Cold Spring Harbor Board of Education Meeting - BOE meeting, November 14

001good evening everyone the board has returned from executive session and no actions were taken may I please have a motion to open the meeting Tammy second Heather all in favor let's all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance FL of the United States of America the for it stands andice all right tonight we have the pleasure of hearing from the stud Student Government officers from Westside School we look forward to them sharing with all of us the wonderful events going on in their school building all right Westside you're up [Applause] good evening I'm thei Anis the Westside School student council president thank you for inviting us to speak at this month's Board of Education meeting our senior staff is led by me Elizabeth Mullen our vice president Jack Willer our treasur and Anie pakia our secretary

002each month we have meetings where we meet with r Ryan and Miss Tora the elected Home Room class representatives Westside student council comes up with all the ideas that will be put into place throughout the school year is also the responsibility of the Reps to launch the school day we lead the start of each school day with morning announcements at morning assembly I'm looking forward to a wonderful year at Westside and working with my peers teachers Westside staff and administrators hi I'm Elizabeth Mullen student council vice president during our regular meetings each student rep brings their voice and we vote on what we put into place with a majority votes determining our future areas of focus each class has two student Representatives it is the class representatives responsibility to report to their home rooms what

003we talked about at our meetings and to rev up support in order to ensure success the Reps take ideas from their classes to bring to the meetings for discussion with us sometimes also inviting the students with the idea to come speak at our meetings our goal is to represent the students and to ensure all voices have the opportunity to be heard each month we have a schoolwide monthly theme September was school Success month in October we highlighted bullying prevention month by wearing our blue shirts on blue shirt day world day of bullying prevention wearing our orange shirts on for Unity day and participating in the daily morning assembly activities and lessons that Dr bnes leads for the school our call to action is to encourage students to serve as upstanders and to positively contribute to

004our culture of kindness hi my name is Jack Waka and I serve as a School treasurer for breast cancer awareness month in October we proudly encourage schoolwide participation in CSH units where's pink at Westside School we sold pink bracelets and had a pumpkin decorating contest to raise money for the St G Coman foundation for breast cancer the pink bracelets bace sold a total of $468 75 for the pumpkin contest we raised $466 altoe we raised a total of 934.7 this year we also encourag Westside students to donate gently used and new Halloween costumes for The Helping Hands mission in hington station we learned that they were in desperate need of costumes to supply to the children in need and and knew the students at Westside would band together to make sure kids in our community

005had access to holoween costumes my name is Anie bakia and I serve as a school secretary Red Ribbon Week takes place during the last week of October it is no surprise that a week dedicated to make healthy and safe decisions occurs on during October's bullying prevention month as we learned that both bullies and targets of bullying are also statistically proven to be a greater risk of bul of develop addictions through destructive decision- making this was westside's first time participating in rad Ribbon Week and Dr ber created csha unit's spirit days to launch each day's learning I learned the importance of doing things in moderation my favorite part of our Red Ribbon Week spirit days was superhero day and seeing everyone in their outfits not only did we have our typical superheroes like Superman but many

006of our students dressed up as doctors do s nurses First Responders and military personnel I learned that children under the age of 12 are not supposed to have any caffeine too much caffeine is dangerous and can be toxic to young kids I learned that the video game addiction is a problem in our society that we need to put limits on how much time we use on devices and gaming consoles I was reminded of the importance of medicine safety including expiration dates and the importance of only Tak medicine prescribed by a doctor or given to our parent guardian or trusted adult November has been great so far our students and their families purchase pies Breads and cookies from Westside from White Post Farms for a Thanksgiving holiday fundraiser we raise $585 that will go towards the

007cen's Children's Hospital we are also working with Westside Kids Care to collect food items for families in need each grade level is in charge of collecting an item that will be placed in a basket for a family for Thanksgiving we are getting ready for our annual turkey chop each class is in the process of making a giant poster featuring what we are thankful for this connects to our monthly theme of gratitude for those who are able to attend the Turkey Trot be sure to be on the lookout for our turkeys they will be on display on the railings outside of our school we also make cards for the veterans that were delivered to the veterans hospital in Northport we learned that a very own head custodian Paul Smith was in the Navy he told us

008a little about what it was like we honored to have a hero working at our school thank you for allowing us to present this evening at this time I'm happy to open the floor to address any questions comments or inquiries you may [Applause] have Jo board members have any questions for the west side group I was going to say Elizabeth you made me rethink finishing my diet coke it's full of caffeine thank you for that so it looks like you've done a lot of good for other folks what what's been the most fun for you this year at Westside what would you say is the most fun each of you I would say Red Ribbon Week because we did spirit days where we dressed up but we also learned like a lot about important decision

009making with the fun activities that we did during morning assembly I think it was I think the red ring week was also fun because we learned like about the addictions that that could occur in our age that we should be able to prevent from happening my favorite part was probably like re Revan week cuz it was just like fun to dress up but learning stuff at the same time my favorite was probably when we all were pink and we all our pink bracelets for the breast cancer awareness I thought it was cool to see the whole school participating that's amazing thank you thank you so much wests side Student Government great job thank you okay okay so now as president of the board I have updates to make to the public um but first i'm

010going to um read to you from something that uh superintendent gash and I put together so on behalf of the Board of Education and the superintendent of schools we recognize that in these times of global difficulty it is essential for us to come together as a community Bound by a shared commitment to Unity our schools are not only places of learning but also spaces where we cultivate compassion empathy and respect for one another as part of our district goals we are looking into the curriculum as a whole to ensure that the curriculum represents the school community and the World At Large that's actually directly from a district goal one area where we believe we can make significant impact in our students growth and development is in our commitment to Holocaust Education understanding the history of

011the Holocaust is not just an academic Pursuit it's a moral imperative by teaching our students about the atrocities of the past we equip them with the knowledge and awareness needed to build a more tolerant and compassionate future in the coming weeks and months we will be working diligently to enhance our curriculum at the elementary and secondary level providing resources in training for our teachers to delve deeper into the history of the Holocaust Mr dbus has secure at the Holocaust tolerance and tolerance Center to share stories of the past is our intent to create an environment where students not only learn about this dark chapter in human history but also engage in meaningful conversations that promote empathy tolerance and a commitment to never let history repeat itself we will continue to communicate with you on our

012progress as we continue to Foster an atmosphere of understanding and unity we believe that through through education and open communication we can build bridges that bring us closer together as a community as we move forward we invite all members of our community to actively participate in this journey to create a supportive and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and respected thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to the wellbeing of our community okay now on to my president report on October 24th the board held a work session to discuss a plan to achieve our uh board goals we plan to hold a number of work sessions to focus on our goals which were adopted at the October 10th board meeting the goals are posted on the district website these work session meetings are always

013posted on the district website as well and are open to the public and we hope you will attend later this evening we will be having a discussion based on the work that was done at the October 24th board meeting directly relating to our board goal of identifying priorities for the 2425 budget tonight we will also have committee updates as we are getting closer to Thanksgiving I want to take a moment to express a deep gratitude to every person in this District thank you to everyone who works in our schools and thank you to all who give their time to volunteer here in our schools I'm sure that each one as each one of us thinks of all of the classes and activities our own children are involved in and how many people it takes to

014make all of these things happen we are in awe of how many adults really care for our kids so thank you and now I'll turn the meeting over to the superintendent for her report good evening everyone so tonight on our agenda is the resignation for purposes of retirement for Mrs Massimo who I believe is here tonight or did she just step out of the room oh hi um I know you will join me in celebrating the remarkable remarkable career of an extraordinary individual who has devoted 15 years to shaping the future of Lloyd Harbor Elementary School as we bid fairwell to an esteemed principal we acknowledge her Legacy defined by Passion dedication and countless achievements throughout her tenure Mrs mimo has been a driving force in elevating many programs and initiatives including being a fierce

015advocate for the Arts enriching the lives of our students through enhanced music and theater instruction as well under her guidance we've W witnessed the birth of the Beloved lhg TV morning news program a testament to her Innovative spirit and commitment to fostering a sense of community I can't see you Mrs maso back there that's you should stand Through The Years Mrs Massimo has consistently responded with a deep dedication to the everchanging needs of her students she's been a beacon of support and encouragement embodying the core values that Define Lloyd Harbor School honesty inclusivity kindness empathy and respect the hiker values her leadership has not only cultivated academic Excellence but has also nurtured the social and emotional well-being of our students last year the entire CSH Community took great pride in the recognition bestowed upon Lloyd

016Harbor School achieving the prestigious National Blue Ribbon award a testament to the Relentless pursuit of Excellence championed by Mrs masimo and her team of exceptional teachers and staff her love for children is evident in every interaction and her warmth extends to the dedicated teachers and families who form the heart of her school community in addition to her many accomplishments I must acknowledge her outstanding leadership and collegiality amongst her administrative colleagues her collaborative Spirit has been a driving force behind our District's success especially in recent years fostering a culture of teamwork and shared goals are you crying back there not yet okay on behalf of the CSH Community I want to express our deepest gratitude to a leader who has left an indelible mark on our district but especially Lord har School Valerie May the retirement

017ahead be as fulfilling and as rewarding as the year spent nurturing the minds and hearts of your students thank you for your unwavering commitment and best wishes for your next chapter we're so proud of [Applause] you very [Applause] all right I think there's going to be several of these speeches and things to come all right prepare yourself I also want to acknowledge Dr Wendy Moss I don't know is Wendy Moss here this evening okay so Dr Moss also um from Lloyd Harbor school is a psychologist and she's going to be retiring after 31 years of dedicated service to our community um I learned this year that Dr Moss has written many books such as raising independent self-confident kids and stand up be an upstander and make a difference she has spear spearheaded a peer mentor

018club and supported families through triumphs and challenges we thank her for her commitment love of children and support for Colt Harbor schools and we're going to be celebrating all of our retirees um in the spring so more to come um so um CSH let me just go to my next thing so um we celebrated two uh Honor Society events uh this past week so both the art and mor language departments held their induction ceremonies and what an amazing showing of students who achieved incredible success due to not only their hard work but their passion for learning for art we celebrated 31 Juniors and 30 2 seniors which is pretty amazing accomplishment for a small District um and also 20 talented seniors received um their awards at um the music honor Honor Society induction these are

019amazing students who deserve many accolades um but we hope they just keep following their dreams and their passions um superintendent conference day was held on November 7th and while students were enjoying a day away from school the classrooms were filled with staff attending um workshops collegial circles and many of which were facilitated by our own staff discussions covered a myriad of topics including artificial intelligence the Arts literacy strategies mental health Next Generation science standards regions plans special education speech and technology these Workshop focus on Clarity and collaborative planning analyzing assessment data to identify student needs and creating success in the classroom and you know I'm very fortunate that our clerical and security teams also Al engaged in various sessions it really was a productive day all around but in the afternoon we were most fortunate

020and I I really want to thank the board of education for their support of some keynote speakers that can really make a difference in the attitudes and minds of teachers and we were fortunate to have a worldwide leader in Innovative um teaching um Mr George koros um three districts split uh the cost of his services so it was Smithtown um Half Hollow Hills and um Cold Spring Harbor all just at the cost of a very expensive speaker typically um for the day so he came and joined three School District but Mr corus has published multiple books with the hope of reigniting a spark for a love of learning he reminded us all that school should be a joyous place and by making students feel valued we Empower them to learn which is something that we

021should never take for granted he encouraged us to make their positive so loud that the students negatives are almost almost impossible to hear the entire day was an immersive experience dedicated to building relationships with colleagues through a network of support many thanks to Mrs Latuda and our administrative team for their thoughtful planning and facilitation of the day a lot goes into this and it was really an incredible day and um you know we'd like to share with the board the best feedback we've ever seen on superintendance conference day people re I mean hundred we don't typically get everybody to respond to the survey but this year um I think people felt really good about the learning across the board and so we received a number of responses which was great um Veterans Day last week

