Ossining Board of Education Special Meeting of January 24, 2024

001all right everyone good evening welcome to the January 24th 2024 Board of Education regular meeting here in ausing I am going to ask um Miss Matthews if she wouldn't mind leading Us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for which it stands one nation under God indivisible Liberty justice for all all right um welcome everyone I see that we are um lucky to have in attendance some wonderful members of our um volunteer fire department this evening so um what I am going to do is I'm going to ask if I could get a motion to move work session item 2.4 up so moved second any discussion all in favor I I opposed exstension all right so item 2.4 is the firefighters and ambulance workers

002proposed tax exemption update um this is something that we have been considering um I guess we first started talking about it maybe a little bit I guess around a year ago and um it's periodically been on the agenda there have been some discussions uh We've looked at the law we've asked uh a number of questions and so there's actually a sample resolution that everyone has in front of them this evening um so that's the background and I'll let um our superintendent take it from there all right um the firefighters work tax exemption proposal Alita I think you want to just give a little highlight on the thank you sorry um so we we understand um the impact that the exemption is going to have um for the firefighters um and we have been working with

003our attorney to put together a um resolution that addresses um how um people will become or firefighters will become eligible um we are looking at the limits which is up to 10% um we are looking at the years of service which is 2 to 5 years um we are determining whether or not it'll be a lifetime eligible um exemption um and also how it affects an unmarried spouse um and then um we would be required to hold a public hearing and we understand that the tax assessor's office um will need this information prior to May 1st so we all I think the board um has all the information that they need to make a decision um I did present this a couple of months ago maybe uh even earlier than that um so I do

004believe that the board has the information that they need to make a decision um prior to the taxable status date um so hopefully you guys are here and obviously you want um this to pass so the board has all the information like I said to make a decision there's a sample resolution here with that information in it okay great can I can I just ask a quick question if I may clarifying yeah all right so just um first of all I want to say thank you to all of you guys you guys are put yourselves In Harm's Way for all of all of us and thank you for everything you do um so I want to just ask really quickly the um on what we're we're voting on here this does mirror what the town

005and Villages uh of oening um currently have is that correct I I don't remember I I believe so but I don't know if it's it's you know exactly the same okay cuz I I'd want them to make sure that we are we're we're kind of following suit to keep it consistent okay um let me actually that's a a good point what is it that um so is it we are finalizing terms that that we would then be putting towards a public hearing that's what we are doing this evening okay got it and then the public hearing that date tied into what's done this evening in any way is there a certain number of days no the we have to notify the assessor's office by May 1st so you still have a little bit of time

006but um I think there's a maybe Illy can confirm the number of days notice for a hearing I'm not sure if it's so um we still have time but it would be good just to you know wrap it up I have a question um Alita the insert year is blank what would be the when would this be effective the year you said yeah it would be it would be for the update up upcoming um the 2425 school year that's why that's the only way it could be by that it has to they have we have to give them the information before me first um thank you so just just look at the line items we need to get into the resolution and I Echo Rogers point that we should check to see what the other

007municipalities are doing obviously the school tax is the biggest chunk here we know that the community that's that's where the big part so we want to make sure we've got that right um so just so in the resolution we've got 10% right so that's the max that's good that's my opinion I think it should go to the max again in alignment with what the municipal so that's good do we have the determined years of service 2 to five in the resolution or is that something we got to discuss no I think it it sounds like we have to pick what what that is because I think that's what we talked about last time okay so we've got 10% in here we got to discuss two to five is the lifetime eligibility is that in here

008too in the resolution or is that something else we got to say yay to Lifetime or no to Lifetime is that something we got to discussed too um hang on a second by the way just so I'm looking at the resolution that was passed by um by the town of oening and they went up to 10% and the exemption starts at 2 years of service okay um so hang on so two years for them they went 10% in two years on those 10% in two years they've also so in our resolution also we've got I think we've got the unmarried uh spouse of a volunteer or ambulance worker who uh is fortunately killed on the line of duty I think we've got that in here right so we that's in the resolution so there's um

009also there is granting of a lifetime exemption in there from the the town the town and the village too or it's just the town I think the town and the village mirror each others exactly okay and I would be in favor of mirroring that as well um and they so they have unrar spouse of enrolled member killed in the line of duty um also as part of theirs and un remarried spouse of a deceased enrolled member okay so my opinion on this is we should mirror that and get that all in our resolution and then I guess the board's got to vote on that after discussion but that's just my two cents on it thank you um just so the Boe has it I'm forwarding a copy of this to everyone now okay is it

010is it possible to fill in those blanks now and pass this can I I think why wait just we have to have a public hearing first is that correct right move this to the next phase is what I need you got I think you have to give notice of a public hearing so I don't think we can act on it tonight I don't think it's just to move it forward to next step have consensus as to what you want in it so then we can then move forward with the document with you have consensus on that you want in it and then announce the 30 put notice of the 30-day hearing okay okay I'm good with copying exactly what we have with it with a town Village I I could work with Alita to mirror

011it and put it on the next agenda Frank did you have something do you a couple questions and comments I guess so the timeline of the hearing and stuff we need to be you know would be helpful if we can get that from for the next meeting just so we know that we're making the timelines around it because we do have to do the notice and give people the feedback time um I'm in agreement just in terms of the terms and matching there is a question I have with the proposed resolution we have in front of us the first page the bottom page talks about it being further resolved to the extent that the town of ausing extends the exemption that the school district will match it and so this is I'm just my question

012is is is that is is that really what the intent of this is do we spell out these terms individually do we just basically have them match the others I I would I would say that I would prefer probably just having the term spelled out specifically for ours if this is what the this paragraph is intending because I just think it leaves it a little bit open-ended if another municipality changes it and it rolls into ours so um that's a good point Frank that was our to HT to the board's attorney's advice to mirror and that sentence would mirror what the village in town were doing so but you make a good point yeah so I I just think rather than have it be ambiguous if it's the terms are the same you know because

013if that means in the future they change it I think the future board should have the have the opin time to weigh in on it um but I agree with matching the terms just as a clarification so the 10% just this is really more for the public the 10% is on not off of the tax bill but actually 10% of your assessed value so just if anybody's my that number you know just want to make sure that that's clear about it but I certainly would match that number um and I think those were the questions that I had so along those lines could we ask our attorneys it would if we could put language you know either keep this proposed language as is or do something along the lines of be it further resolved that

014to the extent that town of oing um changes the terms of their exemption um this current that time would then review it themselves okay if I I would recommend that we spell out the terms and not leave anything open to interpretation and then have the sense you know have it in there if the if the town revises it in the future the board will review that you know in terms of it just because I think you can get yourself into a difficult spot with assumptions on this so I would spell out the terms I guess that's that's a question for the attorneys to get the clarification on because I'm wondering if that's what the parenthetical is supposed to be doing um we'd mirror the lifetime exemption exactly as it is in the town that's I

015think that's what we're proposing okay hang on I'm just looking up the statute this is referen yeah I mean I believe the bulleted lists that we got are the things that we need to make decisions on but they're not all really spelled out in this resolution and I think you should spell them out in the resolution and you know if the for a reason that the attorneys want to have you know to the extent the town changes this and I'm not sure why it would just be the town if the village changed it right as well or any of the municipalities what if it's briercliffe or what if it's you know um sorry Newcastle Milwood kind of thing there's other there's other you know municipalities in the district so yeah it seems like what has

016been done is rather than spelling it out and what Frank is saying rather than if you look at the sample that I just sent you from the town rather than having the paragraphs that are spelled out there this tries to kind of encapsulate those by referencing what they do and I agree we should have our own terms and if that's not the intention of our attorneys then okay let us know all right it's good to know thank you yeah I I mean and since I mean I think there are more it's more than just the town and the village for for basically emergency services that are impacted by this so I think we should either spell out them all you know or if we're going to match terms of you know consider consider matching terms

017of others we should put in those other municipalities those volunteers as well yeah I I actually am in favor of not putting in any municipality and just listing our terms I I would agree too because I know that the village of briercliffe has not passed theirs yet um as that was news as of this past week so um I would of of TX exemption that that's been provided currently because if there is a if if and I don't know this for sure but if Newcastle is different and they're wildly different you know I I would rather being that we are in the town of aing um and Village aing that we at least try to keep it consistent with that um and just a a question um because this is basically referencing the town of

018oening making determinations um but we you know we have also the town of Yorktown um within our school district so can you ask and our attorneys if this can be drafted in a way that encompasses those who are providing this service within our school district rather than specific towns or municipalities my suspicion is just with that into that point and maybe why we don't want to include those is that they may not have agreement between all the municipalities at what levels they want to do things and so I do think the law requires us to outline specifics and I would lean more towards doing that I think the intent here is to match what you know you know match currently what's on the books with the town and the Village um if one of those

019municipalities does something different either less or more and you mirror someone else's you know you got to be careful then but that's where I say it's subject to interpretation then somebody could say well you're not mirroring barff you're not mirroring Yorktown you're not meing Newcastle right because the district is made up of all those municipalities and therefore it seems like you almost don't want to mention it at all like if this board feels that and after we go through the process hey whatever those guys do we still want to do this and then informally if a year a month 10 years from now something changes I assume we're going to get wind of it and it'll come back organically and then again that's just my one opinion of one because then you get into well

020if they do this and don't do that so to me you got to put it all in or you put nothing and then we act as our own entity and then if someone changes it we'll hear about it we can talk you know future boards can talk about it and keep it or change it regardless I mean I'm not an attorney but that's just what it feels like um we do have a new panel of attorneys this year I wonder if if they even I don't know maybe do you think they appreciate it that we have more than one town in the district I I actually am not familiar with this document specifically I think we had a different document when I presented last year right um so let me Circle back with them I

021don't I don't think I had a direct conversation with the new group of attorneys yet we we had Ellie reach out for to ingr uh to a keen and being to put that together right so yeah I think your point is well taken they new right yeah yeah so to to the point though if you make it unique just to the school district then you're you're fine but we'll Circle back that's what I'm hearing from to Circle back make the adjustments the board is now uh opined as to what you want to see in this which is great this moving this forward we will then make the adjustments unique to the district and all the different things that were mentioned then Illy um we would the vote on this we'd have to put a notice

022and we'd have to give 30 days of this okay so we'll make sure that the the board gets the revised draft given the feedback we received tonight and their next um pieces of information to review and then um you can then set the date for the vote on it okay great can you also ask them when when we do Circle back with them I can Envision them saying for whatever reason we might need to tie this to you know a town and we might need to do this again for Yorktown um I'd be interested in learning their answer that question okay right good point Newcastle and Village ofi and we have to do it you know like three times and if any one of them changes we would have to find we have to go

023back again and which is fine I just we want to make sure we're doing it properly I know one other thing we were discussing before was um and I'm just trying to make sure I'm interpreting the document right that the the lifetime eligibility kicks in after 20 years of service is that the way it's worded there um yes that's my interpretation 20 years of active service active service okay I know that was one of the other so I guess we'll see when we look at some of the surrounding um resolutions around this because that's what we were trying to see whether that was too high of a whether that match what other the the other municipalities um or should that be lower as far as when it kicks in let me read it hang on

024but that's something that I guess that um will be reviewed when we look at compare yep they have TW more than 20 years of active volunteer service one more clarification question I got a little confused with all the different municipalities that are in there since this is like lifetime Services service um sorry lifetime exemption as long as the primary residence is located within the town of oening then it lists all those places so would it be the district for us or that's what we're trying to there's multiple districts that multiple municipalities that feed into our okay School District that's what I thought but I needed the clarification thank you I suspect our attorneys are going to come back and say you have to have one for the town of ausing the town of Yorktown the

025town of newcast um because those municipalities could elect to have different terms than this right they could do they could start it at 5 years instead of two years they could do it a lifetime service of 30 years instead of 20 years so I suspect that's probably what they're going to say and I think there also was the clause in the law that basically said if if someone's primary residence and I think if they remain in the county so I think what we want to clarify from the attorneys is if someone was a volunteer let's just say across the county in nurel and then mov to Austin in retirement I believe in the law that exemption comes with them but we should basically just you know that adds another municipality and so I this is

026where I get a little cautious and don't want to leave things open to interpretation I was under the impression we had kind of resolved that as uh no it doesn't follow them but yeah that was my impression as well if we can just clarify it I may may not be the case but I thought it was in there it did say that and we asked a whole bunch of questions about it at the time um and I just remember us saying that it did not come with them yeah we can just get from the the update from the council and that may just be the same member they sent us previously but we can just get that that would be great okay but barring something drastically changing we are good to go and um you'll

027let us know I guess offline when the hearing will be and all that okay Elita and I will take the feedback and provide the board what it needs yeah thank you w all right great thanks everyone um for all the hard work on that and our um our volunteers for their advocacy thank so many hours they don't even know I just got to get back to my agenda now I've lost my place yes all right um we'll continue on with our superintendent's update which is a very exciting proposed resolution regarding a smart light great great so also before I uh get to that just as in a thought it's just I my thought by for my update I'd include a little work session on um feedback that um I heard from the board at the

028last meeting so uh before we get into that I do want to I I be remiss if we didn't officially recognize um our science Awards um if anyone I know this will be recorded but um today on channel uh 12 at the 5:00 news and tonight at the 10:00 we have Thomas Khan who's been named a top 40 regeneron uh STS finalist of top 40 in the nation it's an incredible achievement um he's his metabolomics I knew I was going to read this and I was listening earlier and I was so happy that Angelo had trouble with some of these terms but um anyway research use computational approaches to challenge the pillars of cancer research and our understanding of cancer metabolism and treatment efficacy so uh we are very excited for that and for those

029of us who are challenged and have family members around cancer I think this is such great research um wonderful let's we want to also give a huge shout out to our five regeneron semifinalists the most in Westchester County uh congratulations again to Tom Aiden Alana Annabelle and Shay and um our amazing teachers our our research team had an incredible win um another shout out at the Westchester Rockland Junior science and Humanities a symposium Chris was there eight uh ausing students will be advancing to the um state level of the competition in Albany and congratulations to uh zad uh zadani on being recognized as an American Academy of Neuroscience science research winner the award comes with $1,000 and an invitation to present at the annual meeting in Denver Colorado um the aing JV tier cheer team

030took first place at the Battle of the cliff at Brier Cliff High School the open door medical facility who we love what they do for our families and kids I happen to have dropped by visited Park School uh we had a fantastic uh AMD orchestra concert Heritage week was celebrated throughout our schools um our AMD students along with Miss Ward were featured I'm sure you all saw it the CBS national news highl for our bullying prevention program our wrestling team were named League champions and our OS track students did some great performances on The I can't believe it's been the 30th annual Armory Hispanic games I can't believe it's been 30 years so great great Prouds to all of our students and families and staff so um the next um um piece of thing that

031I put and I'm asking the board to consider and the board could choose you know not to do a resolution the board could choose to um write a letter we could do a Lo letter together but I thought giving um the comments that were made um um list at the facilities meeting about advocacy around the smart light that um uh we put together um the team in the district office this draft resolution for the board to consider if it was something that you wanted to edit tonight look at if you wanted to add anything to it if you wanted to um make this in the form of a letter I uh that we could all jointly sign I thought that this might be um a really good way to like put a spotlight to the

032new give feedback as we heard from our traffic consultant to um the New York State Department of Transportation about the importance of a smart light at um Route 9 and van courland so I'm be H happy to hear the board's conversation on this topic all right I know I know that like it goes based on who's there but I'm just curious if like there's an idea of the Clockwork of it all um not not 100% to the point that it it has sensors it has connection to other other um cameras and light and other traffic and other smart lights usually are connected to other lights too but we certainly have seen in a particular that day I drove up route n and I turned around and went past three times this was a standalone light

033in front of another campus with the single one single way out that um the technology would allow it that you could program it to do that for that particular incident but it's to sense traffic in other ways sense it through cameras sense it through other you know feed that does go into it and then to change and delay accordingly if we've got you know 15 buses lined up along van Courtland there's no reason for to turn off when only bus 6 went through the light or to C in the morning you know a longer delay for people I was just fascinated to see especially after our conversation it working in the way it was intended to work I was speaking with alteras our security consultant about that particular smart light on Route 9 and they

034said to me oh yeah maryan when it's not working everyone calls the New York State Department of Transportation well I could see why because it was seamless because you um sorry which light are we talking about there's there is a smart light yes on Route n in front of Irvington High School got it and Middle School Country Club if you pass it on Route 9 you'll see that um if there's a car that kind of comes out to Route 9 the light will turn so that to let that let the car or cars out so all the more we've got a campus with 2,000 students two schools um we should have a cave for a smart light if Irvington can do it on route nine oening should be able to do it on route nine

035same the one ask I have in a tweak and at least a discuss would be you know I think the crossing of Route n at um at the top of ever Avenue going down to park school is a dangerous one I've been walking through there several times with kids and cars have gone through past the crossing guards so you know I think I would be interested because those are I think the two schools that really kind of have the crossing at Route 9 I would I would be interested and also one at the top of ever Avenue you know it's an issue there for Nelson Park there was a tragic accident at Nelson Park not too some years back now I guess but I do think those two locations are places where we need to

036consider them can someone remind me so did the did the traffic consultant I forgot his name when he was making present did he say yes you guys need a smart light here he flat out said that because that's not I don't see it in the study so I just want to make sure like it's part of that that all that discussion came out yeah you guys need this to on the this is based directly on the results of the traffic study right and what he said was that there is a plan to upgrade the lighting he doesn't know explicitly that it will be smart lights but the state really only installs now smart lights okay it's it's a slight Nuance in that so he would like to know more but then he asked us he

037said clearly the school district can voice their Express need so to me hearing that and hearing the board's conversation well how do we go about doing that do we write a resolution do we send a letter how would we like to go about doing that right right okay so the the the recommendation regardless of other facilities things was yeah you guys today need a smart light there you should go ask for it in terms of resolution in terms of light okay so if we adopt a resolution versus a letter versus making a phone call whomever does it carry any more or less weight is there's nothing that like we could we can adopt the resolution but you know like the people have to pay attention it more or less than uh if you did a

038letter or a phone call that so does that just usually generally have more weight because you've got this sort of passed is that fair to say or not or I mean Illy does it gets attached to a letter so you end up with two documents that do go just from a technical piece but board resolutions you know we we passed them for pretty serious things we pass them for serious recognitions um I just thought it it gave a level of formality that is above a typical letter because only boards can do resolutions like you have this unique power to pass a resolution um very different than writing a letter but we could do both yeah I mean I think it says that we researched this issue we heard from our constituents our community we discussed

039it as a board and we are in agreement that this is something we really want to advocate for right this is something we can go to our elected officials at the state level and say look we passed this resolution we want you to help us advocate for this as well so I think this is sort of to me I see it as this is a necessary building block in the advocacy piece for this I I do as well I think there's a there's a lot of safety concerns that that I think we need to be advocating for particularly with this and I think Frank has some good points I mean but this particularly because of the the heavy of the traffic that is um going in and out of van courland and impacting all of

040the residents there but also the school and the students um I think this is something that we that I absolutely support so if we pass I guess building off what Frank said again it's more of curiosity what a resolution actually it sounds like it lends more weight but if the real solve there is smart light plus and again I'm to spip on it's more crossing guards it's better signage it's better paint and and then Frank to your point at that other place where you said that tragic accident do you of I mean do you want to pass a resolution that includes a smart light and says by the way we also need this other stuff please think about it or do you come back and do it point in is if you do pass we

041pass the resolution but we really find out in a month six months we need more things there at this intersection or at other intersection he pass another resolution and uh does at some point like someone says well come on guys why don't you come to us the first time with everything in there at once I guess that's what I'm trying to understand is it better to you know we know we need this do this and then if we need more stuff we pass other things you know I mean I would recommend you phrase it as a smart life and safety enhancements and you leave that broad so that you're you're trying to start a conversation here you're trying to me get get attention to it and you know convey the seriousness of it and so

042I would just if we were going to revise this tonight I would list the two addresses and I would say smart light and safety enhancements you know you know and and review with the state with the State Transportation Department you know um and I think we have tried some other things like I have heard reports from parents saying that there's been a crossing guard there and the cards cars just don't care they keep going anyway so yeah this is just another layer of something that seems really necessary to improve it right like there was a time when route n had those walking cross signs in the middle of the road and the state had them removed because it didn't conform to State Standards but those were really attempts to slow down traffic to protect kids

