recognized that but there were absolutely identifications of incident in virginia that was in making comments to a potential sexual assault by transgender if that policy were to go through so i wish that um meeting was recorded i was there i think there is some other recordings of it somewhere else not from the district but i wanted to just have that
039clarification for the board here and thank you and i want to remind all the board members that are meeting policy 1510 does allow statements to correct fact or specifically if someone wants something on the record but that that should be used with great thought so thank you for your comment law next on our agenda approval of the minutes from the august 24th 2022 meeting we are going to table that item we've not had enough time for proper review and next up in our agenda we are going to have a report from dr duka on high school pathways members of the board thank you very much for allowing me to make this presentation tonight i've put together just a few slides on a lot of the opportunities and pathways that we offer our students here at
040boston spa high school these are really in no particular order i just wanted to highlight a lot of the programs and different things that that we do for everyone here um so i'll start with spa academy this is something that is uh near and dear to me this is something that we started to develop um right around 2019 kind of got paused a little bit with with the pandemic and we were able to pilot it last year and spa academy is a is a essentially a school within a school model we do house it off campus at um off exit 12 at the hudson valley techsmart facility and so this program is geared towards uh students who you know have uh anxiety um maybe just are not a fit for a traditional high school of
041this size um they feel that it might be too big for them too many people and it really takes away from their education trying to um you know put things in place to help them to support them uh and so it's a modified school day it the students at spa academy are still you know our students i always meet with the parents and students to say you know i'm still your principal the goal is to graduate with a region's level diploma but it gives us a lot of flexibility so we have students that go to boces in the morning and then over to spa academy it's a 10 45 to 3 o'clock school day and it allows a lot of students the opportunity to get a good quality education with just some supports in place
042so some of the stats from last year we had a 97 percent attendance rate which is pretty amazing because a lot of these students didn't really step foot in a school for a year or two really had a lot of chronic absenteeism issues didn't feel comfortable in a traditional high school so we created this we had a 97 attendance rate 10 of our seniors last year graduated from this program we had 15 students upperclassmen 11th and 12th graders taking college in the high school courses through hudson valley we put out a student survey and you can see a lot of the you know a lot of the positives that came through of that student survey going into this year we have 55 of our students grades 9 through 12 enrolled which leads us a little
043bit of flexibility um so as we get to know students and and either some some are new to the district some of some of our ninth graders coming into the building [Music] or students that we see are just struggling in a traditional school we do have some flexibility to change their program and get them over to spa academy help them be successful next up i wanted to kind of move into advanced placement so we offer 14 courses here at the high school and this past may we administered 380 ap exams and i put down some some statistics here everything highlighted in yellow is where the boston spa um high school average beat new york state average as far as exam results went for advanced placement and so this is pretty you know something that we're
044pretty proud of here at the high school because we came off of a really uh tumultuous you know two and a half years things weren't traditional we had remote learning we had hybrid learning and so last year was really the first year where we were back and we we took you know these exams and we did really well across the board um you know ap exams are rated one to five so you can see you know from this slide that we really did well in a lot of our exams and we're continuing to offer advanced placement coursework to all our students we have a lot of students who their senior year they want a challenge they want to try it they want to see if something they can do and we certainly encourage that so
045we have a lot of students that their senior year take an ap course and they're successful with it and that's just a testament to our staff who work extremely hard to you know create these opportunities for students and support them you know career in tech ed career and technical education uh again something that that's pretty close to me um you know my dad's a welder by trade um and so we're trying to create a lot of these cte opportunities for our students as early as ninth grade and so you'll see here we kind of have two strands that we have a ct endorsement for students business education so we have the business management entrepreneurship marketing and then technology we we have a pretty extensive you know construction strand building sciences where one of the things
046that we're really proud of you know out back by the baseball field we have the tiny home construction where we basically layer a lot of our classes into doing hands-on work so we have our basic principles of educa excuse me basic principles of construction course and that is like the course that gets you into this strand and then from there some of our students take house wiring plumbing um hvac um carpentry cabinetry so as they work through the course they layer on and they they get hands-on experience out back at a pretty much a construction site with the tiny home built it gives our kids a lot of hands-on experience there and then as juniors you know we have some students who may choose to apply to attend the cd cte program at boces uh