022throughout our school students honored the many millions of men and women who for nearly two and a half centuries have answered the call to defend our nation and who continue to do so now throughout the conversations and purposeful activities we emphasize the fact that they continue to contribute to American society long after their time in uniform they use the lessons they've learned and the experiences they they've acquired in the military to improve our communities as police officers firefighters teachers community volunteers custodians and uh security guards and countless other vital roles one of the many activities that were um that where we honored our veterans that day was Butch Jensen one of our security guards along with a resident and former student they joined the eth and 11th grade students at the Junior Senior High School

023to share stories of their military experiences students had the opportunity to ask questions and hear firsthand how these men gave up their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today so our appreciation will never be enough but throughout the district even the elementary schools um engaged in many activities to honor our veterans um this is just a reminder that on Thursday from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Junior Senior High School the community is encouraged to come out to vote on whether or not to liquidate the 2020 capital reserve fund to pay the remaining debt um due to our CVA settlements which occurred of of course the um these incidents uh occurred over 40 years ago in total we had three settlements one was paid last spring for 300,000 and then the other two um

024totaled 14 million we have made um an initial payment to both the victims of the last two settlements um but we currently need 7,670 th000 for the final payment the 2020 capital reserve fund has 7,667 594 again our goal in this proposal was to minimize the impact to student programs and the least impact to the budget and tax levy we will continue to aggressively pursue the insurance carriers um but do not expect to settle with the carriers um before we need to make the last payment in July so again I encourage um everyone to come out and vote on Thursday um and if you have any questions uh there's a presentation up on the website and then everyone should have received uh a four-page document in the mail really outlining the expenditures in a lot

025more detail but if you have any questions again please don't hesitate to call Mrs Casta or myself um Mr Bonino is here this evening and we have a great fall Sports recap um so boy soccer again Mike every year that I read these I mean it really is truly amazing boy soccer Nassau County semi-finalist soccer nasso County quarterfinalists field hockey nasso County finalists girl swimming Mary uh gson Nicole shrock Isabella agara and Jessica Romano all the C uh they um were in the County's 200 medal and finished 18th in the county Jess Jessica Romano completed in the 50 yard in h 100 freestyle in the counties um boys and girls cross country Alex Lombardo Sophia molat and Ariana Madera qualified the New York state championships in Syracuse cheerleading this was really so much fun to

026watch as a new team um game day cheer they were County Champs and they finished third place at the New York state championships in in Binghamton so really cool for these kids girls tennis another team two-time uh Long Island Champs and they finished second at the New York State team championships um unfortunately we were able to go into queens and watch the girls play there but I mean what a great experience for them to be at Arthur Stadium um football um big four conference champs playing uh for the Nassau County Champion Saturday November 18th against Seaford um so game time's four o'clock um so we hope everyone will come out that game is at HRA um Mike how we looking good um and we played Seaford one other time right in in the playoffs okay

027future gotcha okay um boys golf had a great season their championships take place in the spring and crew the rowers performed their personal best and the g God is this fall um so really really terrific um as if that wasn't enough we had some national letters of intent it was an exciting day for several outstanding Cold Spring Harbor High School athletes as their dreams of continuing to play their sport on the Collegiate level really uh is coming true we want to congratulate the following students who signed their 2024 National intent letters which is building agreement between the student and the college um gunar Anderson quinap Pak University lacrosse and Amelia Bentley Drexel University lacrosse in addition three student an Elites will be continuing their athletic careers at the division three level Cleopatra delaris Franklin and

028Marshall um basketball Genevie Kesler University of Rochester um am I getting this right lacrosse and Ryan mlon mid Middlebury College lacrosse U Mr banino along with the boys lacrosse coaches then okay so I'm going to say that into the micro Reed Walter is um attending Ithaca for baseball amazing awesome all right so we're we can redo a ceremony no no problem okay so um Dennis Bond Christian Lynch and Paul mcder were all there the girls lacrosse coach Danielle castellan and girls basketball um and lacrosse coach Rory uh Malone along with our guidance counselors this year they all congratulated our student athletes what it was really nice ceremony um if you get a chance take a look at the website with all the family pictures on it but as we enter this season of Thanksgiving I

029want to send everyone a sincere word of thanks and my warmest wishes for a happy and safe holiday celebration with your loved ones on behalf of our district leaders I want to express our gratitude to our teachers and staff for their unwavering dedication to our students and their families their commitment Spirit of cooperation and support from one another is evident in all that they do colts Spring Harbor is really a special place and a Time we can be very hard on ourselves in striving to achieve Excellence let's remember to celebrate the small and large accomplishments of our students and give thanks for the blessings bestowed upon us I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving okay thank you so tonight we have two presentations one by Miss Latuda on the proposed new high school course offerings

030and the second presentation is an update from Mrs Heck on the guidance Department start with uh new course modifications new courses and course modifications so as Mrs HEC is preparing to speak I just want to share that um oh I'm sorry Miss Latuda thank you um a lot goes into the planning of these new courses um taking a look at our entire High School profile and our programming um the teachers as well as the administration have some uh very thoughtful conversations in terms of what's being offered now um is there attendance in those courses is there interest um is it just the wording of the language of the descriptions um but I'm really um pleased to say that based on the feedback um from parents and teachers we have some really nice offerings that really

031continue to progress our district forward so thank you Mrs Latuda for sharing the information this evening thank you for the opportunity for sorry this keeps dropping sorry um thank you for allowing the opportunity to present proposals to you tonight thank you I just keep thank you I just want to Echo the sentiments by miss giros this what you're you're going to see tonight and I'm sure some of you have taken a sneak peek already um takes an enormous collaborative collab abative effort and I would really like to thank our teachers who contributed their feedback um to what you're going to see in terms of proposals as well as the directors the chairs and our building leaders so it it's a big undertaking and very much appreciated all right so let's get started the first two

032items um that I'd like to discuss have to do what with the incoming wet lab we are very excited for the upcoming debut of the the wet La the wet lab in addition to our new science labs that are that are going to be opening so what we are proposing is the current marine biology course which is a halfe course um one we'd like to change the title to intro to marine biology because we'd like students to understand that this is going to be a precursor to a new course that we will be proposing next um and in order to build our Marine Science Program and and utilize the lab that's going to be created um we would like to offer this every year so currently this is an alternate alternate year course so we

033are recommending that this be in place as an everye course still keeping it as a half year and a half credit I just want to ask the bo do you want to stop between each course you want to wait till the end to have to ask any questions do you have a preference after the Departments I have a question sure I'll wait all right so we'll go by department so I'll just go to the next one and then you'll sure so again as I said that that course would serve as a precursor to a new course we're proposing which would be Advanced Marine Science so expanding the title from biology to science so the biology would be study of life forms um where this expands to geography for example related to um oceanography um so

034this would be for a full year students would need to have taken the introo marine biology course as the prerequisite so the grades that could take this course would be 10 through 12 uh again we're proposing this this be an every year course we're going to see again as with any new course that that gets started started uh it takes some time to pick up momentum so we're we're proposing that this be offered as in every year to start with yeah I think we'll see some interest in this just due to the new wet lab and the new environment and so there could be some hopefully greater interest than we typically see when we're just starting a course I I think it's great I think it's fantastic that you want to start using the new

035wet lab um have you thought maybe instead of making it an ad thank you instead of making it an Advanced Marine Science class have you thought about it possibly being an honors class um just because it is an elective it's a full year uh there's a prerequisite and I'd hate for kids to not take it because oh you know it's a hard one-year elective why would I do that at least if it's honors I can get honors credit or um you know because sometimes that's the mentality so I was just I was just asking if that was thought of or we can certainly consider that um I did I just wanted to to add one um lost my train of thought I was going to add another point but I will come back to it

036but we can certainly consider so what we would do is um if it's a feeling of the the majority of the board that they want us to go back and look at this um we would have conversations with the building principal and teachers and staff yeah I mean I think the class is is amazing I think that um you know sometimes when you have an advanced class versus a honors class you know it's sometimes if it's a tough call you know if the kid knows it's going to a hard class but they're not going to get honors credit for it um you know it's just just a consideration is there a reason why you chose Advanced over honors for the class well I I think I mean the honors could be a whole other discussion

037in and of itself I know that there has been history here of you know there had been honors courses in some areas and then they were taken away um so that could be a whole other discussion um to be honest it really didn't come under consideration we were just thinking of this as the follow-up course to the intro course and what constitutes this as being a year is again it's it's expanding the the study of marine life beyond biology um and the one thing that I wanted to mention before is this also works towards expanding our research program so research would also be a component of this course which again it it supports this being a year-long course um but certainly I'd be happy to hear the the other board members if you would like

038to add to that or have any questions curent in our biology course and in what grade do students typically take it typically students would take the the Marine in in 9th or 10th grade um I don't have the I should have brought my laptop up here with me I don't have the current enrollment I will comment that my 12th grader tried to take it and he couldn't fit it into his schedule okay so there are upper class that that do want to take that course I would have to get back to you on the so don't sell yourself short on the enrollment so does everyone agree that more information on whether or not this should be honors or Advanced I'd like to have that conversation yeah okay good it's the ma majority here I think

039that we've got so we don't have to take a vote do we no it seems like we've taken the temperature thanks okay thank you thank you uh just in continuing with science as we know when we we start adding new courses we really have to think about what are we removing for that time period not permanently necessarily but but what we may need to remove we have a very small enrollment here in Cold Spring Harbor and the the enrollment has slightly been declining so we always worry about there only certain number of pieces of the pie and it really causes constraints on the schedule when students think that they're they're scheduled to take something or they're going into something and all of a sudden we we have to pull back on it because there wasn't

040enough interest in that course so we just want to be mindful of when we're introducing something new what what is coming off the table so what we are proposing is for the physics Regents honors um we're proposing for that to be removed um from the list we currently have a substantial number of other physics courses that students can take um I will tell you this year there was not enough interest for the course to even run um I did bring some some numbers so in 2122 um we had for physics Regents honors we had two sections at that time 15 and 11 students in 22 23 we had 21 students went down to one section and this current school year um a few students express interest but again not enough for the course to run

041the Alternatives here um if a student obviously did not have this option could go into the physics non Regents which again we felt strongly as a team that this one should stay in place um for students who um prefer to have that option of not taking the Regents exam physics Regents would be another option and then for those looking for Advanced coursework keeping of course the AP Physics one which would serve as a prerequisite to um the remaining physics courses do we know why enrollment went down for that course are you seeing students going into apep physics one we're yes so we we're seeing I'm seeing several shifts so I looked at some of the the numbers to see where the kids have been going um it looks like that there's been a you know

042a higher interest in AP Physics C for example um we have more students heading in that direction than in Prior years because you have to think about if they're not enrolling there where are they going so I'm seeing um definitely more interest in AP Physics c um and and yes AP Physics one slightly but I would say I'm seeing a definite change for AP Physics C you could take C before you take one no Jen how many students take the physics non- Regents course that's a a a relatively small handful that ranges in size from it could be five students to 10 students it's a smaller population of students how many typ so how many students were interested then in physics Regents honors this year there were only a couple of students interested I think

043it was two to three some somewhere along those lines I just have a question because I know for French the French honors class it's combined there's there's no way to combine those two classes then to offer which one Alex would you comine physics Regents honors and physics non Regents so you're you're suggesting similar to the world languages to offer as a CO class sounds like you could get maybe 10 kids in there and offer something for everyone we can we can consider that um you know we feel that students who would be going into a physics honors could handle the AP Physics one course but certainly open to just food for thought yeah yeah go ahead Mona the physics non- regions um would not be the course to combine with the region it would be

