001the July 21st, 2025 meeting of the Beacon City School District Board of Education. Please stand for the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Vicki, can you call the role? >> Here. Delayed >> Here >> uh Matt, can you review the fire exits? >> Uh exits are in the back of the LGI. >> Very good. Okay, open to the public. Does anyone have a public comment they would like to make? Seeing none, we can start with our workshop. Uh tonight our workshop is about policy 5695. Uh this has been revised to align with new state law regarding internet enabled personal devices aka mostly phones. >> All right. Um
002so I uh I put together just some kind of basic slides for tonight. Uh I I'll kind of quickly go through and try to explain some of the thinking behind what we're doing. um also try to talk about the context of some of like the bigger issues at play. Um and uh Corey Dwire and Brian Sulttish are here from the high school and the middle school [cough] to [clears throat] answer a I we kind of thought it might be best that they do a lot of the question answering. I'll do the slide part and here we go. All right. So we have uh this new law was passed um at the time of the uh budget and it's uh so banning all personal internet enabled devices in schools for students. Um so just reviewing some
003of the basics here. The ban is for the entirety of the school day. The belltoell uh designation confused a lot of people. They some folks thought oh that just means like you know the classroom bell and they could have it between classes. It is from the you know first spell in the morning to the last bill. Uh covers all aspects of the school grounds. The law requires a policy to be adopted by August 1. Uh requires storage devices to be identified or devices plural. Um law requires families to have one or more ways to contact students during the day. Um not directly [clears throat] but through school staff. So we'll talk about uh some of these things uh as we work through this. So, um, one of the other things that all required was getting
004input from your community. Districts did it lots of different ways. Some created like a a small committee, um, of different stakeholders. We decided to do a survey um, and take that feedback and and then sort of designing it uh, designing a lot of details was um, me, Corey, and Brian. uh with also being back in touch with uh um our teachers association um president uh Christina Dah and also uh the board policy committee. We've had lots of conversations about this. Um so we had a lot of people fill out we had a probably highest number of students filling out a survey than I've ever had. So that was uh cool to see. Um so we had 278 uh people fill it out. is pretty much equally divided between staff, students, uh, and parents, caregivers. Um,
005I'll get a little bit deeper than what I wrote on the slides, but main takeaways. Uh, there's broad support for the new law, but there's just an incredible variance and all the details, which is kind of, you know, what life is all about. Uh, so, and that's what we're going to be, uh, figuring out. We figured out some of it. We'll be figuring out some as we go this year. uh students, the main concern from the students is they felt like they adhere to the current policy uh and they put a lot into that and so they felt and we we knew this was coming but they felt a sense of like hey you know why why is this happening like we kind of did what you asked. Um so that will be part of
006when we're explaining it um when the kids come back to school that'll be part of what we talk about that this is like a larger state initiative and a law uh that we have to follow and you know whenever we do put our phones away, it does improve focus and concentration. It does for me. Uh so, so that will be part of our communicating with them. A large number of teachers and staff filled it out too. Again, it was kind of split almost equally between those three main groups. Uh teachers were asking for just really clear uh language consistent um implementation. uh majority of the teachers also really specific about um asking for um I I hate to use the brand name but yonder pouches essentially it's kind of a proprietary thing so a large
007group of teachers asked for that um and then the parent group was the our most um kind I don't want to say split because there was a lot of variance uh but just a lot of different opinions. I hate to I never I didn't ask specifically like are you for or against this. Uh but I would say probably 30 to 40% of parents filling it out had a lot of you know serious questions about it like you know about contacting their student um feeling like um you know part of them feeling safe about school is being in touch with their child things like that. Um and then a lot of parents uh large number of parents just really in support of the whole thing. um and you know excited that this was taking place. So
008we tried to take all that information and what we tried to focus on where is where there was consensus and we thought there was consensus around creating clear procedures in schools. Uh clear consequences was something we really heard from parents and teachers and also trying to um really work on the communic communication channels between home and school. Uh so our plan is is pretty simple. Well, uh I should also say one other part of the development with this is other school districts. We don't live in a vacuum. Uh so I've had a lot of conversations with uh my superintendent colleagues not only in Duchess County but in the Hudson Valley. U we've also done some meetings both sort of Duchesswide and then also regionwide. Um, and I will say this, like what we're laying out
009here is very, very similar to almost every single other district in the region. And I'll get to that in a second. So, elementary students will stay pretty much the same as they were last year that they're if they have uh an internet enabled personal device, it has to be stored away for the entirety of the day. And, you know, cubby or backpack. Backpacks we feel are fine for elementary students because they're not carrying their backpack around. and their backpack is stored away. Um, so that will be what we're doing for elementary. That's what we have been doing for Roundout and VHS students. They'll be uh asked to store their personal internet enabled devices in their lockers at the start of the day. Um, what our huge focus is going to be on is um is
010dealing with kids who are trying to access phones during the day, whether it's going back to their locker to access it or um or in other ways too. And so um and so uh [clears throat] we have kind of a set uh list of consequences that we put into the policy. The first time a student would be asked to go to their assistant principal or in some cases the principal's office. All of our administrator offices at roundabout in the high school have uh they've already arrived. We purchased uh small cell phone lockers that are lockable uh for for each of those administrators that so a student for the first time will have to store um their um their device in one of these lockable lockers in an administrator's office for the rest of the day.