047which is also you know fantastic opportunity for them um not to go off on a tangent uh you know so labor day you know i'm getting ready for first day of school and now my sink starts to back up and so i try to do what i can i change out the garbage disposal it's still backing up so i have to call a plumber so he comes and he changes we get talking and really you know he he went to an area school um attended hudson valley for half a semester and realized that you know what it wasn't the right track for him went and did an apprenticeship and now he's talking to me about it was the greatest thing he did he's a plumber he's talking to me about the wages and and how
048it really helped him you know be successful he's gonna he's got a young family and so these are some of the opportunities that we're trying to bring kids here at the high school um just to make sure that we we are offering a wide multitude of things for our kids to be successful outside you know once they leave us another thing that we're pretty proud of you know we were able to pilot the new york state seal of civic readiness and so this is a seal that recognizes students work not only in social studies but also community engagement and so we had a committee um last year and we pulled this together through the work of of the committee and we were able to pilot this program and we were able to award uh 100
049and excuse me 187 diploma seals to our graduating seniors and so we were one of 50 schools in new york state to pilot this and the 187 diploma seals actually made up two percent of the total number of seals across new york state which is pretty amazing and you know again helping our students understand that being a good good member of the community civic leadership is really important so this is something that we're also very proud of another pathway for students is our seal of by literacy which i believe we've had for i want to say seven years um and again this is to help recognize high school graduates who retained a level proficiency in both a language here at the high school we offer spanish and french and also english and so last year
050this seal was awarded to 66 of our graduating seniors college in the high school programming so this is something that um you know i so many of our students take advantage of we have 14 courses through hudson valley for for dual credit uh we have 21 courses through schenectady community college four courses through adirondack community college and we have 15 courses through diverse university of albany and so our teachers teach these courses they're essentially adjunct professors and so our kids are able to not only get high school credit for these courses but then they'll achieve the the three college three or four college credits there and a lot of these credits transfer into other schools so when they leave us we've had students leave us with just about one or a little bit more than
051a year of college pretty much finished which is super helpful to them in their career path so um we're always looking to expand we started the partnership with hudson valley here that's why these 14 courses through hudson valley that's new from last year and so we're always looking to expand and improve opportunities for our kids ib international baccalaureate uh i listed the courses and this kind of changes year to year depending on enrollment so sometimes we offer different classes this is the lineup of classes that we're offering this particular school year a wide range you know you'll see year one year two hl stands for you know high level sl stands for standard level so any of our students can take an sl level course so you don't have to be a full ib student
052to enroll and try an ib course at the sl level um the hl is for students who enroll in the ib diploma program um but any of our students so sometimes we have students who again want to give it a shot they want to try it their junior senior year they take one of the popular ones is history of the americas year one um and so we'll have a lot of students that try that course um and are successful and again the same type of graphic that i had for the advanced placement i've highlighted the these these scores and so ib does a world average so you know to the left you see you know boston spas average versus the world average so again you know last year um in a year back we did
053very well you know again our kids work super hard they prepare so hard for these exams our teachers prepare them so hard um we just are very proud of you know and it's not all about test scores you know these kids are getting a good quality education but i did want to highlight that for everybody here and again the the ib scores ap goes one through five ib is one through seven just to kind of give give you some some idea here um so summer school this past summer uh was the first time in i think a decade maybe more that we offered an in-house summer school program and this was out of a necessity really we had some kids that you know unfortunately they did fall behind during the pandemic so we wanted them
054to offer them you know some quality coursework over the summer that would allow them to earn credits towards graduation typically in the summer we we kind of relied on a credit recovery program which isn't the same as being in a classroom getting that instruction uh from a teacher so we had 111 students attend summer school here uh it was a six week program monday through thursday and we were able to award 22 course credits to those students so we caught a lot of students back up who may have fallen a little bit behind during the pandemic and this is something that we're going to we're going to stick to we we really did a a really nice job with summer school this past summer and it allows us to get those kids back on cohort
055and so one of the things that i did want to highlight is you know typically a cohort is a is four years but it also can count as five or six so i'll give you an example this past graduating class we had 14 students who didn't graduate on cohort that doesn't they're not dropouts they are back with us because sometimes it takes a little longer for a student to get the diploma and we certainly understand that and so we have you know 14 students who were looking to try to get to try to get that diploma in june some will graduate early in january because they had to finish a few classes but but they are still ours and our goal is to get them that high school diploma so that they can have those
