001All right. Can I have a motion to call for please second? All in favor and you and I have the motion to go into executive. This is a goal and personel eight other all. Thank you. Where's GT? Good evening everyone. You good? Good evening everyone. The board has returned from executive session. No actions were taken. May I have a motion to return to public session, please? Bruce, may I have a second? Bill, all in favor? Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. 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. All right. So, this is an exciting evening. We are recognizing students from the class of 2026 with uh junior book
002awards. So um come on up. Who? Oh, hi there. Perfect. Is this on? Testing. Testing. Can't hear me. Okay, great. Good evening everyone. Good evening board, guests, parents, students, colleagues, and uh our students that are being recognized from the class of 2026. I am Janetta Lumia, director of counseling. It is a pleasure to be here. Uh this evening, we have the pleasure of recognizing some outstanding members of the class of 2026. As these students conclude their junior year, they bring with them a record of impressive accomplishments and a future filled with promise. It's a privilege to take a moment to celebrate their achievements and present awards specifically designed to honor our rising seniors. We will begin uh with the college book awards. These 15 awards generally generously sponsored by alumni from a wide range of
003colleges and universities are presented to juniors who exemplify academic excellence, leadership, character and service. Uh the awards will be presented in alphabetical order by college. We are fortunate to have so many institutions represented and we sincerely thank the sponsoring alumni some some of whom are with us here this evening uh for spon for sponsoring. We thank them for sponsoring and recognizing our students in such a meaningful way. As I announce each book award, please come forward when you uh your name is called to receive your book. And do we want them to line up and remain on the side for a picture? Perhaps at the end we can do that. Okay, great. Great. Um, and so the first award is the Brown University Book Award. Um, and this award goes to Katherine Seagler. [Applause] Next,
004the Columbia University Book Award is sponsored by Mr. Theodore Sakaritis. And the book award goes to Ethan Light. The Cornell University Book Award will be presented by our long longtime sponsor of this award, Dr. John May. Thank you. Um just maybe 10 or 20 minutes worth of extolling the virtues of Cornell. Now I want to congratulate all the recipients. I do want to mention that Cornell has seven undergraduate instit in institutions or colleges among the university and I as a parent of Cornelians and u as a parent of graduates of this school 20 uh 15 and 10 years ago um I can tell you that everybody that's sitted in this room tonight uh should have an interest in at least looking at Cornell and if if you do don't hesitate to reach out to me
005guidance has my address, my phone number, my cell phone, my e Facebook p, you know, the whole bit. Anyway, uh I want to congratulate all of you, but most uh especially tonight's recipient would be Caitlyn Hannah. Thank you, Dr. May. Next is the Darmmouth College Book Award and is given to uh in recognition of CSH uh and Darmmouth College alum alum Kimberly Campbell and it goes to Alex Lombardo. Next, the Hamilton College Book Award is sponsored and will be presented by former principal of uh Cole Spring Harbor Junior Senior High School, Dr. Thomas Dolan. Thank you. I am motivated tonight by my affection for two institutions. Cold Spring Harbor High School, which I was fortunate to work in for a number of years, and I see many of my colleagues here tonight, including one in
006the superintendent seat, and Hamilton College, uh, Clinton, New York, 13323. Uh, and if any members of the class of 26 are interested, I know Mr. Danusky would be happy to connect you with me, and I'd be happy to tell you about the college. Congratulations to this year's award winner. I need the envelope, Sarah Thatcher. Thank you. Congratulations, Doc. Thank you, Dr. Dolan. So, the Harvard University Book Award is presented to Elizabeth Zan. The Miami University of Ohio Book Award is presented to Alexis Rabinovich. The Princeton University Book Award is presented to Kira Chang. Next is the St. Lawrence University Book Award and this one is presented to Luke Picaro. Okay. The St. Michael's College Book Award is presented to Olivia Keter. [Applause] The two-lane university book award is presented to Woodford Pouch. The University of
007Notre Dame Book Award is awarded to Abigail Einhorn. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing any last names. Um, next next uh candidate recipient. Um, so the University of Pennsylvania book award is sponsor uh by Mrs. Laurel Palletnik and the book goes to Joshua Stimp Stimple. The University of Rochester Book Award is presented to N Lena Dagley. [Music] Last but not least, the Yale University Book Award, which was originally sponsored by former principal of Westside School, Mr. Ted Hilton and continues to be sponsored by his son, Mr. Ted Hilton Jr. Unfortunately, he could not be here this evening, but I'm pleased to announce that the Yale University Book Award goes to Owen Ner. Okay. So, congratulations. remain standing and so we are going to move on to an additional four awards. So the next four awards recognize students
008in grades 11 for four individual and specific reasons. The first award, the University of Rochester Bosshan Lom Honorary Science Award is given to a student who has a history of high achievement and rigor in science and math courses as well as um has made a positive contributions to their school and outside of the community. This year's recipient of the BA Bao and LOM honorary science award is Kira Chang. The next award is the University of Rochester Frederick Douglas and Susan B. Anthony Award. This award recognizes a student who has demonstrated commitment to understanding and addressing difficult social issues, has demonstrated leadership and dedication to community action, and has strong grades and rigorous courses in the humanities and social sciences. The University of Rochester Frederick Douglas and Susan Banthony award goes to Elizabeth Zhan. Next is
009the University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leaders Award which recognizes a student who has strong leadership experience at school and in the community. A student who has high grades in challenging rigorous courses along with extensive involvement in extracurricular activities. The University of Rochester George Eastman Young Leaders Award goes to Owen Ner. Okay. The University of Rochester Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology recognizes a student with strong interest in innovation and information technology along with a high level of achievement in this area. A student who has exposure to new technologies in and outside of school. So, the University of Rochester Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology is awarded to Caitlyn Hannah. Congratulations. And our final college sponsor award for this evening is the Renellor Medal Reneller Polytechnic Institute or RPI uh award and was
010has been awarded uh for outstanding math and science students for more than a 100red years. The medal was first presented in 1916 with two purposes. To recognize superlative academic achievement and to motivate students towards careers in science, engineering, and technology. I am very pleased to announce this year's winselor's medal goes to Alex Lombardo. Okay. So, on behalf of the community, the Cole Spring Harbor School District community administrators uh board, we congratulate our class of 2026 book award recipients and medal recipients. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Alamia. Come up to take a picture with everyone. I know we're not respond to who? Yeah. [Music] I think I think Western last year. trying to [Applause] Rochester. [Applause] What? exciting. I like her. text. You're too late to Oh, I'm writing. I'm typing to you. I know.
011It's fine. What do you need me to do? I was going to ask you to hit left on the keyboard. All right. No, no, no. There's a lot of people. I know. I know. I saw you. Oh, we're about to go. So, we'll just be Okay. Whoever is the sinking chair has to quit. No. Give me that chair. We need you. Um, okay. I know. And we'll be down to two in no time. Okay. So, oh, exemplary service is a separate award. That's why she was counting it. Six. Oh, maybe she was. Yes. I I figured out the problem. Okay. So, next we'll be recognizing this year's exemplary we've returned to the meeting board members. We got to move those to next year. I'm just really jealous. Okay. So much fun. I know. It looks
012so fun over there. Okay. Next, we'll be recognizing this year's exemplary service award recipient. Each year, the board of education wishes to honor those employees who support with great distinction our students, parents, staff, teachers, and administrators. The following criteria for eligibility have been established in order to be considered for this award. This recipient must have unanimous recommendation of the administration and the board of education. Exhibit a can do attitude. Be an employee of excellent character. Have worked in Cold Spring Harbor for at least 5 years. Demonstrate leadership. Work every day to make our schools the best they can be. I think that's all of them. Would you like to announce the winner? The award winner this year is Dr. Bob Classion. Bob, Miss M. Mr. Taylor is going to say some words on behalf of
013the school district. Mr. Taylor and then Bob, you have your speech ready, right? Oh, I forgot to send. Okay. Uh, thank you, Mr. Monasterero. Um, what can I say about Dr. C? Um, after reading a after listening uh to the description of the uh criteria for this award, um, I believe Dr. C defines ex exemplary service. Um, from my first time meeting him until today, it has always been about what he can do for you. If you need something, he is there to help. Um, his retirement will be felt throughout the high school. Not only is he a master teacher, uh, he has been the central treasurer, and I'm pretty sure he has coached almost every junior high sport that we have. Um, he has always been quick to volunteer to mentor new teachers, looking
014to leave the profession in a better place than he found it. While he would be while, excuse me, while he will be missed by his colleagues, I know that his grandchildren will be over the moon to have him living down the street from them in Columbia, South Carolina. Dr. C, I wanted to personally thank you for everything that you have done for me in my two years in Cold Spring Harbor. I couldn't be more honored to be able to help the district honor you with this award. It is welld deserved. Congratulations. I if I could just I mean I've worked with Bob for 20 plus years and it it's been a pleasure. Uh as Mr. Taylor said, you could always if you need somebody to help out with anything, you could always count on Bob.