011Second time is for the rest of uh the week or five days. Third time is 10 days and so on and so forth. we do reserve the right to have a student have to do that every single day if they've hit the fifth time for the remainder of the school year. Um so you know the thing that we're really going to be trying to enforce at the beginning of of the year is a uh familiarizing kids with their lockers. That's going to take a bit of time uh especially at um at the middle school. So we're already working on plans for that. They already do that but we're going to do that you know very much right at the beginning of the school year. But then also just really focusing on um when when if
012we see a student accessing their phone um that we respond to it immediately. Um so just in terms of uh let me go back. No, I can say here u the part I didn't make a slide for this, but uh the one part that I think has been a little bit confusing, maybe that's not the right word, but uh um for the for the general public and honestly for us superintendents uh really until a few weeks ago was the funds for this. So when there was early discussions at this at the state level, a lot of the conversations amongst legislators and the governor was that we're going to pay for this. Our districts will be receiving funds to do this. Um so I do want to be clear uh to the board. We've talked about
013this a lot at our level. Um we we've we reached out to the Yander company a few times just to get like a quote, talk about our needs as a district if we decided to do that. Um a a quote from Yonder has uh not a lot of the unlocking magnets or the the proprietary magnets that they have. So to make it work, you have to add some. Um but even their base uh their base estimate for our two schools round about and the high school was uh around $72,000 and then we would probably want to add uh enough magnets to make like the end of the day doable. So, we were probably looking really more at $80,000. I share that because the money that was uh allocated to Beacon uh we got this summer
014just a couple of weeks ago is $13,000. So, it's not even anywhere in the ballpark of doing that. I it's not the only reason why uh we're doing what we're doing with storage, but it is one of the things we have to be real about the financial impact of this and the fact that >> the $13,000 covering the lockers that you bought to >> Yeah. [clears throat] Uh I mean, we're not spending $13,000 on those lockers. I think it's about six six or seven. So, we're either kind of reserving the other six or seven because there might be something we need that we discover once this goes. uh or there may be things like in the lunchrooms that we realize that we need you know games equipment you know I so we'll look at that
015to use that um the state is uh just requiring us to like keep track of how we spend it and then we have to fill out a survey at some point during the year to account for what it is. Um I you know I know the governor and the legislature have a lot of things on their mind. So I'm not going to spend a ton of time sort of bashing the amount of money. It's just a reality though around this um that it's it's it's a fraction of what um of what that would cost. I other people who are maybe more mathematically ambitious, you know, took looked at the $13 million across the state and figured out that it was going to be around that and I was maybe remaining, you know, hopeful or something
016that it was going to end up being more. Um, but we were always kind of thinking it was probably going to be around there. Um, so that is a part of all of this too. It's just a reality. when I do my superintendent report tonight, I was going to talk a little bit more about like the federal um funding freeze that's going on. And and um just briefly, I'll say in terms of this presentation that that's we have about $100,000 that's being held back uh right now for title two, three, and four. And I'm not trying to equate these two things, but we have to be really mindful about money always. But then with all of uh this uncertainty from the federal level, we have to kind of factor that in to everything we do
017too. So that's just a little bit about um about the storage device. I will also note that um the only storage device actually mentioned by name in the law itself was lockers. So, uh, you know, I think every [cough] [clears throat] every, uh, school administrator noticed that and and but it is it's it's like the one that they named in the in the law. So, I think, um, the survey of districts, I don't know which districts, but about 50 Hudson Valley districts filled out a survey and 48 of them out of the 50 are doing some version of this with student lockers. uh to that filled out the survey are doing yonder and they were already doing yonder before um before this year. Uh so communication is a part of this that we are still
018working on in terms of all the um all the details but by mid August we'll have a a really detailed contact page that'll guide families about who to contact during the day to share messages with their child. email addresses and phone numbers will be provided. Um like very specific like my child, you know, I need to pick my child up. This is who I call, you know, that just to review that with everybody. Um email addresses, phone numbers will be provided in a in a kind of a really visual way. We'll find lots of different ways to share that so parents have it kind of at their fingertips and they can get in touch with the school. We'll also obviously with staff approval, but we're students will have different times that they can use a
019school phone um to call their parents during the day. This is just an acknowledgement of uh the large amount of uh texting that happens at lunchtime between I'll speak as a middle school parent, you know, between middle school and high school kids and their parents u in terms of like what's happening at the end of the day. So, we're we've been brainstorming like other ways to notify parents about like things that get cancelled, practices, you know, those kinds of things. So, we want to talk with the folks involved a little bit more before we roll that out. But we know that's a big part of it. Uh, you know, just speaking for myself, that's I received a number of those updates from my son just about what was happening after school at lunch and I
020know I'm not the only one. So, we we do need to, especially at the middle school, find ways of replacing that um because that's not available obviously anymore. Um, and then we have the exemptions in the law. Um it allows for exemptions through uh IEPs, 504s, um what they call caregiver status, and then translation services. Um we feel at least right now translation services can be done on a Chromebook, but it was written into the law. So we do want to at least acknowledge that that was there. Um IEPs and 504s, it very well could be something that's needed and we're going to work that out for each individual child. So, we want to put that information out to families right >> [clears throat] >> uh right around August 1st, right at the beginning of
021when this policy officially gets implemented statewide just so they know who to contact. 504 is the same thing. Um several of our students have the need for health reasons to have a internet enabled personal device and we want to make sure their 504s are ready to go at the start of the year. One thing uh that we're seeing is a lot of I I can't put a number to it, but a lot of our students already have some of these things written into their 504s and IEPs. So, but we'll be working through it with everyone. Caregiver status is something according to the law that students will like apply to their principal. Uh um to to get I will say especially for like the caregiver one, it does not mean that those specific students get to