056opportunities when they leave us and so sometimes it does take kids a little bit longer especially the last two two and a half years we did see some kids fall behind a little bit but we're sticking with them we're providing supports for them um and and we will we are committed to making sure that they cross the stage they have that diploma so they can go on and either go to a college uh get into the workforce military these are all opportunities that we talk to our students about um and then something that came about um last spring that i just wanted to highlight so we created a ninth grade transition committee last spring here at the high school and really that collaboration led to a lot of changes for the 22-23 school year we
057were able to add a 9th grade transition coordinator so it's an assistant principal who works here at the high school exclusively with our ninth grade you know dealing with uh you know students who may need extra support some chronic absenteeism liaison to the parents liaison to the staff um we we took it up we went ahead and revamped our ninth grade orientation um and so for anybody who came to ninth grade orientation i thought was really successful the past few years we would have the students go and visit their classes uh you know for five minutes each class not a lot can get done in those five minutes so we changed all that uh we still kept the parent program but we had the students go in three different um groups 20-minute groups and so
058we had some students here in the library with myself and mr matt tyson we talked about uh you know just a q a with me uh i asked a lot of you know they asked me a lot of questions kind of put them at ease about what high school's like do you have any concerns you have anything you're nervous about we talked a little bit about character ed we did a meet and greet with high school counselors in the gymnasium um and then in the cafeteria we had a just a court conduct talk with some of our other administrators and deans and just talking about processes and procedures that we have here what to do and so i thought that was a really nice change into what we have done and so that's something that
059i think will continue to improve upon and keep for future we also made some changes to the master schedule i went ahead when we built the master schedule um trying to add more sections for ninth grade to lower the class sizes to help it make you know a little bit more support in those 9th grade classes and then we took a lot of our study halls and we utilized the space in the cafeteria for a bunch of periods a day and that's where we house a lot of our 10th 11th and 12th graders and we tried to have 9th grade classrooms excuse me 9th grade study halls exclusively in classrooms which gives us an opportunity to push in and check in with those 9th graders to provide that level of support we're creating what we
060like to call situational awareness videos so really uh things that could happen in the hallway like if you don't have a pass and a monitor asks you how should you react should you just say i don't have a pass i came from here um you know you know anything having to do with you know potentially clubs and activities just kind of a four-year information type of thing for our freshmen so we can have them uh really feel part of our high school community that transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is so super important and we wanted to provide a lot of supports for those kids coming into the high school um and so that is really you know the the the the gist of this presentation you know i just we like to provide
061opportunities and i talk to people all the time it's one thing to say hey there all these opportunities here for you it's a totally different thing to teach students how to seize that opportunity create a goal for themselves and and really take off and run with it and so you know together we'll continue to help our students become college and career ready so that's what i have for you tonight questions from the board members i just have a comment um spa academy i my opinion in my opinion having that off campus is huge i know several schools have those type of opportunities but the fact that we can offer it off campus is the reason for your success 100 you know i visited a lot of different districts and they all have it someplace housed
062maybe not at the high school some people or excuse me some districts used their district office things like that we're so lucky and fortunate to have that facility to have that relationship with hudson valley and i agree it wouldn't work the way it does without having it off campus yep thank you other questions or comments i've got a couple of things first i just want to make sure that we recognize some of the people who are supporting these programs for the spa academy we have a new assistant principal this year yeah with mr scott seligman so he was the the person i talked about as the transition coordinator so he is here at the high school in the morning working with our freshman and then has oversight of spa academy in the afternoons perfect and
063i was going to ask about our ninth grade coordinator but it's the same person and for our summer school that was miss mctiernan this year uh so miss mctiernan ran summer success k-5 okay mr kevin flores ran uh summer school or had oversight of summer school here at the high school he did a phenomenal job thank you again wanted to recognize them for their support and work and can you just speak to some of the differences in our career in technical education so boston spa school district is very fortunate that we're able to offer programs within our school district itself but we also have the partnership with the wish we both sees and the programs that they offer there so can you just speak to why some students may do one program versus the other
064i sure imagine that some of it has to do with content yeah a lot of programs are content so a lot of our kids go you know apply for boces for things such as cosmetology uh culinary heavy machine heavy equipment i should say welding things that we don't offer here um you know these programs and and one of the things i forgot to mention was the digital communications um so we have we took a computer lab obviously where one-to-one chromebooks wasn't a huge need for the computer lab we revamped it into a tv studio so we're working on getting that endorsement for digital communications so we we have students that will take engineering different courses as ninth graders basic principles of construction is a big one for our ninth graders um and and that allows
