001to the June 8th, 2026 regular meeting of the board of education. Uh, 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. >> Roll call, please. Vicki, >> here. excused. >> Mr. >> Delayed >> here. >> Shutter >> here. >> Excused. >> Can Oh, Matt, would you please review the fire exits? >> Exits are in the back of the LGI. >> Um, can I have a motion to uh adjourn to executive session to review the employment history of a particular individual? >> So moved. >> Second. Um, comments or questions? All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Passes six to zero. >> Um, okay. Okay. We are going to
002resume the meeting with open to the public. Is there anyone in the audience that is here to make a public comment? Seeing none, we're going to move on to our workshops. Um our first workshop we're going to hear from our digital defenders program. >> Welcome. >> So um >> is the whole group presenting or Okay. >> Yeah, we're just waiting on one. >> Okay. Do you want to start without the person? >> I think >> yeah, >> okay. Um, so yeah, we go from over there and there's a you don't have to speak right into the microphone, but it'll pick up what you're saying. And thank you. All right. >> Can you cover since he's not here yet? >> Probably taking all right. Uh >> yeah. >> Uh hello. Uh I'm Desmond McGrath. We are
003the digital defenders and this is our little presentation we made about what is the digital defenders program. So the digital defenders program is a program in which high schoolers work in teams in coordination with Duchess Boseies to create cyber security lessons that are taught throughout the different grade levels. Um information is turnkeyed to peers in a scaffolded structure based on the New York State Education Department computer science and digital fluency standards um which outline the different grade bands of cyber security knowledge. And the program aims to increase digital safety knowledge for all students in a participating district and providing the students who are participating in the program a valuable opportunity to build presentation skills and many other skills as well. Some of the advantages of of the program are that it allows students to teach
004other students which means that information as opposed to coming from a teacher going down to the student it is on a more relatable perspective of student to student peer-to-peer and additionally all the students participating in the program gain access direct access to cyber security knowledge in the forms of experts in the cyber security field professionals as well as well as a chance to build teamwork skills, communication skills, leadership skills, working together to create presentations similar to this or what will be shown by the other group of digital defenders. Students in the program also get to sh create lessons and share to all grade levels within their district, which can provide a very valuable um perspective on the what the audience of a presentation, how that affects the information and material within a presentation. And finally,
005created material is shared between digital defenders teams and districts, meaning that one group can focus on creating one program for one specific grade band, but they can still teach for all of the different grade bands with information that was developed by other teams. and everyone can share the information even though each group can focus on one specific grade band. And but why why is this important? Because cyber security attacks are real. This is an email that was sent to teachers and students within the Beacon City School District and many people had their accounts made vulnerable because of this email. Their accounts were compromised because they clicked on a link which is where I will let the next presenter take over about why is this really important. >> So why is cyber uh security important? So
006Desmond just explained that email that showed that our school got personally affected by this attack. But this isn't just an isolated incident. This is a growing trend in our country and in the world uh in general that we're going to see a rise in cyber attacks from organizations, institutions. We're going to see uh those um organizations getting affected by it. And there's s uh these malicious attackers can gain uh significantly. they can cause these companies financial instability. We can see reputations declining and we can also see uh the personal safety of some people being affected by this. So it's important that we uh teach cyber security so that more people so more people won't get affected by these attacks. So change is needed. So, we saw So, we saw how this uh how our fishing
007email back here affect we saw how at least one of our staff members got affected by this. But it wasn't just one staff member. It was a bunch of students who gave up personal information because they weren't educated enough to know that this was a fishing line. So I think it's important that if we can teach these skills, we can teach them if you hover over a URL that you can see that this may not be going to the um the right site or you can look at the email address that this isn't coming from company. And if we teach these skills, we can uh lower the effectiveness of these attacks. And then let's look at the growth of cyber attacks. So we can see the year-on-year growth rate. So from 2020 to 2021 we
008saw a major rise and the reason of uh because of this was because of COVID. People no longer went back and forth between work. You had to stay at home and do maybe Zoom meetings uh email each other do text messages. So that uh increased our reliance on technology. But with so many people using the internet now, uh it presents uh a lot more targets for these malicious actors to um turn people into victims. And we can see how it also just has a general uh increase over time. And this is affecting schools as we see in this thing. 82% of uh K through2 schools were affected by this. We're seeing a lot of people in a lot of people you will use the emails or passwords from one account from maybe the school account
