Ossining UFSD Board Meeting 09/25/19

001like to call to order the September 25th Board of Education regular meeting like to start with the pledge allegiance and carry on would you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance okay I'd like to call our student representative Danny hang up to give her report thank you for being here hi okay so starting off with academics Ossining high school district launches the Saturday learning Explorer program Ossining high school senior pujita sundar is a National Merit semifinalist Ossining high school I had its back-to-school night on separate September 12th while AMD park school Claremont and Roosevelt schools had their back-to-school night starting last week and will follow into this week as well yesterday OHS had their gwit grade 12 parent night where they discussed financial aid process within the arts Austin High School had its first give

002me the mic Courtyard concert of the year and first of all before sports fall sports have been thriving with girls varsity tennis and volleyball both undefeated and then on September 4th Ossining matters had their 5k run thank you thank you and we're gonna have Greg gala read our proud alright so there's some work on the first one so we can be proud or so he'll probably are the news 12 school spirit showdown is back so that's an online click you can vote every 20 minutes this year so during this meeting you can get in a bunch of books there's a ribbon-cutting for the new outdoor library taking place this Friday at 4 p.m. school and there's a hike at T town taking place on Sunday the 6th at 11 a.m. so with our superintendent but

003it wasn't noted that's what the superintendent we were proud probably awesome thank you thank you okay and now we're going to move into our work session and our first presentation is facilities good evening everybody tonight is a conversation regarding facilities and I want to thank the members of the facilities subcommittee that have been engaged in this conversation over the past few years I want to also recognize our architects from Clark Patterson that are here as well that can answer any direct questions regarding the facilities at any time but as a reminder in the three-year plan one of the goals that we have is to create a multi-year plan regarding facilities and so there's been for the past few years a variety of discussions regarding what our needs are across the district and this begins to

004show some of the ideas that have been brought forth to discuss and to recommend in the in the current and into the future for the Austin School District so just to highlight a few things I think it's important when we think about variables that we start to highlight what some of those are when we think about facilities first is that of enrollment we need to consider the number of students that we anticipate or we have in our school district and as we start to look forward into the future and what that really means in terms of enrollment trends and in this presentation you're gonna actually see one slide that from our demographers last year or report from last year a reminder that in November she'll be returning to give us more updated information regarding our

005enrollment the other piece is looking at programming what are their current programs what are we offering in our school district and what might we want to be offering in the future as we start thinking about the students and the way in which they learn and the type of instruction we want to provide we want to make sure that the program supports the type of or the space supports the type of programs that we're seeking to offer the other is the function in the ways in which the space supports the instructional program great example is one we often bring up is that of like our piano class that our su Kafer come up and speak about the program and how great in the number of students that are participating it but the question is does the

006support does the does a space support the piano program as best account and last one but not least is the cost of construction obviously there's going to be a list of needs that we're gonna want to address but certainly we have to in the context of our budget consider how we're going to maintain and maintain our interest in being fiscally responsible to our community this is just some quick research and there's a lot of variables regarding this but most importantly is that space does have an impact on achievement first one speaks to actually the impact on suspensions space matters in other words it does contribute to a child's achievement and something that we should be considering as we go forth and I think we do consider that and have been considering it in the year

007to year budgets this is our enrollment this is what our demographer presented last November / October you can see that over the course of the years we see an increase in our student in the number of students but then she calls for a slight decrease in the last number of years of approximately 149 students I would call that moreso Plateau than anything else the other aspect of this that we need to look a V OTT is this does not include the the projects that are currently being considered by the town the village and/or Briarcliff so we know that there are projects that are being considered in large projects and so they this could certainly change the enrollment trends for the future and this is just k12 as a reminder this again just the impact the

008facility conditions air quality is important the temperature of our classrooms and the the conditions of the the setting the facility design and then how we're utilizing it considering crowding is that an aspect a number of students that we have in our schools and the hallways community access might be something that we need to consider as well and then finally in many ways the 21st 20th century classrooms are being used in a 21st century way you can see some of the photos in the past and how some of these same spaces are we being repurposed for the types of instruction that we want to see and use differently across the board then we start off with park school and at the end we'll field any questions at the board of education and the community may have

009so first its cafeteria space we realize that our cafeterias and you can think about just a number of students that we can serve and it does impact when we serve and when we end our lunch periods and so the recommendation here are one of the aspects that we want to look at is expanding the cafeteria at Park school increasing and improving the servery as well along with it this would entail taking one of the classrooms right next to the cafeteria you see at the bottom bottom of the photo you can see where one of the one of the expansion the expansion recommendation is to gain 940 square feet to make the cafeteria larger for the number of students that we have there so when we think about the context of the entire building keep in

010mind that we've just taken one classroom plus the need for additional space for a variety of other needs so one of the one of the things that we're looking at our areas we're looking at is ways in which to gain or build more classrooms and so this four classroom edition is right above the last of our most recent addition so it would be called for a hallway leading up to the four classrooms that would be provided for general instruction so moving on to Brookside school there is a need for space at Brookside school we've often talked about it keeping in mind that even in the current conditions that our libraries have to space it it used to be because we've taken it to absorb or to create classroom space so one of the recommendations here

011is to look at gaining space and also the function and and how students move from one section to the other so you can see a hallway that connects basically where the existing library is to this for room addition so it provide for more space within the context of Brookside school necessary space at the same time the other is expanding a gymnasium gym space is of of need across the district and in our community so this is a 2500 square foot addition to Brookside schools existing gymnasium space and then lastly cafeteria space as well as expanding the existing cafeteria again we face the similar challenges in all our buildings regarding the number of students that we're trying to serve and the space that currently exists so this would be an expansion of the existing cafeteria by

0121200 square feet so moving on to Claremont School keeping in mind that in our last year's budget we have a recommendation to add additional classroom space that's has been submitted or assumed to be submitted to clarify so the preliminary submission has been sent up to a CD anytime we do a classroom edition we have to go through the process of getting a pre-approval before we could submit construction documents so bad is that sed currently we're expecting that that pre-approval will be green light Inge soon great thank you so with that in mind again cafeteria space is another area that we want to address specifically related to the servery we the number of students that we have in the small servery that we that exist at Claremont School impacts the amount of time students have to

013eat lunch so we're trying to expand that so students can come in and out much quicker also it's better space for the existing cafeteria staff so it would be an expansion of the existing survery line and renovating the cafeteria so that it best suits and meets the needs of the existing building with that to this small I'm sorry it doesn't show on the screen but there's a small little box right here Tynan urban time where much of our music lessons take place band lessons take place in a very small space there's actually a lift in that classroom space as well the idea is to give them dedicated music space where the best supports the program so we'd be looking at taking and renovating relocating into where currently those are general ed classrooms and utilizing them

014specifically for music education moving on to Roosevelt so Roosevelt is a very tricky building from for a variety of reasons the just the way the building flows where special areas take place they're all in different spots of the building sometimes you have to go downstairs to the second floor and then go down some some back classroom or back stairwells to lead to the back area where sometimes we have our specials this is trying to address the fluidity of the building but also providing the additional space that we have in dedicated space that we need for some of our special areas as by providing space for our special areas we gain classroom space so for example right now one of the classrooms that we would recommend building for art in doing so we would gain a

015classroom for general instruction and/or self-contained classrooms within the building so this is an addition in the front basically where the main entrance to the building is in the actually it's we call it the front but technically the back where the main parking light is it would provide for special education classrooms art space resource room space security vestibule to make sure obviously we continue our focus on safety and security and we tried to think about ways in which we can maintain green space because this would basically take away a lot of that grassy area that exists in the front of the building as such one of the things that we talked about is potentially like a rooftop garden on top of that and that's for further discussion as well but this is probably one of the

016one areas in which we can gain space for Brooke for Roosevelt school the middle school looking to gain more space in this case in the area of stem and music education this is in the back area where the gymnasium is it's adding an addition which would provide additional space one of the things that we're hearing primarily from our band and orchestra rooms is that the space even though it was renovated some years ago that we created is actually becoming too small for the number of students it's actually both a good problem in that there's a lot interest on behalf of our students but it's presenting an issue as it relates to the amount of space and the quality of the space for the instruction that we want to provide so this would call for an

017addition but we also asked you just go to this one here we asked our architects to look at other options to address the music space this would call for basically an extension to the room the band in Orchestra room so it in this case this would have to have further discussion it's a 2,000 square foot addition but you can see that there's costs associated with them and I don't mean that in terms of just dollars that it would mean taking away some parking spaces that currently exists yet this would be another option for us to consider in trying to address the need for additional music space so going back I just want to add that one of the areas that we want we've carefully talked about within the context of the facilities subcommittee and certainly

018want to have a broader conversation is that both indoor and outdoor space matters we need there really isn't much other than blacktop at our middle school currently and so we need to think about this is just basically a clip art so this needs to have further discussions but it gives you the sense of how can we provide outdoor space that is more suitable for the adolescent learner the types of individuals that have whether it's quiet space but more active space basically having options for our students the middle school so it's an area that needs further discussion but also something that we want to consider in our facilities movement and lastly is Ossining high school so one real challenge right now is our weight room and fitness center as well there is really no fitness center

019the weight room is the weight room and you've been down to the weight room there's a while there's been steps to try to address the space it's still we would say that it needs a lot more steps to get it to where we want it to for the students in our athletic department so one of the recommendations here are one option to consider is potentially renovating the existing weight room and taking one of the science classrooms and creating a fitness room we want the option to be more than just the athletic teams but actually open it up for all students and potentially all staff to participate in utilizing this space that's just one option and there's another option then in a subsequent slide another one is expanding the guidance suite guidance space we want space

020for our guidance Department to meet with our students right now basically this is only space that we have for our guidance counselor's to meet with children is in there set offices so this would look to take one of the classrooms that are right next door and expanding it to provide some flexible space for our guidance Department to meet with parents to run some groups with students and/or just mean as a general Department there's provide greater flexibility for the number of students that we have in Ossining High School another one is the cafeteria while we've renovated the cafeteria the cafeteria for the number of students we know is still a challenge and so one of the options that we've looked at is potentially expanding the cafeteria into this space so basically taking down one of the

021walls and expanding it into where we sit currently and providing more space for our students this would be a 5,300 square foot renovation our existing cafeteria and kitchen is about six hundred six thousand one hundred thirty square feet but this will better provide some flexible space beyond just students being able to eat and provide some flexible space for students to conjugate utilize it for studying and various other options the next piece is music we know that the space that we have is very very tight for the number of students that are participating in our music program so the music concerns at the middle school mirror the concerns that we're seeing here at Ossining high school so this would look to renovate that space that currently exists it's basically if you're facing Ossining high school from

022route 9 to the right of the theater and building out and providing additional space so the new music space or expansion would be five thousand one hundred square feet providing a total of six thousand five hundred square feet of renovated space as well and then in turn one of the other options that we consider in this is maintaining that space and possibly relocating our library so that this would become the cafeteria and the other space neat where current music spaces becomes a media center and then finally returning back to the idea of the fitness center one of the other options that we might want to consider is building a new fitness center about six hundred six thousand five hundred and fifty square feet above the current locker rooms so that would actually provide for access

023for individuals to look into some of the basketball games it's a basketball court but also a much larger space and actually probably more suitable in terms of sheer size for the number of students that we have while the other is an option it's still very small for the number of students that we have here at offering high schools so this would provide not only just weights but also various other fitness equipment that it would be right on top of the existing locker rooms and the last we'll call what termit the student Commons and basically it's taking areas like the courtyard and Verret and various other open spaces and enclosing it but in doing so what we this would do is basically provide indoor space for our students flexible indoor space for our students where they