022just walk around all day with their phone and everyone else can't. um they'll still have to have their phone away. It just there may be certain times of the day that they have to access their phone. You know, it it's going to be that's going to be the difference. They're not just kind of allowed to have their phone out in front of everyone all day. Um so, uh I was going to, you know, like I said, I was going to go through the slides. I'm gonna ask Cory and Brian to come up here to just answer questions folks have. You know, I will say this too, like we still there's especially around the communication part. Uh there's details we're still trying to kind of figure out uh and master and um but we we see
023the month of August, the entire month of August being a really key communication time for us uh in terms of reminding people about this uh talking about the exemptions, how to qualify for one. Um just also uh talking about um the different ways to communicate with the school. >> Um is there anything before questions start that you all want to add? [laughter] >> Okay. Um well I'll I'll kick off the Q&A portion then. Um I know especially at the middle school a lot of students including my own don't really use their lockers. Um, and a lot of that they say is about the difficulty in getting to them and getting to and from class. Um, so I just wanted to hear a little bit about how you're going to integrate the lockers more into the
024students day so that they're more comfortable being able to leave their phones and then get to class, etc., etc. >> It's a good question. I was asking Dr. Landell for a new capital project. We're going to restructure the building now. Um, [laughter] so part part of this that can work for the middle school is we really do want middle school students to learn to use their lockers. And this obviously is going to force more of them to go at the start of every day to their locker to access it. So step one for us is teaching them to use their locker right at the start of the year, especially sixth graders, but even our seventh and eighth graders, there's a large number that haven't really learned to use a locker. So, we're gonna have to
025build in at the start of our year additional time for the students to practice opening lockers and ensure that everybody can get in and out of their locker without issues. Uh, once we do that, [clears throat] I am currently looking at revamping where the lockers are. There's no great spot to put lockers at the middle school that >> a student is going to be able to have great access all day long because the rooms are spread out throughout the building and the lockers are spread out throughout the building. So, they're always going to be at some points close to their lockers and at lots of points further away. Um, we are going to aim to align as much as we can their eighth period class with their locker so that when they're getting out at
026the end of the day, the locker is in close proximity to where they are eighth period so that there's a little less stress on them as they're trying to head to the bus area or get picked up. They get to their locker, they can get their phone. So, at the start of the day, they'll have plenty of time. We'll build that in where when they come into school, they'll have additional time uh to get to the locker. So, we don't foresee a problem prior to class. So, they'll be they'll have plenty of time to get to the locker and then get to class. And at the end of the day, we're hoping that majority of the students will have lockers near period 8. It's difficult when you have students that have like the AB day
027class period 8 because if they have fizzed on the A day and art on the B day, those are obviously going to be that's going to be a poll. Uh but those are the few cases where we have that uh things that I'm going to work on with the staff is as we build a new bell schedule for next year uh adjusting for the start of the day and the end of the day. We have the ability if we want to increase the time on our hall changes. We're not positive that we're going to do that yet. We currently do four-minute hall changes. So sixth grade has four, then seventh and eighth have four. We have the ability in our schedule currently if we wanted to push it to five minutes, which would give them
028a little more time. I'm going to speak with some of our staff about that. I mean, there's a positive and a negative. Positive is they have more time to get to their locker if they'd like to. The negative is we don't know that we really want them going to the locker constantly for the phone. >> Sure, >> we'd like them to use the locker start of the day, lunchtime, end of the day. And that would be a vast improvement from what many have are currently doing, which is just loading everything into their backpacks. >> Um, but we are going to look at possibly expanding the time on the hall changes to allow them a little more access to the lockers. >> Just this just my opinion. I think the majority of kids will have easily
029have time in the morning to go to their locker. I think if Brian is able to adjust this eighth period part, >> that will help most of the kids get to the bus on time. >> Sure. Um it's it's that sort of do they have time to go to it between classes like from a cell phone or person I'm trying to say personal device more from a personal device standpoint we don't really want them going all the time but the others yeah >> so I think I think it's really doable but it is going to be a shift [clears throat] >> for like eighth graders who who may not be used to doing it um I think the sixth graders you'll be able to right into it. >> Um, >> you know, at the start
030of the year, you have a lot of time where you can build in like special schedules where all the students have like time to go to their lock or work on opening and identify who's having issues with their lock or who's not having issues. Uh, I'm also going to ask for a lot of locker keys so that we have more locker keys throughout the building so at the end of the day if they're having an issue getting in, we can kind of just pop them open so they can get to their devices and what they need without like somebody having to key it in for them or turn the combo. >> You know, this the state has been super clear that they don't want any adjustment period. Like they don't want any easing into this
031like you we got to start, you know, hard on this on the first day. That said, like we have sixth graders, right, like who are coming from >> elementary school and they're having to navigate classes and lockers and so >> I know like the sixth grade team in general at Rambout is so good at kind of >> getting sixth graders used to all of it and the administrators are really good at this too and and so like there's you know especially with the sixth grade we're going to have to work with them and I I don't want them so stressed about [clears throat] this that they're like, you know, it creates creates some level of fear or something like we want them to feel good about going to their locker and putting it away, you
032know, like so it's going to take a little while because I one of my favorite things to go around about when they're training the sixth graders on the lockers because it's just it's just I don't know kind of cute for lack of a better word. Like it takes them a while and they have a lot of questions. So like >> for for those that age kids it's going to take a little bit for them to get used to doing this. Yeah, sure. >> I mean, on day one, they don't, you know, they don't come to school already having their locker number in their combo. So, on day one, I mean, it's obviously going to need to be in their backpack until they get a locker actually assigned to them. So, they don't have to like