009and use it for other accounts. So even so if this school u if a student's password gets compromised this could also lead to uh uh trickle down effects for many for maybe they could lose maybe their banking account information if their password gets leaked and they use it and they aren't taught that you shouldn't be using or reusing passwords. So cyber security education will help our future generations stay safe. So we can't um just close our eyes and put our hands over our ears and say that these attacks will stop with time. No, we're are becoming a lot more reliant on technology and this will only increase as we go into the future. So it's important that we uh build up these skills so that we can prevent the effectiveness of these cyber attacks. >>
010Yes. So the digital defender core curriculum is split into three different grade bands. the elementary, middle, and high school grade bands. At the elementary stage, we split um the grade band into three from K through 1, 2 through three, and four through six. Our primary objective in K through 1 is to really set down these principles, breaking down breaking them down into simple terms such as the public and private self, digital locks, such as passwords, simple passwords, the forever web, and digital safety. However, as we reach grades two and three, we build upon these um these terms through a scaffolding system. And it is a pattern that um we build upon these concepts through a scaffolding system as we uh as the student uh progresses through their school career. At 2 to three, we build
011upon public and private self with the difference between public information that should be outside versus private information that should be kept personal such as identifying um and identifying markers. We also introduce strategies to passwords such as unique password strategies. And of course, we dive deeper into digital footprint and cyber security. And four through six represents four through six. We expand um this uh foundation that we have made in the past grade band in the past levels of these grade of this grade band. As we start thinking more about the future with the present and the future digital representation of yourself and different types of digital locks such as multi multi and two-actor authentification. We also dive deeper into active versus passive footprint and cyber ethics. At the middle/intermediate grade band, we dive deeper onto these
012um concepts as we try to um teach the student um preventive measures for them not to fall to threats. such as in threat detection we have sus recognizing suspicious messages such as fishing and of course understanding what social engineering is with uh motion manipulating. Of course, we expand on um authentication and safeguards further with understanding that length length um password length is better than complexity and of course the physical security of our digital data. And within our digital footprint, we expand on that even further as to what you post versus what the cookies actually track what you do on their website. I don't know why. And of course, we introduce what is New York State Department Education Law 2D, which protects the students uh personal personal identifying information. And of course, at the high school
013high school grade band, this is where we really start to develop and understand why we take these preventive measures. Of course, we um advance further in a in encryption through um understanding how encryption works. I'm sorry, just I don't know why. We understand how encryption works and understand new topics such as what is ransomware and how to avoid it. >> Um I don't know why it's like that, but um and how to secure your networks. I'm sorry. >> Oh, it's my favorite. >> No, it's something's tapping. >> Yeah, >> weird. >> That is >> it's like someone's like device iPad or >> Yes. Um and of course we now understand that that the things that we do in the internet um the negative things that we do on the internet of course can have consequences
014and >> yeah and um we understand further what does New York State um education law 2D means and of course the consequences of hacking because we want to ensure that students don't become um the uh offenders and of course we as AI becomes more relevant and more stronger we um we continue to grow our curriculum about AI and information about what is deep fakes and the risks of AI and of course um cyber security is a growing field and there are definitely um there are definitely pathways into cyber security I've Please. All right. I have talked to um the instructor at Boseis um Mr. Mark Lancelotti. He is the instructor of um its computer and networking course. And he said he said um should I just Go back to present. >> Oh yeah. And um
015it is a demanding um it is a de demanding career field in today's world. And as the instructor puts it, um the amount the student puts into the course is the amount that they will receive. Meaning that um if students really go above and beyond and achieving certificates and internships, they will um benefit the most out of this course. And it's of course it's lucrative for students who want to go directly into the workforce immediately after graduation. Its salaries range from 70k to 100k which is pretty nice. Uh but um uh but um I've talked to the students and uh I've seen the class sizes myself. This is a relative relatively new um course within Boseis and classes are not currently up to capacity and I was very surprised to see that are there are
