001To the flag, United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. here. >> Here >> Matt, can you review the fire exits? >> The exits are in the back of the LGI. >> To the public, does anybody have a public comment they would like to make? Seeing none, we will move on to workshops. Uh, our first workshop tonight is JVF. So, we have our principal here. Hi everyone. >> Hello. >> All right. >> Well, good evening. Um, I am really excited to share all that we've been up to so far this year at Forestall. Um the slides tonight are aligned to our district goals and focus areas and you'll see photos and um there'll be uh moments where I
002pause just to kind of speak to what's being shown on the slide if it's a picture. And there's a lot of information on each slide. Um and I'm going to really go into detail with the items that are in bold or underlined. All right. So um first up just starting with the area of academic excellence in high quality curriculum this year um our district expanded foundations into third grade and our school is also a coaching support site where uh so far we've had three rounds of coaching with the Wilson Foundation specialist. She has been great uh coming in to work with our teams. She's met with staff over three coaching visits so far and has provided a summary and feedback after each visit. I've gotten really good feedback from the teachers. Um they enjoy working
003with her and um she also has not like limited herself just to K3. She's recently at her last coaching visit supported with our ENL teacher which was really nice um because she has some thoughts about wanting to better support our students who are receiving ENL services and how foundations resources can um help her in that effort. So that has been wonderful. Um some of the other things I really wanted to highlight here are um related to the area of uh mass uh I Ready and our MTSS. So first I just want to um highlight just the specialist roles uh specifically having uh Nadia and Amy on board. Amy really supporting in the area of literacy and um recently providing professional development for teachers in the area of science of reading and Nadia supporting the math
004workshop model. I'm going to speak more about that in the other slides. But this has all um directly related to the success that we've been seeing with our instructional support teams. um tier one focusing on best practices and really our recurring meeting schedule this year having a cycle that supports uh supports progress monitoring and team collaboration. I'm going to give a couple of examples um regarding that and highlight a few other areas um both in area of ELA and math but just overall just so you can get a snapshot of uh curriculum at the K5 level. So, first I'm going to start by letting you hear from a student. >> This is our small one. Today we have library day one at 910. My favorite part about science this year is um our school teachers.
005>> I really study because I understand it a lot and we do a lot of fun things in it. And next social and math. I like for dad. And next we have my favorite lunch and read. And then today we have a lot around. And then whenever we get from 2:30. >> So uh this is Amina. She's one of our fourth graders and I also had um got to have more conversation with her just to get a better idea of like what does your school day um mean to you and in your own words just talk to me about blank whether it's ELA math morning meeting and I highlighted on this slide just some of the things that uh stood out from our conversation and I really want to also um just take a second
006to pause here because she did make reference to um social studies and she talked about working on an essay for um a text that they read, rent party jazz, that is actually um directly from our uh HMH ELA module 3 unit. So, it wasn't like a separate social studies curriculum piece. It's uh directly from module 3. And the teachers really have a nice way of tying in um areas that would fall fall under what you focus on in social studies, learning about different people or places or um socioeconomic statuses. And she really just went on and on about this this text and she shared with me that it was cool because she learned about New Orleans. Uh she also got to do some more writing. she she shared that she learned about people and places
007and that uh their culture and this family's experience navigating a tough time and coming together through jazz to get through their difficulty. So, it was just nice to hear her reflect on um the text in a really thoughtful way and connected to both her social studies learning but the ELA experience. I also did this with um I also got some of this uh snapshot from a first grader and uh I couldn't include both videos here, but I did share some of what stood out from the conversation with one of our first graders. This is Maggie. And similarly, she walked us through her day. She shared like what the different things meant to her. And they did have something in common. They both love lunch and recess, which is great. Um, and Maggie really highlighted um
008a project that they worked on where she and ELA got to write a book and they wrote about lions. Um, you would be amazed at the amount of writing that our first graders do. It is really awesome. and she opened this book and read it to me and I got to see her writing and it's just nice to hear from them and also hear their their honest opinion about things too because when I talked to her both of them actually about dismissal one said well I go home and the other one goes school days are long >> um and so I I share that just to say we have a really rich uh curriculum there's so much that our teachers cover in a day so much that our students experience. And I think that it,
009you know, it it it goes without saying that everyone is really committed to academic excellence, committed to seeing growth and progress in our learning. And I'd like to capture that by talking a little bit more closely um about our school data. So, um, in the next few slides, I'm going to go over, um, some of our state data, some of our school data, and speak to you more about, um, projected proficiencies for this school year, as well as our areas of uh, for growth. what we have done and continue to do regarding math support uh what we're doing around interventions prior to tier three and how through our MTSS structure we are reaching students who are at level one and two. So uh first if you look at the top chart this is our proficiency
010data from the New York State grade 3 to 5 ELA. Um, and you'll see that ELA proficiency increased AC across all grade levels, which is wonderful. Um, you'll see that the math results show um, some targeted growth with variability across um, the grade levels there. Fourth grade did make some gains. Third, grades three and five slipped a little bit, but we knew going into this year that math would be an area to focus. Um it's been great to have the support of an additional full-time AIS math teacher. Um we've already have seen just the changes and how they've been able to work together as a team to continue um building on the work here. Um I want to just highlight a couple of things. And before I do so, it's it's hard for me to
011talk about data because while I know it's like very important and it helps inform the work, when I look at this, you know, I think about our students by name, right? So I I I see this and it's celebratory to see like if you think about the gain from uh fifth grade from 57.9% to 75%, right? I'm still thinking about that 25% of students. So those are students. We're not talking about hundreds of students. We're talking about a small cohort. So the students that are not reflected here who are not at level three or four are a handful of students who now with this data we can plan more intentionally for provide like targeted instruction, targeted interventions um and and and really work with more intention. So that has really been a focus. Um this
012really helped to inform what our MTSS and IST meetings look like. And I'm going to just break it down into three areas to share more about what student driven intentionality has looked like this year in practice. So I kind of broke it um into three different uh areas. The first in student engagement and culture. Just knowing uh this area of math was one that we really needed to um address. We wanted to make mass learning more visible, more engaging. And one of the things that we've done around student engagement and culture this year was we have um a math bulletin board with puzzles that rotate um throughout. We have um just kind of like excitement around trying to solve those puzzles and the kids get really excited about it. Um in grades three to five
013right now we have a fun and friendly math competition going on. Um, and then also just really encouraging like student ownership of learning and having them at the center of our conversations, but also involved in their own learning. This year we piloted um student led caregiver conferences at two different grade levels, one of our first grade classes and one of our third grade classes. We reached out to parents and just invited um them to have their kid participate in the student le um caregiver conference and the student attended played an active role in like speaking about their progress um reflecting on their goal prior to um the caregiver conference and it was nice just to have them involved in that way. One of the other things uh around just like the student engagement and culture
014and excitement around math is just having um a celebratory aspect of it as well and right now and as I mentioned like the grades three to five are doing this math Olympics. It's been really fun to just hear them talk about it in their off time and their downtime and um yes, there's a competitive element, but they're also really encouraging and um to one another and really focused on reaching reaching their goals. This middle part is where I want to spend a little bit more time and sharing what our MTSS framework within um IST has looked like specifically around our recurrent meeting cycles and how it has allowed for um progress monitoring and collaboration. So um this year we really just wanted to start the year hitting the ground running. So we met we started
015holding our meetings um the week of September 8th and that was focusing on uh setting goals for students who ended the year qualifying for AIS um through the district matrix and sitting together as a team to set their goals from the beginning of the school year. um have a set meeting cycle for when we would come back to the table what the areas of progress monitoring uh were going to be for uh tier 2 A which is uh by the teacher in the classroom and then tier 2B which is from um pullout services for AIS and it it was really helpful to to do that. I just want to give an example of a particular student. Um we had a student who qualified uh for AIS um based on the district matrix. At the beginning
016of the school year, we noticed that they were making steady progress. Um throughout our recurring IST meeting schedules, which is held every six weeks, the student had met their benchmark goal in December, which was their third IST meeting. And at that point we were able to make um a you know data informed decision and discuss it as a team to dismiss that student from tier 2B. So that student would no longer have pull out services by the AIS team. However, the classroom teacher would continue to support and progress monitor at tier 2 A. So we can just see it through that ensure that the um student was able to sustain the goal over the next six week cycle. So over the course of the following six weeks, the teacher continued to progress monitor, we came
017back together as a team and while you know the student did make some gains early on, that goal was not sustained. So in real time we were able to make a quick shift and say no, we need to come back to the table, reinstate tier 2B where they started again with AIS services and pull out support and now we're continuing to just keep a close eye on the student. And I really wanted to highlight that because I think this structure, the additional staffing, everyone's commitment um has really allowed us to just keep a closer eye on kids, ensure that kids are not slipping through the cracks. And if we see that things need to be adjusted, we can do so in real time. And if um you know, people have other ideas to bring to