043so I think there's a conversation to be had there and my viewpoint is if we can do this in Irvington and we can do this in front of a country club then we should be able to do it in front of an elementary school and a middle school 100% yeah um let me ask your perspective Mary is it better to pass this and pass a separate one do you think for every it or do you you think it's better you've done stuff on the state level to this that you know I certainly don't have any experience doing or do you think it's better to combine them um I I think it's fine to add the Everett one I I it's it's the same theme it's it's safety on this I mean um yeah I would

044add the more specificity that we've added here to that so it isn't just a one whereas so I would you know just add about that Park is you know obviously the great configuration the age of children the the the the point of the tragedy that occurred there and again we are asking for safety and um smart lights and safety enhancements is this not an issue at the high school at all we don't need one there I mean based upon I I think there's probably there probably is a lot more and I think I'm in support of this being safety enhancements because I think it's a a problem in our section of oening that's on Route 9 I mean you you that cross all these different Crossings here I I think it's it's problematic but I

045think we need to have something to kick the Kickstart the conversation to what you said and I mean most of the high school students are crossing at areas that already have a traffic light so whether or not we want to have you know whatever yeah that was my question really um they're Crossing where there's where there's traffic lights my concern I I don't have a problem with this and with ever but my concern is if we make a resolution that is essentially getting into a redesign of Route 9 we're going to lose our audience for the very specific things that we need um not that it's not something that our advocacy committee and the board shouldn't Lobby for I just I mean maybe my gut instinct is off but I wouldn't want someone to look

046at this and be like well this is just another complaint about route n in this town and we have them they're a dime a dozen we know it's a problematic Road and we'll get to it eventually I like that this is targeted and it's tailored and it's evidence-based and it says exactly what we need and where we need it I'm not opposed to adding in the Everett but beyond that you're really getting into the I guess I wouldn't be comfortable with making it much broader than that at this juncture yeah so would you be okay with the safety enhancements though oh I mean yes that's that's fine I'm also tell the Department of Transportation how to do their if they come out and say this is what you need and it's not a smart light

047and it's this thing that we have instead like go for yeah that was exactly my point I'm by no means a traffic engineer my like it sounds like we need a smart light but if there's other things in dot can control there to fix smart light plus I don't know robot whatever it is we should have so it was explicit from our traffic consultant who is trained to do this that this is what you need there seeing it in other places you just see how it really does enhance it and our security company mentions that that is a very important thing uh having a single Road single access into any campus is something they look at as as an an increase of risk so a very targeted and again crossing guards and other things might

048be controlled by different entities this is the the Department of Transportation specifically does traffic lights so it's very focused on one thing a smart light here right I'm not advocating to add one for the high school as well I was literally wondering because I don't have any kids that go to the high school so I don't know yeah that's the whole point of the conversation yeah just like what else do we want to do do you want to do this do we add to it any tweaks and any of the whereases in this and really there should be a consistency you know I think you know you'd like to think that the State Transportation Department would do this consistently in lots of places but when you have one prop up front of a country club

049when you have signs in ttwn but not in ausing like there's real issues here at the end of the day but you know ttwn made a conscious effort to slow traffic down on nine and they took on the state in certain areas at the end of the day and I'm happy I think this is there's nothing more compelling is when you're walking through that crosswalk and a car is blowing through with a crossing guard there you you know there's we need to do this is my opinion I think the resolution gives it the weight I'm fine doing the two addresses on it um but I think it's and adding to safety enhancements so that's where I'm at okay I think we have consensus okay okay where are we what's next um okay oh oh 2.3

050Equity science technology engineering and math right not 2.2 oh I'm sorry I my eyes skipped a line I apologize for that you were like I see you folks done that's it for me 2.2 Cultural Arts update right okay okay all right thank you Kate thank you thank you so much to the board for inviting me to come and speak about the most amazing things that are happening here in our district there's so much to be proud of and I'm going to walk you through some of the things that are currently happening and give you a little bit of data to go along with that and explain to you also a little bit about how we're going to improve our data collection efforts over the uh over the next year and also some highlights and then

051some some goals that we have um so I wanted to start here with um what our let's see I turn it on it's it's there we go okay thank you um so I wanted to start here with our District's portra of a learner because to our Cultural Arts staff we just love this this embodies everything that we think um is important to have happen in a cultural arts class classroom and we I love the fact that this portrait starts with happy and joyful and if you ever are having a bad day and you need to cheer yourself up I encourage you to stop into one of our art or music or theater or dance classrooms and I promise you you will be you will be cheered um but all of these very important characteristics we

052feel are important not only for our learners but also for our Educators and so we have done a little self assessment on where we fall as Educators on this um so that we can then be able to translate that for our students one of the thing one of the goals of that is here for our whole entire district is really improving our data literacy and so in the arts department we are very lucky to have these targeted department meetings K through 12 and in those meetings we talk a lot about um what's happening in the years before and the years after us which is called vertical alignment so we really look to make sure that our students are getting a well-rounded Progressive um education in in the Arts where it's building upon um what had

053happened prior so one of the things our teachers really love to do is when we have our department meetings you may be the sole art teacher in at Claremont and so to be able to have connections with your colleagues from Park and Brookside and Roosevelt it really is such a treat to be able to talk about what students are doing from the earliest grades all the way up through high school and that's really helped us focus our curriculum we also are very very conscious and working really hard in our curriculum writing so that we have a focus on equity and our culturally responsive sustaining education framework and what that means for us is we're looking to see as we create lessons we use models we use artists we use uh pieces of music pieces of

054art to demonstrate and model and we want to make sure that that artwork and those artists are representative of the students in front of us and that we are really giving students a broad range of experiences across our globe um again we are we really get to Target our workshops for Cultural Arts teachers uh next week we will have a workshop for our music educators on improvisation and using improvisation to tap into creativity we have a workshop in in in the works at Bethany Art Center for our visual art teachers so being able to really Target our our uh excuse me our uh professional development we review our participation data and I'm going to share that with you today um and we ask the questions like who's who's participating in our courses during the school

055day who's participating in our after school and extended day programs and probably even more important who's not participating and then how can we support our Elementary programs to build on our secondary curricular and co-curricular so these are the questions that we are asking as a department so I wanted to take you through a little snapshot of some of the data so you can see a little bit about the numbers of students that are participating and and we can talk a little bit about what some of the blocks are to increasing that um participation so at Claremont and Roosevelt we offer students uh band Orchestra and chorus band and Orchestra and Chorus at at Claremont School are a before school activity students have to get here on their own we do not have busing for that

056um students get here on their own and they participate in that they attend um typically once a week some students come twice a week um and then they have small group instruction for band and Orchestra during the school day um as you can see here our our numbers in in band and Orchestra are are fairly consistent year- toe um our numbers in chorus are are low and you'll see that you only see the 23 24 school year um for some reason we were not collecting data in the same way for uh chorus over the past several years as we were for band and Orchestra and I think that's primarily because chorus has changed Sometimes some years it happens to fall into the school day and some years it's a before school program and as you'll

057see in Roosevelt and after school program so we're going to work to make sure that we're always capturing those numbers so we have a better sense of our our Baseline data I can tell you anecdotally that our our choirs in elementary school are very very small compared to what they used to be um I think we took a hit during covid and we have not regained that yet so we need to work on that it's one of our goals um I did also break down and you you'll have this so that you can take a look at it I did break down our Arts participation by race and ethnicity um I just want to remind everyone that when we talk about Claremont Arts um of course our students all of our students are getting an

058Arts education here in school they are all getting a general music class they are all getting a a visual arts class these are additional classes that happen before school and then I want to show us uh Roosevelt so Roosevelt very similar um it to to Claremont in terms of our Orchestra and band numbers our chorus has been an issue and and one of the reasons is that in the past we've always had chorus as a before school activity every now and then we've been able to get away with uh you know changing the schedule to to put it in during the school day but it was primarily a before school one of the issues that we're we're faced with now is with our scheduling our teacher who teaches at Roosevelt is there for half the

059time and half the time here at AMD and because our start times are different and because the ab days are different than our 1 through six cycle days there there's no way to schedule a Friday morning morning before School chorus because every other Friday that teacher would be have to be here teaching so we turned it into an after school program um we're hoping to grow those numbers and um but that's it's that's quite low for us and again I wanted to show you um our participation rates um by race and ethnicity and then to move on to AMD um so the picture that's up here of the band this is the sixth grade band at our concert last week at the high school um the sixth grade band is so large that the kids

060that you see in this photo are on the floor they're in the pit of the band of the or of the excuse me of the auditorium while the rest of the band is on the stage it is gigantic uh Mr Morrison stood on blocks it made me very nervous but he stood on these very tall blocks so that students could see him and um but the joy that these children provided and the sound that they gave is phenomenal what you'll see as I walk you through some of our enrollment data is that we have very large increases in band enrollment and this is one of the highlights I think of ausing and one of the things that we're most proud of is that there's an access point an entry point for students in sixth grade

061so if students were maybe not interested or not able to get to school before school in fourth or fifth grade they have that opportunity to start in sixth grade and you'll see if you remember we had 57 kids in band last year at Roosevelt when you see the next slide keep 7 in your brain because you'll see how we increased and you'll also see increases in our Orchestra enrollment same thing students can start Orchestra in sixth grade um we are seeing our numbers do have an impact on our space and scheduling and so uh space and you'll hear this again when we talk about the high school space really is dictating our scheduling um but one of the things I also wanted to highlight is our eighth grade our new eighth grade Visual Arts and

062digital media electives which are really popular um so I want to thank the board for supporting us in that okay tiny tiny you have to get your glasses out here um but what I want to highlight is oh let me turn that sorry turning two places um I know this is hard to see um but what I really want to draw your attention to is um in 2122 school year we had 54 students in sixth grade band and this year we have 93 actually as of today 94 students in sixth grade band um it is wonderful to have that many students we have two sections so even with two sections you're thinking about how many students uh Mr Morrison is is managing at one time beautifully um in that room and you're also thinking about

063with all of these 93 students they all have an instrument um not all of them are the size of a flute uh we have some tubas and and uh trombones and other larger instruments so it's all very space you know it takes up a lot of space but this is a good problem to have we're really excited that so many students wanted to start so again we went from 57 students last year in fifth grade to 94 so it's pretty exciting and you can see increases also here in in um in in all of our grades um and in in Orchestra and chorus as well um I did do a breakdown um here as well oh sorry I keep have to two different places um I did do a breakdown here as well about race

064and ethnicity um and I think what's interesting to me is if you take a few moments to take a look you compare the elementary with the secondary with AMD you'll see that AMD is more reflective of our school population than um than our Elementary uh participation rates are and to me I think that speaks to the um accessibility of of students being able to access our before school after school versus during the day programs um I did also want to highlight our our chorus as well um again they they are rather small compared to our our Band program and it's an area where I think that we can grow it's been our our goal as a as a department we're working on recruitment efforts we're working on creating a really rich and and encouraging curriculum

065that's that's very attractive to students um and you'll see that our our again our choirs are very representative of our of our student population and then I also show it out by for orchestra okay I'm going to move right along to our OS enrollment data so one of the things I am really proud of is that while our students are only required to take one Arts Credit for graduation you're going to see in an upcoming slide how we far exceed that one credit um which I think is it speaks to the quality of the programs and um the excitement that they generate among our students um we have so many options for AP and college level classes for in the Arts and that is expanding where we work closely with WCC with Sunni we're now

066working closely with Purchase College who is um is offering us um scholarships for uh students in the Arts uh for purchase which we're of course we are investigating and working with them closely on we are identifying students for whom that will be a really wonderful thing and we're excited because purchase is a really Dynamic has Dynamic programs in the Arts um I will say that our our biggest issue is is our space limitations they really truly dictates our scheduling our visual arts classes there are four classrooms and there are six teachers and our teachers teach six classes out of nine periods so that means if you do the math that and my friend will he can help me with this but if we do the math that means that every room is used every period

067of the day that is um not ideal um for a few reasons one is we have students who constantly come into the art room to work on projects when it's not their class time if you're an AP art student there's no way you're finishing up your work in that 42-minute class you are going throughout the day um and luckily our colleagues get along really well and they're very welcoming to students so they are they're all together and students are coming in the other issue with it is that we have two rooms that are what I would call traditional drawing painting ceramics rooms and two rooms that are more geared towards digital media so the Rubik's Cube of and you know the Jenga actually is a better analogy the Jenga blocks of figuring out which which

068classes fit in which room at at what time is very very complicated um there were times when when I would work with Miss Langley over the summer on we could get more students in this class if we could move them to period three but we could not move them to period three because we just didn't have a room so those kinds of things are happening um same thing with our our music while I'm so excited by the 93 students in band and I really hope they all continue um when I think about those numbers increasing each year and by the time they get to high school where you have ninth and 10th graders together 11th and 12th graders together in band typically um the numbers will far out out exceed our space um for those

069uh for those large groups so I think planning ahead is really really important again really great problem to have um so this was the slide I was chatting about earlier about in terms of the number of students who have more than one Arts Credit so we looked at um Tim Scolton helped me with this slide with these slides and we looked at all of the students who have more than one credit by grade and what we of course n you wouldn't expect very many n9th graders to have more than one credit it's pretty hard to fit that in their schedule but by 12th grade 81% of our students have taken two or more Arts credits um and if I broke that down more you'd see see students who are taking three four five Arts credits

070over the course of their High School career um our students again as they said they only need one Arts Credit they do need electives credits but I'm really proud to say that most of our students are taking Arts um electives and there are so many fabulous options for our students um because I not only oversee uh Cultural Arts but I also work with the um austing High School clubs I wanted to give you some of this data as well since so many of our clubs are Arts related but not all they're they're they run the gamut um I will say though as we were working on this and again this is one of my goals in terms of our data literacy and our data collection is really trying to make sure that we are consistent

071in our data collection what these clubs are not including here are a few uh it's not including our Sports so this is just after school clubs co-curricular clubs this is not including Our Success Center Our enl Success Center which meets two days a week there are about 40 students students participating in that it's not including because the the the names just came to me very recently but our new OS noticias uh program which is our OS news digital media news program that's run completely in Spanish um that's an after school club that club just took off um and so we have uh about 30 students in that program now um and it does not include the austing public library homework support Club so just as to keep that in mind so as we're looking at

072some of these numbers because I think if we add those in these numbers would change a little bit but we're seeing about approximately you know 40 to 60% of our students 40% of our students are in a club um at OS again not including Athletics or the other clubs I mentioned and here's the breakdown by grade it's it's actually pretty similar I was I that was not my hypothesis I I was surprised to see this I think what's really great about this is that you're not seeing a drop off in 12 grade I think that shows that our students are very engaged and continue to be engaged so our goal is to flip those numbers um that would be our goal so that we have 58% of our students participating um as our next goal

073and then you'll see the breakdown by um excuse me by race and ethnicity um again some of the clubs um like I think this um an area that is of concern when we look at this is that it's not reflective our population when you look at our latinx population um there are some of the clubs that I mentioned that are not in here that may change those numbers a bit um but that is something that we want to focus on and make sure that we're offering um that we have access to all students um just as I just wanted to share with you so um we created a website that has all of the clubs available to students um student these posters are all throughout the high school kids can just um scan with their

074you know their phones or QR codes to to see what clubs are available um one of the things in that I did with in the collection of this data when I noticed how many Juniors and I focused on Juniors to start but we'll we'll be work reaching out to all grade levels but I thought Juniors were a good place to start um right before the the holiday break I look to see who is not participating in a club I sent those Juniors an email um to say I noticed that you're not participating in a club um you may be involved in sports or or an after school job that's wonderful but we'd love to invite you to to participate in our clubs if you're available gave them the link to this and then also just

075said in addition to the fact that these are fun and engaging this is really good as you're thinking about college around the corner colleges really like to see this so I just wanted to give a plug for that I think those types of Outreach um are are important we need to be doing that on a regular basis so I'm going to just move into some of our goals as a department um and again just like data literacy can I ask a question about clubs while you're at if I may on the clubs are there are there clubs that are pretty much like student driven like student you I like the way we have the WHERE students kind of like design what kind of classes they want to take or that they want to have in

076the school do we have clubs that are that are built by students for students yes and yes so we U all of our clubs are student driven the advisor is there but um as you know and I worked very closely with the lead in The Bu business department as we know when we develop clubs like all Student Activity clubs are very student driven there's a student Treasurer who who is really at the Forefront of that work but the students are the ones who are supposed to be driving the work of the club um there is also um more specifically there is a club called student driven curriculum uh club and that club looks to see what new classes students would be interested in we also have on the website that I share with students there's

077also a space where you can you know interested in starting a new club here are the here are the steps that you take to start a new club we put in our budget um uh opportunities for new clubs to come up through the year so that and we were able to do that just this year we started stash the trash because it was student uh students came to me about that club we started a French Club this year because students came and and wanted to talk about that so there are clubs throughout the year that we will add because of student choice so moving on to um more of our goals again this is a district goal of our small group instruction and we're we feel really fortunate and the Arts were very used to

078this model um where we work with small groups of students even in a class of say you know 50 students in a band there's no way to deliver that instruction to 50 students completely so we really do um have gotten pretty Adept at breaking it down um and working with small groups instrumental uh students are able to work in small groups with lessons but throughout our performing arts and our Visual Arts we think about working in centers targeting instruction dividing students up into groups based on sometimes based on skill sometimes based on interest sometimes based on um uh on collaborative and on a collaborative model so we really think very carefully as Educators about how we want to group students um because we know that the Arts while they can be solitary in some ways

079in terms of our practicing and and in our Visual Arts our craft but ultimately they are collaborative um efforts so we really we really look to this um the Arts are social emotional learning we feel really proud about that and um thanks because this kid this I'm sorry but this little boy here this is the most amazing photo this was back from our International dot day which celebrates creativity in our students and if you can see he's standing behind his own uh frame that he designed um and it says I am a work of art and the smile says it all um we last year started to look at how our students we were hearing anecdotally from students that through the Pandemic those students that were really attached and connected to an art form whether

080it was learning guitar or painting or drawing um or singing that they felt um they they had better outcomes in terms of their own reported mental health um and so we thought we really need to capture that so that we could share that so there is in here a link to um and was a voice of Pride uh video there is a link to a video that has the students talking in their own ways at an age appropriate level about what the Arts mean to them in terms of finding Joy their self-expression their mental health um and so I think that's really important again connecting our social emotional learning um we work with Dr Dy and Chris Herrera on our cultural heritage days we want to continue to grow those um and our extended day

081learning I mean the the learning Lear does not end at 2:45 or at 3:20 that's for sure uh we have so many opportunities for students to participate in the Arts throughout the the day and and the summer um so again our question is we know that school belonging and a sense of community are vital to our student social emotional learning and we believe that participating in the Arts during the day and after school is a way to help increase that sense of belonging so our goal is going to be looking at how do we increase the number of students who do participate in the Arts and who do participate in in our after school programs another goal of ours is family and Community Partnerships and I have more than I can I we have so

082many I can't list them all but I wanted to highlight a few of them obviously one of the things that's so exciting is that our families get to see our regions every single concert um they get to see our students in action and um and hear the work that they've done throughout the semester um so we're really excited about that and and our concerts are packed full house um we have wonderful collaborations with Bethany Arts Community with Nu builds um Westchester Arts is another one where we're getting teaching artists to come and work with students um our art show we have other U Claremont um Heritage day will take place at Bethany Arts Community um our connection with austing Public Library uh we have a connection with the veterans writing project uh again participation in

083Saturday explore and learns uh our CH our change makers program um that happened this past summer and throughout the course of the Fall um which was a collaboration with Manhattan College and open roads uh really Dynamic um and those students were photojournalists in Utah um documenting their work through photojournalism it was really quite impactful and again one of the ways that we want to develop our family and Community Partnerships is through our Outreach and we have two YouTube channels that um I think are really important to highlight one is the District YouTube channel that has all of our concerts are on there and our voices of Pride anything that we're allowed to with copyright laws go on to that YouTube channel um and then we also have OS news has a YouTube channel and as