016no participants from beacon and I hope with the expansion of the digital defenders that students will become more interested in cyber security because it really is a a growing a growing and honestly never um and it's never going away and of course students may participate in the digital defenders to contribute to its curriculum while being inside the computers and networking um course. All right. So, this is a New York State pilot program. So, its implementation has been very limited. We've only done it in a few classes throughout a few districts. Our plan is to expand it throughout our district and start teaching lessons to middle schoolers and elementary schoolers. And by doing this, we can prove the effectiveness of the program and hopefully get it spread to more schools throughout the state. Um, one of
017the biggest advantages of this program is that it's a very low cost of implementation. So, because the students are creating um, pretty much all the curriculum themselves and doing the teaching, there's no need to buy curriculum or hire teachers or um, presenters to teach these lessons. Um, also, it's going to be it's not like we have to create an entire new class. um it's going to be done on the time of other classes. So all that's really required is a few days marked out of the year for our um our members to come in and teach these lessons to students. Also um new cyber security interest generated by this program is going to help hopefully perpetuate new membership in the program so that it's never going to be at a loss for people who are
018interested in cyber security. So overall, this program is going to allow students to help their peers increase their digital preparedness, which is becoming more and more important in this modern world. It's going to be very easy to implement. So um low uh yeah, low cost to implement, but it's going to hopefully have a large amount of benefits for participants and our students are going to be better prepared through this program against cyber cyber attacks and for a future in this digital world. So, thank you so much for your time. Uh, if you have any feedback, we'd love it if you could scan that QR code and fill out the quick form. Uh, and then we will give the floor to this other group of digital defenders who's going to give a sample of one of
019our lessons that we do. >> First, I'd like the this group of digital defenders to introduce themselves. >> Okay. I'm Theo Theo Concepts. >> Uh, I'm one Barcia. I am a junior currently in Beacon High School. >> I'm Desmond McGrath. I'm a sophomore. >> I'm Isaac. I'm a junior in Beacon High School. >> Here the pilot. So, we are the digital defenders and um we are in charge of the grade band 9 to 12. Our lesson is titled the dangers of information. >> So, first I'd like to introduce ourselves. Um my name is Ryan. >> I'm Amelia. and I'm Abdul. >> All right. >> And first we provide the students with an interactive to grab their attention. Um this is a interactive trying to the fake part loads in later but basically it gets the
020students to try to guess which image is real or fake and then later and then later on we show which one is fake. So the major idea that this is trying to show is that AI is very hard to distinguish from regular photos as the left and right are virtually indistinguishable by the human eye. And this is also um something we have after. If you read through the passage uh you can see that it is it says that Socrates is the one that said this. But Socrates was not born in the age of technology. So he could not have said this. And um >> let's get to >> All right. >> And off that previous slide, in these slideshows, especially in 9 through 12, we want to prioritize getting the audience engaged and making it
021fun and not just that we're like speaking to them, but that we're like in a conversation with each other. And this particular slideshow we mainly focused on the different types of information such as information, misinformation and disinformation. And then this we also explain how they can identify if it's if the information that they're reading or they're looking at is accurate or if it's malicious or if it's neutral. And then we give them another interactive type of thing where we ask them to identify which type of information this is. And this is mainly just to make sure they're retaining the stuff we're teaching them as we're going through the lesson. We also are expressing different appeals that they may see in media such as pathos, logos, and ethos which are also taught um regularly in their
022English classes. And then everyone loves a cahoot and so that's why we included it because it's a good way to get people um thinking and not just like sitting there and just zoning out. All right, we then go on to talk about how AI has been a large part of causing misinformation on the internet. As can be seen in the graph shown, over time as technology has improved and AI has gotten better, it's been used a lot to cause more misinformation and create like a large number of information that is not necessarily really true. We then go on to show some examples of AI being used uh showing some misinformation. As you can see in one of the examples over here, somebody asks uh an AI to how to prevent cheese from sliding off a
023pizza and it recommends Elmer's glue, which is not very healthy. And then we then want to talk about some of these where it says uh a California teen dies of overdose after months of seeking drug advice from CHPT. So it's very dangerous to just follow follow the information that you get from AI as it's not always true and it might cause harm to you. And then this is the and the slide. We asked them some questions with their opinions and what they thought about the presentation and how they would rate the scale. How they will rate it on a scale of 1 to 10. And that is the end of the slide. >> Any questions? I um am the digital defender advisor. Um I'm a computer science major major computer science uh teacher here at