024can use to study and or staff I should say to everybody where they can use for study where they can go to eat lunch this is basically very similar to that of what you see in very common areas college and university settings as well so it would provide again just flexible space for our students via you know the concerns here at Ossining high school with a closed campus is just a mattr square foot square footage that we have and the spaces that our students can utilize so this would provide options for them moving forward and the last option is a new stem lab and this would actually take place one of the way places we can look at is below the gymnasium the small gym determent here at Austin High School currently it's used for

025storage but this would provide for a better space for our robotics program currently they have a lot of equipment and what we're looking for is some more like warehouse type space where as to provide some flexibility obviously providing it the equipment that it needs but keeping in mind that we are bautex program is his science lab and while they do incredible things we want to look for a space that best provides and supports those type of programs and this is one option we can consider and the last we'll call a bridge but basically and we've heard this years ago and it continues to be of concern to many of our students and staff is a bridge that connects third floor to third floor so we're currently to get from one part of the building to

026another you actually have to go down a flight of stairs if you're on the third floor go down to soft light of stairs to move to the newer part of the building and then go up a flight of stairs to get to the third floor so this would basically provide for creative connection and greater flow across the building as well so those are options that we've discussed let me just share just generally what our next steps are I would hope to provide the board of education some with the entire board of Ekans education some recommendations at minimum for what we'd like to include in our capital line by November so I would mean continue conversations with the facility subcommittee the facility subcommittee has charged me to prioritize and make sure that we carefully look at

027and basically outline what those priorities are so that we can have further discussions with the board of education the capital line may recall involved a lot of discussion last year and we want to take that portion of the budget process out of the the fold while we continue to outline our plan and finalize some plans for multi years in addition to that one of the pieces that we need to consider is obviously the finances associated with it and how we'll go about financing not only with our budget but also using capital reserves and various other funding sources that we have to fund the projects that we are outlining here and potentially others as we continue to have discussions moving forward so those are generally our next steps and but at this point wanted to have

028a conversation obviously with this board and the members of our community as well Thank You dr. Sanchez I'd like to open it up to the board for any questions or comments all right yeah just just wanted to brought this up a couple meetings ago I wanted to ring it up again while we're talking about facilities the idea of going green putting solar panels on the schools number one if we went green I mean it'd just be great for our footprint in general too we'd save a ton of money on energy that we can then use for some of these projects three we just talked about temperature in the classrooms and temperatures in the school if you go green and we can have air conditioning the schools and control to climate in the schools that actually

029makes a learning experience better a lot of students have complained to me in the last month or so that it's too hot in their classrooms that they're running around gym run around recess and then they can't focus after we don't want to you know take away their gym time or recess time we want them to exercise and be active and then come back to a comfortable classroom setting so my suggestion is that for November we should look at this choice of solar panels and you know take ahsani to the next step and go green so let me just respond because I know you've brought up in numerous times and philosophically I'm not disagreeing with the need to potentially go green and look at various options you know very near the not so distant future I

030would say one of your updates Lita has done some preliminary some further discussions with some individuals that have done some preliminary look throughs of our buildings so we can share that with you I'd like to bring it back to the facility subcommittee to have some discussions around it but we have kind of followed up on some of your comments that have been shared here I think one of the other pieces too associated with that is beyond just the facilities but also you know as we construct and look to build new spaces one of the areas that we could be looking to do or consider is potentially making that you know how much cleaner can we make those spaces and how it might impact the rest of the the entire building that makes sense and also

031I've just recently had a conversation with last Friday with our town supervisor and our mayor around this topic as well basically now what's going on in the town in the village relative to green energy and how you know what would it mean for us as a school district more to come on that and again now probably I know Aleta has some of that information already we'll share it with the board but I want a dialogue with the subcommittee and but just so you know there's discussions around it and we'll give you that as something to talk about further thank you okay I just wanted to point out some of these projects you should be paying attention to is sort of needing to be done together so I'm gonna highlight that in particular for the board

032when you're taking a look at the high school for example number 9 which is the student Commons really would need to be done at the same time is number 11 which is the new third-floor bridge which kind of also is in sort of the same area as the larger guidance suite as well so I think it's important when you're looking at some of these areas in the building to appreciate that although they're presented as separate projects they're really larger projects so just keep that in mind and then also we discussed particularly with respect to the high school and the spaces for lunch are dependent on the decisions that are going to be made with the schedule so we've asked administration to go back and take a look at the schedule and what that would look

033like for unit lunch because that makes the difference where we're expecting everybody to eat at any given time so that's just something that we discussed to keep in mind as well and I think all of us were generally struck with the concepts of the the Main Street concept at the high school that it seemed like a really nice way to give students flexible space whether it's for eating or projects or after school or concerts it was just a nice way of having the students connected as much as they wanted to be connected while also being able to find some of their own you know and then others can talk as well but you know we just asked generally a lot of question about practicalities of some of these designs versus others and how they all

034fit in together so I just kind of wanted you guys to know the middle school outdoor space I don't know if the facilities and committee thought about or just the general the students may be given some August feedback or I don't know design or imput to what they may want in that space yeah so I think what's important to note is a lot of these conversations have we've talked more so with administration if conceptually some of these start to move forward we clearly need to talk to staff about them particularly if we're looking at music space we want to hear from our music teachers and how that space will be utilize outdoor space you know and you want to talk to physical education teachers as well as students you know what would they want to

035see in what would that look like I think it's fair to share that we're going to use an example a current example we're looking to use some some money that we receive from our Center to support some additional outdoor space at Roosevelt school if you think about Roosevelt there's no playground area right so there's a small blacktop which is really a basketball court so it's a real challenge for us particularly on when the when the grass is wet because it's a beautiful field but there's not it's a challenge when the ground is it's not dry the input around any playground space will include students to get a sense of you know we don't want to build it and they don't come we want them to come we basically want them to be utilizing and and

036enjoy the space and also be multifunctional for other ages of beyond just in this case Roosevelt fifth grade the middle school is a unique space you know those are different learners so we want to make sure that that two considers there their needs you know we the board had some preliminary discussions like some kids just want to sit quietly and they need a space for that others want to be actively involved whether it's playing basketball or any other games that they find of interest and we want to provide space for that as well and how can it be multifunctional for instruction as well might be some things to consider particularly with outdoor space that's a long answer to it yes yes student voice is important what I know it's kind of still in the beginning

037stages but what would feel like projected timeline B to bring all these projects to fruition and would it be like a simultaneous effort not just by building like within one building but as far as the whole district in total yeah so those are you know part of it will be driven by dollar the the costs associated with them in which projects we choose to prioritize conversations to still be had with the board an entire subcommittee an entire board is looking at the financial options the board along with the community we used to have was the Capitol riverfront you know the question becomes do we stagger that over time and wait to lack of better or tap into the Capitol Reserve or do we expediate some of the projects so based on needs we know the

038needs are here now do we start doing more projects earlier on knowing that that potentially could be an option so I don't really have a clear timeline to that other than to say that this is we're looking that this is from local basically a five-year view and what can we do over time and how we might we start to address it like the high school just using that example for trustee cross like mentioned mention this you couldn't do those all at the same time and you have to figure out the staging associated with it because you got to build one before you build the other and that's where architects are construction managers can help in that process certainly if we have separate projects working in different buildings that's much easier to manage just one other

039questions so speaking of like the green energy and exploring those options are we considering any other options other green options as we're doing this construction and how we're you know outfitting whether it just be light bulbs or you know how things are you know constructed to try to modify things as best we can as we're kind of changing things so we haven't had like formal conversations about you know energy use but I can I think it's fair to share that anything that we outfit the buildings and spaces will be as energy efficient as possible there might be a little more cost upfront but the costs over a long term is to the benefit of you know the district budget and obviously taxpayers if we can save energy that's what we want to do so that's

040been our focus little by little you can see we mean years ago we went through an energy performance contract we had upgrades and bring in more energy efficient lighting into our buildings and we're still doing that in various spaces throughout the district so with new space in particular that gives us to much easier option because it'll be just part of the project bid and how we go about our business it's a great question thank you anyone else click the a couple thoughts I'm a I'm one Facilities Committee meeting in so I'm not that deep but I'll you know and this is it's like a board retreat something you don't know about me as I love home remodeling shows Mandara listing any of the patched up yeah whatever fix it up shows and I kind of

041look at that like this like this is a great list that all looks great you're like sounds good and then you attach a budget to it and you're like what can't do all that again just my own take on it and you have to then go through and say okay I can't have the master bath remodel and the open kitchen I gotta decide which one I want and which one I went this year which one next year so I think that's where this is very preliminary and this is kind of these are things that are on the list that could be done this year next year five years from now what what will be coming is people's versions of prioritization of what you know of this list what's the most critical in the next year

042or two and then what's three or four years out and then what stuff that sounds good but you and your balance with the community's ability to finance that it just doesn't make the cut so I think that's what will be our conversation over the next couple months and your plus so that's why I view this I think such a key part of this that we need to keep focused on is the enrollment piece where you know there's I'm gonna throw out a number just to make the point it's not it's just a number let's say it's thirty million dollars worth of stuff is if we know that enrollments going to increase because of building and whatever going on we might spend most that money on in you know increasing classroom space if we look at

043you know our current enrollment which is projected and decline not factoring in other factors which we need to look at you would say well maybe I shouldn't spend all thirty million on enrollment I should spend more on remodeling on fixing up on and we know like cafeterias we get one of the things we haven't touch but so I think we need to when the demographers back really dig deeper to say like that chart when I looked at the October enrollment like it's showing a number that's down from that so you know if that's what we're seeing we would maybe prioritizing is one way I think we need to because the dollars involved dig a little deeper to say you know there's a lot of conversation the community of developments that may be happening and you

044know inventory them and figure out is it you know a hundred more kids if they all happen is it five hundred more kids like what's the water magnitude which I think you know would really help us prioritize this stuff and without it I think we're guessing and I would hate to you know spend a bunch of money adding space and so you sitting here five years later saying we just don't have the kids or vice versa so I think this you know I know this is the beginning the process and I know we'll do that but I just want to highlight that yeah that's such a key factor yep thank you thank you it's hard to look at those things five years out and I mean remember like the middle school was the addition at

045the high school and then five years later they built a home in middle school all right so I mean some of this is just you know you got to see the numbers that come in I mean I saw the 150 students drop if it was really across all the grades you're talking like ten or twelve kids to grade so I don't think it addresses kind of the crunches that you're in certainly in the new developments are going to play into that or not and you know if they didn't happen you might have a little more breathing room for sure but you know it's it's hard to look at things five years out I mean two and three years is a little bit easier but prioritizing and I don't disagree with anything who said you know

046we have to take a look at where things are at in the moment I mean I just want to keep in mind that it our staff entire teachers administrators everyone does an outstanding job of making the space work but there are real challenges talk to Steven Hancock our high school principal he says it's really really hard to schedule the building because of building utilization and finding rooms he says there's no free rooms first period that's a real challenge for him so it doesn't provide you know we want our buildings to provide our administrators and our staff flexibility so my point being is that when you're at capacity it doesn't provide for a real instructional flexibility that we need and what we want within our spaces so we don't often hear that said I want to

