001um welcome to the October 2nd 2023 regular meeting of the Board of Education of the beacon City School District please stand for the pledge pledge aliance to United States America to the for it stands na indivisible Vicky roll call please pres excuse EXC me here here here here here thank you mat can you review the fire exits please yes exits are in the back of the LGI thank you um first up is open to the public is there anyone in the audience that would like to make a public comment come on down hello hi so hi everyone we are the students for gender equality Club Representatives here at Beacon high school and we are here aiming to address gender related issues and today we're here to Advocate to put condoms in accessible places like the
002nurse's office at the school so here's some just like some stats and stuff according to the New York Department of Health 50% of all people diagnosed with SDI are younger than 26 years old and the largest age group of people diagnosed with chyia between the ages of 16 to 20 in Dess County a survey of 3,376 pregnant people 15% were teenagers in an Orange County that number was 26% We Believe allowing students to access contraceptives would encourage teenagers to consider safe options and would be a better way would be a better dialogue to discuss sexual health and safety it's up to us as a community to protect our students students and make sure they are making decisions that help keep them safe uh this past Spirit of Beacon day yesterday we went down and we
003had a petion set up that so we were able to get about 75 signatures of community members that are all very adamant with emails about making this happen um so we are just want to encourage our students to have safe sex so that's it thank you thank you so much we appreciate you coming we are aware of your um interest in this issue um I can say personally I feel very strongly about this as well I know that um Matt I don't know if you want to speak at all but uh yeah Mr DWI and I have spoken a little bit I haven't had a ton of time to do a lot of research into it but um I think there's like a a state application like a state program that you can apply to
004as a school district um that makes um condoms uh accessible in the nurses office I think one of the things is like parents have the opt out ability or something there's I need to learn a little bit more about it but uh Mr DWI and I have been speaking about it so we can update I mean we certainly would have to run it through the board I think too and you know so we'll look into all of that um and I'm happy to update you through Mr DWI or your club or whatever but I appreciate um what you shared tonight it's important yeah thank you and I'm going to reach out to our New York State School boards Association and see if they have information for us as well much thank you is there anyone
005else that would like to make a public comment I just want to talk about the human Christmas tree coming up I want to elaborate on a little bit more um for those of you who don't know me I don't know who doesn't I'm Dennis pavlock I've been in this community community for 59 years um and I have an event it was in my mind for the last 5 to seven years prior to this year and you know I wanted to do it and I never did it and the person told me to continue with it and every time he kept bringing it to my attention and uh I said okay I'll do it so I'm doing it this year um it's November 5th is the date we're all going to Gather By The Pavilion across
006from Ron's Ice Cream we're going to meet there as a meeting spot I'm gonna say some opening remarks um like I said this was emailed to Vasser college and Maris College in case you didn't know about Maris College Maris colleges Maris College has 6,800 stud students so we're hoping for a big turnout from Maris College Vasser college and other areas than the school district here where I gave the paperwork to your clerk so we can get that out to the schools and get this it's I'm already trending on Facebook the rain date for this event is November 12th the following Sunday same place meeting place the Pavilion across from Ron's Ice Cream we'll meet there I'll say some opening remarks to my committee and myself and then we'll process over to the hill and we'll
007um start the start uh forming a tree if we have more than enough people to form a tree what we'll do a star of David on one side tree in the middle and another star on the other side if we have more people we we we will utilize you bring a group tell your friends tell your family anybody and everyone bring your bring everybody um it was put on the paperwork uh bring an ugly sweater you don't have to do any of that bring yourself bring if it's cool bring it dress for the weather what about a light do you need to yeah no no a flashlight or a lantern okay and one of my friends from real the real estate company is going to bring the sane red and green sane to put on
008your flashlight or your Lantern okay we'll have the lights of the tree so um so that's what that's what's going to happen so no Open Flame uh is allowed um so in case anybody wanted to S try try that try that for that that's not going to happen um so I'm looking for a first year annual turnout for this we have a two photographers coming one with a drone going to do a drone picture of it for us and then we have another one Peter mcgivney from the library the reference librarian is going to help us out with the photography work on that as well and we'll get this uh put on out um I want to make sure this a tree it's the it's called the tree glows and Beacon but I want to
009be the beacon of the United States not Dutchess not only Duchess County or the city of Duchess County and City big but I want to be a light for the world so on that note hopefully please show up for this event thank you for your time thank you Dennis is there anyone else that would like to make a public comment okay seeing none I'm going to move on to our workshops we have two workshops tonight the first we're going to hear from um one of our assistant principles at the high school Candace Edwards Allen uh about our Beacon lead Scholars Program so just to introduce this uh we're working on a schedule where our principles come and speak about everything happening in their school but I want to on a regular basis highlight um steps
010we're taking to get the Strategic plan moving forward so um part of the Str strategic plan is uh the focus area of diversity and staff and opportunities and part of that is uh doing different strategies to try to grow our own staff members and teachers so uh probably we'll have the Su of you ready for the board to to accept or vote on and accept at the next board meeting but uh I ask cice to come just do a brief overview and so you can ask questions before you uh have it on the agenda um and let you take it away hi everyone um so thank you for inviting me to present I'm really excited about this opportunity um and the potential for our students moving forward um so while I Was preparing for this
011I really was thinking about um you know my first teachers my mom and my grandmother and how they kind of always made sure that I was surrounded by um mirror images of myself um stories um of people that represented me um and this became my framework for kind of thinking about some of the goals for this um partnership so what is Beacon lead Scholars Beacon Le Scholars is an initiative of the education department at Mar's College to identify nurture recruit and retrain youth with diverse backgrounds and or form under rep represented groups which may include but are not limited to students with low so socioeconomic status students that would be first generation college students and minority students to the field of Education um so right now to my knowledge that um this is like the
012Crux of the the partnership and right now I think that that's something that's kind of lacking in in our program um so historically since I've been here um this is kind of how the program has run it consists of once a month meetings with students um Dr Fields comes in she's the assistant professor of education at Maris College she works with our high school students um to kind of go over create lesson plans um and think about what Fields they would be interested in in the College of Education so um just to my knowledge there has not really been an active um recruitment of students who meet that initial criteria for Maris College and here are some of the goals uh moving forward for the program um we'd like to increase student interest in participation