084I mentioned we have a new program uh that takes place after school called OS noticias and that is our our completely Spanish run ohos news program and it's fabulous uh again the number of students participating in that is terrific these come out weekly um and they're shown throughout the day um sometimes period two sometimes period three it rotates at OS and students really look forward to it it's another way of increasing our club enrollment so we'll highlight a club we'll highlight students um so that students know what's happening in the world of OHS and then I wanted to highlight a few of our just a few because there's so many um this past summer we had an enl summer arts academy that was really Dynamic students who had just registered uh we had a couple

085students who literally had just registered in July July 1 and they were in our program was such a wonderful way for high school students to be welcomed into the into the gigantic high school that they were you know uh not accustomed to um our students worked with Arts teachers and enl teachers to create art about their about identity projects um again I mentioned earlier our new eighth grade digital art electives which are really popular our digital media club for Spanish speakers uh The Bash Awards which is a digital media uh broadcast uh news awards that we were invited to last year for the first time it's out in um Long Island and we're Again part of that I'm actually part of the steering committee really exciting things happening in that area um and again so

086excited and want to thank the board for our new after school theater programs both at Clara and Roosevelt they're starting and underway and so you'll all get the invitation to those programs in the spring um and our new after school Instrument Repair class at am D I have gotten so many phone calls from music uh coordinators across the across the state about this class uh they're very fascinated by it um and so it's it's great uh our new uniforms are on the way for our OS marching band um we were again last year uh best community for music education for 2023 I think that was our 18th year and um have applied for 2024 and we have student artwork represented across the country this photo right here is a student um there were six students

087who were selected for the Blick that's the art art um uh one of our art vendors one of the major ones um for for their work and um one thing that I gets is really really important that I think is another access point for our students is this I AAP which means it which stands for the individual Arts assessment pathway this is a pathway where students it's the four plus one so the four regions plus a pathway gets you your your five uh credits for um uh for graduation and we are working really closely together in our ohos uh to make sure that we're identifying students for whom this will benefit and it will benefit students of in all different ways some students who may be struggling with taking that fifth region um that that's

088one cohort there's a cohort of students that um maybe come to us a little bit late and so catching up on all those regions is really tricky um and there are students who the Arts are really their thing and we want to highlight that and show these wonderful portfolio so this is all portfolio based it's the way in my opinion assessment should be done very very uh uh portfolio based and then um the last couple things were just our first annual and I say first annual because it will definitely happen again uh film festivals at OS we have a film making class um and we've already had two film festivals um one for during Halloween which was like a scary spooky Film Festival that we that the students did and then we had a home

089alone remake uh Film Festival right before the the winter holidays um so so many really great things that are happening and last but certainly not least our goals and our next steps so as I mentioned before we're really working to increase our enrollment in vocal programs those are our Coral programs across the district I think that takes um some thinking about how we're going to make sure it's accessible to elementary students to get students excited about it at the youngest ages um and then we're working very closely with recruitment assemblies for all of our um transitions um this is a big one that we're we're starting and working really hard on which is utilizing passport for good for data collection so passport for good is um a a new uh uh platform for us um

090we're starting to we've shared all our data and getting students enrolled on there and the next steps are teaching our teachers how to and and class advisors how to utilize this and then teaching the students but this is kind of like a One-Stop shop for our students where they'll keep track of their Club their community service hours um you can put out information about upcoming events through this passport for good it's just a one one place to keep everything which will be very very good for us as we identify um the the data so that we can be really we really know what's happening and then the last is uh again our Outreach to students who are not participating in arts Athletics or other co-curricular programs so we have a list of those students we're

091sharing um at the high school with the um house members so that they can really they know who of their students are why are they not participating are they engaged with a with with family do they have a job after school those are all very valid reasons not to be involved but it but we're really concerned about students that maybe are just disconnected so we want to do some specific Outreach to them and that does it for me great awesome thank you so much that was wonderful great Christine I feel like this is your Super Bowl here so I'm going to go ahead and turn questions over to you okay I have questions um we know this is a topic very near and dear to my heart um so one of the things that jumped

092out to me as you well first before I even say that I just want to highlight something that you didn't highlight but um we provide instruments to our students who participate in the Band program and that's uh cuz we're talking about you know access ibility um Equity when it comes to access uh for instrumental music programs instrumental music programs are not cheap to run and it's because instruments are expensive and we have already committed before my time here um to making sure that every student who wants to participate is not prohibited from doing so because of access to an instrument um we're very proud of that and and it's not something that every District does so that shows a commitment from our board and by our our community to to um to the Arts and

093specifically instrumental instrumental music um but to that end when we see this big jump In instrumental participation between Elementary School and Middle School what I suspect we are not experiencing is this sudden burst of interest but a lack of access at the elementary level that might be a barrier to entry for younger students and I can't I can't express how off-putting that is then when you have sixth graders and some who've been playing for two years and then half of the group is just starting at the beginning it's like having a having a French class where you've got half the kids in French three and half the kids who've never taken a French course before um that is the difference of two years of learning if you could imagine like teaching a math class with

094half sixth graders and half fourth graders what the Gap would be and um I can only imagine that to best serve all of those students both the beginners and the kids who have a few years of experience um that busing for the elementary school students might curb that big leap and also just make the numbers a little bit more predictable right for scheduling purposes I can't imag you know like how how many kids are we going to have in band you I mean right it's got to be wildly unpredictable let me add one thing to that I think that's a really I think the busing piece is very very important the other piece of it is if if you can picture where the instrumental programs are at Claremont and Roosevelt um it's a tiny tiny

095room it's not even a full-size classroom um it's an office at Roosevelt and it's tiny stage um and at Claremont it's a it's a tiny it's a small office and a stage during dur so there's also part of the reason why we have really been reluctant to explode the program in elementary school is is where would we store instruments and where would we put children um that that is a serious issue for us and um and I I think that's a theme you're going to hear in the Arts that that that prevents us from taking that next leap is where where do where do these people where do people go um and and how do we store their instruments so I agree with you I think the busing would be huge but then we'd have

096to really think carefully about um potentially additional staff and certainly additional space yeah oh the other thing I just wanted to ask about is if there are any before after school opportunities at the elementary level for an art Club yes uh thank you for saying that yes we do um this year is the first year that we we have well we have a Roosevelt Art Club we have an AMD Art Club we have a couple of AMD art clubs through star but we have an AMD Art Club through the cultural art STP end and we have several at the high school but we do have the Roosevelt one and um I did request so maybe fingers Crossing we'll have one at Claremont thank you you thanks presentation um great work that's being done there um

097I appreciate you know the efforts that are being made to just further investigate how we 55% are participating and 45% are not um when we did a quick look at it's it's not easy to gather this data and that's why I think passport for good will will help us in this but but comparing students who are in athletics so many of our students who are in athletics are actually also in a club um because we did that little look through as well to see what the overlap is there are some students that are only in sports and they're not in in clubs but that number is not as big as you might think um so I think those numbers would change a little bit when we add them I can try to do some of

098that work and get those numbers that are a little bit more accurate now that I have um Success Center and a few other programs there are probably other programs that I'm just not aware of that just don't run through the after school clubs there are pro there are pockets of programs it might be through Mr deia's program um you know they they programs running so I I think Gathering all of those is the first step and then really being able to to add them all up and see who's not but I I think there it the nice thing about having a list of students that we think are not participating is that's where the Outreach can start as of house assistant principal social workers counselors can really start looking at the students that are on

099that list and say oh well no I know this student has is volunteer firemen um I know this student is uh is has a job you know those things are are good indicators it's the students who we just they don't seem to be doing anything that we're really concerned about we want them connected to school right that's why I was asking was that you know close too accurate of no participation to that um to that end when um I was thinking about you know asking about and I'm pretty sure this is where you're going but as far as making sure that when you're gathering this data and you're identifying where the needs are that it's you know um interpreted back to I guess what you're asking of the board when it comes to budget time

100however and some of your responses um that I've you were just given to Christine it sounds like um even if we were to increase transportation and all these other things to bring up these numbers there's still the space issue with being able to actually accommodate these programs with even the slightest bit of Integrity right um so it sounds like we can do things to increase it but then we're still going to run into a problem on top of that so what I've tried to do and I work with with Miss Meyer on this when we think about the budget and the requests that we're making is how can we really utilize the um how can we support the programs that are here that we know we can support spacewise and schedule wise um so those

101that's where the request would come from so for example um you know our fifth grade Coral program it it this is a structural issue it's the fact that the same teacher cannot teach the chorus before school so we either need to embed it during the day or we need to change the schedule so that that teacher can be there um that is one way that's a structural place and we have room we have room for our our choir um in terms of increasing the number of Elementary band and Orchestra that's going to be trickier um which is why I haven't asked for more Staffing because again we don't know where we would Place th those those staff members so yeah all right I just I was just wondering so there seems like there's some wiggle

102room in some areas to increase the capacity um without running into too many too many issues that's good thank you um what a great presentation just really great things I mean the breadth of it you just can't you can't speak enough of the efforts that go into this and I know that that's not trivial so just really my my hats off to everybody working these efforts and I appreciate you sharing the data I share the sentiments about the you know the uh Elementary School kind of uh you know trying to get those numbers up for the music program we know music and Mathematics in particular but also language go really hand inand and so like there just seems to be you know we have to try to find ways little ways you know and and

103the space I understand is a huge obstacle I guess the the questions that I'll just throw out or just say is like you know is after school music program different you know in terms of anything like that band Orchestra those kinds of things like you know is there more space in the elementaries after school than maybe before school that kind of thing I think you kind of have the the flip at at the high school and I'm really great it's great to hear we're doing the Outreach you know it would be interesting and I don't know the timing of pulling all this together and how it all goes but you know if we're able to identify those students and Survey them and ask them things like what are your obstacles you know would they do

104before school clubs is it Club during the day at the high school I you know I imagine there's a mix of all of that and just um you know and if space really is a consideration at budget time should we be talking about trying to lease some space nearby the school in order to do something you know do we pilot things in small and see how it works I just I would encourage us to be like really creative and trying to find little ways to get it if we can't get to the whole thing um it just is so important I mean you know the connectedness to schools has everything to to do with the research on how students perform at the end of the day and when you see those numbers and while they're

105probably less than what we're seeing there still you know if it's above a third you wonder what else could we be doing right so just really really important but I think the I just love the creativity and you know there's so much I could single out but I just want to really note the uh the portfolio based assessment you know for the individualized Arts assessment you know the state chartered a bunch of performance Consortium schools for this very kind of concept and they only allowed a small number of schools mostly in York City to do this and I just think it's a really great way for us to be again at the Forefront of something really really important just really all these things can take on a life of their own and just I really

106appreciate the efforts to try and bring it to fruition because it's it's just so vital so thank you for a great presentation and uh look forward to hearing more as we approach budget thank you thanks um I got got a couple of quick oh Andy go ahead yeah stay on that side on the p uh this isn't my Super Bowl but I'm in the stands as a fan um I was in the marching band I was I played three instruments so like Christine light um I have a few questions around I guess one of the questions around chorus is um just based on participation I was curious do the kids get to do any trips and I'm speaking of like my childhood when I was in chorus and we sang at like Elk's Lodge and

107things like that right right so that's actually part of our our our goals and and the work that we're doing in terms of increasing enrollment um trying to identify those e extra like special events that will kind of get kids excited about that um but yes we have um groups that are going to are um you know singing for the uh senior Valentine's Day breakfast uh um next month um there are small trips I um the chorus at Claremont is um Miss Miss dezman is always coming up with creative ways to get the students performing she had them performing in the lobby outside of uh Cinderella at at AMD um which was a great way to make that connection and kids got to sing in this lobby as people were coming in and and then

108get to go see the show so we're we're trying to increase those opportunities for our students um I also think the addition of the after school theater program is very much tied in with um increasing our our ch um programs kids get excited about that they see the the value of that they get to know the teacher it's the same teacher who's doing both the theater and the choir um so I think that is another way of of building that enrollment um thank you and then at the high school level are there audition specific programs that the kids have so there are programs that they have to have teacher uh um uh recommendation so for example um students can take symphonic band most most of our ninth and tth graders are in symphonic band then

109we have a wind on Ensemble so that Wind Ensemble is a higher level students have to get to a higher level in order to be in that program same thing with Orchestra versus chamber orchestra chamber orchestra is the higher level of that um but for the most part we really don't do audition after school programs like our theater program we'll have auditions for for parts um but we really it's really open enrollment for just about everything else okay and then my last question you don't if you don't have an answer tonight that's totally fine um I was just curious about participation for student students with disabilities and like all kinds like behavioral cognitive physical if they can't handle an instrument how do you support them in that what kind like what ways can they participate

110that's such a great question we're we're really proud of we were just talking um yesterday I had a department meeting with OS and we're just talking about how inclusive our departments are in terms of the students that are that are attending um in in every level um so a couple of things that I can speak to about that um all of our performing groups are open to to everybody um we have students that will need some additional support at our concerts or at rehearsals and our district is you know through Kim Mauricio's uh office really supporting us with that so if students need additional support um but but our students from every single class at AMD for example are singing in our choirs it's it's it's really wonderful we were just talking about a new

111um I'm going to I'm going to buy one and try it out but there is a new ukulele with our students in in elementary and in Middle School who work who practice ukulele there are ukuleles that have buttons now that will play the entire chord with just a press of one button so for students who that's a challenge physically to be able to do it or or cognitively be able to do that that's a much easier access point um and then there are all sorts of to tools there are so many technology and music go hand in hand so there's so many tools for students um and our teachers are really open to figuring out what's going to work for students um we have a student in um um in a life skills class for

112example at the high school who is in a high level painting class he's in a painting 2 class um his work is phenomenal um you'll see a documentary about him coming up through our film making class um but it you know we're really open to to making sure that all students can access that's great and I'll just Echo how impressed I am with the music program it's so great to see um in college I went to school out of state but I had friends bragging about how great their schools were but their Arts programs were cut and I was like what it was such a big part of my high school experience that I couldn't imagine it yes that's great fellow marching band [Laughter] GE all right Katie manah too marching um so I just

113really quickly Echo that um we have great programs throughout Austin but it's no secret that the two you know as you go through whomever you're speaking with about budget to to think that yeah I Echo what Frank said you know is it space is at least in space is a partnership with local business is so we don't turn anyone away the kids get the recorders what in fourth grade here we pay for all the instruments that absolutely to your point does not happen I know if I've asked it does not happen in most districts certainly not in the area so to keep on building on this as a real key differentiate to me is really important I mean just speaking as not as Rob board member but Rob and Jenna's parent you know our son

114is in Orchestra and uh they got their concert you know they have the concert tomorrow in fifth grade and the teacher Miss anore I'll name check her I mean there's like a hundred kids and I right I don't you you know the number so you've got one educator teaching a hundred kids to play string instruments that I don't know if that's too few of staff to do 100 I don't know I'm not very talented in music I don't know so our son didn't get certainly didn't get that for me but um so I would then Echo like if you think you need more staff or more busing or more space let's try to figure that out um and you know make sure everyone yes has access to it you know he's and I think I

115brought up in the morning I know K and I discussed like again as parent like you know so his cohort class um has to have their lesson during recess versus a PE period so they're kind of short Change like 20 25 minutes or so per week and this is not just for our son so but if there was a way for you to say okay if I had another teacher another space for all the kids for so all kids have that Equity Equitable access that would be great so my point my point in a long way of saying it is whatever you think you need for the all the stuff you do here I would ask for it and if we can afford it and we can operationalize it we should consider it again opinion

116of one but you both of you are doing great work and these are big things for the district thank you um I would add and I know scheduling isn't always an issue and it's a big issue because it intersects so deeply with space um the composition of the lesson groups at the elementary school um it is most typical for students who are studying for example trombone to be in a lesson group with other children who are studying trombone or at the very least instruments in the same Brass family and right now our situation is the lessons happen 100% dictated by schedule and you take if you take trauma bone you're taking it with kids who play flute and percussion and whatever else the teacher teaches whoever takes gym at that time so um which is

117not ideal and I know that one of our focuses is your small group instruction and that's where that's where the bulk of the learning takes place is during those lessons so um I don't know to the extent that it's possible to make that Improvement given our scheduling situation as it is and our staffing situation it is but as we're addressing these concerns I mean this is the program that feeds the high school so you're not going to get the big high school numbers and it's kind of amazing to me that we actually end up on that list without um habous lesson groups um by instrument so as we're setting those gos for ourselves that would be a goal that I would love to see down the road even though I know it's probably you know

118not going to be possible in this um budget cycle but I do think that that would be and I think if you do go around and look at most schools most schools are in a situation where somehow some way either they rotate lessons through the day um or you know different schools have different Creative Solutions to how they solve this you know it's a tough not to crack um and I think it's particularly hard given our circumstances but um that that would be a worthwhile goal at some point would be something I would support I I I do actually have some ideas on that that I've been jotting down and looking to see if it will if we can fit the the way I would organize it instead of like thinking of it as a

119six- day cycle thinking of it as a five-day cycle and then being able to regroup across the student special area period so that they're not missing the same thing each time um but it eliminates it eliminates some lesson periods that way so I have to see if it if it would ultimately work um but I think it would be better so I I have been thinking about that a lot too I it's it's not great yeah and then and then by Middle School we're able to fix that yeah um one quick question are all our clubs free yes okay that's what I thought yes and and the other thing that I think is so fascinating and so wonderful is that all of our Productions are free most schools when you go to you have to

120pay a lot of money to go see their shows ours are free we love donations but they are free and and and we're really excited about that and I do think that's why our shows sell out so quickly sell out um because because of that and that's just a value that I'm just so proud that we work in ausing and that that happens here it's really exciting that's rare all right awesome um thank you very much it was a great presentation I do appreciate all the data behind it um and I don't know what struck me about all of this right is there there's some themes here right and it all ties into multiple literacies we want inclusion we want access we want to connect students we want to connect them young we want to

121keep them engaged um so I'm going to talk about something that um is sort of tough for me to talk about at the board table because I'm so involved in it personally and I don't want anyone here to to take it as a directive but I have data that around this sort of when you break down barriers what can happen right so I'm going to share that data and I've shared this privately not yeah privately with Maria in the past and it's come up over the years many times at sometimes at the board table sometimes not which is um Destination Imagination right and we all know that I'm one of the board of directors on that which is now really a private parent run group um where these you know we get together and we

122lead the kids through project-based learning and some and we're very fortunate that like any nonprofit We partner with the school district for space on occasion but that's about it but that wasn't always it so um going back to 2016 2017 there was a first interest meeting and that was that was led by Carrie and cyphos and we had um the state program came in and in just first first and second grade about 150 students with their parents attended that info session and then about 80 signed up and by the once you whittel it down because there's a barrier there right the way that program was run the district made the fees zero but the coaches still had to be parent volunteers right so it was only able to get about 63 students but still 63

123students for first and second grade for after school is like kind of amazing so um that went down the next year because there was no additional funding so a small fee had to be charged but it was still at like a much lower level where the state fees were reduced right so about 50 students were able to do it then it was Grant funded that it was District run the district had a liaison for it that was paid a stipend ausing matters was very generous to pay the Grant and there was no fee and you back up to 65 students participating right so then the grant funding went away again now you're down to 30 students right then you have covid well that's essentially nothing and right now the way that it stands is unfortunately

124there's a $350 fee um for younger students it's less but and that's really to pay what the state requires um and it's only a accomodating 14 students and it's all private and it's all what really ends up happening and what we've seen on the board of directors of that over the years and listen the team goes out they go to the back to school NES they put out the literature it's in Spanish it's in English there's info nights there's translation there's lots and lots of Outreach but as soon as the parents read that flyer and it says $350 it's like the light goes out right and so this the sign up I is is really not a lot and unfortunately I think what has been happening is you know you have groups of parents that

125know each other um that can afford to do it that can accommodate the space that can do it on their own time and so so that's what you have right so you have three groups of pretty homogenous parents that know each other that are doing this and what I loved about being a part of it back in 2016 2017 2019 was that 50% of the students that were participating were the free and reduced lunch students they were our enl students um I mean I've got stories about how they won first place at the states when they got their instant challenge translated into Spanish for the team right and it was like light bulbs went off and all these amazing things happened and and I see now like a group of parents that still want it

126to be the magic that it was but don't have the bandwidth and don't have the resources I am one of those parents I don't want to be doing it anymore and I wasn't planning to do it anymore but my kindergartner begged me and so now I'm like roped in again thank you for doing it anyways I'm just you know I just think it's such an interesting case study about what happened when those barriers were removed listen the district is going to do what whatever it wants with it if that's nothing if that's something like God bless right but I'm just it was an interesting case study and the data is real and it's there and I do sit it's not very active now it was more active during Co but I sat on the New

