001okay i'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the boston spa central school district board of education for august 24th 2022 welcome everyone welcome those who are watching via the live live stream our emergency exits are in the two back corners to the outside behind me and the entrance into the hallway in case we need to evacuate the room for any emergency reason would you all please stand for the pledge 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 we're going to start with some recognition items of note in the district it's always wonderful for me to share over the course of the summer the district is very busy and there's
002lots of achievements and things to talk about so our summer success program took place and has concluded this is also known as summer school provided additional content enrichment opportunities to complete and pass courses for hundreds of students across all grade levels our early college clean tech high school program had a busy summer there were many real world educational experiences for students to take part in i saw tweets and photos about our students doing activities from downtown troy to the pitney farms in saratoga our students were involved in carpet dm theater group and the boston area recreation commission youth theater we had successful runs of their plays within the last three four weeks our new employee summer orientation and training program kicked off tuesday and continued today and tomorrow we had 30 new staff members the
003content of the program and the execution of it was fully originated and owned by our associations and our current staff members this is a great example of our staff caring so much for the district that they take pride in the ownership and are very active in bringing on new employees 107 new smart boards have been installed this summer in our classrooms to give our students and faculty the the best tools possible the kindergarten jumpstart program took place in early august and provided enrichment for incoming students we received the new york state public high school athletic association school of excellence award for the 2021-2022 school year this award recognizes the academic achievements of our student athletes for the past year now is a busy time for our special education department working on fall placement activities our
004fall sports began this past monday 22nd there was an august graduation for high school seniors achieving graduation over the summer and we've had the completion of the third phase of the district's facilities improvement project the projects were included in the district's phase three bond referendum that was voted on and approved by the voters in october 2018 all of these projects are reimbursed at 75 percent by new york state and i want to put out a special thanks to our construction management partner c s arch for their efforts to bring in many of these projects to completion honor ahead of time and under budget and there will be communications coming out from the district principles for specific construction at specific schools that may continue on into the reopening period there will be information coming out about
005that any questions or concerns please reach out to the building principal i want to acknowledge all those who have completed professional development activities over the summer and all those who've worked so hard on our reopening plan which we will hear about a little bit later tonight ensuring that we are ready for our students to return i mention all these activities and achievements to emphasize what all our education professionals in this district led by our superintendent dan connor our administrators our building principles what they've been doing to be focused on for the support of our students and we want to continue to have a focus on achieving our district mission of providing a meaningful diploma for all students and that means that our students will read write think and learn well because we intentionally explicitly and
006systematically teach them to do we have any other recognition from the the district no sir okay uh are you going to introduce the high school presentation dr duke you want me to we have a presentation from dr duka related to high school and middle school practices superintendent connor do you have anything other to add no i want to thank dr duca for joining us tonight and we appreciate your time absolutely thank you for being with us thank you thank you mr khan members of the board mr siriani thanks for having me here tonight um i've been asked to by the board to speak on how we provide accommodations in order to create a safe and welcoming environment for all our students really across the district at all the buildings you know my goal here tonight
007is to provide information to help answer some questions that have been asked recently surrounding policy 7552 so essentially i'd like to talk about you know the accommodations we make day to day in each of the buildings um operationally um so that you kind of get a sense of the things that we're doing and all the buildings across the district so i'll kind of take it one piece at a time i'll first talk about you know the restrooms so all districts all district buildings k-12 elementaries middle school high school they all have gender-neutral restrooms for for student use the high school alone we have six uh single occupancy gender-neutral restrooms that anyone at any point can access to use um and one one one point i'd like to make is that you know this isn't something
008we just put in place we've had these in place for quite some time students have been able to access these restrooms without any incident as far as pe and locker rooms go i know there are some questions surrounding locker rooms physical education starting this year all pe classes across the district k-12 are no longer sex segregate so i'll speak to the high school for years we had um grades nine and ten girls and boys phys ed grades eleven and twelve girls and boys phys ed pre pandemic we really started having conversations about uh going co-ed and just really separating our pe classes just by grade so grade 9 10 11 12. pandemic hit we didn't really have pe classes it kind of i don't say went away but we didn't have pe classes so at
009the start of last year we decided that going into this fall we would no longer have sex segregated pe classes so it's boys and girls and the only way we separate it grades 9 and 10 11 12 for scheduling purposes this year new this year so changing for pe has always been a point of contention regardless of this policy but this year changing for epe classes is going to be optional student will not be penalized academically if they choose not to change for class the one caveat is they have to have proper footwear pe tires so basically shirts with sleeves um you know no flops no boots have proper sneakers on students can certainly still change for pe if they choose to that's that's still there but if a student doesn't want to change for
010pe they're not going to be penalized academically pe teachers will review these changes within the first week of classes so that everybody's on the same page i know there's been some questions about the pool unit because everybody comes to the high school to to swim the pool unit and that's something that's come up i met with facilities earlier this week so we will be installing partitions privacy partitions in all the locker rooms for added privacy not only in the pool locker rooms girls and boys but also the regular regular gym locker rooms so there'll be privacy partitions added to all our locker rooms additionally we're creating a single occupancy changing room which is in close proximity to the girls and boys locker rooms that are used for the pool so if you've seen the pool