013in the program um specifically recruiting students that fit that demographic group that outlined it earlier increase student workshops and programs and opportunities related to the field of Education um we'd like to have one family event a semester um creating mentoring opportunities for students and then in the 202 24 25 school year we'd like to have some courses offered in the college bed um and then I did outline the Strategic plan and the connections to the Strategic plan for you guys if you want to see that any questions anybody have any questions I think it's great yeah yeah I think it's um I know for me growing up in this area I went to school in Middletown there not a lot of teachers that looked like me um if any um or even when I got
014to college to be honest um so I think it's nice to be able to even just start to get that conversation letting students know that you know if they were thinking about teaching and really the benefit mine is just sitting in a mine is just being the teacher but really what it really could mean to specific individuals um but yeah I know like in the city there's a lot you'll see there's more people that look like myself and that fit the criteria when you're in the city but not so much up here so hoping that doing this can broaden some of our students and parents mind and just even encourag and education I think um one thing that we've we've talked about programs like this whether it was grow your own or this particular I
015think this is the same idea as grow your own but it's now under a different name um I think it would be interesting to find out from students what their barriers are to being in education or to working in education because um I think when you're in school you kind of think like I'm going to get out of here and go do something but I um was living in New York City when that first fellows class went through where people could leave their career and get certified in a year and I know a lot of people who did it because they were working in whatever they thought their chosen profession was and found it unfulfilling and then decided that there was a path that was more fulfilling which is would be working in education um
016but you know that that gap of you know kind of rejection to then value it would I think it would be interesting to find out from students because then they then teachers could have like a response to that or something that explains why you know I think there's some people who are called to education as a vocation but I think that there's if you don't have a teacher in your family or you don't kind of understand it from or if you've struggled in school in some way you know you don't think it's necessarily for you so if there is a way to because I think that like there's one which is the recruitment but then there's the other pie which is making people aware but I think there would be maybe a barrier to participation
017that might be helpful to understand so that it could be addressed sure we we have some um we have some other thoughts kind of that we're incubating in terms of um we don't see like this program as Maris as being our only solution to this but um I think part of it is uh we've been I've been talking with all the high school folks about is if we can get this class or these classes going allowing time for students to visit the elementary schools or the middle school on a fairly regular basis I know I won't you know tell the long version of the story but one of my Avenues into education was being a mentor in college I think if I had done it in high school I would have enjoyed it probably just
018as much and and so like you know doing that looking at some of the ways we work with all the colleges that provide student teachers with us and being a little bit more um creative with them uh looking at our own group of Tas we've already started a process where people who are AIDS in the district have worked to then become qualified as teaching assistants so then like the next step is how do we help and support folks to then take a much bigger step to be a teacher um you know this is a huge issue this is like a part of it I was really excited because I know this is something that's kind of been on the back murder for quite a while and Candace has shown a huge amount of initiative getting
019this going again um and Maris is really excited to work with us but this isn't you know our only sort of uh action step towards this uh and then one of my colleagues I'm sure this is backed by data somewhere but one of my colleagues talks about like Duchess County um you know Duchess County Teachers most of them grew up in Duchess County like it's just a fact and so so knowing that like how do we start to impact our students in high school our students even in middle school getting them thinking about this as an option um anyway it's it's there's so many parts to this we want to get BTA I'm sure BTA will want to be involved with this on this but it's just I think it's an exciting time and um
020I you know we're obviously biased we think it's a great a great way to spend your life but um but yeah it's there's a lot into it and uh I I think getting our Juniors and seniors with our like kindergarten through fifth graders is part of it you know Finding opportunities for that and even like the mentoring piece I think is really important like if you know all of us have a teacher that we remember and I think that really helps if a student's able to connect with an adult who is an educator um that that's a form of recruitment there I love the idea I know my daughter just volunteered at the girls in sports day and she absolutely loved the time spending with the little kids and stuff so I I love this
021idea I hope it brings more uh dual enrollment classes that marbe Maris could tie into and have it be educational wise the one barrier I think that young people are facing now is that New York State changed it so tier six is now 40 years and 62 where it used to be 30 years and 55 wait I don't know what's 30 uh 40 years they have to teach for 40 years or be 62 before they could retire okay where it used to be 30 years and 55 for previous tiers so like that's like I'm an educator I'm saying do you really want to do it for 40 years to my daughter you know so that that makes it hard and stuff so and that's tough too like I like my both my sisters teach and
022like you sure you know it's that always that and so you think you wonder if the students are hearing the same thing like are you sure this is what you want to do like you know like but well I think another piece of it too is that like the one of the things that's out in the media all the time is about how underpaid yeah teachers are um which is true and I'm not I know as a board member like we're very aware of like our you know um our uh what you call it like you know like our payment scale and all of that stuff but I don't know that it's it's not exactly like it's not a p Pathway to Poverty if you like understand how to plan your finances and what works
023and that fits in the thing that was always asked every year when we ask students what they want they want to have an understanding of personal finance and how to you know make plan because if you know you're going to earn a certain amount of money it will help like shape life choices and then you can do the things you want to do in the way that like in a way that works for you you just you know you don't want to get in a lot of debt ahead of yourself and you know all these things that then make teaching seem less appealing because of this narrative about it but I think if it was explained to somebody like here's the trajectory of this this is if you stay with it this is where it
024goes these are the other things to consider like I think that there's this you know everyone thinks they're going to go out and make you know millions of dollars but maybe if they have an understanding of what really works and how to put together a life and a career and the big sort of um things that they want might want then that would make the option more possible to them and and other thing other than teaching right like so you're an assistant principal there's a principal there's school psychologist school um guidance counselor there's other avenues within education that I think we we just maybe even brought in that student's mind of what education in itself looks like um because I never thought I'd be in highered like I I you go to college and you
025know people work there but like you never think it's like a career like oh like you're actually working there and to be in that role now so I think even with our students identifying teaching education but the like the counselor the this to that and really spreading it out and I think you might get a a larger turnout of just curiousness like oh this more to education you know like more than just the person sitting in the front of the classroom who's teaching thank you for Reviving this program how many how many students do you have um current currently participating so um Dr Fields and I met earlier in August and we kind of decided to put the program in halt while because we wanted to work on this but last year we only had