065them to start to move towards the the cte coursework earlier than you know 11th or 12th grade which is when we send kids to boces having them in-house for some of these programs is really helpful for those students because then we can provide that layer of support throughout the day you know obviously when they go to boces either am or pm they're off-site um some students feel more comfortable being here all day so we want to make sure that we have those opportunities for our kids here who might not feel comfortable going off-site to a boces thank you for that expansion and i don't have anything else okay if that's it from all the board members thank you very much committee reports there were no committee meetings there's no committee meetings scheduled for this meeting
066tonight we had said that the next policy committee meeting was to be determined as to whether or not it would be at the september 21st meeting and i just want to share that we've decided that we're going to postpone that policy committee meeting until the second meeting in october which i think is the 17th but don't hold me to that and so part of the postponement of that policy committee meeting is making sure that we have all the mechanisms in place to be able to communicate out ahead of time make materials available to the public etc correspondence i not sure we have anyone to speak to correspondence to the district correspondence to the board we did receive since the last meeting i would say two or three communications related to our gender policy approval and
067related to the board president's communications announcements mr williams thank you just a couple quick things tonight the um meet the teacher nights start next week so we're everybody's back in the schools obviously and parents are invited to come back in to the schools during the evening starting on the 15th with our clean tech early college high school i'm welcoming the parents out there to our tech smart facility to learn about the program out there and it'll be followed by gordon creek on september 20th with the rest of the schools following in the next week after that and then as we heard earlier the homecoming spirit week is september 26th through the 30th with the big day being the 30th and then their homecoming dance on the first um they'll be putting out more information as
068we go through the the next coming weeks and your next regular board meeting is september 21st here in the library thank you thank you mr williams any announcements from board members i just want to share with everyone that you should have received an email regarding a joint meeting of the adirondack area school board association and the saratoga county school boards association so these are parent groups umbrella groups that bring together board members from all of the various in the case of the county the the districts within saratoga county in the case of the adirondack area it's actually school districts from i think the five counties that make up the wish we both sees so the meeting is on thursday september 22nd it's up in lake george and i encourage anyone who can make those meetings
069to do so generally during the course of the year there is three or four meetings the saratoga county school boards association always has their meeting at the holiday inn the adirondack area school board association has their meetings at the queensberry hotel and in general they have speakers we've had speakers from the law firms that provide legal counsel to school districts talking about legal issues we've had representatives from the state education department come and speak we've had people come and speak about things like health and wellness within schools etc they're great meetings the district pays for it and if you can go you should go so i just want to put that pitch out there i will be attending the meeting on the 22nd up in lake george but if you have any questions you could
070reach out to me on that old business any old business from the district no business from the board so i just want to bring up at this time something related to our uh future search for a permanent superintendent so i want to surface this to the board members now and you can comment now or you can think about it and we can have comment at the next board meeting on it but my thought was that we wanted to have our opening of schools take place the first couple of weeks of schools and after that i've started to work with the wish we boces in terms of the content for surveys out to our stakeholder groups so that would be our our community that would be our staff and staff gets kind of broken up in
071the the edge the professional teaching faculty the support staff transportation facilities and that nature and the administration and the surveys you know have questions about what do they think is important for uh characteristics for our superintendent and it's a way for us to start to gather input from the various stakeholder groups in our community so just surfacing that that was kind of the timeline that i was thinking of again i don't know if anyone has an immediate reaction but i was going to let us get through the first couple of weeks of school before we started asking these groups to concentrate on something other than just the the opening weeks of school any comment any concerns i just have one question when it comes to the surveys i thought it was helpful during the meet
072the candidates night that we allowed the community to submit questions that they would like to see asked during interviews i don't know if that's a possibility or what is contained in the surveys that we're going to be sending out sure so the survey has specific targeted questions and then it also will have the opportunity for people to submit comment to submit a you know something they would like to ask a potential superintendent candidate there will be the ability to have free form text be submitted any other questions immediate comment okay thank you so new business so our first resolution will take a little bit of discussion but first we have to have the motion so may i have a motion to approve resolution number 193 appointment board of education some second okay so um this