044physics regions um and regions honors they would be in line in terms of expectations regions honors just an advanced level of the physics region but I think a lot of kids skip over physics regions honors and end up taking AP Physics exactly that's that's the trend that we're seeing I yeah think it's a redundancy also yeah the trend is we're seeing that student more students you know to Heather's question are going into that AP Physics one we're seeing an increase there and then following that um we see more students on a pathway for AP Physics c yeah because by the time they hit 10th grade they have the math prerequisites to take AP Physics okay so unlike World Language where there's like no other option there's another option that can we still have three options

045for our students which we felt was fair in comparison to the but but again if if the board I'm satisfied with that as an answer how do other people feel I mean I I liked your suggestion I did because I mean h you said that the year before there were 20 kids who wanted physics very high enrollment right so I mean there were 20 kids last year who wanted it maybe just a handful this year we don't know what to anticipate next year so maybe considering co-seeding is an option for physics Regents and physics Regents honors for the same reason that Lisa brought up for making Advanced Marine Marine Science really make sure that we're differentiating the curriculum that the kids in the course truly if you're getting the honors waiting and that they're the

046courses two different courses being to I see some of the counselors making faces saying don't do it um but at the same time you'd really have to look at the curriculum and make sure that it is really significantly different for the kids to earn those and it's tough for a teacher to be teaching two courses in one especially at the physics level I know I actually don't really think it's I don't love it for World Language so it was funny that I even suggested it but well that that's what I was going to say is sometimes you have to take things from the other side but um I yeah I I'm hearing all the that was it's what Tammy said was hearing the 21 just a year ago you think oh goodness is there going

047to be this you know volume of kids looking for this class but also if you feel like there's other options then I just want us to I just want to caution us to not make something like that the norm you know as we said before with World languages there there were no other options for those students and you know we we are trying to make it work and in doing so that means differentiated homework assignments differentiated Assessments in this case there are three choices for students and if if they are going if they were interested in going to into honors you know we feel that they they could be successful in AP Physics one um I I understand you know nerve set in and I I know that we also talk about the balance with

048students taking AP courses but I'm certainly open I just wanted to how do our students do on the AP Physics 1 AP exam our students do well doing really well so okay where did the students go the three students that wanted physics honors where did they end up did they end up in AP Physics AP Physics one they did are they succeeding I I didn't follow up on their grades I I could certainly do that I could I could track them sure all right okay so any other do we do we feel like we want to have a little bit more of a discussion then on the removal of this class then or everyone feels fine about you think we're good you think we're good you think we're good Heather especially since we have this

049new marine biology class room right they have to fit into their schedules we're good Jen thank you oh see again if you had more discussion I'm I'm certainly open thank you but thank you for the feedback all right for music um hopefully this this one is an easy one um but chamber orchestra as some of you may know if your child is involved in music has already been a a highly rigorous course in fact I I was speaking with Mr shirell who you know was having a conversation with one of the students said this is the hardest class I've ever had to take um students audition for this class for example um he believes so much that the the rigor is quite High in this course that it really should be deemed an honors level

050course um the change that we're proposing is not only to rename it you know having honors in the title but to add Clarity there's been a lot of talk about Clarity so in terms of providing Clarity just making it very clear what the expectations are for students entering this course so we would add a prerequisite um that you see there in green and a couple of tweaks to the the language um within the current description how do we feel about that one I think it's terrific was this always the prerequisite prerequisite so they they always had to audition and they were seeking those prerequisites but it wasn't clearly spelled out in the program of study so we just want to make it clear moving forward if if we move forward with this course we want

051students to understand what the ramifications will be and do you think this will sorry keep more students playing in the orchestra then for longer or Contin that right they get an honors credit I love that I think it's great when did they typically audition for this class um well the the nisma scores I was talking to Joe about this typically come out in early May um Mr chirillo is in here I'm not exactly sure when the auditions are I'm GNA get my pen because you're giving me some homework that I want to get I mean so they select this class before they've been admitted into the class I guess they select the class before and put it on their schedule before they've been admitted into the class thank you well yes so as with students

052are again they're giving their preferences for what they yeah would like to take and and sometimes you know that they'll find out that they didn't have the prerequisite for a course so yes they're they're intending to take it okay so yes it would be tentatively scheduled prior to the audition okay great question thank you all right so we're good with this one all right thumbs up all right the next one we're also looking to expand on our technology education program so some of you may be familiar with a course that that's actually been around for many years in other districts it's called design and drawing for production and we're looking for this to be a precursor to our current engineering and design course which has lost interest over the years so what we are proposing

053is to offer this intro course open it up to grades 9 through 12 um seeing if there's interest um we'd like to offer this every year so a full course one credit um this would be the description and I do want to add that if we follow the the New York State education department syllabus then this course could actually count as a music or art credit for students so so again it gives more flexibility to students increases their options of Pathways um so we thought it was good all around in terms of um again the design aspect thinking about you know for example if they were to think think about a product that they wanted to develop and then what about the packaging that would need to be taken into account for for the product

054when it goes on sale and then how are we keeping track of those costs we want to keep keep our costs low and and and make profit um on our product so that's an example of something that would happen in this course the ideas for projects would stem from students interest so I know it was suggested um that we list project ideas but we didn't want to pigeon hole ourselves to these are the projects that are happening because again they they are organically developed as a result of the the students interest of course with parameters and a syllabus that we would have to follow for new New York State education department questions on this one no I think it's great yeah I love that it fills an art and music requirement yeah because some kids

055want to aren't Musical and they don't want to do art right so this is a great introduction for them great we hope again this will kind of lead to some more um students taking more courses in engineering down the road and like build the engineering program a little bit um and again uh Mr Taylor spoke about uh this program in his prior district and really building that up and generating interest so we need to talk it up a little bit um because our other um courses along these lines have not received the interest so kind of a whole revamp and um kind of some cheerleading going on will it be in one of the newly renovated rooms no no we're not yet we're still still figuring out what which space should this move forward um

056but students would also be using C for example computer yeah are they going to learn Auto yes so this will be again a full technology infused class so it's yes it involves draw technical drawing which some students thinking about possibly architecture down the road so it does involve technical drawing and all and other aspects of Technology as well now with that so remember we talked about if we're going to add something we have to think about what are we temporarily or permanent L removing so being that we have we've had a decline in the engineering and design and Technology course so we're hoping that this new DDP course will help to spark excitement and we're really going to play this again play this up get people excited and um so we're looking to put on

057hold for the 2425 school year the engineering and design in technology course again the DDP would serve as a prerequisite for this course so hold off on it now and then possibly reintroduce for 25 26 so the students who were very excited about DDP can continue in their technology education I think this is a great plan I want to come take DDP I know uh Mr Taylor has been very excited to um this was his idea to along with the department members but he's he's done this before and he's really excited to bring this about in Cold Spring haror Mr Taylor I know I missed a zoom call with you last week but if you don't hold it against me I'm interested in taking your GDP class okay so in terms of The English Department

058so this was um actually a proposal by one of our teachers in the English Department and and supported by the administrative team as well so um we've had many students interested in in theater and again to really tap into their interests it is being suggested that we have as one of our senior selectives the introduction to College English the plays the thing plays across the ages um so this would be again another option as we said for a senior selective um students who are looking to explore dramatic literature through theater of various genres time periods so we thought this could tap into the interests of a population of our students and before you just I know you may have questions but in terms of what are we swapping for that because again if we add

059something in we have to think about what are we taking away the science fiction which is also a senior selective that's again an ice or introduction to College English class um so again not to remove it permanently but the each of those could be alternate alternate year courses so for 24 25 it's the plays the thing and then the following year we could bring back the science fiction and and see how the interest is going so I'm not sure about your thoughts on that right now right there hasn't been a lot of interest in the science fiction what's the sign up been for so for science fiction in 1920 we had 15 students 2021 we had 20 2122 we had 27 and uh in 22 23 we had 10 and the current enrollment is six

060so 15 20 27 10 and now six so before you start maybe alternating do you want to think you know after you after the first run of the plays the thing maybe do a survey or something and see how many students you know would be interested in either or before they make the commitment on their schedules I don't know was there another elective or something introduced that caused that drop off from 20 consistent 20 to 10 to six no I would just say that we're very lucky here in Cold Spring Harbor we have so many options for our students so it just perhaps this particular year it just wasn't for them sounds great thank you all right so I know there's been a lot of talk about um having let's say an honest an honors

061English class that has um been brought forward to me I know that um parents have also reached out to miss giros I'm sure the guidance counselors as well um so we'd like to propose a compromise and again I'm going to keep my own feelings about honors out of this um however I would like us to think about what we do in social studies so in social studies we have AP World prior to that course we have a preap world and the reason for that course is to help students be prepared for the rigor that is required in that course so similarly we think about our AP English courses we also have AP seminar for the first year this would be a course that would help transition students to the rigor that would be demanded for

062an AP level English course more writing for example and and we've been hearing that loud and clear um from parents you know seeking to see more writing so we're we're proposing this to be responsive to what parents have been asking for um in addition to supporting our program in that we would be specifically targeting this course as the preparation for the AP English course so I'm asking for your support for a preap English one I do want to add that this would be a college board course this is not a course that we would just do ourselves there again we would be tied to the expectations of college board we would need to do curriculum writing we would need to create a syllabus again through the expectations of the College Board we would have to

063submit that syllabus and it would have to be approved approved by college board in order to proceed so with that also and we keep talking about rigor again that raises the the expectations for this course so what do we think this course itself is not it is not an AP course and there's no AP there's no AP like exam it would be a typical final exam that students would see at the end of a course so just speaking from personal experience I have grader who's in preap history and that's that class is a tough cell um there it is very rigorous but it's not honors so a lot of the kids say why am I spending all this time working so hard you know getting bad grades um you know not doing as well as

064I could if I'm not even getting honors credit for it um that's the only thing that that concerns me about adding another preap course um I understand getting the kids prepar you know same with the Advanced Marine Biology you know making it a harder class but not giving the kids the extra you know incentive to do it um just something to I'm not saying it's a bad idea at all because I think that these kids need to you know work on their writing and jumping into AP 10th grade English is hard that's a hard class um so I I I don't know I don't know what the discussions have been um but you know even transitioning into ninth grade can be hard hard for students um I'm sure there'll be lots of high achieving students

065that take it um but but I do know a lot of kids had dropped out of preap world for that reason that it was so much harder and they felt like they weren't getting the benefit of taking a harder class I don't know if that's the right way to think about it but that's the way so you're you're saying the benefit would be the The Waiting extra yeah yeah I hate that but what's the enrollment in preap world I don't have my laptop here I'm sorry I don't know I mean I would say that's kind of different than this though like we have um AP seminar in 10th Grade now that we're running that the kids are taking in place of um honors English um So based on the parent feedback that we've received many

066parents feel like their kids should be in this course again that's just been the feedback that we've heard in that if their children are moving on to advanced level English classes there should be some type of course that goes from Junior High traditional English to like let's level it up hard to sell them on doing the jump up I think in 10th Grade too is what I found my personal experience I mean with the AP seminar because it's a project preap though I think would help help yeah yeah I think so I mean one of the things with the we actually have great numbers we have 25 students in the um AP seminar class in 10th grade um and we hope that grows so I think we're running two or three sections of honors English

067and we're hoping that the seminar now that you know we've had one cohort go through that um based on our feedback kids who take AP seminar say it's the best AP class they've ever taken in their school career so again we want that message to get out there but this would be a great prerequisite to that just preparing them for that writing and that work as well as kids who are in research right so those kids who are in research classes who have to write more and who have to really uh do more of that evidence-based writing I think this would be really important so you just said prerequisite though is it a prerequisite then no it's not mean that would help the word prerequisite but like it would a precursor really for that course