026about 10 kids that came to all the sessions with Dr Fields so hopefully this year can be but there's no real active recruitment like we send out a flyer and say if you're interested in education come you know come to these and it goes to the student the flyer goes to the student go to the students and the parents and this is so this is the own version of grow YN but are they is Maris working with other um schools other districts to to do this do you know or I'm not sure um seems like it' be great if they you know could find find each other at a countywide or some larger create like a cohort right yeah I can ask I can definitely ask well thank you for your work on this thank
027you okay our next presentation is from Matt our superintendent about our um board goals and strategic planning uh so like like I said um we want to provide uh regular updates on actions we're taking around the Strategic plan I think it's important for you all to see but we're going to put something together just for the community to see uh for the community to see around this um you know it's it's it's important to show just even this early momentum so thank you canis and the high school team for thinking about this I'm really excited I I was uh one of the schools I was an elementary principal for the middle and high school we are on this huge campus together and high school kids were in our building almost every day because they could
028get down so easily it's a little bit more challenging for us uh but it was probably one of the most popular classes at the high school it was like a teaching intro to teaching class and uh I I don't know you know the firm data on how it impacted students but I know it it's really sort of nudged a lot of kids into thinking about being a teacher so I'm excited to see this grow um so for this I I've just been kind of thinking about like you know the board goals and and U I've been thinking them all along through the strategic planning process is the board goals serve as like a foundation for all the work uh that we've been doing and so I wanted to kind of it's maybe not the most
029beautiful thing in the world but I wanted to sort of um take some of those action steps that are in that strategic plan document and Link them to board goals um so oops so just to remind folks uh that's the um you know Mission Vision the values and then the four areas of our strategic plan and academic Excellence diversity and staff and opportunities um which was work we were just talking about high quality curriculum and Community engagement and involvement so if if you go online and you look at that 10-page document for each of those pillar areas we have a section that says our first steps are and there's 12 of those and so we've been pretty Relentless as a as a team and just like how are we getting movement on each of these
030how you know by the end of the year can we check all these off that's the goal um so I took those 12 things and I put them I I tried to connect them to the different board goals so um these on the right of that you know those those boxes on the right those are those actions that we are committed to taking this year so um so anyway I took those but then you know with this kind of work even though we're attempting to have the Strategic plan be super comprehensive there's always other things we're doing because that's just the nature of a large organization like ours um so uh so I have the a board goal on each slide and then I sort of targeted those um strategic plan action steps underneath that
031I think connect are in yellow and then we have some District work steps that I added um and these are just things we've been working on so I'm going to talk about a few of these I'm not going to read every slide they're very Tex heavy uh but I I feel I guess I you know in this is my opinion uh that the board goals provide just a really firm foundation for this work um so whether the board you know whenever you discuss that if you are changing or whatever we've been using these and it's been a part of our thinking for years and it continues to be so I I wanted to make that connection so uh the board has an Excellence goal there and so uh I found that the action steps or
032some of the action steps under the high quality curriculum part of the Strategic plan really connected uh the most of that developing culturally relevant units of learning sharing curriculum maths with the community and Gathering student input uh on potential course offerings in the um in the future and then I wanted to add because this has been a huge effort um of of the district with TOA positions we've created and the work of sario um and the principles is continuing database instructional planning and support and reading and math so yeah I've always had I always when I put like those action steps in their strategic plan I want to make sure we also talk about like huge other things that we're doing too and so I feel like these things really fit under the excellent School
033uh for the equity goal one could make the argument that every single thing in the Strategic plan supports this goal I think it's a pretty easy argument to make because our our thought with the Strategic plan is we wanted Equity infused and every single thing that we are doing um and with what you know Candace was sharing earlier you can see that like equities infused throughout but uh with the board's Equity goal uh we have Crea a mentoring program for students of color interested in teaching uh provide extra support to to students who need assistance meeting PR rex on course offerings um expand Transportation offerings and support with meals for students who attend extracurricular these are in the early stages uh but works in progress create a common set of field trips for elementary students
034just quick update there we had one of our elementary schools uh did the Clear Water this fall um that that's been something we've been we kind of got on board then Co provided a pretty big disruption uh Clear Water had had in the past some pretty strict uh Health rules but um those have mostly been lifted so all of our fourth grade classes are doing that some in the spring bring some this fall um and so work at the district to support the equity board Equity goal as well as we um are updating our Equity report card in the next uh couple of months we'll be unveiling that uh probably by December January uh review District practices and Poli policies through the district Equity policy that you all passed last year and through the equity
035committee and also conduct professional development in equity inclusivity um a big step with that is happening uh at the November professional learning day that we're busily planning right now um fiscal again fiscal is one of those things that is kind of everything uh but um with the fiscal goal the board um I thought these things sort of fit uh and connect with the fiscal side although fiscal obviously impacts everything Gathering student input for future courses creating Partnerships we talked about one tonight uh that we're doing I also think Partnerships with workplace opportunities is an area we can really grow in and the district and creating a district calendar that prioritizes professional learning and then and our facilities committee talked about this just a few minutes ago Implement more long range Financial Planning and Facilities long
036range facilities uh planning with the Board of Ed and District administration um communication the the Strategic plan is very communication heavy um but um make sure schools have opportunities for student voice we heard from some of our students at the board meeting I've been noticing that students have been more comfortable coming to the board meeting over the last couple years I'll have an update on our student advisors to the board when I do that superintendent update later I'm excited about that um this year as well improving our website so there's more resources um for students and families we talked about this at the public relations and advocacy committee the other night um that s certain things whether it's uh fre recks for a class information about being on a team espe especially for a modified
037team which is a lot of people's first experience with sports we need to be clear about how parents navigate that needs to be represented on the website so we're working on that um developing resources for students and families to assist with the transition grades K 6 n 11 12 you know to the Future and then creating engaging events at each school for families focus on all aspects of supporting our students since the high school folks are sitting right over there they have a series of um engaging activities for families uh coming up this fall and a variety of topics how to help your ninth grader uh planning for College Planning for um post high school life uh so I honestly feel like as a parent of a sixth grader I need to attend a few