127York State Destination Imagination panel advisory panel for diversity equity and inclusion and there was a teacher from Elizabeth New Jersey um very very similar demographics to ausing and this program is run in all kinds of different ways all over the state right A lot of them do it exactly the way very privately the way it's been doing now and some do it as a co-curricular like part of their stream program some many many do it as extracurriculars and it's funded in all various different ways I can have a conversation about that another time but the advisory panel's recommendation was if you have a really diverse school district and you want the program to be successful there there really is no substitute for it being a district sponsored run and dedicated program where like in his

128district for example teachers were paid like they were for any coach after school right and they were very successful and they reached a lot of kids and a lot of a really diverse set of kids so in any event not to be interpreted as a directive just sharing the information thank you thank you I I mean I was at Claremont when when kids went to Tennessee right and Global um Missouri Missouri Missouri sorry I knew it was somewhere far it was very exciting it was it was my there were a few years where it was really very exciting if you don't mind me chiming in it's been really great um for kids who have disabilities or access needs as well it gives them an opportunity to be in a smaller group setting and really kind

129of Blossom and there's social emotional learning in there they're encouraging to do things independently that you provide help where needed but they're really leading it and um for next year A friend of mine and I have already talked about starting a team and neither of us has time and we're both very anxious about it but I was like think about it for nine months you have time um just to give the opportunity for the younger kids especially those whose parents might not feel comfortable having them in another group with like a different set of expectations basically so they don't feel alienated or like their child can't do it and I mean I'm not an educator I'm not an OT or anything like that so it's going to be kind of like a we'll see how

130it goes with good intentions but it would be really amazing to have real support for with people who know what they're doing absolutely thank you I do I appreciate this um moving back around I remember when we were talking about this over the years as a board um it was in the vein of just listening to some of the parents who were active in the program come and advocate for um the particular aspects that they found beneficial to their students and I know we were having discussions about especially tonight this being the equity um topic of the night making sure we were already trying to figure out how to expand our district-wide steam efforts so that it's not so compartmentalized or exclusive even right and so I know a lot of those discussions um that

131came up up specifically around di where you know these are there's some great elements to the to the program and some great points about accessibility to steam in general and how can the district um in its continuation to expand the steam program that's already so exclusive for different reasons right um and how can we make Steam accessible to all districtwide instead of it being like an exclusive type of advantage that some could have for whatever reason right and so um you know I think that helps continue to feed our perspective around how we apply steam districtwide um to you know for the very reasons that are you know discussed here tonight to make sure that all students have access to those those great opportunities to kind of expand their creativity and their experiences so I

132appreciate that thank you I think that's actually a great point because you know there are other programs like not just Di right there's other similarly veined project-based programs that are relatively inexpensive to run and I guess what that particular experience with di taught me was that I mean I was blown away by the organic interest that was sort of like lying under the surface right so it doesn't have to be that but I do feel like that's there like I've seen it so whatever creative way that's accessible that Equitable that that we can tap into that that you know I'll support it great okay well I think we are seamlessly about to transition from Cultural Arts into stem or steam or if you're the collective steam train this evening that's it there we go we

133were gonna do like a Saturday Night Live weekend update for you but we in the essence of time in the essence we'll forego for go the comedy good job oh there we are ready all right all right thank you president crossling Board of Education superintendent Fox alter and my colleagues for the opportunity to talk tonight about science technology engine Ing and math and everything in between um and I was thinking about the segue and as I think back to both working in science and being in Science Education um creativity is one of the most important things there all the time all the time computer programming is often thought of as a very sort of sterile language mechanical the creativity is enormous in that and in everything we do and I think you'll see that in

134the presentation in the tremendous crossover and the need to help kids find their superpower um and really and I wanted to start off tonight by saying that in every pocket where good things are growing in the district um there's teachers doing just that and inspiring kids to find themselves and to find parts of themselves um that they'll remember and see classrooms and and these clubs and these spaces with students students and an adult in the room inspiring them is the unit of magic in the district that's where students find themselves that's where the thinking and the Learning Happens that's important and so really my job tonight um is to give you a sense of of where we are and where we're going so that you can be excited along with us make sure I got

135the double click here all right so as much as this is protocol to to talk about these guiding documents um I'm heavily invested in them both as being a part of of writing them and the excitement that we tried to capture in the room when our long range plan and the portrait of a learner came to be because this is about as deep as you get with people who have committed their careers to thinking about what is education and what are schools really there is stuff in there that are that serve as a compass not only for the programs we design um but also for Reflections as Learners um topics about curiosity and balance and these resonate and and as much as schools are about helping our students see themselves so that they can go

136then transfer that to the real world is about as essential as you get and you'll see themes across our pillars tonight as well the relevant learning and student Choice multiple literacies the culture of care and the family and community engagement so in thinking about what what holds all of this together what is stem what what is steam what is that cohesive what is that glue that holds it together we were pressed to think about it and as much as we've got some bullet points up here at the end of the day it was clear that learning and experiences have to be awesome and why do they have to be awesome and engaging because we have to encourage kids to think and have wonder and if we think that truly engaging in thinking hard difficult wrestling

137with a problem thinking if we believe that's a precursor to learning we depend on it we depend on the currency of wonder in science and math to compel us to do really hard things that make that learning worth it and so you could see here some of those ideas that you're going to see tonight are about the nuance and and the architecture of trying to create Pathways that help students Step Up in each grade and building so that those doors in high school become open for all yes we are grounded in the standards and the practices in math and science that we'll share in a minute but there's also an authenticity that we don't want to forget how do we put kids in messy situations with math when is a the number five become something

138when you're adding it to a three is really important it's going to have an outcome your Bridge might break the piece you cut might not be long enough how do we help kids have the confidence so that then we go out in the world they have the confidence to figure out and take those lessons to bear for themselves we value a high level of rig rigor and relevance in what we're doing and we're continuing every day to tap into what does that look like for the students in front of us and that means continuing to try and understand and know our students um as they change over time and being careful about placing opportunities for enrichment wherever we can so that kids are never held back in a classroom and always have an opportunity as

139they go to find themselves and find their superpowers to move forward new science standards thank you let see we are we are a team up here the new science standards uh in my view have opened up an amazing opportunity the architecture of those standards yes it includes the knowledge that we usually think of as content in science but it really is doubling down on having students do science and experience science and every performance expectation written in the new standards integrates students doing science for example on the right if they need to be asking questions developing models how do you think this works it's okay that you don't know what do you think right now how do you think hail forms you just watched a video on hail falling falling from the sky and putting dents

140in a car how do you think that works let's see what's in your mind how do you think let's have student ideas and models bang up against each other so that we can derive and think deeply analyzing data computational thinking can we use those Concepts from math class try to apply them it's what we're looking at so that we can understand and and share designing Solutions engaging in argument from evidence obtaining evaluating and communicating that information these are the through line now in science prek 12 and this is different the new assessments that I'll share in a moment that are going going to be written are going to ask students to demonstrate these abilities which is a very different kind of assessment and different kind of Standards than has happened in the past and that

141will have implications for us as we share with you what we have designed and what we look to uh in terms of the future for curriculum instruction and assessment and here is that timeline from the state uh just to draw some attention to Miss Matthews thank you I should have done that for you so in looking to this spring we have a what moved from fourth grade the ENT Elementary level science test it wasn't given last year because those kids that are now in fifth grade are now taking it in fifth that was one change in terms of grade level the state also is has asked us to do investigations for all students prior to going into to that and since this is the first year we are this year doing them all in fifth

142grade there's four investigations um there is also a parallel to that in 8th grade but a smaller number of students because our students for the most part take earth science looking to next June which is a big one will be a new test in biology So currently living environment um there's some sort of switching back of the names to biology and a new test based on the new standard same thing in earth science next year so there's been a lot of work around seeing this coming and transitioning to um really a different Paradigm in terms of how we're going to prepare students to think and do science and demonstrate on those tests beyond that chemistry and physics reasonance exams would change we don't have a lot of students um that engage in those currently typically

143it's earth science and living environment that are as the expectation for all students in those classes to take the Regent exam there's a parallel to the science practices in a way in the math practices and I make a a a a big deal to raise these to the Sur surface because they really represent how do you tie a math program prek K12 together what does every grade have in common whether you're sitting in calculus or you're learning to write a four which I've had the the the the opportunity to do and is fascinating as a gearshift to see this trajectory to focus on the practice is to focus in each of those with teachers and conversations about what we all have in common and how we can help students step towards that endgame throughout our

144program just as we had in science here's our our math standards timeline and I can tell you that these changes are less L uh Sweeping in scale than the science standards where it truly is a new way of teaching science in mathematics it was more tweaks to different grade levels and where different standards would be taught June 2024 first administration of the algebra 1 regions that has shifted that's something that we've been fully prepared for we've been keeping an eye on it wanted to draw attention to that as well as the the timeline here tonight so elementary and middle school math programs right we go out we we select a we select a program um they almost always I would venture to say they always have to be reconciled with the standards in other words

145we don't just buy we we can't buy a program that matches exactly what New York state says we should be teaching at every grade level so there's always a a very robust process around reviewing the products we're getting and even once we have one there needs to be a considerable amount of time saying okay this program or that program what would need to what would we need to do with it to adapt it not only to the New York state standard specifically but also to where our kids are in their learning so that is an on that is an ongoing process um and doing a little research this was well before um my time in this role it looked like a math curriculum review in 1718 moving into the piloting and adopting of um adoption

146of programs in 1920 tough year for a roll out and implementation um 2021 we were working with a consultant um and obviously teachers were still scrabbling to understand how to best teach hybrid virtual learning 2021-22 comes along um we really jumpstarted the staff training particularly in math and focus in the younger grades virtually we also added Tang math which I'll talk about a little bit more later as well as first in math as as programs to to supplement and support the core program which has been math and focus in K5 um we also went deeper into using Tang math resources to build fluency and to support our students um and particularly scaffold for students in our summer programs which has been tremendous um and that's when we started our family math nights which we actually

147had one last night we had over 250 uh families register for that um it was very exciting if uh if anyone was there or spoke to anyone about it 22 23 we we acknowledge the need to again the the the theme of cohesion pulled the whole District together and we started a district math Council um we sort of had one last year and this year we are planning to have two where we have prek represented through 12th grade to have a conversation about exactly that what is that trajectory and do a deep dive into the data in mathematics um we've also started with uml math which is a program um that really we expanded a little bit last year and a lot this year particularly in our middle school and started working with the math

148consultant uh Heidi Bramley from Questar 3 uh in mathematics so this past year was a big deal in terms of our data literacy in the sense that we had math teacher leaders which we have two in each grade in the elementary um develop benchmark assessments that were going to be visible to their colleagues provide data after a series of chapter tests to really do a deep dive as to how our kids were doing in real time throughout the year that is something that's that is being implemented right now and is making a difference for us in our depth of conversation at the uh in the elementary grade levels we also um along with math consultant have been doing focused uh math visits to each school um we we've done two so far but we'll make

149our way through the whole District District uh in addition to pulling everything together in our districtwide math Council and in math actually did our first math information night uh in this room specifically to talk about the middle school math program and to share really really with transparency where we are in guiding students when there's opportunities for different courses which is where that really starts in middle school this is a slide that was shared already but I wanted it to put this in here as part of as part of our story and where we see ourselves um we're not where we want to end up yet but we feel really good about the momentum and our data is indicating as such uh we have spent a lot of time this year with teacher leaders in particular

150as well as as well as building leaders teasing apart where we are in terms of content and learning but also what is the data telling us what are the tools what are the resources what is more time uh where the more time need to be spent and the benchmark assessments throughout the year become obviously invaluable because you're talking about it in real time when you have the opportunity the state test is kind of over you get the data analysis then you have a new group of students coming in which was even more complicated when during covid we sort of Saw little bubbles of things working their way through the system as we made sure our curriculum continued to be honed and and um and engag in curriculum work around that so here's some of the

151the elementary stem the big pieces here the westest stem ambassadors program um and I I have a slide and we'll talk a little bit more about this later but it is one that you'll see uh holds great promise um we are part of a Consortium of of school districts but we have stem ambassadors that go through training with the uh Mercy College Center for stem education get money for their classrooms and it's really for uh k through eight teachers focused on like engineering computer science and instructional technology math and focus is our Core math program although we have lots of uh supplemental tools Tang math and First in Math being two of them uh First in Math in particular helping with the with the fluency for students it's um on the computer all sorts of

152of math games based off the 24 game for those familiar science 21 um at of puton Northern Westchester bosis developed locally was fully aligned to the new standards year after year and our teachers have been going through that training each year last year we we we culminated that training so we have all all of our Elementary grades through grade five they're using science 21 up to the new standards and teachers have had exposure to that and training and new science investigations which is this year um mve to fifth grade the benchmark assessments are new as I spoke about elementary stream classes are fantastic places for students to find themselves and create creativity family math nights hour of code uh Allison bacon uh one of our um instructional coaches technology coaches takes a lead on that

153does a fabulous job as well as the tapestry of field trips and experiences there's a lot of new happening in stem we put these news these uh sort of new labels as of this past year but a lot of this stuff has been enhanced or come online recently moving to AMD as the the school sort of in the middle of our our system there's a lot new here too and part of that is by Design um growing things and growing programs and making enhancements here allows us gives us a good Center Point uh to radiate outward both up towards the high school and down into Elementary enVision Math is our middle school math program I EXL math is a tool that supplements that really helps us to differentiate uh we've been finding where that is

154a fantastic match a lot of this work with our with our teacher leaders and our our coordinators really finding the spaces where we can leverage it most opsed is a program I am pumped about this this is a uh it's a free program um you can go get the curriculum we have had two trainings for it for sixth and seventh grade teachers um sixth grade being physical science seventh grade being life science and is completely phenomenon based so it doesn't start off let me tell you a little something about the science topic it has kids experience something that compels them to ask questions which is exactly what science should be um and so our our teachers have engaged in training and been working on that uh New Visions is the same way and New Visions

155is out of New York City uh a science framework we are working with them actually to bring some folks in from there but have not yet but the framework is there the framework is there for earth science and we'll see that new Visions is also what we'll be using as the framework for our High School uh biology course um was living environment math challenge courses technology courses computer science 8 stem courses Project Lead the Way is like a gold standard curriculum for engineering that we are excited uh to have brought in our teachers were significant training brought into stem 6 um and we were able to to select a module on flight in space to use as our stem six curriculum which goes along with a lot of the things that we are doing as

156you'll see in a moment um we are connected uh part of a learning technology Grant seventh grade science teachers this year have been joining me at Bose uh to design authentic assessments as we push for that relevance um to be able to work with Diane Cunningham who is a a consultant at bosis per also provides the time and space there to really think about how we meld our new curriculum into a system with more authentic assessments clubs and experience a lot of these things are new Wilderness school was new a few years ago drone Club we're working with drone Cadets is I mean it's it's the coolest um and it it is far beyond flying drones there is a whole aligned stem package uh the Drone Cadets actually um have folks that are coming in

157to work alongside our advisers our advisers are actually in training um it's about 24 hours of online training that they go through and then Hands-On training while they're working here with the kids with drone Cadets so we have big plans for this um right now we're really building capacity um but I would love to see as time goes on the opportunity for all the things you can do in terms of drone racing drone soccer um and to get that buzz going there robotics Genius Bar algebra in our lives is um as part of our star clubs and our math information night at AMD thank you um so I was so excited about the open SED that I just wanted to grab one of the units just to give you a really quick example um so

158the light and matter unit is one of the units from sixth grade so instead of talking about light and what happens to light let me tell you about light the new unit is they look at a two-way mirror and they ask questions how how how does this work kids how does it work how do you think it works and the entire entire instructional design is driven by students asking questions and teachers guiding them not get not not giving the answer encouraging kids to do those practices that we talked about earlier ask your questions let's model ah what do you think how would you investigate if that model is right or not and having kids distill from this phenomenon and these questions Concepts that you would have thought of anyway I I think of it as

159like a little Jedi mind trick how do we get kids to these to these objectives in a way that's how humans were meant to ask these questions and do this so open Sayed more to come that'll be six and seventh grade for us here's some pictures from the from the Drone club with the uh instructors there um our advisors are amazing they are also teaching stem 6 which is a flight and space module and did the training through Project Lead the Way so so there's a ton of momentum training capacity building and and great people and great teachers excited about this work with kids and so I didn't want to uh to not talk at all about some of some of the programmatic conversations that we are constantly engaged in this is uh derived from

160a slide that we use during our math information night just a talk about you know this is one of the first times where students can take different courses what does that look like how how do we provide guidance what do we do on our end to collect enough data where we can give good guidance um and so going back a few years ago I remember this conversation we said you know uh in terms of algebra accelerated in eth grade right now which is a few classes of that right so you're accelerating into it um when is it a great idea when is it a good idea when is it something that you maybe not might not want to do and you might want to stay in in e8th grade math we have been collecting data

161around that to create documents to guide kids but it's really calibrated by the idea right now that we'd like to see kids earning achieving Mastery so there's room for conversations with parents there's room for conversation with kids there's room for conversations with teachers but right now our thinking of this is a good idea is are you on track to achieve Mastery in this course and that lays the ground work for conversations with counselors teachers um students and families about that and I put this slide up there now we we're going to have math 8 and Algebra 1 in 8th grade and we are really trying to continue especially with the with the um with new standards that changed a little bit and get a sense of how do we best remove barriers how do we

162remove barriers that doesn't mean oh all of a sudden it might you know let's just have everybody go into a harder course how do we we remove barriers for students for whom this is a good idea for students who who think that they might be on the cus but want to do it how do we do that and that's been a big part of the programmatic work conversations and learning for us as Leaders Moving to the high school um New Visions I talked about again that group in the city that is the framework we have been working with for a few years to continue to implement um by next year ahead of those tests that'll be fully implemented New Vision biology um earth science earth science we are we're learning it is not being fully

163implemented we are working together towards that outcome where next year that will be fully implemented so students are prepared sorry I'm not sure I understand what that means yes what does that mean which part what you just said about Earth Science earth science not being fully implemented what does that mean so we are not doing New Visions earth science in its entirety right in this moment can you go into when when you say something's not being done that means it's the program is are you is it just not funded for being rolled out what's happening behind there so there's a learning so what's happened in science is it it's a paradigm shift it is truly how do we think about learning what they say in three dimensions so instead of saying here's the the concepts

164in our science we've seen you know Decades of what earth science region exams look like we don't have what the tests are going to look like right now so that takes time to go through understand the standards which we've been working on for years becoming familiar with the architecture and saying how do we think New York State might ask these questions how are we going to prepare our kids the best however every single year the kids have been taking the the I don't want to say old but the current earth science test this is the same for every school in New York state um and the same thing happens as a mirror in biology where you're a teacher each year learning your yourself like how are we going to get ready for this this sudden

165new test we have the standards we've never seen a test that the state has put out how do I shift my practices how do I get students to think in a new way knowing they still have to take the old test and so to that point it has been a gradual release right so it's not fully being implemented in terms of the new this way of doing it because this is it would be a different Target for the test the kids are going to take in June help no it does it does I just needed Clarity yeah yeah I was trying to track along with you and and that part I kind of well it's complicated and imagine so as a teacher you're you've got your eye on this moving Target right the the old

166test is here you you've done this for years you've honed your craft kids are finding success the stfe says oh you better start learning about the new standards but then the test didn't start yet so there's a there's been and these are really candid conversations with really hardworking good teachers um that it's a little bit of a more moving Target so in this current year science teachers are working so hard to to understand and get familiar and anticipate what new test will look like still having to have their kids take the old the old vergins into the test all right so there is a gradual release to say we're full on and we're teaching would mean we're teaching all the new standards but then the old test is coming in June um so I'm trying

167my best to depict that what that reality feels like for for hardworking teachers yeah yeah so the quick followup to that so how do you then choose New Visions is that one of the bra versus Rob biology like how do you pick that particular company that curriculum something so I want to say know you taught biology no I definitely don't okay I won't show you my region I so two years ago um we started having conversations looking what's out there I'll tell you one part of the compelling argu argument for this is one it had to be phenomenon based because all the standards are about doing science which means you need to put real questions and get kids thinking um a big part of it also is that New York State also took the Next