047make sure that I tick you late that is that sometimes to the benefit of our staff and the good work that they do they make the spaces work and do really well and our programs do succeed they do really well looking at you know championship basketball teams - robotics and science research you name it the arts you know our our programs really do well but it can just imagine if we had even better space to support the type of programs that we offer here the type of work that would take place and equipping our staff with what they need to best serve our students and I think that's just a lens that I want to continue to think about as we go forward and continue to dialogue around facilities is what our staff really need

048to support the types of programs that we want to offer our weight room is not good enough for I would say that our outloud for the types of programs that we want to offer our students and the type of weight room it should be for our students is it that you know that our kids work make it work yes do our staff make it work yes but it can be better and I think that's the lens that we should be looking at and certainly the dollars associated with you know the fiscal part is really really important but we should be striving to really be thinking about that as well along the way and I can better articulate that if you needed that for board discussion about what that really looks and the real challenges our

049buildings have in terms of just running the buildings because of the lack of space even meaning space it's not something that's outlined there but they really don't have much meeting spaces like libraries closes because they need to run a professional development or if they can't get 400 that's not the way we want to operate our buildings we don't want to impact instruction so there's a lot of variables that we can continue dialoguing about but want to put that out there the only other thing I wanted to add which ties into all of this as we did at the Facilities Committee asked questions surrounding for example the stem lab edition of the middle school what's the possibility of making that a flexible space maybe we initially have it as a stem lab but let's put in

050place something to easily convert it into classrooms and we needed to use it into classrooms so that discussion is being had and then you know another example is this brookside gym extension I think to comment about we're gonna extend it let's make it a size that's regulation enough that some of our older teams could go in there or our community groups could go in there on the weekends and use it for a full-size basketball game or whatever game just so that we're really making it space that's the most usable as as possible so there's one attack at that okay great thank you I'd like to open it everybody okay I'd like to open it to the audience if anybody has any questions or comments on this topic before we move into the next topic okay

051more to come thank you alright so I just want to thank our architects that are here Chris thank you Chris in here and all the work that they've done to help support us to this point in getting the projects that we have completed and also the facility subcommittee for for their efforts and these are just conversations we want feedback as we go forward this isn't the plan yet and so feedback from everyone is gonna be really important thank you thank you great thank you okay okay and we are gonna move into 3.2 discussion regarding the following policies 7500 naming and renaming facilities 7500 are naming and renaming facilities regulation 7501 recognition and 7502 establishing memorials and I'm going to ask dr. Sanjay to start us off here yeah so just for everyone's for clarity in

052terms of process we have a Bullard policy committee that meets basically every other month to review various policies some are brought up sooner meaning that there's a cycle but at the same time there are times because of needs laws change that policies are brought forward and reviewed out of cycle so that we present them to the board there's what to term the first read and then a second read first read is basically just that is that it's presented to the Board of Education and for review before it's the next step which is an adoption of said policy just want to put that out there there's a lot of great things that happen in Ossining and just named a few earlier during the Facilities Committee and there are different ways in which we want to recognize

053whether it's teams individuals or staff members at various times and so I think the intent actually I know the intent of the policy was to put some structure so that we have a place to refer to as we move forward and some guidance for Boards of Education and staff members and community members so tonight I want to thank the board for putting this out there as for discussion we know that there's some feelings I can sense it that we're probably going to have some conversations around this with our community and we want that but unlike other policies we don't normally put it on an agenda so it was intentional to put it on the agenda so that it incur staff members and/or community members to join us in the conversation as ultimately we want to

054whatever the policy is that it takes into consideration all perspectives so I want to thank the board because this is actually been going on for seems like three years anymore not more so where we're at the first read and we hope that our colleagues and community members join us in conversations and provide their perspectives so I think I'm going to turn it over to Greg or Lisa okay so we thought maybe we'll give some historical context before we read or you think we should read policies first and then we'll start talking about the historical and it just got to you all right I think we should talk about how we came to this so just quick question to church are we gonna read each policy then discuss it or we're gonna read all we're gonna

055go through the whole thing like are we gonna read 7501 then discuss 7501 they're all related so we're we're going to probably open it up right now for a discussion of how we got here and then we'll read it and then we'll have a discussion for the board member so and then we'd love to open want to open it up to the audience staff for the discussion so let's start with the historical background so either I mean I think part of this with words get requests for naming facilities for memorials for recognitions right and so the best practices really is to kind of before you're in the position to have a framework around it and it's the way we've been trying to look at it is really through a consistent lens of consistency equity you

056know alignment policy appropriateness of it and impact to students and sort of what the research is out there around practices so that's the attempt these things kind of fit together because you know we did have separate policies for for facility maybe for instance and I don't know that we had one for recognitions but we did have a there was to be able Morial politics we didn't we didn't one of the things that if you go through all the guides is is get yourself set up with these policies so that you have them in time so that you're not making things on the fly and so that's part of what the process is and so you know the first draft of this is to really bring it to the board you know like dr. Sanchez says

057there's a few readings but you know there would be changes potentially and so the community needs to be involved and understand it so is more of it yeah yeah Frank and I least that we've talked about this a lot I mean we started I mean I think board years blurry but it was like four years ago where there were a couple a number of requests that came in and we had formed the committee I remember Brian you were on the committee and a couple staff and community member to and there was really to say as these requests come in that they will policy which is the current policy was like three sentences and so it was very high level like no guidance to the board and you run in the situation where someone's coming to

058requests and you don't have anything to fall back on to say that's in line or not in line with the request so we sat down really started with the naming sort of opportunities and as we got in that the conversation it made sense to say well what about you know we started looking around schools and saying what about things that we memorialize you know memorials that have happened and then you get into well they've got recognition so we really if you think about it the policy is that we're going to read currently or like three sentences and now we're going to for five pages so it's a it's a big change and so I think that's why we want to take some time to understand it and make sure that it's not you know we're

059all in agreement and we're I'm bored of the implications I think the I'm just feel as optically I think that getting into how we implemented this I think there were a couple things we were trying to get in conceptually one was that when one was it there's a process that things don't just happen they get approved and we know who approves it and how long they're proving it for that if there's cost involved we're a public institution and there needs to be sort of an accounting of where the money came from just so we know what's happened a lot of what we talked about is for the balance between wanting to recognize student achievement and being a public institution where you've got to be somewhat equitable and manage that sort of balance there's appropriate for

060the environment so we're talk where things like makeshift memorials which is it was one example where something could happen you have a makeshift memorial that pops up you may decide at Brookside school that's not appropriate to leave there for very long but there's no we have nothing in place to say that you know we should do that or not do it and again it was kind of thing we wanted to talk about before it happened so what happens it's not like a board has some guidance instead of reacting and it being an uncomfortable situation I think we he was a question of you know what sort of I don't know what the term like school monitor like we have trophy cases that have always been sort of historic are the museum the sort of the

061schools monitored and they've kind of got their own system don't you know what's what fits under that umbrella versus what needs to be a you know is approved other places around the buildings waiting you'll see there's some wording on memorials of again I don't know what's right or wrong but sort of say in in a memorial situation if someone comes to the board kind of in the heat of emotion we wanted to say like you have to wait a year so that you know people are out of the emotion and if they're really still feel compelled to push for whatever memorializing everyone can think about it and have some time to get out of the emotion so you'll see that in there one or two other things I guess in that that was it I

062think what the way I look at it is we started it and I think that's we have our conversation it's good to make this distinction in terms of time frame like which we try to make the policies say going to forward to give future boards a way to make these decisions and so when I look at the policies my primary thinking is like if this still happens the future what do we want in place so as we talk about 60s we do we do that now the issue that comes up and that is that there may be things that we decide would be the case going forward that may not reconcile with things that are already in place so then we have to say okay if we the new policy says XYZ or we don't

063think you know XYZ would fit on the current policy what do we do about things that are already in place do we what do we do do we extend them grandfather um take him down like what do we do sort of became like the consequence of if we write you know we haven't had a policy to adhere to now we have a policy what do you do with stuff that may or may not align and I think most of it and I was thinking we should after this we did do an inventory of pretty much everything in all the buildings that I don't think the board has seen charlie recently maybe a long time ago passed it out but there's you know there's probably 50 I don't know 30 to 50 you know a garden

064here a tree there a plaque bunch of plaques so as we talk about there's there's lots of things currently in place that you know that be a step to say of those things what what's the impact I just want to let everybody know that right now we're just discussing it we're not voting on anything anything at this point of the meeting so we want to open it up and what I'm going to do is just read read it and then we'll open it up to the board to further discuss and then we'd like to open up to the audience so we'll start with the policy we did have in place which was adopted in July 7 on July 7 1998 and then further this would be 7,500 naming and renaming facilities and then it was

065the last was updated was November 30th 2011 so this was the Board of Education is solely responsible for naming and renaming any facility or part or parts thereof the board in its discretion may establish procedures for the naming and renaming of any buildings or other district facility suitable building plaques or other memorials may be authorized by the board that criteria and process are outlined in 7500 - are so the added part was the criteria so we really only had that paragraph in historically so then what's been added in the discussion this is one of the hardest so I've been on the policy committee meeting committee this will be my third year and it's this was one of our toughest ones to determine I think Greg really pointed out in terms of going forward and reconciling

066and and what is currently existing and as you see we've had a it was a very broad policy alright so for 7,500 - R which is naming renaming facilities regulation the board shall have broad and sole discretion to consider any criteria its current members believe are appropriate for naming or renaming of a district facility and may establish more detailed procedures than those which are set forth here in the Board of Education we'll have the final decision in improving the individuals to be honored and the manner in format by which the names will be displayed the definition the term facility is intended to include buildings of all types all indoor spaces such as rooms always classrooms wings gym and auditorium and etc as well as outdoor speech areas that may not have physical walls but are

067identifiable areas of district landscape such as gardens arcade recreation fields and etc general criteria number one individuals and groups being considered must have made significant contributions to one or more of the following field of education schools of Austin a community of ah saying human betterment number two in keeping with the mission of the district all those considered for having district building space or object named in their honor the individual or group must represent the collective commitments of the district a honesty B integrity C respect process for the request number one nominating group or person must consider the identified criteria when making a recommendation number two a written petition shall be provided to the Superintendent of Schools the report should include the following biographical data and significant contribution okay 7501 get it over just flip it

068over okay see we're being green okay so back to that they must stop for that provide a petition with biological data significant contributions and see a statement of why a facility should be named after the person the decision-makers number one the Superintendent of Schools will present the petition to the Board of Education for their improvement for their approval in order to ensure careful consideration and the due diligence ISM is conducted by the district naming or renaming requests may not be voted on by the board for one year from the time of the initial request to to allow time for public responses no requests shall be acted upon until three readings of its of it by the board of at least three board of education meetings and the duration the duration of the facility's name shall

069be indefinite unless future Boards of Education wish to remain the facility okay 7501 recognition definition the principal in his or her discretion may approve request to acknowledge individuals student student group of students a club activity teacher school that have provided outstanding service to the school district or recognized school accomplishments in the form of team pictures plaques banners paintings sculptures process to request approval by the principals required before the form of recognition can be displayed the duration typically items of recognition should be removed within a year of the class or person achieving the recognition graduates or moves to the next school year recognition items must be approved by the principal and should not exceed one year request for recognition exceeding one year shall be presented to the Board of Education for its approval and shall not