038of those to prepare myself so we probably want to open those up to the community because you'll be surpris there's probably people at the middle school who want to get ready for that too but that's just with the high school the other schools are planning um their events as well and then two more so sustainability um sustainabilities you know again all the board goals are sort of infused through everything that we do um but we just received information from the governor late last week about uh she released her information about um M stake ramp program for Ev buses so we need to digest all of that get back to the board um but it looks hopeful we were starting to we're starting to look at some of the grant programs that existed before this and
039we're getting a little bit more pessimistic but the governor's program looks helpful for us in terms of being able to navigate it use utilizing sustainable practices in our facilities and capital planning and then creating a sustainability plan for the District of stakeholders that would be um the sustainability uh committee that I want to I did not do a great job with last year but I want to breathe life into that one again um and then lastly C culture of care um so out of the Strategic plan establish student advisory systems at each school and make sure schools have created opportunities for empowering student voice so um we now you know we have student councils at each School uh principles are doing different ways of getting feedback from students whether it's uh surveys informal surveys or
040suggestion box type things um but we're adding to that um from our level to implement climate surveys we'll be doing that probably in the next four to five weeks um to students families and staff we're excited about that um and then we'll do another one at the end of the year um Implement and maintain the things that we've been doing responsive classrooms and regulation we started second step in sixth grade at the middle school when Brian uh comes to do his presentation roundout he's going to share more about that restorative practices at the high school and then this year one of the focuses maybe the main focus of the wellness committee um or subset of the wellness committee I think that part you need to figure out is to review our health curriculum that we
041teach uh throughout like K through 12 and what are ways to strengthen that as well so sorry I just kind of at you but what I wanted to do is just sort of unpack uh the Strategic plan information uh in terms of next steps and really connect them to board goals and also share some other things that we're doing as a distri as well so Meredith I I sort of defer to you as president about what we want to how we want to proceed with the board goals in terms of um the board reaffirming their goals yeah like I um well thank you for this this is is a lot to which is great it's a lot that there it's great that there's so much going on I mean does anyone have any questions regarding
042I had one quick question um so so this is a this is a lot and you guys are doing a lot so I was wondering if the climate surveys are going to be a way for you to sort of measure how things are working specifically around this uh yeah so we have a few different metrics uh so acade on the academic side we have State Testing we also have the I ready assessments uh we also have student grades we have student attendance right um I will say very anecdotally just on the attendance side I know it's early but uh we increased bus usage with the asking the community to support that we have a lot more students riding the bus and we have a lot more students coming to school on time especially in high
043school what's that increasing the distance that bus we increase the distance from a mile and a half to a mile last year and or for this year excuse me so bus ridership is up do you have a data point for that like I do not have a data point right now not right now but is that something that oh that yes we can easily do that um but sorry so U so on the academic side we have those things on the we've been putting so much into like social emotional and culture of care uh that we do want to use the climate survey as maybe not like the only metric that we look at but like as a metric for um how students are feeling connected to school and to each other so um the
044the survey you know for the students we'll provide students time to do them in school so obviously our goal is to get a pretty high return rate on those staff will probably get a pretty high return rate as well families is the tricky part you know but we're trying to make the survey uh not be super cumbersome for folks um we do want to focus on like connectedness to school um folks feel included welcome things like that things that we've been trying to improve um so those are metrics the other part of accountability with this is with uh our Consultants are met elements they're um helping us um create a uh uh I forget the name it's it's like an easy name and it's escaping right now but uh um it's like a for us
045it's a spreadsheet but it's basically like a this is what is has been finished this is what we're working on and we're going to put a version of that on the website probably just in terms of updating folks about where we are on all these tasks um otherwise it just kind of becomes like yeah wors all the time so deliverables and then the other part is telling the story of this and we talked about this a little bit in the facilities committee um and so we'll be doing more with social media and the newsletter in terms of like hey even if you don't like the word strategic plan right like look what we're doing here this is really cool uh so um so anyway we're going to be doing more of that I gave you
046a long answer no but that's great and I just want to say that I am so excited about the fact that you're not just doing these things and talking about it but you're going to be documenting it in a way that parents and the community can actually read it and see it and access it whenever they want to check it out I feel like that is huge that that all by itself is a huge Improvement and change and well some of us administrators attended a a conference this summer and the superintendent was speaking it's a like a suburban Chicago district and he had a couple very short films of what they were doing and literally we were all kind of sitting at the same table and everyone at the table is like we're doing this
047stuff we need you to do a better job of capturing it like not that speaking at a conference is our goal but like you know there's a lot of pride in what we're doing so Mike gers one of our retired teachers like he's available to help us with this a little bit and and uh we've been talking with them about like capturing some of this I think some of the things happening around student voice um is really is really cool I wasn't seeing a lot of this when I started here and so I think students are um I think like because of our administrators and our teachers students are speaking out more in a proactive way which has been really powerful do we have um we I know we have a recently um born student
048newspaper at the high school and I think at the middle school as well and I are there is there one at all of the elementary school they do it sort of in the form of the morning news is that yeah the elementary schools we didn't want to just like sort of force a newspaper um sergeant had one I'll do the sou right now right has Morning News so there more news kind of things happening at the elementary school but we also wanted to make sure principals had like a sort of regular meetings with student leaders and all their school school it's not just a high school thing yeah um to talk about how things are going with the um the climate survey are you using kind of like a standard like battery for the for
049the survey instrument or are you going to so it's going to go to the same to all schools or are you doing any customization for like like middle and high school yeah uh we we're working with a company Panorama um they're one of the leaders in this field I think we went with them because they um offered a focus on sort of equity diversity issues that some of the other survey companies didn't um they're we haven't finished we haven't finalized what we want to ask um they're the way they're sort of broaching it with us is um you know if you completely use the surveys we suggest like then it can be compared to national standards if you customize it you may lose that part of it but you know so we're kind of figuring