018the table based on what they're seeing in the classroom, we can we can work through that. Um, I'm going to give another example a little bit later on just on how we're having conversation around student progress. While it is very ELA and math heavy, we are approaching it from a standpoint to always, you know, consider the whole child and what else might be going on. And then also to further support um our continued commitment to academic excellence and growth, professional learning and staffing. Um this year there has been targeted professional development. Um Amy has provided uh professional development for teachers aligned to the science of reading and Nadia has provided a math workshop model uh professional development for teachers. There has been really great feedback that has come in from teachers. um they both make
019themselves readily available to get into classrooms um talk with folks support u me attend a IST meeting and it's been really nice just to have you know their their support to build on the work that um you know Leslie in her prior role had you know really made a big commitment to helping to approve our district's um MTSS model in her work um with Dr. Desend O'Neal and that has really shown uh to be true this year in the ways that Amy and Nadia have been able to continue to uh move the work forward. >> I'm going to share a little bit of our um projected proficiency data, but before I do so, I just because I'm going to make reference to some I Ready terms, I just wanted to share how this all kind
020of works. So I ready um in the beginning of the year when students take their first diagnostic they I already sets a stretch growth target for each student and so their learning is personalized after their benchmark the first benchmark assessment and stretch growth is specific to each student. For students who might be below grade level it is ambitious but it's also attainable. Um it helps them to become proficient and in this case students may have larger growth benchmarks. um students who are on or above grade level stretch growth is ambit ambitious but attainable and um really it it's a growth level that helps them achieve or maintain advanced proficiency levels and one thing that I really want to highlight is while stretch growth is really hard to obtain I've kind of just looking back our
021data over the past couple of years our students have been able to make uh and meet stretch growth and so I wanted to use that to paint a better picture of what the projected proficiencies are. And I do have that um kind of side by side or one on top of the other. So you can see if um what the what the projected proficiency is if students meet their stretch growth and what it is if they don't and they just achieve typical growth. In both scenarios, I think it's um important to just highlight what is being shown here. And first I wanted to start with ELA. So at the top this is if students achieve stretch growth there's a projected proficiency of 67%. Um and this is in the area of ELA for grades three
022to five. If um students achieve typical growth this projected proficiency is 55% of students at level three and four in both situations. It's a growth from last year uh for grades three to five. Similarly for math um and this jump here is pretty big but um I I think that it's important to have both uh scenarios captured and knowing that math was an area of um that we really wanted to focus on this year. I feel really good because this stretch growth um the way it's pred predicted is based on how students are currently performing, how they did on their beginning of year data, how they're doing on their personalized learning. And so far what they're projecting is um 76 76% of our students would uh achieve a level three or four if they meet
023their stretch growth. And if they don't and they meet typical growth, then it' be 56%. again both um gains and increases compared to year. So, one of the things that I've wanted to highlight because you know the past couple of slides were very like percentage heavy number heavy um and yes those things are important when we are meeting as an instructional support team or when I'm having a conversation with a parent or a teacher or um a related service member um we are not just looking at a student as a data point or as a percentage I wanted to just paint a picture of some of the things that are um considered and take into account when we discuss uh student progress. We really, you know, uh consider if the students basic needs are being
024met, including factors that impact their learning like health, home, and food security. Um, we review attendance patterns and engagement, how they've responded to tier one instruction and behavioral practices, what their classroom uh, data shows, including grades and work samples, how they've um, performed historically in the beginning of the year, middle of the year, and end of year assessments. What AIS interventions have have been, including the frequency, duration, and progress monitoring. um input and consult from related service teams because again while a lot of the conversations can be very ELA or math heavy we have come to the table as a team for a student who may be struggling behaviorally and um that is impacting their their learning not necessarily to the point where we're seeing um you know major concern uh in the area of
025ELA and math but enough that it is coming up in discussion we want to kind of brainstorm and work with each other to, you know, review what tier one behavioral practice and support looks like and what recommendations or related service folks might have to help improve the students overall um learning experience. So, um this is an area uh related to some of our district focus around equity and culture of care. I like to refer to it as the heartwork because while All the other things that we talked about are super important and um you know uh we need to focus on and reflect on and provide targeted instruction and meet kids where they are. If students do not feel a sense of belonging, if they're not connected, we know that those other things, you know,
026don't matter, you know, come fall short. So it's really important to us to address this area and to create a sense of belonging. So some of the ways um in which we do that responsive classroom um which has been implemented for the past few years um and positivity project um both of those have um supported having shared language um responsive classroom. I would say a lot of our teachers were trained a few years back, but we've had a lot of new staff and so um I'm looking forward to exploring how we could revisit um some professional development for a lot of our new teachers um who kind of have just through resources that are shared between teachers or myself or from the district taken upon themselves to kind of learn what it all means and
027um to implement it. But I I think that you know, uh, formal professional development again from the responsive classroom would be great. Um, I want to just share something that this works. We, uh, used this year just to kind of, um, knowing that we had a lot of new teachers who had not had the formal training, we wanted to create like a resource share document. And this is just responsive classroom align management strategies. This was um compiled in collaboration between myself, our school psychologist um social worker and they are all aligned directly to the responsive classroom guidance. Um this one was um a lot of good teacher feedback around this. Just a reminder of like use of specific and intentional language. Um for an example, you know, good job on your math is easy to
028say. It's quick and everyone means well when you say things like that, but being more intentional and providing a what and a why. You tried that. Um you tried several different ways to solve that ma math problem. That kind of persistence really helps you learn. Um and so this list goes on. I hyperl it here for reference later, but um it really helps to just be um intentional in our conversations and feedback um to students and with students positivity project which uh we are in year two more like one and a halfish. Uh this year, last year we uh started with having uh students connected to our focus around vocabulary and students created trade of the week vocabulary cards aligned to the Freyer model. So I just want to show an example of that. So
029it was updated weekly and uh this was in collaboration with Miss Coleman, our library media specialist. And for an example, this was one of the traits was perseverance. And based on like the Freyer model guidance, you give like a definition, an example, a non-example, and a visual. These were some here um that our students did. This is another one on social intelligence. Again, just connecting it um to our connection on vocabulary. Here's another one. And then the students um really like they took it upon themselves to come up with the example and the non-examples with the photo. We shared these weekly u with the entire school. They were also um included in our morning meeting which was nice. And um this year we kind of just built on that um from like the schoolwide sharing
030of the trade of the week to class and community connections. Um Um there's a photo that I'll speak to just to share how that has um come into play this year, but for Veterans Day around that time, the trade of the week was bravery and our kindness club along with a couple others um helped to organize um card making and uh dropping off items to Castle Point just uh thanking veterans for their service and for their bravery. a kindness club uh focused on the trade of gratitude and they made cards for local businesses in Beacon. Went out and dropped them off and express their thanks and provided some encouragement which is really nice just to see kids have this idea of one way to connect with the local community. Um the picture on the bottom
031with the group of students is from uh last year where we with our fourth grade team did a big sister little sister group in collaboration with the Beacon High School girls basketball team. And this year um we kind of uh this came about from a conversation in an instructional support team meeting regarding a student who had been struggling behaviorally and you know someone had just said I wish you know I wish he had a mentor and while there's not like a formal mentor in program we reached out to Dr. and his team and just said like, hey, this is the situation. This is the student we really think he would benefit from connecting to someone and they didn't hesitate and we were able to get that student connected with a senior who came over weekly,
032had lunch with our kid, went to recess with them and we have really seen a complete turnaround and so um it's work like this that really helps students to you know feel connected, be a part and um it's really nice to have just a connection with Beacon High School there. Um, one of the other things that I want to highlight here is um, our resource sharing through the building equity and leadership team. In October, which is AAC awareness month, we shared resources on different ways that people communicate, how there are students, adults, people that you might see in the community that use um an augmented communication device to communicate and what that means, how everyone communicates in different ways. We shared it out with parents. We uh shared it internally. our speech pathologist helped to
033um explain more about that and did some classroom visits. And then last year in April for autism acceptance months, we collaborated with a few a few parents and did some videos on um autism acceptance and awareness, which was really um really cool and meaningful. Um honestly the feedback that came in from the parents is that it was nice to um be able to share their own experience in a way that could you know raise awareness from others and help to foster their student friendships um in the classroom on a day-to-day. One of the other things related to the equity and culture of care work is just parent and caregiver connectedness. um this year um through conversation with parents in the PTSO and then others that have um reached out just to ask questions about how
034they can connect with other parents but you know really wanted to have some focused conversation on what support looks like, what um you know their student experience looks like in inclusive spaces. We were able to collaborate and form a learning engagement um partnership focused on collaborating and um building an inclusive space where families, staff and admin administrators can engage in open dialogue, share experiences, celebrate progress and work together to support student success and enhance communication and strengthen inclusive practices to meet the needs of our students at Forestto. Um this started November Decemberish. The group has met twice so far. Um, Dr. Charwell Dennis also attended a PTSO meeting and kind of went over um the update from New York State on the special education planning which was nice and parents appreciated having that updated information.