033panic about coming in on day one and running to a locker. The first day of school, we still have to give them their locker, get it open, uh, and then, you know, we'll work with them on getting it in there and doing the right thing. But it will be a slight, you know, phase in at the middle school for getting into their lockers and putting the devices in them. >> Well, if you're moving eighth period, >> right? >> So, you're going to have seventh and eighth graders getting new ones, right? >> Conceivably, too. So, >> and encouraging them to use it as well. Oh, yeah. Which is not [laughter] something they've really at least my kids didn't. They were like, "No." >> So, >> we have a large number of students that they like their
034backpacks. Yes. And >> they carry everything. So, it'll be a culture shift. >> Yeah, it has. >> Okay. Um, were there any other questions about this? >> What What about field trips? >> Are they allowed to [laughter] >> um >> We didn't talk about that at policy. I No, >> I imagine the big ones. >> I mean, >> a regular school day field trip it would be No. It it's it needs to be stored away, >> you know, in in uh at roundabout, as everyone knows, seventh graders go to Boston, eighth graders go to DC, like they're going to have to have them with them just for >> a whole host of reasons. Uh in terms of like the way they communicate with kids there. Um, so for those I I'm going to say yes,
035but like just the we're going to I'm trying to think of just like a day trip or something. >> Yeah, the barton for something else. [cough] No, it's got to be stored away >> because once we start like on the bus ride to school in the morning, kids can have that's clear. Kids can have their phone, right? They haven't gotten to the storage place yet. Um but uh yeah, >> so once they get to high school or middle school, they can't backpack is not an option for their books or anything. They can no longer do that. They have to go to the locker in between every class. >> No, no, they can have their backpack. Yeah. Yeah. That's that tends to be where they're storing everything currently is in their backpack. >> We would like
036them to utilize their locker at least a little bit during the day to for sure. Backpacks are still >> Okay. [laughter] I was like, "Oh, no. >> If we ban backpacks, >> no, [laughter] >> that would be right. >> Then we're in trouble." >> I I I w I will say I just I think that I'm glad you're looking at it as an adjustment period because I think this will be I mean, people communicate by text. No one calls anyone anymore. And so just the idea that now you have to go to the office and they [clears throat] probably have to look up your parents number because you don't know it or whoever you have to call and hopefully they do have the number of the person you want to call. Um you know it's
037a it's a tricky thing and I think that >> we're just used to the convenience of it. So, I I do feel like it's there's going to have to be some um >> we I mean we've looked into some way some and we're going to continue to do this search, but um you know there's a lot of uh implementation guides out there and the uh NICET has an implementation guide that's statewide teachers association and [cough] you know they mentioned one school district in central New York that allows students to email their parents >> and and I even call the superintendent and he said, "Well, we really have to filter it and put all these things in place." Um, and when, you know, we met as a tech team about it and our tech team was
038like, "Absolutely not." Like, it's just not safe >> for our kids to have unfettered outside email access like because we can't just allow parent emails in, right? It it it'd be sort of opening up to everyone. Um, we reached out to the Remind company because Remind is a tool that like you know that they use on the DC and Boston trips and we um some teachers use it. Uh some teachers use like dojo but we were wondering is there a way that a student on a Chromebook could communicate with a parent? Um, it's funny. They must I must have been not the first person to ask because I got like this response back in like two minutes later and they they were just like it is just utterly not in compliance with Edlaw 2D, the
039student privacy law for like a third-party company to be hosting >> um this is their interpretation to be hosting private communication right between like you know >> parents and students. So, but what we're going to keep looking, you know, because like it's that that's it's you're right. It's going to be a huge change. And I I don't have like some easy solution to it. Um I do I do know, you know, I mentioned I I don't want to talk too much about my own stuff as a parent, but like I know at the middle school level like stuff just changes after school and um whether it's athletics or a club. And I think high school kids are older, it's a little bit different. But we're trying to look at some ways at the middle school
040that like a parent gets a a direct notification that like jazz van is canceled because the teacher's sick or you know, I mean, not that we have to give a reason, the jazz band is canceled or this thing is being rescheduled or whatever. Um because that is the stuff that over the years we've grown used to our kids for the most part telling us and that's not happening anymore. So, especially at the middle school level, Brian is looking at some ways to do some of those communications just so a parent knows my my kid is getting on the bus today instead of staying till 3:45 or you know that that kind of thing. Um, but I know Brian you and I think this may be more at the middle school level too. You've talked about
041like at lunchtime kids will have an opportunity as long as they're not abusing it to like go to guidance and call [clears throat] a parent. I think at the high school it's a little trickier to completely open that up, but and that's something we'd monitor, but we we want to help students through this process too, >> but they're not allowed to like take their phone to guidance to use it. It has to be a landline from the school. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, is there any plan um when you send out correspondence to the parents before this school year starts to just to remind them to provide their kids with their cell phone numbers and contact information? You plan on sending that out? >> I some some of it will come from me, but uh
042a high school and Rhonda both do a great job of communicating and I want a lot of it to come from the school level. Like >> um I mean we're also going to tell all parents to hide their kids' phone for the last week. No, I'm just [laughter] like crash course. Get them used to it. Uh so, um >> but yeah, we're gonna have like especially probably mid August, there's just going to be a stream of communication about preparing for this. >> Um >> and the caregiver status, I'm I'm assuming you'll communicate how to get like qualified with >> I mean it's it it's subjective, >> right? They didn't provide like a formula. What's that? Would it just be a parent saying my son or daughter, my child is a caregiver for my other child
043or or >> I mean we would want to vet it and talk to the parent at the high school level. Very well. Maybe the high school student writing Mr. Dwire. I mean we heard about that at one of our board meetings >> uh last year around this time. You know, one of our student advisors did a lot of um taking care of our younger siblings. And so I can see at the high school level is students writing Mr. Dwer and he has to you know he and his team and we obviously will help sift through that and the one thing that was really clear talking with our attorneys talking with other districts kind of looking at different guidance is also we have to be clear this doesn't like I said it doesn't mean you get