070exceed five years except when such recognition is in a designated trophy case the districting Museum room or on plaques which lists absolute lists stood of students with lists of students the formal recognition should be appropriately sized in an equitable manner not not attract more attention than warranted and be respectful of the area where displayed acceptance of privately funded recognition items shall be accepted by the Board of Education in accordance with the board of education policy 1800 gifts from the public so this piece was in place recognition back in October 11th 2017 and it was we did our reading but it never got it anyway we did our second reading and adoption thing I saw that today lead it was out I don't think we ever adopted it yes a lot of times there's there's dates

071at the bottom of these from old policies and I'm guessing somebody fixed a typo on a previous one maybe from like two thousand our but yeah we did we only we did a first reading for sure yeah because in essence that would have been this yeah this would have been yeah so this is not in place establishing memorials the Board of Education will consider requests from memorials in honor of a deceased of deceased students employees or other members of the school community on an individual basis memorials must be age appropriate by school including type and duration for the memorial the form of the memorial should be appropriately sized an equitable manner not attract more attention than warranted and be respectful of the area where displayed the board recognizes that in very special cases it may

072be appropriate to memorial as a person scholarship should be proposed as an alternative to memorials when possible duration memorials exceeded exceeding one year shall be presented to the Board of Education for its approval and shall not exceed five years under special circumstances determined by the Board of Education the board can lengthen this time period for example the board may allow memorial trees to be planted any makeshift memorials should should not be on display for more than two weeks anyone seeking a more permanent memorial should contact the school principal general criteria individuals and groups being considered must have made significant significant contributions to one or more of the following field of education schools of Ossining community of Ossining human betterment in keeping with the mission of the district all those considered for having district building space

073or object named in their honor the individual or group must represent the collective commitments of the district honesty integrity and respect process to request the nominating group or person must consider the identified criteria when making a recommendation a written petition shall be provided to the superintendent of the schools the report shooting through the following bylaw biographical data significant contributions statement of why memorial should be established for the person the decision-makers the school the superintendent of schools will present the petition to the Board of Education ports approval to allow time for public responses no work well shall be acted upon until three readings of it by the Board of by the board at least three board of education meetings acceptance of privately funded memorial shall be accepted by the Board of Education in accordance with the

074board of education policy 1800 gifts from the public again this was never an adopted policy it was again worked on in the group so one opened up to the my colleagues here too any questions thoughts about what we just read before we open it up to the audience yeah I have some concerns with 7501 recognition just before your cars one question and we could do it anyway is whether we should like go one at a time so we don't circle through which we do like 7500 first naming and then go to recognition and then only because we've done this in the policy committee and we'll go in circles if we talk about them all at same time just yep it's good idea okay so we'll start with 7500 or which is really extension I'm 7,500

075and I don't mind saying I think the two key points that we just want to review and be comfortably the one is the idea that if somebody comes to the board that the policy is saying you have to wait a year before the board can act on it so that that's new and we just need to make sure we're comfort with that and then the second thing is that naming of something is implied that that's an indefinite you know until something comes along and you want to rename it for whatever reason it's there's not a time period so those I think those mean obviously comments on anything think those are the two ones that we want to make sure we're comfortable with because those are both new I guess inherently things have been indefinite but

076the one year was definitely and again it just you know it's the example of a teacher student committee member passes away and the next meeting some you know people there's a hundred people itta board meeting it's saying to a future board you can consider it but click wait a year before you name rename the school or whatever this then wouldn't apply for example requests where people come and say we're having this big tract Memphis we oh sorry about that so this wouldn't apply to a temporary quest to name a championship game after you know coach or some for a tournament after someone in particular you know this week's tournament we're gonna have in honor of so until one we want you to say that officially I remember there was a request like this last year

077I think bill crest somebody went to uh there was the rest well they've been a couple the wrestling tournament there's the track meet so it's a cool that would not then fall under 7,500 - far now that's specific for facility naming yeah it's a it's a building a wing up a building something physical that you're naming gotcha right not an event not up by its if it's right so we don't have a policy back for those well we have a very broad policy that says it's the board's discretion I mean most of these things that's what it is this kind of spells it out a little bit more gives them more detail any more any more questions or comments and do we want to open it up to do we want to just go through

078each one with the board and then we'll open it up each one for the audience or however okay all right so moving into recognition 7501 so just a couple of thoughts here I think the duration part needs to be reinvestigated in part because I think it goes against what we stand for and pride in all that we are and we're talking about removing wreck you know plaques and banners that recognize teams or groups or individuals that contributed to the Austin community and the austin school district for example I used to uh in my freshman year I walk the biology and I would see all the banners on the wall science research of all the winners and I said how do I become one of them how do I apply to this great program they have

079such a great history and you know because of that I applied I remember in sophomore year you know looking at the Jim wall seeing pictures a sanaya Chong and the basketball team state champions let me go to this basketball game and support them I have pride in that if we start removing stuff then I don't think we stand for our district slogan which is pride and all that we are so I just I think we need to revise that with the duration and leave things up because a generation from now two generations from now you're gonna have people who graduated here their kids and grandkids are gonna go to this district I'm gonna say that's my mom when that wall that's my uncle now well that's my cousin who achieve this that's pride that's what

080we stand for so I think again we just need to revise it before we can adapt that that's it is it I'm just trying to get clarification on that so the mic from my perspective the one year is intended so that recognition is cyclical and that there's an equitable distribution of recognition because how much space can you utilize for recognition if you don't put some type of time period on you know okay now we're going to change it out and recognize that the intention behind the one-year so can it can make room for a new recognition as opposed to e2 no there's only but so much space you can utilize I think yeah and there may be things flexibly the principal wants to bring up I mean I guess the question is what goes up

081permanently and what doesn't right and so then what's the criteria and how do you do that across a lot of different disciplines exit you know with equity and with equity across the board you know I mean so that's that's the tricky part of this one you don't want to have a certain part of the building that has everybody's name up and then you have students that have done remarkable things and there's nothing up so the one year I think encourages people to basically you know to basically get it up and cycle those through and I guess the question is in the duration pieces is then what do you look at as your criteria for how you do that longer right that's that's the challenge of this thing I was agree with you but I think

082space is not an issue in my opinion I mean look at all the plenty of space in this room alone and until spacing becomes an issue I don't think we should have a duration piece in there I just want to add I was listening I think you know it seems like there's like two perspectives on this which both makes sense to me my suggestion or just as an idea what if there was a way after a certain period of time that I guess the person is like transition to like record book or something that we keep I know we have a museum that's not really you know functional but maybe that's something we can think about like how do we transition things that are ten years or more in a way that we kind of

083consolidated where we're still acknowledging those persons and we have a record of it and there's a place where people can actually look and be prideful for you know basketball players that have come through and like oh this is a picture or a news clipping or whatever the case may be maybe we make our Museum you know an actual Museum just a thought just trying to figure out a way to kind of marry to two ideas where I get you want to acknowledge and for a good period of time you're gonna have students or or staff that know these people and they want to see that there in the time that they're there but you also do know that time just passed you know time passes by we don't want to lose the you know the

084pride but at the same time we do want to make sure we make space for the next person that may need to you know in that time and space be acknowledged and recognized me and maybe on a more prominent space but transition that thought to a place where there's a fishel record book that we have that says okay somebody that's worked here for you know or you know thirty years we put them in there whatever it is still just I thought I see both perspectives as well before I share my thoughts I just wanted to acknowledge that the Board of Education did receive an email from Irving kV who suggested the last line of the first paragraph under duration where it ends currently with lists of students that the following language be added hall-of-fame walls

085team and individual athletic accomplishment walls cultural arts walls and academic accomplish ment walls and I think that that kind of edition is accurate and it does sort of capture what we're trying to get across in this it does strike me just viscerally that one year in five year does seem light or short for a recognition and yet in the same token when I go back and visit my own high school it says that we were the boys cross-country champions of 1965 and they're you know we were the champion of something else in 1971 there's not a lot from 2000 so you know I get the perspective of like where do we draw the line with perpetuity here and you know and at some point we have to be relevant we have to make space for

086you know the school moving in a different direction and we have to make sure all students are recognized and I totally support that I guess my takeaway is one year seems like five years seems a little light ten years doesn't seem light but beyond that you know I don't have much more concrete input to provide so thank you I'm gonna come without time I think and I know the wordings is five years I think you know one this is all nothing set in stone I think the approval one of the same issue of memorials was again this is me speaking is you know you're approved for five years it doesn't mean on the first day of the sixth year that stuff Nestle comes down it was more of a your proof of five years and

087you can be revisited and if the you know powers at the time feel like it should stay up it was not pleased my mind to me meant as a black and white you know it's up or down I know that gets tricky in process because then it's like how much the board table do time do you want to spend talking about whether something is up or down which I guess you know whether it's you know the Erwin change who suggested I think to me there's I like the idea of the school managing some of this themselves so whether it's science research and an example or athletics I went by the athletics like we don't as a board you know approve who gets picked in the Hall of Fame each year like there's a group within

088the school that knows the people in the Hall of Fame I don't know who's in all Fame and not and deprive people on their I'd be like they were lousy and then this would be someone who's good I don't know I was no recognition you know Cultural Arts by the auditorium has a list of so my classmates that were you know whatever Orchestra person or whatever so I think you know and that's what I think was sort of that wording of clocks would list the students so some what I would like and and we I don't know if we ever you know we sort of set the policy out to the school to say you know what do they think is with internally within high school and and this could exist at the other schools

089as well we focus on the high school you know what's working what's not working do they feel there's an imbalance of one you know there's more of something the other you know I think it's tricky with the sports world because when you go to Yankee like sports stadiums people recognize people with big numbers and like it's just the way things are done the sports world which when you go to not that I go to Carnegie Hall like I know if there's the same sort of tradition of recognizing people so I don't know how to you know there's maybe a plaque in Kearney halls say he knew you were whatever so I don't have to reconcile that sort of cultural ways that different groups recognize people and whether you just stick to that or whether you

090say no everyone has to save the same you know the cultural arts plaques are 18 by 24 and names are two inches high does everyone here to that or do you say it you know whatever and so I think we have you know we certainly have to figure out what's included in the sort of accept language so does everybody you know as we're talking about if we break it down to the general criteria does anybody have questions about how because it seems to be the duration and how long we keep something up and it seems to be the challenge but does anybody have any question about the general criteria that we're using for any of these policies I mean I think part of it is is like with this so if there are policies and

091procedures in place what's being done to this point so we have a Hall of Fame's it's an Athletic Hall of Fame is it you know people that excel in the arts like how does that all play out right and are we seeing that you know I would say with space where we're recognizing are we putting different groups in prominent areas so are we giving equal equal treatment to or not equal to about equitable treatment to the different groups are we sticking somebody off in a corner on the third floor and we're giving somebody the main entrance right sorry so those are the kinds of questions I think that really kind of cycle around this I think it's something we tried to pull from the building's initially and the high schools kind of the biggest fit

092I don't know that we really kind of got a clear picture of that I think part of a policy like this sort of drives a question around it but you know you know Martha Quinn was VJ with first VJ on an MTV you see should she be in a Hall of Fame somewhere in the building like you know these are the kinds of things and then the question is how much space do you want to allocate you know where do you put these spaces what do we have we know you know and where you're gonna do it so that drives the question of how long you wouldn't potentially keep I think and we straddling things off right and we try to thank you we try to look at other schools too and what how's everybody