050that you can probably use their standard battery and just had add like two or three questions that it doesn't like that like as long as the questions are structured the same you can still link the data which I just meant I meant customizing like just adding maybe two questions for middle and then for high school just to capture like those changes for that age group right right um with the equity piece um I know we like often think in terms of like with diversity equity and inclusion it's focused more on racial but I do think in Beacon is there a way of capturing economic inequity in any of the and any of the questions we asking um yeah I I think so but I I I haven't I haven't sort of completely dove in and
051create customize my surveys yet no I mean I had not trying to ask I I I I think there's uh I think there's a lot there's also students with disability like there's um gender non-conforming student you know like there's a lot of things where we would love to um ask I I know some of the questions are and these may seem sort of basic but like do you do you see yourself in your school do you know like things like that do you feel like the curriculum offered you feel connected to um I'm not giving the questions Justice I'm not wording them quite they have I'm not yeah and I'm I think what I'm the two things I'm specifically thinking about both T like one is that like we capture any sort of like changes
052that go from one age group to the next so we can kind of like you know drill down to like both age and building because I feel like Elementary that's you know four buildings that experience will be similar just so that we can if we're if we're asking people and talking to them we may as well get more feedback not without lengthening the survey but then the other thing I do think is specific to Beacon as we and will continue to be a bigger thing is that I think the extremes around economics are going to be greater and so I think starting to track that now would make sense so right the thing about like my my peers have more opportunities to do things than I do or something like that not writing that question
053I think that's something that because then that ties into our signature experience goal of you know trying to create like a unified experience for these students yeah I I know with this you know obviously your answers on the survey are Anonymous um for anyone who fills it out but with our students we are able to link it to the demographic data we have on the students so you know we can disaggregate it that in a various ways um I years ago I was in a district that did a comprehensive survey like this and it was the student connected as part is really interesting to look at and then what what connects a student to school in from 11th grade to 1 um so anyway we'll probably I can give just a like a little bit
054more intelligent of an update at the 16th board meeting around the survey because we'll be ready closer to launch at that point also exciting any other questions no thank you so much I this is so much work thank you everyone who worked on um and later in the meeting we are reaffirming our board goals and if anyone has any questions or comments about it specifically as they're written by us um we can talk about that then I think you know the reason I did it this way is uh I know I'm probably repeating myself um there's there's still really important and I think the board putting these things um as schools from all my time here seven or six or seven years now that it's really proved to found to be a foundation for the
055rest uh we were on a workshop with one of our attorneys um around daa responding to you know uh things that happen in school and she talked about our board goals and she talked about how unique it is that you know what our board publicly chooses to focus on so I want to share that um it's not everywhere and it means a lot to us so thank you than you thank you I I mean I think that when um when we made these goals it was when I my first year on the board and um I think everything was so chaotic that it felt a little feudal like what could possibly become of this but it it's amazing that it has it really felt like you know part of the skeleton of our work and
056um I appreciate you sort of describing things going on with the board goals in mind because it it does it really makes it feel like it matters um okay reviewing the agenda we do have a couple of changes uh 1306 letter F number three has been removed and 13113 letter M um number one has also been removed what was it 13.06 F3 and 13113 M South avenon one you good okay can I have a motion to adjourn to Executive session to review the employment history of a particular individual and the board will return in about 30 minutes so moved second Kristen second by Flora comments or questions all in favor I I opposed passes 8 to zero we are going to resume with this superintendent report Matt you talked a lot you have any more
057words is that are you trying to say something um I just two quick things um one is uh we are working on finalizing our student advisors to the board and they're going to join us uh October 16th but it looks like we'll have four like last year and um and really excited about that and they seem super excited but we just want to kind of make sure and get a commment from them but they'll be joining us on the 16th and just uh thanks to the organizers of the spirit of Beacon day in the parade uh me and my team marched and Unice were Unice and I were holding the banner and uh it was uh it was great and we had a lot of fun and uh it just seemed like the day was
058perfect and oh and then lastly um homecoming week this week and there are just um a ton of things going on and there's things at the high school every day and spirit where I almost seems like at every school and like a football game at 3:30 today which is very unusual and it's kind of fun to be able to see game on Monday afternoon but anyway um uh all of our teams are competing uh at home this week at different times tomorrow night we're honoring off off fall um athletes uh at 6:30 and uh back through I think the weather's supposed to be decent at least for the first part of the week but um it's off to a great start this week so um that's all I have Meredith awesome thank you um Bo
059comments Samra I'll just say how much my daughter loved the uh girls and sports activity she thought it was awesome and may have been your daughter that had her uh trained her but she loved volleyball so hats off for that event thank you Kristen uh I really appreciate all the work that's gone into the Strategic plan process it it's just shaping up to be some a really helpful working document and um providing a lot of guidance and action steps and I think it's I'm really excited to see it um I think it's already in effect but uh to see us capture the data and be able to track our growth around those goals so thank you for I know how much work it was I mean I wasn't there but I I can see in
060the document I've heard about all the sessions and it just is um I think it we had done one when you first started and uh and I think it was really appropriate to reopen that process now because so much a we went through a pandemic like so many things had changed and it's just um it's really helpful and to Meredith's point you know when we wrote those goals like it just felt like sure yeah like let's see if we can do this stuff but let's get through a lot of other crazy stuff first and it's actually really rewarding to see that they have not only been helpful but that they continue to be um something that we use as a guidepost and to see the impacts that has on kids so thank you for all
061that work yeah Unice thank you um I just want to give an update about the next policy meeting is November 13th but the time has changed from 7 to 6: p.m so and that's it I I did enjoy the parade it was great walking with the district um it's always great to see the student the the students that participate there's a lot of energy there so it's just beautiful to see and I feel like the the community is out and about and they're really there you know rooting for Beacon so it was great um and I hope everyone enjoys homecoming events so hope to be there at the game on Friday so that's it thank you uh Elina no comments Eric no comments Anthony sure so when Candace was talking and then when Matt was
062talking my mind was going back to last year's nisba we went to a presentation with SKC and um they were it was it was an advertisement for I believe it was the pass book for good was the app that they had passport for good yeah passport for good or pass what was it passport I think it was passport yeah passport for good and it was an app that is a student portfolio and then like advisers could utilize it and stuff and just the conversation tonight brought back that memory of that presentation of how students can make a portfolio so then they could sell themselves for colleges and have that digital portfolio for the kids but also thinking about like what Candace was saying about um you know having the kids go you know get involved
063and what they what could they do for Education could they go read to I think was saying could they read to the elementary kids and like they could sign up and they would be able to do it digitally and it would be easier and then they that could be part of their portfolio if there was a club that was going on and and stuff so just a conversation tonight resonated with me about should we be looking into something like passport for good or something similar where I know um the state is going more towards a portfolio base with the Seal of uh Civic Readiness the Seal of biliteracy they have a seal of art now um so they're creating these seals where students are doing um they have to monitor their activities and so forth
064and if this is something that could serve a multi-purpose one for the students ultimately but two also for the district to get volunteers to uh to say hey who's coming for this or who who wants to come read to uh a Sergeant's fifth grade class and they could put it out there and then maybe the national J like the National Junior armor Society could send it out on on their page and then kids could sign up or um I know like uh at the open houses that I attended uh in my district we had a Spanish Honor Society and and and we had Spanish Honor Society kids come but it was a lot of work to like to organize it and stuff but it could have just been something so quick with technology um to
065kind of see what we could do so just a conversation tonight with the presentations that Candace did and Matt did and and conversations and knowing I was like maybe this is something that we should look into for our students I know some students are not taking the SAT and the PSATs because it's not as required and colleges aren't looking at it as much so I'm and I have a senior and you know she's you know going through that stage now of just saying you know what do I need to show what do I need to do and I'm like you need to show your extracurriculars you need to show this and you know so she's going through and jotting down you know what has she done like she did this uh the girls in uh
066girls in sports day and she volunteered for that and there's other things but they forget they don't make a they make a mental note of it but they're not documenting it whereas if they're on this app and it could document it I think that would benefit kids to that post-secondary uh education piece but also benefit the district so just a something to put out there that hopefully District could look into also you could start to see like you're saying they they're just doing things they're drawn towards but they don't necessarily recognize them as a pattern of like a passion and if they are able to kind of look at it and be like oh actually I always show up for things involving younger kids or something like that then they can see a pattern and
067start to recognize that they have an interest or a passion without and I know when they were talking they were saying like the kids could comment on their experience right and they could document what their experience was like and stuff so do you remember I remember asking but I can't remember their answer if they had if it was connected with Naviance at all if there was any sort of because it I know we wondered that question we had that conversation yeah because I feel like if there was something that worked with navian there's so so much there already and it would be a great extension of that I don't know if it does or I'm not sure I don't remember I'll have to go back and look at it I think that they were working
068on it I don't think it was at the time but I think that they recognized that it would be very powerful if they the two could work together so one of the things that's interesting I'm sorry Tex us to see if navian has its yeah tool or power school has a tool or if there's a tool that already out there that connects with navian navian has a niche though right they do the the seven uh the ninth grade they do that personality survey then the in 10th Grade they're doing the career interest survey and then they're I I forget what there there's some some other aspects in 11th and 12th grade which you could send and upload essays and stuff and send to colleges but it's not that digital footprint of portfolio of the extracurriculars
069well no yeah I think I we use a program called engage where students it's how you promote events for every event you attend you can then um do a co-curricular resume and they'll just have all of your co-curricular so all the events you've attend all the all the oh wow something like that that's that's what I'm say like and I'm not saying passport I I said pass book but like that's a year ago but but but the passport but something like that and it doesn't have to be that I'm just thinking what can we do for the students to to so they could build this uh resume right but also make it easy for the district to get volunteers for things that they need and and it seems like based on conversation I was like
070I've heard something like this this could be good and like the It triggered when you said about the high school kids uh reading to the younger kids and it's hard to set up right but if they go through a club and then it's just a quick message out and people sign up for it that could that could work yeah and you're also I think more likely to develop a habit around doing something like that if you see you have done it like if you've invested time it sort of creates a behavioral connection so just a just a thought documenting their own strategic plan mat did you have a comment on that I I just was thinking that you know Flora when you asked about or you kind of asked about metrics and it's like a
071lot of this work is hard to measure like you know like high school kids reading do an elementary Class like it we know it has an impact but anyway it's got me thinking like other way to measure and capture and this is like by student I have it up on my computer I'll take a look I think you get kids who are um doing this stuff organically because there's kids who are for sure tracking everything they're doing because they are gunning towards like a they're like this is good for my resume but then there's lots of kids who aren't just thinking like that they're just but they don't they don't reap the benefit because they don't think about their life that way and if they could start to see like it's moving in is taking
072the shape and moving towards a goal it makes it easier to provide guidance to them or teach them how to do a co-curricular resume I've never heard of co-curricular resume or co-curricular transcript until I got into the field that I'm in right now but teaching them that for every time you do some kind of volunteer or whatever you can um you can have them write it down like in a a transcript and and and and and keep track of it it could you but it's back to what you were saying like it's they do so much stuff and don't realize all of what they do and how how it's the patterns like you said like you don't realize you're doing that same thing like did you realize that you went to every food pantry or
073you went to every you know and how important that is for them yeah it's like gamifying goal setting for them in like a really tangible way and that's one of those like soft skills that is so hard to learn as a kid so I love you don't have like a big picture all I got yeah on fire tonight we're just um so uh last week we had the public relations advocacy and legislative committee and uh we just sort of got organized for the year talked about a few things um like the state of the district website and and plans to um to eventually uh you know um work on work on changes to it um the you know the um the uh different learning nights that are planned at the at the different School levels
074and how that's going to really help uh keep parents more informed um and then you know we started talking a little bit about the advocacy that we're going to do this year um including um trying to get uh parents um and the school community on board around um our advocacy for supports for um pre preschool special education and uh sharing that info out about the resolutions that we did for nisba and how parents can can also um make their voices heard on this issue so we'll be sending that out hopefully tomorrow um and then we also had a few legislative updates um including that the um government lowered the tax cap for free meals correct got the tax cap but the I mean sorry sorry not the the sorry the cap of um number the