035Um, also feature here at the bottom, um, that's just our school social worker holding some backpacks. And I just wanted to highlight, um, just how beautiful it is to be in a community with, um, so many different organizations and individuals who are willing to support. Um, we have a common ground farm backpack program to address like food access and then also IM Beacon with supplies and backpacks at the start of the school year was also um, super helpful. and some photos to kind of give some examples of um work as it extends beyond the classroom. In the top photo um top left, we have our um music teacher who during our kindergarten summer kind of welcome orientation just did like a little responsive classroom style meet and activity. um kindergarten families got to come together
036and see the space. Some of them for the first time because their kid didn't go to prek at Forestl. Some of them it was just about like connecting with um families uh that you were your kid was moving up to kindergarten with and also just making their way through the building and getting comfortable for a big transition. Um the middle picture is actually um our the ENL teacher at Forest Hill, but also the full ENL team. And I just think that sometimes um we you know don't always have an opportunity to share about what that what work looks like in this area of our student demographic. And this picture was just from our annual um multicultural family info session where um all families across all six schools come out for um learning about what the
037ENL program looks like and then also seeing their student work on display which was um this year kind of themed to um last year's connection on being bilingual is my superpower. Um and the parents also contributed with we did like a potluck style uh contributed dish and everyone came and enjoyed like food together after theformational session. Um moving to the photo on the top right. This is a post in our building from our kindness club. Take what you need, leave what you can. Again, all student driven and there's a up here just different. It could be like a smile, a a encouraging word. Um, and students or staff can walk through and grab what you need. And then also at the bottom, leave what you can, whether it's an encouraging word to someone else or
038a nice picture. Um, this is displayed in our middle hallway upstairs in Forest, which is um an area that everyone passes. Bottom left photo is just um some work from our um Luna New Year celebration last year, which we'll be doing again this year. Um the middle photo is our um some of our en environmental club and kindness club students working together to put signage around the school. Um really big on supporting student voice and their ideas and having their messaging shared throughout the school. And then in the bottom uh right photo is just some of the work from um our ENL students in a celebration from this summer of their learning and a culminating program that we held in partnership with DIA. Okay. School and community engagement. Um starting off I wanted to just
039highlight a few grants that were awarded. um our music teacher um received a grant from the community foundation of Hudson Valley on uh new or instruments. I've got to see those in use and the students really enjoy them. Field trip experiences and um our environmental club advisor in partnership with Lean to Learn uh received a garden grant and so um that was through Duchess County. Uh we're adding to the garden. And there also is going to be a garden theme mural added to the side of our building um this coming spring which is really nice. Um additionally around school community engagement the things that are listed here really just show um how we're engaging various stakeholder groups. Um the staff sun sunshine committee is a group that's just focused on um bringing some fun and
040liveless to uh staff celebratory things or even if it's like a staff breakfast and lunch. Um sometimes in partnership with the PTSO, sometimes just like completely uh building le um I spoke to the P2 positivity project community connections. Um, I also want to highlight um something that we held this summer in partnership with the PTSO. Um, Sensory Overload is a film that um, a team of um, folks from Forest learned about from one of uh, our parents and they really had the idea of trying to offer an opportunity to watch the film but also reflect on it and um, have intentional conversation around what this means for our spaces. And so we were able to screen the film this summer and uh four of our staff members helped to lead a kind of breakout session
041style evening afterwards. And you know, the the parents that attended, some of them came into it already having information about um the world around us and what um you know, what it means to be like sensory sensitive and um how that transfers to what we want our classroom and school spaces to look like. And then others didn't. So, it was a nice range of conversation. Um, we also had a few community organizations and the Allen Public Library as well come and just share some titles with um staff and with the attendees on um this area of learning. And then this year we're just building on that with um something that we're looking forward to in the spring with parents as partners. And uh additionally, just building on like our school engagement, uh this year we'll
042have our eighth annual Black History Month Gallery Walk. Um this is uh an opportunity where usually each year we do like a different theme for last year and this year we focused on connecting it to just um local trail trailblazers um starting with Beacon but then broadening to just like Duchess County, the Hudson Valley region, state of New York um and building from there but uh celebrating those who have made contributions to the betterment of their community and um the students learn about them, they create um artwork or they do uh reflective writing. And our um uh school is kind of turned into a gallery where all of this work is displayed. And at the end of the month, it's actually on February 23rd this year, I believe, at six o'clock. So, you're welcome to
043come out. Um and everyone walks through the building and we have the opportunity to see all the work that the kids did. And the kids like to lead their parents and family members um through that, which is really nice. Um some of the other things just molded here, student council, um our student groups have really been super involved, super vocal. Um they love sharing the their ideas. Um they love, you know, um bringing forward, things that they question or have um you know, thought about whether or not it's a problem that they're trying to work through and they come with solutions. Like they're learning that in this early age. And um our fifth grade group recently, I believe, reached out to you all. I know um they wanted to connect with the board and have
044you guys like come out and visit for us and talk about what it means to be a board member and share with you what it means to to them to be a fifth grade student council member. Um so it's just nice to see them, you know, be engaged in the school community in that way. This week, actually on Friday, we have our I Love JVF pep rally, which is um spearheaded by a cheer club. It's really fun. Um the cheer club gets to perform, but also the school comes together and um we do a jump rope competition aligned to healthy heart. We hold it in our gym. Everyone's there, pre-K through fifth grade. um everyone's in their JVF red and um it's just a nice way to come and have some camaraderie as a school.