015uh and oftentimes just coming down and volunteering just to always do the right thing. He's that teacher that every night when he when he goes home, he is it 8 or 8:30 you you're guaranteed to answer any question students send to you? 8:30 every night and you get up like at 2:00 in the morning or something. He 3 in the morning. He lives out in Miller Place and is here like at 5:30 uh for extra help every single day. Uh Bob has made videos on every subject under the sun for any student to to review and use to better learn chemistry. Uh Bob, you will be tremendously missed. I will miss you, my friend. [Applause] Wait. Everybody come. Thank you. Okay, so now is one of our very favorite times in our board meetings. This
016is time to hear from our students. Um, tonight we are going to hear from high school students from Cold Spring Harbor Junior Senior High. Come on up. Hi everyone and good evening. We are the class of 2025 executive board student government members. As we come to the close of an eventful year, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the many memorable experiences that have brought our school community together. We started off March with a spirited dodgeball tournament, setting the tone for a year, a year full of energy and school pride. Our international night showcased the diverse cultures that make our school unique. At the senior citizen dinner, our talented students gave a heartfelt performance of Mamma Mia for our local senior citizens. A night that truly highlighted the power of the arts
017to connect generations. Um, prom was an elegant evening celebrating our junior class. One of the most meaningful moments of the year was the Normandy trip, a nine-day long experience meant to show the rich history of Omaha Beach in World War II. Yesterday, seniors participated in a flag presentation ceremony where we received flags from veterans. An unforgettable and deeply moving experience. As we look ahead, we still have several exciting events on the calendar. Banquet banquet is just around the corner where we will recognize our time together as a class and all the memories we have shared. We also have a field day coming up where Lloyd Harbor will face against Westside. And uh we'll have all the new kids go to Westside just to give them a fighting chance against Lloyd Harbor. Um and then we
018also will be doing that after graduation rehearsal and then that weekend we will say our final goodbye to Colts Harbor and officially become alumni. Looking to the future, we are actively working to bring back bow to classes next year. We are looking to make a set date in the calendar to confirm it and I'm sure this new class will make that happen. And now it is my great pleasure to introduce the new executive officers for the class of 2026. We have President Joe Pascilico, Vice President Kayla Theodoris, Secretary Haley Torey, and Treasurer Alexa Tori. Thank you for your time and I'm excited for the class of 2026. Thank you for that report and thank you for leaving us in such good hands. That's wonderful. Thank you all. All right. So, we are now at the
019first discussion section of our agenda. So, I open the floor to any discussion items from members of the board of education. Hi. I do. Yeah. I just want to say that I had the uh pleasure for the first time to attend the Ellis Island event at Westside School and it was amazing. I've always heard such wonderful things about it. My kids went to Lloyd Harbor. I never got to experience it myself and it was just it was like it was like being at Disney World. It's like being in like the carousel of tomorrow or something. It was really amazing. So, you know, congratulations to Dr. Barnes, the staff, the parents, everybody who pulled it off. It's really really an incredible event. So, thank you for having me and um yeah, it was great. That's so
020nice. And the carousel of tomorrow is closing, so everyone should start going to Ellis Island at Westside, I guess. Yes. Yes. No, that's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else discussion items? Well, I just wanted to say um I know the student council, Can you hear me? The student council just brought up um the Normandy trip and I uh was in Normandy with I my daughter and I were in Normandy with Joe and Mr. Danoski and Mrs. Geyser and uh 13 students that were amazing. They were all they were there's really no words to even explain how wonderful it was. How the kids were so into it. They were so eager. They were polite. They were, you know, every step of the way. They were smiling. And it was um it was it
021was an unbelievable event. But I want to say thank you to the community who uh donated money in order to make this happen. So, that's really um you know, I I could go on and on and on, but I I'm pretty sure there'll be more to come. We have video and pictures and all kinds of things that we're going to be presenting, but I just wanted to say thank you for that. Thank you. and you can't thank yourself, but you did chair that remembrance bowl and that was a huge huge undertaking and Lisa Smith and everyone um really contributed quite a bit, but the two of you did a lot of the the heavy lift there. So, thank you for that. Okay, so I'm going to Oh, it's my your turn. It's my turn. Okay,
022I'm gonna look at my phone really quickly because that's where my notes are. Sorry. I always apologize now that we're on yonder time here. Let's see. Okay. Um, so it's been such a nice year and it's always sort of bittersweet to get to the end of the school year. Um, I know I always say this, I also work in a school and I look at the kids and I think I'm so sad to see you go for the summer and then I think I'm also so happy that I get to go for the summer. So, um, a bittersweet time. You see so much growth and, um, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone. Um, I don't want to name names or well, I'm going to name a couple names,
023but I don't want to get too specific because I'm bound to leave somebody out, but I want to thank the faculty, all of the faculty, and all of the staff and our schools, all of the parents who volunteer their time for all the wonderful parent organizations that support our schools and our students. And I want to thank our students for um rising to the occasion. I know we set a high bar here and you all set a high bar for them at home and in school and they get up every day and they really put their hearts into it. Um, as a board we're committed to continuing on improving this already incredible district and I want to take a moment quickly. So, I guess I'm going to recognize three people by name, but just to
024recognize that Joe is um getting near the end of his first year as our superintendent, and I wanted to thank him for everything he's done so far this year. So, thank you, Joe. I know we still have a lot of work to do before summer and then all summer, but I'll stop talking and say thank you to you. And then I wanted to So, thank you, Joe. And I wanted to thank two pretty incredible women who are sitting at the end of this table. And I'm going to try not to get emotional, but I want to thank you both for everything you've done for our schools. And um you know, Jen, we've just had so much time together and you've done so much. And even just in our last executive session, every detail of every
025piece of curriculum and everything that you put your heart and soul into um will always be grateful for. So, thank you. And I know the first time I ever met your husband, he said, "I wish I could see more of her." So, I'm hoping that he's going to be very happy. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend more time with you, too, right? I mean, that's you're pretty awesome. So, um, we have a little something for you. So, [Applause] and Candice. Um, you know, it's we're so excited to have you, Candace, and you're already going, and we know you're going to do great things, and we're going to keep our eye on you, and you know, you have a lot of ties here. So, maybe it's not goodbye forever, but here we've got a little
026flowers to say thank you to you, too. Thank you. [Applause] And I I just want to take a moment first, Jen. Uh we spent so much time together working. Many of times we had our offices right next to each other. Uh we quickly realized we were very loud talkers. Uh we didn't need to use the phone all the time to communicate. Uh, I know when I taught, my students always said when they went to the bathroom, they never missed any of the lessons because they could hear me or whether away in the bathroom. I could see at least two of them here. I think that they could say yes. They remember that. Uh, it was great working with you. Jen is so dedicated, so detailed orientated. I will miss you tremendously, Jen. Thank you. Thank
027you. And Candace, it's only been about 10 months, but it seems like it's been about 10 years that we work together. Uh, I wish you the best of luck in a good way. In a good way. In a very good way. Uh, good luck in everything. Thank you, Candace. All right. So, you're up. I'm up. Good evening, members of the board of education, staff, and community members. Welcome to the June 10th meeting of the board of education. Before we begin today, before we begin today's agenda, I want to take a moment to reflect on a recent experience. the nine-day learning journey to Normandy, France, taken by 13 of our high school students, Mr. Danusky, Miss Geyser, and myself. This was not just a trip. It was a transformative experience, one rooted in education, remembrance, and
028responsibility. The purpose of this trip was profound, to turn our students into living historians, ambassadors of memory who carry forward the stories of courage, sacrifice, and the devastating consequences of tyranny. They walked the beaches of Omaha and Utah where so many gave their free gave their lives for freedom, stood in solemn silence at the American cemetery and engaged with veterans and historians who entrusted them with a sacred duty of remembrance. Through this experience, our students were not simply learning about history, they were stepping into it. They came away with a deeper understanding of the cost of liberty and a renewed commitment to becoming upstanders in today's world. young people who will speak out against injustice, who defend the principles of democracy, and who ensure that the horrors of the past are never repeated. As educators
029and leaders, this is our ultimate goal to cultivate not just minds, but the hearts and voices. Individuals who safeguard freedom and stand firm against hate, bigotry in all its forms. I want to express my deep pride in our students and my gratitude for the community who made this journey possible. It is experiences like these that remind us why our work matters. Students met with three and four store generals along with the vice chairman of the joint tie of staff, Admiral Grady. But more importantly, they met with fellow students and made relationships that will last forever. This was truly an amazing trip. We were exhausted. We got up every day at 6:00 a.m. Went to bed, it seems like at 2 every night. But every day they asked for more. They spoke with uh people in
030San Margules and found out new places to go to and see how we could squeeze it into our itinerary every single day. They would go back in a moment. It was absolutely spectacular. And you know, you came together Saturday night when we were driving home from Helen Patton, the granddaughter of General Patton's house after an event, one of the students said, "Can we do school bus karaoke?" And yes, we have it on tape. We have it on tape. Uh Mr. Danuski, Mr. Gars, and myself and 13 students sang with the students for 50 minutes on the way home. It was truly remarkable. It It didn't feel like you were traveling with 13 students. They were great. They enjoy themselves. They learned so much and can't wait to report back everything they learned. And they taking
031on that responsibility of making sure that the fights that happened 80 years ago, 80 plus years ago, don't happen again. And if they do that, they will stand up to fight for freedom. It was truly remarkable. Thank you for everyone who supported the event. It was great. Thank you. As a little token for the uh of appreciation from to the board for their support, uh everyone there took home some sand from Omaha Beach. And for each of you, uh we we spoke with the students, everyone there, we have some sand that we brought for you as remembrance of the trip. So, let me give this out. Oh, now Lisa and I are crying. When we land when we landed at JFK, um I know what time is it, Joe? Like midnight. One of the girls
032on the trip said, "I know we left already, but I don't want to leave." Meaning she just wanted to go back to Normandy and um you know, do it all over again. So, thanks Joe for bringing this back. We also yesterday, God, that was only yesterday. It seems like at our flags for freedom event. Yes, we planned that the day we got back home at 2 am have an event at uh 8th period. We had our veterans come in where eight veterans spoke with our students, gave them American flags. They understand the symbolism of the flag each fold. We gave our veterans sand from Omaha Beach and they were truly taken back about why we went to Normandy. uh the sand and and why it's so important. It was truly a an remarkable event. This
033was our second year doing that. Mr. Denoski brought this into us last year. I thank you very much for doing that, Dan. It was wonderful. Thank you. It was a great event. I also do have an award from for Lisa Smith who won the board of board of achievement from the New York State School Boards Associated proud to present board achievement award. Lisa, congratulations. Y Lisa, get your picture taken. Lisa, [Applause] get a picture, Lisa. Take a picture. president, right? [Applause] Thank God for Amazon. That was so nice. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your support. So, tonight we are going to have a presentation of the year in review. So, Miss Lagatuda, who's doing two presentations tonight because she's incredible, um will start us with presentation number one. Thank you. There we So,
034as you all know, we have so much to celebrate in the 2425 school year. Uh 49 slides worth, but I have to say we have been very good at practicing our growth mindset. Last year we had 70 slides and we tried to be much better about being concise with our information. So there we go. what we are going to see uh throughout some of the slides and and just so everyone knows not to get nervous 49 slides. We're only doing a few minutes each. Okay. Um you all have as a record now these 49 slides which celebrate um basically what everyone in this room um and then some have contributed to. I'd like to thank our support from the board of education for for all of the initiatives that have been happening this year as
035well as our successes that we're going to be celebrating and to our administrative team and our staff for helping to contribute whether you gave some language in here or just for the successes. Again, everyone in this room is part of this. So, we have so much to be thankful for. And what I didn't have in here on Friday when this was posted, um, we have our trip from Normandy. They just returned on Sunday. I was two two o'clock in the morning. Just Yep. Monday morning. Um, so I'll come back to this one in a second, but I just wanted to share with you um some photos. Many of these courtesy of Mr. Danusky. Um, thank you. Extra freedom. Here we go. So, these are some photos um from our trip to Normandy. Again, memorable for
036our students and our staff to go, but these are some just some pictures. You can check out the posts from Mrs. Geyser and Mr. Danuski on on social media and um Joe is sending us many pictures as well. So, celebrating that, that was added. We had our flags for freedom which occurred yesterday. It seems like a week ago, but that was just yesterday. Um, we have pictures from that as well. Um, we were very fortunate to have our service members there. Uh, you can see them in the top left corner who were able to present the flags to our graduating seniors. So, those are new. Um, and what was added since Friday also just so I don't want anyone to think I was slick here. Um, but I did add three slides um surrounding something
037that was very important to all of us and that was the remembrance bowl. We had our Normandy lessons. Uh, so we have three slides worth. We have probably a thousand pictures. Um however we condensed to three slides just to remind everyone this is a record for all of us of what we accomplished this year with respect to Normandy lessons across the district. Uh which is no small feat. Um if if you all recall and I I know the teachers recall very well it was we started the school year and and we're all doing Normandy lessons. We have this week set aside um that we'll be doing that. So incredible efforts by all involved and those are pictures for you. Just to backtrack a moment, we are Whoops. Sorry for that. Uh we are celebrating not
038only our successes but the progress that we have made to achieving our board goals and our district goals. So just to remind everyone, these are are the board goals which will be referred to later on. And these are our district goals which have been in place since 2023. Um, some of them are long-term goals, which is, you know, why they're still in existence. We want to speak about our district-wide just a one quick minute on our district-wide climate survey. So, one of the board goals was to administer a perception survey to the parents, community, students, administration, and staff. And so, we have achieved this goal. This survey was given to our entire community uh to fill out. and the results are in the process of being tabulated and at a future board of ed meeting