024the high school. And Dr. Dwire asked if I would advise these guys and this is the easiest group to advise because they're all very self-motivated. Um but when we started this it's with through DC Boseies Duchess County Boseies and uh Cara Braun and Mark Stein were the instructors there and they told us a story about something that happened well Cara in particular told a story about something that happened with um administrator at her place and um not at Duchess County Boseies but before she was there and listening to who she was describing I'm like wow that person's on our board of head >> and I don't want to shout you out but um you might know the story it um it was around the time where that person was leaving and he felt that somebody
025was giving him gifts and it turned out that somebody got into his email and requested that anybody that knows him please give him gift cards so that he could purchase something. And so somebody walked in in the middle of a meeting and walked right up to them and said, "Hey, this is for your gift cards." And they thought, "Oh, it's cuz I'm leaving." But it was actually because his information got hacked and ended up people thought they had to give him gift cards because he basically his email got out there where he said, "Get me gift cards." And I don't know if any of you have gone and bought gift cards CVS somewhere. Um, they always ask you, is someone making you buy this? And I still don't know to this day why that even
026is a thing. But you don't want to get you don't want to get hacked. And that was just somebody hacking somebody else's email. >> And I and I didn't keep the gift card, so I'm just saying. >> Yes, it was Eric. So, um, and yeah, to to know that this was somebody from our board of ed and these were, you know, this team was the one that's doing the board of ed, uh, presentations, it was just pretty wild. So, I thank everybody for listening and I thank these >> seven gentlemen, but there's eight opportunity came to Beacon because state ed reached out to our Duchess Bowis and they wanted a district to participate in this and they called So it wasn't just they had an opportunity to call any other district but they began. >>
027Yes. >> And that's why Beacon was selected to this program. >> So I just think that's important that we're selected to be a part of this first ever >> and this and so this just started this year in the fall. Is that when >> Oh this started in April. >> April. Okay. >> And it was like a whirlwind to get it started. And when they picked the dates, first thing I said was, "Whoa, this is our AP exam time. These kids aren't available." And we did three weeks in a row in person. And two weeks prior to that, we did one online and then we just did our um recap um last Thursday. So, we tried to get into a board of ed meeting in May, but um you know, you guys are busy. >>
028Budget stuff. So they got a lot of stuff. So um so we are actually the group is actually going up to Duchess County Boseies for their board of ed meeting on Wednesday. So um they're in high demand. >> Yeah. >> And they got asked to go to the New York State Board of Education NYSSBA >> New York School Birds Association. >> And um uh that's in July. So, we're taking a trip up to Albany in July. >> So, yay. >> That's great. And so, will it continue in the fall then? Is that >> Yes. And I had um the 9th through 12th graders group uh present to my computer science group, their 9th through 12th graders. And um a couple of nth graders in there was like, "Can we be digital defenders?" And I just
029thought, "Oh, wow. That's really cute." So, actually at our our um meeting on Thursday, uh they were talking about how wait till we get that next group. Wait till we and I thought, "Oh, no, they're done. They have t-shirts. They they you know, this is their thing." But, uh this is the pilot group. And they did say that they would want to have them as mentors. >> So, they're 11th and uh 10th graders now. So, they have another year that they could be mentors. So, this is a pilot program. Um, Arlington sent two students and CTI had >> like nine, >> I'm sorry. >> Their entire computer >> Oh, their entire Yeah, their their whole group that Beacon doesn't have anyone going to because they want to take their computer science classes from me. But
030um uh so it was a huge opportunity and like you said we you know we got asked to do this. Um Dr. Dwer asked me for three four names and wow I just said I know that these guys want to do it. So um they're a great group of kids. Very like I said very self motivated. So I cheer you all on. >> You did a great job. Both groups did a great job presenting. This is incredibly important work and you rightfully pointed out we have issues with this in the district as they are everywhere. And as someone who I feel like half the fishing scams are people pretending to be me. I thank you. Uh because those are a lot of people are still clicking. No, we've reduced the clicks. uh but this work
031um you're doing is really really important and uh I I think the stuff around AI that you're doing and the disinformation on the internet like that's that's really really important uh to be talking about and I think what we've seen is students really listen to other students a lot more than sometimes they listen to us and so I think that's a really powerful part of this I I would have imagined the lessons at the middle school level are have gone really well and or or will go really well. So, thank you. This was great. >> I really appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Um, next on our agenda is presentation by Matt Landal, summer update. I just uh wanted to do some kind of quick, not all related updates with the board. And
032um I'm kind of glad my digital defenders are leaving because my slides are not anywhere as cool as their slides and I don't want to feel their judgment. Um but before I do, just quick superintendent update so we can uh switch that part or skip that part in the agenda. Uh just want to give like a shout out to a bunch of amazing events that have happened just in the last seven days in the district. We had National Honor Society induction here at the high school. We had the athletic awards night which is attended by hundreds of uh kids and parents. The high school concert which got delayed by a couple weeks because of uh waiting for the air conditioning uh to get back going and uh especially in the theater. Um high school concert