011the layout there's the girls and boys literally right across the hall five feet away we're gonna make one of the old storage rooms that's not going to be a single occupancy changing room as just another accommodation that anybody can use i know there's been some questions about interscholastic athletics so i wanted to kind of clarify a little bit about that so there's really two two things at play there's transgender guidelines and then there's mixed competition all right so they're two different things under under transgender guidelines from the state student or parent she'll notify the superintendent that a student would like the opportunity to participate in interscholastic athletics consistent with the gender that he or she identifies as it's then on the student's home school to determine eligibility of the student seeking to participate in interscholastic
012athletics in a manner consistent with his or her gender identity where the student's gender identity does not correspond to his or her assigned sex at birth all right so that's transgender guidelines mixed competition is different a boy identifies a boy wants to play a traditionally female sport or vice versa female identifying as a female wants to play a male sport that goes to a vote so that student or parent would notify our athletic director and that decision is made um through a vote through the suburban council um so that happens i wouldn't say frequently it happens every once in a while that's brought to a vote for the suburban council athletic directors they have a vote it's either you know approved or denied the student then has an opportunity to appeal it through section two
013so that there's an appeals process for that so i just wanted to be clear with uh transgender guidelines and mixed mixed competition two different things uh mixed competition um has been in place for almost a decade um and the transgender guidelines have been in place i believe since 2015. so these aren't you know new things um and and you know section two not just balls and spa but section two has has had a lot of uh discussion surrounding interscholastic um interscholastic athletics regarding these two subjects for quite some time um so the last thing that i wanted to just um provide some information on is you know the idea that any student can go into any bathroom they choose or locker room okay um you know we our counselors our administrators um work very close
014with our students um who want to um you know change the gender identity and this is something that when they talk to the student we try to involve the parents we try to provide a very supportive environment for all our students but i wanted to be clear under under the code of conduct okay you know any student who invades anybody's privacy is subject to violation under the code of conduct you know i'll give the example a male student going into female bathroom who doesn't identify as a female or vice versa okay they're going to be subject to student code of conduct violations something we take very seriously across the district you know i can speak to the high school if that were to happen and it hasn't happened but if it were to happen it
015would be a serious offense under our code of conduct and so i just wanted to end with with trying to be very clear that we've had these protocols in place for several years but we really will continue to support all our students so that we're removing barriers so they can have a quality education in a safe and supportive environment and we'll continue to to to support all our students and families and parents um and so i just wanted to kind of discuss some of the things that that were that were being asked hopefully i was able to provide some information to people who've been asking questions um over the past several weeks and i thank you thank you very much dr duke do we have questions from the board members for dr duke i just
016want to say thank you very much for pulling this all together obviously there's a lot of misinformation within the district and it's nice to have a nice clear concise response so i appreciate that yeah absolutely happy to do it i just wanted to say that i think that the changes to the pe curriculum and adding in the additional privacy um is is greatly appreciated yeah absolutely right so i think the point here is that you know we've had procedures we've had accommodations in place for years there's always room for improvement and i think this is an opportunity where the the district is seeing possibility for rooms for improvement so we're adding those things in now as the parent of a daughter who's gone through the high school the debate about gym classes being same-sex gym
017classes being segregated i i think in general has gone both ways i think in many cases the the young ladies the girls would like to be in the same classes with the males do the same units as the males i think in other cases there has been maybe a different thing but almost every district in new york state now has unified co-ed gym classes boston spa has gone kind of either way we've had specific units that are coed we've had units that aren't coed and now we're just going to as dr um dukkha shared we're going to this model where um all classes will no longer be segregated anything else on a topic from the board members thank you very much dr duke appreciate it um i have a slight change in our agenda i
018take that stuart thank you very much slight change in our agenda so we have here our representatives from our high school student council so hopefully they will at the beginning of their speech talk a little bit exactly about what our student council is and what its function is within the high school you see them down at number 11 on this and future agendas they will actually be up near the top um during the course of the year our student council representatives sometimes show up in their soccer outfits sometimes have uh hours worth of homework to do afterwards and the board traditionally has done everything we can to make sure that they're able to provide their input but then also go and actually eat dinner and be able to to go on with their busy student
019lives so at the uh the pleasure of the full board here is it okay if we move their presentation up in the agenda so that we allow them to go now okay and then afterwards it's certainly up to you you can stay for the remainder of the meeting or again you can go and i would bet as the school year goes on you certainly are welcome to leave after your presentation so um these are our student council representatives we're thrilled that they're here and please introduce yourselves and off you go thank you so much for the introduction i'm selena i'm a senior and i am the president of student government executive board i am katie miller i'm a junior and i am the treasurer of student government executive board and to talk a little bit
020about student government in our school each class has its own student government that is mostly focused on fundraising for prom that's usually the main priority and student government executive board brings them all together and represents the students so that they can still be involved in our school government and get the opportunity to plan spirit events and work through problems we might have through the year and really voice our opinions at board meetings for recent updates we the sports teams have begun practicing freshman orientation is next week on september 1st from 8 to 11 and we will be having a club fair at that so basically all the clubs are welcome to bring posters and explain their clubs to the freshmen so they know what they're able to participate in so our executive board will have
021one national honor society will have one and class counsels as well and various other clubs and activities we just want to make sure that the freshmen know all of the possible clubs and activities they can join so they can really be involved in the school and we are also starting to plan for many of our homecoming events specifically spirit week that will take place during homecoming week and we will have um club meetings throughout the year which we will also inform the freshmen on thank you so much thank you do we have the dates for homecoming week uh i believe it's the week of the 20 september 26th last week in september high school game is on friday september 30th perfect thank you very much okay we are now at the time for public comment