039we will be sharing out those results. I'm just going to speak for a few moments. I'm going to start my two-minute timer now for myself and on behalf of curriculum instruction districtwide. This is a condensed bulleted list of some of our accomplishments. again everybody in this room um and and our in our schools district. So these are some things that we have been working on specifically this school year to achieve our goals and you'll see on the left hand side the goals that are being referenced with respect to these bullets. So we have our board of ed goal of improving our rankings and our district goal of improving student achievement and several ways that that's been happening. If you recall back in November, we had the news day article regarding our uh 3 through 8
040assessment data results. I presented in in January about that. We were just so just to remind everyone uh we ranked third amongst 126 school districts, third in our ELA assessments uh across Long Island, something to be very proud of, and sixth for math. Uh so that was something that we celebrated this year and we were recognized in news day. We also have uh our news day another news day article for being recognized for our AP computer science program female diversity award um which in which Melissa Mccle was recognized as well. I'm not going to read all of these. You have all of these to see but I do want to focus on a couple of them. We have our literacy initiative that we've been working on that's underneath our strengthening of instructional practices for staff
041which has been ongoing. We're in year two of our literacy initiative and we have been laser focused on targeted strategy instruction for our students and this has been supported by our in-house uh literacy coach along with the consultants we've been working with. And year two means that we have K1 and two joining a board and K1 and two will be in year their year two next year. Uh so when we say year two, this is actually year two for our grades three through six teachers. We still have our AP collegial circles that happened this year. We hosted 129 teachers across 43 districts. Incredible. uh we are still our teachers are still attending the AP summer institutes and I have to say that's something that of course is required for our new teachers of AP courses
042but but even for our teachers who have been teaching an AP course for year a couple of years they may be in year two year three um some have asked to to join in to to go a second round and it's it's not necessarily just about strengthening the content it's networking and you're meeting people and you're you're discussing instructional practices and it's great to compare ideas. Uh we're also trying to get as many of our staff members at the elementary level trained in Orton Gillingham. Um so especially our reading teachers and working on our special education department as well. So that's something else that we've been celebrating. And I also included for all of you some of our star not the data I mean I have that separately that you can see but just to
043show the growth in looking at our data we've been laser focused on literacy this year as one of our initiatives and we can see that there has been demonstrated growth by our students in the grade levels noted in their proficiency rates in their mastery rates and that's based on the star metrics and again that's just one measure. All right. So, I think my two minutes are nearly up. Um, you can see the the rest of the uh the bullets there in terms of of our achievements in working towards those goals. At this time, I'm going to pass it over to our principles. We're going to start with Mrs. Cosme, who will take two minutes to share with us what's been going on at Goose Hill in 2425. Thank you. Good evening, Board of Education and
044Superintendent Joe Monasterero. Thank you for another productive and successful school year at Goose Hill. This year we worked closely with our literacy coach and consultants to review data and guide our instructional practices. Our primary focus was on explicit instruction and differentiation to meet the diverse needs of all learners. Students engaged in strategy lessons grounded in the science of reading with targeted instruction in phmic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. We continued our work with Neuronet, an executive function exercise program that supports reading and math fluency, as well as Hegy Foundations, smallroup instruction, and datadriven planning to inform our next steps. We are now completing our endofear reading assessments and I'm pleased to report significant success. Last year, 80% of our first graders left Goose Hill reading at or above grade level. This year, that number
045has increased to 90%. Next year, we will aim for 100% mastery. We also participated in math curriculum pilots in our search for a rigorous, hands-on, and differentiated program to meet the needs of all of our learners. Family engagement remained a priority through monthly curriculum newsletters from both our grade level teams and special area teachers. Thank you for your continued support of our afterchool enrichment clubs and field trips. This year we added a new Lego robotics afterchool club which was a tremendous success. All three sessions filled within five minutes of sending up the signouts. We have 60 students who participated in Lego robotics and all students at Goose Hill had the opportunity to join a gooseill club, the first grade chestnuts club or the pioneer sports program. We are also grateful to the CSH ED Foundation,
046the GHPG, and the SID committee for supporting Global Play Day during the fall and winter months. Partnering with the youth ambassadors at the junior senior high and the high school social action committee, our students enjoyed screenfree adult station adult- free stations designed to foster curiosity, problem solving, flexibility, cooperation, intentionality, and self-confidence. Students rotated every 20 minutes to different stations, building new friendships through unstructured play. This year we implemented a new paper recycling initiative with the support of our former and current House and Grounds GHPG chairs Maggie Lovevet and Caroline Dora. Family fun nights were held at the Long Island Children's Museum, offering a wide range of exciting and engaging activities for students of all ages. Parent workshops were offered based on survey feedback and included topics such as January resol resolutions and routines, growth mindset
047and resilience, anxiety management, and healthy routines for ending the school year. These were held through our monthly GHPG meetings. We continue to welcome family involvement through numerous initiatives including the sit committee, superhero career day, the 100th day of school kindergarten concert, Earth Day planting, lunch and recess volunteer programs, our steam family circuit projects, and our literacy picnics and many classroom crafts. Thank you again for your continued support, and we look forward to another wonderful year ahead. [Applause] Thank you, Mrs. Cosme. I think I'm next. Lloyd Harbor. Okay. Thank you to our board of education and superintendent Monister and our teachers uh who are here with us tonight and our staff, parents, and the community. It has been a wonderful first year for me as the principal at Lloyd Harbor School. I am even more excited
048to spend a whole year um at Lloyd Harbor School next year. Um, and we're really looking forward to building on all of the momentum that that we've gained um at at the close of this school year. Um, our field day is tomorrow. It's going to be a great day. So, we're really looking forward and it's, you know, tuck and roll season as I like to call it. So much going on and so much energy in the building and and we're really um, you know, coming to a close quickly. It's it's unbelievable. Um, you know, to echo what Mrs. Logatuda and Mrs. Cosme uh said and began with we have been hard at work this year with our literacy strategies and our science of reading coaching work through our consultants and our literacy coach uh developing
049a common mental model as a new principle is you know very important and easy to a degree when you are building on the fine work of Mrs. Masimo who I was lucky enough to follow. You will hear at our faculty meetings, you know, over and over again, community first. Building relationships with our students is paramount and we go from there. Um, we have nothing if we don't have their their hearts and minds first and and getting to know our students. Targeting our small group instruction and making sure all of our instruction is student centered with literacy, rich literacy throughout every single lesson that we teach is is a major focus. Our curriculum, as you know, is brought to life. Mrs. Smith mentioned Ellis Island Day at Westside School. And we have many events that that
050occur, you know, the symbols of America, Colonial Day, um, and bringing all of our curriculum to life through our uh, events, our field trips, um, infusing our literacy focus throughout our school through our schoolwide readalouds, our monthly um, quotations, our themes, our events, our spirit days, our summer reading challenges to name a few. looking at data to drive our instruction and closing our gaps um through our AIS services and our IST meetings um and continuously questing for that hands-on inquiry and exploration through our our science instruction and curriculum um infusing professional development throughout everything that we do. Um you know you'll hear similar u things across the building including our science of reading professional development our ICT models and best practices responsive classroom and then building thinking classrooms are all um you know it works
051in progress um infusing our music and performance centered schoolwide assemblies so that younger students have the opportunity to see you know what they may like to pursue in terms of an instrument um and you or corally. You know, those are things that we do on a regular basis thanks to our director of music and our talented high school um and and upper grade level students and staff. Um CBT was rolled out to grade four this year and then continuing to streamline those practices for all of our our grade levels and then we will be fully implemented um three three through eight as of next year. um an increased focus on STEM clubs available to students and I will talk about that more on the next slide. And then I just talking about our parent partnerships
052and thank you so much for all that they do. Our SIT committee, our PTG, um SEPTO, everyone that supports us in in all that we do. We truly could not do this without our parents and our dedicated community. Um what does it feel like when you come to Lloyd Harbor? What what is our hope? um our welcoming environment and you know all of what makes LHS tick. Um what it means to be an LHS Lion and finally what it means to have Hiker values and hopefully this slide is is representing that. you know, our welcoming environment, our curriculum that's creative, our live broadcast that is studentdriven and produced daily, streaming live into our classrooms that brings us the news and also our, you know, driving all of our character and curriculum initiatives and and sharing,
053you know, what's going on in our building. Always seeking to honor our community and our through our culture of caring, our food drives, our animal supply drives, um, our hands-on learning. You know, the bottom left there is our friction project for grade three science. This year, our Lloyd Harbor spirit alive and well through a character day honoring world readaloud day. Of course, we always enjoy when um Lloyd Harbor goes out and and and wins. Um and that picture should be ve very familiar to everybody. That's our LISF first place win uh featuring Will, Kaden, and Anthony. And then uh finally I you know that bottom right picture 81 club offerings at Lloyd Harbor School largely and thanks to our PTG of course our school sponsored clubs um we have one chestnuts vendor um Septto our
054homework club truly everybody can find a place at Lloyd Harbor School and throughout all of our sessions our three PTG sessions are year-long clubs whether it's music art athletics um chess us. He really um you know there's there's something for everybody. Our points of pride, our field day was supposed to be today. This was going to be announced at field day. So you heard it here first. Um Lloyd Harbor and our sit committee raised $8,000 plus dollars for the Ronald McDonald House in or in honor of one of our students, Charlie Maluso, who is in a fight against cancer at the moment. So, we will be pretend presenting the check to Charlie's parents and his uh twin brother tomorrow morning at our field day opening ceremonies. um they don't even know the the number right
055now, but you know, they really insisted, we argued, but they insisted on donating the shirt so that all of our students would have a field day shirt and therefore all of the money that the community um donated goes towards um Ronald McDonald House and Charlie will be able to pass that check along um when he's feeling up to it. So, we're really proud of that. So, thank you for your support. Um, of course going on to our all of our NISMA participants, our math olympiads, tournament medals, we had three individual, one team medal this year. I mentioned our LISA first place in the middle school division. To our knowledge, it's our first time ever participating in a middle school. Um, you know, division. In terms of LISF, adding three new computer science school clubs this
056year, which were well attended, looking to expand on that next year. our AL all county art exhibition um honoring two students first place at the AATSP poster contest um you know that bottom uh center there we're very proud of our our students for their participation um our first ever Lloyd Harbor debut at the night of the living museum last week we had designers that created full um outfits for maker space in fifth grade. Our um high school was good enough to invite our designers to participate in the fashion show last week and they did a fantastic fantastic job creating entirely new outfits. They they threw out their maker space ones and wanted to do new ones. So, I mean, we're so proud of them. They were such professionals standing up there next to the high
057school students. Um Upper Elementary Code Conquest this year, 60 plus students in our Adams family musical, which was incredibly well cast. They will always be Morticia and Gomez and Pugsley in my minds for forever. Um, and then, you know, again, I I mentioned our LHTV little Apple fun run uh stats. We had a great day for that. And then our new cafeteria upgrades thanks to our PTG this year. And you know, just to kind of round it out, um, what what is it? What is our culture and what are our events? Um, and I've kind of gone through those and listed those out. our school themes, our school spirit Fridays, literacy infused. Um, if you watch LHTV, you'll know that we care a lot about poetry month and literacy and autism acceptance and world um,
058you know, Holocaust Remembrance Day and, you know, MLK and Red Ribbon and World Readaloud and, you know, there's there are so many things that are infused and you'll see those on our walls and on our in our doorways and as in terms of our celebrations and our projects across our building. um our lunch bunches, our friendship bench, our parent collaboration. We just really can't can't say enough. And I will leave you uh before I go let Westside come on up. Um really, you know, building on the good work that we did this year and and what Lloyd Harbor has represented all all the way up until now. Um the quote on the bottom is our words some of our words of wisdoms from from some of our past students. Um, our differences are what make
059the story of LHS a page turner. And in everything that we do and how we spend our time and what events we put our time and our curriculum and our instructional minutes to, that's what tells our story and that's what we live and breathe through our hiker values every day at Lloyd Harbor. So, thank you very much. And Westside, come on up. All right. Good evening everybody. I just want to first start by saying thank you so much to our board of education for your support and the tireless work that you do. Thank you so much to the westside faculty. I do want to say that um let me switch slides first. Uh I wanted to just give a shout out and a big thank you to our faculty members. I asked them all to
060create yearly highlights and they submitted many of the components and attributes we have highlighted in the slides. I know I do not have a lot of time to read the whole list but did want to mention that uh hopefully you don't see a Groundhog's Day and you see the innovation and us continuously working on our school improvement. In addition, we thank the Westside community members. So to begin when we think about fostering respect what is that in plain uh simple terms the golden rules making sure if we don't have anything nice to say treating others how we want to be treated and being mindful of boundaries and keeping our hands to ourselves inclusivity. What better way to support inclusivity than by welcoming our group of exceptional learners our ABA class that's been a seamless integration.