168Generation science standards which have been adopted by many states um and for the Next Generation science standard if you change it at all you have to call it something different so we have the New York State science learning standards for the most part they're the Next Generation science standards but New York made a lot of tweaks a lot of changes here a lot of changes there a lot of additions that's different for all of the different disciplines biology chemistry physics and um and Earth Science New Visions is out of New York City and had a had a a good approach and is also aligned to our New York State Standards there will be other things that pop up and we will to be responsible and look around um but to have um and they and

169they're still continuing to develop they created transition models to try to help teachers like I'll teach this the year right before it's it's a lot but the the truth is that we looked at what was available many states uh in the country adopted Next Generation science standers early so we had some sense of what their tests would be some sense of what their programs would be um even open SED right was developed and there's a lot lots of states that are will engage with that um hope I'm answering your question yeah so we we did a review of that we saw what was available at the time we're aiming for that Target and anything else that comes out we're gain to listen and learn as we all do so stem at the high school New

170Visions uh science research we'll talk a little a little bit more we already have tonight um we have some new club Science Olympiad Esports we'll talk on another slide also about the engineering club programming club which is related in a way to our robotics team and our engineering club because one of their teams within engineering requires that programming so this is a an a capacity enhancing uh move here environmental Club math circle radio club on the step program we are trying to get that to set up which we have at the middle has been at the middle school for a long time um it almost launched right before covid to get Step at the high school and so we're now back into laying the groundwork so that that can can launch I don't know can

171you in short just um give a quick sum summarization at step what that what that entails so it's in collaboration um with with Mercy College yeah and to be honest with you the middle school I think has been like one of the models for this ongoing first I heard about it I was when I was at the high school as an assistant principal and that's when we were about to launch just prior to covid um I think to be honest with you many of those students in the Middle School are really looking for that to continue in the high school there's opportunities not only after school but there's components also of Saturday um and it is is pretty vibrant it's there's a couple of towns uh around us I don't have know them offhand um

172I believe uh I know Peak Skill is one of them um that work together and I can I can get you more information as to what that looks like and what they're currently doing but it's more than just an after school opportunity and it the students that I I I've spoken to and families I've spoken to have had really positive experience in terms of pushing so this launched this year stem uh the step program in O So me we met with them we put a posting out I'm not sure that it started yet but I can get you an update on that okay so dual enrollment courses and AP courses we have a vast Suite of of of those of those opportunities um which is is something we're really proud of I mean whether you're

173thinking about Sunni or other colleges is offering the the uh the dual enrollment credit or APS um I think it's one of the best Blends that I've seen in terms of the vast opportunities to customize a pathway engineering oh my my goodness if you haven't been if you haven't seen a competition for first robotics I don't know what to say I this is this is unbelievable stuff um as a as like an athlete growing up that excitement and that was as my experience when I walk in the arena to watch uh Mr ALB and his engineering team or even walk in after school there is so much energy there is so much learning I'm completely overwhelmed conversations with those students and we think about the different flavors of how kids push themselves and science research

174is absolutely one of those Avenues undeniably undeniably successful we'll talk about that in a minute robotics for some kids clicks and within robotics all of the different skills that need to come to Bear to make this happen and compete incredible I've seen students even beyond the electrical the mechanic the drivers the programmers watching we've had students get awards for their interpersonal skills at these competitions in terms of their interactions with the judges so when you talk about Di and all the different skills that would have to come to bear and to to for student to find themselves this is really something Way Beyond whatever I would have I would have imagined without seeing this is an incredible flavor of science um more than 70 students this is a this is a good siiz group tremendously

175student run tremendous student run um they hosted a regional kickoff at the high school when the game for first robotics came out there was like nine different schools there and um there were speakers but basically they launched what the game is going to be for the year like in the same moment for everybody so it was incredible as they get to learn and say okay this is how we need to customize our robot and I was just over there today and they are cooking in terms of what they're building and I can't wait to see it um they were finalist captains at the 2023 Albany Regional they've competed in the worlds um they also have developed as they figure out which skills are really needed with to to to go to high levels of success

176there's like in-house learning sessions run by students so you might have a junior or senior who's learned a particular skill that is invaluable to competing and they'll be working with the new students to build that Capac the new members to build that capacity organically I think that's incredible in terms of a student run um a student run group to do that and they've been taking this on tour to our elementary schools kids remember kids ask when is that coming back when do you get to do that where do I sign up so I think this is this is something really to watch uh in the district in terms of someplace where that authenticity and relevance out on that uh on that top you know and it's good that you kind of flipped a little bit

177ahead because if you look at the science research there's a a regeneron component to it and because regeneron is doing everything that's around medicine and biotech but in this case here you know how does this get elevated to to look like that in in this way because this here is you know there's awards for this there's a lot that's in there but the thing about this that makes this different from science research is the fact you don't you aren't selectively picked to go in here anybody who wants to join can join in this so there's a couple of challenges to that is number one you have limited resources limited people they are their funding is incredibly limited I mean almost to the point where they have to pick up like scraps and bits and pieces

178out of God knows where to kind of put together a robot um what what's as you think about this in the in the um the budget coming up we want to think about how do we best support that I know there were supposed to be at some point and something I'll probably bring up later on um cards credit cards are supposed to be used by certain clubs and I don't know if that's being used and if if that's rolled out yet but that's again just making sure the that these clubs have what they need the students have what they need because I think this is one that could recruit in and pull in so many other kids that are not science research but they can you can bring them in through this because this incorporates

179industrial Arts it incorporates in their um you you know like Electronics it includes program includes so many pieces to this that I just think this here if there's a club to build equity this is a club and I'm not saying this the only Club but it is a club I appreciate that and and and I would um extrapolate even a little bit more because um we have a lot of conversations about this and the advisors for Robotics are fantastic and open-minded and just about the most welcoming crew you find and um we're also looking at looking at how do you start again pathway thinking so what does that look like in the middle school and so today weard heard some great stuff about D we've also started to look at things like Lego League um

180which at one time was was done with our technology there's the robotics team here um but again how do we start earlier and start building those those skills earlier and I I I I do agree with you um in terms of the funding piece we we've been working with Doug he's got some new swerve drives on the on the robot you'll see them they're like gold I I I have seen I have seen them but I'm just thinking in terms of you you really have enough materials to build one robot for a and where kids of the older grades can actually be involved Doug did in in last year have a second robot that was done for kids that were that were just kind of nth and 10th grade and they can build something but

181you know they kind of abandoned that just because it there wasn't enough resources or people to do that but just what do we need to do and I know space is an issue I get that space is a big issue but it's the space issue for all of these clubs I honestly think and you know to the extent of what we're proposing from from a you know facilities plan I you know I I think we should kind of be Forward Thinking in terms of what can we do assuming that that we're able to move forward with the facilities plan as um you know I think I'd like honestly and I'm sure the other board members would like as well just because I you know I think one of the things that I you know that

182I realized particularly as you know being on the board and before is that when you start to to spark these Minds the kids Minds earlier not just in high school but even in the middle school and you provide those opportunities early you you build a a a a gauge of Interest that's there and you publicize that and and draw kids in sooner because I think this could be bigger and I think we can be much more inclusive um across our our our student population yeah no I appreciate that and I I I think our courses technology courses even to an extent uh computer science our stream classes um there's certainly that awareness of hey this is a door that we want to make sure is open um in terms of the facility pieces um Mr

183Alber was was a part of a lot of those conversations about about facilities along with me about you know what what do you need what are the special needs of a of a engineering classroom that also is going to be building robots um we very recently also visited um the tech center at Bose to look at facilities to look at you know how are you safe within within these kind of spaces and kind of looking to towards some of the expertise in in trying to think forward all of these things to think about how do we build capacity for growth in that program because I agree with you from a funding standpoint one of the um which is a little bit of a one-off is the mrco funds um M that was my next question

184how how is that being pared up to to help Ser so we we've had a working since we've started working with them we've had a working draft and chart about alloc a and needs um engineering has always been on that uh on that list in terms of that actually I had that conversation again today and it's been pretty continuous with Mr albrech about what would get us the most bang for for the buck yeah in terms of moving forward yeah I mean I think between this the science research even if there was a science research like light and a pre like a pre- science research type of thing that could help but you know to the but if there's an engineering I know there's something that's here in in a MD that's like a light

185robotics could that but it's again not quite the same it's not the intro to what you're going to get in high school because literally taking a a leap from Lego and maybe some Basics to all of a sudden going into industrial Arts almost instantaneously and trying to figure out how to make something out of like you know scrap metal and other parts and pieces that have been purchased right so yep the the thinking is paralleled but certainly the what you're creating is different and and so there's different levels of of the first stuff the first Lego League um what they've been doing is we actually buy the new robots they have a lot of what they need to compete um we just haven't recently been taking that step to compete you can run in house

186uh you could you know it's we we just haven't been taking it on the road so to speak to have those competitions but a lot of the equipment are things that we've bought for um our Tech teachers who run the robotics program in an effort to set ourselves up for what you're talking about so I appreciate that thank you I don't want us to hijack your presentation so I I definitely want you to um be able to finish it I did have a quick question the amesco funds those are for the whole District right like pre prek through 12 okay thank you and pause before science research I know we had a an appetizer earlier today for in our students of Distinction um but just to say right a three-year program starting in 10 10th

187grade recognized on the local national International levels um about 90 students in the program and yes there is an application process to get in there which is is different than robotics uh student partner with professional researchers this is all the mentors um that we hear about develop critical thinking scientific writing presentation skills and authentic Concepts it is really hard to capture what that feels like in that classroom with those teachers and those students really hard to capture on a slide this is a really special brand of magic that they create um tireless hours and it manifests as tremendous success um and it is no accident and I know we heard already I had an update that eight from 8 to nine in terms of our finalist representing another student today right Thomas kongu with the

188is the ninth finalist for the program n 99 regenera science Talent Shir semi final looks like we're poised to break some of these these these numbers um 97 97 ISF finalists when I first started uh here I was only tangentially familiar with with science research and all of this started to blur together as I'm sure it does for a lot a lot of people I can't impress upon upon you guys the sense the sense of of success there are skill there there are tools that would um would be dying to get in just some of these Cate categories an STS for General run finalist tremendous can you just really can you just really quickly because I'm I'm one of those tangentially understanding yeah you have semi-finalist for genon then you got finalist and then what

189there's an international I literally have a flowchart okay I I I know I will share it because I had to have uh Angelo and and Valerie sit down and say because for some of them it's they're not linear for some of them you can you can get access to the higher level through multiple different competitions with different names so I'm telling you so when I see this I say every time I get and I'm sending them the messages about congratulations right like I want I always wonder do we understand like how how each of these what these rewards really mean what kids had to do to get through to get through them it is complicated we we can sit down and take a look at that one day but um the success is undeniable yeah

190so that's personally but to your point like I think people in the community and Beyond like oh yeah A's going science we got this regener but if there's more Pathways here if that's not really just telling the story that it's really well beyond that I think that's something just to think about from a communication standpoint go there are different ways different Avenues to get into into some of the some of these um competitions you also don't actually even have to be in a formal research program like any student could separately do their own research and apply and participate in most of the competition um I don't want to bber the point on any of these this this is is part of one of our flowcharts and really just to say we have a vast Suite

191of opportunities and paths that students can take at the high school it's something really to be proud of and one of the things we've been pushing for years is do you take advantage of all four years right students taking four years of science students taking four years of math making sure that we are going well beyond the graduation requirements wherever we possibly can um setting those students up so they so they wouldn't not take a senior year science or math and then what doors are going to be open then if they were go look to do that in college um is kind of a a continuous theme of pushing and constantly raising the bar is another area that this represents pushing our kids further helping them see further and one one of those it's sort

192of the dream of one sec is um is to take is to take science in each of those categories right you want to take an Nur science you want to take a Cham you want to take a physics you want to take a biology and you also want to taste that flavor of engineering because if not now getting back into that becomes more daunting all right so that's a constant push um I wasn't sure whether I want to put this at the beginning or the end but but I like need you guys to know that that that that all of this is done in collaboration not just like we're talking about this there there are structures in this District now that are new in the past couple of years that are have really been like

193oil in the engine of communication in terms of people working together around a focused topic all over the place in stem that involves um teacher leaders like your curriculum coordinators at the high school that I meet with weekly along with the assistant principles to focus in in an ongoing dial dialogue to problem solve and to look Beyond so that we can be proactive and not reactive instructional coaches that we're able to use with Precision that come out of those conversations when we have specific needs we have instructional coaches Alison bacon uh techn in technology is unbelievable and efficient and um and does amazing things throughout throughout the district um teachers in the learning technology Grant at bosis are able to go off bring information back and have a for with which to share and work

194together opsed training coming in the buildings have been tremendous in terms of supporting and allowing for that work to happen with teachers when there's something new like a new curriculum District math Council pulling everybody together from the district for that one moment in time to have the conversation to make the decisions to put their hands on the steering wheel and teacher leadership is a huge part of that in con Junction with our building leaders but making sure that that the teachers who are in the classroom with that kid that that may need that support or a curriculum change might help do that getting all the way through our system is a really big deal uh for me as as we look to be operating in the best way possible for all kids and growing capacity

195through programs like the Westchester stem ambassadors just continues to elevate our ability uh to do so looking to the Horizon um the PTEC or the pathways and Technology Grant from uh New York state which um we are in our planning year in collaboration with Peak Skill Westchester Community College and putner Northern Westchester bosies the program itself will lead to an associates degree in one of these Pathways so we did a study to look where the look where the demand was going to be and these are the pathways for our ptech program with Peak Skill will be health information Technologies paramedics computer information systems and cyber security so those are the selections that will happen within our PTEC there are PCS all over um the state so students depending on their pathway will have coursework um

196at Westchester as well as the satellite locations as we refine where the students are going to go to do to have these experiences um we will be refining that that's part of our charge here in the planning year uh we're also part as I said partner with Peak Skill PN West bosis and Westchester Community College and additional Partners which we've listed and will acquire that are specific to these Pathways a total of 50 students between both us and Peak Skill um will be starting next year as their freshman year and recruitment will include obviously our eighth graders this year in the planning in the planning year um this is for atrisk students that that is not our proposal that's that's what PC is it's can we excite these students and give them sort of that

197long longer range plan and what this is going to cultimate to elevate the relevance in the experience and enticing them with yeah you're going to be getting to college experiences earlier um and we're excited about this we are in the process of hiring a director that's going to sort of help with the collaboration between uh Peak Skill and oening so that as we get more information and make those decisions we'll be moving towards recruitment so Chris does that so does that is that in place of high school or is it conjunction with high school how does it actually work so um we will all be working together a lot of what um they've done and will be doing is sort of teasing together the student experiences so that you're frontloading the the graduation requirements into

198the younger grades so that you can move into these experiences in these college these college level and and satellite experiences in the later grades it's still drawn out into like a six-year experience okay but it's one that's cohesive and within entering into that cohort as a PCH student from oening or from Peak Skill um here's the outcome here's your pathway this is where it will culminate um in in those years did did that answer yep thank you okay if I may they they will um complete their high school education with an associates degree simultaneously thank you and so the Westchester stem ambassadors comes from the Smart Start Grant we are in the third year um we work with six other school districts and we're the lead lead Agency on this it includes for teachers you're

199eligible of your k through eight um includes 30 hours of professional development as I said down at Mercy College Center for stem education um a $2,000 stipended and money for your classroom to support stem learning a part of this is the new uh digital fluency and computer science standards that's part of the the state's rationale of how we Elevate this um and so that is part of the training but it's in computer science engineering and educational technology and we have a liaison in each of the districts um that I work with we do our quarterly meetings um I also work extensively with the business department um because ambassadors in all the districts are paid that's that's stiped and we have a a really impressive Symposium um at the end of the year I believe it's

200in March this year and it's ausing Elmsford nerell Portchester thank you ter Town White Plains and Peak Skill and there is a lot of positive stuff that comes out of this collaboration in terms of networking and really just just checking notes with districts all around stem and what do the programs look like teachers talk it's creates a really nice Network and the Symposium at the end of the year really pulls everything together where you see not just classroom teachers you'll see speech therapists counselors we've had a group of Tas go through the training um and Implement lessons with our students and they have to to to film and give feedback and be reflective about the process and it is planted lots and lots of little seeds for kids and I get the pleasure of being

201invited to go hang out in those spaces when that's happening um and and much of this happens outside of like our stream classes so this is teachers that might might uh not otherwise really be diving into engineering saying you know what I can make this into an engineering lesson let's let's have some fun and that's the end thank you very much Miss Matthews for your clicking clicking services all right great thank you very much and um thank you for answering our questions along the way appreciate that I'm going to open it up to Trustees for further questions comments thank you for that presentation a lot of uh work going into lifting these initiatives off the ground and making sure that we are um capturing the imagination of our students along the way and not just

202kind of driving curriculum into them um so I'm really glad to see how you know you continue to evolve um stem here in the district so thank you for all your hard work thank you um I have a question around es especially with some of the new initiatives around or science math and um your desire to kind of use data that I guess you're Gathering from these math nights and other areas um so would you say that you are you have the tools that you need to have that data or compile that data across um disciplines if you will to be able to report back as to whether it's um working or where you might need more supports or so you mean culum shifts to follow these all these changes and standards yeah I think

203some of it is a function in time I mean we do run into challenges at time and they're not they're they're often not um they're not always like fiscal challenges um I feel tremendously supported uh by my supervisor uh my supervisors um in terms of being able to find ways to get what we need um sometimes you know there's a lot of learning for um that teachers are doing and so for example when we bring teams in sometimes we'll have a team we want to bring in and we're looking for time and we just have to do all the problem solving about when can that happen because like pulling a teacher out of a classroom isn't isn't always what we want you want to do when the student learn in is the the name of

204the game uh so to speak so because there is a lot of math and science um demand for that learning right now I think we've done a good job of of spreading out the learning over time um but a lot of that is systems and and that we're going to work up on our to make it fit as best as possible but we would certainly let you know if there was something um that we could use support with outside that's right so so to that to that you know expanding Beyond you know basic financial support yes I'm just interested if you have um as far as systems Data Systems and being able to and I don't given how organic you are try or or are making this program I don't want to make it seem

205like oh we should bog it down with you know the data but given that that would be a point of reference and as we're lifting all this off the ground um would you say that you have the components necessary to start expanding what that data looks like around the outcomes around some of these initiatives whether it be the new ones the existing ones who we reaching who we not reaching why sort of thing digging kind of down into that I understand your question I what I believe is what we've been building over time in terms of our of our systems and structures and I don't want to sound cliche about that but but there have been positions at it over time uh in terms of like our curriculum coordinators that position a teacher that works

206with kids how to be part of a real conversation and some time and structure to do so to work with administrators we have positions of folks working on on working on data uh Tim Shelton to be one over at in the district office that can really help us sort of like a laser beam to help with that so I think it I I think we're building capacity for example in math like let's give an assessment in this point we need to know it there let's build the time in to look at that data let's get the people in the room who can do something about it that's kind of been our Playbook and it's taken some time to build that in math and science especially with standard changing but I have belief in those in

207those things in those people getting in the rooms with time and space to to problem solve which is an ongoing I don't know if I'm answering exactly what you're asking but that's what I believe in is the answer getting smart people in the room to say hey what do we think is going on here and this mirrors you know my belief around science too what do we think is going on here can we model this do we have the information that we need in front of us if not how do we get it um and I think that the I believe in in my teams I think they're smart I think they're resourceful I think they're creative and I think it's a function of time as they continue to problem solve and think critically to

208do good things for kids right but if I can add to um a data point that to bring up thank you Melissa for mentioning that U you know when Jessica uh presented and Maria they were talking about the the role that data played for us about the choice of this year at OS about that algebra course okay we have a lot of students involved in that and it's one of Chris's big lifts because we've had Heidi working that he did it summer because we wanted to make sure that it the 90 minutes set aside for this class Based on data our performance data was not a repeat of what was before just over 90 minutes you wanted to make sure that it Extended Learning and it gave that support we're approaching a midyear evaluation of

209that because the other thought and comment or concern we can have over this I don't know yet because we need more data I know I thought about what Kate was saying about the role of art electives when we added that course it limited children in ninth grade for taking because it's a period and a half of math where traditionally they had room in their schedules for art so did we you know the question is is that we had a real need we found a solution for the need because we want kids to be high you know everyone knows the research be algebra and success for that at a for college career and moving on in high school and we want kids to engage after freshman year in math for three additional years so setting a