022we have guidelines for public comment we want to certainly hear what our public has to share with us and we want to make sure that everyone is heard and that everyone is respectful of our speakers there are two public comment periods during our meeting this is the opportunity for the public to provide information to the board board of education welcomes our district residents parents caregivers and other interested persons to its meeting community involvement at the board meetings is encouraged so that the board can better 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 session of the boards speakers will be called upon individually when recognized by the board president you'll be asked to approach the podium
023state your name and residence statements are restricted to a maximum of two minutes speakers will be notified by the board president when his and her time has expired so i always try and be respectful of our speakers and i'm certainly not going to gavel anyone quiet at the two minute mark i will try and give you a heads up that we are at two minutes and ask you to please try and conclude your remarks and again we want to just try and make sure that we allow time for everyone to be heard the board and the district staff take the public comment very seriously however the board will not respond to comments or questions during the public comment period a follow-up email if you have requested one will be sent and the form has the
024ability for you to put a request and your email address in there so that we can follow up in a response to you via email board asks the public's cooperation in maintaining a safe and respectful environment board president reserves the right to limit individual comments of his deemed necessary please speakers will not make slanderous attacks on any group organization or individual a member of the board an employee or the district or a member of the audience or a member of the public please address your comments to the board as a whole do not address comments to any particular member of the board or the staff or the audience no use of profane vulgar threatening or disparaging language or racial or ethnic slurs is prohibited and please do not disrupt the meeting with loud outbursts or
025other disruptive conduct or behavior during the speaker's assigned time or at any other time during the meetings and 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 regarding a safety measure the superintendent of schools so that said we will have our first speaker is crystal horn please approach the podium you to the board my name is crystal i am a mother of a graduate this year um also two current students in ballston spa i am here to say that i stand for a safe and welcoming environment for all of our students i condemn bullying bigotry and
026hatred we surveyed and 400 community members including parents students and faculty stand with us on that statement i am here to talk about the student gender identity policy dr duca stole all my best lines tonight so that's okay but i just want to say that i support the board in your work with that policy something that is in alignment with what already exists on the state and federal level and therefore is connected to our funding also as dr duca said it's not new work we've got the high school athletic association since 2015 providing those guidelines ncaa since usa major sports organizations also have these guidelines none of which exclude transgendered athletes from participating in team sports three points that i just wanted to bring up we know that our district will not be excluded from
027competing with other schools in our league just because we have transgendered athletes also i don't think it's right for us to make this assumption that transgendered students are dangerous or a threat to other students that sends a terrible message to those students and to their families we know historically those people are the ones who are actually targeted for bullying and violence and not the perpetrators and then lastly specifically i'd like to say trans women are women and it's a very slippery slope for all women when we start regulating uh participation in any of our academics based on physical characteristics so if there's a non-transgendered woman who maybe is very big or very strong or presents very masculine features that could be dangerous for that person to be able to participate or be deemed unfair to
028contribute to our team athletics so thank you again to the board please continue your work a lot of people are behind you [Applause] thank you for your comment next and sweet hi my name is ann sweet i live at 97 pleasant street in the village of boston spa i'm here as an education professional a taxpayer and a mom to thank the board for your proposed improvements to our district policy on suicide prevention you've heard or will hear some pushback about several recent policy revisions but i want you to know that as crystal mentioned earlier there are many community members close to 400 of us who appreciate your efforts to create a climate that supports learning research indicates that suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people studies also show that lgbtq youth
029are at significantly increased risk up to four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers to be clear lgbtq youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their identity but rather placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized school policy and culture can reduce these risks and the board should continue putting the necessary frameworks in place as an education professional thank you for your commitment to the policy revision process i know that's not glamorous work or necessarily enjoyable as a taxpayer i want to thank you for keeping us in compliance with regulations that make us eligible for state and federal funding and finally as a parent i thank you for helping to keep the kids of this district safe and well [Applause] thank you for your time kendra
030sorry santa good evening and thank you for the opportunity to provide a comment tonight my name is kendra senna i live here in the village of boston spa and i have two children my oldest is entering third grade and my little one is starting kindergarten in the fall like all parents here i worry about my children while they're at school will they be safe will they make friends will they learn and thrive all children mine and yours deserve a school that nurtures them and protects them and challenges them to grow as students and as people children need to feel safe in their schools but for transgender students especially school can be an unsafe place transgender k-12 students experience higher levels of discrimination violence and harassment than cisgender youth they are more likely to be under
031serious psychological distress to have experienced homelessness and to have attempted suicide and the policies enacted by schools even those that might seem innocuous can have serious effects a recent study found that denial of access to bathroom facilities significantly increased the odds of transgender or non-binary youth reporting depressive moods and attempting suicide one in three youth who face bathroom discrimination reported a suicide attempt in this last year but the good news is that the opposite is true too at least 22 states and 225 localities expressly provide civil rights protections to transgender people and those protections often include requirements that transgender people be allowed to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity policies supporting transgender students including by allowing them to use common restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity can also reduce the health
032risks facing those students when schools have trans and non-binary supportive policies lgbtq students are less likely to experience harassment less likely to miss school and yes less likely to attempt suicide we know that trans and gender non-binary inclusive policies make trans and gender non-binary youth more safe and we do not have to wonder if the policies make other students less safe we do not have to start from a place of fear instead we can look to the experience of many school districts like ours across the country that show that inclusive policies have not made students less safe concerns about privacy can and should be addressed for all students as they have in this district this district has a thoughtful policy as outlined by dr duka tonight increasing privacy options for all students without singling out