061In addition, our roll out with integrated co-eing and supporting a least restrictive environment for students to not be pulled out of classrooms, but to have the supports inside our classrooms and to really work in a continuous, collaborative, cohesive fashion. in addition our UPK program. It's been so amazing to see our two through six students rise up to support our our young whalers and to work in their buddy classrooms and such. In addition, below that you see we're really working to support a culture of kindness. How do we do that? by embracing all differences, by really breaking down the different holidays, the different national monthly themes, the campaigns like anti-bullying month, uh, blue shirt day, red ribbon week, and all those things that you see um, on our slide presentation, but in addition, I just want
062to say it's not by pointing out the differences. We start off by looking at the similarities and what are the common roads. And from there after we have the commonalities uh drawing a greater understanding of what those differences are but realizing that so much of culture is really about similarities the people in our lives the families in our lives and honoring the rich traditions and such. In addition below that you see the different ways that we streamline our communication. You might see our Westside Weeklysies, our parent square messages, our Twitter post, and really um our work to be proactive to partner with our PTG, our SIT, and such. Next slide. I'm going to try to keep to the time. You see some of our highlights and some of the things that we're most proud of
063here at Westside School, the rights of passage and our school traditions. Our next slide, when you think about and see our student achievement, I just want to say thank you so much to the Westside team members for embracing the literacy work. Thank you to Miss Su, Miss Lagatuda and our team. It's been exciting to see grade two launch. It's also been really exciting to see our work targeting small groupoup instruction, doing strategy uh based teaching and really working to bring our students to reach their maximum potential. So many points of pride, too many to list, but I just have to start by saying the first one, our Westside student council. You might have heard we were the 2025 sports night champions. So, a little proud about that from an academic standpoint. So excited and thrilled
064to share that two of our sixth grade students earned a second place and a fourth place in the Suffach County Virtual Math Tournament with our sixth grade team for the first time getting top three with a second place finish. We're so proud. We also want to thank um all of our teachers for the work they're doing each and every day. And thank you so much for your support of Westside School. I'd be happy to answer any specifics and I thank you so much for letting me speak tonight. Thank you. Uh so good evening. I will do my best to give the reader digest version uh without repeating as as much as possible about some of the larger district-wide initiatives. But I'll start with the the the incredible dedication of the staff, the teachers, the instructional
065staff, uh and their commitment to academic excellence. Just this past month, we finished administering 93 AP exams across our 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students. Um, and what's even more impressive is that's 913 exams over 34 different AP courses. Uh, when you think about that in a school at our size, it is truly impressive. And the fact that we have such a level of commitment from the the instructional staff and our students to to apply themselves to that level shows that um the vast majority of our student body is engaging in college level material. Our research program continues to thrive. We have 49 students across foundations advanced research honors, AP research, independent research honors who presented at our annual research symposium. Their work showcases um research spanning not just political science all the way to
066protein folding. Um, students participated in regional and national competitions in mathematics with an individual student advancing to the United States National Chemistry Olympiad exam. Um, speaking of prestigious awards, recognition by prestigious national programs underscores the quality and comp competitiveness of our academic environment. We had four national merit finalists, eight commended scholars, and a regeneron science top talent 300. Um, that places our students in the top tier of academic achievers nationwide. Um, post-secondary journeys. our class of 2025 who we will celebrate in just shoot two short weeks at graduation acceptance and enrollment at 73 diverse post-secondary institutions including Ivy League schools Brown, Cornell, Yale, UPEN, premier liberal arts colleges like Bates, TUS, Mbury, Welsley and Wesleyan and elite institutions such as Boston College, Georgetown, NYU, UNCC, Caltech, the United States Naval Academy and Georgia Tech. All
067demonstrates our ability to prepare the students for a wide spectrum of academic and professional pathways. Um, obviously partnering with our counseling office to bring an expansion of programs such as Rob Franics, finding the right fit. Uh, college essay writing hosted by admissions representatives from several schools. Um, state and national honors beyond academics. Obviously, uh, pretty strong year for our athletic program, winning state championship titles in girls varsity basketball and wrestling, and hopefully two more coming down the pike in the near future. Um, but outside the athletics arena, let's also talk about the fact that our music students celebrated NISMA Gold uh, Gold Awards. Um, we received Huntington Tony's in technical theater and costumeuming. Uh, we received honors in our speech and debate program with two of our students being state finalists and one student who
068didn't achieve finalist but going a perfect 4 and0 at the New York State qualifier illustrating the diverse strengths of our student body. Um, our visual arts and facts program also garnered accolades including all county exhibition participation and two winners in the Long Island best exhibition. Uh, a special recognition worth note. Um, member of our staff, Jennifer Pickering, named a 2024-25 New York State Master School Counselor. Um, to say that our students benefit from that involvement is a gross understatement. Um, our students have earned high honors in some of our extra and co-curricular activities such as Grock, our award-winning art and literary magazine. um our pilot group of students for the New York State Seal of Biiteracy. I I would say that a gross understatement would be that they knocked it out of the park with
069their endofear presentations with uh native speakers. Um these accolades are not one-off success as part of a sustained culture of high expectation supported by incredibly dedicated educators and engaged families. Uh we talk about um some of the the events that we've held this year, the Remembrance Bowl and some of our character development events, our Field of Flags fundraiser, um our Steam program, building and designing prosthetic limbs for dolls that are designed to be matched up with children who have prosthetic limbs. um schoolwide events, Unity Day, mental health May, our our autism awareness spirit week and chalk the walk, which what our students produced on the front walkway of the the junior senior high school this year blew me away when we got the drone video. Um where basically from the parking lot all the way
070around to the entrance of the pack and the front entrance, every panel of the sidewalk was dedic was designed with sidewalk chalk to uh celebrate the differences in our school community. Um, obviously we talk about uh guest speakers, night of the living museum, some of our interdisciplinary steam projects that are designed to bring our students not only across uh content areas within the high school but also to bring up excitement from the students rising up to the high school. Uh the successful implementation of these initiatives shows that our staff values um our student and activity uh act our staff and students value and actively foster belonging and acceptance. Um I would like to say uh we had a large number of student led events this year as well which is always great to see at
071the junior senior high school when you see students take on leadership roles and take on the initiative to organize an event. Uh we had our second career day held by uh or led by a student Nicole Shrock alongside the guidance of our mental health counselor Jen Herald along with student organized pep rallies fundraisers with toy drives that that collected a tremendous amount of toys at Christmas time to bring to Cohen's Children's Medical Center. um our AP collegial circles and and what a a tremendous source of pride for us at the junior senior high school now I believe the third year that we have hosted these AP collegial circles 143 teachers or 120 teachers from 43 districts that have come here. We have we have stepped up to the surrounding school districts and said we will
072take the lead on this. Partner with us. give our staff and your staff the time to engage in this important work because the only people who will benefit from it are the students and and the numbers have only continued to grown every grow every time we host one of those collegial circles. So incredibly incredibly excited about the foundation that has been laid with the collegial circles and looking forward to expanding that. Um sorry try not to repeat too many things. Streamlining communication. Um special thanks to Mrs. Harmon for uh making the junior high corner a permanent exhibit in my weekly newsletters. Uh always great for her to make sure that everybody's aware of all the great things happening in grades seven and eight as well. Um and really I think a lot of the effort
073that she has put into the junior high corner uh has led to really great conversations about transition from from elementary school into the junior high school and from the junior high school into the senior high school. um you know continuous improvement I would say is uh something that is is at the forefront of what we talk about in in our meetings in our department meetings our our faculty meetings um where we celebrate great things but we recognize we still want to do more we still we still have things that we can take the initiative on just today our students took the new life sciences biology regent exam I'm surprised when I called around to some of the neighboring schools that not as many schools as I thought were offering that exam this year um yet
074again thank you to the work of of Mr. Taylor and our and our science staff for for kind of spearheading that and being one of the first districts in our area to offer that exam. Uh in the in the uh counseling center, the addition of a director of counseling has been a great asset to us because we have um expanded our offerings. Um lots of communication coming from the counseling staff for expansion of nighttime events, recording of nighttime events to be then shared with the community if they're not able to get there. um a collaborative highly competitive colleg's launch that has worked and provided our students opportunities to learn more about distinguished institutions. Um I guess the the closing thought would be uh it becomes clear that success is not an accident. Uh it's the
075deliberate vision, relentless dedication of our staff, our students, our families and our community from collaborating outstanding celebrating outstanding academic achievements and prestigious recognitions to fostering a positive and inclusive culture. Um, I don't see our school as as simply a school. I see it as a community that is committed to the idea of excellence uh and opportunity for for every single student. Um, and while I share a lot of these highlights with great optimism, I remain confident that the best truly is yet to come. [Applause] We are going to uh leave the rest of the presentation for all of you to view. And we do ask that you do take the time as you can. This is a 49page document that I I don't think I've said that enough. I'm going to say it again. 49page
076document that people have truly poured their hearts into um so that you can see what we have been accomplishing to get closer and closer to our goals. So, thank you all, everybody in this room, and we would greatly appreciate if you could read them. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. We're so lucky. Really, thank you. It's incredible the amount of work that goes into making each and every day what it is here for our students. So, thank you to everyone. This is amazing. All right, Jen, you want to come talk to us about math, too? Moving along. Oh, sorry. And Brian Taylor also. Hello, Brian Taylor. Hello. All right. Uh, good evening, uh, board of education. Um, I am proud to present, uh, the culmination of over a year's worth of work on,