073resolution is about uh that in july we had a board member wayne evans jr resign from his position the board has the responsibility and to fulfill that position and i've shared that we have a candidate for that position the candidate is dr julia routport baskin she is a long-term village resident and mental health professional who has experience being a parent of two boston spa graduates so she's had her students go through all levels of our district schools she has experience working in multiple educational settings and is currently employed at skidmore college as the associate dean of student affairs for health and wellness she is a licensed clinical psychologist earned her phd from the university of michigan where she completed both the child and adult clinical tracks in her position as associate dean julia has oversight
074of the three departments on campus that deliver clinical and prevention services to students health services counseling center and health promotion and through strategic planning collaboration and coordination of clinical services she's charged with helping to create a resilient responsive and healthy campus community where students faculty and staff are informed and engaged around health and wellness issues and so again with our focus on student well-being after effects from the years of hybrid and or remote learning i feel that she would be an excellent candidate to serve as an appointed member and just for everyone's information that term will be until the results of the next election which will be in may 2023 so when there is someone who has been duly elected to fill the vacant board seat they will take that position in may any questions
075comments from the board members all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution passes so we are going to administer the oath of office please to dr routfort baskin and she is here and we are going to have a seat for her as well and once she is appointed she has the power to be a voting member of our board do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the state of new york and the united according to the best of my ability during the term of september 7 2020 through until the next regular school district uh and please come join us as a sitting board member jason yes i just wanted to well first welcome you to the board um but also just to remind anybody who was not um able to view either of
076our last two board meetings that one of the reasons why the board took this measure was at a considerable savings to the district and to get somebody in place to assist us with our permanent search for a superintendent thank you for reiterating that yes we had discussion as a a business item first new business and an old business item that um having a special election would cost the district somewhere between 10 and 20 000 we would have to have time periods involved and we would have a delay in filling the position so we were all in agreement that going with an appointment would suffice here i have a motion to approve resolution number 194 budget transfers so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye aye opposed abstentions resolution number 194 passes
077i have a motion to approve resolution number 195 a ward of bid fall transportation somehow any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 195 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 196 district and building safety plans some any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 196 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 197 obsolete textbooks some of any discussion not hearing any all those in favor all right opposed abstentions resolution number 197 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 198 authorized settlement somehow not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions you're going to abstain thank you we have one abstention resolution number 198 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 199 agreement professional services so moved
078second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 199 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 200 placement of students with disabilities so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye aye opposed abstentions resolution number 200 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 201 placement of preschool students with disabilities some move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 201 passes resolutions number 202 through 220 are recognized as a consent agenda for the purpose of board of education action i have a motion to approve resolutions number 202 through 220 the consent agenda so second any discussion and i just want to point out that within the consent resolution number 203 is accepting the resignation of daniel
079connors interim superintendent of schools and resolution number 208 is the appointment of dr john leoduca as our interim superintendent of schools any other discussion not hearing any all those in favor all right opposed abstentions resolutions number 202 through 220 the consent agenda passed clerk did we want to do the the appointment for the interim superintendent yes thank you i will support the constitutional state of new york in the united states and i'll faithfully discharge the duties of interim superintendent of schools according to the best of my ability okay congratulations thank you congratulations and i will ask dr duka to take the seat to my right and he will be providing a brief summary of our opening days yes i just want to say that i'm grateful to be the interim superintendent for this school year
080so we had a opening day yesterday staff across the district so excited to welcome our students back our buildings and grounds look fantastic you know walking around and meeting with a lot of the other schools just just so um fantastic to see those kids smiling um and and just really polite you know i i'm down at the elementary schools and the kids are hi hello hi you know it's just really uh and they don't know me and and so it just it's just a really nice uh opening to school um you know we're getting back to what we what we do what we love and that's educating our students um you know as we move forward we'll continue to reflect and make adjustments i do want to thank everyone for their patience as we work
081through you know some of the opening day glitches especially with transportation that team has been working tirelessly to make sure that we're running smoothly and the work will continue and we're just looking to make improvements day in and day out and so that is what i have as far as opening day thank you and would you briefly speak to um the plans that are known actions are being taken in terms of support for the high school yeah yeah we have a great team at the high school you know great staff um we we are um you know in in the planning phase of bringing someone on to to support the high school building high school staff and students um and so as we get closer to that being finalized i can provide more details great