075number of students who are qualified qualified yes from to 25% right is that what you said yeah the the um the federal government set it at 40% it's not your free introduced lunch overall rate but it's the what is the term appications for free introduced yet D direct the the students who directly certify into the program our number in Beacon is 33% even though our overall free and reduce is like 49 that said the feds lowered it to 25% so we now qualify we are just waiting for the New York state to like create their application process or change it or so we're kind of just waiting for the state to right so do what they need to my sense is Karen's kind of ready to apply we're just waiting for the state to open
076it up so I mean that would be huge yeah so exciting so and that would be ju just like the whole District would qualify yeah so that would be you know back to what we were doing a couple years ago so yeah so that was really exciting news and then um the vote on nisbar resolutions is coming up on the 16th uh I may be late to our meeting that day um I did look through the the booklet just to see if I flagged anything that I felt like we should talk about um I did that very quickly today and I I apologize for not um bringing that up sooner because I I would like us as a board to look at those resolutions and talk about them ahead of time just because I feel
077like those conversations are really generative and and it does help to know that we're sort of speaking in a unified voice when um our representative is voting on those resolutions um but I did want to say just if there's any anything that you feel um you definitely want to bring up I mean you know let's let's we could definitely talk about it in um via email since we we wouldn't be able to in time for our next board meeting but nothing jumped out at me um and yeah that's all that I have awesome and um are so we're cancelling the 23rd the October 23rd PRL meeting and policy sorry yes yes okay that was the other thing well we were talking about that I forgot to mention that we have a October 30th facilities meeting
078and are we rescheduling audit for so we have an audit committee meeting scheduled on the 16th before the is that happening we're not sure yet okay tentatively we have a 6m audit committee meeting before our next board meeting okay okay 16 you'll let us know yes but we won't have audit on the 30th because we're doing or we could if if this probably try toed before the 30 the not done the 16 we don't want to push out to so I okay I might ask you to schedu something okay that okay um great that's that's all you got that was it okay thank you thank you um and then I just have a couple of things one um I'm gonna be texting you guys or doodle polling or something to try to figure out um
079a short pickle ball tournament between board members and administrators I think it'll be really fun team building it's a relatively new club and Beacon so we can learn what pickle ball is all about so you can look forward to that um I'm als when in I'm I'm actually hoping in October like thinking about training you better get on it um but I I know from experience anyone can do it because I've done it and I'm not athletic in that way at all um not coordinated none of it um I'm also trying this came up in our facilities meeting it's um come up in audit I'm I I'm going to do a little research talk to Anar and Matt about um trying to organize our Retreat for this year and it seemed like we had one
080discussion that it would be basically about financial planning um so if everyone feels good about that still um and I'm thinking early January so I'll I'll also kind of be in touch with you guys about that date um one other thing I want to mention is I know there had been discussion about starting our meeting a little bit earlier and going straight into exec so we didn't have to leave the meeting in the middle that's always been kind of an awkward transition um we have one board member who can't make it earlier and so we're going to keep the 7 PM start time um and you know if something changes we'll we can we can talk about that because I it would be nice but I I think you know it's been working the way
081it's working now and just continue to do that um RFP for legal councel is out and we're um we're expecting later in the month to October 20th to is the deadline for um proposals to come in and so then we'll look over them and make um interviews with the various firms that we we want to hear from and um I wanted to ask sario have you started the curriculum committee meetings yet we did okay surve okay okay well I thinkle the last year okay Eric is um actually the board member member of your committee this year so um if you can just put him on your mailing list that would be awesome I just wanted to make sure that was happening um and lastly I missed the parade for Spirit of Beacon day but I
082I caught the aftermath and it was great um it was great to see so many people on Main Street and just a ton of enthusiasm and um so many people wearing their Beacon together t-shirts mine has already been absconded by by with by my son so I'll be around for more but um and just so many kids walking around with their instruments that because they had to men in the marching band it was just it's it's you realize that it the the district is really such a big part of that parade and so it was made I felt very proud to see everyone there okay new business um first thing in new business is to reaffirm our board goals does anybody have any comments or questions about board goals or do we feel good about
083them I think Matt secretly like snuck it on us today with the whole strategic things lined up to it because it just made it more made it it made it make sense good you know and and I think for some people of how we our visual Learners or just whatever so being able to take the specific goals and and tie it into the Strategic plan it was like okay yeah like we could still we're still doing that you know so it was it was really nice to they're not abstract anymore right or or foreign or old or we still need them in my opinion like they're still absolutely stuff that we're we're accomplishing and making small accomplishments and future goals it's really good I think the good thing about them is that there is a
084lot of room for growth within them they're not so specific that it's like oh it's not something I think we'll ever really check off our list um I think that they you know they remain I used the word skeleton earlier scaffold is what I was trying to but um yeah it's you know it's really it's great to build the work around it um can I have a motion to reaffirm the board goals so moved laa second by Unice all in favor I opposed I'm also in favor passes 8 to zero um second thing is this letter to the mayor city council and City administrator regarding rezoning there's a draft in um in our agenda uh on the agenda I did send it to our legal counsel and they did have a comment um they did
085not feel comfortable with um I'm just going to read you his email or you just find it yeah they did not com feel comfortable with um the term legal stakeholder um he wrote I agree that this phrase and I asked him specifically about that because that was the only part of the letter I thought could be possibly controversial um he said I agree that the phrase legal stakehold is probably inaccurate as the board is not an involved agency under secra uh regarding development decision- Mak so the edits that he made um I can just redo that quickly well it I think it does if there's a school if there's a plan that gets put in and a school study a school impact study is contributed then we become a stakeholder but it's not it's not
086relevant for this right I think for this he yeah so he changed it to say um oh I accept it do you know how do I go back and see the um go to com yeah go to comments there okay so he um he changed interested party probably um will it show it where it was all right I can't yeah if you so um click on the oh get link to this wait what is going on I don't know we're we're learning live um so wait the uh so he deleted the school district is a legal stakeholder and put Beacon de development decisions impact the school district in a number of ways including enrollment and transportation that's basically the that's fine okay so um does anybody else have any questions or comments about this I
087have comments about it because I watch the meetings that and they're doing a workshop tonight which obviously we can't watch um but um it seems like they're moving quickly with this potential zoning change I don't there would have to be a workshop there would have to be like a few things so it's not like it can happen um immediately but and it's complicated and um so I'm just going to give you what I understand so the current zoning is mostly mixed use and it Things fall under General business um L um Light Industry uh high impact industry so there's that's all available in that we do know from our budget work that um think businesses am might businesses pay a higher tax rate okay so the the material change would be this would be moving