210really strong Foundation because the uh nwaa data showed that we had a gap there that's a key point of Chris's work this year because do we keep that there's resources associated with that there's time there there are kids that might have preferred to have taken an art elective in that so that's a so I'm so glad you asked the question about what data we're looking at because that's a big lift right now that we are looking at are we supposed we talk about that at least every two weeks um how is it how's it going where where is our vulnerability is this the right model for all kids and what then how does that inform math instruction though at AMD like what did we learn from this model that we need and then there are

211natural tensions over time do we have enough summer hours do we have enough superintendent conference days we hate pulling teachers out of classrooms when they're supposed to be with kids so how do we then find you know resource is to get groups of teachers to continue to work on on this but that's an important budgetary um conversation that you know I want to be transparent about because it is a big chunk of Chris's work this year too right right yeah thank you for that um you know this is all great and I'm glad to hear that you know I I know those elements are there I'm just curious to how they're um fitting together so my last question and I appreciate all this work I don't want you to feel like any I'm this is

212like a grilling or whatever these are just my Curiosities around it because it's so expansive there's so much going on I'm just so curious about um you know how we're able to even accomplish this cuz it's so much great work so when you talked about the PTEC Grant um I think you mentioned um the focuses on at risk did you say atrisk students I did okay and so how to that vein of where we're kind of discussing you know identifying you know where where we want to build our strengths around rolling out um different initiatives what would go into the process of identifying at RIS and I want to make sure I'm interpreting that term because you know it could yeah the perspective I'm I'm assuming it means historically underrepresented or dis disenfranchised yeah population

213I appreciate that question okay um and I have some questions too and I'll tell you why so the language itself um in the abstract of the grant talks about the program will Target students at risk of academic failure as well as economically disadvantaged students who are prevalent in both School District so that's right out of the abstract of this there there is a part of this that we are co-constructing um with our partners and with Peak Skill and hiring a director and part of that work we're waiting for them to really come online just correct me if I'm wrong Maria to to tackle that in a way that we're working together with those groups um in terms of exactly what that that those criteria are I'm not sure we've determined that yet so it is

214working with underrepresented uh groups uh and making sure that we provide them with Pathways and incentives to achieve what they're able to achieve um and motivating them and creating Pathways and opportunities for them uh so that there's equity and inclusivity in the pathways that we provide and the success that they experience that's so it's more about that and also opening their eyes to the different opportunities and make and tapping into into their talents um that they may not have had that opportunity to do so that's good to hear because that I think that was kind of what I was curious of Are We creating the atmosphere for them to even be successful leading up to them being selected or something like that right like sort of like you're saying like you can create something but

215are we creating the opportunities for Success within those exactly and tapping into that opportunity and it has a an enormous family and Community engagement component so also engaging our families uh for them to see that opportunity as well and um opening those doors that they may not have thought that their children had an opportunity I also think it if if you think about the alternative pathway for the Arts that or performance arts or dance this model and there's only 10 of them in New York state offer off the opportunity to tell the state maybe four years in a classroom of math and science isn't the best way for all kids and maybe at the end of sophomore year where you spend half your day working in a a a company that's doing cyber security or

216doing Hands-On with robotics you know you could be a different type of learner for a variety of reasons and being underrepresented and not being exposed to certain things but this could grab the great attention for kids and it has this potential to kind of think about okay we're going to give you a Carnegie unit because you just spent you know 40 minutes in this subject every year in a classroom with the teacher in a classroom so trying to do more Hands-On work trying to look at a more portfolio way and how do you do that in stem how do you do that in stem by engaging with and to be able to award a student and associates degree if you start earlier this has great potential for like really telling the state that maybe this

217is something every school district should have the opportunity to I am so excited about this just based on that thought alone so who could we capture we can capture kids that who would never thought of this and like hey this schooling can be for you it this way won't you join our journey on this wa so that's that's perspective on it yeah thank yeah and also um creating internships where children are actually living it and breathing it every single day as part of their coursework and a part of their experiences um we're bringing relevance right and we're making those connections with them that's really good to hear and many of those companies right Maria that that they interview for this grant because they actually went out went did a research in the field the companies

218are looking H those interns while they're there afterwards so there's so much in this grant that can be I'll use the word again for this evening transformational right and if I may we last night the Peak Skill board approved our director so um hopefully 30 days we'll be up and running yeah so we could not expect Chris especially after what you heard tonight to LIF this so the very fact that this grant was welld designed to include a full-time administrator to do this is key is key to this so I think it's incredibly exciting I agree and just to if I may also um Peak Skill is the lead on on this grant so hence their board was the one that approved it so thank you for your question thank you is it I just

219want to say I didn't say get a chance to say thank you thank you to both of you for you know a very comprehensive presentation very thought very thorough um just one question really really I know you've got both of you have kind of shared a a really robust list of things you're doing have we had any I know there was at one point in this district for starting that in I think it was like in Roosevelt there was something called math circles and and it was um it was for those kids who actually were kind of at the you know they were at the higher end in terms of the learning and I know there are clubs and what what have you that are are there more for like the middle schoolers and and

220the high schoolers but do we have any thoughts around doing anything that's much more of you know for those students who want the additional challenge to kind of go higher and further and faster to be able to support that that is that something that's you know in the thought stage or planning or anything like that well I gu tell you Roosevelt School has a tremendous a tremendous after school extended day opportunities there um I'd have to take a look at that list and say hey how is it in terms of balance in terms of uh of enrichment to be to be honest I'd have to have that that conversation um but I do think that's always that's always a part of our of our questions even in the the algebra that that um superintending Mary

221call me Mary you saw you saw I hesitated that Mary depicted um the conversation was do we build in a universe this experience where any scaffolding do support students that need fill those gaps is there at the same time as you're letting kids fly like rocket ships and I think that's been the mentality anytime anytime that we build anything new um um but I I appreciate your question I can certainly get back to you with with specifics but there's a lot going on there that is I just spent two days in that building um with our our math consultant uh and with our math teacher leaders and building administra just looking at math and the conversations I'm telling you are unlike anything i' I've actually had in my career in terms of the specificity about

222what are we doing for kids and what are we doing for all kids and what is and what emerged was about making thinking visible um but those conversations are happening and the focus is there and the structures are there to make sure that Focus sustains thank you Melissa did you have did you have more or no oh okay um because so a couple of um in quick interrelated questions how do you and maybe this is similar to the to I think was right the New Visions question how do you decide when you want to supplement the curriculum with other stuff specific example you got Math in Focus and then there was a decision made to layer on tang and first in math and then you have the ISL math so how do you and why

223do you make those decisions and then kind of relate it to Melissa's question are you then tracking okay we added these two other things on to meet this Gap or this goal are you then tracking quantitatively whether those things are working and then you decide whether or not to continue them and sort of the second question also on data do you have goals for the proficiency level at for instance by grade X points per year whatever that is if so what are they with the ultimate goal to a lease match if not exceed what the lyric is at so semi-related but those those are the two things I've got and if you need me to repeat thato a lot I'm happy to do so no I got you so your first question is about programmatic

224decisions supplements allocations of fund how do we in essence address need by matching programs um so each of those actually has a story so the as a system and I I've said this many times um the for the elementary school that the math teacher leaders are like a periscope and a lever so like they are they are they help me understand exactly what their day is like and what their kids are seeing and feeling we're the ones that go through the data together kind of by by grade level um and they help me to understand those needs so that I can go try to Advocate along with building leaders to fill that so A lot of times needs for things like that emerge like that um in the case of Tang math so Greg Tang

225in terms of his story um he was kind of like a trainer of trainers I believe for like the the Singapore Math which is the concrete pictorial abstract um he he is just a rock star he makes me feel smarter and I'm telling you he makes me feel smarter in terms of what he believes about how students should be able to move numbers around not don't don't count group move faster um and he was such a a bright shining light and when we looked at and we're hearing concerns early on about uh fluency and how quick kids were or uh how proficient kids were in terms of thinking fluidly we knew we had a good match to that we rolled that out organically first with our math teacher leaders and it is he actually has

226a curriculum which is a right a different way to slice up the standards and address them and we don't use those we've stuck with math and focus we have the books and the resources around that and the training um we felt in that case like his package added value in so many any places the most important is that for teachers to be able to go in and say okay this is a really tough concept it walks you through how you would use the CPA model which is the same as math and focus in a sense but the nitty-gritty on how you would teach this so you're constantly reinforcing the same tools constantly reinforcing the same sequence to really build that that that fluency um as you went through so your question was about like how

227did that emerge as a need we saw quite honestly coming out of covid math and focus um it was disrupted the roll out was disrupted we felt like in some ways there was a little bit of like triage like we got to get we need to address a lot of things at once Tang math came with really great online math games that we knew could help build fluency um we felt like it could it could help support our teach teachers with some of the maybe they would have gotten more training more robust training if it wasn't during Co in those earlier years there would seem to be some turbulence there so we felt like it supported teachers um and we felt like it really supported there's even virtual manipulatives in that system there a teacher

228can go in and click and so we did as the math teacher leaders a lot in the beginning was anecdotal not all teachers were using it like when we first roll that out we had to continue to go back we had to continue to look at and make suggestions across the board um we don't have a way to track how students do within that system like in terms of their games first in math and other programs we can track how much they're using it how which classes are using it how those kids are doing um Tang maath isn't like that so a lot of that is what is it supporting teachers with and and the math teacher leaders right now are helping to match the data that's coming in and even the state data that

229shows us where we where we fall with the Tang math and so um Miss Meyer and the small group instruction Focus what it has done is it allowed us to take the the areas that we want to focus on and match particular ways of either reteaching a topic using Tang math as opposed to math and focus scaffolding for students pre- uh pre-teaching for students um and it allows us to do the small group instruction for example um with with more Precision um we don't have a lot a lot of the causality on that it wouldn't be a a a quick A to B that's going to take a little time as we implement it for us to collect that data to be honest obviously our model is yeah how do you collect a baseline And

230if we're going to right that's the the scientific way of doing it um in this ecosystem sometimes we're doing our best at saying we know kids need this let's get this let's track and let's see how we're doing and that does include talking to teachers and include tracking how they're doing so I certainly think I just want to add to what you were saying Chris that if I look at I I'll use English language arts we use the arc reading program to teach the New York State English language arts standards if I need help in terms as a teacher to increase let's say fluency or working with consonant vow consonant I'm not going to find the extended activities I will find support for that you know when I tap out consonant Val consonant I will

231find that in that in Arc but uh foundations will help me with a with a much better approach towards that so for example when we went through the New York state math standards and we went through third grade testing right in math we found out that middle that grade particularly in one year had issues with mean median and mode like okay so we use Math in Focus where is that taught and how could what other tools are available that could extend that there if we don't like it because sometimes we confuse the idea we bought a curriculum to teach the standards but usually curricular art National New York state has standards so you have to do that crosswalk and that Gap analysis in order and provide additional resources in that and then encourage the our

232professional learning communities and growth with teachers when they do a gap analysis listen I've been working with this unit in math and focus and I'm not seeing a real support for mean median mode oh my gosh what does Tang maath have about that that's just a I know that's a simplification about it but that's the approach yeah and that's and that's been the lived approach as much even these past two days we saw specific areas we were talking about fractions and we say okay if we want to tie together how kids start thinking about this for example using number lines what are the tools where do we go we found some pretty good matches and support in tang and it goes like that now we can talk about that in every grade and we and

233we will and that's become the the operational which is in full alignment with our mtss process so what we're discussing right now is that tier one instruction in the classroom with our core instru uh instructional tools and then our supplemental tools to support the differentiation got and right and so the and the second part of the question is that do you have benchmarks you're trying to move the needle on on those proficiency levels is it 1% per year 2% do you have that Andor with I assume the ultimate goal is to get that up to at least to where we are the lyric is so if the Lyric's at 51 and we're at 33 you want to get up there and I would say get higher but is do you have a plan to what

234what that is and how many years you're trying to project out to to to meet that that's a good question I mean we've we've talked about that in terms of I mean we're we're pedal to the metal I would not say we have Quantified incremental uh steps per year right and I think also it's about looking at our subgroups looking at growth particularly the growth within the five elements of those discrete math skills so you would set your own if you let's say you had to put together a performance plan for the state because of um achievement in an area you would take a look at your subgroups in this model you would take a look at your five discret skills put set targets there and then they would combine with an overall performance one

235because there you could have many reasons as to why so the model would need and that's why your question is well well put because you would need to do that level of data analysis which each of the groups to figure out the why of that and then set forth individual growth targets for those to achieve an overall growth in the score at the end yeah and this is not prescriptive no direcor or consents the board just again opinion of one if you set and if it is a number we want to hit X by by year why and here's what we need to do and layer on those other things to do it that way you're literally seeing okay we made it we didn't what happened tell you to to take a look at a

236growth Target that you have factors for within your District to set an achievement Target not a growth Target you're looking at a concrete Target that let's say the state then recalibrates the assessments based upon the nextg science standards you don't know what the Target is but so if you want to fix your growth Target that's where the state would tell you that's where you should focus your work right and and this question has come up um internally you know we this is this is the nature of the teams that I work on right we're we're talking about that um we're math people and we're focused on growth some of the reasons that makes it it a little tricky um is the state does it's a it's a black box in terms of a student's scaled

237score it's it's it's we don't have that conversion and they make changes they've made changes recently the to the criteria of uh Proficiency in level two um so it's a little bit of a black box plus the new standard changing so it does cause like a few variables in there that because I I I know exactly how you're thinking and I tend to think like that too um maybe with some continuity new standards moving forward that's that's a more easily attainable to do the state sets a policy committee believe it or not every year on what is the scale to Growth Store score I'm sorry Melissa let me help oh I was you can go they actually the state says I actually one year served for two full days on how they converted the raw

238to scale scored for algebra and we had to set policy statements for every single question and but I will say though if you would talk about the LC re region the LC region are the 66 public school districts here in put Rockland and Westchester so that's that Target so um and again um there are school districts with different demographic profiles in that um that so well that's an important measure and we put it out there and clearly the state when you end up on certain list as to where they want you to grow they do use that but they will actually point out that you have to really look at your subgroups when they want to see a performance plan and how are your targeting resources and help and support in those areas so right

239all right I want to make sure that we have space for Annie and Frank and Christine um I have a question um first all thank you so much wonderful presentation um I feel like um I I learned a lot about kind of all the changes happening in our science program I have like deja vu because I was um I took a biology class and then a living Sciences region and I there's nothing like the terror of sitting and taking a region and then realizing you're answering a question about a unit that you were not taught because of this exact same situation so godp to all of our science teachers because I I can empathize now as an adult with that um I I feel like I have kind of a black hole of understanding when

240it comes to stream at the elementary school level especially when we're talking talking about you know uh kind of creating a pipeline for our students um do is there a a elementary school stream and I'm talking about like a special area class um like curriculum do they align to science 21 do they align vertically what do they align with at the middle school level um yeah so stream is is it is a local curriculum um they do go through a review they do collaborate along that um it does not necessarily correlate with science 21 along the way we have we have played with models around How would how would you do some of science 21 in there the nature of the cycle makes it tricky they're seeing the kids once every couple of days um

241so I can share with you what are what the curriculum is for those those grad oh I don't need like a full curriculum review I was just wondering if it coordinated or if they're doing their own thing and no it is absolutely coordinated and articulated um and we hope to someday make Steam your Super Bowl I'm open to it that's that's the only question I I've wanted to gain an understanding thank you um I have to just congratulate the district on a job well done with promoting the family math night because I did not stop hearing about it from my first grader for like over a week every single night he's like did you know family math night is coming up he was very excited to do that last night um thank you for sharing

242I always ask questions around accessibility especially for disabled students so one of the questions I have is um this is just like knowledge that I'm lacking has there ever been a program like snapology which is done through the rec center and is for younger kids but is first of all very expensive um and second of all you have to be able to get your child there has that been explored um just curious for kids who wouldn't have transportation wouldn't be able to afford it and then again kids with disabilities who would need extra support like a parent might not be able to just drop them off and let them free they would need someone to I'm not sure I know enough about snapology um well it's on the reenter website and it looks really cool

243is so you're asking are there is there is there something that would parallel that from the district that yeah or has that ever been discussed before is it like the morning aspect of it or for students with disability specifically it's in the afternoon it's after school yeah and it's for students with disabilities no specifically no that's the problem it's an educational franchise that offers comprehensive training and support for using on handon activities to teach Steam while children are exploring uh robotics Etc yeah I mean we're I would say we're at all levels we're pretty much constantly Fielding questions and ideas about different different programs for sure um but was your question about accessibility specifically my question was have you talked about a program like that before for that age group like the K through three

244I think age group because that is like a very specific steam uh program yeah yeah yeah I see okay um yeah I mean we've we've talked all the time uh we talk all the time in the buildings about how we how do we continue to elevate steam um it's not always through after school programs I mean I've got a big chart and my I won't share it it's overwhelming but of all the different experiences throughout every grade whether it comes from the class whether it comes from like the field trips a few years ago we did a comprehensive study of like experiences like everything went on the table and I tried to tie them through in terms of like what does the student actually feel like when they go through all of these place what

245all about the biobs and the fifth grade what about all these little these little experiences that seem like fragments on the map but could be lifechanging um and they're all over the place there's so much cool stuff that goes on from from the clubs that we work on with teatown uh to the trips and I've joined some of those younger grades down there um I I couldn't I could say that we're always looking to enhance them I couldn't say right now that we've had on the docket like hey we have to get something here at this grade level but I'm I'm open to any conversation or suggestion at any time because I agree with you much in the way that Roger brought up earlier how do we get these kids pumped earlier and earlier and

246earlier and feeling like they can look in the mirror and say I can be part of this conversation or I can do that um that is that is our goal okay I'll just add my my experiences been and I said this before the appetite for steam after school in the elementaries is really there I would like to see more off ings um after school in this space an enrichment for our elementary students I know we do have a co-curricular co-curricular programming and stream and the biobus and all kinds of experiences that are built into the day I've seen the the after school interest there even if you just look at the United Way and the amount of families that want to take advantage of that um it's you know it's there yeah we now own

247Colby the mouse because of the United Way coding thing thank goodness I missed out on that it's a fake mouse just I appreciate that question just to like um explain a little more just pulling it up the it's an eight-week program and this section they're doing machines and Contraptions program and it's for G Cades K through three gotcha for the young ones we uh great presentation given the hour I'm going to go fast here and I'll probably send in some written questions um to do that um question just uh n and Bol question on the math curriculum the districtwide curriculum I know the slide says K8 is that a K12 committee or is that a K8 committee for math for math for math it's it's k12 and the next iteration will be pre112 okay so

248it's comprised of um building administrators that can attend obviously me uh math consultant uh will be there as well well and every uh kther 5 will have the two math leaders in the middle school we have a um our curriculum coordinator for math who attends and our high school curriculum coordinator for math uh come together so we've got teacher leaders across the board okay and the high school curriculum spans everything from algebra all the way through calculus too right yeah okay so I just want to make sure it's completely represented from the math in the past we've had some curricular work it's going K8 I I just want to make sure it's a full K12 Viewpoint yeah great question and and um what has so far characterized that has been first of all everybody's from

249different buildings do we know each other do we know who to call do we know the leaders below above do we know the coordinator in this building do we know are we a team and what we've been engaging in is a tremendous amount of data analysis very much a where are we conversation as a group looking at the same chart so that we can create those Pathways and know who to reach out to for those convers ations there has been a tremendous amount of curriculum work I know it sometimes seems silly like hey we have math and focus we have done a tremendous amount of curriculum work given the the prior data to allocate time to different concepts reordering even pruning of units to prioritize certain things and when you're in the room and fourth

250grade is talking about that and your third grade or fifth grade um it matters and that's I think the cohesion that's H that's starting to happen because of that group and next time we'll also have prek in the mix great that's great to hear how what are we talking about like getting students Beyond algebra and into upper level math like you know percentage wise in the district that's always been a number that's been concerning you know how are we doing on that and you know what what are the conversations we're having around that that's a great to trig you mean to trigonometry Algebra 2 trigonometry anything beyond algebra one right so for that I think one of the most important conversations is is the algebra um as an opportunity the design of that expansion where