045And um lastly, as it relates to our student engagement, I wanted to just highlight um our clubs and activities. We have over 20 different clubs that are offered. Um, a couple of new clubs this year. Cursive Club, uh, Connect Skateboarding, uh, Black Student Union Jr. Compass Arts, um, offered a new programming this year. They did a performing poetry, um, offering, which was really nice and students got to learn about writing poetry and seeing poetry as an art form. At the end, we kind of turned the library into a spoken word cafe. Parents came out. We had some snacks and students got to read their poetry. This is also uh the fourth year in our school podcast, The Falcon's Nest, which is really nice. The episodes are linked there. So, if you're ever just driving or
046want to listen to something, check it out. The kids are really really um serious about this. though. Um, you you walk into the library after school on podcast day and it's like one of those scenes where you know I don't know referencing like a movie here like Wolf on Wall Street where all the cubicles and the busyiness and it's loud and everyone's planning. That's what they're doing. They're really excited about um what they have to speak about and uh student le organized and their episodes are really engaging. also our fourth year in our creative strings program which is um our partnership with local violinist uh Gwen Ler. There going to be some photos here um in a minute that um I can show show you some of what the other clubs uh have done this
047year. But I also want to point out just the top left photo. Um, this year was our first year participating in the roll out uh beacon printmaking project with uh Lauren Edelman and the rollout beacon group um through a connection with South Avenue, which is really nice to come together as two schools and um see our fifth graders get really excited about the entire Beacon community uh coming out seeing their work being steamrolled. Um in the middle photo, this was when our uh kindness club students uh dropped off their cards to local businesses in Main Street. Um we have here just one of our assemblies which our kiddos love. This was a winter concert one. They got to hear the Beacon High School chorus perform and then our own chorus performed. Down here we have
048chess club, pickle ball, and then this is a a recent photo in the bottom right corner for um our students pledging for their math Olympics uh the grade three to five reflex math competition that I referenced at the bottom left. This is one of our um events held in the beginning well in the fall of the school year. It's the walk, bike, roll to school event. Our PE teacher, Miss Shock, really helped to uh believe that and it was a wonderful turnout that was in partnership with the Beacon Bicycle Coalition. At the bottom right, um that was some of the art that was dropped off to Castle Point for Veterans Day. Top right, um our student violinists in the creative strings program. Um again, year four of that program, great feedback from um teachers, from
049students, from parents, and it's nice to see some students who have like no interest or no background in violin or strings uh really be engaged in this program and at the end get to perform for their families. And then lastly, that was some of the artwork that the students worked on collaboratively last year for our Black History Month Gallery Walk, and they're doing a similar project this year. So, there's a really um a lot going on um a lot to put into one presentation, but um I tried to capture different pockets of things uh both related to academic data, um the hard work around culture of care, and then also the student, school, and community engagement part. So, I appreciate all of you and I thank you for being on this journey with us and
050the opportunity for questions if you have any. >> Thank you so much. That was great. I did want to mention that um I was really impressed with the um the student council members reaching out and they had some great sample questions and I think that's going to be a really good conversation. So, yeah, you should should let them know. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um but did anybody else have any questions? Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, next up we are going to get a presentation on our athletics unit. Good evening everybody. >> Uh before we get started, I just want to say thank you uh to the board of ed for again for uh entrusting me uh with this position. I've had a fantastic time in my first seven plus months. So
051uh thank you and as well to district and building uh and leadership uh for your support and any conversations or uh new ideas that we may have. So, I just want to, you know, start off by saying thank you. Uh, but yeah, we're going to get started. Um, I'm Michael Carfound, director of Fizzad Athletics Health and Wreck. Um, we're just going to kind of go through all the aspects of, um, our programs. Um, so first off, uh, probably the best award you can get. Um, this is probably Mr. Gometa's award, uh, but I I'll give him credit. Um, we were one of seven schools in section 9 to earn the New York State School of Excellence Award for our varsity team's academic achievement last school year. Um, so you'll see this was a a picture
052on the bottom left. Uh, we received the award. A couple other uh really big schools, well-known schools, and I believe this is the first time we've received this award. um we have received the school of excellence award but this award here to school of distinction um is a little bit higher than that. So right now that's proudly displayed in our athletics office. So definitely a really great award to have. Um right now this school year our fall 2025 scholar athlete teams from this past fall season. We had girls cross country, boys cross country, boys soccer, girls soccer, girls swimming, girls tennis, and girls volleyball. Um, and kind of spread throughout this whole presentation, I put in different pictures, tried to highlight different areas that we have in athletics. Um, tried to get the bulldog a
053little bit more involved at games. As you can see, uh, coming to our volleyball games. really cool picture on the bottom right of the fog game we were calling it for the girls soccer team. >> Um and then we had a really nice uh showing at the meet. This was two weeks ago for boys swimming down there at the bottom left. >> Some fall 2025 accomplishments. Our boys varsity soccer team were division champs uh yet again and they were also the section 9 class A finalists. So, we got to the championship game. Unfortunately, uh lost to Newalts. It was a really great game. We ended up coming back. Uh scored some really dramatic goals, but unfortunately we weren't able to win, but certainly a big accomplishment. Our girls varsity soccer team again, division champs. We
054were the class A semi-finalists. Uh we lost to Lords at home in overtime, but it was a fantastic game. Really good girls high school soccer game. Our varsity volleyball team were class A quarterfinalists. Uh we had a pretty good year. Varsity girls cross country. Uh Khloe Guessel came in second in the sectional championships. Then she went up to the state meet, that's only public schools. That was at Queensberry High School. She came in 34th. And then because of her place finish there, she was then invited to the Federation meet that was at Bodwin Park. and that's for all schools, public, private, and parochial. Um, and she came 79th out of 295 runners in her class. So, certainly a really good accomplishment. And, uh, here we are on that top picture. Uh, Chloe, Coach Frick, and
055myself. Uh, that was after her race. She actually was going to do a cool down run of four miles after. So, um, really impressive uh, that she's doing that. Um, JB girls soccer, we we do have increasing numbers in girls soccer. So, we did have a JB girls soccer team, which I believe we haven't had in about two years. So, that was really good to see. Coach Tobin stepped up and did the JB girls soccer team. And then we added a unified botchi program. Unified Botchi team. This is the first time that we had that in Beacon history. Um and that's going to lead us into oh our current winter accomplishments. Um so varsity boys track and field they were named the 2526 division 3 champions. Um and going to some of the meets at
056West Point. Really great atmosphere. There also was a lot of uh PRs um for the boys team and the girls team. Um so that was really that's really been great to see. I haven't been to West Point to see a track meet in a few years, so I've really enjoyed my time doing that. Um, varsity boys basketball, we're currently 13-1 and ranked third in the New York State Class A rankings. Um, so far they've had a really great year playing well. So, I'm really excited for them. Varsity girls basketball, um, we're currently eight and six and they were an honor, they are an honorable mention in the New York State Class A rankings. So, awesome. um job by them. Obviously, having a new coach after so many years um and a new system and new,
057you know, a new mindset, it's been a really great to see how they've been playing. Varsity wrestling came in third in their annual Bulldog tournament. That was uh we had nine schools here this year. Um so, they came in third and Caleb Smith, he's the one who was holding up two plaques in the all gray. He was named the most outstanding wrestler for the whole tournament. Varsity cheerleading, we now have varsity cheerleading at both girls and boys games. Um I really kind of wanted to to get them into girls games this year and it's kind of, you know, brought some more um positivity into the gym. Uh being that I had to submit this on Friday afternoon, we do have another accomplishment. Um, our varsity boys swimming team, the 200yard freestyle relay team, uh, meddled
058for the first time in at least five years. So, that should have been added. And also, we have five members of our team who qualified for sectionals and four of those five qualified for multiple um, events in sectionals that are going to be coming up next weekend. So, uh, really good job by that by the boys swimming team. Unified Athletics, as you'll see here on the left, a new banner in our gym. Um, the biggest banner we have, uh, and and very proud to have it. Um, we are a unified champion school, uh, as noted by the Special Olympics. We are expanding our unified athletics program. Um, I was able to work with Dr. Chadwell Dennis. We now have, uh, middle school students on our unified team. Um, so we do have more unified athletes
059than we have had. And again, as noted before, we have three seasons of unified. In the fall, we have botchi. In the winter, we have bowling, so right now. And in the spring, we have basketball. If you have not been to a unified meet, it doesn't matter what the sport. It is uh just a really awesome time. Um, we have our parents involved, we have our our student helpers involved, and uh, it's just a really good positive experience whether it's botchi, whether it's bowling at the bowling alley or what I'm excited to to also see in the spring is basketball. So, if you do have a moment, please come check out one of those one of those games. And again, new banner proudly displayed in our gym. And here on the bottom right was one
060of a picture from one of our botchi meets. You'll see we got the bulldog there too. And um yeah, we had a really great time. Again, the parents kind of they were on the field. They were playing as well. We had a few botchi lanes. We had the music playing and um we also had an announcer. So, it was a really good experience for our unified athletes. We do have a highlight video. This is made by Mr. Gersh, uh, who is an ex a retired, uh, Beacon High School teacher. And this is a compilation video of some highlights from last school year as well as this school year. Unified sports are a way for students of all different abilities um in Beacon High School to participate. get together in the sports that we have here.
061We have basketball and bowling at the moment, soon to be botchi as well. There's students of all different abilities, but it's a way for us to bring a school atmosphere together. Uh here at Be High School, we play against other schools throughout Duchess County. What it would look like is we usually have three um of our athletes and two of our partners on a bowling lane and they would compete against another school. In basketball, we would have three to four of our athletes and then one of our partners to compete against another school. This is a great way for our students in our school and our community to partner together and see that we have such a diverse learning in our building. So the number one thing for me that I was most impressed with
062uh when we started doing the the unified sports was the way in which our general education students, the partners um were able to interact with the unified athletes, our students and our our partners that we have here fantastic job of kind of making everybody feel included and being inclusive that we have just helping them out, you know, to to do whatever they want like to be there for them to help them. honor across the court just to know like to walk around the hallways and know their names and just like give them a pound. They're helpful. They engage with them. They communicate with them. Um and that's, you know, it's touching to see. It makes you kind of emotional when you do see it happen. Uh because, you know, we don't tell them what to
063do. They we just kind of give them opportunities and they react how they react and the students have done a fantastic job. I remember one time a lot of us didn't go to a bowling match and Mullins told us the next day that they got on the bus and they were like, "Where's everyone I met?" Like, "Where are our helpers at?" and all that stuff. And like in that moment, I was like, "Wow." Like we really like do make a difference in like their lives and like what they do. It gives me more friendship and like I could grow a bomb with the kids on the inside team and it just makes me feel good about myself like I'm doing something good to help others. >> We just have some really great athletes who participate
064and then like I said the helpers have been nothing but great and I think they're really enjoying themselves. I like I like how we run back and forth basketball, you know. It was just like a lot. It was really good. I love I hit the >> and I catch it with my hand. I got it flows together points to me. What happened? What happened to >> being >> so we finally got this year >> during boxing you have to throw the ball and get a little small >> and you have to take turns. >> I would say one of our better unified experiences because the kids are growing and they're getting better at actual sport. and it's outside. You have each match there's usually three teams usually which allows more interaction between all the students
065from different schools. >> It's not so much the competition but it's just a point of being involved. It it it provides a sense of >> normaly being a part of a team and it just uh enhances her whole high school experience. I think it's a good opportunity for her to develop her social skills and to attempt to be more outgoing and and make friends outside of, you know, just the uh containment of her regular classroom. Now she really wants to go out and be more around people. She was a little shy about that before, but now she kind of knows how to relate and be around other people, work with other people. >> She's good. It really It really helps her open up. It's a wonderful thing because this is something that keeps her active.