088that entire rezoning to residential so it would remove the businesses off of that zoning is it is it purely residential or I think it's mixed use it's currently mixed use but the parcels that they've identified will be rezoned for residential and not just residential but high density residential where is this exactly this is the um fish Corridor like right um it's not Camp Beacon it's um right along 52 Brothers car dealership is yeah because they're moving to Fish Co so it's like um all like we Dunkin Donuts a map of it up somewhere where Romanova is now yes yeah um so the things that that seem like would be changes would be um design standards um increased potential to build high density uh residential removing business component and making it all residential and then um
089I think they sort of so they' need to have a public hearing before they could change this but the and you know I I don't think we can change this letter now but the two main questions that came up for me because you can't quite get a sense of it is currently how many and and this is also brought on by our discussion about how many strollers were at the Beacon spe to Beacon Day parade and thinking about our enrollment but it would be um like currently how many units are available to be like a Zone to be built there right now and um like sort of Legally built and then what that would what the change would be after after rezoning um because then we would have an idea of the maximum capacity and
090we could you know then if a developer did propose a plan in line with that then we would be able to ask you know and they would hopefully as a part of secra require a school impact statement then we would find out potential enrollment for the district but it is something just as a beacon person you kind of should be aware of I'm trying to think of you said high density building residential high density residential so like putting like a multi-level and they're going going past the other change would be the height level would sort of um so it's probably going to be like Studios one bedroom and maybe two-bedroom um it depends I mean like that that's the thing is like this there's nothing really fleshed out so like yeah that's possible there's also
091I I know the planner talks about micro Apartments a lot but I don't it's there's a couple of things being thrown around about affordability it's just it's more about the V the how quickly it's moving that is significant material changes to what would be zon there it has the impact has two impacts one would be Financial in terms of like removing commercial and then also um high density residential would just increase the number of people if there are more if there's one or two bedroom apartments that could lead to you know more student enrollment so those are just and everything is like super vague right now and so that's what I think it's just helpful to I don't know how big they could get they need parking right it's not that well the parking might
092be removed if there's that I mean that that's the other thing that like what's sort of like a little bit fuzzy about it is like there's a couple things that get thrown around like they I think they did I looked at the agenda and they did say something specifically about affordability but everybody was just saying affordability but then it was like well there's nothing in the language of the zoning about affordability so like it seems to move faster because the council likes to they like that idea of affordability but unless it's like specifically written down it might not happen right it was very complicated for them to um create the afford the affordable housing the small amount of affordable housing there is in the new development on um on 90 there yeah so the the
093change that happened in the agenda that I saw was that they are increasing the required affordable units I just don't know if that's actually enforcable like it's something that you can put that in the zoning but then somebody could ask for a variance and it it's it's all very fuzzy but it's like a substantial change and given the fact that you know there a big commercial property that came on um when mirabo was you know put through a pilot it's just something that we you know when I think about our finances I think we need to keep in mind any changes in commercial um and any changes in increased residential and increasing the volume of residential just those have impacts on us so I would like just keep an eye on it I think this
094is good to L forward with what we know right now but just right I mean the for me what this letter asks is for us to be in conversation with the city about this for them to you know yeah to ask what our concerns are what our priorities are hopefully what my hope is that it is the beginning of a conversation my sense about it and this is just speculative is it feels like there's some concern that they're trying to avoid but I think that there's like if you're focusing on that you're not you might not be thinking about the downstream impacts on this School District or another party about it so it's I think they're solving one problem maybe but they're might be creating some others so we should are they just trying to
095figure out like how many units they could put there do they have a number at all they haven't really talked there's no specifics I've watched every meeting and you can't really get a sense of what the what the change in the residential you just know it would be there's a lot limit right now lot size limit right now and that would be gone and it would be high density residential um which could mean a lot of different numbers guess yeah you just don't it's very vague okay any other comments or questions okay can I have a motion to approve the letter to the city so moved um this is with the changes so the it's the it is as the as you'll see the letter now you have the link to it you sent it
096to me I'll send it to you again just to make sure you um okay sorry who made made the motion I did Kristen who seconded second Elina um any other comments or questions all in favor I I opposed I'm also in favor passes a to zero um I'll send you that link okay the 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 consented 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
097items that any board members would like to have pull 13.02 B2 02 V or b b as inv boy and then two yes okay and 12.10 111 sorry 12.11 okay any others yeah uh 13.17 Q okay that's it so can I have a motion to approve 12.01 through 16.05 less 13.02 B is in Boy 2 13.17 q and 12.11 so moved second second by Kristen comments or questions all in favor I I opposed I'm also in favor passes 8 to zero can I have a motion to approve 12.11 they did so moved FL uh Kristen second by Flora uh comments or questions there oh sorry I'm I think I'm catching a mistake in this in the agenda sorry which one are we talking about 12.11 yeah oh you're on 12.11 yeah yeah mhm yeah so
098I thought I heard earlier that it was reduced to a mile yeah you go to distant we we changed it in the policy meeting but it we did change it it just says one and a half yeah yeah yeah that change just didn't that's a good catch remembered that earlier you see that remember earlier I was like what's that so funny okay it was just that one the other changes you have that is aake do you want us to pull it or do we just we can just amend it here is that okay so um do you want to make an motion to amend the uh amend 12.11 the policy uh 8410 student transportation and um there a or b or underneath the section where it says distant limitations for residents B to amend it
099to one mile instead of the stated one and a half sorry about that um is there a second for that second okay so is any all in favor or any comments or questions about the amendment we're voting on the amendment now all in favor I um opposed I'm also in favor passes a to zero so now we're voting on the policy as amended um all in favor I I opposed I'm also in favor passes eight to zero just think TR and can I have a motion to um approve 13.02 B2 so moves second second second by Unice comments or questions all in favor I opposed also in favor passes 8 to zero or passes seven to zero with one abent um can I have motion to approve 13.17 Q so moved kisten second second by
100Flora comments or questions oh no no that's the word abstentions sorry all in favor I opposed and you're abstaining yes I am in favor so passes seven to zero okay um can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting moved um anybody Unice and Elena it was and Elena all in favor opposed I'm in favor pass the to have a good night