251every other day is a double now came to did come directly out of data but it wasn't only data on what are some of the gaps of students that be coming in it was also it was also looking at how do we Elevate and prepare students in this course through enrichment so that we can bolster our upper upper level courses in math and so I I know that sometimes that narrative got lost a little bit but it is truly about that is how do we get get a kid that may come in and have some gaps and and need some some scaffolding around that topic in algebra at the same time we're differentiating and providing an opportunity for a student to go well beyond and that well beyond for us is defined as preparing for

252subsequent courses in higher level math there's a lot of conversation going on right now at the high school about just that if we want students to be engaged in four years of successful mathematics what does that look like because any percentage of students not doing well in algebra causes a tremendous ripple effect in all of those trajectories as well as what courses are taught and we want that to be a more positive experience so we have very much doubled down on what what again research would say kids need we want kids to not just find success but look in the mirror and say you know what I can move into that Sunni class like I can handle that my confidence we want them it really for a lot of us it starts at the mirror

253at home what what do they see in themselves and so we really have we've been doing a lot of that work around the curriculum um Anthony Anthony Mayer our um High School curriculum coordinator has led a lot of work even around geometry um and and an approach to Geometry they call ukian geometry where instead of taking algebra then going to geometry and then back to Algebra 2 right the the approach of ukian geometry is actually approaching geometric Concepts using algebraic Concepts and skills so it's more of a continuation of building of those algebraic Concepts so that you're ready to go in Algebra 2 as opposed to sometimes feeling like you're abandoning some of that for geometry and then coming back to it the following year so there's been a lot of thought and a lot

254of curriculum review um and conversations about instruction uh for for students around that I heard you say algebra too I wanted to make sure I added that yeah I I certainly think though it's real important to reiterate the point that and Frank your question Just Hits on it that we need children to have an a very successful experience in algebra and we need it extended and reinforced because the data was showing it that that wasn't happening so is that why we didn't have kids taking higher level map so that course that choice because the board put resources a lot of teaching resources some are resources towards that so I thank the board for doing that but the goal the goal is that they have successful experiences with math the rest of their High School career

255and they don't say this didn't work out for me look at what I did I don't I'm not engaged I don't want to take it again so this is really a you know a look at to make what you're just saying an approach to do that but it has to be done well no it it has to be I mean I think the thing one of the trends the board's been watching over the years are at Le during my tenure was trigonometry participation how many kids are going through tra because that's one of the biggest predictors of success either graduating college and going Beyond now I know who's asking for all those reports was yours yeah so that's me and um but the um I think there's a great curves and waves in it I'm

256using S cosine and tangent that is the point that is the point and it's the abstract thinking that covers everything else even if you never use S cosine the rest of your life right but that abstract thinking is really and you don't even know you're using in that that's the application piece key appreciate the feedback great presentation I do have more but because the hour I'll send them CHR I understand Ju Just just one comment to to just add to Frank I promise I won't go too much longer but the um the I also think there's an application of the math to to like you know every day in terms of you know some basic things of you know knowing how much to manage your your your finances if you know you have if you're

257given a hundred bucks you know and you kind of figure out you have to buy these 10 things what do those 10 things look like there's algebra in there right so there's there's like real life applications to it I mean some of that could be some child or some children may not be necessarily into the science but they could be into the hey this is what I how it it works in terms of my day-to-day life I agree right so all right um now thank you very much I'm I don't want to I can't I have to be economical with my words um because we have a huge facilities discussion that we have to get to next so thank you both it was lovely seeing you we appreciate all the hard work thank you you

258thank you all right Mary I'm going to turn things over to you um you can give us an update um where we are just I just a brief it's not on right thank you thank you Kate thanks Chris so first of all I want to um um thank the board our consultants and Alita for last week's special Board of Education meeting focused on facilities I think it was an important part of our growth and learning and understanding as we um head towards what we want to finalizes as the plan that would require funding through a bond you have a facilities Improvement plan there are multiple pieces of it and it's taking place now but there is a component a significant component that would require funding the traffic study is now on our website including all

259100 pages and um the survey results will be up by Friday uh we we needed more time to gather the comments we wanted an inclusive report but we'll also put it up there as well um I also want to thank the board of education for the green light regarding the incorporation of creating an access road and driveway from our campus onto stormy town uh Claremont again and AMD have over approximately 2,000 students hundreds of Staff members we also have families who live um off on Van Courtland having another access road will greatly improve the ability of emergency and safety responders uh to have fast access to our campus as well as improved access for our residents who live or who are neighbors here and that driveway as well as a smart light on Route 9

260will greatly improve the efficient flow of traffic so I want to thank you that about that because that's positive movement in our facilities there was also a conversation um at the last um um at at the last session regarding building Aid the building Aid formula itself and I just want to add some clarifying points and I think part of it too was the late night that was after 11 when we were talking about this but again the clarifying points the the building formula uh itself would require legislative action to change and we discussed this at a previous meeting in the fall as the legislatively enacted building Aid formula contains key variables we just came off a conversation about algebra it contains V variables like any formula with variables with increasing amounts of New York State

261Building Aid New York State locks in the rate once the project is approved that's an importanta factor for the for a bond because financing we want a fixed rate for that the flux uation of the building Aid in oening that went from 69 to 67 is a reflection of a decrease of property in New York City due to covid that impacts the rest of the state and again I I think we remember in the fall when we were talking about that there were some big events like Co and like New York City we can't control here but it did impact a a shift in numbers for for every single School District in property value it impacted it in the formula itself no one changed the formula the formulas is fixed by but certain variables take

262took in new elements which caused that to happen and it was property values for New York um City please note that the revised rate for oening was the one used for the projections from our Consultants at the last meeting right I know also know as a followup from from last week we have more options to explore and uh to discuss with the board I I do want to give a shout out again to Alita because uh we we we are down at Treasure one a new one will be starting tomorrow um I think everyone here who understands Finance how important that is we have a new um you know an accounts payable person um but again we are looking to work with our consultant to make sure that do we we engage and present to

263the board topics such as do we take that placeholder out of the amount of you know 10 million of the overall plan to reduce the final total because that was meant for changes at Roosevelt do we do that are there other options to be considered um we have been given some thoughts and suggestions from the board um that given us direction that we can uh look forward to um and work on the district office team our Consultants are very much looking forward to our continued engagement partnership and work on our Capital facilities Improvement plan we are starting in April work at Park we will be doing Brookside and now with the egress and driveway that's a key part of this plan we are moving forward and I will add the board resolution about a smart

264light to that work that's taking place so um that's where that U we're we will continue to make sure that we put together a plan that focuses on the goals and objectives and we're almost there we are almost there thank you so it's my understanding then we are essentially what we're being asked to to decide or agree with your recommendation or not to um not go out to have the community vote on the facilities plan in March March 19th we're going to look towards pushing that date at some point to in the future near future so that we have the time that we need to set the budget for next year which is separate from this and then time um to really you know because anybody watching this like listen like we've put our business

265official through the ringer thank you Alita for you know letting us ask you essentially any question that's posed of us so that we can be really sure and complete that when we um go out and we start talking about this and what the plan is in final form that we have our ducks in a row and our eyes dotted and our te's crossed I know it's been a super laborious process for you so thank you for that time and effort but I also want the community to know that you know every question that's been asked everything that's been sent in every comment and feedback on the survey has been taken very seriously by this board and has been thoroughly and will continue to be thoroughly explored I think we've just come to the conclusion that

266the amount of community engagement that we've seen since November has been really great and it's also in my opinion we just need a little bit more time to really fine-tune this proposal so I'm certainly me personally I'm in support of that but I don't want anyone to think that this is in any way being abandoned because it's not if the exact opposite is true which is it is being continuing to be um in a very deliberate and detail oriented manner vetted and the package tightened so that we can really be fully fully supportive and confident of it when it when it does eventually get to the community so any discussion I guess I'll just um add my thoughts that um I think that the right move is for us to wait at this time not

267too long um we have put in so much work already and I feel like the the end is at the Horizon right now and um once a few more of our little testr pieces fall into place and we're feeling really comfortable and confident and our um communities you know we have a better pulse on our our community feeling comfortable um with the project I'll feel more comfortable um putting it up to a vote for them it's very the the projects are so important um I think they're vital and I think you know thank you Murray for highlighting that uh we are not waiting um to handle the issues to the degree that we can within their our regular budget um and I think that I'm hopeful that you know because what we've already found is

268that one of the big question marks or concerns is about um traffic and that we're we're we we see that we recognize that we heard that we're prioritizing that so that we can kind of remove that ease and so we're really trying to take just really special care to the feedback that we're receiving as we rep prioritize what we have in this budget so that or in this rather don't confuse it too um so that we can be really confident that what we do put to our community to vote on is something that reflects our community um so I'm I'm happy to wait I don't want to wait too long um I'm but I definitely think that it's it's the right move to um continue the work on it before we and and continue to

269you know kick the tires on it and I'm we we have a budget to work on too like we're still we we still have our day-to-day business to deal with and um I don't want to Elita to quit because we we're putting her through the ringer um and give her space to do her her day-to-day job to while we while we continue to to I think Katherine said you know dot our eyes and cross our te's and make sure everything is just how we want it so just for tonight right in terms of this agenda item one yeah obviously I don't think we're ready to adop something we got to do it in 45 days right prior to the vote so I think that's we're not there I think we're all clear well I'm not

270going to say all speak of I don't see path forward on that but for tonight then Katherine like I know you've got qu you knowability questions there's questions from the community that still need to be answered the actual plan itself is changed a bit since what was originally presented on November so for tonight since we're coming up on about 4 hours hours are we discussing specifics right now do you want to get the aid ability answered do you want to do other things like what what do you think I mean my take on it right is um there were a slew of questions that came up the last time we were all together we don't have all of them nailed down right so I think if we did engage in like a robust discussion it

271would be with like half facts I don't know how that productive that would be and certainly not at 11:07 p.m. um I think that's the whole reason why we would wouldn't want it to go to a vote tonight so that that we can continue to go through that process okay so we we would have to vote to to delay correct we don't have to vote to delay we don't have to do anything it's just you never you never adopted a date we never adopted a date but we always were sort of you know aiming to potentially have this on March 19th if we wanted to do this on March 19th we have to adopt it tonight got it so we're basic basically just trying to come to a consensus that we're comfortable not adopting something

272tonight given the deadline okay yeah I think evidence would suggest um that it would behoove us to have um some more time whatever that looks like hopefully not too much to be able to make sure that um you know all the parts are fitting together as we intended and that the um the community feels educated enough on um the whole overarching plan and also that um you know we as a board and even staff that is involved with this process as have been pointed out we'll have the bandwidth to really give it the the time and atttention that it deserves to detail which I think we've been doing a great job of but just the fact that it's coming up against budget season and to the points that were made up in previous uh meetings

273about not wanting to kind of cloud the 20 you know 4 25 budget discussion with um you know the the the whole Bond discussion to make sure that we not further um I don't want say confusing uh people but that you know it's clear what what the initiatives are and where the boundaries are between the two of them so I think as I said evidence suggests that we we need you know I guess it comes down to us determining how much more time do we need right but I think we we know that we're not ready tonight to say let's go forward I I I'd like to add also I I I think all the projects that we have honestly could you know still don't fully meet the needs of everything that you know our

274kids have not H had for a long time and I realize there are lots of questions that we still have to go through that cannot be answered tonight um you know while everything looks perfect we may end up having to get to get get to the good and I would never want perfect to be the enemy of the good but at the same time I also don't want this to linger and drag on so I'm hoping that horizon line is much shorter than what it seems so that we can actually arrive at something that we know is going to work I'm disappointed that we're not moving forward tonight but I think it's the right decision I've been really excited about this Bond but just to Echo everyone else I think it needs tweaks and it's

275most respectful of the community to present them with something really solid I agree with the consensus so the path for then what we might affirm an agenda we might bring the panel back we might do another like to get the question right I guess that's sort of the next step to keep them moving yeah I mean I think I'm going to I'll talk to Mary who will talk with her staff and then she'll make recommendations about you know when to have further items put on the agenda etc etc but I mean we'll make sure you know we have questions that are being researched presently and I'm sure that that will continue okay um I do have a question on the agenda just quickly should we I should we vote on resolution for 21 just I

276don't think we voted on it I don't recall is it the um for the smart light we were going to add the language about the other intersection and tweak it a little bit so I don't think we can vote on it we could say resolution as amended to include the ever Avenue and safe you know and the traffic say smartly and safety enhancements and ask them to revise it and if it materially differed from that then we could bring it back to the table but I in the interest of time I wonder if we shouldn't just consider voting on it I don't have a problem doing that no um all right just one second okay I will take a um do I need to take a motion to amend it or just orally amend it

277you can say a motion to you know for proposed resolution as amended right okay right all right I'll take a motion for um the proposed resolution referenced in 2.1 as amended by the board to include and other safety measures in addition to a Smart traffic light as well as safety measures at Everett Avenue and Route 9 so moved second any further discussion all in favor I I opposed extensions okay thank you Frank for that um all right so that's our work session done we're going to move into public comment um there is no one in the audience to do an in-person public comment IL is there anyone online no okay all right moving right along to our consent agenda is there anything 4.1 through 4.4 that I should break out on 44 just want I

278I think procedurally you take motion right but if we wanted to have have a couple questions about 44 the calendar when would that happen uh during discussion if cool um so I'll take a motion for 4.1 through 4.4 so moved second um 4.1 resolution to approve a stipulation of settlement agreement resolving a request for an impartial hearing 4.2 resolution to approve a memorandum of agreement with Pace University 4.3 resolution to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of December 13 2023 4.4 resolution to adopt the proposed 2024 2025 School District calendar um any discussion and just to your point Rob I'll get us started off about 4.4 I'm sure Mary can explain sort of the legal reasons why we have to adopt a proposed School District calendar now the plan is um you know with

279Mary's Mary's in agreement as well to form a board committee calendar committee to kind of take a look at the calendar from a philosophical and a more holistic perspective when we're talking about the calender other than the one pager do I have that correct Mary yes this is the uh technical one pager that uh the vast majority of public school districts adopt in January it it outlines our legal requirement for the days off it outlines the legal holidays it anchors the start date of the school year and it anchors the end date of the school year and it outlines um superintendent conference days which are part of the building Aid ratio for money we are allowed certain numbers and then once you fall below certain minimums it's it so the state uh we obviously um

280are able to do this because the otaa has agreed to um come for back to teach or to start their work year on um Wednesday and Thursday of the last week of August so they have to sign a memorandum of agreement to do that as a result then we can bring kids back that that Tuesday right after Labor Day if we didn't have that we would then have those two superintendent conference days that day and we would have to make up those days somewhere else in a calendar do you shorten February break break do you shorten the um spring break so those are considerations here the consideration here that has been held here in the past um we added um the holiday if you noticed in March for ID and uh the there isn't the

281day before Friday right the end of the fast of Ramadan that has been added Eid Al F sorry Eid Al F E help me say that again Eid Eid e eat Al I tried that three times with Maria and I got it right now I screwed it up it's okay it's Arabic I don't expect you to right so um anyway but the point being is that this community before I arrived the board made a vote to include that in the calendar so I continued that with with that so that's there and the other changes are pretty formulate there were conversations about how do we um believe it or not in New York New York State there's the New York state general construction law that outlines your required legal holidays on this but when we do

282the printed calendar that shows up in everybody's room we talked about starring certain other cultural holidays adding other things to it so that's a a more intense but this is just pretty much pro forma meeting our legal requirement and if we have to adjust it because of we get terrible weather we will be back here with the board to do that I think you probably done that before too um that was a question I had are there snow day well we'll call them snow days it's not always snow right um are there snow days built into the calendar like how many days like emergency days off would we have in here before we had to like take uh do give back days the emergency closing days to the state you must the lowest you can

283go is 176 instructional days and four super intendent conference days if you end up going below that and you still have vacation time what we call vacation time in your calendar the state will before they because if you had an emergency like Sandy or you had a bigger emergency you lost power for whatever the state will tell you we'll we'll Grant you grant you a waiver but we're not going to give it to you if you still take your week break in spring so you have to use all of that and if you're still below you can apply for a hardship waiver with the state right what do we have like four or six built in usually so if you look at the calendar it's 1 186 and a half right so in theory you

284have six days built in there and a half and then if you go below that you could tweak your superintendent's conference days a little so there's flexibil there's a lot of flexibility built into it but again we could have an event we could always have an event that was my question is that six six day six and a half yeah yeah okay any further discussion yeah so that was going to be my first thing like I want to understand where the 180 came from and it sounds like okay we have minimum of 176 with four super that's the minimum otherwise then you get penalized right in terms of funding you got to keep with that okay so yeah look I I guess as a board we have to prioritize but um we've got we've got

285facilities we've got budget I would say if we had more time like I know Roger last year you mentioned dewali as something I know a lot of other districts give a formal day off of that this might have been in my head or we someone might have mentioned I think at one point we're going to explore February break whether we should keep a full week off for February break there's districts that have broken that up for other reasons sometimes it's a hardship for families to find child care for that break so I think that was something else we were going to discuss another Trend that I i' I've seen is when we have unused snow or slash emergency days so if we don't if you've allocated you know um four or five in there and

286you don't use the four five I've seen other districts give them back they'll extend Memorial Day they'll add on to spring break they'll even end the school year earlier um and then another thing I saw was the idea when you do have a snow day or an emergency day to actually flip on Virtual learning so you're not kind of blowing a day so these are all interesting things I think that I remember at it's probably earlier in the year or certainly been on the other side last year that I think the board was going to explore if this is too much to look for this year that's fine but it would be good to form I don't know if you got to form a committee or something but to look at some of this cuz

287some of the districts and these are districts around us are doing some of these creative thing especially giving back the unused days um on to tacking on to Memorial Day Weekend extending the spring break and or even ending the school year earlier you have um you don't have any excess sod days in this that you would give back because your teacher contractual year is 186 and A2 so this calendar here outlines what the staff is required to work so the flexibility piece if you make a fundamental decision that you and you have to consult with your Teachers Association you have to consult with your CSEA and your administrators around all of this so at the so if you if there was a decision to make that the board really didn't want to keep the traditional

288week-long breaks then all of a sudden you pop out days under the contractual limit of 186 cuz teachers have to work that amount you could then have those days they become like pieces that you could add to Memorial day but again that you would involve staff you would involve you know so there there are ways of going about that there there are districts who right now because they didn't have a Teachers Association to vote on coming back who don't have now the February break because they have to put in those two superintendent conference days to open up school so where do you get where do you take the days off right I think there's like a gazillion legal implications to all of all of it all of it and I'm well very well versed in

289it all because I served on the state commission with the commissioner over how all of this works because you also then have you can't choose to end the school year early this the state sets the rating day and that date is set here so the anchored dates are in that you if you choose not to do that the state all of this is found in part 175 part 1 75.4 of New York state aid ratio they will take money away from you that that's how it happens you'll just have your Aid decreased if you don't follow some of their rules and then every single um you have to then calculate for grades K through 6 900 and 990 hours for for 712 it's 990 so you have to make sure as you doing all of

290that and if you had half days that you all end up with that at the end so what I always did as a superintendent I'm doing it here I keep a separate running calendar where I calculate the number of days that we've called so far how are we with meeting our totals for 9990 just making sure everything's okay in case I have to go to the board for this school year and say you know what I need to change that March superintendent conference Daye to a regular day of instruction because I do see that we might be in trouble of losing state aid and with the days of instruction so there's a lot involved in it right and I stand corrected then on the ending the school day school year earlier but now there are

291some other again other examples of some creative ideas I think we've discussed so what would be obviously we need to pass this thing tonight we pass it and vote on it but what would be the mechanism to talk about some of the sort of creative out of the box ideas not for the sake of for for next year not for the sake of just doing them but we you know we look through the lens of equity and some of these might make situations more Equitable for the families in the district uh especially around some of the breaks so what would be the mechanism we just have an ongoing dialogue as we look towards next year I mean I think the easiest thing to do this was actually Mary suggested at the very beginning of the

292year right um is that a calendar committee is formed works very closely with Mary looks at the issues they want to look at and then you make recommendations to the broader board put it up for discussion in the fall in the fall okay that's your time frame so we just got to I guess recommend to to form a calendar committee and whatever the mechanism is to do that and then off we go yeah if the board chooses to see that that's what the direction that the board would like to go right I I think there is another consideration that we need to keep in and I've raised at B se's with the administration there is that this calendar it doesn't align with bis and so our vocational students are losing two days of instruction and