066It makes her positive. She understands how to deal with people more often and she's just a better person. It brings more more joy to me to like see to see them go out there and have fun and actually enjoy and smile and laugh and joke around and everything. And it it's just something beautiful. Like it brings so much joy to me to see them do that. I'm gonna have to definitely become uh a lifelong fan of unified sports just to be out and cheer and be a part of it. >> I enjoy it. Like it really does make me feel good and stuff and and it's not even really it's not about me anyway. That's it's all about the kids and just the smiles they have after they get like a spare or something. It's
067just amazing. And thank you so much for choosing the Unifi event. >> This is me a sign off. again. Yeah. So, thank you to Mr. Gersh for putting that together and and if you again, if you haven't been to an event, I I really would would love to invite you and have you come. It's just uh it's a low pressure, positive, happy atmosphere. Um and it's just a really great program. Mr. Mullins, right, has kids now who high school kids now coming up to him asking him if they if he they can volunteer to be a helper, right? So, you're getting more input from kids as well at the high school level who see the importance of unified athletics. So, it's been a it's been a great program and we hope to continue to build
068upon that. Uh, moving on, um, one of the things I wanted to focus on was some increased communication from the athletics department. Mr. Dr. GMA did a really good job of um using Twitter to communicate to the community. Um we through talking with Dr. Dwire and just noticing how much uh people use Instagram now, we've kind of got away from Twitter or X and gone to Instagram. So we do have a Beacon Athletics Instagram account. Uh we also have a Beacon Athletics Facebook account. Um one of the things I did want to start was doing a Beacon Athletic sideline report. It's a monthly newsletter sent to the community. It hasn't gotten as many views as I would like. Uh but I'm going to keep sending it and um hopefully uh that catches on. Um and
069then another thing was to introduce a modified only uh parent guardian athletics information night. So we do have a varsity and JV athletics information night, but I did want to just create one just for modified parents. That being that, you know, if you do have a student who's interested in participating in athletics that is in seventh grade or eighth grade, right, you as a parent might be this might be your first time going through it and there is a lot of information that you know is new and that you might have questions about. So to have just that only modified onlyformational night I found was really beneficial so that we can just focus on you know the modified program and any questions that uh those specific parents may have that you know the parents at
070the JV and varsity level who are kind of seasoned in those in those areas might not have. So you know that was uh we we've done two of them so far for fall and winter and we'll be doing that again in the springtime. Um you'll see here a picture from our student section. Uh really really great showing at this was our homecoming game and we had about we estimated about 3,000 people came to that game. We we ran out of seating and we had people lined up around the outside of the fence. So we had a really great turnout for that homecoming varsity football game. >> Pictures some some community involvement. um the girls in sports day 2025. Uh that was obviously spearheaded by Mr. Gometa and Miss Bjordi. Um they passed it on to
071myself and Miss Benson. So we were the chair people for girls in sports day of 2025. Was a really great day. That's the picture there all the way to the right. We had the most attendees yet. Um one change we did make which was a really big hit. Um we did not have the guest speaker come at lunchtime. Um, instead of having the guest speaker, we did have more involvement from the cheerleading team. Um, they were able to do hair braiding and face painting and all those good things. Uh, bracelet making. So, that was a really, really big hit. Um, until the girls who figured out that they can't swim now because they have gel and sparkles in their hair. Uh, we didn't want them to go into the pool. But, um, that was a
072really big hit. Uh, Spirit of Beacon Parade down there on the bottom left. We had good showing from a few of our fall sports teams. Beacon Athletics Hall of Fame, which we'll talk about in the next slide. Um, and then a couple things that we've also done with our teams. The girls and boys varsity basketball teams have both gone to South Avenue. The boys have as recently as last Friday to read to some elementary school classes. The boys varsity basketball team also volunteered at the Beacon Oaks Club for their Beacon Housing Authority holiday dinner. Uh, one of the players dressed up as Santa. Um, and the varsity football team really wanted to get down to Beacon Youth Football. Um, so they were down there weekly working with our student athletes. And we've actually received a
073few emails from, uh, parents from the Beacon Youth Football program who were, you know, extending their thanks for having our players and coaches down there. Um our varsity cheer team works at Forestville as well with the cheer club and we're going to be inviting them up for um one of the senior nights for basketball so they can do their performance there as well. Uh Beacon Athletics Hall of Fame induction 2025. This was at St. Rockos on January 9th. We had our largest um induction class to date. Um, so we had the 2017 2019 girls bowling team, DJ Dandia, Addie Rkosski, Kathleen Davis, Kevin Davis, Paige Basley, Selena Virtuoso, and Coach Bobby Atwell. Uh, really great night. Had a lot of people, had almost 100 people there. So, we were really excited to induct, you know,
074one team and seven individuals into the Hall of Fame. Um, so we're going to look to continue doing that program as well. our fizzed and health professional development. We sent um all of our staff fizzed and health to Westchester Community College for the New York State Aphford Southeastern Zone Conference in November. Um they had a really good time. They learned a lot. They did a lot of different activities that they have brought into the classroom. Feedback was that it was a really good experience and they hope to go back again next year. Um, I did ask each department to kind of send me a snapshot of what they're doing, what they're looking forward to, and any highlights as well from their programs. So, our Beacon High School fizzed highlights. Number one were some of the
075field trips that they are doing and plan to be doing. So, they do go kaying. Um, they are they do go hiking. They have and this year um they're going to the ropes course. So, Rambow, we had sent our sixth graders to um the ropes course down at Sunni Purchase. They're going to look to do the same thing this year with their fizzed uh students at the high school. Um last year they hosted a bad mitten tournament. They had over a hundred students sign up. So, they are going to continue to do that again this year. Um PE students of the month, that's a really big hit. Um so, they continue doing that. and the weight room. Um, they utilize the weight room really well in their PE classes. Um, two students did a civic
076seal project last year in the weight room and received funds to get new equipment. We do have the nice new squat racks in there and a couple new bars. So, it is constantly getting updated. So, and it is really good equipment as well. And that's being used by not only our students in fizzed, but also our athletes after school with coach Mullins Beacon High School health education. Our health uh teachers at both the high school and the middle school are introducing a new curriculum this year. They felt that they wanted to transition to something new. I supported them. So, I kind of wanted some feedback and to share with you um what they think is going on with it, what they like about it, and then also some examples of some um positive lessons that
077they have done. So, Miss Mills, the Beacon High School health teacher, really enjoys the new curriculum as it has an anticipated structure in the classroom. Everything's really easily accessible. Um in my observation of her, the lesson was really great. It was on um the uh labels on food labels um and trying to decipher healthy um and not healthy. So that was a really good lesson. Um on the right are two photos from the drug unit pro final project. Students were asked to make art representing what the addiction stage of drug use would look or feel like. So, it's pretty cool to see their what their interpretation is on art uh to try to figure out, you know, what it does feel like as addiction. Um, so they did have a fun drawing making art and
078she does really enjoy the the new curriculum. RMS fizzed highlights for the fall hiking swimming field trip with grades six through eight and the turkey bowl tournament. In the winter, bowling field trip for grades six through eight. In the spring they had the March Madness tournament, swimming field trip and field day at Beacon High School for all grades. And throughout the year is Friday morning inter murals and PE student of the month. So the pictures you'll see on the top left that is from Friday morning inter murals with Miss Tobin. On the top right obviously that's hiking up to the fire tower. And that bottom picture is from the Turkey Bowl tournament which is the flag football co-ed tournament held on the turf in the fall. RMS health education. Again, Miss Modika really does like