068as as a and I'm only you know I'm only one parent as a parent I think it's an amazing idea you know as a ninth grade kid you know with sports and you know all that stuff you know I had to have the conversation many times times like why am I taking this a this preap class and not getting not getting credit you know or extra credit for it that's my only and that's not a English issue that's a I mean to me that's a really a title issue then right so the discussion could be we could keep this structure and perhaps your discussion is about there's still an honors waiting right which I agree with you Lisa it seems that if this is more rigorous in ninth grade that may may make sense to

069give it the honors waiting I'm so I apologize can you can you repeat that no I I agree with Lisa I think if this course is more rigorous for ninth graders than than regular English then it makes sense to me to give it the honors waiting I agree with that also Lisa let's make them all honors job just kidding does anyone else want to weigh in just kidding okay um so back to your question uh Mr wman we have two sections right now of preap one at 10 and the other at 18 yeah thank you you're welcome all right oh and I just want to the class that has 10 only has that small amount because those that's the only time those kids could take it the the he had told us so oh thank

070you for that well sure all right so are we I understand we've had the conversation about the waiting are we comfortable with adopting the College Board pre-calc pre-calculus I'm going to the math um preap English one yes yes okay great yeah thank you all right we talked about the science fiction okay um moving along the the next course that we are proposing this one should not be a surprise we talked about it last year so this is the second course um for an AP Capstone diploma um as we discussed AP seminar is taking place for the first time in Cold Spring Harbor this school year the next course to obtain the AP Capstone diploma would be AP research um this is a highly rigorous course although it is suggested to be offered in grades 11

071and 12 we strongly encourage students who are interested in taking this to take it in 11th grade um we have been working with a consultant um who has been doing this for a very long time and when students take the this type of course in 12th grade um sometimes the the effort dips off towards the end right and and you know and we've seen that as well and and the dedication to the course may not be there in in the senior year as opposed go to the junior year not to say they can't do it in senior year but it was highly recommended um that if students were to continue with the second course that it take place in 11th grade so basically for this particular course students uh it's a year long research project

072on a top one topic of their choice um and and you can imagine how much time and effort goes into that students would have regular work in progress interviews with their teachers uh to review their progress and receive feedback and in terms of what would be due by the end of this course um there is an academic paper that accounts for 75% of that grade and then there would be an oral defense students would need to defend their paper which is excellent experience for students at this age um along with a presentation and both of those would account for 25% of the students grade so that is our proposal for the next AP Capstone course sounds great and just to REM this is just in here just as a reminder in terms of what students

073can earn um so they can get the AP seminar and research certificate with just taking the AP seminar um in year one and the exam score is three or higher and then if they take the two courses plus four AP exams they get the full Capstone diploma uh in terms of if we're adding in the AP research what does our flowchart now look like in terms of options for students so we just included this here which you can look at um you know more deeply on your on your own time um but the the goal would be for students to take foundations of research in ninth grade not that they have to take it in nth grade but again that foundations of research opens the the Gateway for the other research courses so we strongly

074advise the start of that in nth grade from there students can go into AP Capstone seminar Andor Advanced science research to honors so again I know there's been confusion about do I go the humanities route do I go the science route and students could actually do both so we want to make it very clear that students can do um both of those things of course room in their schedule permitting I I think the students don't already have enough room in their schedules uh and then from there what's what's going to give because now we have a lot of other research courses so the the idea would be for AP research which would be done in junior year ideally would replace asr3 because that there would be redundancy in terms of that um AP research could

075include stem or Humanities research um so we feel that that would be a good replacement obviously not for next year because students currently in asr2 would still need to complete asr3 so that's not something that we would pull away in 2425 um but that would be for a following year but I just wanted to explain to you why that was um written there all right and then um 11th grade we have all of those options for research AP research AP Psychology molecular genomic biology honors the notes on the side represent um options that may not occur as often often um that's why they're listed separately on the side but the typical pathway is shown in the center does anybody have any questions okay thank you thank you so much so much John I have one

076question not um I had heard College Board added an AP exam for pre-cal did we have we considered or could you consider whether we should add an AP class for pre-cal so I've had mixed feelings I've had my eye on that one for a long time I didn't feel that there was a need for that here in Cold Spring Harbor I I'm not sure what it exactly gets us other than take it it again does it put more pressure on our students so our course already for uh pre-cal honors is highly rigorous we have a number of students who are challenging what I would say challenging the exam so we have a number of students who will be taking that AP pre-calculus exam without sitting through a college board course that they offer because our

077students will be more than prepared so other than the rubber stamp of its AP pre-calculus I I'm really not sure what more it gains us and I I just get concerned about the number of AP courses that we have and and students being stressed but if you would like us to reconsider along the same lines that we've been talking about with the others I just think it they're putting 95% of the effort in let them get it on the transcript but right it's it's a suggestion but the pre-cal so the pre-cal honors they are getting the the waiting so it wouldn't give them so that that's again what I was weighing is it really waiting right it doesn't it's not giving the students anything more in fact I was worried that it would create more

078stress for our students because it said AP I mean I just I just went through the Common App I mean you list your AP classes so yes for a kid who you know takes pre-calculus and maybe that's the highest they go that shows an AP level math class so um I I agree I think Bill this is something to consider I mean that it does go on the Common App for your college applications you're thinking transcript purposes well if it's really 95% of the work then why wouldn't you get it I mean is that an accurate description I made that up but I was told I I was told I'd like to fact check Mr wman no um but but I was told how close are we to that you you stated that if you

079yeah yeah how close are we well I would say that our pre-cal honors course superpass that right so our rigor is actually higher than the that we've looked at we we our Math teachers have looked at that already again I and I I really appreciate you bringing that up because it it has been considered um but again if that's a direction that we feel we want to to move in we're certainly open to that as well I just want to make it clear and again we get to submit our own syllabus so our syllabus could still be more rigorous than Jen what's the hesitancy from the Department there there's no hesitancy it it really just again wasn't sure what they were benefiting other than like you said Tammy about the the trans cles and that's

080where I was coming from but I'll leave it to you and Mr Taylor to figure that out so do you list your AP classes or AP exams yeah list all your courses and then you if you submit your scores then you submit your scores but just know that you know and the other thing to consider and not that I'm trying to dissuade you from this but um just to consider that um if we left it as as is students still openly have the option of taking the AP pre-calculus exam right which would still appear on the transcript I'm just throwing that out there right but right can I ask another math question if we're sorry to jump on too since I'm looking right at Adena sitting over there um multivariable calculus is there do you

081think there's going to be Interest next year do you think that's a course that you're going to add eventually at the school question thank you thank you for asking that question and by the way keep asking this is great this is a good conversation so Mr Taylor and I have spent uh many hours overall discussing multivariable um we have been allowing students to take for example a pre again with approval a pre-calculus over the summer if again they they would like to get to multivariable calculus in his or her their senior year um right now we're just trying to build capacity so if we are going if that's something that we're going to consider we see the numbers are getting there so right now we're at about five um you know we've been tracking the

082numbers next year it's going to be at seven or eight for example okay and so seven or eight which is really exciting sounds like a section possibly to me for a multivariable um however again we still need someone to teach that course so we have to work on building capacity um to get there so we're just working on a on a plan to support students who would be moving forward next year to multivariable um looking at alternative models where although it's it's mainly independent based we still want to make sure that they have someone that they can touch base with should they need support so um we're certainly open to that discussion would love to see a multivariable calculus here um but again it it wouldn't be ready for 2425 but we will have a

083plan in place for those seven or eight students who would be moving forward excellent thank you you're welcome any other questions no thank you again thank you so much thank you we're going to move on to the school counseling program um we've asked Mrs HEC to provide some updates and I just want to thank our counselors who joined us here this evening that's really nice of you to come I know you play an integral part of all of the this work um so um she's going to going to start from like some September October up updates of some of the things that have been going on and when you really look at this presentation all it's only uh almost the end of November not even it's halfway through the month and the amount of work

084that's gone into the counseling program and the presentations for parents is incredible so thank you Miss SE thank you very much um so I just have to say I told the counselors oh presentation will be Tuesday evening if you'd like to join us at the board meeting it'll be at the start of the meeting I apologize but but I I do thank Mrs Pickering for being here miss fredland um Miss fredland actually just finished the New York City marathon so congratulations to her quite an accomplishment um no so this is really a counseling program update I appreciate the opportunity to talk about our program and to give this update um we're two and a half months into school so what we're going to be doing is looking back two and a half months and looking

085forward two and a half months so it's not a full scope of the school year um but you'll see as the SK just said that there's a lot going on and our counselors are very very busy so just to remind everybody um we've had a lot of change in the counseling office over the last two years and four out of our six high school counselors are in their first or second year with us so um that's that's quite a shift um Miss Pickering again is here she's working with seventh and eighth grade for a long time now um and really you know welcoming those students coming into the Junior Senior High School transitioning them um working with them and families for two years and then transitioning them to their high school counselor with whom they

086work for grades 9 through 12 um we also have Miss Jennifer Harold who is um our new Wellness counselor position that was added last school year and that position is really evolving and growing and and we're so happy to be able to add that to the team um she serves as our 504 chairperson so she manages all of the case loads and all of the meetings and all the the needs related to um n504 referrals or active plans and she also um is sort of the the go between the liaison between the faculty the administration the counselors and the students and families in identifying what are the needs of our students in in the building and what um what are the presenting issues how are we addressing them the school counsel is the first line

087of defense and then works again with Miss heral for um specific strategy and skill development so we're making sure we're meeting all the students needs so a lot of times when we think about the counseling program we think about the academic advisement piece we're going to be talking about that a lot over the next several weeks with families and students um obviously we've just started talking about the new courses and the changes to our courses so that's a big component that that most people know um is part of the counselor's role and then the college piece right the college advisement piece but there is a lot more that goes into what counselors do this is not an exhaust list but it's a pretty um good example of the different areas within those three pillars the

088academic the personal social and the College and Career so we're transitioning students from elementary to Junior High Junior to senior Senior High to post High School um here in col Spring Harbor most of our students are College Bound um but we do advise students um on every area of their post high school plans so um there's a lot that goes into that and through that we really work together with them um on the personal Social Development their their management time management organizational management assignment management um and really development of school Success skills throughout um so a September October update um by grade level our counselors again are very very busy um as you can imagine we kick off the school year with the college process so they're in classrooms um what I've listed here are

089many of the activities that have been going on in the those things that we've enhanced and we continue to improve upon um and then I'll get to some of the things that are brand new so our classroom sessions each of the councelors go in and talk about the college application process so all students um again all students are assigned to a counsel but all students through classroom sessions are given information throughout their school years 7 through 12 so those classroom sessions provide an opportunity to be really sort of like information giving and sharing out so we make sure that all students receive the same information and then that's followed up with individual um student appointments we also in early September had our parent student night for our seniors where we reviewed a lot of the

090same college application process information um and then again many individual many many individual college and post High School planning meetings and we also had a financial aid night um which is typically at the end of September that we invite all students and families too we haded that this year right before our back to school night so that it was one night to come out instead of a separate additional night um 10th grade classroom sessions also in October um where students were reminded Miss Pickering starts them on the Naviance program um in developmentally appropriate activities in in junior high and then in 10th Grade again we bring them back in um and go through some resources that Naviance has regarding just their personal exploration understanding their their strengths their interests and how those might match with

091eventual future goals um ninth grade is a biggie 7 through 12 building there's always this assumption that students oh after two years in the building they're good they've got it they know where they're going they don't have to um really worry about that transition into High School the transition into high school is significant and we really want to make sure that students understand that that they see themselves differently um that they start transitioning into greater um levels of responsibility personal responsibility Freedom um in school at home home and really understand what it means to be and to own their own educational path um both academically and curricularly and outside um so we spent a good amount of time with that making the most of high school session um where students really start to take ownership