044to wear your beats in the hallway and you know what I mean and have your phone out the whole time and no one else does. It just means that you'll be able to access it a little bit more easily than than someone else. That's all. >> And will there be any sort of um like survey of the students just to that maybe we could look back on or do another survey at the end of the year to just kind of see how their feelings about it have changed. I mean, I'd be curious to know like I I I doubt anyone's super excited about it right now, but maybe they do see, you know, you read all these really like incredible stories on the internet how it changed everything to not have fun. >> Well, I
045you know, I we didn't directly survey it, but we have a ton of anecdotal data from this past year where students were really talking about like, wow, like concertedly putting away for each class really >> big difference. uh it wasn't just a small number, it was like a wide kind of swath of kids. I think that sort of led to their I don't want to sound dramatic, but their sense of betrayal, for lack of a better word, they were like, "We really put a lot into this." And then it got sort of the rug got pulled out from us. But that said, uh I mean, we've been batting around just doing our own surveying of students in general. >> Yeah. >> Uh this year, like a couple times, and so I think we would just
046add that. >> I think that would be great. I mean, I I had to give my phone to my husband the other day because he lost his and God what a great day it was. I have to say like I just really felt a little calmer and you know luckily no emergencies happened and I didn't need it but it was it is an interesting exercise to not have access to it. So um some of the you know some of the other communication we'll do that you know there is just in general not this isn't just a beacon thing kind of an uncertainty about uh if there's like a you know something happening at the school like a lockdown or something like that. And so, you know, we're just going to have to reassure folks like
047we'll always be communicating through that through our communication, you know, uh our communication um device or uh tool that we have that, you know, texts and calls and emails parents. Um you know, and then just like uh couple other suggestions that I've gotten just recently like we'll do an FAQ and build that over August. And a a parent wrote after I sent out that email, a parent just wrote like, "Will you make adjustments to this? Are you gonna say, "Of course we will. We, you know, we'll come back and talk about it at the board level. We tried to write the policy in a way that we might not have to completely redo the policy to make an adjustment. Um, you know, [clears throat] but we're we're probably going to have to do that. I
048want to figure out some way that Corey is gonna [clears throat] Corey, what are your final thoughts on the >> He's just anything to say?" Yeah, I mean I think it's um you know it's tricky. I think to the point of like we really tried to invest the students last year in the classroom policy and um I stood in front of them and I said like hey like if you do this right then we don't have to worry about anything stricter and then the law comes. I mean kids are generally pretty good at understanding that our hands are tied. It is what it is. Every school has to do this. So we just have to kind of get on board. But um and they were great this year. like if we caught them with the
049phone in class and they went to their AP office, we didn't have like any resistance from students about turning the phone in. Um so we're not necessarily anticipating any more of that. Like if we say like you got to take the L on this one, we saw you with your phone. Like we're taking the phone. Um we don't necessarily expect there to be like a lot of problem from that. Um but the no hallways and lunchroom is a big adjustment for us. So a lot of messaging we have to do with those students from that. I you know Brian and I were talking about this earlier. I just to see how it was going this year. I spent more time in the middle school lunch cafeteria than high school. Um but it was fascinating for
050me to see like the low number of kids at the middle school who had their device out. And it's like of course middle school kids like they want to talk at lunch, right? Like they've been focused on their classes all morning. And so I do think like just it's like an age thing a little bit like the transition is going to be I think the middle school transition is probably going to be smoother. It's just my prediction. Uh I think the high just based on the survey it was clear that the high school students put it around like filled this thing out uh because it was a lot probably like 60 or so high school kids filled it out and and so they you know something they feel really strongly about. So, it's just something
051that it probably just is going to hit different with them than it will with middle school kids. >> Um, anybody else? >> Well, you referenced Beats and you said hit different, so you are down with the kids. [laughter] >> Oh, boy. >> Um, I mean, my Well, I you know, I had dinner with the fan before tonight. [clears throat] >> Are you doing the phone policy? [laughter] Like, are you sure about this? Well, >> yeah. And I want to thank you guys and also the policy committee and and the board and the community for finding a way through a law that I think has good intentions, but for sure difficult implementation. I think we've gotten so into like the implementation side and the shift for kids like as everyone's been saying like every single person
052has that same story like oh when my phone was away for you know the whole day or five hours or whatever I just got so much more done or I was so so much more focused like that's going to happen here and we're really excited about that >> for sure. Okay, well that's it then. >> Thanks for coming. >> Last chance. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. >> All right. Um, moving on. Uh, reviewing the agenda. We want to make a couple of quick changes and move a couple of things ahead of the executive session because the folks are here tonight. Um, so, uh, we are going to, um, vote on HH1 and E1. So, can I get a motion for HH1 to appoint Marissa Benson as probationary assistant principal at Ron Belout
053Middle School? >> So, moved. >> Second by Meredith. Uh, comments or questions? All in favor? >> I Okay, passes 90. Congratulations. I think we should clap. >> [applause] >> I just I did want to say um as uh as a parent of uh kids who have been in your classroom and who love you, I'm very excited about this. So, congratulations. [laughter] >> Um okay. And next, uh E1. Um can I get a motion to appoint Grace Rino as probationary physical education teacher at South Avenue Elementary? >> So moved. >> Okay. Second. Second by Meredith. All uh comments or questions? All in favor? I >> I passes 90 and that's it. Congratulations. [applause] >> All right. Um, can I get a motion? See, turning all this around messed me up. Uh, can I get a motion