093else like similar-sized and you know all those different things we tried we really didn't find any good examples or we saw some and so that was difficult we went out there there's really it's almost so local community it was you know yeah there's not a lot out there in this area so before we open it up to the audience I just want to see if anybody has any questions about policy 75002 establishing memorials yeah there wasn't one um one of the things that I was thinking about is we should probably do an inventory of what we have I don't know if that's been suggested but they should know from mic builds in the building like what what's out there and maybe take some pictures and have like a log so we can just keep track

094of it but if we did that we should have we you know right we should set it out we should have said we have it not done then it it didn't get the pictures but for the most part you can get a sense or if you look at the list and you just come in like the high school a certain way and you'll get pictures and the majority after pictures there's there's so many of them I mean get it if we can get pictures that's we have a list as a starter yes yeah and we have a lot of Ossining graduates that sit on this school board so there's a lot of you that fully that know of it too and might recognize them it might not know of others okay so at this time

095if we have no more questions I'd like to open it up to the audience oh we just launched esta 70 oh sorry we just well we just we went through this is the last one we didn't do the memorial slice we didn't do so many fellow tails sorry about that sorry coach sorry okay do you want to we're gonna do this one yep okay my um might comment on this is at the end of the duration paragraph where it says anyone seeking a more permanent memorial should contact the school principal I would just suggest that language be added something along the lines of sorry going back to any makeshift memorial should not be on display for more than two weeks you know I would suggest adding and removed at the discretion of the principal and

096then anyone seeking a more permanent memorial should contact the school principal and then I would suggest adding who may leave the memorial in place for a longer period of time at their discretion any requests for a makeshift memorial to be on display longer than two months must be approved by the principal in the BOE just because I can envision a situation where a principal you know basically says contact the principal but then there's sort of no step beyond that and so I would like to give it a little bit more Direction guidance to the principal that that they do have the ability to extend that if that's what the climate of the school of the time needs and if for example say something get started June 1st school's out June 21st you know the reality

097is what we would want that principal to be able to extend it until June 21st at that principals discretion so that was the basis for that comment Yammy memorials are something that actually there is a lot out there on both from like even the you know US Department of Education across the board there's mental health professionals you know there's societies that have stuff out there I think the challenge with this one is this basically how do you do how do you treat people you know with equity at that point and so you know what principle is going to get probably pressure in the circumstance to extend and in a lot of circumstances then you also have certain circumstances where the advice is you really shouldn't allow it more in Memorial to be in place it

098can have negative consequences for students so this is a tough one right and so I think the what you know there's policies out there that basically say after the more after the services happens you know a note should be put up that basically says we're going to collect all these and give them to the family or their designee and basically move it out right at that point but done in a respectful way I think the the challenge is that if you give flexibility you're going to be in a position of putting the principles in a tough position and really lead to get the advice out there is to do the opposite is to set some boundaries especially for a makeshift one where it's you know somebody comes in again these are ones that nobody s

099for approval for they just kind of percolate and come up you're being respectful in the moment which is you know but you know how do you deal with that recognizing that it's the school for all the students right so that's the trick and that's why in this policy we did talk about it and this policy was put out there without that for that reason I just I see it as it should not be on display for more than two weeks which wouldn't bar it simply being moved to a different location and then the two weeks sort of began again and I do think that you know we really are charging our principles for knowing the climates of their schools and the social-emotional needs of the students in those schools that something like this should have

100a little bit of wiggle room for them to be able to come to the board and say I know that this is the policy but I want you to know what's going on and this is my recommendation and then the board be able to say yay or nay so that's my thought process behind that I wouldn't we didn't have time to do this I wouldn't mind asking our principals I think fortunately most of them have not been in that situation but it and all have a strong feeling on a heart two weeks versus a flexible I I like the discretion for this principle to have handle this situation but two weeks makes it you know clear-cut and then they don't have to be in the middle but I'd be curious to see what their if

101they have any strong feedback on they like me it the other day I think we you know we're going from right now we have no no policy so if if we made it you know should come down at two months two weeks no more than a month like something we're a whole lot shorter than we are today but I have not be helpful to get some input and this will add to that maybe with the two weeks if we can put in some language that somewhere the principal I guess you know at the discretion of the principal if they want to refer to the board that way it gives them an out so to speak if they don't want to be the one to come up with that decision and kind of like they can

102like you know escalate it to us so that we can give input except I think for the board's sake we're basically saying the board would say well you have to wait a year before we can approve of Memorial to try and avoid that thing because it's gonna be emotional and great but I think there was something that you read there was like two weeks of is it that makeshift yeah I don't think the Memorial says you have to wait a year I think it says if you want it to exceed a year then that's when it comes to the board but it's not the Memorial doesn't establish that it takes a year to me I guess the name right right the name you naming town I guess I got the principal could approve something more

103permit I think this is right I need to get to the wording right there's a big gray area between that two weeks doing that in that year that like this like you keep getting extended if you go to the principal and then if you bump up to a year then it's saying you have to go to the board to get that you know extension but then there's a lot of gray area after that two weeks of back and forth with the principal right and I think Frank you're saying that the works in the area say to the makeshift that responds here you want to pops up not leave out forever if in week three five ten fifteen something more permanent can be discussed and agreed on and is appropriate then the principal could approve that

104whereas a makeshift isn't really being approved it's just happening repentance or buddy I mean I think you know if we you know it's not a bad idea to get the input from the principal's obviously on this I think we should really research this one and come back with I think while there's a lot of positive consequences for people you know positive outcomes for people with basically in these circumstances immemorial izing there are other sides to that and then you get into a situation where the advice in certain circumstances is don't do it and so you get yourself into a tough position of you know in these moments how do you deal with this and deal with it equitably so I think this is an area where if we want to get input we should also

105really search this one deep because this there is a lot out there on and and I think we'd be doing a disservice if we didn't do that um I think the timelines it these timelines and a lot of these policies were put in to provoke conversation right we weren't voting on this tonight it was it was an attempt to put something reasonable but it was certainly not going to be the end-all be-all but I think that we really need to do you know the idea of permanent memorial semi permanent memorial temporary memorial they're all kind of classically defined understood and they're solid guidelines around what should be in the school and what shouldn't be and we should really look at that thank you um I guess my so what's going back to the to me

106I think the memorial policy is pretty close in my mind going forward I think we have to make shift we have to do I think it's the one where we have the most work to do on reconciling what's in place with the policy because there's I think that inventory would show us there's benches in garden there's lots of memorials around the different buildings that we have to figure out what it means to them with the current policy because there there's many of them okay all right to open it up to the audience thank you first of all just like to thank the board for listening to us and having us come in honestly tonight I was going to come here and just ask you for more time but listening to your discussion I think I

107can answer some of the questions and I strongly suggest that you bring in some of the stakeholders like someone from the athletic department someone from science research someone from the arts that can answer a lot of your questions because I can answer a lot of them now but I'm gonna ramble because I'm going to go back and forth and try to go back I try to take notes as you were speaking as far as the Hall of Fame's go there are two Hall of Fame's there's an Austin High School Hall of Fame and there's an Athletic Hall of Fame the Austin High School Hall of Fame was run by Josh and Ronnie Cunningham we'll both retired and since then nothing's been done with it it's in the museum peter falk is in there and I

108believe Martha coin is in there as well the Athletic Hall of Fame is run by the athletic department we have old coaches former coaches come back and we have a process where they apply for it and we have a vote and all that stuff so I answered that one as far as the procedure that you guys talked about not being enough space right now there's a procedure that I shared with Greg and I think I asked him to share with you guys but it explains the procedure that we came up with because we aren't limited with space so we got those big boards at the board of the the Booster Club donated and we were supposed to put them in a gym but they set him up wrong so we had to put them in

109a hallway they took up a lot of space but what we did is all the league champions all the sectional champions the regional champions are all listed in the hallway the only thing in the gym are state champions individual which there are eight of them and team champions which are five of them so that's we came up with that as a left athletic department with Josh Mandel and that was our process there's plenty of room to continue on with League champions and state champions and there's plenty of room to put more into the gym so space is not an issue and you had mentioned that mr. spring as far as what we did when we first came in with mr. Dannette myself 15 16 years ago there used to be old banners in the gym

110and they were back to the 60s and 50s so we started it from 1950 on so after like 50 years then we picked up but like a five-year ten-year thing is kind of tight but we did go 50 years back with all the stuff we have so if you go look now just the championships are there from 1950 on I really appreciate mr. spring what you had to say we definitely the kids definitely look up to the awards I'm gonna give you two quick examples one if you know Geno Auriemma is he's a basketball coach he was in the building to see a volleyball game which snatchin I walked them from the football off football field to the gym as we're walking through the gym the old science wing was all science research he looked

111around he said oh my god somebody knows what the heck they're doing in this place because he saw all the science research awards nothing to do with sports our gym as Ray knows our gym was an eyesore forever I've coached here 30 years it was an eyesore we had green mat on one side red mat on the other side green walls we've done so much to improve the gym today I had a conversation with two Porchester girls watching the volleyball game the game was over they looked up and said you have an all-american because they saw the all-american thing on the wall these are things were proud of in our city I shared with mr. Hancock the other day I travel a lot I was in a rubout announcing basketball shirt on in Aruba and

112someone come to me goes ah sling basketball you guys have one of the best basketball teams in the country okay these are things we should be proud of okay the basketball program the science research program we should promote these sentence yes equities great we have we list all the teams out there but if a team does something great like our science research team does like our state championship basketball team does we shouldn't be taking that stuff down one year five years ten years no years that's something that should be there forever like we said like mr. spring said you go back in there and say that's my that's my mom that's my grandma all right and we had a reason why we did pictures instead of names because their names would have took up too

113much space but that was all explained and the thing that I gave you just trying to go through it you I think we're on the right path mr. GAO you were talking about giving going back to the athletic department going back to the science research program give them some input on this because any ones that know what should be done on what shouldn't be done you guys can make the final decision but give them some input as yeah but we didn't really get much input on this whole thing and it's it's really a big decision right now there's only a couple people here to care about this but I'm going to tell you it's gonna be a big deal if you go and take down the 2300 all the pictures over there it's going to

114be a big deal all right so I'm just letting you know that as far as memorials go I agree that's a really tough one really really tough one I think and I gave mr. Gallow performer hopefully share with you guys but I view the 23 not only as a memorial I view that as a one five three see which they have which donates to the district back proximately eight to ten thousand dollars a year and they're putting up their logo so I say instead of taking it down let's go to another 500 entries like the Booster Club and I'll say matters and say put your thing up there let's promote that these are people have been giving to us yeah the 501 3 C's like neigh and a so but they get the use of

115our fields for free they donate some money and they get our use of our fields for nothing whether the federal RICO family get to tens of thousand dollars every year they put the painting up which they pay for to pay I don't think that's a bad thing I think it's a good thing I coach football here for 15 years kids don't little Christian Federico was he died 10 years ago but when they won by the wall they touch where his number was and his number wasn't even there anymore now they move them up because he was appealing but they touch that spot because they know the history of the Osteen football and Christian Federico die if you don't know the story died running track running around the track in college sophomore year just drop dead

116out of nowhere was a kid that played three sports here - all kinds of stuff so yeah I get it it's hard with memorials but I look at that Madison Memorial I look at that as somebody donating to the district with nothing coming back so I think we can do stuff like that I think we should promote things like that so to get in I was gonna come and not say anything cuz they can give us more time but I think you guys have a lot of questions you're doing some great things that first policy naming the facilities outstanding well written also I think you guys are right on with that one these other two I think you really need to slow down and look at that stuff and include people that are involved in