092and and realize the the opportunities that they have because now in the next several weeks we're going to be talking to them about their course selection and they're going to be able to make more choices for themselves in 10th and then 11th grade and so on um the parents do stent night in 9th grade also um provided that transition information and then again following those classroom sessions were individual student counselor meetings so every high school counselor has met with um their students in 9th grade and gone over who they are what their interests are how they're doing and checking in um at the junior high school level Miss Pickering again transitioned the students in seventh grade into the Junior Senior High School there were a lot of activities in the spring for sixth grade students

093and families and then coming into the building early in the late in the summer into the early School part early part of the school year um but then she conducted tours and other group sessions where students once they get in and feel more comfortable now well do you know everything about the building oh yeah yeah I'm good do you know where the nurse's office is do you know where this off do you know we have a learning center and so she walks them around and really make sure that they understand um what's available to them and how to access all of the resources in the building and similarly e8th grade students have activities and programs in small groups um throughout the school year that um is Pickering facilitates um 10th and 11th graders in October

094took the PSAT um we sent a letter home we included in the guidance FL um we shared emails about that uh many of our students took that exam the scores were just released a week ago so we shared that out they could get those scores on their college board accounts um we also uploaded them into Naviance and then all grades counselors are constantly progress monitoring having check-ins um and making level changes as needed those were really trying to reduce and we're going to talk more about that when we get to the course selection process but um we really want to make sure students and families go into the course selection decision making um so that we can reduce and have fewer and fewer level changes because um we really want students to not have that

095disruption if possible later on college applications again September and October are filled um fill the counselor's role um we have seen a real large increase in the number of October 15th and November 1st deadlines it used to be that the early deadlines were mid November then they creeped up to November 1st now we're seeing them creeping into October so um there's really not a lot of time for students to return to school senior Year and be ready to go they really have to just hit the ground running um and then of course the guidance light I will use every plug I can to to talk about the guidance slide and make sure that um you're reading that the December issue is one not to miss not to miss um but again we really try to

096make sure that there's sort of One-Stop shopping and every month we provide the information that you need to again look back look forward know what's going on hear about the classroom sessions that students are in they may not be coming home and telling you about them it's a good spring board to have a conversation about them and then also to be reminded about anything that's coming up we've got a lot of links in there and we really hope that that's something that everybody is using so in November um this is a big time for the academic piece because progress reports have gone out and now report cards are coming out just before Thanksgiving so um that's again a big part of the council role is to really monitor the academic progress of students 11th grade

097we will have our first college kickoff session um and that's the first of three so that was the classroom sessions with students nth and 10th grade we had our um 10th grade parent night with a great turnout of students and parents and that's where parents get their Navan account so that's always a big draw and then eighth grade we have coming up on November 29th that's a big night our whole Junior Senior High School team comes out and talks about all the academic offerings in ninth grade and throughout High School um so we really get to do a deep dive into opportunities for students and how to transition best into the high school years um superintendent's conference day I do want to speak about it just briefly from the counseling perspective um Mrs Pickering just

098attended the um middle level Educators the um conference down in National where was that DC area DC um and she and Dr main presented so we are really appreciative that they you know are specialists in their field and and respected and present to um to colleagues at these conferences she came back and shared with us things that she's learned and things she'll be bringing back um to the junior highight of this year we had had a Princeton Review representative come and talk about the new digital sat students who took the PSAT in October took the brand new digital PSAT the SAT starting in March will be digital as well so there are a lot of changes there we'll be updating everyone as we go but that was really important information to get um we reviewed

099the materials on student anxiety um that our recent presenter shared with the families who came from the septo focus evening and then we talked about new new and next steps in the counseling program because we're continuing to evaluate and improve um we had more than 80 College Representatives visit our schools between September and November so that was really you know a wonderful thing that we're on on the the radar for all of those College Representatives um and the applications are still flooding in so now we're looking ahead so December and January this is a busy time for a lot of reasons as we all know um but when it comes to our Juniors we really sort of started kicking in the College Planning process so that's where we do um the second College kickoff session

100in the classrooms in December in January the 3 um December 4th is our grade 11 parent student night so we'll be sending out more information about that that again kicks off the college exploration process um and then similarly at that time also in our guidance newsletter and other information I'll be sharing out information about a practice sat Andor act that students can do for free so that's coming up we have nth and 10th grade classroom sessions um we're going to be talking about the course selection process and then um we have our a new brand new in January on January 22nd I'll be sharing a lot of information about that um finding the right College fit Rob Franck is the editor-in chief of the Princeton Review we're thrilled that he's going to be joining us

101we're inviting all grade levels at the high school to come out um and hear from him because he's got a great presentation and perspective to share and then moving on um Miss Harold is doing some study skills test taking um groups we shared that in the recent um guidance light she just talked about it in this morning's ptg meeting um and really talked about how parents can help and support without overh helping and over monitoring um always a challenge and then we're going to get into the academic planning process so that information will be coming out um we'll get you brand new course selection sheets by grade level um and we'll talk about all of that once the program of study is out so after all these courses are finalized we'll get that in December

102it's always online we also get a hard copy into every students hands um and that will include all the courses that obviously are available to students with flowcharts we also have the scope and sequence documents this year which provides really specific information about courses so these are great resources for students and families to use and when we get to the course selection process um you know we just want to make sure that everybody is looking at it to the lens of the grades that you know course making course selection that's challenging and appropriately rigorous um with all of these items in mind for you know the best balance between rigor and appropriate learning opportunities our councilors again do a lot of academic advisement and they use the information that's available hopefully students and families take

103that and look at time commitments of all the activities within school and outside of school expectations a vertical alignment of courses differences between the different level courses um and then make personal decisions that process happens in January and February um and then by March I believe it's going to be March 4th this year um that's when we close off the process so we're going to be getting a lot of information proactively out to students and families to be able to make those decisions early and a couple of things that we're looking ahead to um again the academic course selection process is coming up um parents will be invited explicitly in this year um I know with Co we took sort of a step back with that and then always welcome now we're going to be

104explicitly asking families to come in the feedback we got was the grade level sheets are really helpful also looking for longterm so you're going to get material materials for the next year as well as a long-term um plan and then be able to walk away with specific individual materials and we're also looking into creating canvas pages so in addition to all the information that's on our website all the information that's in the guidance light now we'll also upgr specific canvas pages so you're not going to be able to get away from the counseling program and again for our College Planning we have all of those steps for our Juniors we want to make sure uh Monday January 22nd is on everybody's calendar for our um evening program for making finding the right fit and then

105also the December 16th practice sat or act and I'll get information to you for all of that um I just shared this and that's our program and our counselors yes um do you does your group have sort are you developing a view on the new electronic sat both in terms of whether students should avoid it or embrace it or whether colleges are going to be suspicious of it I'm just curious overall because I don't really know much about it but okay so it's a new digital exam it's going from a three-hour exam to a two-hour exam um it's adaptive so they're two different modules of both reading and Reading Writing and math in each the questions on the first will determine what questions the students get on the second module um I've been around since

106the old recentering of the SAT I'm that old um and so every time they've made a change it's always been actually advantageous for students initially to do it um and so we're hoping that that's the same we got our PSAT scores back students you know by and large did very very well on that assessment we didn't see any concern from the practice PSAT that was digital so um you know we're encouraging students as we always have to take both and see which one they would prefer but yeah thank you and I think most testing is moving to that model right to the digital right I heard the um I'm sure the ACT Catholic High School test was only online this year too I mean there's yeah yeah three through eight exams yep yeah have moved

107yeah know but we'll be embarking on that definitely do not shy away from it I just and Mr mon I just want to ask that the scope and sequence documents go on the front page on the left-hand column where we have the k38 curriculum guides that we add the scope and sequence links there so that they're a little more prominent uh for our community to see I think all the new stuff is great I'm really looking forward to uh the parent meetings and the um the fouryear planning documents I think that's great great thank you thank you for all this communication it's great thank you thank you thank [Applause] you all right so um we last last month we actually had walked on an agenda item to add or uh added on to discussion um

108committee discussions and updates um and we uh collectively decided that it would be great to add these as a as a permanent agenda item to our board meeting so um now we are going to um have some board members report out on the work of our committee so I know there's a couple of people ready to talk tonight who would like to go first yes you may Lisa you're up I'll go first okay the uh capital projects meeting had their first uh committee meeting just so everyone knows um capital projects are defined as work in excess of $35,000 that require New York State School Educational Department facilities planning approval so this is not the same as repair work um we discussed the approval and construction timeline for most capital projects so just because you want

109it done really fast doesn't mean it's going to happen really fast um you have to have a public vote usually May then there are drawings that go through the architect then you have to get approval from the state the current timeline is 5 months uh then you have to go out for bids that takes one to two months then there's construction um if the work is inside the building you have to wait until the building's empty uh if the work is outside that's sometimes easier to do unless it's winter uh and then um finally the closeout that's when you get building Aid after you submit all of your documents um so I think the timeline is about what do we say two years 18 months yeah so if we want something now we'll have to

110all vote on it in May and then it's 18 months from then so um a few projects we discussed uh we talked about potential projects and recommended to the board that the traffic signal and air conditioning projects should be prioritized we are looking into possibly funding these Pro these projects with the monies from the 2015 capital reserve um a building condition survey is expected in January this survey is required by New York State educational department and it will list needed Project work districtwide which is upkeep needs of the facilities and major op operating systems which means not glamorous at all the committee will evaluate the projects included in the report after it's received thank you okay so for policy committee uh we we met at the beginning of the month um just to remind you

111all the policy committee Works to review the existing board policies as well as consider um additions or new new policies as needed um the policy committee cannot uh adopt policies we just do the detailed work and then bring it for the full board's consideration um so two things one uh from a process point of view uh there's a number of policies I I mentioned this the last time that um we need to review because uh there are certain policies we have to review on a regular Cadence uh because they're important policies there's other policies that you review over a cycle so ideally um a board should be reviewing its entire policy manual over a period of several years um we are um uh we have a number of open ones that need review uh there's

112something on the order of about 55 policies so the first thing is um the policy committee had taken an approach to uh filter down how we're going to approach these and uh we as a committee we ranked policies either as high medium or low and without definition it didn't mean something that was low was not important it just meant maybe it was complicated um and we tackled um uh we tackled several policies at this committee meeting and also think we have a plan to move forward uh so for for this meeting um we're moving forward for first read uh two policies that um are largely driven by New York state requirements so uh policy 4321 which deals with students with disabilities um New York State changed the requirement that a school district needs to uh

113provide services for students with disabilities up until their 22nd birthday that's a change the prior policy said it it was a district was required to provide services until the end of the school year where the the child reached the age of 21 and so we made some conforming changes um it was included in the materials of summary and also the detail um we we U agreed to those changes and offer it to for you as a first read and then we'll we'll I think we take action potentially on it at the next meeting uh the second uh policy actually has a connection to the first it's policy 4772 um it's titled graduation ceremonies um and it also involves to some degree um the rights of students with u with disabilities to participate in certain cases

114in graduation ceremonies even if they have not achieved uh full graduation requirements there's alternate ways they can participate um and so we we made conforming changes to that to um to recognize the age 22 as well as um we added there was a recommendation to add um a section that dealt with um potential uh code of conduct or other rule violations uh if students encounter that they could be precluded from participating in some graduation activities so um we think these you should consider and we would recommend adopting them um anything from my co- policy committee members that I think we struck a reference to policy uh 4773 at the end of the graduation ceremonies oh well yeah there was a cross reference in in the graduation ceremony uh it actually listed like the age uh