054to move to executive session to review the employment history of a particular individual? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Comments or questions? All in favor? >> I. I passes 90. The board will return in about 45 minutes. >> Um Matt, do you want to do your superintendent report? >> Sure. I have a just some kind of more business updates and then an advocacy thing um at the end. just uh I just wanted to uh start uh by saying um I'm interested whether we do this kind of outside the meeting, whatever is more effective in getting uh committees going um potentially in August if possible. So first one I want to mention is um August 11th I want to check with facilities committee folks if they're available at 6:00 before the meeting. The thinking being at
055the August 11th meeting, the facilities team would present like the whole timeline for the capital project to, you know, to the entire board >> at but they want to kind of do a run through with the committee at six o'clock. So, um, does that work for facilities? >> I was actually going to ask because I couldn't remember if they were doing something or not. It works for me. I don't >> It works for me. >> That's great. So, >> um, six. >> So, yeah. And so then um and again you know trying to do all this in this meeting does not but I just um I think it would make sense for like the a we have a new committee this year the HR committee >> and I think um I think it would be
056good to have an initial meeting where it's just uh me and you know members of my team like kind of like talking about how we want that committee to work before we start having uh principles come in and you know department heads and stuff like that to talk about people. So if that you know whatever makes sense for people uh we want to get go get moving with the finance audit. So I'll reach out to the folks on that committee like I think it'd be great to start before the school year starts there. And then lastly with uh PRL um obvious you know there's always something with advocacy which I'm going to get to in a second. Um, so I just wanted to put that out there like most of our, you know, when I
057say hour, I'm kind of talking about me and members of my team. We're mostly done with vacations like by the end of July. And um, and so it's not perfect, but we'd love to get moving on committees in August. So we're starting before the school year starts, even if even if a lot of those are just kind of like setting a map for the year, you know, that kind of thing. Um just in terms of the upcoming board meetings um August as I mentioned August 11th we want our whole facilities team uh to present on like uh you know the entire timeline for the for the this new capital project that we're entering into the 2024 one. So, um, and Anmarie, um, are [snorts] we able to do a food, um, a nutrition update that
058night, too? >> I believe so. She'll be tonight. I told him. >> Okay. >> We may also have a presentation from, uh, Anthony, our new food service director. um just so you a you can kind of get to know him but also like he can do a presentation about um his department and how you know we're doing something different with Boseies this year or this past year we were in this upcoming year. Um so that's for sure the facilities updates happening. Salvi, our architect, uh construction manager, Perry Sheldon, our uh consultant, our capital project consultant, Jesse, like they'll do a whole presentation, uh and really get into the timeline part and then we'll take that information and put it out to the public so the public kind of sees the whole timeline. Um, I mentioned
059this in an update to the community, but one thing that we're trying to we're trying to get done this summer, like it's it's it's hard, but uh, you know, we did two playground upgrades, Forestal and, uh, South Avenue. We, uh, then kind of took the same amount of money. We had a little bit of money left over in this 2021 capital project and so we're trying to get it done this summer with Glenn and Sergeant kind of similar budgets. Uh principles have talked with their staff about new pieces uh new playground pieces there. And then we had a bit more left to try to do something at roundabout in terms of play equipment on the part of the blacktop area that um where the gaga pit is to add a whole bunch of like play
060equipment back there. Um this is a super busy time uh for companies that do this. So we're running into a little bit of you know issues trying to nail them down. Uh but we'd love to try to get this done this summer or this fall. um the August 25th board meeting. Um so we want to give as much information as possible to the board about a week ahead of time. So by August 18th, but we want to sort of at least start presenting like the draft of the strategic plan goals um that we would then like at one of those September meetings ask the board to adopt. Uh so just to briefly refresh your memory, we are kind of trying to focus a plan around four key areas. Academic excellence, culture of care, communication, community
061outreach, and then the last one being fiscal, facilities, HR. And so we're trying what we're trying to do here is just have really uh easy to read a lot of bullet points like so the public members of the public can digest it easily and not overwhelmed with like 30page documents but like here's our plan for reading, >> here's our plan for special education services, here's our plan for math instruction, like here's our communication plan. Uh here's our plan for like the positivity project. Here's our HR plan for the year. I'm talking about like one page there may be some background materials but like one-page overviews um with uh bullet points of major actions and then how we're measuring success on there. Um my other uh goal with this is that we do um three updates
062a year to the board. Obviously then it would be to the community um regarding where we are with this. So, kind of like a late fall, early winter update, a um you know, early spring kind of area. Haven't quite worked out the timeline and then end of year summer kind of update uh that we're looking at different metrics. So, what we share with you in the on the 18th um be prior to that board meeting um is something that we want to refine and build. So, like if there's ideas, things we need to add, take away, whatever, like um I want that conversation to start on the 25th and then go into probably one of those September meetings. And I think that hopefully my goal is that answers the question of how do board goals
063fit in because I want to merge the two. >> Um so, we'll be working in the next few weeks on putting um these these short kind of plan overviews together. Um, we're also working with our communications team to make it be something that's really visually appealing and something that's easy for folks to digest. We don't want it to be overwhelming, but we want it every year to provide like a clear road map to what our different focus areas are and kind of our roadmap each year, too. Um, so we're excited about that. And then lastly, I just wanted to um [clears throat] update you all just in terms of um the I forget the the national amount of money. It's in the billions, but the federal government has been withholding uh funds to public school
064districts. And so, you know, I'm starting to get questions about how does that impact Beacon? Um there was a little part of it released, but that's not money that Beacon accesses. That's that's money that we don't really qualify for. It's like after school programming. So, where it uh where it impacts us, I'll just quickly walk through this. Uh the first one is title two funding. That's uh $61,000 and 880 61,887. That's mostly professional development. So, that's science of reading, our science 21 program, responsive classroom, just to name a few. Um so we pay for a lot of the PD we do through um title 2. Title three is a much smaller amount. It's uh 6,900. That's for uh ENL services that we get through Boseies. What are those ENL services that Boseies provides? >> Okay.