293I don't take that lightly um and so I know that these calendars are tough and this isn't a fault of the plans and all go through because they have contract unions we have unions at the end of the day but um you know the fact that our students are losing instruction I think is really disappointing but that's been this is not a new phenomenon but so I did ask them to engage with the district I'd ask the same of any committee or Mary as well that that's a key piece of this and what distinguishes us from a lot of those districts just the numbers of our students that go to bosis versus many of the surrounding districts are night and day yeah you're talking about you know you could you know you have a mini

294bus to take some students to bosis and we're sending over three buses right so over 60 60 students at the high school level so making sure they're Frank is 100% right I'm hoping though Frank that I heard that maybe U pnw will align with this and get those two days in August fingers crossed you know I I think the more you have the conversation and I certainly spent a lot of time at our board meeting just talking about it and I think it's I just you know I had the same reaction I have here which is I'm losing two days of instruction and that's just a big deal and they so I think the I think we have a ripe audience to talk but trying to get everybody on a calendar that includes all the

295holidays that fits into the Union contracts and all that something's got to give yeah something's got to give tough it's not going to be possible which is why was that was that oh sorry go ahead I think if we don't have these conversations these changes don't come I think I think fundamentally an allinclusive calendar is the right thing to do I think that's why we're right forut a committee if we've motivated board members who really want to take a look at this absolutely let's do it sorry Frank so what what are the two days that don't align which uh so we're we have March 13th and bosis is in that day and then on May the the Memorial Day Weekend they're out the 23rd okay so I've asked them to look creatively to see is

296there a way they can give instruction when then you know on the days we're in but you know and then I guess the same would be is there something creative we can do for the days that we're out and the students if they want to go is there some way we provide the supervision that we need to to get them there but those are questions amidst a big budget and I think Frank too write the February break because they did their Teachers Association did not vote to come back although that may change some reason I thought that lined up Mary but you know like you got to lay these things on top of one another I thought that was the first go around that we didn't have it I think that might have been the

297first go around I think the second one I only saw the two dates off the calendar is a big topic with superintendent I do have to tell you it's a big one yeah yeah all right calendar committee then so any further discussion as to these 4.1 through 4.4 yes uh quickly to that point just to make sure I understand what was suggested as um like an interim approach until we can form a committee and start having more extensive discussions were um at the very least um for lack of a better framing um finding out how we can observe these holidays within the school is that is that something you suggested it's a cultural awareness right so how do you how do you flag that how do you how do you our paper count that everyone

298has hangs in their you know hes put on their refrigerators how do you flag that to be more inclusive and take a look at it absolutely that would be nice um I go to the classes that my kids are in to talk about our holidays but they haven't like really come home with anything with it so it would be nice to yeah have more holidays talked about and celebrated and color sheets recognized and just flagged and highlighted so and and clearly when you're a teacher and you're trying to plan and you have students to me that's a culturally approach appropriate approach because students in your class right so if you have a calendar that has that in that that's really really helpful so putting an eyes on before this one goes to print which would

299be the work in the spring going to be a longer process okay any other discussion all in favor I I opposed exstension okay we'll talk about the calendar committee and dialogue um I'll take a motion for 5.1 so moved second 5.1 resolution to approve recommended placements any discussion all in favor I opposed exstension okay um consent agenda 6.1 through 6.7 anything I should take out okay I'll take a motion for 6.1 through 6.7 so move 6.1 resolution to pay 2324 School tax collected for property located at 19 Sur Lane to the chapaqua school district 6.2 resolution regarding disposal of outdated textbooks 6.3 resolution regarding disposal of broken OS kitchen equipment 6.4 resolution regarding acceptance of Grant funds from amresco aing stem program 6.5 resolution regarding close out of completed Capital project 6.6 resolution to transfer

300funds from the general fund to the cafeteria fund 6.7 resolution regarding interf fund transfers any discussion all in favor I opposed exension um is there anything from 7.1 through 7. 20 I should break out take a motion for 7.1 through 7.20 so moved second 7.1 resolution regarding civil service or sin 7.2 resolution regarding professional staff resignation 7.3 resolution regarding confidential staff resignation 7.4 resolution regarding Civil Service staff resignation 7.5 resolution regarding support staff resignation 7.6 resolution regarding bus attendant resignation 7.7 resolution regarding administrative staff appointment 7.8 resolution regarding professional staff appointment 7.9 resolution regarding confidential staff appointment 7.10 resolution regarding Civil Service staff appointment 7.11 resolution regarding support staff appointment 7.12 resolution regarding bus attendant appointment 7.13 resolution regarding professional staff appointment before and after school program 7.14 resolution regarding Civil Service staff appointments before

301and after school program 7.15 resolution regarding support staff appointments before and after school programs 7.16 resolution regarding per DM substitute removal 7.17 resolution regarding perdm substitute appointment 7.18 resolution regarding approval of school volunteers 7.19 resolution regarding professional staff request for relieve of absence 7.20 resolution regarding support staff request for leave of absence any discussion can you speak a little faster I I feel like the micro machine calling as an auction that was pretty impressive discussion all in favor I opposed extensions okay we've got some board Poli for 8.1 workplace violence prevention policy statement so moved second okay any discussion is there anyone from the policy committee maybe wants to give us the background well I think did not get to you right I think Mary would be best equipped to fill us in on this

302we just we got to have a basically the same overview the rest of the board got but we have context around but I think you'd be better to explain yes um I do apologize to the policy committee and to the board for the lateness of this but our guidance I think every school district is faced with this um quite late true and there's a law that got passed and we had to have this adopt it by February 4th so this is basically a policy statement that can be a policy but it outlines the pieces of what's in the law the goals of what we have to do and the work that we're committed the board is saying in their statement that you're committed to do so basically it's this has been in existence for quite

303a while I mean Don why don't you just chime in a little bit more just very quickly and and for other employees right uh this policy has been in place for uh municipalities for quite some time um however this uh policy is in effect for schools um as Mary mentioned as per January 4th um so that's something that we want to ensure that we have 120 days to comply so there's a few different prongs to it um the policy statement is kind of step one then the district um districts have to do a risk evaluation so we've already started that process looking at workers comp um claims and a variety of other incident reports um to go through those and there's also an aspect of um violent prevention uh program which is really just the

304implementation of the regulation um and also training so training will be annual um we have um a variety of trainings that employees have to do for a school district sexual harassment uh dign for all students act um right to know uh if you are a maintenance or custodial um employee so there's a variety of trainings that have to um take place every year and this will be another one of those um that we will will comply with um so it's multi-layered but we're in the process of um putting the program together now working with facilities on the physical environment um working with our uh various Union um Representatives on doing a walkr of um uh in terms of the evaluation that's one aspect of it that we'll be doing besides collecting a variety of um

305reports over the last 3 years um looking at the actual physical work in environment um layered mitigation what's our building level approach to safety a lot of our building level safety plans and District level safety plans will check a lot of the boxes um for workplace violence um in terms of layered mitigation and risk um but this is something that we will have um to have everything uh put in place by May 3rd right and uh the bill was signed into law by the governor in September we kept on asking for our law firms and other other places to send guidance what do we have to do it all came out quite late and then we needed a policy statement approved by February 4 so that's what we have in front of us tonight okay

306any further discussion all in favor I I opposed exstension um any reason I can't take a motion for 8.2 through 8.5 I'll take a motion for 8.2 through 8.5 so moved second 8.2 resolution to adopt policy 5151 homeless children as a second reading 8.3 resolution to adopt policy exhibit 5420 .3 student health services exhibit as a second reading 8.4 resolution to adopt policy 5710 school safety and educational climate SEC reporting as the second reading 8.5 resolution to adopt policy 6650 internal claims auditor is the second reading any discussion yeah um for the student health services I had asked this last time and I'm not sure where we landed and please feel free to remind me um I had asked if students can have their epip pens in the classroom or it has to be in

307the nurse's office and I ask about that because I my kids don't have allergies so I'm not very well worsed in them but I'm wondering if it would create a very dangerous a situation if a student is really far away from the nurse's office and the op pen is there and something happens it's just something that I'm thinking about in terms of student safety that's legitimate concern we discussed are you saying I didn't hear the first part I'm sorry I was I'm going to admit I said that I remember discussing it I don't remember where we landed so feel free to remind me yeah it was they can have the epip pin on them um with the proper you know how old do they have to be that is not specified in the policy but

308through the um documents that are already signed for them to be able to so say they are and this is an assumption but because they have the right to have it on them if they are of an age where they probably can't walk around with the pen someone in their immediate vicinity would have it for them because of the way that it's written and please correct me fill in um that it's this policy is just a matter of making sure that there's someone to support them if they have to use it not necessarily saying oh you have to go to the nurse's office to now get your pen like that it's not saying that the nurse has to be the one to administer the the injection this is giving flexibility so that people that evening

309there is no one in the audience to come to the microphone in person IL is anyone raising their hand virtually no one okay um moving right along to board discussion information um I don't know if I need to do it by motion but I certainly take a motion for setting up a calendar committee I don't think I do need to do it by motion I think I can just set up a calendar committee I think so that's what um it seems like the board is in agreement with setting up a calendar committee and we have some folks who have expressed some interest so if you would like to be on the calendar committee there is a spot available for three trustees I would like I would like to okay we have Annie and Rob any

310other take I will as well sorry Roger Annie Robin Roger yeah okay all right I will put together a couple sentences of sort of a description of the committee and we'll get it added to the um website wherever it's added um uh Christine mentioned this previously it was a board self-governance committee um I have thought about a lot a lot about this and I I personally could really benefit from this and I think the board with all that we have going on especially this year could benefit from this this would be an idea of a committee to essentially kind of manage the board's calendar for board self-development you know someone who's reaching out to get you know whatever consultant we wanted for a retreat some a committee that's doing the leg work to decide you

311know when would we have a retreat what is tentatively going to be decided at the retreat um the committee just sort of remind the rest of the board like here are the the timelines that we establish for doing our self evaluation um goal setting you know that kind of thing what is the appetite to set up something like that I'm I like that and I if we decide to do that I would like to be on that committee um if that's how the rest of the board feels um I think it'll I think it could be nice to kind of it gives us a opportunity to selfcheck you know one person forgets like Hey we're supposed to be doing an evaluation for this or whatever we can remind each other and help keep ourselves on

312track because I think this is an area of growth for us I like the idea too and then just with like reviewing the code of ethics and all that stuff yeah like that committee would make sure like hey have we distributed the code of ethics like what time what is our time frame for doing that or even just creating like a checklist for ourselves of the things that we have to accomplish for the year and when creating just a basic calendar of when those things are supposed to happen so that the committee can come to the president and say hey on the you know calendar for this meeting we need to be discussing we need to have this discussion in board dialogue blah blah blah about whatever um I just think it's a good idea

313you'll forgive me I'm not articulate right now yeah that that's what I going to say like I think um in theory I think um you know as someone who's advocated for the self-governance and and just you know self-reflection and accountability for the board I would agree um to start flushing that out at a time and day where we have all have the band with the chime in but I do agree that some semblance of that is necessary I think in my opinion also it's running this suggestion is running concurrent with some loose ends that we still need to tie up around where we're trying to go as a board as far as self-governance and um self- evaluations and things of that nature so I'd be interested to make sure that we're not putting the cart

314before before the horse in that situation just to make sure we're all um as strong as possible going into a formal committee to start making those decisions on be you know or or not decisions but having those discussions to bring back to the board as a whole but in theory I am um definitely on board to to make sure there's some increased structure around the board being able to self-govern um efficiently so yeah my perspective also it kind of um it it adds more transparency to how the board overall is run I think like it it's not solely on like the not that it ever is but you know it's sort of like a check and balance to board leadership right obviously because I don't think it would make sense to have both board leaders

315on that committee one I think definitely would make sense but so I kind of like the fact that it it makes that whole process more transparent yeah I would agree and that's why that's why I'm pointing out that it'd be good if we can work toward Shoring up some of those um you know task that we have out there that we want to do to be able make sure we can run that the best way we can okay so be helpful to get a write up of the committee in the name and understand what what its charges are did you H was there a school district that you remembered that had that don't put me on the spot like this at 11:45 if you think of it you can then go on to their website

316and look at what their write up is yeah I think I saw something but I can't not going to you're not going to be able to quote me on it right now anyway so and even though even whatever somebody else has doesn't necessarily mean that that's what we have to have but anyways I'm throwing it out there um I'm drowning and I could use some help I think it would be great way to have transparency and all of this so um I think that I think that's all I had on my list I know that Communications committee meeting Communications committee had a meeting yesterday at 2:45 I was not able to attend so I will let my colleagues fill us in on that I'm your only colleague who attended um thank you I tried but

317I was late I had an appointment um that went over and um so I didn't catch the entire meeting unfortunately um but which had been pushed back quite a ways I think the next meeting is only you I think because of a it had been scheduled on a snow day what what became a snow day so it was pushed back and now the next meeting's not that far out from now anyway um but uh Joy Riot was there our consultant uh in regards to the mascot um they talked a little bit about the beginning of the process as far as uh research for um potentially developing a mascot and I if I recall the first step that they'll be undertaking is um student surveys and not even surveys directly related to a mascot but more

318about you know what makes you proud about being an oening what does being an oening student mean to you um to kind of get some cultural clues about what makes Asing Asing or separates it from other communities and then kind of going from there and honing in so they're taking it really slow and then eventually bringing those same questions to the community but they're starting with the students um that was that was what I'm willing to say on the record because I I normally would be taking notes but I was in the car on my way home and like I said I was late to the meeting so um that's all I'm willing to have you quote me on quick question um when it comes to the you know we're discussing things around kind of

319spreading out UH responsibilities and even around um our bond and trying to push that um a bit forward you know uh push it back a bit so that we can have um what we need to get that discussion off the ground I know the mascot is the primary concern of the um or the current concern I should say of the communications committee but have we considered a component of the communications committee when it comes to our work around around the bond and how that fits into the scope just like we have the facilities committee that kind of does the notes vaults of it I think the understanding that I had had was that um they're focusing on the mascot now until we have an actual approved bond to communicate about um they they've Nicole has

320really taken on the the task of communicating uh about our facilities stuff you know all the postcards and stuff that's really been like all ni and not a lot of work happening in committee on that okay at this point I think the idea was to bring that out once once the board had approved an actual okay I was wondering more and we don't have to get into it tonight but wondering more about the leadup to that and the education process of the community that we're trying I mean Nicole is definitely working on it but it's not a discussion that's being had for the most part in the committee meetings all right so again the to being the more detailed of information we have the more we can and to Flyers information so yeah cool thank

321you uh just really quickly on committees while we're talking about it not my any way shape or form suggested we discuss or form but I think at one point we talked about curriculum committee and so maybe it's something for the next meeting I'm I'm happy to do some additional research on that I actually I did I meant to bring this I printed out a whole bunch of stuff on some school districts that have that I can send it in a PDF really is is not about like really necessarily like vetting curriculum it's really about the communication process around curriculum changes so I'll disseminate that this week awesome um I was wondering about we don't we can answer this in an email if you want to um about the legislative panel I attended one like a

322month ago and it was you know David lenberg and I forget who else cuz it's late and you know they just talked about like they answered questions basically is that what these other ones upcoming are going to be like um that's actually I meant to bring this up too um I think it's probably something like we do have an advocacy committee or an advocacy group that was formed in our reorg I think it's Frank and Christine and then there's not a third so there is spot available but um there are these two meetings with our um elected officials coming up they're very school specific uh I've attended these in the past with Dr Sanchez and um the focus really was primarily around foundation Aid at the time and then um it it later turned into

323what do we need for uh covid and postco and I think that landscape is definitely shifting and I'm not sure um I'm sure Mary has plenty of things on a list that she would like to see happen but it seems to me like it could be the kind of thing where we discuss for example the smart light resolution so it's more of a discussion cuz the last one was not a discussion it was just like you watched them answer questions it's a it I've found it to be more of a discussion um but you're also competing for their time with like a bunch of other superintendents and a bunch of other Schoolboard trustees so you might get I don't know 30 seconds to say something it's not really like a total back and forth okay

324do I have that right Mary in your experience is that Frank you've done it for a long time too like depends what table what legislature and yeah yeah absolutely good can I um just ask a question I know I brought this up earlier when um Chris was presenting and maybe this a question for Alita I thought that there were some um mechanism that was um it was published either in a in one of the weekend updates around um there being kind of like a credit card for each of the different student clubs is that is that um something that's happened or happening sorry I missed that so there there was like I guess like credit like a a spending card for the different clubs um for the schools particular for to meet the needs of

325what they need so they don't have to go through the formal purchase order requisition is that is that a are we I'm just trying to make sure you're changing the subject but I'm not if I'm not ready to leave the subject we were oh okay I'm sorry I thought you were talking about something I thought was bringing up something else sorry okay it's getting getting be that hour um I'm a little bit confused about what the events are as because I like I registered myself to a forum that's taking place on February 1st through westput and then it's that's on their calendar it's the legislative form that's the legislative form this um is a this virtual session is different than that that's on February 8th and 16th yeah I I am in the past Frank

326I'm sure you'll chime in but it's they're really making themselves available specifically to the superintendents and and the board right when they were in person you used to go in a big room you'd have all the legislators in the front of the room people get time they'd sit down tables and talk they can't really do that in a virtual format so the legislative forum is like them presenting to you and then they take small groups to take the questions I liked it better when everybody was in the room and you got to press them 100% correct Frank so I would I've pushed I've pushed on West putt to go back to that form I think there was tremendously valuable um the small group thing becomes as Katherine had said which is everybody's got their issue

327they're going to spend you're going to spend your a little bit of time on it and go through I mean if you want to develop a relationship and go through it's a great thing to do I I don't I wouldn't expect to be able to have an agenda that you're going into the meeting trying to come out with right um so you said you can go but your question is should we send Frank or I since we're on the legislative yes advocacy committee yes so one of those meetings for the small one with the legislature they only wanted one board member they didn't want more than one so there was two one not for the form the for is probably everybody the for is everybody I already signed up to do that I'm going to

328do that one this is the specific one Dana specific one with Dana which is February 8th and Pete which is February 16th yeah so I mean if you want to handle those handle them I don't I've I've done enough of them for sure okay um I can't go on Friday February 16th but I can go on Thursday February 8th if you what time is the one on Friday the 16th 12:00 p.m. and is that is that in person or virtual that one they're virtual vir I can probably do that one yeah who's that one with Pete harkham okay thank you I can be a backup for that if necessary okay okay great so I will have Illy register sorry you're the eth you're the 16th right okay all right great do we don't have a

329meeting between now and then do we no I mean I would so then how am I going to know what to bring up I would recommend having a conversation with Mary okay Al and I can really fill you I'm sure they have a long list you should take a look at the West put agenda they have a few things abs and and then you know so you probably want to try and attach whatever it is you want onto something like that I know I just want to make sure if I'm going to show up and represent the board that I'm accurately representing oh the sea fund right Alita the seaf fund would be a huge topic okay so that's settled um is everyone good with the change of the budget Saturday to March 10th yes

3309th I think right sorry March 9th it's getting the day before Ramadan so it's good we're getting it in before then okay just to quick to roll back just on the legislative thing yes the governor's proposed budget includes language that basically has mandated curriculums in it at the end of the day a lot of times is negotiating tactics but in the state of New York you know you have the board of regions that's responsible for that for the Constitution I think it might be something you want to raise in those meetings to say the governor's language is unacceptable West put has some stuff out there but you don't want to have um a governor driving basically legisla curricular choices in classrooms and it oversteps the role of local boards it violates the constitution of the

331state of New York and it usurps what would the choices you can make locally it's a it's a it's a lobbyist play but it's got I'm not sure everybody's seeing it right now so we should raise it okay great thank you okay we're good with it budget Saturday 39 yes yes okay um apologies for that um any further dialogue have your thing your peard thing I'll just I'll write in for that okay can be an email okay all right um I will take we have exec Mary no given the hour no okay all right well I will take a motion to end the regular meeting of January 24th 20124 is it still the 24 for two minutes second that one uh any discussion all in favor oppose exstension you got 60 seconds to get out

332before