033was amazing. Uh this past week we had the high school band. Uh two sixth grade uh trumpeters and uh a roundabout student were involved in the fish town of Fishkill 250th celebration. Uh and they all did an amazing job. That was on Friday night. And then just to keep things going on Saturday we had the art fair for kindergarten through or pre-K through 8th grade. And that was just really well attended. there was just hundreds of uh parents and kids coming into that and it really just was a nice community event. And so it's still going. There's lots of other things happening. Uh and just to switch gears uh again for a second uh we have from NISBA, the New York State Schools Association. Uh we have a board achievement award to give to one
034of our board members tonight. And this is bittersweet because it's going to Leavon McNair. Oh, >> just a congratulations. >> Thank you. >> It's a level one uh board achievement and uh I wish >> it would change everything in your life and you can uh stay on the board, but um I just a huge thank you. I know you'll be at the next meeting or I think you will kind of say goodbyes, but uh you got that done in just two years on the board. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> That's huge. So, thank you for all your commitment, >> of course, >> uh to the board and the district and the community. Um, so I just wanted to do some updates about uh things some things happening this summer and uh uh both
035capital project and some of the uh learning uh student learning we have this summer. Um we could get more detailed on things uh as we get into the summer. This is just kind of an overview and I wanted to just provide a couple of technology updates and then I'll also talk about how we're sending this out to the community too because this it's not just going to stay in here but just summer learning. Uh our extended school year uh serves about 40 students for six weeks. Uh and all of this takes place at the high school which is our most air conditioned building. Um we have credit recovery which has uh serves about 150 or so enrollments. Uh it's there's three sections of that. So there may be uh kids who have several enrollments based
036on the classes. Uh but that's for students to uh gain credit in their core classes. And then we also have an ENL stu uh student summer program that works right at least right now with about 20 students three days a week uh for three weeks in the middle of uh July and August. So we this building never really rests in the summertime. It's just a hub of a wide range of uh students. uh in terms of age um and we're just thankful for all the staff uh that participate uh because I know um some districts and I know Boseies also there's some struggle with hiring for the summertime and we have a lot of uh teachers and teaching assistants and administrators who uh step up to staff these and thankful for that too. um summer
037capital project work and beyond. Um so this is one uh that we're going to do a community update uh probably uh either Friday or this weekend just because one of the things on there uh we're waiting to open the bids on but we feel confident that it will be moving forward. I just want to kind of wait. So, first, uh, Glenn and the high school boilers are going to be addressed, uh, this summer. The, uh, high school air conditioning was just completed. Um, so those aren't the kind of things that people see, but those are huge, timeconuming, and very important projects. Uh, our work with the softball field, baseball field, and tennis courts will begin this summer. We will be, uh, opening those uh, bids on Thursday. Um, but there's there's been a lot of
038interest in doing that work, but we will confirm all that with the board and the public once we uh open those. We will be talking with the uh the contractors. The board can't approve those bids until uh June 22nd, our next board meeting. If they feel like they need to start earlier than that, I'll communicate with the board that we may need to have a special meeting the week of the 15th. That would just be to award those bids. I I think the contractors feel like they probably don't need that, but I'll be back in touch. I'll know that by Thursday afternoon. Uh, quickly, the softball and baseball field, the improvements there are going to be uh with turf infields and some improvements to the outfields of both of the fields with uh uh drainage
039and reworking the soil condition. Uh, also leveling things off um because it's not all flat. Um there's little, you know, swailes and little hills and so there's going to be some smoothing out. Uh and the tennis courts uh will be resurfaced. We're uh with the tennis courts, we also are going to be finding out what's underneath the tennis courts and that uh this side of Beacon. It's a little bit of an adventure with the water table. Uh so we'll know the full extent of what we have to do there once they're able to drill in. Uh the board will be awarding uh this tonight. Uh the theater, we have a contractor to do the theater work. Um a large bulk of the work is going to be about completely redoing the lighting uh and creating
040like a different lighting infrastructure for uh the theater which we can then build on um as we go forward. Uh it's really exciting. is will be with LED lights and some ways that they can control the lights through uh screens, touch screens. Um and so we're really excited to be moving forward with that. It's a big project. It'll start this summer. It has to be done at some point this fall because we have some uh shows this this fall that that is starting. We're also going to be doing fire alarm and PA system overhauls in our buildings. Um, and uh, so one big change uh, from what I've been talking about, we were going to we redid the Glennum entryway last year. We were going to redo the entryways in the five other buildings. We