065And then title four are contractual services. So, we have contracts with different uh providers like the Positivity Project. We have contracts with um I forget the company, but the we're doing those camps uh for ninth graders and kids wanting to access students wanting to access like uh higher level classes at the high school. Those programs are happening in August. Um so, I forgot to write down that amount. I think that amount >> is how [snorts] much? >> 32,000. So it's roughly around $100,000. >> So obviously some of these things are like in motion, right? Uh you know, we have people RSVPing at the high school for for those, you know, those camps uh for students. Um you know, I know there's been advocacy at the state level. Uh I know there was an event in
066Kingston on Friday. Um, I wasn't able to attend, but some superintendents from the area were able to go. Uh, so [clears throat] I just wanted to at least start by letting you know what it is, how much it is, and what it impacts. We can get into greater detail as time goes on. Um, I don't obviously I I have as much of a crystal ball as anyone else. I'm not really sure what the thinking is behind uh all of this, but um that's one aspect of what we're thinking. Um, just lastly, I know I've been talking a lot tonight, but uh I kind of mentioned it with the phone thing. We are, you know, um, we have concerns. I think every district saying the same thing with this, uh, at least the instability around funding
067from the federal level. And even it could be something like this, title two, title three, and title four. Or it could be something about the way Medicaid impacts um you know Medicaid cuts to states and how that impacts state funding and and us trying I I already had a conversation with Emory this morning about preparing for the governor to say off the bat next spring. Um hey I gave everyone more foundation aid last year. You're not getting it this year. Right? like I think it's just best for us to pre-preparing for these kinds of things with with all the uh changes from uh the White House and the federal government. So, not trying to be gloom and doom, but it's just something that we're trying to have in our thinking now um in terms of
068you know uh our operations this year, but also thinking about planning for the 26 27 year too. Um, but you know this funding we have a how what was our budget that we voted on this year? 80 85 million. So $100,000, right? It's it's a small portion of 85 million. However, like we've relied on these funds for years to do these things and um when we have to replace this with our own funding, then you know we're having to make decisions um about things that we haven't had to make decisions about before, right? in terms of PD and PD typically is one of the lesser funded things unfortunately in most districts including ours. So losing that federal funding has an impact. So I just wanted to start bringing awareness. I've had some media questions about
069it. Um you know in terms of advocacy I'm not really sure what the advocacy is for something like this but I think awareness is important. So, if it's something that the board was interested in writing a letter to the public about, I know when the board writes a letter about something regarding this, the public really pays attention when we send it out. So, just throwing out some ideas. I can certainly update the community just in regards to what it means to us right now. Um, but it's just kind of like a >> suggestion more than anything. I know when when I send like board advocacy letters out, people really pay attention. So that's all >> I would love if the board would be willing to write a letter to Sure. >> Linda McMahon about, you
070know, how it's impacting us. I think that would be really important and if we could share that with the public, they can >> write her also. So maybe that's our first problem. >> I think that's a good idea. And I think that is the first pro. Do we want to set that meeting since everybody's here? [clears throat] Um, you're gone the week of the 10th. >> Mhm. >> I'm gone the I'm around next week. What week is >> um I am around uh Monday through Thursday. Who uh who else is on? >> Chris, are you on? >> Which committee is this? >> Prawl. >> I Let me look back at the >> Vicki. Do you remember? >> I'm looking on the website. >> Yeah, same. >> It actually wasn't updated on the website. I noticed.
071>> Uh it's on the It's in the agenda. >> Oh, it is. >> Start bringing up. >> Okay. So it is it's just uh Seamra uh Katherine you and me. So yeah, congratulations. You're on. [laughter] [sighs] >> Um I think you had you had requested Well, >> anyway, >> looks like she's having some regret. >> She's I know. She's like, "Wait a minute. What did I do?" [cough] Um, so yes. So, uh, that first week of August, uh, would Monday work for people, Monday evening? >> I could do it at six. I mean, this is also something we could probably do over email if because I think it's pretty straightforward. Just >> Yeah, the 4th. >> I'm out of time. >> Uh, so do you Okay. Do you want to rather than do it this
072way? just do it over email instead of trying to schedule a meeting. >> Well, if I mean I can do it Monday at 6 if >> Can you do six o'clock or is that too early? The 28th. >> Monday the 28th. I see. Yes, I can do Monday the 28th at 6. That is fine. >> I'm going to be away, but if you want to just focus on the letter. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> that's fine. >> Okay. >> All right. All right, we are here. >> Do you have [clears throat] any insight into the >> potential impacts of Medicaid cuts like any speculative numbers about what because I think that might the sooner we start that conversation the better and that would be a letter to our Congress people especially because I'm I don't
073a lot of the debate around that didn't seem to be focusing on how it would impact public schools. Yeah, not at all. >> So, I think that's another layer that's worth getting some attention and then share it with the media so it gets covered. >> Yeah, >> that's a good idea. >> Well, let's maybe talk this week because if we could get if there's if we could do both, that would be worthwhile. So, if we can't get both information, maybe we just work on this letter over email and then >> Do you have data, Heather, that you could share like projections >> consultants about it? They have no additional information yet for us at this point. We've not heard anything that's directed toward the Medicaid that we're receiving. But we're always on the you know
074spoke with them today. >> So when would when would we like >> when would we know like >> I don't think I know. I don't think anybody knows. >> Yeah. >> I think that's the concern is no one is really sure. >> Right. There's communication. >> We can back bill 15 months and that's a lot. We're just not sure. So we've got money that's been posted that we've not received yet. >> Well, Medicaid wasn't part of the recisions package that was passed, but it was and the cuts take effect two years from now. >> But I think the letter would be about percentage of students benefiting from Medicaid and then um the difficulty in planning forward budgets and things like that. we can start talking about. >> So, let's just do it Monday and then
075we can kind of map it out. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> All right. Um, was there anything else? >> No. >> Okay, [clears throat] great. Um, moving on to board of education comments. Uh, Katherine, we'll start with you. >> None. >> Okay. Samra, >> no comment. >> Alrighty. Kristen, >> no comment. >> Okay. Uh Chris, >> um it's good to be back. I just want to say briefly that I'm excited there's an AI policy on the consent agenda. I think we've um needed that. Uh and so I'm happy that we put some the policy committee thank you for putting some thought into um what that what that could look like. So I was excited to see that and just wanted to call attention to it. Um but other than that, no comment. Thank you. >>
076Great. Thanks. Um Leavonne, no comment. All righty, Eric. >> No comment. >> Anthony, >> nothing. >> Eric, >> um, so we did have this policy committee meeting. We worked on the AI policy. Uh, one thing that came out of that conversation is just that this policy is very narrow and it's really talking about um, you know, a certain application of AI and how how to use it. Um but we but it it kind of sparked a larger conversation about like just how are we teaching and the the culture of education and how this will impact that and we all agreed that um we really need to push that conversation forward. So we'll we'll be talking more about that for sure. Um >> and just quickly about the policy, we have two other policies that we
077want to bring on August 11th for a first read. one is a conflict of interest policy that speaks to tutoring and coaching and the other is a advertising in schools policy. Um, and then there we have some I I think are pretty minor changes to our code of conduct like it's just changing kind of like the verbiage of phones essentially. Um, but any change to the code of conduct obviously has to be approved by the board but we have to do a public hearing for that as well. So, we'll advertise that for August 11th. So, we So, the whole all the policies we spoke about aren't all on tonight. We needed to for the conflict of interest in the advertising in schools, we needed to do just a little bit more legal review on before
078they go to the board, but those are coming too and will be super helpful for us. >> Okay. Yeah. And then we have the cell phone policy. Um, and that's it. >> All right. Great. I have no comments. Um, so we will move on uh to approving Meredith Huer um as advocacy liaison um with the New York State Schoolboard Association. Basically, this just means that Meredith will represent the board um when NISBA has its annual business meeting to determine what it legislative advocacy priorities will be. And so everybody in the state um submits their resolutions and then our board representative votes on those resolutions. Um, and then it sort of drives their advocacy agenda for the year. Uh, so this is a roll call vote. So Vicki, take it away. >> Oh, I guess I
079should do that, too. It's summer. Um, so can I get So can I get a motion to approve? Uh, this is >> 9.0 appointment. >> 9.01. >> So moved. >> Second. Second >> comments or questions? >> All right, >> shutter. >> Yes, >> Mr. White. >> Have a deep thought. Yes. [laughter] >> Just one drug assault. >> Yes. >> I can vote on this. I guess >> she trusts herself. Abstain. >> Passes 90. >> Big big vote. [laughter] >> All right. On to the consent agenda. The use of the consent agenda permits [cough] 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
080the 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? >> I have one. >> Sure. >> Uh 12.21 U winter one UW1. All right. anymore. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve 11.01 through 16.04 minus 12.21 UW1. >> I guess it would also be the last the >> Oh, right. >> HH1 and E1. Yes. [cough] >> So move. >> Second by Meredith. Comments or questions? >> All in favor? I >> I passes 90. Uh can I have a motion to approve uh 12.21 UW1? >> So moved. >> Second by Meredith. Comments or questions? All in favor? >>
081I abstaining. >> Abstain. >> Passes. 81. Okay. >> Oh, so 800. I always forget. It's not a it's not a negative. Um can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So moved. Second. >> I'm fired tonight. >> Comments or questions? All in favor? >> 90. Good night.