082and certainly at this moment you are splitting your time between superintendent duties and support for the high school yeah at this moment i am kind of wearing both hats right now yes okay just wanted to make sure that we all have the comfort level that our our high school is not being left in the lurch no not at all which i know you would not you would not allow given your um many years of excellent work there okay thank you uh do we have anyone from our associations normally we have the opportunity for comment statements from our associations i do not think we have anyone uh pta announcements uh yeah i just have a a few announcements uh with uh regarding meetings of the pta uh middle school pta will be having their meeting on
083september 15th at 7 pm i do believe dr duke will be speaking at that meeting also on september 15th goran creek pta will be hosting a meeting at 7 p.m that meeting will be held on zoom um on the 22nd the milton terrace pta will have a little meet and greet before meet the teachers night at 6 pm and then on wednesday oh sorry is it wednesday yes wednesday september 28th is uh after to meet the teacher night at the wood road pta the woodrow pt will be hosting a meeting that day thank you and board members i encourage you to have as much um you know interaction with the ptas as you time allows in your schedules i will try and make some of the initial meetings just to introduce myself and say hello
084to pta members is something i've done for the last two or three years as they've had meetings in person with a brief interruption when meetings were not in person and certainly for all our parents and caregivers out there anything you can do to to support our our ptas and our high school ptsa just really adds to the the enrichment of our students our ptas and our high school ptsa just do absolutely wonderful work and thanks to all of the parents and caregivers who volunteer as officers for those organizations and make all of the the programs and the special extra things the pta does possible so thanks to all of those folks i think we're at the second time for public comment thank you okay we've got the same guidance that i shared before i will
085try and give folks a heads up as we get to the three-minute mark to please try and conclude your remarks first up chris dubuc i just want to wish congratulations and welcome mrs baskin and congratulations and welcome mr duke all welcome is needed you've already been here uh i tend to come up and i know mostly focus on i'm sure a lot of policies that i disagree with as a parent i'm a concerned parent i have four beautiful children and i stand up for what i believe i need to stand up for when it comes to my daughter and my three sons that's just who i am that's why i always be that's how i role model for them to stand up for what they believe in as well i do like to give credit
086where credit is due and i do want to point out that the high school orientation was a success again uh my son went through a lot last year as most of you know with not even being welcome in his own synagogue because he wasn't vaccinated and again this was his community that he was part of uh since he was a baby essentially and wasn't even allowed in to make his bar mitzvah due to a policy that we disagreed with and they weren't willing to accommodate even though we were willing to bend whichever way we needed to so he could have that very special moment in his life this school was wonderful in the middle school obviously he was stepping up this year at the high school a different experience we wanted to we were a
087little bit concerned he's a lovable young man but he's a bit quirky in his ways and was he going to be accepted in the high school uh obviously some of these policies that we also stand against are confusing for someone like my son who doesn't perceive reality the same way most of us do as well so that was one of the concerns that i brought up not just for my daughter but also for him as well he doesn't want to hurt anybody's feelings but there are some things that clearly just make him uncomfortable and he doesn't want to speak out about that because again he's always thinking of others before he thinks of himself i do want to point out though this community has always been wonderful for almost every single one of my kids
088there's a reason why we've stayed in the school while we've stayed in this district i also have seen some representatives here from my village as well that also sit in positions and i've always loved the village of boston spa too it's been a very welcoming uh place as well for my family and i strongly recommend if any of you i know some of you go to other board meetings to sort of get best practices to bring back and hopefully improve these board meetings i would also recommend although they can be a bit exciting at times attend a local village meeting for the village of boston spa and i'll tell you what you're going to find there is you're going to find people that disagree almost on everything on every issue but when it comes down
089to the community it comes down to literally getting their hands dirty you can find them on whiswell park volunteering their time with people that sometimes they disagree with quite vehemently to better the community that's all we're asking here tonight and again thank you for addressing the community and trying to provide some clarification uh i i still would welcome an apology made on the record uh uh forgive me for saying this but policy be damned uh it's just human decency if you say something that you think might have offended someone and you think an apology is oh do do the decent thing role model for the kids role model for the community but with that being said like i said we will keep coming here and we're not here to try to make your job any
090more difficult i know you're volunteering your time and i know many of you have come up to me after meetings and spoke about vacations you're going on or dance classes our kids have shared or sporting events in other states you're going to some of you know members from my own jewish community again this is for the most part been a relatively welcoming community but all we're asking and i still like to bring solutions and suggestions put together a parent committee to meet with the board so when these policies come up maybe we get a different point of view from both sides of the community and we can work together to find common ground because again we're doing this for our children we're doing what's best for them and i go back to that speech about