117it because yeah I'm emotional it's an emotional thing but it's gonna be a big thing some of you were here the Indian process I was here was ugly this is gonna be similar I'm telling you this is gonna be big if we go that route it's not gonna be a smooth thing it's not gonna be like okay just take down the pictures take down this it's not gonna be that easy there's there are a lot of people I wanted to come here tonight I said look I'm just gonna next one more time a lot of people that want to come here and speak tonight so if we're moving forward there's gonna be more people here thank you for your time thank you I'll be really brief I'm Pat wheeler I teach in the district for

118the house and live in the district I graduated from here in 2003 so I have recognition somebody said something about outside the auditorium the cultural arts my name is up there I have things as an athlete and as a coach over in the athletic ends and this is what I'm gonna share mr. cross then you went to Duke right Dukes pretty good at basketball correct and the cross and other things like that do they take the championship banners down from the rafters and their Fieldhouse I have no idea but I know things now and mr. Hirsh Necker you went to Syracuse but somebody your family's progra by sharing these from Syracuse yeah yeah that's true there you go so they have some pretty significant numbers over there in Syracuse if I'm not a mistake yeah

119the number 43 is pretty important Jim Brown 22 is really important in lacrosse they put that up there I just want to consider those types of things you know a state championship isn't something that lasts for a year you know you don't defend a state championship the state championship is forever the next year you're not going and trying to defend it if you're going and trying to win another one and our kids use that as motivation every single day when they walk in the gym and I know that a lot of our other programs use that as motivation saying hey if we win we're gonna get the same thing that those guys got and that motivates us to do well as I'm sure that a lot of the kids get motivation from science research and

120from robotics and from all the other things that we recognize so as a taxpayer as a teacher here as a graduate I'm just asking you to really consider that because it is supposed to be as you said pride to know we are and our kids are proud of what we've done thank you we talk about space I called New York State today the state championships in all sports of around since 1920 we have 5 we have 5 since in hundred years so it's not like we're beating down the walls with state championships Raynaud's when we won the first one I thought it was the last one we never win you know what helped win that next one the pitcher I'm telling you right now we pointed through it every day in practice you guys want

121you to you want a picture on the wall get on the line let's go let's go let's push let's push less pushing we won the stakes you have to give the second year with no seniors on the team and every year it's been trying to get it back there again trying to get back there again and it gets harder and harder and harder but that helped that helped down the road but out of 100 years we've got five teams in all sports not just basketball thank you hi I'm Luke Federico I guess I'll respond I just want to vote Ricky pretty much said it all about the 23 I want you to know that it's an honor for me to have it up there and they thanked the district for allowing us to have it

122up there even for this long you know he was a good ball player but besides that he was a very good student he was an honor society student graduated high school with 21 college credits to go to college and you know besides being an athlete I take pride in knowing that he was good student - as far as you know the other stuff with plaques and banners hanging I go back to my old high school and I see the things from back in the 30s and 40s and you know what made me look like I wanted to have something hanging on a wall - so for these students here to see the plaques and banners hanging it's something that they can drive through to to have so I just want to thank you for giving

123yourself thank you I ran funny and I just came to listen but I really I read this and I'm a little perplexed by the idea of taking down things I'm not sure in all of my experiences when I go back to my high school you go back to college the banners and things that hang up that go back years so I would think that the policy would be better equipped if it if it detailed away when we ran out of space how you determine what comes down first as opposed to setting a time with it for things that are up on the wall and there's no reason to take them down I am concerned again about process this talks about being able to petition and I don't know if there's going to be a reg

124sub mayor that outlines the process but it doesn't really say does one person make a petition is a petition 500 signatures is a petition to signatures and so I'm really concerned about how you guys are really going to look at this and determine when there's enough support to warrant someone's memorial versus another and without there being some kind of process and definition to that I think that it really becomes a popularity thing and whoever can get the most voices out and timing so I would like the policies to be a little bit more specific about process and I really do think that the idea of taking down memorials or taking down recognitions doesn't make a lot of sense the price of the policy would be more effective I think if it defined how to determine

125when space runs out what comes down and I really do think that we need to give voices to the principles because I think they hear from every corner from the art world from the sports world from the academic world and so to not give them a voice in how this process should work in their buildings seems disrespectful thank you don't any money to the community here but we do it for the honor of having that hanging on the wall and other things too just to keep his name alive but we do run fund raisers for that purpose just to donate back to the ossineke community we lived here he went to school here for me using carrots through high school and that's why we feel we give back thank you thank you I just wanted

126to clarify that we haven't discussed a grandfathering in policy that's still something that's being discussed correct right and I just wanna one first of all just thank our audience and just really important conversations that were having and we've formed committees in the past and we've tried to address the most equitable way to address these policies and you know tonight bringing it out in the public was the most important thing that we can do tonight in that that's exactly what we wanted to hear back and we've in the past have talked to some of the principles we've had some input but it hasn't been a real formal policy of committee and we've tried to so I just want everybody to know that this wasn't just you know made up in some you know vacuum but this

127is hard stuff and so really appreciate all that's been done and and said tonight so I want to turn this over to that's right we haven't discussed and there is no language grandfathering yeah it was my understanding that that was something that was still going to be discussed as these sort of total shade yep what's it I think two comments one is mr. wheeler I might school is the reigning national basketball champion and Duke is not so when we got very clear and the but I think our conversation my grandfather he came in and we need to we need a brainstorm on this one is to say if we like what do we do if we have a new policy that tries to give a structure going forward and then people come along in the

128future and say well what you know I know they put new policies does this but what about that and that that it's like how do you reconcile that was sort of the thing so we could just say we could do anything we could say you know what everything up as of whatever today's date is you know stays as is and everything going forward is the new policy or or somewhere like that's sort of the conversation we had and do you stop you know do you say we're gonna put the new policy in place and we could put the naming you know I think we have definitely more consensus and closer on the naming we could which is what we started with is to say let's get the naming thing in place so that if anything

129happens we're in good shape and then let's keep working on the others to see again hopefully not taking forever but figure out get the list and so the full board can see the list to see what because there you know we talked about the 23 there's definitely other things that would be equally impacted in that they you know they were all sort of to me they were all sort of implicitly approved with the old policy because they all went up and some may have been treated differently but the old policy basically said the board can approve it and if the board didn't do anything that was sort of an approval so what do you do so I think we just need to figure out how do you like to the grandfathering we've been stuck out

130the grandfathering for I think it's complicated because I don't think the board was brought in on previous decisions that were made I think that's part of where we need to make sure that that's in place because you just don't want things appearing so that's part of it the other piece of this too is is just I think as we're looking and we're going to ask the principles I think we need to get an understanding of where people's space is what things are set aside how much space it is the Hall of Fame is great that it's in a museum but maybe it needs to be in a place you know for the for the high school Hall of Fame maybe it needs to be more prominently like I think there needs to be you don't

131want to just walk into a space and get the sense that it's one group that's being recognized because that sends a powerful message to your students across the board of what you value and I know in this district we value a lot of different things science research music across the board I can think of Hall of Fame I can think of you know I'm not going around names off but we have students have going on and gain areas of dance other things been nationally recognized and done really well they need to be held up as examples too if so I think as we look at this what's really important to me is what's the space we've designated what's the size of the space we've designated what groups have access to what and are we basically

132making sure that uh you know an array of students are being recognized we have incredibly powerful students in the district in a lot of different fronts even in non-conventional ways right so how are we finding ways to celebrate that in doing that with equity I think that's the piece that's you know it's tough and you get into the whole conversations about size and you know for some you put up something huge for some do you put up something small all of these things tie into the difficult conversations right I agree with the sentiments that the buildings need to be involved I also think we need to push the thinking around Memorial so I think we need to push them to really look at the research and see how it impacts kids and then I think

133look at it more holistically across how do we do this across the board so that's my two cents there was something that Frank just said that I've been thinking and I think the phrase that he used really helped solidify for me which is what we really want to be doing as a district is holding students off all students for a variety of reasons so I was just challenged you know with some of the community input challenge whether or not if we're enacting a policy that in effect is limiting and not necessarily holding others up maybe we need to challenge our thinking and it's not this isn't really a policy committee issue but maybe we need to be engaging or encourage engagement of more outreach of maybe it's a guidance counselor that nominates a student for

134our plaque on a wall in some area of the school so that we can find more ways to lift more students up so that there are more places within our buildings where every single student can walk down a hallway and say that inspires me and I get that that's not necessarily this policy in black and white but I think that's sort of the sentiment that's driving some of these policy changes I think it's worth looking at that other aspect of it I'd have to you know agree with the fact that we should be recognizing a lot of different fields but this policy specifically talks about removal and I do not feel comfortable adopting a policy that talks about removing things we take pride so until you know we can add something that talks about equity

135and talks about giving recognition other groups whether it's music or you know the arts or drama or this and that but when we start talking about removal when space has yet to become an issue I just I take I have concerns about that Thank You Melissa I think there's a lot of valid points here today I appreciate everybody for coming out as well and I think we definitely do need to explore at the time limits that we'll put in here but again these are drafts there's no decisions being made and if there's a lot of room for discussion to just determine what is the best course of action moving forward and I think everyone would agree that the end goal is to make sure that we are representing on all achievements because there's different children

136from different walks of life that wants something to look up to and say inspire - you know there's different pathways to success achievement and recognition and so we're just trying to explore ways to make sure we're capturing that all in the best way I would agree that you don't want to just start on that that could have a visceral effect as well understandably just whipping stuff down on the wall of course you don't want to adopt a policy that is not respecting the history of our district as as much as we're trying to look forward to the future so I definitely agree with you know bringing in more perspectives to talk about where we how we move forward so that nobody feels like they're you know you know not being heard in this process that's

137definitely I don't think anyone here would want to walk away feeling like we've left out a piece of this mom you know we're considering what is going to be the permanent adopted policy so I just want to make sure that people realize that it's not this is not like setting stolen or anything like that and we definitely do recognize that there's a lot of different variables to this and that we do want all of our students to have pride that's probably all that we are is literally just that there's a lot of nuances in there and we want to make sure we're addressing all of them so Dan I'm surprised you got over this one and didn't come up and say that you wanted a new gym for us in high school you just take

138quiet during that whole part of that whole process I'm really actually surprised though that you were packing talk and say let's get up there and say that why won't for brookside and not Ossining high school so I'll just put that out there as a first of all I just want to you know thank mr. Federico for being here we had a conversation earlier on with mr. gala for the policy committee the dialogue and certainly want to make sure that you knew everything that was happening and thank you for being here and also for everything that you do to contribute and support our schools and our programs across the board for many years and I want to thank everyone for their perspective I think what Dan made reference to other people wanting to be here I

139think their voice matters right but I also want to put perspective to that that this doesn't have to be like coming through the walls and having to you know let's this is about being having a dialogue and I think what I hope comes across from here is there was a real intention on the part of the Board of Education to put this out there so that we can engage the way that we're doing right now and some of the advice that's been shared is really really important whether it's getting more stakeholder groups perspectives on time see if there's consent you know consensus around that and concerns about that and I think you know I'm listening here as as you know obviously a participant here at the board with the board but everyone's buzzing right I

140think there's no one's pushing through and saying tomorrow we're doing this and I hope there's recognition even by those that aren't here to know that this was made public for that very reason meaning that most policies there's a lot of policies that impact our practices here but this one we knew was going to resonate and want to make sure that there was discussions around this I just hope to those that you talk to that there's an understanding and perspective that's shared along this and I think and I'll just use our personal conversations that we've engaged in a lot of conversations about recognition and I remember that one basketball game where I sat there and said there's no more after this and there were more and that's all what's that and there'll be more and more