077um, looking at our elementary mathematics program. Um there's a lot of people that were a part of this and we'll we'll acknowledge them at the end of the presentation. Um why are we looking to adopt a new math program? Um, one of the first meetings that I had with some of our elementary faculty when I got here, uh, last year, um, was with our second grade teachers and they expressed some concern about the fact that we were using one program in Goose Hill and then a second program at Lloyd Harbor and Westside. And it was a difficult transition for our second graders going, you know, for many reasons. First of all, they're going from Goose Hill to new buildings. Uh they're going from the oldest students in the building to the youngest students in the
078building. And then on top of that, trying to learn the mechanics of a new math program. So that was one of the main reasons why um we started this process. Um we also are looking to find a program that is going to do uh a better job of supporting student centered instruction. Um research has shown that students must be at the center of our instructional practices. Um we um which leads me to the second the third bullet um building thinking classrooms. Uh building thinking classrooms is a researchbased approach to student centered instruction and uh and about teaching students to become thinkers. Um, I think one of the things, as you know, the board goal of improving our rankings is that we need to teach students how to think. Um, I, you know, as a former
079chemistry teacher, there was always that one or two questions on the chemistry regents where, you know, we're like, "Wow, where did that one come from?" Well, if we're not teaching students how to think, they're going to struggle on those types of questions. So, it's it's our responsibility to teach students how to think, the best way to do that is in a student- centered classroom. Um we want to we also want students to understand mathematics on a conceptual level. Um not just algorithms and how to solve problems but understand how the concepts build into uh a deep understanding of mathematics. Uh and we also want a program that is going to support all students through differentiation. Um building thinking classrooms. Uh this is something that uh I have been working with our teachers K uh through
080uh 12 this year. Um the the book in the righthand corner um we are using as a book study with the high school mathematics department. Uh we've been reading a chapter every month and discussing it at our department meetings. Um building thinking classroom is a mindset and a and a classroom structure. Um, it is centered on the the the old model is I do, which means the teacher does, we do as a class, and then you do. It flips that on its head. It's having the students work first, then bringing together as a class, and then any type of followup that the teacher may have to do in direct instruction at the end. Um, this gives the students opportunities to work on problems, to discover their own way to solve them. Um it also makes
081it un makes it okay for students to make mistakes. Um you know fail first attempt in learning. It is very important that students understand that it is okay not to get the right answer the first time that you need to continue to work at something and that's when real learning happens. Um and it's also about the students doing the thinking and not just mimicking what the teacher has presented. So, I'll let uh Jen kind of talk through the the timeline of the committee. I I also just want to say that for a student- centered classroom, it it doesn't mean that explicit instruction is not taking place. It's just when it's taking place. So, I just I saw some some eyes. I love an explanation of that. How does that work? We're going to go more
082into depth, but basically it's allow it's an inquirybased model where you present a problem to the students that they think about first and they they chat about it with someone else. You come back whole class, you compare ideas and then the teacher there is I just want to be clear there is explicit instruction involved in every lesson that doesn't go away. It's just the order in which the lesson these come up in the lesson. Uh just quickly to take you through the timeline. And I know questions came up in the past about you know did we look into what other school districts are doing. So just to reiterate uh the f one of the first things that we did is we surveyed our staff. So this was back in the last school year. So between
083January and June of the last school year. We opened up a survey to our teachers. We wanted to hear from them what did they think about our current math program with respect to the conceptual understanding that they felt that students were were getting the materials themselves the ease of use. So they were surveyed. Uh we also did research and put a survey out to our own colleagues to determine what programs were they using and then we triangulated all of that information with what were their success rates. So was there a a relationship between the program they were using and how well their students were performing? So we triangulated that as well. What we found in collecting that data is that there wasn't a consistent program that that was being used across uh the districts. It
084was it was very much a mixed bag but a number of them had been using go math which is similar to the envision math program that we had been using. Um, I would argue that regardless of the program, really the focus should be on instruction. The program doesn't lead us. We lead the program. It's it's based on what we think is important in our district. Uh, we created the committee uh beginning of I'm sorry, the end of August through October was the committee creation. Uh, that was voluntary that was offered to any teacher who wanted to be involved. We had the presentations by the programs by Savas, Imagine Learning, and HMH. they presented the the programs that we would be piloting so that we that we would hope to be piloting. We didn't actually go
085with all of them. Um but we listened to what they had to say. Um, and then obviously with the pilot, we needed the teachers to be trained and so teachers uh we set up some time for them after school so as not to disrupt their instructional day and they were compensated for that to have teacher training outside of the school day and that took place between uh March and May along with the pilot. So it was the training and the pilot and then following that May and June we debriefed as a committee and I have to say we didn't come to a consensus as a committee um but what we learned through the and this will be on a future slide um we didn't come to consensus however we came to consensus almost a consensus
086about um moving away from envision math there were some amongst our committee that um felt strongly about Envision Math. They've been very comfortable with it. They've been making it work. But the majority of the committee felt that we should go in a different direction. And so, as we were ruling things out and and getting into a deeper discussion, you know, we'll talk more about how we came to the recommendation of illustrative map. So, as Jen said, um we had committee meetings almost every month from October to May. Um in the first meeting, we did discuss the math programs being used across Long Island. Um what we noticed was that there is not it basically if there's a math program out there, it's being used by someone on Long Island. There is not a consistently um
087consistently used program in in any of the districts across Long Island. Um, one of the first thing we did was establish non-negotiables of what we were looking for in a new program or any program even if it was one of the programs that we had uh we are already using. Um, we we wanted a program to be standards aligned and rigorous. We wanted it to have hands-on activities with manipulatives. We wanted it to have differentiated materials for our struggling learners and for enrichment. uh we wanted it to have assessment strategies uh a spiraling component and a robust amount of family resources uh to help our support our families in and helping their students learn mathematics. Um at one of our meetings we re uh reviewed the Ed Reports. Uh Ed Reports is an independent nonprofit
088that reviews curriculum materials and provides an unbiased as as unbiased as things can be um assessment of of different types of curriculum materials. Um we then debriefed with our pilot teachers. Uh we did offer them a survey. All of the pilot teachers did participate in the survey and provided feedback on the program that they had piloted. Um we discussed the pros and cons of each program and analyze the survey results um in our in our final two meetings. So as as Jyn stated earlier, we did invite in um three of the programs to provide presentations. Um, Savas presented their envision math. Uh, imagine learning invent um, excuse me, presented illustrative math and hot and mifflin hard um, presented um, go math. Um, as you could see there were pluses and minuses of each program. Um,
089we felt that with Go Math, it was so much similar to Envision Math, which we were already doing, that it we really didn't feel like it was a program that we needed to pilot because we were already using Envision, which is is very similar. Um, so in the pilot, uh, we piloted Envision Math and one of our kindergarten classes. Um, Envision Math is being used in our 2 through six classrooms. Uh, Eureka Math Squared was piloted in a kindergarten classroom, a first grade classroom, uh, and all of our second grade classrooms in both Westside and Lloyd Harbor. Uh, illustrative math was piloted in our in a first grade classroom and, uh, the two third grade classrooms at Westside. Um, so we had a a lot of different teachers involved in this pilot. They all provided
090feedback. The feedback that is um that is listed there is is the highlights from the survey that each of them u completed after they had finished their pilot. So I'll let Jen So we are recommending to I think we skipped us. Do we we are recommending to go with illustrative math. Uh again if you look at the feedback from the prior slides some of the concerns about the envision math program uh some teachers have commented about the lack of space for example in the student workbooks which cause them to there there's a way to go onto the platform where teachers are able to modify what's in the student book. And so they often find themselves doing that to allow more space for students. So sometime we have the book, but sometimes they're they're recreating sheets
091um because of the lack of space. The pages are very busy, so it it's difficult. Students get a little distracted when they're looking at the pages. Uh this particular program, I do have samples. Um Candace, if you want to pass those down to um to Bill. I have samples of the student workbooks um that they are certainly more simplified on their pages. And the the other complaint about um Envision and not by all by the way there there are still many teachers out there who are very comfortable with the program and you know and feel that we could make it work despite the uh the challenges. But the committee um was not in favor of moving forward with Envision for the reasons that I'm stating. Lack of rigor was another thing that came up regarding
092the Envision math program that there there were mixed places for rigor but it was not consistent across the board. So we are proposing illustrative math and you'll see on the next slide all of the reasons. Um one of them is um again it's the student centered instruction that we are striving to get towards and many of our teachers are doing that already. We have um teachers who are using a station model in the classes uh where students are rotating whether it be an independent group uh it could be that they are doing a retach um or for enrichment they're they're moving beyond what's what's in the lesson. So that that has already been happening. But there there's a drive to get us all to that point. And the student centered instruction allows for our students
093to develop creative thinking and a a deeper sense of thinking about something before an idea is shared with them. And think about that. If someone tells you how to do something, that's what's stuck with you in your brain. As opposed to you're thinking about it, you're developing your own ideas about it. and then you're coming together and sharing ideas that is something that is very strong in this program. Um it's the the student centered model. In terms of the imple implementation, we are a little mixed on this. This was I know that Joe and I talked about this recently as well. We have gone back and forth and we've communicated with the teachers. I have to say that the teachers have been critical in this entire process. Uh they attended the committee meetings. They piloted.