115requirement for student with disabilities and so we simplified it by just referencing the actual students with disabilities policy so we don't have to update to if the requirement changes or if we change the requirements so the the last thing um we we are so as I said these were sort of easier to deal with because they were mandated we're taking as a group uh and this is one of those reviews that may result in no recommendations or or there may be some conforming changes that are required but we plan to look at um a bunch of the policies that relate to uh harassment discrimination including our sexual harassment policy um originally one of the P policies was sexual harassment but I think we're going to look at them as an entire group because they all

116sort of relate to each other and we're considering restructuring them a little bit to make more sense so um we'll that's going to take a while so we'll work on that along with other things that we'll bring quicker so thank you both all right um we will now move on to audience to visitors the Cold Spring Harbor Board of Education and administration welcome your attendance at board meetings the audience to public affords residents an opportunity to address the board on both agenda and non-agenda items each resident is allowed to speak for 3 minutes this is not the Forum to discuss student or staff specific issues please contact the district separately on these matters so I have a sign up list here um Cecilia Gilroy Cecilia Gilroy parent of three in Lloyd Harbor school um I

117did just want to start by expressing my gratitude um to the board for all the hard work you guys have had a lot of difficult topics to address this year I know it's not easy um I appreciate the update that you just shared with us regarding um the changes that are going to be made um to expand the Holocaust um education so I really appreciate all of that um I was struck by a comment that was made in one of our previous meetings regarding whether or not um September 11th was being taught in our schools and for me I I shared that comment um but really just selfishly because I haven't found the words yet to have that those conversations with my children um and share my own experience about that day so it piqued

118by interest um and the topic was really came up in regards to the choices program which I'm disappointed was not on the agenda this evening but so I searched this traces program for September 11th and I quickly came across a resource that encouraged students to interview someone who vividly remembers the event um the materials and a quote said SE September 11th is a painful and emotional memory for many people sensitivity and respect are part are essential in in these interviews try not to interrupt as people tell their stories and so to me when I read that I was like okay sensitivity respect don't interrupt those are all things things I try to teach my kids now I know that this is not about September 11th um and I did not attempt to vet everything on

119this database I don't have the resources to do that I don't have the access um I don't have the time I don't have the energy I'm barely here tonight um but I looked at what I could and I reached out to former administrators that I respect and trust but the most important feedback that I listened to and that holds the greatest value to me is the viewpoints of our very own teachers and administrators that we heard the social studies department they asked for this tool I understand they have now been left for about two months without a resource we heard directly from our high school principal Mr Dan buy and he shared his specific experience and direct conversations with and discussions with our Educators I hope that we are fostering an environment where our teachers

120and administrators feel respected and trusted they are the experts they've devoted their lives to educating our children and they deserve the tools and resources to do their job to the best of their ability I want them to feel like this community has their back I am thankful for a board that asks difficult questions we should continue to do that I don't want those questions to get in the way of the effectiveness of our teachers so it's a long way of asking when will this matter be resolved so that our teachers do have the resources that they've been asking for and I'm not tied to any program I just want to respond to what the teachers were asking for yes so um the this item was tabled um in September and uh and during that time

121we've asked the teachers to review other curriculum resources this is not the only component of their program and I also just want to say that while the teachers have used this in past courses this is a resource so it's not really like what we call the instructional framework it's an addition to and the choices program um it really is one to two courses that the teachers are asking for the additional resource so it's not the whole social study Department um but I do want to make clear that they're not without resources so they have additional resources they have plenty of other things in fact our teachers look on the internet all the time for additional resources or come across an article um in a paper or a newspaper that um are helpful to them um

122I want to go over just there are four modules that they have or really one to two teachers have identified that they use within the platform so there's about 40 something modules within the platform um so they use the Iranian Revolution the French Revolution the Haitian revolution the um unit on genocide and the growth of nuclear we weapons and it really is about the moral dilemma so while there might be other resources in there those tend to be the ones that they're using and again if there was a sense of urgency for them we would have expedited this and but right now we use superintendent's conference day some time in department meetings for them to look at the resources and we are trying to find some compatible materials or some other materials particularly with these

123topics that I just identified to to marry that um and it justes take time and I know it seems like it's been a lot of time but teachers don't have a lot of release time to do this and if we felt that they were without something or couldn't do something we certainly would have provided that type of time um but I feel confident in that us taking the time along the way to look for the other things um that may be needed to complement this and then I hope to have this on the agenda in December okay thank you for that update okay want say something else just we had asked when it was tabled if it was urgent and you said no that the teachers had time so that was that was asked y

124so again we feel if there was some urgency we like I said we would have moved it along okay um the next we have a list of people sure sure um how when we get to the end of the list we'll I know there's probably some other people who didn't sign up so um Eric Salem thank you my name is Eric Salem I have two students in the district two children uh I am here today to express horror at having seen an image of a child dressed as Hitler okay Mr Salem I just need to stop you as uh Mrs whan said at the beginning of the meeting we cannot speak about specific students or student incidents um in your remarks to the board okay it is the the solemn duty of this board the

125administration of our district and as parents in this District to provide a safe environment in which our students can learn imagery of Nazis in general shatters that environment I would like to praise the board and the administration for working to prevent future Sun future such incidents via education I think that this is the strongest and most effective tool however it is not enough there will always be malicious actors who know an action is wrong and execute it anyway the only way to diser such actors is to embibe fear of negative consequences in this thus far the administration is falling short I would like to read so that we can contrast two other Administration responses to similar recent um incidents as well as our own regarding consequences the first is from um Dr Peter Mohler at

126uh the Ohio Ohio State University in the last 24 hours we have received two instances that directly Target our Jewish Community I want to be direct and clear the university has no tolerance for acts of hatred or violence anti-Semitism is Despicable and has no place in our community the university will pursue all action possible against anyone committing hate crimes on or near campus he also concludes I want to reiterate in the strongest way possible Ohio state will not tolerate violations of law or university policy this includes but is not limited to anti-Semitism bigotry islamophobia racism sexism and violence closer to home from uh Jordan F Cox the superintendent at comac Mr Salem that is the three minutes do you want a little bit of time to finish up or thank you swas was discovered in

127the bathroom stall the suff County police were immediately contacted and have initiated an investigation I want to emphasize in the strongest terms anti-Semitism in any form has no place within our schools and community and will be treated as as a hate crime without exception we are fully committed to utilizing all available resources to identify those responsible and will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law there's more but in the interest of time I would now like to read the letter I received from our administrations um at least the parts about consequences appropriate and Swift consequences were administered in response the difference is Stark and chiling I hope and I believe that it comes from the natural desire of Educators to correct a problem via education I understand but there needs to be more prongs

128to this Fork right we we the parents you the board the administrators need to clearly iners enumerate to the student body this is what will happen to you should you shatter the safety and sanctity of our education environment with hatred thank you for allowing me to extend the time and thank you for your work on this thank you Mr s up next Dave adelhart good evening I'm David adelhart um have one daughter who's gone through the school and one son who's still going through the school system um I want to commend the board on committing to the teaching of the Holocaust and um teaching of hatred in our schools and I'm here to say thank you to you for doing that tonight and just give you a quick story on how your responsibility lies in

129the emotional and um psychological safety of our of our students and um right now we're seeing and it cannot be denied and it cannot be ignored that there is a massive amount of anti-Semitism Islam phobia white nationalism Asian hate it's anti-lgbtq it is swelling around the world and in our country and our kids are aware of it and um it starts it stops with education um and I'm constantly reminded of many years ago I was in Western Uganda after the Civil War and I was getting in a village getting on a truck and there was a woman in front of me with a small boy and the boy went to the front of the line and started questioning the guy who was collecting the tolls and took him to task and there's tremendous corruption so

130we were always prepared to pay whatever we got shaken down for but it was the little boy who stopped the conductor from shaking everybody down with the support of his mother and I talked to her and she said we're being educated and to teach our kids and to change our society and to not we always listen to the Chief and now we're being taught that we have to change how we do things and it's time for us to change and Empower our children so that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past and the backsliding that's going on it starts with education and teaching our kids and our families the right thing to do and I would also like to encourage you to adopt a program um like the choices program that creates difficult decisions

131discussions and enables our children to have difficult discussions amongst themselves because that's what we need to do and unfortunately as a society the adults in the room are not really talking to each other very well right now so I implore you as a request to implement if not that program another program that enables and teaches our students to be emotionally intelligent and improve our society and reduce hate and the things that are backsliding so thank you for listening to me thank you next up we have Trisha avidano hi so oh I wore my boots tonight but they're sorry uh I just wanted to also thank you for your statement before I appreciate your acknowledgement of the Holocaust and that we have work to do to create um a space of compassion and empathy and education

132within our schools I really commend you for making that statement um I'm here to talk about supporting our teachers uh whether or not it's through the choices program or not um I was just having conversations recently um and appreciating how lucky our kids are to have all the resources that they have available to them and I just want to make sure that we're continuing to support and Trust our teachers in providing the access um that they think will provide the very best education to uh to our children I think we can all agree here that we want what's best for our kids educations and likely all move to the community in part to provide that we can agree and disagree on how to best achieve that we can have a healthy debate But ultimately let's

133just make sure we're still providing our teachers with everything they need to help our kids become Global Citizens thanks thank you Jennifer Khan I also wanted to thank the administration and the board for um reacting swiftly and for Mr damusy letter right after the incident question that people are alluding to and to hear that more Holocaust Education is happening I would love to see more education about genocides in general happening I just I just to clarify the statement actually says one of the items just that our goal is to enhance the curriculum overall to represent the world around us so this was just what we were highlighting tonight yes yeah no I get it I I didn't think that you were stopping there necessarily wanted to say sorry 20 seconds back okay I didn't think

134you were stopping there necessarily I I am appreciative um also I told my um kids and husband not to wait up for me tonight because I went home early last time and saw that I missed a really interesting dis discussion at the end first of all um this is I I guess not something that you're going to talk about tonight but I did want to thank all of you for thinking about putting the traffic light on Lawrence Hill not just because it is a quality of life issue sitting there um at the end of the day or in the morning but also because I do think it's a safety issue so I really appreciate that and if that can move forward I think that will make a concrete difference um and finally just i w

135I appreciated also The Talk The Very transparent talk about the choices program and hearing what everybody had to say I also loved the fact that even though there was some disagreement the conversation was very civil and respectful overall which I really appreciate um I just wanted to exhort the board that you know um I actually did not do research into the choices program so I can't actually say whether I advocate for it or not however I do trust teachers in general unless they give me a reason to doubt them um I think it's generally a good idea in a community to trust the experts that they are acting in good faith um and if they think something is useful um to really appreciate that especially if it's unanimous among nine or 10 social studies teachers

136and I think that um something that happens I talked at the last CPC meeting about how a lot of current events aren't even discussed factually and that's not just a problem here that's a problem nationally that something violent happens in the world and because everything is so politicized that faculty is afraid to even bring it up for discussion in even a factual way and I'm worried that if we give teachers the idea that um we can't trust them that if there's a garbage article or an article that really is not age appropriate or God forbid had some kind of hate speech in it I I would like to think that they have the expertise and the sensitivity that they just wouldn't use that from whatever set of resources they have just like when I read

137the paper every day even for my favorite Publications I think that's like a really garbage article and if I am going to consider it I'm going to consider why it's a garbage article so I guess what I mean is I even if there are things in there that make us uncomfortable I think we have to trust that teachers are going to present this to the kids like this is somebody's opinion what do you think about this has somebody has this author um cited enough evidence for their point of view so anyway I just yeah I'm sorry the other thing I just wanted to say is that whenever you guys do um consider curriculum materials there was only one um comment that really caught my ear and made me a little nervous somebody said something about