141accomplishments for kids right there's gonna continue and our staff because you know the truth is that there's some outstanding staff and some have unfortunately passed and there's and we just recently had a conversation about you know Bill Casey and his passing and there were a number of individuals that wanted to recognize and and recognize his efforts in the impact that he had on the lives of children and staff and that's a real challenge as a superintendent sitting here and the board this I think was a challenge I think what we were looking for in policies just have some consistency in the way that goes forward we're not going to be here forever you know and having some structure to that is that we can all agree upon so that there's longevity to that I think

142well policy provides us because of the great things that happen I mean I'm often pulled and I'm just saying it from my perspective to share things and I don't have anything to stand on you know just hallway conversations or other things that happen and there's really no procedure to it and I would personally and I think anyone that sits in the seat of superintendent or with the board should have some process that it shouldn't be left to the superintendent and what he likes or doesn't like but that there's always something we can go back to it hold on to and I agree that the topic of memorials is there's research around it and I think there's dialogues to have it and and what is equity related to that there are some passings that unfortunately happened

143in crisis that happened in our district and we recognize all students or staff that unfortunate crisis happens with so that's really what I wanted to share I think you know I think gratitude for those that came I think the dialogue needs to continue I think that you made reference to just you're here just you know to the various institutions and how they recognized I think that's kind of what we're trying to get at is how do we recognize you know to chose to have banners siracusa choose to put up Derrick Coleman's number right how's that for some my point is that there's different ways and they've made choices as it you know and we don't have to do it the way they did it know what I suggest we do it we hear them and

144then ultimately we do it the Ossining way right and what we feel is appropriate because they're not putting pictures of their teams up because they chose a different way to recognize so really that's just a discussion and that's why they're not pulling anything down is number one their pride but also there's a there's a process to how there making those decisions you know you think of the Yankee Stadium Memorial Park doesn't have a lot of memorials there's a lot of great Yankees albeit as a Yankee fan I feel like they've started to do a little couple more then I thought that's just my own perspective I want attune to the Yankees but my point being is that there's a lot of great yeah they have a process to I think the questions around Hall of

145Fame I'm pausing to like you know just think about that you know it shouldn't be left to the individuals you know is it because of Josh and who was the person riding Cayenne was left of two people right so now two people leave the district and there's you know what's our process now does it mean that we don't have a Hall of Fame because of two individuals my point being is that it needs to go beyond just people right you know [Music] and I paused - I'm just saying that out loud in front of I wonder about the museum being the space right because if we really want to have pride our kids don't get a chance to see who's in the Hall of Fame you know that Hall of Fame that that room the

146museum albeit as a museum isn't is in a space that a lot of kids get to see so if it really is about pride and recognition about our history you know it makes us pause really as an organ as an institution of learning how do we get the pride and get our students understand the real history that exists here the rich history that you both have gone through right as graduates of Austin High School it's just making me question a little bit right now and it's something that I think your Frank is alluding to as well as how do we make sure there's equity around any recognition that takes place and no matter what the Hall of Fame is so further discussions no I don't think we're gonna get consensus here and your input is

147important but I just want to put perspective to you know as a whole and it's really important and before we go to judge and of just saying that the individuals here but just anyone you know we just pause ask the questions like what's the thinking what's the thought on it so that you know we can come and make have productive conversations around any decisions I know the one that you made reference to earlier and it was it was a difficult conversation for this entire community right this isn't that and trying to have a discussion and have an open dialogue about it so that's it okay all right we're I'm gonna take a motion to table resolution 4.7 all in favor okay resolution 4.7 will go back to committee and further on so thank you very

148much Thanks thank you mister fredericka Thanks okay we're gonna move into our regular meeting business of the board we are going to do we need to pull to move up four point four and four point five we should three separate them have nothing to separate them I always table those because West plots got its meeting this week and we'll go through and send back the summary and I think this can take the whole night don't want to take the whole night yeah good should we do that enough family should we do that okay I think we should at least do yeah I think we should at least do the delegate yeah that's not gonna be okay so I'm going to leave that so I'm gonna take a motion to table 4.5 all in favor okay

149so we can move up I'm going to take a motion to move up 4.4 so moved second okay all in favor okay so you just moved it up you want to vote on it okay now we're gonna take a motion to vote on it it's procedurally okay so take a motion to vote vote on resolution 4.4 so moved second we should just read it you should read it okay and resolution 4.4 is to appoint the voting delegate and alternate at the New York State School Boards Association annual business meeting any discussion I'm going I can we can nominate right we can whoever's going me first start with one I have to I will be there I'll be there Melissa Banta will be there Frank checker will be there I'm looking into my Katherine cross we

150may may may or may not be there Greg Rochester this year if not this year done with it all right okay so out of the three of us so what it means is having to stay on Saturday morning if you're looking to get out of there you know you're gonna be there for half the day so I'm happy for someone else to be the delegate but I'm going to be there anyhow so it's up to you if you want to participate in the process and vote that's fine and it doesn't mean I can't go to the meeting and see it's kind of interesting meetings it just means you're not the one who has really the package of the paddle basically we're gonna decide whether you're gonna what phrase the paddle yes or no and then

151whoever the delegate is is the one who actually executes the yes or no so I don't mind being a backup if somebody else wants to do it I would I I think trustee Decker I I have all the faith in you to be our delegate and Melissa if you'd like to be our alternate delegate that would be great so you plan on telling the business meeting or not I always recommend we have Melissa be the del voting delegate and I'll be the backup and if you decide you don't want to that I can just take it that's all right okay all right then all right so Melissa Morris panto will be our delegate and Frank Necker will be our alternate that could be the alternate alternate anyway all right so if there's no more conversation

152all in favor aye opposed abstentions okay all right I will take a motion for resolutions 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.6 and 4.8 second okay 4.1 is a resolution to appoint additional consultants for the 2018 2020 school year resolution 4.2 is a resolution to improve an agreement with the Ossining Association of administrators and supervisors 4.3 is a resolution to approve the minute minutes of the regular meeting of August 20th resolution 4.6 as a resolution to approve an agreement with sha Pierre Olsen may and Lambert LLP puros I'm sorry and resolution 4.8 is a resolution to adopt the following policies as a first reading which the policies are 5 6:05 voter registration for students and 6 to 4 6240 - our investment regulations any discussions okay all in favor aye opposed abstentions okay okay moving into our curriculum

153and instruction I take a motion for five resolution 5.1 so move resolution 5.1 resolution to accept recommended placements any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstentions okay moving into business office matters like to take a motion for resolution 6.1 through 6.6 second any discussion all in favor I'm sorry I have to read it sorry 6.1 resolution regarding increase in budget drivers driver education program 6.2 resolution regarding appointment of consultant driver's education program 6.3 resolution regarding disposal of computer equipment the Autzen school district 6.4 resolution regarding increase in budget network for good inc Ossining high school 6.5 resolution regarding increase in budget for lost textbooks Ossining high school and resolution 6.6 resolution regarding interfund transfers any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstentions okay moving into personnel matters I'd like to take a motion for resolution

1547.1 through 7.14 okay resolution 7.1 resolution regarding civil service staff resignations 7.2 resolution regarding staff support staff resignations 7.3 resolution regarding bus attendant resignations 7.4 resolution regarding an administrative staff appointment 7.5 resolution regarding professional staff appointments 7.6 resolution regarding civil service staff appointments 7.7 resolution regarding support staff appointments 7.8 resolution regarding bus attendant appointments 7.9 resolution regarding professional staff appointments for before and after school programs 7.10 resolution regarding civil service staff appointments before and after school programs 7.11 the resolution regarding support staff appointments before and after school programs 7.1 - resolution regarding per diem substitute removals 7.13 resolution regarding per diem substitute appointments 7.1 for resolution regarding approval of school volunteers like to thank all of our volunteers for helping us any way they can like to recognize them and I like to open up

155if there's any discussion discussion all in favor aye opposed abstentions audience audience recognition please come to the mic and say your name its formation your address and welcome hi my name is murder corny and I live in Ossining one comment I don't know I know that I'm Dexter's usually at the door but there was no one there today and I only luckily got in the building because the door to the gym with open and I could come in that way so you guys on Board of Education nights if you can find a way to make sure that there's an entrance open because people want to come late or have to complete need to be able to get in the building was the door all the way on the left all of the doors were locked

156on the left absolutely every job yeah when I came in the left door was open Sam there were cars in the parking lot I hoped you guys were here I'm sure you it wasn't on perfect no I don't I know that I'm just making a comment so that you know thank you so that people don't know these things yeah I have been in this district for way too many years now I'm not originally from lastly but I have often come to express my concerns I've had many fruitful and less than fruitful conversations about many things in this building and in this school district one of the things that is of repeated concern is the curriculum and its incorporation of African American history and also our curriculum and the idea that I some many years later

157after being out of high school still have my children in high school reading the same books that I read in in over 20 plus years there have been many Nobel prize-winning authors many authors of many races and ethnicities excuse me not racist but ethnicities and I think that there should be a deeper look at our curriculum and how we incorporate other peoples history into that and I understand the way that our textbooks are written and driven I also understand that now we're not necessarily using the traditional textbooks so I would ask this district to make a very very very deep effort to look at what we're asking our children to learn from pre-k through through cop through um high school graduation to that end assuming some of you may be aware of the New York

158Times 1619 project if you're not I encourage you to listen to the podcasts and to look at and read the the various episodes or I don't know what they're called series the entire series it is an a series about the history of slavery in America in August it was the 400 year anniversary of when slavery began along with it they put in a lot of time and they developed a free curriculum that can be incorporated into our system that talks truly about what slavery meant and what's its impact through today there's that kind of curriculum that's available to this district there are number upon number of books written by African Americans Latin next Asians there are we are rich with culture and I don't think that we have to rely on the same old throw

159backs I think it's kind of a lazy way to address curriculum and I'm not saying that it's that it's your I don't want to be disrespectful or mean about it but I'm tired of having the same conversation and I've been engaged in this conversation in this district song since long before Ray was here I've been engaged in it before Steven Hancock was here before in the middle school before you know when Regina was there and I really do think and charge you guys and challenge you guys to really look at what you're teaching our children and to look at how we are not including the history of other people in what they're learning and I'd really challenge the board to challenge the administration to come up with a better way to educate our children so

160that in 2021 in 21 22 when kids are coming through here they are enriched and engaged in a way that maybe other communities are not part of the reason my husband and I bought our home in this community was because of diversity but there's not diversity represented in the education they're receiving and there should be thought to that so that's my challenge I will be back again and again and again because I think this change needs to happen thank you Hey okay for discussion any other discussion of any committees or any other information that anyone wants to share you have a few things one attended the PTA meeting last Monday PTA Council I want to thank them they were at every single back-to-school night fundraising and they do so much for our community and they're

161having the little free libraries this Friday at 4:00 p.m. is the kickoff of that again you know this is a volunteer run organization they do so much for our kids so much for our community and it's a important that we recognize them well a couple other things I'd like to bring up is if we could possibly look into starting a subcommittee for advocacy for dyslexia funding from the state I'd be happy to chair such committee and find parents that would be interested in being involved in this I already know a few I think again this is a learning disorder that affects one in five children throughout the United States and other states have passed Universal screening for dyslexia and funding for Universal screening for dyslexia in kindergarten so I think our district should look into