091false dichotomy it's important we show kids you don't need to follow in one area or the other policy or law you there's a common middle ground that we can reach as a board as a community that our kids should also be seeing us do and having those conversations uh so again i pitched it last year until i was blue in the face members of our community have pitched it and i'll pitch it again i strongly suggest this board considering putting together a parent board committee meeting or committee again it doesn't have to be anything large it doesn't have to take up the auditorium i know you're very busy and you donate a lot of your time on top of having your own families in your own jobs but again i've always been proud of this
092district i think it has led the way in many ways i've been proud of my village i think that has led the way in many ways but again we all can make improvements but we have to have dialogue this back and forth two minutes here three minutes there emails it's not working for some definitely turbulent things that i think we need to discuss as a community because again these impact our children and our community as a whole thank you brian gray i'm sorry okay i'd like to address the board thank you very much for the opportunity to speak i was at the last meeting and i was sparked to participate and be active because of the august 4th email that i took offense to you'll hear some of that in my remarks i did not
093know that mr duke is dr duka congratulations hand on being interim superintendent i appreciate the presentation it was student academic focused the last meeting i was at i do not believe there was an utterance of any academics at that school board meeting so thank you but that's my segue into what i would like to say today this school is intended to allow students to learn the environment needs to be conducive to learning so i'd like to speak about an ongoing violence drug use drug sales within the wells fargo school and in the district i spoke two weeks ago jason provided me with a response by email and included a report of reported violence over the last five years including pre-pandemic data that report did not address the drug abuse and drug sales in the school
094he said that violence according to the report is trending downward this fits a narrative of decreased violence reported incidents that fit a narrative of downward tread of violence is very telling this indicates to me that there may be a trend of promoting an agenda is presented as following a narrative as i use air quotes which like a district-wide email that stated that those who do not accept the current trends regarding gender identity and the many accommodations that go along with that concept were accused of having out of date thinking again that was an offensive term we've heard that earlier this evening i would like to reiterate that cancel culture is what is out of date please do not engage in cancel culture allow people to speak allow dissension to be heard allow me to ask
095several questions that you can reply to by email jason if you will it is each incidents where there is a restroom partition talking about the men's room where there's urinal partitions between each porcelain fixture if they're torn off the restroom wall is that consorted considered a reported incident and did those incidents appear on the report i wonder if they were not reported since the perpetrator is unknown those many incidences on many destroyed partitions would they make your report are the multiple violent fights at the bus loop at dismissal are they captured on video and shared on social media now are they included in the report the fights break up the students involved disperse and they run away are those multiple incidences included in a report additionally what a report like that does not show is
096the students who refuse to use restrooms please hear me this is not isolated students who refuse to use restrooms during the school day and restrict their bodily functions until they get home where they feel safe this presents a health concern in addition to a safety concern i hope that was heard will the partitions be replaced since you are under the impression based on the report that violence is decreasing i did take a tour of the school again this this evening before coming here there are no partitions between the men's journals yet there's hardware that's remaining holes in the walls where they used to be affects and there was a promise of partitions in the dressing rooms for the privacy of the students who are feeling uncomfortable i went to the locker room for the men's
097room i didn't i'm male by the way i respected the gender of those who use other restroom facilities than i do and so i only went into the men's locker room there is a vinyl shower curtain and i wonder when will the violence occur to tear that off and there is therefore no more partition that was promised but it's there this evening it's there um so the time and resources went in to put the partitions in the locker room will the restroom urinals um that is a reasonable request to have them and reinstalled can they be replaced what about the students who are too fearful to report violence are there reports included in that report i understand that you can't respond to a report of unknown but if there's a culture of fear and intimidation
098against those who file a report that won't show up on the report isn't fear and intimidation what brought the school to be accommodating to the gender confusion population speaking of accommodation when or where where will the school draw the line on these accommodations i suspect the next trend to be addressed is the furry community it will not be too long before before the furry students begin requesting litter boxes and if they do will the school honor that request when mainstream students make requests is that where the school claims that reasonable crest request for a safe and drug-free school is too much to ask i would like to see a school board agenda item that includes addressing violence in the school regardless of the data on the report that could very well include under reported violence