079the new curriculum as well. She finds it very informative, versatile, and challenging to meet the needs of of all students. The the lessons stood out to me because both of them provided students with the opportunity to use their personal thoughts and beliefs to complete the assignment. On the right, this is the emotion wheel. So, the emotion wheel focused on students identifying and expressing their emotions in a healthy way. The food grouping activity gave students the time to think about how the food they will eat impact their overall health. Um that was another popular lesson that she likes. She wanted to include it. This year we had the school nurse come to my class and speak about the students speak to the students about the benefits of sleep. For future initiatives, Miss Modika plans to have
080Grace Smith House come to present to classes during the relationships unit. elementary fizzed highlights. Back at the um opening day of school when I met with the fizzed staff, I really wanted the elementary PE teachers to focus on collaboration to make sure that we are across the board, all four all four elementary schools doing the same units. They don't have to be the same cookie cutter lessons, but we want to make sure that we're reaching all the students and giving them the same uh units throughout. Um and they have been doing a really good job at that. Um they also do some collaboration with field trips as well um utilizing different places in our in our community. All schools swim at Beacon High School. Um all students plan to go bowling this winter. Um all
081schools plan to go to disc golf in the spring and also a joint fifth grade field day up here at the turf. Couple pictures here. bottom left, that's Miss Jocks at Forestl um doing the traditional activity there. Uh I remember doing that in elementary school as well. Um the next picture uh Miss Rossino sent, this is something new that she introduced this year. It's called the impossible shot. Um a really a chance for one or two students at the end of each class to get a ball into the top of that small hole. That's why it's impossible. Uh she does have a few kids that have done it. Um the next picture is a picture from one of our elementary swim lessons that the school went to at high school. And the right is um
082Mr. Vanvor and Miss Green bringing their students to spins for the bowling field trip. You may know this person. So, New York State Public High School Athletic Association Student Leadership Conference um junior Khloe Franklin um was selected as one of 12 students from section 9, that's our section for New York State sports to attend this conference in Albany in April. So, we're really happy that Khloe um applied to go and was also selected. She's going to be hopefully I believe she's going um with 12 other students again and chaperones that is organized by section 9 to go up to this conference to learn about student leadership and athletics. I just wanted to to show you the conference schedule and some of the different breakout sessions that Khloe will be going to. Um I can't wait
083for her to go and then touch base with her afterwards to listen about how it all went. So, um, certainly going to be a lot of students there from across New York State, but definitely really excited to have Chloe go. >> Um, this year's athletic program participation, um, just wanted to break it down here. So, fall participation totals, girls and boys. Um, in the 2024 2024 fall season, we had 402 students participate. In this fall we had 407. So an increase of five students. That broken down on the lefth hand side. Um the girls for this fall season there were 11 less. The boys there were 16 more. Um in this current winter on the top right you'll see last year we had 284 students in the winter. This year we had 307. So an
084increase of 23. And then broken down on the bottom left, um last year our girls participation was 115. This year we're four higher and our boys are 19 higher than it was last year. Um our participation rates, so the enrollment, Beacon High School 824, Rombout 382, that's for seventh and eighth graders, not sixth graders. That equals 1,26. number of uh fall 2025 athletes 407. Um that means in the fall we had 33.7% of enrolled students. That was a.7 increase from last year and winter we had 307 students. Uh that was a 2.4% increase from the previous year. Um so it's great to see that overall more students are participating in athletics. Um just wanted to do some recommended budget um items here. So our coaching stipens an increase of 3,000. Um there is a potential
085to add a new position. It could go in a couple different directions whether if we decide to add an because our uh unified athletic program is increasing to add an additional position there. Um or the the numbers for cheerleading are also increasing. Um, so there is potential to add a JV cheerleading team. Um, so there there is areas where we might need an additional coaching statement. Um, equipment that is the big ticket item. Uh, there are a couple items that we that we do need. Um, number one is cheerleading mats. Our cheerleaders currently are practice in the Beacon High School cafeteria and uh, our modified cheerleaders practice in the Ronal cafeteria. So I we do need to give them and and get them new and updated and safe mats to participate on. Um, aquatics equipment.
086New York State is now requiring starting ledges that go in the pool. They run at about $400 a piece. Um, max $500 a piece and we have six lanes. Um, so we do need to purchase them. Um, the next one is a scores table at Beacon High School. The one we currently have is functional. Um, it is old though. It is showing some of its age. It does have the old Beacon colors on it and um it does work. So, it's not that like we would get rid of it. Rombout Middle School currently does not have a scores table for athletics. So, that one would be repurposed down at Rombout. I think it will look really nice down there instead of just a folding table. And then we would we would hopefully get a new
087scores table at the high school. And then wall pads for the wrestling room. So, the auxiliary gym at Rombout has been transformed into the wrestling room. The wrestling room used to be up at the high school, but we have moved them down to Rombout. Um, we actually got a really great donation from Pine Bush Central School District who had uh a company sent them the wrong wall pads. They were really nice to give them to us for no charge. So, we were able to do two of the four walls for no cost. So, we are looking to completely have wall pads on all the four walls for the safety of our kids. Athletic supplies. Currently, right now, we we buy t-shirts every season for our unified athletes. I really would like to get a set
088of uniforms for each season for them. Um, and school spirit supplies. Some of our signs and banners that we use outside are are getting a little bit older, so it would be nice to replace those as well. PE supplies, uh, the fizz supplies are are just getting really expensive from the companies that we use. Um, just for example, like a 12-pack of yarn balls are over $100. >> So, we're looking to just give a little bit extra to the schools to to use to buy the supplies that they need for the classroom. And for Boseies, our section 9 dues are increasing next year. Um, so we do need to increase that a little bit as well if possible. So this is kind of broken down um from what we have this year compared to um
089hopefully what we can have next year. Um so it would be an increase of 30 uh,000 from those different areas that we just explained. um the community services equipment and supplies. Those uh that money is used for the pool, for the weight room, and for supplies for the athletic trainer. Um we're not asking for anything there. Again, we we are going to be using the money to completely continue update the weight room. Um but again, that's what that line is for. I just wanted to let you know and looking ahead. Um, so this year a couple different things that we're going to be doing and continuing is the college athletic commitment ceremony. Uh, Chloe met with Dr. Dwire and I last week and she wanted to give some ideas. So, it was great to listen
090to student voice about how we can improve the college athletic commitment ceremony. Um, it's actually really impressive because she's a junior. So, even if she decides to participate in athletics in college, this really wouldn't even affect her this year. So, it was really impressive to see her come in and we're going to uh certainly take some of the things that she wants to do and incorporate them this year. Um, the varsity awards ceremony is a big night. Uh, JV ice cream party, that's for their the JV ice the JV team's awards and the capital project. Uh, that's going to be really exciting to happen this late spring and summer. Our tennis courts are getting redone. um our baseball and softball fields as well. They're going to turf which will be great. Um so we're really
091looking forward to those projects. And just some future thoughts and ideas. Um this is in no particular order, but number one, we're uh bleachers on the opposite side of the turf. Um that's for that that would be for visiting spectators currently when we host athletic events at the turf. Um, you know, we do have the one side of the bleachers. One half is for visitors, one half's for home. But when you have a night like we do have, um, at homecoming and our bigger our bigger events there, you know, we do run out of space. So, if there was a space on the opposite side like many schools have for visitors, um, that would be really great for our home fans to have their own space. Um, PE electives at the high school. I know
092that's something that Mr. Gometa as well wanted to try to incorporate and talking with Mr. Mullins um our fizzed coordinator you know he would like to start introducing that as well um inter murals at at the high school this was actually an idea brought up to Dr. Edward and myself from a student. Um they said that there's inter murals at the elementary school and there's inter murals at Romout. Can we have inter murals here? Um so I think that you know it's definitely doable and we would just have to coordinate with that updates to the Rombout gym. Um it again the Rom gym is just a little bit older. Um and we do have a lot of sporting events there. So you know perhaps some updates there. expanding health education in Rhombow and the elementary
093schools. You know, right now, bless you. Sorry. >> Right now, we have health education in eighth grade, but if we were to expand that into seventh or sixth grade, I think that'd be really great. And as well as just, you know, your basic health education in the elementary schools. Again, this is not doesn't have to be next year, but in a couple years would be would be nice to see. Um, continue to expand the weight room training. Uh, Mr. Mullins is in there every day after school. He opens a wait room to students who just want to go work out or he does welcome athletic teams. So, uh we have had the football team in there a lot. We have had the girls basketball team, boys basketball, a girls soccer teams. They're all using the
094weight room after school. So, uh we want to continue to expand that and and give the resources there since it is in in uh quite a lot of use. And again, two teams that, you know, we we are considering um one would be JV cheerleading. We did have the possibility of doing that in the fall. In the winter, we did have a little bit less cheerleaders, so we wouldn't really have the JV cheerleading team in the winter. Um, and then girls flag football. This is a a new and upcoming and expanding sport in New York State. Um, they do have a lot of uh girls varsity flag football teams in local schools, and they're also expanding it to the modified level now as well. Um so it would be a nice addition. However, again adding
095in another another sport would take away from other sports uh you know where we do have our female athletes participating in. But again it's it is something to consider. But um yeah those are my my future thoughts and ideas. Again thank you for listening and for uh again entrusting me with the department. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. And if um you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. >> Thank you so much um for this presentation. There's a lot in here um that I really appreciate. I appreciate you building on um John's work to communicate more um with parents and um as as somebody who's who needs a lot of information about this about sports because it's all kind of new to me, the athletics department um and who doesn't have social media, I am
096reading your emails that you're sending. So, please keep sending them. I'm one of those people. Um, and I also I love um the opportunity that you're giving um unified athletes and also um other student athletes come together and have this really positive experience. Like that's um that's such a great thing to see in the district. Um and uh I had something else that I was really excited about. I forgot. Oh, the expanded health education. >> I really really am glad to see that as well. Um, I think these are all positive things and I I love seeing all this reflected here. And also the community engagement. That was the other thing that you're talking about how athletes are doing um things like within the community that are not necessarily about like winning a game, but
097about sort of being good citizens. And I really I appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Um, that's it from me. Anybody else? >> Yeah, of course. Um, is there any way, I'm not saying next year, but in the coming years, where we can have transportation for students who can't get a ride home, get like a bus for after practices to take them home like after a practice. >> Yeah, I never thought that's a really great idea. Never thought about that. Um, certainly something that we can look into. I've had to coordinate with Dr. Dwire, uh, Mr. Sultish and transportation, but really great idea. Could certainly look into it. Thank you, >> Mike. Uh, do we have any electives in PE presently or No. >> Uh, presently we do not. >> We do have um, you
098know, would be the athletic training class. Obviously, it's not a Fizzette elective, but it's, you know, in the same kind of realm that Mr. Sabatel teaches. >> Um, but we currently do not. Are there any um how many schools around us have girls flag football? I know some of the larger ones do. Are there A's and DA's that have I mean I know it may not even be broken into AAA because of >> Yeah. >> limited number of teams that play, but are there teams that have the girls flag football around here? >> Uh yeah, there there are teams that have girls flag football around. Um and again, more teams have it this year than they did last year. Um which is which is great to see. Um, we do have interest here in Beacon.
099Uh, there is a girls flag football club. >> They they just play as a club. It's run by, I believe, Mr. Steltz and Miss Hadland. So, there is there is interest from our students again. But just to implement that as a varsity sport um again would take away right we this may be the first year in a couple years that we are having a varsity girls lacrosse team. Mhm. >> Um so where we have low numbers in there, you're going to take some kids away from that. Um our numbers right now are low in softball. So you would take away kids from that. You would take away probably some kids from track and field. So um in two sports, lacrosse and softball where we already have low numbers to add another sport in and take
100those kids away obviously would be would impact those programs. Um, so it's it's always great to say, hey, we have another program, we have another team, but kind of at what expense? So, we really got to try to look at it more and balance it out and see what we can do. >> But there, you know, there are local schools that have it. You know, Newberg across the bridge, I believe, Walill has it. Um, >> uh, Burke Catholic added a team. So, there are some schools larger than us and the same size that do have the team. Um, Piper, I love your idea and it's something that we've talked about before and it's always I think balancing the budget and the availability of the buses, but I think it would be interesting maybe to if
101we could survey the students and see if there are students that would be participating if they had transportation and just understand because um there's obviously, you know, I'd love to see the numbers continue to grow in terms of participation and if that's like a barrier for a large number of students. students, maybe we can prioritize it um and try to figure out a way to do it. >> Yeah, I can start a survey. >> Okay, that's >> I think that the I guess the one challenge I could see happening is that a lot of our teams just practice at so many different times. Yeah. >> Right. And so like uh it'd be great to say, hey, we have a 5:00 bus for for to transport athletes home, but then you know, boys soccer is uh
102they practice from 6:00 to 8 at night. Uh, and then, you know, in the in the winter time, the Beacon High School gym is is full until 8:30, 9:00 at night. Um, so although it's a great idea, I'm just trying to, you know, spitball some challenges that we may face. And, you know, it'd be great to get those teams that practice and end before 5:00 home if that would be the time, but then, you know, I don't I'm not sure that we can serve those those students at night. >> Yeah. No, that makes sense. But I do I do think there's a lot of teams that finish like around five and so may maybe we could like >> at least address one group to start. >> Yeah, that's great. >> I know the buses are
103really challenge. I mean we bus driver shortage all of the things. I know this. Yeah. >> But I feel like it is like probably a very big barrier to participation for a lot of kids. And so >> um it'd be great if we could at least understand like what we would be gaining if we could >> Absolutely. or even even if we started maybe at the middle school >> level or even tried to combine a middle school high school run where you did a pickup, you know, where you're combining. I know it's not the best to combine a seventh and a 10th, but you know, you might be able to do like a, you know, pickup at both schools or something just because we're so close. >> Um, >> I I I I agree with
104you. I think it's that's a great question because I do think it limits certain students from not being able to participate. >> So, >> great presentation. Thank you very much. >> Anybody else? >> No. Okay. >> All right. Thank you everybody. >> Okay. Um, so I want to do a a switcheroo in the agenda and before we go to executive session, we can hear from our um student representatives. So um Erin, you want to start? >> I just wanted to say that I liked um JB Forst uh how how they're like starting to include more kids into their system. It allows like more community building and all that stuff. and um how like doing all this can lead to a better generation of people who community um who contribute to a community especially. So yeah.
105>> Yeah, I agree. Thank you. Okay, Piper, you want to say >> um I really enjoyed Foresttol's uh presentation. I went there myself and we didn't have any clubs or extracurriculars when I went there. we have like very very few and I love to see the growth of extracurriculars and involvement in the school. >> Okay. So now can I get a motion to adjourn to executive session to review the employment history of a particular individual? Can >> can you add something to the uh to the exact thing that we're also uh meeting with our attorney to discuss we say the specific unit, right? To discuss negotiations with the Beacon Teachers Association >> and to meet with our lawyer to discuss negotiations with the Beacon Teachers Association. >> So moved. >> Moved by everyone. Second. Second
106>> comments or questions? All in favor? >> I I passes 70. We are back. >> Um Matt, your superintendent report. >> Um yeah, I'll be I'll be pretty quick. I I just want to uh talk about um just give a little flow to the next meeting or two at the board level. So, we're meeting on a different uh night than usual, Friday or Thursday, February 19th. Um we'll have our last school presentation at that meeting. Cassandra Orser will talk about Glenn and then uh Ann Marie will present the tax cap um number and we'll get into that. We're also going to get into the UPK budget. Uh we have the audit finance committee meeting the the night before, February 18th. One of the things we're talking about that night is the senior tax exemption, which
107is a option for us. So, we're going to talk about the committee level, but then bring that to the board meeting on the 19th because if if we wanted to do something about that, we would need to decide that evening um because it needs to be done by March 1st. So, uh, but we'll we'll give you some we'll give both the committee and the whole board like whatever background information uh ahead of that. Okay. >> Um, probably early next week sometime. Um, so so and then and then in March uh the two March meetings we're going to get more into we do have a facilities budget but we'll be getting into the instructional and PPS side of things. Um, one of our main focus areas for our budget preparation uh is uh addressing um scheduling
108and class offerings at Roundabout. So, uh we we do need a little time to develop that. I think um Roundabout's schedule currently is unique um as compared with a lot of other middle schools in the area. they they run a lot of their courses uh on like an every other day basis instead of like a by a quarterly type thing. So we want to when we present that at some point in March uh we we'll talk about like what the current schedule has and then what a new schedule might be able to offer in terms of more electives also greater access to AIS services for students more options um probably health class as an example like in sixth grade along with eighth grade just things like that so that's that's a huge focus area for
109us is addressing that I we feel uh we feel pretty optimistic with the even just the governor's budget proposal that we can do that. It would involve some additional staffing. Again, we'll be talking about that in March. I just want to preview that. Um and just uh quickly uh a quick shout uh I'll it's been a part of my superintendent weekly update. Um, the BHS and Rambout PTO's uh are hosting the Harlem Wizards on Friday night and I'll probably send out like kind of a specific email. I know there's flyers going home this week. I excuse me. I know they'd love to sell more tickets. Um, and you know, I have great memories of uh when my son was much younger. I think he was like in first grade. It was the first time at
110least when I was here they had it. And it's really fun for younger kids. all kids really, but I think elementary kids really enjoy it. And um so part of my advertising is going to be like you've been trapped inside your house for the last month with zero degree weather like come see the Harlem Wizards. Uh it's pretty low cost and super fun and uh you get to see a lot of our teachers and administrators minus yours truly play. So uh so that's really cool. And I I also uh just want to say briefly uh um we this wasn't part of the formal board meeting, but we had some of the students the seal of civic readiness students present um their projects to some of the board members. It was just really great to hear
111that. Uh our student adviserss to the board have really been giving us um great feedback over the course of this year. We've had student advisors to the board um for the last eight years and um before the state required uh that we have it. All that being said, like you know, capturing student voice uh having uh communicating with our students, having two-way conversations with our students is something that we really value. Last Friday, um I don't have the exact number. I think it was around 150 of our students participated in a walkout. it was communicated to some level with high school administration. I think we're really lucky to have high school administrators that uh dialogue and discuss with our students um and have conversations with them. It was great to know at least a little
112bit in advance. High school staff I think worked with the situation really well as did our security staff and all that. Um, and the students really, I think, um, I don't know the right word, handled isn't the right word, but the students really, uh, dealt with the situation well, too. And, uh, so, you know, I've been seeing in the news that, not that we started it, but that there's been some of these walkout type things in a lot of other high schools across the country and in our more specific Hudson Valley area. I think for us, our bedrock principle through this and uh is that we're just always going to be talking with our students and finding out both what's on their mind, trying to find uh various ways that they can um have their
113free speech rights and express them. Uh, and so I just, you know, I don't have anything deep to say this late at night, but I just want to, you know, the whole high school community, um, I think really, um, kind of worked through that last Friday really well and just want to acknowledge that, um, both with communication, um, on a sort of onetoone group level and also through emails and stuff like that. So, just a huge thank you to everyone uh at the high school uh for working through that last week. Thank you. That's all I have. >> Okay. Uh moving on to board comments. Uh Katherine, you want to start? >> Yeah. I have only gratitude for the um very carefully prepared and deeply informative presentations from tonight. That's it. >> Thank you, Sarah.
114>> Uh thanks and otherwise no comments. Yeah. Um, I appreciate the the presentations. I think the videos give a really nice touch. I thought the unified athletics video was especially um moving there and helped give some insight for me. Uh, I know it's late, so I don't want to talk about this necessarily right now, but I want to talk about talking about it. Um, we we brought up the size of the board a little while ago and haven't talked about it since then. I think we wanted to see how seven felt and I know that the elections are coming up again. Um, and to me, I think we should find a time to figure out if nine is the right size we want to stick with and what that means in terms of recruiting a
115diverse and well functioning board. Um, or if there's reason to shrink. I for one have found the seven person board to be really a productive size um with still a lot of diversity of viewpoints but also quite um manageable. So, I know that's a complicated thing that that would um that there are a lot of things that we would need to figure out even if we knew which direction we wanted to go, but um I'm just hoping that we can talk about that soon before it gets too late. >> Yeah. No, that's that's fair. Um that is something we could add to an agenda. What I mean when do you >> I mean next the the February 19th is is one school's presentation. The tax cap and prek presentations will not be long. We originally
116thought we had a we were going to have athletics on the 19th but uh there's a game that he needed to be at. Um so there's more time on the 19th. >> Okay. >> Um if you wanted to do it at the next one. That's all. >> Let's Yeah, I'm I'm fine with that. All right. >> Like we had two really super informative, you know, longish presentations tonight. That won't be the same thing on next Thursday. >> Do we know what the deadline is if we were to try to get it on this ballot? >> Pretty soon. >> Yeah. >> Like a matter of days or weeks. >> Isn't it 60 60 days before the election? >> I think 45. I can let you know tomorrow for sure. But I have to publish my first
117publication will be in April beginning to run paper and that will be part of the my legal notice. >> Was that was that it? >> Oh, yeah. That's it. Thank you. >> All right. >> I just want to say I was very appreciative of the presentations tonight. I felt like they contained a lot of info and I look forward to uh the continuing progress in athletics and at JB4. So >> Eric, >> yeah, thanks for the presentations. Um on the notice seven board members, I don't know if I'm going to be here on the 19th. I've got some work things next week. So, um I'll let you know. But on that note, I don't know if I can I can't make the 18th either for the uh audit. So Okay. >> But I'll let I'll
118let you know. >> Yeah. Um we did have a um uh facilities meeting tonight was very productive. Um they basically went through uh the work that has started and will continue this this summer with a lot of the focus on our secure entryways. Um uh very detailed, very thought out. Uh we'll be meeting probably in another month or two I think with an update. Um but things are progressing. Um, I know Matt's going to send something out sometime or other to the community about some of the things that are happening, but um, I really felt like, uh, the work is moving along very nicely and progressing well. >> That's it for me. >> Thank you, Meredith. Um, there are Oh, great presentations tonight. And I really liked the seal of um, civic readiness presentations. I
119think there's some great ideas. So I hope we can implement there. Um and yeah, the presentations were great and there are four policies um on for first read tonight from our last policy meeting and we're supposed to have another policy meeting before the February 19th um meeting which if we're going to do that we should probably pick some policies to >> When were we having that? >> 5:30 >> before the 5:30 at >> Oh >> Got it. Right. Um, okay. >> Let's we can connect tomorrow. Yeah. >> Okay. >> That's all for me. >> And I I I haven't nailed down potential dates for the public relations advocacy with the website person. Okay. >> So, I I will get those. >> Okay. No worries. Yeah. >> Um, okay. So, I also wanted to commend the
120students on their seal of civic readiness um presentations. with that uh plus the the walk out at the high school and um we started organizing um through uh Assembly Member Jacobson's office the student um the Beacon High School student visit to the state capital in Albany. I'm just really excited to see how um engaged our students are in being like citizens and uh their brains are way more like online to like and to being civic-minded than I was at their age and it's just really impressive to see. Um and I also wanted to plug the Harlem Wizards. I took my kids there um once and they had the best time. They love seeing their like uh their teachers and and other staff um playing basketball. They just thought it was the coolest thing ever. Um
121I did want to mention the capital conference really quickly. Uh there were some interesting things uh that came out of that. Um they did talk about the budget. um they noted that uh both of the one house budgets and those are the budgets that come from the legislature uh in response to the governor's proposed budget and they will probably have at least a 2% increase in those budgets. It's kind of just the way it goes. Um but their big point of advocacy was around changes to the formula. Like it's another year and it's kind of like this big report happened but there's really not much happening in the way of um making these changes. Um and so that's sort of a big point of advocacy that they're talking about um like district specific modeling based
122on the the um recommendations from that big report that came out and establishing a permanent foundation aid review commission to regularly re-evaluate the cost drivers, the student needs and the regional factors. Um that this needs to be like just a regular part of the budget process. um and it's missing. Another big thing that they talked about was the zero emission buses um and that's another sort of looming thing for every district and that that's another um point of advocacy. Um a couple of the other ones were civil service reform and raising a designated fund balance limit which seems to you know be a perennial um point of of advocacy every year. Um, one I don't know if you would call it a positive note, but a a relief um was that the the federal budget
123um especially around um title one and IDA like initially they had um there had been proposals um at the federal level to basically just cut everything and it ended up um they both got a $20 million increase and even though that's not a huge amount of money, it's still way way better than the where the proposal started. So, that was good to hear. Um, there were other things. If anybody's interested in any more detail, let me know and I can um email you my notes. But those were really the big takeaways in terms of when we have our Pearl meeting and if we're thinking about things that we want to um that we want to talk about around advocacy. I think those were the the big highlights. So, that is all from me. On to
124the consent agenda. The use of the consent agenda permits the board of education to make more effective use 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 any board members would like to have removed from the consent agenda? Hearing none. Can I have a motion to approve 12.01 through 16.05? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh comments or questions? >> All in favor? >> I passes 70. >> Uh can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting?
125>> So moved. >> Second by Samra. Comments or questions? >> All in favor? >> I pass 70. Grenade.