094We had volunteers who piloted and they expressed their concerns and I'm going to share them with you because I need everybody to remember. One of their concerns about switching to a new program. They understand this the whole student centered instruction. They're on board with that. The concern is we start something and it doesn't get finished. And this is something that happened years ago when um we have right now the reason we're in the position we are is the plan was Goose Hill was going to start with the Eureka math not the new one not the Eureka math squared and then after they did that it would follow through to the other grades. It it just didn't for whatever reason and I don't know it could have been COVID I'm not sure this was before that
095time. Um so their ask is if we're committing to this and we all believe that this is the right way to go then then there needs to be followthrough and we have a plan. We have a detailed plan for how that's going to happen and how they are supported through this process because this is a big this is a change for some it will be a change in in how they're presenting the material and it's a change in adjusting to a new platform new workbooks and the math is still the math. So I don't want to take that away. They they they know how to teach the math, but it's it's teaching it in a way that is aligned to this philosophy. So that's the their first ask is that if we're committing to this,
096we have a detailed plan in place. Is it a two-year plan? Is it three-year? Is it four-year plan? Whatever it is, the second ask is that they are supported the entire way. This this is, you know, a big undertaking and they they need to be supported. I know we have the point to math coach and we are so grateful that we have a sliver of of the math coach. We would like to use the math coach to support the teachers. But again, I I am torn on the the roll out. On one hand, we want to get this type of instruction out, you know, as quickly as possible to our students. However, we need to make sure that that the teachers are with us. They're also going through literacy training. So think about K1 and
097two will be in year two of their literacy initiative. And now again if we are moving to a new program, this is another thing. And I'm not saying it's it's going to be extremely difficult. They're quite intelligent. They can handle that part of it. But it's it's all of the getting to know another platform that takes time. Lisa, you had your hand up. Um, do you think it might be worth waiting a year until we can possibly develop a budget for a full-time math coach to help the teachers? I mean, I'd like to give them the the most amount of support that they need in order to roll out a new program. Like, do you think the math coach is is the only way? Well, I don't think it's the only way. I think that
098if if we don't have as much of a math coach, they may need some more release time. They need time with their grade level. So, if we're doing a K1 and two, we have second grade teachers in two different buildings. When are they going to have time together outside of our extended faculty meetings? Recall that two of them are used for parent teacher conferences. Two out of the five of those extended faculty meetings. So, my initial thought in in speaking with Mr. Taylor was we start out slow and again we can think about this but grade K to start with because grade one coming up they've already been exposed to Eureka math and they can change they're we we get that start with K and then ramp it up but while K is starting with
099a full implementation the other grades are doing whether it be two units or three units each to start getting comfortable with the materials. So, you know, although it would be wonderful if we could get all of this going as quickly as possible, if it has to be done thoughtfully to ensure that we we have this to the fidelity, the proper fidelity. So, those are my thoughts. Um this would be the the quick way of the the K to2 and again the teachers can get there provided that we give them the layers that they need. It would have the the point 2 coach and they would need time the grade two teachers would need time together and then the following year would be the the remaining grades and then grades three through six if we did
100this plan grades three through six they would be adjusting by doing let's say two units one in the fall one in the spring. Again, that's something I'd like to further discuss uh with the teachers, but but at least doing several units that year to get their feet wet with the new program. So, I would like to know your thoughts and if you have any other questions before we we talk more about the um the benefits of this program. Good evening. Good evening. Um couple questions. So it says here we looked around what other districts are being used on Long Island, right? Correct. So number one, Long Island doesn't have all the solutions. Why are we limiting ourselves to this peninsula? If it's a peninsula, I don't know. It's late. Um why don't we look at
101New York State? um why don't we look at the best districts in the country and see what they're doing and maybe we have to stay within the state for state approved programs. So why aren't we looking instead of across Long Island at at what the best districts are using? Well, we we tried to use Long Island as they are comparable districts and we we have referenced several times within our meetings that we that there are other schools who we are aspiring to achieve to a similar level. So, we were looking at all of those schools. Okay. I I think we should look at not when we hire, when we do things, let's not look geographically. Let's um let's go where the excellence is. And uh anyway, so what's is this like a new educational theory
102of learning like to or is this been around and we're catching up? This is this is not new. Again, some some districts gravitate towards it. They believe that this is the the best way to create to foster creative thinking, critical thinking skills. This has been around. It's taking the I do, we do, you do, and as Mr. Taylor said, flipping it around. I actually I I work in a school that's inquiry based, and that's the way math is taught. I mean, it's not this specific math curriculum, but that's the way math is taught all the way through. This is something that I'm focusing my doctoral dissertation on. This has been around since the early 19th century with John Dwey. So, this is not a this is not a new model. This is a model that
103has kind of taken a slow path to to being accepted, but it is, in my opinion, the best way for students to become thinkers. Um, because if we, as I said, as Jen said, if if we're telling them how to do something, then that is going to be stuck in their head, and some students may not understand it that way. If we allow them to work with it first and then we work with them together and then we kind of hash out the the best strategies, that is where we get, you know, the the most thoughtful students that we can have. No, I I like the concept and to me it it seems to foster thinking and that's a good thing, of course, but um I was wondering if there was a reason we weren't
104doing this already and or if this is a new concept. Um, but if it was an existing concept, um, I'm glad we're catching up or we're doing it now because I think it it fosters creativity, critical thinking, intel, you know, I just want to be careful about not generalizing because we have many of our teachers despite the fact that we're using Envision Math and I don't even mean that as a negative, but our teachers have been already doing their best to promote all of these things that we're talking about. The reason we're suggesting this program is we feel this type of program and you know I would like to hear your thoughts about if if you want us to look elsewhere what specifically are you not seeing in this program. Um but really honing in
105on the um which program will be best to help us get there as an entire staff. And so our staff when they're doing their lessons, they're not directly in all cases going to modeling first. We have many of our teachers who have manipulatives out all the time. You know, we we recently were in Miss GC's class. Um she if you walk into her room, we have students who are five years old who have created their own games that they're playing on the floor. So I I just want to be careful that we're not generalizing. We're we're trying to move towards a program that gets us all in the right direction. Um so I just want to be careful about how we're talking and I apologize after you said this. This is just a resource. It's
106not the curriculum. So this is the main resource we use and staff will use other things or create things on their own. Absolutely. They'll continue to use some of the resources they have now that they're using with their students. It's a resource, not the curriculum. So in terms of and and just to get back to you in one moment um Mark about why I know it's the non-negotiables this program is doing that uh it's the problem based learning it's the student talk I'm going to tell you we received a couple of emails from parents uh by the way all of the parents who were who their children were involved in the pilot the parents were aware so that all of a sudden they weren't getting different things home and and wondering and we had a
107few parents said, "Oh my gosh, I I've never seen my child so excited to talk about math." And they were excited to do their homework and they were excited to talk about it. So, we were seeing, and not that all of them were banging down our doors, but we were we were receiving some positive feedback. I'm not putting down any of the other programs. I want to be clear that we're not putting down any of the other programs. We're just thinking about our philosophy and our vision here in the district in terms of increasing our rankings and really giving the students the opportunity to the center stage to hear what they have to say in the lesson. That's what that's what this is focused on. Jen, have you in implementation and coming through with your
108recommendation, have you did you talk to any other districts who have recently implemented this? Yes. And how did they approach it and where would they have done it differently? Yes. So we um we have been in contact with Garden City and again I I I've shared this already but I will reshare what every district is using not every but a lot of districts and what their scores their test scores have been. Uh but Garden City they they said that they have a very strong director there and they had to roll it out. I think theirs was either three or four years. She said, "I'm just going to warn you. This takes time to roll out. This is it's a lot to do. It takes time for the teachers to adjust. Again, we're adjusting to two
109things. The instruction and the program." Um they also said that what this is lacking in that we have a solution for and the teachers mentioned this as well is um a lack of a practice book. So right now our teachers and our students are used to having we have our workbook and then we have our practice book that has more problems. And so they said either make sure you have curriculum writing in place to supplement with more practice examples or what we're going to do because as you can see from our list of curriculum writing projects this summer, we're not going to have enough staff to do that. But we are looking into um several practice books that are very much aligned to the illustrative math philosophy. So we will have um provided that we
110move forward, we would make sure we have a practice book in place for the teachers. That was the one other thing that we were warned about. Um the other district who recently um they just conducted a math pilot as well as Seafford and they chose to go with illustrative math for the same reasons that we're talking about. I'm not sure if they're doing curriculum writing to um to supplement. Um I also want to mention with this program a lot there are a lot of free resources. So a lot of free stuff comes with this. You can look it up online. It's it's what they call open source. Um so everybody has access except to the you'll see the uh the books that are going around. Those are not free. Those are things that we would
111purchase. So, um, but yes, we have spoken to districts who recently rolled it out and their warning was it takes time. Um, once you get there though, it's it's working. And again, being very thoughtful, making sure the teachers are supported and and again, it's the practice problems. There aren't enough practice problems. So, you might get through those pages in a lesson. We need more for the students to work on. And the only other thing that was mentioned was there are word problems in there but but our teachers they would prefer to have more and I completely agree. So that would be something else that we would have to ensure whatever that practice book is that and I I want to look at that with the teachers but that it's covering basically two things that we
112want a separate practice book and it's covering all of our word problems. So, um I see what you mean. This is much more content heavy, crowded, much more um open, empty. Um, look, at the end of the day, I will not know by the end of this presentation which is the way to go, but you're the professionals. So, we rely on you to do the research and tell us what your recommendations are because I can't look at books and if I did my work like this, I'd be fired. You know, if when I work for my clients, so I can't just look at a few things and say, "Oh, this is this is the way to go." So, we trust you. Um, you said there's two camps and you know, are they 50/50, 7030? Are
113the half the staff going to be like, I can't believe we just made this switch. So, we gave the opportunity for um for the staff to fill out. We didn't get as many responses as we hoped. I can only speak for the committee right now. We we wanted to ensure So, this is how you know it works when you're looking to adopt a program. You work with a committee. Everybody was invited. So I'm speaking to you about the committee. We had a really good discussion. We um we met with them twice after the pilot just to make sure that we were all in a similar place and as I shared with you before some expressed the comfort and the they felt fine with envision math and they thought we could make it work. Um but
114the there were many members on the committee so I would say 7030 who said to move away from envision and I'm just estimating but it was it was about that for the committee. I can't say that across the entire teaching staff. Um we when we gave out the original survey the one that I talked about the last school year between January and June we only had 16 teacher 16 fill out that survey. So, and I get everybody's busy, but based on the feedback we're receiving, um, that's where we left off as a committee. So the committee didn't say we have to go with this program but what we did hear them say is we should move away from envision math again the 7030 and you know again for the reasons that I mentioned and they
115also um the Eureka math squared although better than the Eureka we're using right now in KN1 they just felt that we we saw a lot of responses by the piloting teachers that it wasn't rigorous enough and we even had someone on our committee where they have Eureka Math Squared in their school district and they he he reported that it wasn't as rigor and I know we're going to be wrapping up. No, I just had a quick question actually because I was looking at the committee and you said it was about 7030 on the committee. So the committee looks like it's six administrators and five teachers or is there a bigger committee than the committee I'm sorry there the I'm going to say the extension of the committee were those who piloted. We invited them to
116Okay. So all of the piloting teachers and you know what we should have included them on this. So I was just wondering what the split then was between teachers and administrators on the So okay so we we did not all I wanted to hear the teachers the teachers are that's what I want to know what the teachers did. Great. Yeah it was u me me I was on there and Mr. Taylor and on the last I I had to call a Zoom to get everybody together. Okay. uh because I didn't want to have them wait after school and we we didn't say what we what we preferred. We all just decide we all preferred a student centered approach but we really wanted to hear from the teachers. So when I say 7030, that was coming
117from the teachers. Okay. Okay. Not from not from the administrators. This list of correct it's a good list of people, but I was just wondering with the small numbers here. Correct. I'm not a math teacher, but it could be divided up in a very specific way. So, okay. Got it. You're right though. You're And that was misleading. So, you are absolutely correct. Thank you. Thank you. I I mean I I think it sounds wonderful, but I and I, as Mark said, you you all have spent a lot of time working on this and um I think anything that helps kids to get excited about learning math is exciting to me. So, thank you. Go ahead. I was just going to ask how does this program does this program help the transition to the junior high
118school? Does it dovetail with our seventh grade math curriculum? Yeah. So it will because as I said we have been working or I have been working with our 7 to2 teachers on the building thinking classrooms mindset. So we're moving towards a more you know student centered approach in our secondary math classes. So, um it will, you know, as these students move up, um we're hoping to see the same types of activities and and learning u experiences in our secondary math classes. Okay. Thanks. And and just to add to that, from grade one to grade two now, think that there it's going to be the same language and same philosophy and same instructional approach going from one to two. So that's less of a transition for our students going from one to two, which is why
119we're trying to get to one math program to begin with for K to six, right? So that's our recommendation. I just wanted to say uh last meeting you you presented the report card um overhaul and that was a lot of work and this is also a great undertaking. So thank you very much. Really excellent. Thank you for saying that. I have to agree with Jen and Brian and everyone on the staff put in so much time in testing the lessons out, testing the units out, working with the students. It is a huge undertaking. Thank you very much. Yeah, a huge shout out to our teachers. This was a big undertaking. And uh Kate and I came and reviewed, we looked at some of the books prior to the meeting and had some talks with you.
120And um a great thing for parents is that Illustrative Math has a QR code specifically to help parents help their kids at the kitchen table when they're doing homework. So, you know, you don't have to relearn it. You can kind of say like, "Oh, this is, you know, let's you can't figure it out. I can't figure it out either." Like, let's look together. So, that that just seems really helpful. That's great. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yes. Every unit, by the way, comes with a QR code so that when teachers saying, "I don't know how you learned this. This is how I learned it when I was in school." Now, you can you can look it up using the QR code. We have our phones handy. And there it is. Thank you. Okay.