041are delaying that uh, to summer of 2027. Uh, main reason why is we could not get assurances uh, from the uh, contractors that bid on it that it would be done by Labor Day. Obviously, we need it done uh to to start school. The big issue here is uh the what they call in the building world the storefront materials that they would need to build uh that they would need for some of these entryways um are undergoing huge delays uh in the um in the materials world like 10 15 weeks like that kind of stuff or even worse. So, what we're going to do with entryways is we're going to rebid it. uh in the fall uh award the bid in the late fall or or early winter and then just give those contractors like
042at least six months to order the necessary material. So that is going to be a delay. Uh AC uh we're starting with the air conditioning work in South Avenue and Sergeant. Uh we did not accept um that bid either for a couple different reasons, but the main one being delays with uh especially getting the electric switch that we need uh because of the increased amount of electricity to the buildings. So uh we're going to rebid those in the uh in the fall this fall of 2026 with the work to be completed. It takes about a year for this air conditioning work. Uh and that would be done by the fall of 2027. Um that air conditioning work, just to remind folks, is cooling centers in the air in the uh elementary school. So cooling for
043the cafeteria and gyms. Uh but we've also been working on adding uh room air conditioning. Uh not individual units, but uh central air conditioning at South and Sergeant. The plan right now, of course, this is subject to this bid process this fall and costs. Uh but the plan would be to add uh uh the upstairs rooms to a central air system and maybe even some additional rooms as well. Um we're going to be meeting with the capital project and facilities committee. We'll be meeting this summer. We want to get uh the rest of the timeline out to the public uh talking with the principles just today. I know there's a lot especially we're heading into what looks like another increasingly hot week uh that there's just a lot of um questions about like well when
044is this air conditioning work ever going to get done. Uh this is um very complicated work. We have really old buildings and it's it it takes a a bit of time to get this in and to get the right contractor to do it. That said, uh we're going to be meeting with the board facilities committee and the capital project team to get the rest of the air conditioning timelined out. My hope is we can get the bulk of it uh the the bulk of the rest of it done by fall of 2028. Uh so we're not leaving like a school waiting an additional year to get it. Um just some of the questions we heard from the principles that are coming from the community. Why can't we do it all at once? Um it's a
045lot of work and it's very complex work and finding a contractor to do this kind of work across four buildings. A lot of this work is done night shift and then and then during the day during the summertime is it's uh I don't want to say impossible but close to impossible. So breaking it up into two schools at a time is the way to do it. Um we also will be down the line adding more air conditioning to Roundup Middle School too. Um so with this uh when we open the we open the bids for the fields on Thursday afternoon. So once we finalize that um we will share this out and I mean I know I'm sharing it publicly now but I'll send an email out to the community and put it up on
046the website just specifically about where we are with capital project. Uh and then lastly I know these things all aren't aren't interconnected but I wanted to follow up. We had the board request that we do a screen time review uh with our Chromebook usage across all of our students. So, we used our light speeded tool, which is the tool that we monitor the usage of Chromebooks in terms of uh um I don't want to say improper usage, but if students are looking up things that are concerning like we we know that that's happening, Lightseed is the tool that helps us do that. uh and we're able to follow up with their parents and the individual individual students. Light speeded also helps us monitor how much time our Chromebooks are used during the day. Uh so
047we decided to take a wide swath of time. So we looked at a month uh this spring and we just got the data and averaged it out. And so this is across all our elementary schools in grades K1 and two. Our students used uh Chromebook 15 minutes a day. Um, in grades three, four, and five across all, uh, four of our elementary schools, uh, kids, students used a Chromebook 30 to 35 minutes a day. This is during the school day. Uh, grades 6 through 12, it kind of varied a little bit, but the range was between 50 to 70 minutes a day. Um, and just to remind folks, next year, K through two, or it might be K through three, I uh, I'll clarify that, but K through two for sure won't be assigned individual
048Chromebooks. they'll be kind of like checked out off a cart uh on a teacher's direction. So, they will not be going home at those grades. They won't be going home in grades three. Uh grades four and five, they may go home for very specific activities, but they will not be going home on a daily basis. Just to go back in time a little bit, we uh blocked access to YouTube on the Chromebooks uh early last year. where we um have been blocking any sort of gaming site and that's something that the technology team kind of looks into on a pretty daily basis or you know or every other day just because we're you know kids are finding other ways around that. Uh but because of that obviously the Chromebook usage at home is just really