138something being unamerican I think that I think I know what that person meant however um you know a lot of people on the board ran on making sure that teachers keep their politics out of the classroom we also need to make sure as board members that happens too and I don't think that that person meant that but when you start talking about what's American and what's not um I worry that some politics could be filtering in anyway that's all I had to say thank you again for all your hard work so do we have we have a couple of other people I think who are planning on speaking so do you want to maybe just line up Mr Italian and Mr HJ Andreas did you just raise your hand too Mr larison great okay so

139we got at least four more people good evening marel atie hi everyone um thank you for recording the meetings that was a request of mine and I don't know if it's because of I asked for it but you do it and I looked at the agenda I saw traffic light my eyes lit up so I went to the recording because I wasn't at the meeting and uh I was disappointed it's half a million dollars roundabout might be cheaper please green screen safe but I'm not here about the traffic light I don't limited time I stumbled across the choices discussion and uh I don't know how it got political this choices discussion tonight but um I want to thank the board I came out tonight because I want to thank you um in Prior board meetings

140I've said it would be great to see open debate we saw it great to see scrutiny of uh curriculum we saw it um and a concern over balance I thought that was wonderful because balance is really what we want our kids to understand I don't care if kids are taught what I think I want them and I do this with my kids teach them both sides of a topic and that's the only way you're g i i pride myself on having friends of all Spectrum um you got to listen to different viewpoints and really you know going I'm going to run out of time but you know our superintendent said balance that's what's most important loved it uh someone else said there's not enough balance it seems in this and it really came down to

141it sounded like there was you know some agreement that some of these articles were biased and you can still use biased material to teach kids you could say look this is from and it's good like oh this was printed and this is meant to teach you but it's not telling you X Y and Z so it falls on the teacher and I love what Mr damusy said I think I wish he could teach every class he said at no point should a child know what your individual uh no uh at no point should a child know what your individual beliefs are absolutely and that's not always the case I can remember when I as a little kid um growing up now you realize when Ronald Reagan was elected president I was in literal fear of

142a nuclear war because of of what we were taught um and um so this stuff has impact and you know there were great points by the board I don't have time to go through them all but um I love the fact that you were really getting at it and the bottom line is it's it is about balance and if we can um so I'll finish on this because I don't want to this is doing a hatchet job on actually some good thoughts here so if if um if balance is the critical point which we strive for and it is then how are we measuring it because you said you can't because we're not in the classroom all the time but we say the goal is balanced so our goal can't be measured that's a problem

143um the other point is is it a fact that every single faculty number wants is 100% that is that true the social studies department is in support however it's a few teachers who are interested in using however they are exploring supplement I don't want to run out my time and then the board um last question which came up was interesting is there was a discussion finish your thought thank you I will and I appreciate because one time I asked for an extra 20 seconds that a pass use it up explain and I I was told no you know what I won't even ask the question I'd rather make that point if a parent asked for an extra 20 seconds I I you're doing it tonight that's good thank you no I won't even make the

144last point Thank you thank you all right uh Mr Haj Andreas hello board uh Chris hod Andreas how you doing I wanted to uh again like many people thank you for taking a look at the uh curriculum and make sure it's balanced and adding things to it that you think are not being taught taught enough I know when it came to the Holocaust I was asking my children recently because of a lot what's going on if if it was taught or what they remember being taught because I remember when I was in junior high it was really stressed upon and um and it was impactful because I remember it to this day and my kids didn't really have much input on that and I thought it was severely lacking so with that said I also

145want the board to really consider and look at the lessons that are in the choices program I was able to receive a numerous amounts a bunch of the lesson plans and I looked into the ones that specific to Israel and Palestine and when you look at the lesson plans in the choices program they are biased and slanted and the and the lectures that I saw that were videos of people speaking were one-sided and and honestly bordered on anti-em anti-semitic um I really don't want that TS my children and I really want the board to look at what was said someone earlier mentioned about the uh 911 uh lesson plan that lesson plan mostly spoke about what they feel is the threat to America now which is white uh White nationalists and really didn't get into

146what caused 911 who perpetrated 911 and you I think that's ridiculous someone else mentioned the Iranian Revolution I think the superintendent said that that is a lesson plan that they look at look at the lesson plan in the choices program the take-home message is it empowered women in Iran and if you agree with that I think that's crazy I think Moss wrote that that lesson plan so look at what you're look look at this this uh lesson plan again people want balance this is the opposite of balance and um I really feel it's coming from a very slanted left-wing organization and look at what's happening on all the college campuses and look at the anti-Semitism that's raging on the on the college campuses and look at Brown University where this course comes from how they

147divested from Israel I forgot how many years ago um they divested all their investment from Israel I I really don't have much faith that this is a balanced bias uh balanced unbiased Le uh lesson plan and I really think the board should look at many of the lessons that you'd be giving the teachers to impart on our children thank you thank you Mr Larson hi Joe Larson um I just want to say thank you to miss masimo three of my children went through Lloyd Harbor and have great memories of elementary school because of you so thank you U my question tonight though is can you tell me what the contract amount was for the baseball and softball fields yeah sure 774 th000 so so why was it not competitively bid because last spring I sat

148in front of you guys exception of the new members and told you that IID talked to a local vendor who could do the job for 350,000 and this was not bid so what is the justification for not bidding this project sure it was bid m u Mr Larsson actually um General Municipal law 103 subsection 16 allow you to use another organization's bid that was competitively big did asked for responses from multiple vendors evaluated those responses awarded it to the lowest bidder and then other agencies are allowed to utilize that for this section of the law okay correct so policy 6700 from our district allows for two exceptions for piggybacking on one of them one of them is to save money clearly you didn't because you're playing twice as much and the other is for some

149important reason why we did it so you got to tell me what's the important reason why we did it because you just doubled the cost there's no indication that we doubled the cost when you didn't competitively bid it so you don't know it was properly bid by the organization that bid that contract on a 2021 contract which now three years later during the highest inflation period in recent history you're telling me the company held their prices come on the bid is still in a force it was a three-year renewable bid and it's still en forc today something clearly smells here and you guys AR aren't doing your job if you're if you're letting this happen thank you Mr Larson um we have somebody else who wanted to speak come on up good evening I'm or

150yell I have three students in The District Two at Westside and one in the Middle School um thank you for having us and for all of your work uh I just want to share with you some of my thoughts uh when it comes to choices uh I didn't know that there was a choices program that schools subscribed to supplemental material until um a parent texted me and asked for my support in one way and I wanted to do the research before I formed an opinion um so I spent some time on the Choices website I wound up um crashing the social excuse me social studies conference at uh the Marriott in melv Melville a couple weeks ago to see what was going on on uh in terms of social studies programming and I was really

151encouraged that New York State seemed to be encouraging social studies teachers to expand um their lessons to include uh topics of anti-Semitism there were three or four sessions that were dedicated to anti-Semitism I personally learned a lot in those sessions and they were really interesting and I think our students would um enjoy them too uh I was thinking during those sessions that maybe um symbols of hate um maybe should be considered to be taught in the elementary years maybe by the maybe if they um learn about anti-Semitism symbolism um the power of images that they might uh we might not have these problems in the Middle School um so that's something to think about and I'm happy to help uh think about that uh I spent time on choices and I was really disturbed by

152the section on the Middle East and terrorism I understand that those are not topics that uh the teachers are utilizing in the class but I'm worried that they're presented to The Faculty that this is legitimate you know a legitimate Source um the bias material is presented by Brown University professors so how could they be wrong right um so I just I tried to send the board an email last week but I understand that it only went through uh this afternoon so if I could just take a couple minutes to read the email that I sent to you I also sent a ve a much longer detailed email to um all of everybody at choices to the president of Brown University and to the rabbi there and I haven't heard back from anybody um so that

153really bothers me but I hope that maybe we could do something in our little area here um so I want to share with you yes I've said that that I've um done my research um I'm not on a mission to cancel our subscription nor to criticize criticize our Administration or faculty I'm simply calling out false and misleading information on our resources um Mr Dany um thank you um I saw you here uh in previous emails uh stressed that the topics that I'm concerned about are not units that our school uses and that all materials are vetted before use which is wonderful of course um he also assured me that they are currently looking into alternative sources of material I have no reason not to trust that Mr damusy is making sound curricular decision Visions um

154but I'm worried that teachers and students may be exposed to false information that's presented as factual um as I said earlier um I'm also time but go ahead and finish your thank you um I'm also concerned about supporting a biased program financially I worry that Alternatives won't be any better considering the state of anti-Semitism and bias in Academia some of what I reviewed so far contains false information and others seem carefully curated towards a desired narrative I'm not surprised by the rise in anti-Semitism and calls for the destruction of Israel on college campuses after reviewing their materials the underlying message is that Israel is the eagil occupier and the Palestinians are victims uh and then I detail some I'll skip around um of the materials that I found problematic now I understand that it's possible

155that this is not this topic Israel is not taught in school but I do think that it's important to shove it in um I think that it's important because uh if they're not taught properly now um you know they're getting their in they're getting information from the internet so it would be wonderful if we could step in and clarify all this terrible information that they're getting so in 2007 a video was created on choices uh the topic the title is what do you think the phrase one man's terrorist is another man's Freedom Fighter means this was a few years after September 11th and right at the time that Hamas took power um and sent suicide bombers into Israel and uh were engaging in crazy terrorist activity and now we're thinking about them as Freedom Fighters

156um and you need to understand the history of Israel Israel is not an occupier it's not an apartheid state is never um on the offense and I can go on about that um so this video ends with an open-ended statement that concerns me especially while using Hamas and Freedom Fighters as examples so who can conduct legitimate violence in the international Arena it suggests that there's terrorism that's just justifiable in this in the case of Hamas their aggression is always targeted towards civilians both Palestinian and Israeli um so murders Rockets to and from Civ civilian areas suicide bombers October 7th Massacre party goers people sleeping in their beds the list goes on therefore Hamas engages in terrorism and that should never be justified then I link a video um on a Tik Tock where a CH

157a a college student she quotes the title like verbatim of that video so it's really disturbing um in another video Professor Rama hamami is recorded stating that Jews were not living in Israel since Biblical times and suggests that Jews are not indigenous to the land she also supports BDS and rejects the IH definition of anti-semitism now that's just false information je Jews have been living there granted as a minority in the land continuously and there's a list a very long list of massacres Jews in the area uh throughout that time um they've always been subject to persecution in the land of Israel um throughout time so that's just false and misleading and creates hate I want to just be fair to everyone else who I stopped I could I could have this conversation with you

158for forever but I In fairness to everyone who's here we we do need to wrap up the statement thank you so I'm just left to ask where is the balance that's what choices this Pro program is supposed to provide but it's providing false information um so that's really scary to me um so I'm informed I'm not worried about my children they're going to learn the right information I'm worried about everybody else's and if I don't know the social studies teachers at all and I am not um pointing fingers at anybody it's just that if you're not an expert in the area or you're not really doing the full research and you just go onto this program or any others really I thought maybe they could just go to Khan Academy it was the same problem

159there um they're just going to think that this is legitimate information and this this is where we are today because since September 11th curriculum has changed and um so now we're in a in a war we're in physical war and now we're in a war in education so um I'm available I love to help find um I taught art history at naso Community College in Hofer University not teaching now I have some free time um so thanks thank you very much thank you anyone else okay thank you very much everyone okay we are good and now move on to the approval of minutes um October 10th minutes Tammy you may want to abstain may I have a first Heather second bill any questions all in favor October 24th uh Tammy and Bruce you should may