099although the report promotes your current agenda speaking of the agenda i went online the agenda is not printed in advance we only get a copy when we walk through the door second of all i went looking back to prior video recordings of these meetings i did not find that on the school's website can this all be updated in the sake and then the name of transparency i ask so i spoke two weeks ago two days later my son was cut from what he was told by the coaches was a no cut soccer team so is the school retelling against parents who speak out in dissent i hope this is not the case i'm going to be keeping close eye on my son's educational and extracurricular involvement and opportunities i am hopeful there will not be
100a pattern of retaliation against students whose parents speak out on their behalf to those viewing from home i'd like to ask you something if you agree with me please show up to these public meetings people spoke this evening in support of making the school board and the administration accountable so these come into these meetings please feel free to speak if we do not speak out then the board's actions will be condoned if there are no voices of consent thank you for your time and thank you for your involvement [Applause] thank you for your comments they are heard jason gertler good evening ladies and gentlemen the board tonight we're here to show support for our community as you can see most of us are wearing scotty pride colors boston spa pride thank you very much i
101stand together with all of you and we all stand with all students we believe that all children deserve fair and equal treatment we also believe that our community deserves fair and equal treatment which we did not receive on august 4th when the letter sent to the entire community was penned from the desk of the board president calling concerned parents harmful out of date and dangerous nothing could have been more divisive there has been no apology or retraction now this action may or may not have been coincidentally responsible for the sudden resignation of the former interim superintendent we can only assume but it seems pretty coincidental to me also at that meeting it was decided that an interim board member would be appointed by the board in lieu of an election to save a few thousand
102dollars when we know that there are millions of dollars of federal grant money available an election is the only way for the community to be properly represented on this board back to that last meeting on august 3rd when a board member was trying to convey a message was immediately reprimanded mid-sentence by the board president for doing so then immediately following two members were allowed to address the audience directly and the news cameras while soapboxing their progressive ideals this is not proper leadership i respectfully demand a resignation from the board president because you sir have proven that you are not a leader thank you [Applause] jason savaria again i'll stay i'm jason savaria 936 route 67 right down the road here on wednesday january 12 2022 the student in loudoun county virginia that the parent was
103referring to during the october board meeting was found guilty on two counts of sexual assault in a school bathroom that is a fact again another situation where this very board does not listen to these parents and instead twist and bends the narrative in a way that demonizes members of this community this parent had genuine concerns about coed bathrooms and coed locker rooms and used facts to justify those feelings and or fear this parent in no way stated at any time that this will happen in our district at no time did this parent profess that transgender students were a danger to our student body on the contrary the statement was posed as a question directed at you all as to what measures would the district be taking to make sure all of the students would be
104safe all it was said many many times in that meeting mr law you cannot cancel facts you cannot sit there and say that you have evidence and then not provide it last week i submitted a foil request for this evidence and to date not a single piece of factual evidence has been provided i will continue to wait for this evidence maybe by the time it gets here my beard will be this big because it's already been proven that the committees you form and when you submit a foil request it doesn't happen you people do not listen and you wonder why people are upset i think it makes you happy that we we go home and we stew over the stuff that we get angry we that we're so confused you sat on information all year
105long that could have quelled the fears of this community every single one of you maybe not you because you're interested please don't be pointing your finger at people the whole board and whatever committees you you you form you had this information and it took dr duka who in my opinion is the only true leader in this room besides those two sheriff's off deputies that are sitting back there that's on this side of the room there's a bunch of leaders back here you need to make some changes you need to resign and now you need to resign [Applause] uh mr siriani do we have the ability to put up the district website can we do that please we can address mr gray's question please and if we can broadcast that on the uh the feed as
106well that will help all our folks at home be happy to run through and show you exactly where the the board agendas are and the documentation um out there so now this is being shown on the live stream here so to address the issue of where documentation is on our website under the board of education banner i put my eyes on board of education banner um on the right the 20 or excuse me the left the 2022 2023 agendas if you click on that link it will have all of the agenda documents and as we move forward in the 20 20 23 meeting documents link that is where we'll have supporting documents for policies and committees as well so just want to make sure that that's there for everyone i'm sorry you do not have
107the floor you do not have the privilege of the floor thank you very much so thank you the board does have reason to adjourn into executive session for matters related to appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of any particular person or corporation we will not be returning to the open meeting from our executive session i have a motion to adjourn into executive session all those in favor aye opposed abstentions