049now for Google Classroom and school activities um which was the intent um at the start. if we ever found ourselves in some sort of uh god forbid pandemic type reaction where we needed you know kids at home uh with a Chromebook. We do have like the number of Chromebooks to deploy that. We just don't want to anymore be deploying individual Chromebooks to our youngest students. It just doesn't make sense um just even from an administrative lens of the work that goes into that. It doesn't make sense. uh for us to do that. So uh so and this is all um going into communication that will go to all Beacon families uh by Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Uh because the next part of this uh we want to form this year we've had just
050a teacher and administrator only group uh that's been looking at AI policy. We want to expand this both in the scope of the group but also the participants. Uh there's a couple other districts in Duchess County doing the same thing next year. Um but we want to form an educational technology committee that has teachers, parents and students. I think we saw seven or eight students that we can ask at least a couple of them to be a part of that group uh next year meet at times that work for the people uh who want to be a part of it. But we look at and discuss AI policy and also the different tools we use and possibly make recommendations uh to either administration, the board or both. uh as we work through stuff. Um Saggy
051and Vanessa Defants will be heading that committee. I'll be a part of it too. Um and if there's a lot of interest in it, we'll have like kind of a very brief kind of application type process just you know because a group can't function if it's so big. Uh but we're excited to launch that too. So uh also just to back up about the screen time part also this is something we haven't talked about all year really. Except for a hu few quick updates. The uh phone um restriction policy statewide has been just a huge success. Uh our students have really just really adapted to it and our staff has been amazing. Our administrators have been great at enforcing it. Our staff has been great at working with our students. We have had to collect
052phones from kids on a pretty frequent basis, but they get them back at the end of the day. It's not a big deal. uh all of our students kind of know that's the consequence and it's just really worked. So I think I think uh there's been so much in media around screen time uh and now the attention after a lot of states have implemented phone bands is on um is on Chromebook usage. I think this data is really interesting. Uh I think it'll be interesting to share with the community and I think uh what you'll hear me saying a lot is we want to keep using uh technology. We want to use it intentionally. We want to use it under teacher direction. Um and it's an important tool but we don't want it to be
053the main reason we're coming to school. Um so that will be what you know we're discussing moving forward. But uh we've put a number of things in place I think over the last year or two that have really helped with this too. So, I know those are all kind of like not the most beautifully interconnected updates, uh, but I wanted to get those out just because I wanted to start sharing this information with the community to later in the week. Um, and that's all I have. >> Any questions? >> That's impressive screen time data. I'm glad to know that. >> Anybody have any questions? >> No. I'm up against the Knicks game. >> Let's get to it. Nix who? Um, reviewing the agenda. There is one change. Um, there's 11.01 new agenda item was added.
054Um, you already did your super. You're done, Matt. Nothing else to say. Okay. Um, board comments. Katherine. >> Um, well, not to like mess with the game. Um, very thank you to the digital defenders. Excellent presentation and um, great superintendent update and that's all. >> Okay, thank you. Uh, Chris, >> no comments. Thank >> Leavonne. >> Yes, excellent presentation by the digital defenders. I'd also like to see them do something for the community. I think it would help the older uh, generation, >> you know, get informed about, you know, AI and whatnot. And um also thank you for the board achievement award. I was very shocked. I looked at Meredith because I thought it was going to her. I didn't know anything. >> I appreciate that. And uh thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Eric,
055>> I just wanted to just in regards to the work that the facilities committee has done with Matt and the crew. Um, I think it's important that, you know, we're a district here that, you know, we kind of prioritize certain things, but in this capital plan, we're going to increase safety. We're going to work on our HVAC and our AC units and field and theater improvements. And I think it's important that the community know that we're always kind of trying to stay ahead of the curve. Um, AC is something that, um, I know a lot of districts are struggling with, but hopefully within three years or so, we could be in a really good good shape. And I think it's a a really good thing and and I'm and I'm very proud of the community
056for um backing staying with us during that capital plan and hopefully within the next couple years all these things will come to fruition. That's all for me. >> Thank you. Um I want to welcome Caitlyn to the board. >> Um Caitlyn, do you have any comments? >> Uh no comments. I just want to say hello and I'm eager to serve and grateful to be back home in my community and where I went to high school. And just to piggyback you, the digital defenders presentation was really good. It might be something that if they did get into the community could tie into the civic seal. >> Thank you. Um, also that is a great idea. I think it would be amazing if they could do some sort of workshop with the public. That'd be super great.