033transgender people for stigmatizing differential treatment if you could conclude please all students deserve to feel safe in their school the impacts of a trans-inclusive policy like the one this board adopted last year cannot be overstated it can literally save a life thank you to the board for supporting this critical policy to support all of our students in our schools thank you [Applause] thank you for your comments martina bantham good evening my name is martina bantham i live on birch tree lane in the town of milton i really could just say what the first three said and go sit down so um i'm a resident obviously and a parent of two former alumni the oldest of whom is a transgender person so i do have some experience with what they go through my child they're non-binary
034they use they them pronouns adult child they did not come out as transgender until after high school but they really struggled in high school they really struggled figuring out who they were it was obvious they were very uncomfortable in their own skin and uncomfortable with who they were or being able to present that and i think having policies in place like we have now really would have been beneficial they graduated back in 2011 so i don't think we had those policies transgender wasn't as on the radar as it is now it makes a lot of people uncomfortable it makes a lot of people afraid but i think it's wonderful that people can be themselves they're not hurting anybody else i would encourage people who are uncomfortable to learn to try to approach it with an
035open mind and really i just want to come here and commend the board for the policies that you have put in place i think they're very very good sound and balanced policies that protect all students and particularly our most vulnerable so thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment justin delgado good evening uh justin delgado i had the opportunity tonight to attend the uh the meeting prior to this one that talked about policy one of the topics that came up was the the policy revision process planned for 2223 and there was a discussion about pulling information or pushing information to the public when we made policy changes in school and i just want to make a recommendation as a parent i believe that pushing the information would probably be beneficial and it might help parents
036maybe understand the policy sooner before it actually got approved and maybe help with emotionally charged issues and maybe assist in soothing over some fears and concerns with those issues prior to being implemented that's all thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment next jared iacolucci [Music] good evening my name is jared ikelucci i'm a resident at 24 chapman street in boston spa i'm here to voice my support for the student gender identity policy i think like many folks here who we've already heard we've encountered a lot of controversy whether in public or on social media regarding pushback for this policy and i'd really just like to say a few things about that first that we all of us parents agree that we want our children to be safe that includes our cisgendered children and our
037transgendered children as well as one of our previous commenters mentioned we know from numerous studies that transgender children are much more likely to be the targets of violence and much less likely to be perpetrators of violence than their cisgendered peers what we get in response to that is often an irrational fear from folks who are unfamiliar with what what social changes are occurring we've seen pushback like this in the past that predates me of course but in desegregation during the implementation of title ix significant social pushback occurred those policies have proven to be successful and important to the social fabric of our country i'd also like to take a moment and mention a note about student athletes i am a former student athlete at boston spa high school i have two children who i hope
038someday maybe student athletes as well there should not be an argument about children losing out on sports teams in competitions because of transgender students participating as one of our previous commenters noted a trans woman is a woman it's as simple as that there's no evidence that transgendered students are bullying cisgendered students on sports teams or taking spots away from them additionally from dr duke earlier we know that that transgender student athlete policy has been around for years and has not encountered any pushback until this summer ultimately we as parents should not be pushing our own fears onto our children that's too frequently what's happening here this policy provides safe options to anyone all students while also providing all students with the right to self-identify i'd just like to say again thank you to the board
039for supporting this policy and for supporting the safety of all of our students thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you for your comment katrinka scarf hi so i'm katrinka scarf and i'm a science teacher in the middle school but i just have a statement from the honorable paul tonko who was not able to attend this evening he's a representative of our congressional district and he states the boston spa school board is making the right decision by respecting and protecting transgender students it's also state and federal law schools should be an environment focused on student achievement and we can't do that when the school board is obstructed like this simply for doing their jobs thank you [Applause] thank you brian gray good evening i'm brian gray i'm a resident of boston spy i live at birch tree
040lane in the town of milton thank you for your time and allowing me to address the board i take a great risk here i'm the voice of dissent i think in a good democracy we need voices of descent it seems like all the other speakers were very much in support of the policy i think that there's other issues the school must address violence drug abuse jason i sent an email to you on august 4th addressing this topic i did hear that there are the gender for all restrooms i tried to tour them on my way to this meeting all of the doors were locked the men's room women's rooms were unlocked so it's not possible to see what does gender refer all look like second of all my son mentions freshman coming in well now
041he's going to be sophomore the violence in the school the violence in the restrooms the um the partitions between the urinals the soap dispensers the paper towel dispensers the females that are in the mail restroom identified male not gender for all a male restroom the drug sales going on on the floor of the school the fights mr duke himself got attacked this is a big problem this is impacting all students and everyone wants to talk about a safe environment for all students i think violence in the school does impact all students regardless of gender identity and i think that is what and so far this evening so much of this meeting the first 40 minutes minus the time spent by the student council has been dedicated to gender identity i would like to see a
042similar amount of time maybe at a future board meeting brought up to address what is going to be done about the violence in the school meaningful approaches to it and a safe environment for all free of violence free of personal attacks free of bullying and the suicide rate and everything like that is tied into that as well without respect to or because of gender identity that's what i would like to see out of this board thank you for your time thank you for your comment next karen barone i'd like to thank the board for the work they've done my name is karen barone i live at 30 pleasant street in boston spa i have a child in the eighth grade here um i have been asked to read a written statement by a parent who
043was fearful to show up tonight for fear of retribution on their child so as i read this i would like everyone in the room to kind of hold in your mind this parent who did not feel like they could safely show up and what fear does most people assume that they know what transgender means you have no idea if you did you would know that someone is not sick perverted or woke you would know that being transgender is not a choice it is a genetic misalignment between the body and the brain which then leads to gender dysmorphia due to living in a body that does not match your inner self you would know that if an mri were taken of a trans female's brain that brain would look exactly like a female brain for those
044who question the validity of someone's identity do you even know anyone personally who is trans or are you just basing opinions on stories or on the projected media feeds other the comments of others no one chooses a life of pain discrimination and judgment no one chooses the life for their child to be constantly living with gut-wrenching fear knowing that there are people willing to hurt your child and discriminate against them being trans is not a choice just the same as it is not a choice to determine one's race ethnicity abilities or sexual orientation but somehow we have regressed in 2022 and sadly in our own community we are starting to hold these beliefs we are allowed we are allowing a segregated history to repeat itself this is not a political matter this is a human
045matter with the goal of recognizing that all people should be able to live as their authentic selves you say i have no problem with how others live but you say that without adding what you want to say as long as i don't see it for those who do not believe that transgender exists how narcissistic of you to believe that you know better than someone knows themselves a study by the american academy of pediatrics put it at seven sorry that transgender individuals are 50 more likely to take their lives we are talking about real fear here and about transgendered youth who are facing discrimination and is this friends this village of friends really willing to put even one child at risk as a community we should come together we may not always agree but to think
046one's values and beliefs take precedent over someone else precedent over someone else's is absurd we can do better let's educate and come together to recognize that the children of the community deserve better they deserve to feel safe where they live and to feel loved and accepted for who they are we are adults setting examples for children we can either set that example or we can discriminate or we can accept kindness and love as the way i choose kindness and acceptance let's get back to eliminating distractions of hate and miscommunication and really get back to allowing children to learn and be them their best selves thank you thank you for your comment that concludes our first time for public comment next up on our agenda we have the approval of the minutes for the regular board
047meeting of august 3rd 2022 any amendments or additions i'm sorry i may have a motion to approve the minutes for august 3rd 2022 so moved any amendments or additions not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions minutes are approved thank you next is our superintendent's report we're going to hear about our fall 2022 reopening plan thank you president farno and members of the board of education and for those out there that are in the community i've been here almost eight weeks now and um i've had the option or i've had the privilege of meeting with many community groups uh pta's vfw today uh just about any group you could think of the mayor even the town supervisors uh i've had that opportunity to meet with them and and you know coming back from those
048meetings and hearing what those folks had to say uh was a perfect lead into when i met our two student council reps tonight i have plenty of plenty of things to review with them and ask them to help me with going forward lots of opportunities for all our kids out there we just need to get the right people in the right places to get that little bit of a push so our kids can take benefits of some of the great possibilities that exist out there be at the vfw or whatever yes since since our last board meeting yes we have been involved in pulling things together now getting things ready for the uh coming back to school my reopening framework plan with my committee we we talked about the following areas i had our transportation
049supervisor there sean uh i think the thing that impressed me the most about our transportation supervisor was that i said to him i know you're busy setting schedule and you've got a lot of work to do but i really would like to see you come to this meeting not only did he come to the meeting president for no members of the board but he stayed for the whole meeting and he was a real valuable part of that whole conversation so transportation where we are with that um very close to getting the roots out so stay tuned for more on that um the guy to my right here our business official brian serenia has done a tremendous job working with that transportation department uh remote learning we talked about that what seems to be the direction
050of the corsair um all of this by the way there'll be more information coming to you the students it was the purpose of the meeting to begin to come to a consensus and then push the information out from there remote learning i took a survey today county-wide it it doesn't appear that the suburban council superintendents uh many of them will be do doing remote learning if in fact you're not going to be in school because you're home with coven there are other options and i think our people have focused pretty well on what those options will be um there'll be tutoring that will take place they'll be given the option though of our people not so much doing a class for the whole remote learning but individual with if they want to set something up
051with the teacher but the teacher to student will determine who and how much catch-up work actually needs to take place so once again more more coming on that governor holco came out with some very good information i'm sure most of you aware that we heard that and she also pushed out some information today about monkey pox the northern superintendents wishiwashi i believe it's 31 boces we have a nine o'clock meeting tomorrow morning much of that is going to be the topics will be about reopening and what is that going to look like for schools so we know that mass our thing in the past knocked wood uh we're gonna be able to see those smiling faces again the screening the testing all of that information lots of changes uh trying to go back to a
052state of normalcy normancy and we'll be pushing that information out to all of you i have sharon d'agostino also stuart williams working closely with kelly uh why we're when we get to a point where we know where suburban and the northern conference superintendents are we're all going to try and be on the same page and get that information out so look for something early next week uh let me see what else uh there were other things that we had i want to share with you the summer school graduation i know our board president uh alluded to that i was impressed with it you know i i saw a law there and and we talked a little bit and the thing that comes to my mind the one word that sticks in my mind about summer
053school graduation is the perseverance because man there are a lot of reasons why those kids but to their credit they were there and i thought that was just truly outstanding our you know our board president being there to pay tribute down law was there as well and dr duke did a terrific job at that program um district-wide council meeting was a big one i had on the 22nd we had it right here it was a great opportunity to begin talking about many of the things that could be issues or possible issues leading into the new year sharon d agastino once again our our covid expert head to floor pam muller from human resources played a big role in it stuart williams stewart is is one of the most organized individuals i've ever met is it
054from all of them tremendous information that they shared with all the administrators there and i was truly amazed that you know i know i'm new to the group but i what was there six or eight other new administrators there as well it's incredible um we talked about the future of our rec meetings uh our cabinet meetings and so we come we've come to some dates on those and what that structure is going to look like and how frequent will they meet the time of them so um the new new employee orientation a lot has been said about that already but i just want to say great program uh pam and her committee put that together super program super job the 31st a week from today i am so excited because i get to see about
055i i think it's 825 employees all in the auditorium and looking forward to kicking that program out i think the reason i'm excited about it is that when you talk about school years the great thing about being in this business is president fernando you touched on so many great events and activities that have taken place just this summer but the thing i like about it most is that there's a beginning there's a beginning of the school year there's all this stuff in between 99 of it really good a few things yeah there little dips here and there and then there's a wrap up a finale so it's always great to be back i'm looking forward to august 31st meeting everybody at the superintendent conference day and i believe that completes my report thank you so
056i just want to touch on a couple of things make sure we've got them clear transportation bus routes where finalization is occurring now and we're expecting that communications will go out to parents and caregivers next week we are hopeful is that correct yes yes we are it's it's looking very promising right that would be very beneficial yes and the finalization of district policies related to handling matters health and safety matters related to covid there's a meeting tomorrow which is the 31 component schools which we both sees and then suburban council also discusses and we're going to make the intent is for all the districts to get together have a unified plan together and right now i believe what i heard is that uh illness absence due to positive covet testing is going to be treated
057more like a sick absence would have been in years past in terms of working with the teachers working with the school in terms of instructional tutorial plans that need to be put in place versus immediately some remote option that would be put in place that's correct okay perfect thank you and um from the discussions with the wish we group tomorrow and suburban council we'll have further information to go out to everyone regarding what exactly the policies will be and i think an important one to highlight an important one to highlight would be making sure that we have the uh guidelines related to students who present in school with just cold symptoms i know last year that was kind of a thing student has you know a runny nose and shows up at the nurse there
058was a set of procedures and things in place and parents will absolutely want to know what that looks like this year and i believe the governor touched on it somewhat but what the return to school procedures will be as well so if we can please make sure that that information is there i think that will help parents navigate the um the the child's sickness at school and the child returning to school scenarios i think will be very helpful for them there was definitely some frustration with that in the last year so that is great thank you and um we absolutely look forward to our uh reopening and our opening day ceremonies next wednesday on the 31st and as you mentioned we have i think i think we've got a an opportunity within our district because
059we do have a mix of extremely experienced staff members and new blood and people coming into our district in the last two three years and this year um as well and it's both in our our teaching faculty it's in our our transportation areas it's in all our areas it's in our administration this year at the high school we will have two new assistant principals um at our high school and and again i think that we've got a opportunity there in terms of the mix with experience and um and the new okay any questions from board members for the superintendent i had one you mentioned something about the governor hocal and monkey pox was that more in general like population or is that geared towards education no more in general just said it's still uh it's
060um numbers are very low um talked about how contagious it is but it was more of a general statement okay thank you you're welcome anything else okay committee reports so there was a meeting of the policy committee prior to our regular business meeting here and i do have to share that um it was a uh somewhat out of the norm meeting as our chairperson for the committee katie whitamore was not present and i stepped in having served on the committee for the last two years um just to act tonight at the meeting as the uh the uh a committee member pro tem and the chairperson pro tem meaning just for tonight's meeting only so i will do the readout of what happened there we confirmed our membership which is holly barker flynn tim terbiak and
061katie whitamore katie will serve as the chairperson for the committee we talked about that policies that are still in finalization draft form getting to the the final language to come before the board for a first reading are a policy related to district recognitions memorials and dedications policy related to language updates to our code of conduct which is incorporating crown act language crown act was an amendment to the dignity for all students act new york state law 2019 related to hair treatments and hair are and there was a discussion around what we would do in terms of communications out to the district related to future policy updates there was also discussion that our policy 1510 related to regular board meetings and rules there was updates related to video conferences and the use of video under the
062emergency extraordinary excuse me extraordinary situations that we are looking at whether we're going to update our policy to include it that is not required but we think that it may be valuable to have it in there so there is going to be future discussion and work around that and then coming in front of you tonight as a resolution is policy 7450 suicide prevention and this is one that will be coming before you for the first read your approval of that is the first step to making it become district policy if it is approved tonight it will have a 28-day waiting period where board members can further review and decide if uh modifications are needed and we have a tentative next meeting date of september 21st any questions on the policy committee meeting tonight yes law
063yes tradition um kind of in relation to a public comment last meeting in this meeting as well and to just communicate to the public when something is up for either the first read whether it be a brand new policy or revision um can we have the district website have like a pop-up blocker that where we've communicated other you know important information maybe you know the monday tuesday wednesday of the week where it's the first read for that board meeting um bring it up for consideration i don't know if that's for the for the policy committee meeting for the full board to to discuss but um i think that would help address some of the concerns about giving that awareness to the public thank you for that law and if i can rely on holly and
064tim to share that with katie and have that be part of the conversation for the policy committee um at the next meeting and we will work on what the communications policy or excuse me the communications portion of alerting our district to policy changes will be i think that's going to merge into the work by the communications committee which i actually will be sitting on are you on the communications committee law i'm the author of the committee okay matt so we'll we'll um we'll we'll take that as a part of the communications committee work as well make sure we're in that but certainly we want to do what we can to to to make the our community aware when policy discussions are taking place okay thank you yep announcements mr williams oh sir i'm sorry i'm
065sorry i do have another committee report okay so um i was pleased to return to a former role um and went to my first barc uh board meeting just last week so the boston area recreation committee i am serving as the liaison board liaison just wanted to again reiterate that they had a very successful theater program and they're currently in the process of fall registrations so we're just proud to have them as a partner and we will be setting up a meeting to discuss the project of building the building project on their field so thank you for that holly just the clarification what you're referencing is not a committee of the board itself that is more a under our announcements and our our public information um related to our board liaisons holly is serving as
066the liaison to our barc pro partners um and uh so i just want to make sure that we're clear on that are all our board members clear on that i am now okay announcements mr williams so good evening we'll get back to that it's kind of scary being the next guy to speak just a couple things you've already referenced with the everybody coming back the staff and the students coming back to the schools and the campuses this week and next week we did have the false the fall sports team start practicing at the secondary level at the high school level this week and the modified teams are beginning next week so we are starting to see a lot of the students back in the buildings and around the buildings and that's always a good sign
067next week the six schools all have their individual events for orientations for the newest students to our district both the kindergarten students incoming students at the middle school and the high school they put out that information directly from the schools themselves or they're all listed on the website they also have a variety of different open houses as well as pta barbecues and picnics and things like that mainly on next wednesday and thursday the 31st of august and the 1st of september if you got the printed copy of the calendar in the mail or you get it here in the school offices it starts with september 1st so we're just trying to make people aware that there are events that are occurring on august 31st um and as always all the events are updated on the
068website pretty much on a daily basis so anything that we print and put out is outdated the day that we send it out so you always want to rely on checking on on the website for that we do have the superintendent's conference day next wednesday morning where we have all staff gather in the auditorium the board members are invited to be there we actually gather in the cafeteria and mingle for about a half hour ahead of time and everybody goes into the auditorium at 8 30. so if you're able to make it and you're invited to be there um as part of that and the next regular board meeting is september 7th here in the high school library so thank you thank you stuart i skipped over our correspondence do we have anything to talk
069about with correspondence to the district okay correspondence to the board so the board did receive a number of communications both in support and in opposition to its actions at the last board meeting any old business old business from any of the board members from the district no sir on the new business i have motion to approve resolution number 154 authorization tax collection it's almost okay any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye aye opposed abstentions resolution number 154 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 155 tax rolls and authorized tax levy so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 155 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 156 tax warrant so move any discussion so i just want to add
070especially for our new board members um after the vote at some point we all have to sign individually the tax warrant um so just be prepared for that any other discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 156 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 157 board of education policy manual file 7540 revised suicide prevention so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 157 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 158 budget transfers so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 158 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 159 budget transfers so move any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number
071159 passes i have motion to approve resolution number 160 agreement professional services so moved second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 160 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 161 agreement professional services so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 161 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 162 agreement professional services so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 162 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 163 obsolete textbooks any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye aye aye opposed extensions resolution number 163 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 164 member memorandum of agreement boston spot teachers association so moved
072second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 164 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 165 inactive student activity club so moved any discussion i'd just like to thank those who kept the club supported while it was in place all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 165 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 166 placement of students with disabilities so move second any discussion not hearing any all those in favor opposed abstentions resolution number 166 passes i have a motion to approve resolution number 167 placement of preschool students with disabilities so moved any discussion not hearing any all those in favor aye opposed abstentions resolution number 167 passes resolutions number 168 through 192 are recognized as a consent agenda for the purposes of
073board of education action i have a motion to approve resolutions number through 192 the consent agenda it's almost a second any discussion at this time i usually ask if we have anyone in attendance who's being appointed do we know that okay and of course for resignations we absolutely thank people for their service with us any other discussion all those in favor opposed abstentions resolutions number 168-192 the consent agenda passes do we have any other new business for many board members now is the time for a presentation discussion from our associations do we have any of our associations present uh pta update we actually have a pta uh the high school ptsa president here sure please thank you i'm yvonne byrtiel i'm the president of the high school ptsa and i didn't really have a presentation
074ready tonight we don't have all of our dates in place but i just wanted to share a few of the things that we're going to be working on again this year our senior signs for those seniors to put on your lawn um we have three meetings and i'm hoping to have them in person this year instead of just online we really weren't getting a lot of attendance and i hope that having them in person and i hope we can set up something one will be in october january and probably april but again i need to sit down with dr duke and discuss those dates again we'll have the freshman principal's breakfast we have scholarships available for the seniors that are graduating uh staff appreciation lunch which was amazing last year the support we got from
075the community was just amazing we'll also have the after prom event after the prom do you know what the prom date is june 3rd so it's back to a saturday so that'll be nice so the after prom will be on june 3rd i also have to put out a note again that we don't have a vice president on the ptsi high school again this year and hoping that someone might be out there that might be willing to put in the effort to join us it it's really great to participate in high school programs and it's just fun to meet all the people that you meet and get things done for the students we also lost our secretary because she graduated last year so we're looking again for a secretary if anyone's interested and that's about
076it thank you very much and thank you for all you do and an absolute thank you to all our ptas and ptsa uh any plans on doing the parade again this year okay all right i don't know if things are gonna go the same as they did the last few years because of covid which parade are you referencing the seniors the senior parade i assumed it was the senior parade yeah i mean we were looking to continue that i don't know how people were feeling about like the drive-in event and everything because we do have the after prom now so we'll be talking about that okay so put it back on our list anything more from the ptas tim and i just want to say that absolutely for all our parents listening on the stream
077and as communications come out during uh the opening weeks of school from our ptas the forms to sign up and join the ptas it's great to get on their emailing list it's great to get all the information about the support activities that they do for our schools uh stuart mentioned the back to school [Music] events that are going to occur between now and the opening day are heavily supported by our ptas great partnership between the the schools and and our ptas for those and it's just the best organization ever so as you heard they're sometimes looking for officers for them and i absolutely encourage everyone to to support the pta and the high school ptsa um as best they can and as as much as they can okay we are now at the time um
078and i'm sorry this would be the time where our board liaisons to the bark and to our education foundation could share any information that they have from their meetings which holly gave her update earlier thank you holly and and it's the second time for public comment okay and so we have two signed up and i had read the guidelines before please address all your comments to the board itself and not to any particular individual or mention any student individually and first up we have susan suzanne canal thank you for pronouncing my name correctly it usually doesn't get pronounced correctly hi my name is suzanne cannell i live at 12 surrey lane in boston spa in the town of milton i wanted to come here and i wanted to say a few things because i had
079heard so many other things being bandied around and i wanted to address some of those particular oh terrible things that were being said and wanted to put forth how i feel as a person who's lived in this this town for over 55 years ago we made the decision to come to boston spa and live because of this school system i was pregnant with my first child so she's 54. it was a smart it was a much smaller system than it is now milton terrace wasn't even built wood road wasn't even built it was quite interesting but it was a school system that i knew would be probably the proper one that my children needed to learn from i knew from the very first that this community had the welfare of all members of the community
080not just a chosen few i appreciated the way the school board took the questions ideas and discontent of the general public and delivered succinct answers to the queries of the general public they were professional and understanding of the concerns many of those folks are far gone now and many of you folks never knew those folks but you come from a very very long line of people that know what a community should be and how it should be respected education is more than the three r's we need to live in the world as it is it's a different world today than it was when i first came to my first boston spa school board meeting as a pregnant new mother i i was amazed i've had two children graduate from this school with both graduating from
081colleges successfully this year i had my first grandchild graduate with honors from this school and went on to a college with an academic scholarship as well as an athletic scholarship i thank you all for that because you all participated in her success my second graduate my second child did the same thing i mean he was doing good my second oldest grandchild will be entering his junior year this year and he's doing very well and he's he's very much interested in the theater arts and that was through carpe diem and all the other things that happened in this school system this board has done and continues to amaze me by their understanding that all students have rights i appreciate your adopt adoption of the state of new york guidelines of the transgendered i believe it's absolutely
082imperative to be inclusive of all students and all children and to understand the concerns of both the children and their parents and you guys do a good job i appreciate it very much and i don't think enough people stand up here and say that to you and i thought that i was going to have to defend like heck all the stuff that was said before me and instead i find i'm very pleased by the fact that people feel the same way it gives me hope for our future and you guys are part of that future and i appreciate it thank you so very much thank you for your comment jason savaria good evening i'm jason savaria i live down the road on route 67. first off i want to thank you dr duka there you
083are for providing clarity on the gender policy it's my opinion that it wasn't your task to tackle in this situation but well done nonetheless i respect you for that and i hope you're healing well i do want to say that i appreciate and respect all the comments before me one very important point that was missing and i think it needs to be said is this what you do in your family is none of my business how you choose to raise your children is none of my business and those sentiments need to be reciprocated and respected nobody should be telling anyone that their narrative is out of date that's not up to you to decide and that surely does not promote diversity on august 4th 2022 a district-wide email went out it states dear parents and
084guardians faculty staff and community members unfortunately some parents and members of our community have been promoting an out of date and harmful narrative that our transgender students are a danger to other students both on social media and at the board of education meeting on august 3rd 2022 at the meeting the board took actions to ensure that our district policies and practices offer protections to the civil rights and safety for all students and staff that align with federal and state law the board of education and district remain committed to a focus on students and providing the best possible learning environment for for all our students and the best possible working environment for all our staff jason for now president bsc sd board of education in this district-wide email that jason fernand sent out he stated and
085i quote some parents and members of our community have been promoting an out of date and harmful narrative that our transgender students are a danger to other students both on social media and at the board of education meeting on august 3rd 2022 this statement was very broad and extremely vague from your statement i'm left to now feel that my children who attend school in this district are not safe with that being said i'm demanding that jason for now provide clear evidence as to who is pushing this harmful narrative and what actions you will take to provide a safe environment for all of the students and staff and you can email me your answers and evidence at the email i provided on the sheet it's my opinion this email i i don't know if it was
086proof read if it was a knee-jerk reaction oh come on man really that this very email was just a knife right right through the community it was by you if you could conclude please i want an apology from you and i'm telling you i will accept your apology i respected you before this i liked you before this and i will continue that respect and i will still like you i think you need to resign this was not cool man thank you [Applause] thank you for your comment this concludes our second time for public comment and we have a motion for adjournment it's almost like all those in favor meeting is adjourned