121So, committee reports. Did any committees meet since our last board meeting? Policy, where where are you at? Meet we meet again this week. Yeah, policy policy met uh when Friday. Two Fridays ago. Two Fridays ago. Um and both items I think are being presented tonight. Um so we did talk about and revise the students and personal electronic devices policy. So, we already had a policy, but we conformed our policy to some degree to the New York State requirement. I would say mostly our policy was in pretty good standing already. We added some recommended language around um use for, you know, for children that had needs to use it in school to make sure we didn't run a foul of like the education law. So, uh that's actually up for first read tonight. Um, and what
122was the other one? Oh, we've been discussing uh exeicio uh student uh board member, which is another New York State requirement that was recently passed and uh will become effective with the new school year. Um, and we're we're still talking through before we make a recommendation to the full board about how to implement that. So, that that's going to require more discussion. Did I miss anything? school district uh records. Uh we did an update on what's counted as a Cold Spring Harbor record and what is for a state record. Uh this is all leading to allowing um parent groups to be able to get contact information in in an efficient way. And there's four times tonight and that have to do with that Cold Spring Harbor School District record and it's pretty much a referral
123to those to that record in each policy. It's not a major material change. It's it's just updating which record we're using. For the most part, it's updating the record. Yes. Right. Right. LGS fun stuff. Sounds very bureaucratic. Yes, it's a good time. Good time. All right. They're great meetings. Thank you. Policy, Mr. Barn Burner, LGS1. That's right. Um, did any other committees meet since the last meeting? I don't I don't believe so. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, now the moment some of you have been waiting for. We are going to continue with our first audience to visitors. The Cold Spring Harbor Board of Education and Administration welcome your attendance at board of education meetings. Audience to the public affords residents an opportunity to address the board of education on both agenda and non-aggenda items.
124Each resident is allowed to speak for three minutes. This is not the forum to discuss student or staff specific issues. Please contact the district separately on these matters. Now is the time. Hi, how are you? Mary Rein. I have two girls in the district. Um, I was wondering if I could, you know, ask a little bit about the contract negotiations going on with the teachers. Um I realize that's rhetorical question. Um I get it you can't talk about it their negotiations but I'm very concerned because the last I heard um there was one statement made and I think it was in February about um Long Island teach or Cold Spring Harbor teachers being the highest they were being congratulated on being the highest paid in on Long Island. Uh third highest in New York State
125I believe. I have to say that was unprofessional, highly problematic, and just flatout wrong. Um, to make that kind of statement at a public board meeting in the middle of negotiations, you're trying to skew the public's opinion of the teachers that they're being too greedy and they're already being paid enough. That's not okay. As a member of this community, we want transparency. And if that's what's being said at the meeting, I can only imagine what's happening behind closed doors. Just sign it, please. Thank you. [Applause] Anyone else? Okay. Um, we're now going to move on to approval of minutes. So, the May 13th meeting, all were present. May I have a first? Lisa, second, Heather. Any questions? All in favor? May 27th. Uh, Bruce and Bill were absent. May I have a first? Lisa, may
126I have a second? Heather, any questions? All in favor? Thank you. All right. Um, we are now going to move to personnel recommendations of the superintendent. So, I have this listed as a slate. Is that how you want to take it? Yeah. Okay. So, all contracts uh all resignations, appointments, and personnel contracts on pages 3 through 16 as a slate. May I have a first? Heather, may I have a second? Lisa, are there any questions? Yeah. Um, how do we vote if we weren't present for like interviewing? So um why don't we break out then there was uh the in interview here. So a page three we've got here number 14A hold on our council is in session with somebody else right now. Oh, hi. Yeah, that's okay. So, we need to break out number
12714A, I think, the appointment of Brian Taylor as um I need to take a motion to do that because people were absent for that interview. Is that correct? And we'll vote on that separately. Sure. So, why don't I take a motion? may have a first Heather. Second, Bill. Any questions? All in favor? All right. So, we'll take everything as a slate first. Is that proper procedure? Okay. So, um everything as a slate minus 14A. May I have a first? Heather. Second. Kate. Any questions? All in favor? Thank you. And now um for the appointment of Brian Taylor. Absent were Bill, Bruce, and Mark. I I was there. Oh, you were there for the perission for Oh, you were there for that interview. Okay. All right. So So just Bill and Bruce were absent. Um so
128all in favor for Brian Taylor. All opposed. and abstaining. Okay. Um I think I'm abstaining there. They were Yes. Abstained. So now we are going to move on to business recommendations. I just have to get to that page. Page 17. Uh donations, change orders, budget transfers, the claims auditors report on pages 17 through 19 to be taken as a slate. May I have a first? Lisa second. Heather questions. All in favor? May. Now we're going to take all additional business matters on pages 19 through 22. May I have a first bill? May I have a second? Heather, any questions? Yeah, for item I, um, sorry, Joe, can you just explain what we're approving because it this is the item relating to, uh, when reserve funds are available at year end. We we get to allocate
129them. Do we're not doing that at this meeting, right? We're not allocating here. This is in Speaker Christine, she believes that the reserves will be under four million. It'll allow us to at a maximum capital reserve be four million at a maximum retirement contributions four million not or some sort of combination between the two the teachers retirement fund that is the most allowed is 1 million okay so that's just allowing us when we would do in uh at the July meeting uh using this format but nothing is being allocated at this meeting this allowing us to do it at the next meeting so we have to authorize up to a certain amount at this meeting and then because it's our last year meeting. Okay. The number I think it's it's maybe August, right? It could
130be August. Has to be over the summer, right? Over the summer. Sorry. Right. Okay. The summer, but keep an eye on August because that's the real number, too. Okay. Right. We're still closing out the for the year. Um, all in favor? Um, all right. We now move on to other matters. Um on page 22, disposal of equipment and e-waste. May I have a first? Lisa second. Kate. Any questions? All in favor? Okay. Okay. Uh we move to special education reports. Uh take contracts cseps approvals on pages 22 and 23 as a slate. May I have a first Lisa? Second. Heather. All in favor? Thank you. Oh, I didn't ask any questions. No. Okay. All in favor. Thank you. Um we are now going to move to a first reading of policies on pages 23 and
13124. This is number 5695. Students and personal electronic devices number 1120 school district records number 4526 and number 34 6-R computer network accessible use policy and regulation. My goodness, there's more of them here. Okay. Number 5500 and number 5500R. Student records and policy regulation number 8635-R Information and data privacy security breach and notification regulation. Um, we're going to vote to wave a full reading of these policies. May I have a first bill? May I have a second? Kate, any questions? All in favor? Okay. Uh, this agenda includes financial reports on pages 25. Oh, sorry. Second read. Oh, sorry. We're going to move to do a second read and adoption of policies 8113 on page 24. um extreme heat condition days. We will vote to wave the first the full reading and adopt. May I have
132a first Lisa? Second, Bill. Any questions? All in favor? Okay. I knew getting ahead of the game if it's hot. Kate's got some real problems with the excessive heat now. She's okay. All right. Here we go. The agenda includes financial reports on pages 25 and 26. And these reports are forformational purposes. So no vote is necessary. If needed, Miss Costa will answer any questions from the board of education and public. Feel free to call her in her office. All right. This is the second discussion section of our agenda. I open the floor to any other discussion items from members of the board of education. We we passed the audience to visitors, did we? The second one I have it next on my list. Okay. Is it the opposite in Oh, we can switch it around.
133It's doesn't matter in my Okay. script the order is different. So, saying okay, we can Well, let's stick with this because then if anyone has something else they want to talk about afterwards, we'll do audience to visitors first. So, we're going to continue with our second audience to visitors. Come on up, Mr. Larson. C can we allow our admins to go? It's 10. Please go home. Thank you. Yes. Hi, Joe Larson, Lloyd Arbor. Hi. I'm curious to take a poll from everybody on the board like if what got implemented on Lawrence Hill Road, the stop lights is actually what you thought you were voting for. So, the fact that In my mind, when when we said we're going to put a stoplight up, I saw one stoplight facing two ways, not literally like 17 18
134lights or whatever we got up there. And if that's not the case and and you're honest and say that's not what I envisioned also, is there a way that when we do these type of projects in the future, which is this was several hundred,000 that maybe we can put a rendering up, we can show it to the community, we can show it to the board, and everybody can see visually like what we're getting for our money versus whatever that monstrosity is up there. That's it. I don't think we could vote on that, but um thank you. I mean, there's a lot of lights there and I know this was run by the town who made the decision of what was required is it and part of the trickiness is it also included what was needed
135for Seawwood Court and the conservancy across the street. I think if it was just our street, there would be a lot less. Uh but because of the street right next door, I guess uh north of our exit, that was required uh those amount of lights. You're right. It's a lot. There's no doubt about it. But that's was required to install a traffic light for us to exit the building. Yeah. And I think I' I've gone on record of saying I don't want it to look like a casino up at the street. It's definitely It was a lot of lights at first, but I I'm so happy. I have to say, Joe, that I'm so happy that it'll be safer. I I don't really care what it looks like and I'm really proud of this board
136for sticking through when it got voted down before. So, I'm really comfortable saying that and I think we do a lot of really really great things and um I I'm I'm thrilled thrilled with the lights. Just to be clear, we had nothing to do with the final design. Well, no. He's saying we should be approving the final design, but we did I don't I don't know if we could have approved, per se. We couldn't have approved the final design. Yeah, I there with town regulations. I don't know. I'm really happy we have a light up. I think it's awesome. I don't care what it looks like if it saves lives. No, no, Alex, I don't disagree with what you're saying. I I agree with you 100% that it should be done. Something should have been
137done to make it safer. But I guess my point is had we known that's what it's going to look like could we have looked for an alternative say i.e. Maybe a roundabout. Maybe we would have gone to the laboratory. I was all for a roundabout as you know, but that was not a possibility and this was what we were going to start with. And again, I options. We did when we did the roundabout and I don't remember. I'm pretty sure we put up and I could get the I actually made I took a I measured it out. There wasn't enough space to do a roundabout. We would have to go across the street to conservator that space. There wasn't enough. No, no, no. I understand that. But had you then gone to the laboratories and
138said, "Guys, this is what we're doing." and maybe they would have said, "Hey, we'll give you an extra 20 ft." You know, you just don't know. That's all I'm saying is is we should look at we should understand exactly what we're getting. So, I but I do agree. I'm happy with the safety part of it. Yes. It makes you yearn for a stop sign. I think it's also worth worth mentioning again that the cost it doesn't make me yearn for a stop sign. No, the cost is substantially less than anticipated. Much less. And that money is now going towards air conditioning. Yes. For the schools. So it's good to Yeah, it came in actually I think at less than what it had been quoted for 10 years ago. Is that correct? So something like that.