057Um, I wanted to mention we had a policy committee meeting on the agenda tonight. you'll see we are removing or we're asking you to vote on removing the free and reduced meal policy. It didn't make sense and it felt not optimistic to keep it. You know, hopefully that's not a that's a conversation of the past and we can just depend on um free meals for all. Um there are seven first read policies, nine on for a second read. I would like to pull 11.09 um which is the reorg policy and delete one sentence that we forgot to delete. Um and a reminder to everyone to do your superintendent eval doesn't take long. So um moving on to the consent agenda. The use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more efficient
058use of its time by adopting a single motion to cover those relatively routine matters which are included. Any member of the board who wishes to discuss individually a particular piece of business on the consent agenda may so indicate and that item will be considered and voted on separately, thus preserving the right of all board members to be heard on any issue. Are there any items that anyone would like to pull? >> Yeah, I have one uh 12.10 J11. >> Okay. Any others? Um I'm going to pull 11.09 so we can amend that. So, can I have a motion to approve 11.01 through um Whoa. Uh 15.16 uh less 12.10 J11 and 11.09. >> So moved. >> Second by Chris. Um comments or questions? Excited to see the Beacon Teachers Association contract on the agenda. Um,
059all in favor? >> I I >> opposed. I'm also in favor. >> Well, just while you mention that, I just wanted to um maybe embarrass them, but I just wanted to thank Christina Dah and Leslie Tomkins, uh, president and vice president of the Beacon Teachers Association. Um, we spent a lot of time on the process. I think it was a good back and forth. Um, and I'm just appreciative of all the time you put in to all of that because I know it's time consuming and I think it we had a good result. So, I just want to thank you. >> Thank you. So, passes um six to zero and um can I have a motion to approve 12.10 J11? >> So moved. >> Leon, is there a second? >> Second. >> Chris, comments or
060questions? All in favor? I I opposed >> abstension passain. >> Um so passes 520 >> and then can I have a motion to approve 11.09? >> So moved. >> Leavonne. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Katherine. Um oh sorry I don't we're not approving it. Can I have a motion to amend 11.09? >> So moved. >> Um thank you. So, um, all in favor? >> I I >> Sorry, I'm rusty. >> Uh, I'm also in favor passes six to zero. Um, the line that I want to pull is Chris, you know where it is. It I I meant to mark it. >> It's right at the bottom. Floor has a comment on it. The board will also review. >> Okay. So, um I would like to delete the board will also review building level
061student attendance data as required under commissioner regulations section 104.1 and if the data shows a decline in attendance rates shall review its policy on attendance. Um that said, I would love to um create a data calendar so that we >> well our attendance policy says we should be sharing attendance data with the board. So meeting another place to do >> at reorg is just an unnatural time for us because we've just ended the school year. >> I agree. >> Um so it's just I think we would do that at the very next meeting. >> Great. >> You know in the summer. Okay. >> Like the July I think it's July 30th probably or or one of the ones in the summer. But we we want to have all that data and I agree on a
062data calendar. I think that's one of the things we could talk about at the board retreat on the July 13th. Um, so it's just it's just the reorg. It's not >> exactly not a discussion meeting either. >> I agree. Yeah, it just felt like a weird um place to have it. >> Or the attention in reorg is about committees and electing officers and the you know um and we don't tell you know we don't not televise but we don't record >> right >> you know so >> um anyway. >> Okay so um so that is the sentence I am suggesting we delete. Um are there any comments or questions aside from that? Okay. So, can our um can I have a vote on approving that amendment? >> So, moved. Um >> second. Okay. And all
063in all in favor? >> I I >> I >> um opposed. I'm also in favor passes 6 to zero. Can I have a motion to approve 11.09 as amended? So moved. Leavonne. >> Second by Katherine. Comments or questions? All in favor? I I >> I'm also in favor passes six to zero. Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Um all in favor? I I