160want to abstain may I have a first Lisa second Heather questions all in favor November second Tammy you were remote so you should abstain okay uh may I have a first Lisa second Bill questions all in favor November 6th Bruce you may want to abstain may I have a 1 Bill second Tammy questions all in favor we now move to personal recommendations of the superintendent but I don't want [Laughter] to um very quickly before we do this can I just say one thing okay and I promised myself I cried at the last board meeting and I promised myself I wouldn't cry at this board meeting um but when we moved to this District both Dr Moss and Mrs mosimo made just oh I'm GNA cry made such an impact on our children's lives they continue

161to our youngest is in her last year at lyd Harbor school I can't believe she is going out with you um it's going to be a tough graduation for the wheel of hands but just uh from the bottom of our hearts you know I say it to you every time I see you the whole school's tired of hearing it I'm your number one fan I'm forever indebted to you and to Wendy Moss for what you did for our children and you know you know what you did and we really thank you thank you and I know everyone feels the same way who had the experience of being in Lloyd Harper school with you thank you so with that said reluctantly yes oh Lisa that's teamwork we reject this for we will take personal recommendations for

162resignations and appointments on and leaves thank you on page one through eight as a slate oh I see here Christine wrote some words for me I skipped right ahead thank you um may I have a first bill a second Bruce anyone else any questions any rejections okay all in [Music] favor thank you okay so now um we move to a required public hearing for the districtwide safety plan an overview of the plan was discussed in August and this is a revision to incorporate the district's remote learning plan into the document this is an opport o Unity for the public to come up and speak specifically on the safety plan later in the meeting the Board of Education will adopt the district safety PL plan I need a motion to conduct the public hearing on the

163districtwide safety plan thank you tamy do I need a second to a second uh Heather any questions all in favor would anyone in the public like to come up and speak on the district safety plan you're okay you can move forward now thank you we will take the claims auditor report OD nine as a slate may I have a first Lisa second Bruce questions all in favor okay I just to catch up on my pages hold on we will now move to special education reports additional business items oh sorry we will now move to additional business items first we will take all matters on pages nine and 10 as a slate and this includes districtwide safety plan did we finish the discussion on this yes okay may I have a first Lisa second Tammy all

164in favor oh sorry any questions sorry go ahead questions I just it's it's a minor question I was curious what's the purpose of the winter Club contract it it read as for fifth and sixth graders and there were dates and I I didn't know if we were sponsoring some social event or this is the ice skating that they do at the Huntington Country Club every year so it's just a contract between the district and the country club for them to go ice skating okay just Lloyd Harbor yes thank you Lloyd Harbor school that's what that's sorry oh sorry oh sorry CLE and then I I had a question about the artifici artificial intelligence consultant if you could just speak to that please sure so uh we wanted to be responsive two two reasons one we

165wanted to be responsive to our teachers who have been in the survey the surveys that we give give after superintendent's conference day um we always ask for what else are you looking for in terms of professional development and that artificial intelligence bar is is pretty long in terms of they have interest so we wanted to support the teachers um in addition to just support our program we we have um high levels of artificial intelligence among amongst us and teachers are struggling with how to navigate especially in an English class where there are writing assignments and you know the balance of how are we creating authentic writing experiences for our students but how are we also leveraging artificial intelligence within our instruction because um there are some positives that come out of this so again there

166are two ways of looking at this so we did bring in Dr Troy Hicks uh Dr Troy Hicks is a professor professor of English at Central Miss Michigan University um we had reached out to members of our list serves Mr nusy and I to um see if anyone had used any of these consultants and and who were who did they find were successful um so there were three that came about um we did we looked into um and we settled on um Dr Troy Hicks um who again we utilized him for superintendent's conference day for our teachers and would hope to continue the partnership the teachers walked away feeling better um in this session he walked the teachers through not just chat GPT which we hear a lot about um but other forms of artificial

167intelligence and actually walked the social studies and English teachers through scenarios in terms of what are these um applications within artificial intelligence that would actually be a benefit to instruction um so for example one of them was got feedback um he talked about that students can um write up a paper using their own words and um they can um put their paper through got feedback and actually receive feedback about their paper sentence structure grammar spelling and all of that um and he walks the teachers through um several scenarios in terms of okay this is a scenario what would be the best um application to use with respect to artificial intelligence so I will say that I think the social studies teachers walked away feeling more positive they they felt that they could immediately Implement some

168of these strategies into their classrooms the English teachers uh were still trying to get them there it's very challenging as I said with the with the writing however they did appreciate the um the exposure to other applications with artificial intelligence and um and how they could actually use some of these to help children in their writing so that's a little bit about the artificial intelligence that we did I don't know if you had any other questions no that's great I'm glad it was from both perspectives the perspective of how do we deal with possible cheating right and then also how to use it as a tool because it is going to be an important tool going forward right and that's the thing is it's not leaving us and you know the English teachers were wondering

169should there be an honor code so um they're definitely open to the discussion but again there's just the balance thank you you're welcome okay all in favor thank you so now we are up to special education reports we will take stipulations contracts and csse approvals on page 10 as a slate may have a first bill a second Heather questions all in favor we will now move to other matters matters we will take all other matter items on pages 10 and 11 as a slate these items include approving the district goals as discussed at our October meeting approving the new course offerings discussed tonight and the disposal of obsolete equipment should we table the approval of the courses since we wanted more information just oh I was going to say can we table just the ones

170we had more questions on say I would table the preap English one um because that's the one that you wanted the honors waiting for and Advanced Marine Science yes in terms so you could I mean you could approve the course work so they could start the the catalog and then work on you know when we come back to you just adjust the title and the waiting um or you could just table the whole thing yeah rolling and then and then get the information yeah as long as we can change the waiting adjust the waiting and the title if necessary yeah okay okay with that okay okay Jen just regarding the the Marine Science it seemed that you were all in favor though of the honors the honors yes yes yeah both Jen it was uh

171the Marine Science and the preap for the honors waiting no I I understand but I it seemed like that you're pretty unanimous on the the Marine I I know you're looking for further discussion on the the preap English I just I believe they were all in favor of both the honors waiting for those but our message is that we need to go back and speak to the teachers and get feedback in terms of what that might look like okay so we're going to table those two or we're going to vote we're going to approve them and then come back and talk about the title so okay all in favor I don't I don't have a first and a second I'm sorry oh I'm sorry I thought we did that before we asked the questions all

172right may have a first Bruce second Tammy we've asked our questions all in favor great all right um we now move to a first reading of policies so uh policy 4 3 2 1 programs for students with disabilities 4772 graduation ceremonies we will first vote to wave a full reading of these policies may I have a first Tammy second Lisa questions all in favor all right uh let me get my the agenda includes Financial reports on page 11 and these reports are for informational 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 thank youc this is now the discussion portion of our agenda we are scheduled speak about the 2025 budgetary priorities and considerations after

173this discussion we'll open the floor to any other discussion items for members of the board so um this is one of our board goals we talked about this at the beginning of the meeting which seems like a very long time ago now um does anyone have an item or items that they would like to start off with as um you know this is sort of like a wish list budgetary items to prioritize you no I was just going to say I I mean I think the traffic signal and the air conditioning but it sounds like you're considering that for the 2015 capital reserve account so I don't know if that is considered a budget item if we're considering using the capit the 2015 capital reserve Christine well it would I just want to say it

174wouldn't be in the budget but you would have to put it on the ballot uh as a proposition okay so so if you consider if we consider it for capital reserve project for this may you would be on the ballot but it also could be a budgetary item in the transfer to Capital line in the budget got it so there are two funding sources that it could take a path down got it so we should keep it in consideration then as their top priority items on this list I wrote it as a budget priority just to keep there depending on where the session on the 20th I drive this right is the um architect is coming to talk to us about the traffic signal so and that meeting is open to the public for observation

175also people are interested I don't think it's posted yet online Jo uh is it November 20th posted I it's not under the board once this goes away but it's it's on the I saw it somewhere today when I Was preparing for this okay it's 11 o'clock but my brain's still kind of working okay so um the traffic light air conditioning I think one of our um goals was to continue to look at class size so I think Staffing is um a priority I have smaller items on my wish list which include um club sports and other activities that uh the community um pays for which could perhaps come out of our budget as it does in other school districts like ice hockey and uh crew and crew okay yes thank you you're welcome anyone else

176any other wish list items i' I'd like to see more um more focus on the Arts um you know a lot a lot of those students wanted uh you know better spaces um you know I think we should look into supporting the Arts a little bit more some of these budgetary items at a later date or is it have to be right now this is just the initial conversation as Christine is starting um the runway towards budget season um okay we wanted to give her some ideas of in addition to items which are great to hear so we can start doing some of that leg work also some of the priorities the board the board could could discuss with the administration is is it a goal of the board to stay within the tax cap

177because at the end when we add that will have to be you know where we decide we're going to be a lot of ads eventually we have to determine is it a priority to stay within the tax cap or to add the following items there may be competing competing interest there when we get to the end of the budget process So eventually that priority would have to be communicated if that is a priority of the board I don't personally think I can answer that right now because I think the the uh budget vote would have a big impact on that discussion the budget vote for Thursday the liquidation whatever we're calling it that that's a big impact on the budget if it's not approved so yes but I also um I I mentioned this uh

178in a very sort of concept way last time but in addition to uh St within the cap I think we should also look at what an alternate budget would look like lower as well right so it's it's not just in the cap do we have choices that you know the community always wants to know can we keep expenses even lower than the cap I don't think it's just a decision about go to the cap or go over it um and that we may find as hard to do but I think we should at least talk about that yeah we usually call that at the cap or under the cap somewhat you want to you don't want to exceed that's really we did last year we were slightly under we slightly you've been slightly under for

179you've been under for years yes yeah that's a good good question something that's come up quite a bit too is the um busing transportation for students who live on roads where the right um the there's a bunch of roads actually where the buses can't go all the way down and those smaller buses and I know that's a that's a big expense but I think it's always worth taking another look at that yeah I I would have to at least share with the board now that the position that we were in last year of the difficult position that the transportation companies are having having has actually exasperated from last year to this year oh with shortage of drivers you actually see this year we are almost weekly sending home notes that buses are being combined because

180there's not enough drivers and that's happening right now so yes we're going out to an RFP it's going to include the option we're using the term rough Terrain Road and that would mean bus companies would have to transition their large buses into vans so for every one driver we have we may need three which they don't exist right now so we don't know if we'll even get bids to make that happen um Huntington coach is short drivers there's another bus company they short 120 drivers out there like every day they're riding every person who works inside the office rides a bus they only leave one person behind to answer phones and there used to be five people in the offices to answer phones so they don't even have that so I don't know what our

181bid is going to produce but I want to set that expectation if we think that we can move to rough terrain Transportation the current state of affairs and transportation may not allow that to happen Okay but we'll see when those bids come in we're going out to bid hopefully next month so we have those numbers by January so we can build them into the budget great and we'll know those answers thank you because that's also a student safety issue right so um students walking or waiting a long time for for buses um and then there were some Safety and Security topics that we talked about in our um Capital Improvements committee meeting but um certainly I would say I'm sure the whole board agrees that anything that pertains to student safety should be um at

182the top of our list to look at when it comes to budgeting for the next school year the other item that I've always asked about during the budget season is beautifying the front of the high school right those tables in the front the sidewalk um you know coming up with a plan to make it a little nicer for kids with better tables to sit outside um we can also add that to our Capital Improvement committee agenda that item also we'll put it in both places okay on the um the sidewalk uh is that any part of that the front of the high school in the bond No No site work at the high school okay does anyone else have any other items for this discussion portion of the budget no no any other discussion items

183for the meeting this evening no no I know the the teacher and me is giving people time to talk no okay think about it no all right so thank you we will now continue with our second audience to visitors some of you are still here um if anyone would like to come up and speak you may do so now okay can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting all right Bill second Bruce all in favor all right have a great night everyone thanks thanks