139Oh, it's like a that's a real point of pride for many of us on the board. So um and I'm hopeful we'll be there for graduation. That is my really see it in action. Yeah, that's going to be hopefully great. Okay. Um All right. This is the discussion section. Did you want to We're starting the discussion portion here and as I'm going to start the discussion of saying that we forgot to walk on potentially talking about the air conditioning um proposal that was it's three it's the air conditioning it's the kitchen equipment and installation at westside we got more information sent to us and um says here it's four there's four contractors four projects westside kitchen replacement westside and Lloyd Harbor boiler room am I right I'm reading you're reading right keep going uh districtwide
140improve improvement of mechanical ventilation and districtwide window AC outlets I was the ventilation AC I was looking at one okay it's kind of like the same All right. Sorry. Okay. So, no, I I know it's listed there as four, but it's all related those two. So, we did we asked uh Guerrilla to go out to ask uh the vendors to provide pricing uh for the components. I would have to say I'm not happy that we got some of it is still very gross orientated. Meaning, for instance, for the westside kitchen, it says the equipment is I don't want to say it's in here. It doesn't break down what each range would be. It doesn't break down what each serving line component would be. They just give a total dollar amount for that. So, it's not
141as granular as we were hoping for. Uh, so are we going to get more granular? I asked to get more granular. I don't know if they will provide that if they're willing to give that type of granular work. Seems like every time it's this is an issue. Yes. And there's a isn't there a time limit on this? The the challenging part if we want to have the air conditioning in place for the start of the school year, we're really coming close to that timeline where we if we don't improve here or in a very near future, uh a week or two, there's no way that it'll be done in time. Uh we received the bulk uh the largest component just under a million dollars yesterday afternoon. We didn't even have a chance to to break
142it down and go into details on it. I I saw it this morning when I when I when I got the email. Um but that's the truth there. And some of it is we're looking at the boilers uh sorry the expansion tanks for the boilers at Westside and Lloyd Arbor. We have to order these parts. We want we want to make sure we have heat. Um and there's the also the other component of we've been discussing there's a law coming down for project labor agreements. How much if we go down there? Will will that add? The state is requiring just New York, excuse me, just Long Island, SuffK, and and Nasser County schools to add project labor agreements requiring only union labor for all the work being done. Some of the estimates are low as
14310% and some as high as 30% increases in prices for works. That would, if it passes, would start January of 2026 as if adopted in the current form. and it it appears like it will go through. Thank you, New York State. Yes. So, we don't have the details we were hoping to get, but at the same time, I just need to be honest. There is a timeline if we want to have air conditioning ready for September. Just why why wouldn't they provide it? And how do we know we're not getting ripped off? How how how are we supposed to um you know protect the taxpayer? We're we're essentially going to be voting blind and we already got ripped off, right? We're voting with not as much detailed information that we're hoping to get from the
144contractors. You're absolutely correct, Mark. Are we allowed to do that? Is that um within our fiduciary responsibility to just say, "Look, we don't know how much this is really costing us." Well, we have the dollar amount. I mean, we have the dollar amount. We don't have the right We don't have the exact amount for each of the items. You mean like we don't know exactly what we're paying, how much we're paying for each. We don't know the markup. For example, we like if someone does a job at your house is you can ask how how many hours you think this will take, how many days you think you'll be here. you know, you kind of know the products you're getting and then you could figure out if if their price is reasonable. We don't really
145have any right for here, like it says for the Westside Kitchen, it's the food service equipment. What page? This is about 12 pages in is $218,400. Right. And this this here, like I said, we could I mentioned if possibly have another meeting here where we could get look and have more details with with Mr. Guillo going on here if he would be able to supply more information on here. I mean, being that we just got this today, we didn't have a chance. No, we we didn't have a chance to, but we can still vote on this in the near future to have done and we have hopefully. Yes. Well, I Yeah, we're supposed to have another meeting before the July meeting. hoping to have another meeting before well we have to have another meeting before
146the July meeting because there's there's other work things that we need to do before June 30th is over that we didn't get to today because and I will go on record of saying this um we spend so much time doing so many things for this school district and it's it's really a shame that we can't we don't we don't have enough hours to meet to get everything done that needs to be done. Um, so when they send things like this on the day of meeting, it's to force our hand. Yeah. And we already just had to add two additional 45minute blocks to our next meeting, which means that's could probably going to be about four hours long. And if anyone who left the meeting early is still watching this tomorrow, they can know that we
147always start at 6:00 before these meetings. And we have multiple meetings per month often. So every time something like this happens, we end up having to do another meeting. So now our meeting will probably be five hours thanks to John Grillo for not getting us the information we asked for. Mr. Monister, I think if if what all we really wanted was we don't need to know how much the range cost per se. We just needed to know, you know, the total bottom line cost, the number of hours that the laborers were going to be there, um the prevailing wage rate, and the cost of materials. He can he doesn't have to break it down. Just one number like all the materials. Well, then we then if you if you look here, we have if that's
148what you're asking for, we have that. You may have that then here. No, we want we wanted more than that. look not not that page if you look go I I included everything here and he knows that we want this because we were asking for it in that it was asked for another meeting but so I don't know maybe we should just can we do we need this can't we just ask ourselves so m Mr. Do do you think then based on the information we have, we can determine the profit? Cuz that's what I'm trying to understand is if he aggregates the materials and they aggregates the labor cost and there's the insurance allowances, we know the total cost of the job. What's left over after all that is the profit. I just want to
149see what kind of profit they're baking in this work and then we can have a good sense for the markup. Um but if we don't have those things itemized and that's what we asked for and I guess um they're not required to give it to us. So they're basically telling us too bad and you know it's our fault I guess because the way we contract I guess on the bid side we need to have language in there that we need itemization and we didn't. So going forward that's something we can hopefully fix. Um we could some if we look at the last um one VSC electric they put out 15% overhead and profit for each of the components he does or the company does break it out that way. So they they list it in
150that is is if this is a format here Mark if you look which one if you go to the very um go to the very end and then just go back one page. Okay the very end and go back one page. So it's on top is number four gooseill number five westside elementary. Mhm. So here this breaks out electric labor, materials, profit, right? And profit and this is what they're claiming the prices to be. Is this if if they can make it all look like that, is that sufficient? Um I I would say that's a lot more helpful. Yeah. Um so there the profit on uh $26,000 is roughly $3,400. doesn't seem outrageous, right? They they put down 15%. They say 15% on each and every project. That's how they're pricing that out. And that's
151on this. This is how VSC Electric Oh, that. So, the electric folks, they did it that way. They did it. They did it that way. Yes. So, very good. tell them this is a great model to work from and we just want to see it on the others. Right. The the largest one which we received like I said yesterday afternoon and I saw this morning uh is roughly just under a million dollars worth of work. It has more lines, but it does not have has bonded insurance, general conditions, meeting allowances. There's not one here that says profit. What? Wait, I'm just looking at where it says HVAC at the top. Yeah. What is that exactly? This This is the HVAC for all the schools that we're doing. What is this breakdown of? So, this is
152um Anthony, if you want to I I'll give you this number just scrolled in marker HVAC. My booklet's not in order, but I'm looking so what was the the question? I'm sorry. I was looking at. So it says Cold Spring Harbor Harbor um you know Union Free School District 2025 HVAC is Well, I don't know if yours has that. It's just Yeah, he has exactly what you have. What is this? Is this HVAC for the whole district? Is this what this doesn't have an even This is some of what we were trying to figure out when I was looking at this with Joe earlier today. Um this was the one that was a little bit harder to decipher. As you said, BSC was a little bit more detailed. No, but I know. But what is
153this? What is this? This is for the whole district or like this. These are broken down by Westside Kitchen. You know, they're like they tell you exactly what it is. What is what is Well, this is including the work at Lloyd Harbor and also Westside with the mechanical equipment is in this. If you go through, you're going to see that there's condensate pumps and boiler feeders. So, we know that that is including um one of the four projects, the Westside and Lloyd Harbor Boiler Room improvement. So, it's included in that in in that uh chunk of work. There's also the uh mechanical ventilation project, the one listed right below the the boiler room improvements, that is in this work. And I don't see that. Where are you? On the same page we were just talking
154about. The one that has HVAC at the top. Yes. Yeah. So, this is not just HVAC. No, it also includes the mechanical work, which is a big chunk of that work. If you look at some of the list prices on the boiler feed tank and also the uh say dem what are they? dem demolition like demolition but we don't have anything that well they have to take out the old equipment but we don't have HVAC don't right well the boiler equipment itself has to be removed so the demolition of that to pull it out of the space for the boiler replacements not the air conditioning because it says HVAC at the top HVAC the H is heating but for what for both schools you're So, not just one person is coming in and doing the
155entire project, so to speak. You have an electrical component. You have the general contractor who's going to be doing the window, air conditioners, and setting them up to be installed. So, there when when it says HVAC, it's not it's not everything, heating and cooling wrapped up into that one piece. So, it's not associated with just one project. This is the heating ventilation, right? But this is the boiler. This is all the HVAC work for the boiler. the this includes multiple parts of the projects, but it's one trade, right? Yes. One trade. Is it at one? It's at multiple locations. What are the And is it normal for the allowance to be so high? Yeah. $55,000, right? That seems like a crazy allowance, right? And is that spent already or is that something we get back
156at the end? We haven't approved to spend the money. So, I thought it was five. Does it depend on the cost of the project? on the cost of the project and and also the uh scope of the work. But the allowance we we put in any allowance we would have to anything that comes out of all lounge we would have to prove before they do that work going forward. Yeah. I mean, as of now, it's a contingency money, but the uh on's letter on April 21st on page three, it breaks down the locations for the for HVAC reconstruction for Inshala. That would be doing that's the HVAC vendor that's doing the work and it talks about which locations and how much for each location. So, that all right. So, here's the question. At 10 of
15711 p.m. for everyone, do we want Hold on. Do we want more time to review this and yes, talk about it our next meeting? I I don't think we should be sitting here reading it to each other at 11 o'clock at night. Absolutely. As much as I love being with all of you, I like going to sleep more. Okay. Um, so let's read it independently, coate our questions, and bring them together at our next meeting. Uh, does anyone have any other items for discussion? Yeah. And I will ask them to make it look like that last page is where they break down materials into that format. Let's have uniformity, please. Um, so another quick two quick questions. One, um, how many people responded to the climate survey? Right. I I I had it in Friday
158notes. I I don't know off the top of my head. That number that was that was in there. That's it. Two weeks ago was in there. Yeah. Okay. Very good. And then lastly, so the district mails um like we mailed a letter to the community, but can we um have an opt out where parents must actively opt out and so we don't have to mail like I certainly choose electronics so they could send them and because we're paying for the paper, the postage, the envelopes and even my daughter got um you know Uh there was uh you know the honor roll letter um I I got two of them. Um that maybe people want, but can we give residents the the uh families the opportunity to opt out? I think we'll save thousands of dollars
159a year, but it's not that we're, you know, they have to actively sign. Yes, I want to opt out and receive things electronically like banks do it. And you know, I love this Mark. This is the best suggestion at 10 of 11 at night. Oh, I think it's so good. I really do. On the honoral letters, my goodness. I mean, it's so nice that they keep coming to the house in the abundance that they come in. But, um, if they could come electronically, then when you have to fill out that college form for college guidance and they say, "How many times were you on honor roll?" and you have to say, "Could somebody look it up for me at the school?" Cuz I don't know cuz I don't keep all the letters. Sorry. We could
160definitely use Sometimes I try to, but I don't know. Through parent square. God bless those good students, but uh we would have to work to see how we would do that on some things. I think we need parents to actively opt out or they're going to say, "I'm not getting them." So, we need something. I almost think you should have to opt in for a printed to to get a paper letter. It would save us so much money. probably so much labor. Can we do this? Is our lawyer getting upset? Legally, there are certain things, but is it an honor roll letter? No, definitely. Because that's the most male that comes to anyone's home probably. We we could look uh at each building would run it by Dennis if anything has to be sent. Uh
161and then I'm sure the first one we may have a new letter next year that we'd even think about. We'll go there, but we could definitely look to see. I think it's like I don't I'm apologize to that. No. Is it 70 cents a stamp? It's so expensive. I just You buy forever stamp so it's never printed. It doesn't arrive anyway. It doesn't arrive on time anyway. No. Right. Right. And then you get like three of the same letter. So hopefully we can do that. That is it. That's it. All right. Any other discussion items, folks? All right. May I have a motion to adjourn, please? Bill second. Lisa. Oh, everyone. All right. All in favor? Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Good night. Oh. Oh. We can go. We have the yearbook for the board
162members. Your copy yearbook. You can go. Oh, and I have something for I think the