162a navistick u advocacy group that partners that doesn't represent the district but kind of reports back and says what's going on so we can tackle this issue another thing a lot of parents taxpayers even students have come up to me and talked about we haven't done any verification process in years is this something that we want to look in to investigate and possibly talk about doing again and by verification process I mean implement a a program where check to make sure people actually have residency status in Ossining again has it happen in years something I'm asked almost every single day of the week about what are we doing about it so just wanted to bring that up so we want to bring up what when we did what we did the last time the verification

163I mean I could see we did and you know the broader discussion I'm not sure we're gonna okay conclude tonight but you're right I forget what year was it was a number of years ago there was a whole there was a two-year process for I think it was every odd grade was brought forth to a few in first grade yet to be registered third grade so the idea was over two years you would get every family it was a it wasn't an expensive process from not only just dollars and cents but also time of staff and not take you know what you know and and in some cases taking away from other duties that otherwise individuals were working on that aside we understand the importance of verification that residency is important and we have you

164know we have a lot of systems in place to seek to address that so I've I was you and I were at a meeting with Facebook leaders right that was the end this topic came up and more often than not there's there's a sense and sometimes maybe because of enrollment did think there's a lot of students but don't live here but every we follow through every single process we verify everything that needs to be done and if we hear something we follow up on it as well so that's just a general like historical piece and it didn't yield a lot together that's a real tornadoes two year very expensive process and it didn't yield anything tangible so and there are some districts that are have embarked on that and I haven't spoken to them but

165I've probably say that they deal very much for them either so you know I hear it any of the same things you know probably maybes even seeing individuals talking to me and you that I would just have a broader perspective of that in terms of like in the context of putting the money into something that didn't necessarily lead to we have we've tried it it didn't work for us how long ago do you know was the executive it's hard for me to say I mean I think it has to be at least eight years 2010 timeframe yeah so my wife was still and staff and she helped the people to come into the district everyone's residency is checked right when they're entering the district right and so I mean I think that's just important to

166note too and when we receive reports we investigate them thoroughly and so if somebody has you know a lot of times you hear things that I hear things and I'll ask for specifics or email the board specifics will investigate it and sometimes we get follow-ups and sometimes we don't so I would encourage if you're speaking to anybody that has first-hand knowledge of a situation they can email the board and you know and they can send an anonymous letter if they want to I mean it's not the way I would approach it but you know we do actively investigate those those requests we can talk more about it sounds good I just wanted to you know discuss it further in the future I know it's late tonight but this is probably number one issue being brought

167up for whatever reason whenever I talk to people it's the number one issue brought up and after eight years it might be time to reinvestigate but I just want to bring that up so we can have a you know discussion on it at some point and weigh the pros and the cons and at the end of the day you know we we're here to educate kids and that's our primary purpose and we also have to you know I've been diligent to the taxpayer so it's just something I wanted to bring up for future conversation so I think those conversations effect can add and I'm sure it is an opportunity to educate to meaning that explaining the history our process what we did it cost associated with time Association the net associated with it as well

168which was not everyone that comes to you and approaches us knows those facts so of course and then their answer we can engage but to point the board chooses don't want to talk about it then certainly have enough thank you I think maybe that's the two things I mean one right I'm hearing the same things I think it's been a long time you know I know we can do enough of these companies it didn't yield much and it may not yield I think we need to figure out is whether the sort of the goodwill of doing it could either maybe we you know just surprise not the word but you might yield more than we did before or we may not yield anything and either way you know you know you know and I just

169we have a process where essentially you could start in kindergarten and go through high school without you know you verified once and didn't verify again so and it may be worth paying attention to some of the other districts who are doing it more recently to see if something about the times are to change that there's more yield or no yield that was one I guess I mean I'd follow up on the murders question just ask either for an update from you guys and maybe to Myrna if you have questions about what she's hearing you know how to find her but yeah it was a topic that was a very prevalent topic two or three four years ago we talked about a lot and I have a feeling that we made changes and I've done things

170but we haven't talked about it as much in the last year - so I should be sort of curious on the how are we feeling in that area and what's going on and I felt like there was an awkward silence after Myrna left and we didn't respond to so and I appreciate that and I appreciate the questions and our important questions obviously one that we philosophically agree with and no it's not the first time you've brought it up in a variety of settings I think first of all it starts with the fact that and we should remember there's an equity committee that was formed a number of years ago Banta sits on it dr. on Miss I posed to with various stakeholders including students to come up with set of recommendations thereafter there have been

171existing building equity committees and the conversation even during that time was do you go to the literature and the curriculum and he start going with the Leafs and of individuals and move forward and start changing some of that I think we've taken two tactics to it I think I know miss I pose and the team and the Elementary's have really worked hard to build culturally rich libraries that's been intentional we've invested a lot of dollars and resources appropriately not only to have volume but also from the perspective of making sure that that various cultures are are represented in there again actually anecdotally the kids are really enjoying it we've seen just a even greater passion for some of the texts and arguably because they're seeing themselves in the in the text and there's just of

172a diversity of the literature we're familiar with the 16 1999 yeah New York Times everybody saw heard the podcast and it's come up we haven't necessarily sought to implement it just yet but I know dr. helm is working with you know an organization called facing history and that's really trying to bring about you know Britain different perspectives to our history classes and that's middle school and in high school and yet we have looked our English text and I'm not gonna sit here and say that they're perfect and not were three looking at but they have been reviewed in the past and honestly I think even last year our student equity committee members have expressed and pushed at some of the thinking as well relative to some of the texts that were using so well not

173to say is I mean we later on I think it's in maybe just looked at this calendar the equity we're gonna provide an equity update and I'm happy to reach out to you so in a proactive manner and if it can't at least minimum send do the videos provide a formal report to the board about what's happening in terms of professional development but also from the lens of curriculum and instruction but I want to share with the board it's not that there is a lot of work that is taking place but certainly we have work to do we really do but we've taken an on we're having you know challenging conversations with each other our children are leading professional development which is it's powerful right year one year two is better than you want to

174build a culture where our kids are you know speaking very honestly about some of their experiences so we're working products we're always going to be but I want to share with you that in many levels we've taken it you know very seriously and it's a focus of our learning to and from an administrative perspective and also with our building as well so kind of why that's just on the brief but more formal when we provide an equity update we'll provide this your culturally responsive lens as well and give you a sense of some of the concrete efforts that have been put in and one as a status report to the recommendations but also the things that have taken place I do recognize and I've seen in in the elementary libraries and in the middle school

175library I've seen the change that that's not necessarily my point there's a difference between the mandatory education what's actually required of everyone and the elective education right so that we have more books available in the libraries is fantastic I'm not downplaying that that you still are required mandatorily to read a colonial history of America with regard to everything that leaves out many portions of America that's where it really the rubber hits the road right it's really about not what you're elected to read like okay so we're the whole class is reading you know Huck Finn and then everybody else can pick from all of these great books well yeah but the Cole class still read Huck Finn so if we're going to look at the mandatory and when I say mandatory what everyone does versus

176what people get to elect I think that's where the real education of our children comes into play and that's what I'm talking about so I know and I'm watching and I am aware of a lot of the changes but when we're talking about what really matters to me and that's that everybody is exposed to everyone that's not so what happened that's that still is very traditional in our school system so that's what I got it thank you listen I just wanted to you know kind of comment on that I would certainly agree that there is and I think the the end goal of the equity committee is to find ways for us to make sure that these shifts are part of the fabric of the school district and not just electives and you know it

177is a lot of steps to that and but it is a necessary step I would agree that there you know moving forward is that is the goal is to try to find ways to make the curriculum more diverse as opposed to just the singularity of diversity within the scope of the whole district so I definitely you know want to make sure that you you you understand your voice is definitely heard in other people's voices who do have the same sentiments in that regard because it is a very integral part of history American history specifically and you know it it makes sense to make sure we're giving our children a well-rounded education we had an advocacy meeting committee meeting and that was last night so we met with some of the folks from Ossining for fair

178funding and discussed in general what this next year is gonna look like what our goals are with a hefty dose of thank you to the community members that were so instrumental in leading the charge last year that was in many ways extremely successful I think beyond what any of us sitting here this time last year thought was gonna happen so it was really nice to see them again I don't know if it's really worth it this time you know out lighting everything specifically that we went through but there is a plan to meet with various folks who are involved in working on foundation aid to make sure that Ossining story still is very much out there in this story with the other school districts that we paired up with is still very much on the

179forefront of everyone's mine I think that everyone is in agreement that Ossining is the school district will do a fantastic job of educating children all children taking input very important input from community members and trying our best to listen to the community and make sure that every single student is educated well in a great environment every single day but also being mindful of the fact that we are not being treated equitably by the state and by a long shot and the goal of this next year is to make sure that they are reminded of that and kind of put together a strategy for how we continue to stay relevant with our story so there are some future meetings scheduled with that certainly that Frank and dr. Sanchez talk more about that if they want to

180I did just want to echo Aaron sentiment I've been to a lot of back to schools community events some school related some not I would say it every single one of those have been approached by more than one community member about registration of students I have used it as an opportunity to correct some of the misinformation some of the conflation of issues in our village and town that really have nothing to do with the schools and whether or not we should be educating students but it seems to have come up significantly more than it ever has before and it would be helpful to have some talking points such as when it was last done much it cost what what it yielded to aid in that conversation and then you know it might be it's a

181concern enough - enough of the community that they do want to see the school board discussing it so I think getting that into this discussion in the future is probably something we should think about well just had them in relation to advocacy there's upcoming forums taking place Shelly mayor we should all be aware is looking at the foundation aid formula she's holding to round I'm referencing to because wondering Westchester one in Long Island but diversified across the state five across the state that's not an open forum in terms of just individuals have my time it's a roundtable of I'm hearing around twenty five members coming to the table and sharing perspectives on more to come on oh the governor be there I'm sorry I said we looked after there so that's Senate senator Shelley Mayer

182who's the education chair so yeah so right you're gonna be at the one in October I believe if I'm invited okay okay so be the tire to be continued Oh Jeff okay all right great open to at all okay maybe is type of assessment they've had where they're asking for feedback its October 16th that comes to me okay great thank you and I just want to say I'm having so much fun with the summer reading buddies that's become now the fall reading buddies and my group is started with two fourth graders is now growing a feeling our next this coming week will be the adding more people so we're reading graphic novels and writing graphic novels so it's been a lot of fun for me that's one there you guys metamorphoses a graphic novel and

183we're all able to tell our stories as we're writing the graphic novels so that's been a really great inspiration for me and the students have been awesome so just wanted to share that and Greg I'll just maybe think the bamm-bamm BK mentoring program is recruiting for additional mentors for this year we probably had 15 or so 10 to 15 last year it's a great program to confirm today their current focus is on male mentors that work towards female mentors in the future but so if anybody knows any sounds like it's most likely gonna be Wednesdays at 4:00 twice a month don't have to be there every single time but it's a nice thing to think about Aaron's an MBA so yeah I consider that mentoring on you you're doing more than that best place you

184should think about which think about other people think about something know you could be a guest's you could just show up all right thinking else yeah I knew I should have probably started the the board meeting with a moment of silence I just wanted to send some sad news this week we had Dave Richards who's a high school custodian pass away he served the district since 2015 and was a key member of our staff here the wall singing Dave in our passing here particularly in the late evening so just mind joining me in a moment of silence for Dave and recognition for his passing thank you and obviously our thoughts are with his family and with our staff as well right take a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor