Board of Education Meeting (11/20/2024)

001Good evening. Do I have a motion to convene the November 20th regular meeting of the Levittown Board of Education? Phyllis, do I have a second? Mary Ann, all in favor? Four. May I have a... Oh, sorry, it's 4-0, Vanessa. May I have a motion to move into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations? Peggy, do I have a second? Mary Ann, all in favor? Zero. Thank you. We will return at 7.30. Please note that we will recite the Pledge of Allegiance when we return to open the regular meeting. Thank you. Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome you to the November 20th regular meeting of Levittown Board of Education. May I please have a motion to reconvene the meeting? Christina, can I have a second? Mike, thank you. All in favor? Seven-zero. Can everyone

002please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? May we please have a moment of silence to remember all those serving our country at home and overseas. Thank you. We're now gonna move over to Superintendent Winch. I believe we're going to the auditorium. You believe correct. Correctly? You believe correctly? You're correct. We're going to just move over temporarily to the auditorium for our full sports awards and our college board honorees. We will return to this room probably in about 20 to 25 minutes, okay? Okay, so we're back. That was really wonderful to recognize the outstanding achievements of our athletes and students in academic areas. That was wonderful. I guess we're still on superintendent now, right? Is that where we are? Yeah. Okay. Presentations. You may remember that at the... Previous meeting we had our first state of

003the district report of the year talking about last year's data and that was primarily focused on the high school and This tonight we have part two which is about elementary and middle schools. So At this point I'm gonna turn this presentation over to dr. Zarianis Thank you. Can everyone hear me? All right. Oh, well, thank you responsive audience All right. Thank you for the opportunity to share the state of the district report for our K-8 schools in Levittown. I would like to thank the Board of Education, our superintendent, our principals, directors, and the dedicated K-8 teaching staff, many of our teachers who came to be a part of this presentation tonight along with our administrators. So I thank them for coming out late on this particular night. Thank you for all of your help with

004this presentation, but even more importantly your continued dedication to our students It truly takes a team to move our district forward and I am proud of the collective efforts of the Levittown team as a follow-up to the high school update earlier this month This presentation will focus on the elementary and middle schools particularly through the lens of our I ready data new district initiatives, and strategies that have been implemented over the past year to enhance our academic performance. This evening we will review how these efforts are driving student achievement and supporting our commitment to helping every student reach success at LPS. I'm responsible for that. Forgot. We will begin with an overview of our I-Ready performance data. This presentation will focus on I-Ready results rather than the New York State assessments, as only 39% of

005students participated in those tests last year, limiting the reliability of that data for meaningful analysis. Levittown students, on I-Ready now, we're going to shift focus, outperformed state averages in both math and reading on the 2023-2024 I-Ready Spring Benchmark. In math, Levittown achieved 62% proficiency, significantly higher than the New York State average of 45%. In reading, Levittown students scored 63% proficiency, again surpassing the state average of 48%. These results demonstrate Levittown's strong academic performance relative to broader benchmarks in both subject areas. I'm going to start with our elementary data. The presentation will be broken up to elementary and then middle school. The elementary I-Ready data for math shows steady improvement across most grade levels from spring 2022 to spring 2024, with an overall increase in the percentage of students performing at or above grade level. The

006district-wide average rose from 66% in spring of 2022 to 68% in spring of 2024, reflecting a positive trend in student achievement. Notable grade level improvements include a jump in kindergarten from 78% to 81%. While there were some fluctuations in performance at specific grade levels, the overall increase highlights the district's continued effort to support math proficiency across the K-5 spectrum. The I-Ready data for reading show strong overall growth, with the district's average increasing from 67% in spring of 2022 to 70% in spring of 2024. The most significant improvements are seen in the early grades and that is the area in the red box particularly kindergarten where proficiency jumped from 84% in 2022 to 90% in 2024 and in grades one and two which both saw steady growth over the past two years. The district average in

007just these three grades and you can see that below in the other red box rose seven percentage points over that time period. This progress can be attributed to the district's targeted focus on K-2, you know, grades K-2 post COVID. With the introduction of explicit and systematic instructional programs like foundations and Hegarty and resources like geodes, all of which have strengthened our early literacy skills. While grades three through five have showed more modest growth, the overall trend indicates a positive trajectory in building a solid foundation for literacy across the district. In a moment, I will highlight some efforts that we are making to increase the number of students meeting with proficiency in grades four and five and ensure that all students have the tools they need to succeed. To accelerate growth in both ELA and math,

008we have introduced several initiatives aimed at enhancing data-driven decision-making. One key initiative has been the restructuring of our elementary data meeting model to foster more collaboration and targeted support. This updated approach creates additional opportunities for teachers to share best practices and strategies for enhancing teaching and learning. Additionally, we have introduced one-on-one data meetings between our teachers and their building principals, enabling a more focused approach to identifying and addressing individual needs. Last spring, our principals began meeting with me and several of our directors to review their building-wide data following the winter and spring benchmarks. These meetings promote consistency across grade levels within each building and throughout the district. identify areas where additional support is needed, and ensure alignment with our district goals. These discussions have proven to be productive. Our data analysis revealed that vocabulary was

009a challenge for students in grades 4 and 5, prompting the introduction of more theme magic this year. We are confident that this resource will be transformative in helping students develop a stronger understanding of morphology, which is the study of word structure, including roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Mastering morphology is a foundational skill that enhances decoding, improves spelling, expands vocabulary, and deepens comprehension. And so far we've had some good professional development. Our instructional coach at the three through five level has done a lot of work here and we're seeing a positive response from our teachers. So we think this is gonna be a really helpful additional program that's gonna address some of those vocabulary deficits in the upper grades in elementary. Dr. Z, can I ask you a question about it? Sure. So the Morpheam Magic, does

010it then address like academic vocabulary and then content-specific vocab or just word, I guess, word study as a whole? Word study as a whole. It's not directly tied to any particular program. Like it's not tied to interreading. It's just word study as a whole. Roots, prefixes, suffixes. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. In math, teachers in grades three through five participated in a professional development workshop designed to enhance small group instruction. providing them with new strategies to more effectively support student learning. Additionally, we have begun training our instructional coaches on Jim Knight's impact cycle, which is preparing them to work more closely and effectively with teachers to set goals, implement strategies, and reflect on progress. This ongoing training enhances their ability to support our classroom practices and to drive measurable improvements in our student outcomes. This

011year at the elementary level, this is super exciting, we also launched principal learning walks and I thank our elementary principals for being open to this idea and the additional time that obviously it takes but the benefit of going to each other's building and learning from one another in a district of this size. So this initiative was designed to foster collaboration, share best practices. Our director of elementary education helps to create a schedule in which this is possible. And by visiting their colleagues' schools, they get to observe classroom instruction across the district, special events, and other impactful activities. And then our principals are able to gain valuable insights to enhance their own practices in their buildings. And I think this is an a wonderful professional development opportunity that is really going to pay dividends. So again,

012I thank them for taking this on this year. It's a new initiative on top of all the other new initiatives, so it's been fantastic. And finally, we introduced a year-long elementary literacy institute. It's running for the entire school year. We're doing it for in-service credit, and it is centered on Jennifer Saravallo's The Reading Strategies 2.0. This exceptional resource empowers teachers to deliver differentiated instruction, foster deep student engagement, help students develop strong reading skills. This course is led by our director of elementary education and our two instructional coaches and has over 30 teachers registered. I think we're up to maybe 32 or 33 and that is phenomenal and we're already seeing principals are reporting teachers going back and taking what they're learning. You can see that picture in the middle one of our instructional coaches Ms.

013Markle after a direct lesson from Ms. Kelly in the Institute. She's modeling in small groups some of the strategies in that book and the strategies in that book can be applied to any content, any curriculum. It is not tied to inter-reading or anything else that we might be doing. It's just good strategies that can be applied universally to any text. So we're already seeing teachers go back and try these practices in their classroom. Do you have a question? I just, I saw the body language. I was reading, yes. I was wondering, can I get a copy of that book to borrow? Absolutely. Would you mic that down for me? That is one of my all-time. There was an original version of that book. This is the new version 2.0, but it is a wonderful, wonderful

014resource. So we're excited about that. Before I jump into, I am going to go into growth data after I talk about the middle school, but I'll pause at this moment before I jump into our middle school overview to see if there are any questions that we want to ask at this point or wait until I've moved through the presentation. I have some elementary questions, so is that best to ask them now? Do we have, I have a couple. This is my time to shine part two. Do we have reading teachers at the elementary school? And if so, what does that model look like? Can you talk to that? We have reading teachers in each building, yes. And then do they do like AIS? They do AIS. They do push-ins for small group instruction for our

015small group model as well. So it's a combination of a pull-out model and a push-in model. And then I'm familiar with some of this, like the impact cycle in Jim Knight, and he's phenomenal. So I'm super excited about that. And I'm very impressed with the fact that it was stated that there was room for growth and all of the things that you've all put into place. So kudos for saying this is where we need to grow and to doing things about that. So I really appreciate that. And then the third thing. And this might be more for Todd. Sure. Sounds good. No, I'm just kidding. Because it costs, and Michael, because it's going to cost money. Lots of money. I didn't. I got you. Okay, I would like to propose to talk about to hear

016what the board thinks Todd and obviously every you know central administration about Possibly implementing something or talking about math specialists in the elementary school My thought is not as a coaching model math specialists that would I've seen it in another district where they partner with the teacher, they co-teach with teachers. And it's not just for AIS, it's also for differentiation of instruction for the students who are excelling in math. So it's a different model and there's other districts that perhaps we can research and look into if that's something that we can consider. And it does seem to have long-term positive effects on the students maybe who are in AIS in elementary school and getting that extra support. But then we're doing mastery and above mastery on the regents in the high school. So just a

017thought to consider, to look into. Just I love to, you know, research. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm just going to make a couple comments. Right now our math support is primarily done through CSR teachers, primarily paid for through the Title II grant. And for those familiar with the Title II grant, it is primarily used in most districts for professional development. But there is kind of an asterisk where it can be used for classroom size reduction teachers, which is how the districts always use it, I believe, since its inception. the teachers are part-time teachers they are not the grant is exhausted before the school year so the district does put in some additional money to cover the cost through most of the remainder of the year and they're part-time certified teachers they're not I wouldn't I don't

018you know I mean I guess it depends on your definition of math specialist they're not math certified and you know I mean they they're a classroom teacher that specializes in math now I would assume the model that you're talking about is someone who is being hired who has a particular specialty in math at the elementary level. That's not exactly how our model works. And really, the model that we currently have provides, I think, very good intervention supports. but it is also something that's done to be cost conscious. You know, it is definitely something that is utilized as a grant primarily to pay for this support. We could definitely look into other options that are, like you mentioned before, like I'm not going to immediately say, oh, it's too much money. It definitely would be more

019money. And so it is something that we can look into and get back to the board on what that would look like and how we might see that happen. But you said, I think, before that you were aware of... it happening in other places if you have information like that you can share that would be great thank you and this is a picture before I move on to the middle school you'll see throughout the presentation different pictures from our different elementary schools or our middle schools and indicated by the school logos on those pages but this is just a picture from Northside and Lee Road of the kids engaging in morphine magic So I just wanted to make sure I shared that. I have a question, sorry. No, I'm not sorry. I don't know why

020I said sorry. I'm not, because I have a question. Sorry, I'm working on that. So the district that I work in, we use NWEA, which is linked to GoMath, and it automatically takes the data and puts it into our math program, so then we know what the kids need to work on, like specific skills. Does iReady also provide that with either of our reading or math programs? It provides the information about what skills kids need to work on. It gives teachers that, but it doesn't, it's not directly like connected to the two programs that we're actually teaching, no. Okay. It's a standalone. But just as a comment, i-Ready has its own instructional component, which NWA at least did not. I don't know about anymore since we don't use it, but did not at the time,

021which is one of the reasons we had moved to this years ago. It was really because we felt that, and this was Michelle Kelly, the elementary director, and I visited several schools about their use of NWA versus iReady, and we found that at that time, which is probably like 2016, 17, that the iReady interface was much easier for teachers to use, and that the ability to have an instructional program tied to it was something that NWA did not provide, and we felt that that was kind of like, almost like two for one, like a benchmarking system that then had its own instructional program. Which is, I guess, a little bit similar to what you were saying with NWA has now made it that their data can go into these other programs and do a similar

022thing. But at the time it did not. One other thing, Jen Sarabella's book's really good. It's really easy if you get it, bring it to Staples and have the binding cut off and make it spiral. The new version came spiral. It did. I was going to say, because it's an old one, that's what I had to do. It made so many things so much easier when you're teaching and trying to move things around. She had gotten so much feedback about everyone who went to Staples and that she released the new one as a spiral bound. Thank you. Definitely. Mary Ann, you're next, and then Peggy. Sorry, Peggy. Answer your hand. I don't have a question as much as observations and statements. First of all, it's really great to see some of the strides that we've

023been making over the years, and that just is a testament to the hard work of administration, but also to our teachers in the classroom. So I just want to say thank you for that. I think it's interesting, like in the fourth and fifth grade for the reading, how those numbers kind of continue to stay so low. But I was really happy to see that, you know, you have a plan in place to try and, you know, continue to address it. Yeah, we're definitely, the director team, Ms. Kelly, the principals. Work really hard to unpack the data to really disaggregate it further take a look at what strands of reading kids might be struggling with and obviously vocabulary was one of the ones that consistently come up as they move through as the The vocabulary becomes

024more challenging. So that was why Morphine Magic was brought in this year as an opportunity to try to support, you know, remediate that area much like we've done with Hegarty Fundations and GEODS and K1 and 2. You'll see when I move into the middle school data that the data does continue to drop. And a lot of that does mirror like the national trends post-COVID. A lot of the research suggests that obviously younger kids, it's easier to close the gap. But as kids move past, as Ms. Marenghi often said, says past third grade, it is much harder to, you know, close the gap and the progress that kids make as they get older becomes in smaller increments each year and the post-COVID gap has not been closed as much in the later grades across the nation

025as it has in the earlier grades. We will continue to work on that and we know that where our number one goal right now is to get back to where we were as a district in 2019 pre-COVID and those fourth and fifth grade numbers fell more into that upper 60 percentile so that is our initial goal with a goal to move higher than that but we we have to set an initial target for where we want to go. You're welcome. Peggy. I just wanted to, something that I'm just, I really just have a wondering. I don't know the answer to this, but I know from working in elementary schools for 40 years that it's a real skill to be able to know how to analyze the data, then take that material. and see where the

026weaknesses are and then be able to operationalize that data and draw the necessary programs needed to be very skill driven and skill specific. And yeah, we could rely on math specialists or reading specialists, but in my opinion, the majority of this comes down to the classroom teachers. So my question would be, and my wondering is, do we have teams that train our teachers. We can't expect them to do things if they haven't learned the skill of having to do it. So that's really what my wondering is right now. How well developed are our teachers and being able to utilize the data because if we don't then it's just a waste of time and money to even give these benchmarks and give these tests throughout the year. So it's just a wondering and I'll be curious

027in the future to know. Thank you for bringing that up. And I think as you saw from some of the things I indicated about how we restructure data meetings this year and the more that we are, we recognize that we have to continue to figure out how to make the best use of the data to inform the instruction. And we still have where we need to learn, but everyone is committed to this. And the principals have been working, the teachers have been working, our directors, and we'll continue to do that and continue to update you on. And I think you're going to see it as we move forward and hopefully our proficiency level is growing. And I have a wonder as well, because we do have post-COVID, but we also have electronic devices. And I

028wonder how much that is also outside of what is the control of during the day, you know, where maybe in 2019, these kids weren't in fourth grade and third grade and fifth grade. They didn't have phones. And now they do. So, you know, when they got home and they read that book, it was just a natural thing. And there's really no question involved in that. But that's also something to consider when thinking about this. It's like I feel, and this is personal, that sometimes I was like fighting against the tide of, yes, read this book. Even with my own children. Let's do this. And you're fighting that, you know, these five-second TikToks. So just something as well, you know. Even in 2019, I think less fourth graders headphones. No, I agree and certainly that's not

029anything we're gonna ever be able to stem but I think that you'll see later in the presentation when I talk more about the work we're doing around book love and trying to kind of bring back that you know authentic love for reading kids surrounded by access to more books protected time for reading is our is our effort to try to mitigate some of that knowing Obviously we embrace what the world is that we've been given, but how can we mitigate some of the negative effects of those distractible components in kids' life? Just to piggyback on Peggy's thought, I think the more arsenal in our teacher toolboxes, the better they can pick and choose what's going to work. So I kind of agree with Peggy that we have to give them more resources, not monetary resources,

030like more strategies that they can pull out. Agreed. I'm gonna jump into the middle school section and stop me please at any point if there are questions and then I'll come back to our overall growth data as a district K to 8 but I wanted to jump into this all right middle school is a unique time in a student's educational journey it is where students begin to find their voice making it a period of both personal and social discovery It's a place where they start to explore their interests through a variety of fun activities, sports, and clubs. Middle school also gives them the chance to take on more responsibility like managing their own schedules and their schoolwork, which helps to build confidence. Ultimately, we want students at the middle level to feel supported, be themselves,

031and have a chance to start shaping their future. In Levittown, we are proud to have two of the best middle schools on Long Island. We are pleased to announce that both Wisdom Lane Middle School and Jonas Salk Middle School have been ranked among the U.S. News & World Report Top Middle Schools of 2024, a distinction that places them among the best in New York State. Out of the 2,900 middle schools statewide, both of our schools were ranked within the top 10%. This recognition is based on outstanding performance on assessments and math and reading along with growth metrics and equity measures that highlight success across diverse student groups. Being named to this prestigious list is a testament to the hard work of our students, the dedication of our teachers, and the support of our families. So

032congratulations to both middle schools for this incredible achievement. I want to jump into two quotes from our students. Wisdom Lane is special because there are multiple clubs such as eSports, book club, and multicultural clubs. We also have that Wisdom Wacky Really Race that everyone can participate in so no one is left out. And on our SOC side, SOC is special because the school and staff gives you so many opportunities to get involved in such things like sports and clubs, which allows you to be able to be active and do what you love. while also making friends and working together with other students. I share these quotes because they highlight the importance of inclusivity and opportunities for personal growth in middle school. At Wisdom Lane and Sauk, students feel valued because they have access to a

033variety of clubs, sports, and activities that allow them to pursue their interests, make new friends, and work collaboratively with others. This sense of belonging and involvement is crucial in middle school and it fosters confidence, teamwork, and a positive school culture, all of which are essential for academic and social development during these formative years. One of the special opportunities for students this year was an incredible trip to Fire Island for all seventh graders as an extension of their science curriculum. I will let this video on the following slide say more than I could possibly say about how students felt about this experience. I want to thank Karen Maloney, a teacher over at Salk, who put the video together for sending it to me. Of course, Mr. McDermott, our director of science, for organizing a special opportunity

034for our students. Do we have sound, Eric? That's okay. Yeah, I mean, as I think you can see, just these types of experiences are exactly what matters for our middle school kids. We go to the next slide, Derek. Perfect. Thank you. All right, we're going to jump into our data now for middle school. So let's take a moment to review the I-Ready data for our two middle schools. The proficiency data for grades 6 and 7 math in Levittown has exceeded state averages for both grade levels. In grade 7, Levittown showed consistent growth, increasing from 50% in spring of 2022 to 54% in 2023 and 56% in 2024. This upward trend is encouraging, especially when compared to the New York state average of just 42% for grade 7 in 2024. While efforts will continue to focus

035on areas that require further growth, this data demonstrates progress. It's important to note that only a limited number of eighth graders participate in the I-Ready benchmark as those taking the Regents exams are excluded, so it makes the data for this grade less representative. So I've included that information there, but we don't place it along the other data because we're not talking about the same number of students who are participating in that. The I-Ready proficiency data for reading in grades 6, 7, and 8 is consistently above state averages at all three grade levels. Levittown continues to surpass state benchmarks, though we remain focused on targeted efforts to accelerate growth. As part of this commitment, we have introduced a new ELA curriculum at the middle school. designed to enhance student proficiency. This curriculum emphasizes the importance of

036independent reading, writing about reading, applying reading strategies during independent reading, and engaging in meaningful academic discourse. These initiatives are key to fostering deeper literacy skills, particularly in the area of vocabulary development. I share this quote. At Wisdom Lane, one student shared, at Wisdom, we have good garlic bread during lunch. that is surprisingly better than actual restaurants. I shared it so there would be a moment of levity at this point, but also because while the quote may seem lighthearted, it really does highlight an important point about middle school. Middle school is more than just about academics. The entire school environment, including school lunch, plays a crucial role in fostering a positive and supportive atmosphere for our students. Our food service staff, along with every member of our team, contributes to the overall experience that helps students

037feel cared for, comfortable, and ready to succeed both inside and outside the classroom. This holistic approach to student well-being is essential to building a thriving learning community. at the middle level and I do want to thank our food staff as we've been visiting the different schools and eating in the cafeterias. They really do a phenomenal job and out of all the things that our students could say about what makes Wisdom special and I'm sure there's so many more things that make Wisdom special, we know that, but that kid wanted to comment on the garlic bread during lunch. I would simply say the Bosco sticks are my particular favorite and so better than the garlic bread. I think Bosco sticks, correct? Like incredible. I'd never heard of it before until I had it. But it's like

038a big cheese stick, like a mozzarella stick kind of thing. It's, you should, we go every month and we invite the board. I think you came last time, right, Ms. Merengue? Did you have a Bosco stick? I think Mr. Moran, we've been trying to get you to come for the pepperoni pizza, right, that you helped get onto the menu. And all I know is because of the great sun butter sandwiches at Abby that I've enjoyed, Wisdom Lane now has them. Yes. Thank you, Abby. Board members are... Sun butter and gel. I'm allergic to peanuts, so sun, sun, sun butter. And mushrooms and everything else, yeah. I think we have a November one coming up. We haven't scheduled it yet, but we have to go soon. Kick a school and we'll take any volunteers. All right,

039let me jump into our... Bosco was George Costanza's password on Seinfeld, too. Yes, for the ATM that he wouldn't share, right, Mr. Pappas? He wouldn't share the password, right, at the ATM. Including when the fire happened. Yes, at the ATM, that's right. Classic episode. Alright, we're going to take a moment to take a look, jump back to all of our grade levels for our student growth data. So next I want to take a moment to share student growth data. Looking at student growth data is important because it provides a clearer picture of how much progress students are making over time regardless of their starting point. So sharing what I-Ready calls the four square scatter plot alongside proficiency percentages provides a more comprehensive picture of student progress and achievement. While proficiency percentages show how many students

040meet grade level expectations, this scatter plot highlights growth, showcasing whether students are making progress regardless of their starting point. It's a valuable tool for understanding the full story behind the data. When we see a grade level in the high performance, low growth quadrant, it signals that while the grade level is performing well, their growth rate may not be sufficient to maintain grade level proficiency in the future. So to address this, we can further disaggregate the data to identify specific areas for improvement. On the opposite end of the quadrant where growth is high but performance might be low, we recognize that these students are making significant progress toward closing the achievement gap and we need to continue to support their development. So obviously the goal is that high performance, high growth and that's where we aim

041for all of our students to be at the end of the year but Certainly when students are in that low performance, high growth zone or the high performance, low growth zone, it's something that we recognize. We understand why they're there and we understand what we need to help them move forward. So this is our growth scatterplot for math. Can I ask a question? Yes. The numbers represent grades? Like grade levels? Yes. Thank you. Nope. I don't know if anyone else had that question. No, no, that's a great point. Yeah, so those are our grade levels. And this is our scatterplot for math. And this is our scatterplot for reading. So you'll see many of our grade levels there do fall into the high performance, high growth, which means that students performed with proficiency, but they

042also grew a lot from September to June in our previous school year. So while our proficiency data may not be where we want it to be in every single grade level in reading, We looked at that just now at the middle level. We can see that many of our grade level students did grow a significant amount over the course of the year, which is a good indicator that core instruction is working. Right, I'm going to jump in to talk a little bit about my favorite topic, and it's not just because it's my favorite topic, but you had the opportunity to see a wonderful East Broadway board presentation last month, or it wasn't last month, it was like 10 days ago or something, right? It was like 10 years ago, or whenever that was, two weeks

043ago, on Book Love at East Broadway. Book love is more than just a hashtag or a kitschy way to talk about kids reading more, and I'm going to talk a little bit about that. One of the ways that we are working to enhance reading achievement is by fostering a genuine culture of reading for pleasure in our schools, hashtag book love. This year I've had the privilege of collaborating, in previous years as well, but we've put even more emphasis this year on collaborating with Miss Kelly, our director of elementary education. And Dr. Slattery, our director of ELA and libraries, to expand existing classroom libraries for grades three through five and establish new classroom libraries for grades six through eight. And I think that is, as someone who was a secondary English educator, classroom libraries at the

044secondary level is not common. It is not typical. but it is essential. And the fact that we are moving forward here in Levittown with building classroom libraries at our secondary schools is phenomenal and it will eventually pay dividends, I'm confident of it. These efforts complement initiatives like updating our school libraries at all schools, creating outdoor story walks at Abbey and Summit, adding a book vending machine at Northside. hosting engaging events like Book Ninja Night, which we just had the other night. I don't know if everyone saw our book ninjas out in the community hiding books. We had over, I don't know, Ms. Kelly, like 120 teachers here the other night eating pizza right in this room and going out dressed all in black in the community to hide books for our kids who were excited

045to find them the next day. It was wonderful. We do First Look Fridays, myself, Ms. Kelly, Ms. Ferrari, where we read in January books to kids. kids every single Friday, introduce new books. And of course, you guys know you've heard me talk about my monthly book love read aloud. All of that is part of this initiative and many more things. But we know that putting more books directly into the hands of our students is critical. Reading with volume has a profound impact on student achievement. It is truly, forget any program that we could possibly introduce, reading with volume is the key to growing students' vocabulary, reading comprehension, fluency, all the things we know our kids need to be successful. Reading volume is one of the most effective ways to boost student achievement. when students have

046access to books and this one is so important and it's a goal that I hope that we're going to continue to emphasize here in Levittown even more as the years continued but protected time to read during the school day. That is something that has fallen out of favor in education and it's something that we need to start to bring back. Kids need that protected time to read because as Miss Lang said we know what they're doing oftentimes they're distracted by a million other things once they leave us. So the more that they are likely to read regularly It builds their vocabulary, improves their comprehension, their fluency. When they have access to books, I'm going to repeat that, and protected time to read during the school day, they are more likely to discover texts that spark

047their curiosity and passion. So I am proud to share the following photos as a celebration of the book love culture that we are growing. A culture that ensures that reading is not just a skill to be mastered, but a lifelong passion to be nurtured. And as you see, you'll see our, you know, the schools listed at the bottom, our beautiful bulletin boards at Lee Road. That's our book vending machine over at Northside. If you haven't seen it, Ms. Case will give you a token. You can get a book. Yes, go ahead, Mr. Moran. I had the pleasure of visiting Northside with my grandson, and Ms. Case gave my grandson a token, and he got himself a book out of the machine. I was very impressed with the machine. And I'm sure he loved it. Yes,

048he did. Yes, wonderful. There's often criticisms in the world of literacy about do book vending machines detract kids from going to libraries or do classroom, even classroom libraries are very controversial in places because there's that sense that maybe it detracts kids from actually going to the school library. I have a completely different philosophy. I know that our team does as well. It's access to books. It's completely being surrounded by books in every aspect of the building. There shouldn't just be one place within a school that kids can have access to books or be able to get books. They should be surrounded by books. And things like vending machines, classroom libraries, our school libraries, the signage that we do is all part of the secret of this success. How do the secondary libraries, are they... How

049do you select the books and are they graded or leveled or whatever? Because in the younger grades, there's always leveling. How does that work in secondary? We've actually, at the elementary level as well, moved away really from leveling books. It's kind of we move more in the direction of... more thematic groupings of text for kids so that kids aren't feeling that they can only access books that are quote unquote on their level because sometimes exposing kids to books that are beyond their level is a way that they grow and it pushes them so at the secondary level we really do the same thing we work with our librarians we work with our classroom teachers we try to curate an appropriate collection that will hit a wide variety of genres a wide divide a variety of

050interests and also reading ability so we really do try to span All sorts of genres and reading levels. You're welcome. Our Abby Lean, Fall Into a Good Book, Book Love. This was Book Ninja Night, so that's just an example of our book ninjas. Book Ninjas dressed up, you can see their shirts, Summit Lane, Book Ninja Night, hashtag book love. We went out into the community. A picture of Miss Pace is one of our teachers who's here tonight. Her book love library, beautiful classroom library, books on display. Gets our kids excited about that. I mean, look at, this was from my monthly read aloud this month. The kids love the book, the Scarecrows, Gardeners, but look at their smile holding up the book. This is what we want to see, that passion for books and books

051and books and books. beautiful classroom library over at Gardner's. I think also adding to the book club is the fact that we're improving our libraries or modernizing them and it doesn't look like it's second thought. It's primary right now. Yeah. And they look beautiful and people want to go into them and use them. Absolutely. That was all part of this because we wanted kids to feel like it was an inviting space that they would get excited about and I think that's exactly what's happened. And you can see, I mean, if you're in this classroom I mean kids are going to be excited about wanting to grab one of these exciting covers and dive into one of these books. And this is what I was talking about. Look, that's Salk. I mean to start, and we

052just started this, you know, in September. Teachers starting to put their, you know, books on display. We have a whole new order in now, so they'll be getting a ton more books. And also secondary, a secondary classroom giving up time when they only have 40-something minutes to read. But protected time for reading is super important. And here, same thing, protected time to read over at Wisdom. And you'll see that Book Love signage, which is also awesome to see it carry from our elementary schools, that same language, that same verbiage, right through to Sauk Middle School. So we're really excited about the work there, the Book Love culture. This wouldn't be possible without our team, but it wouldn't be possible without the teachers for jumping on board and saying, like, this is something we can get

053behind. And again, we know this will be really, really good for our kids. As you can tell, I'm super excited about it. All right. Tonight, my final highlight. Oh, I'm sorry, Ms. Rangel. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah, before we move into the career exploration, which I just think is a wonderful program, I just had time during the week to go through this data, and I just have a few. Questions that I don't even need answered tonight, but I thought maybe if you could summarize these for the board and then just send them to us, that would be great. But I know as many of you remembered, I shared a lot of concerns last year during the elementary presentation about our reading and math data. I'm glad to see that our numbers are moving

054in the right direction and that we have made enhancements to our data meeting structures as well. as well as how we're utilizing this data to set the goals at each building. And that kind of drew my thinking before about how, you know, trained are our teachers. Have we ever, we can't expect them to do something we haven't. made sure they had the knowledge to be able to do. So that's very, very important to train them. Additionally, the increase in scores at the primary grade level, K through 2, is very, very encouraging. I want to thank you as well, all the teachers and the administrators who are working hard to make this happen. The few questions I have is, could you just summarize for us, not now, but when you get a minute, what do you

055think are the reasons for the difference between the increase in scores, grade through 2, and then in 4 and 5? And what insights do you have into the lower I-ready scores at the middle school? And I know that's prevalent throughout Nassau County, so this isn't just for Levittown. And what is exactly the role of the instructional coaches? How have they been utilized since we added these positions? I don't really even know. Okay? So if you could just get that to us, that would be great. That's wonderful, and I'll just quickly do that. I will put that in writing. I just want to say two things. One is we'll share a lot about how our instructional coaches have been pivotal to the work that we've been doing, and with the middle school, we are starting to

056look at iReady and how we're... implementing it and whether not only our instructional program but whether I ready and using it in every single grade level the way we're using it is going to be the right way for us to do it so it's definitely giving us some thought as we look at this so we'll definitely summarize that and get back to you and thank you for asking that thank you Beth no absolutely All right, so it's a big one to close out tonight because this I think is a really, it's only November, but I am sure that the teachers who are here and our director of elementary education and the people helping to write the curriculum are exhausted and it's only three months in because this is a very exciting highlight. It is brand

057new. It is a source of pride only three months in. I think this is a program that is going to benefit our kids for a generation to come, but it's going to be something that we already have districts reaching out wanting to come and visit us. And I think this... really fits in to everything we've been talking about, about success at LPS and our varied post-secondary paths and where does it start. And it's going to start with our elementary. And again, I'm super excited to share what I'm about to share. So my final highlight for tonight came to fruition, actually, after members of this Board of Education attended a national conference and participated in a workshop that focused on the power of exposing children to a wide range of career possibilities at a young age.

058Inspired by that experience, we decided to bring this concept to life here in Levittown. Last spring, we collaborated with educators from Molloy University's Education Department, as well as members of their Career Center for insight into a starting point for this work. They introduced us to the National Career Clusters, which you see here. The career clusters became the foundation for our curriculum writing work. So I'll give everyone a moment just to take a look at the 14 national career clusters. There were 16 just about three weeks ago when the curriculum was being... began being written last spring. And this organization that is responsible, the name escapes me, for the Net 14 National Career Clusters, which everyone uses, decided they were gonna go from 16 to 14 and rename them. So we could have done maybe what

059other places would do and say next year we'll update the curriculum, but all of the teachers and the curriculum writing team jumped into immediately sort of starting to redesign the curriculum around the 14 career clusters and making sure now that this is going to be of the foundation how we were going to address that our director of elementary education assembled a team of dedicated teachers who collaborated to design this new class which incorporates I'll go back for a moment our previous work our curriculum work on digital literacy and digital citizenship so over the course of the year when students go to this particular class, elementary career exploration, they are engaged in career exploration. They're learning their digital literacy work, digital citizenship. We have an element of coding that students are learning this year. And it's

060not discrete. It's not like three months of the year they're doing career exploration and then the next three months they're doing digital citizenship and then the next three months they're doing. It is all interwoven. So as they're exploring careers, they're becoming better trained on how to be good digital citizens. They're engaged. in the use of tech tools so they can become more fluent or more literate in digital technologies. So the curriculum is really brilliantly designed. And I do have to again say... This is something we could have gone out and bought. It wouldn't certainly have been as good, but it would have been the easier way to go. We made the decision to work as the teachers who are teaching this course to write this, you know, they're writing it themselves. So it's really tailored

061to what our kids need and how we're seeing it roll out in the classroom. We're able to make adjustments every single day and they are adjusting on the fly. So it's pretty incredible. Let's see. The goal was to expand our students horizons, foster aspirations, connect learning to real life, encourage curiosity, and provide opportunities to learn about a wide range of careers. We are excited to offer this new opportunity to our students and are confident that this course will equip our students with the skills and insights that will shape their future. I want to extend a ton of gratitude to Miss Kelly, Miss Engle, Miss Cerrone, Miss Quinlan, Miss Vitacco, Miss Amato, Miss Camerata, Miss Brennan, and Miss O'Brien for their countless hours that they have dedicated to designing the program that you are going to

062see here. And this just gives you an overview of how the curriculum is structured in K-2. So the 14 career clusters are divided among the sixth grade levels. And the program looks very different in K-2 as you would imagine. What we're doing with our kids about career exploration, it sounds very young for them to be thinking about this, versus what we're doing with kids in grades three through five. So in grades K-2, students are introduced to age-appropriate career clusters, and you'll see those in a moment, and career-related occupations. They explore these careers through engaging read-alouds, so Book Love exists here in this class as well, followed by hands-on activities, the hands-on when you see the photos, the hands-on piece is the best. And that is what I guarantee kids will remember this long after they

063leave elementary school. And that allows them to experience what it might actually be like to work in the particular field that they're learning about. And you'll see that in a second. These early experiences help students connect with different careers in a fun and meaningful way. So for example, kindergarten, they're going to learn about our police officers, our firefighters, our doctors, our dentists, things that they can relate to because they're people in the community that they actually know. They're going to have beautiful connected read-alouds that go along with those units. And take a look at our kids, dressed up as firefighters. They are actually putting out chalk fires with water spray bottles. So actually kind of learning about what firefighters do, dressing as firefighters, and then actually engaging in the work without climbing on ladders or,

064I guess, any of the real danger, but learning what it might actually feel like to be a firefighter. So this is the hands-on. And look at those faces smiling, the component. We take a look at first graders, again, electricians, carpenters, right? Everything we talk about, diverse post-secondary paths, teachers, school psychologists, you know, the appropriate connected texts, and then... Those two pictures are some of my favorite from Abby and East Broadway. I mean, that is the electrician unit. So when those kids see the connection that they made and the light actually turns on, I would love to know if those kids end up wanting to become electricians when they get older. But just look at that wonder and enthusiasm, you know, in their faces. We go into agriculture, so farmers, zoologists. I probably pushed a lot

065for zoologists because I love animals and orangutans and was like, we have to study zoology in here. I thought maybe we'd get a district orangutan. That hasn't happened yet. Inventory manager, logistics coordinator. So they're looking at supply chain and transportation and what it's like to work in a factory or something like that. Having appropriate read-alouds again. and take a look at the kids actually doing the work of the job. This is what we're saying. They're actually becoming farmers. They're planting, they're growing, and the kids are doing more than just learning about it. What an amazing experience for our students at the K-2 level. It's amazing in 3-5, but the model looks different because now we have to shift the skills and what we're asking our kids to do. So the structure is a little bit

066different. In grades 3-5, the program expands to include a broader range of jobs within each career cluster. At this stage, the focus is going to shift to developing research and presentation skills. So students will select careers that interest them. research those careers using carefully curated materials. We don't just send them out to the internet and like look up whatever you want. We're creating the resources where that they have to go to to do the research so we know that they're appropriate. And then they're going to share their findings with the class which is, you know, obviously it's helping them refine their collaboration skills, their digital fluency skills, and their public speaking skills. So you'll see the clusters, you'll see many more jobs because the kids, the clusters become more sophisticated and the kids are actually

067going to They're not all doing the same thing. In kindergarten, all the kids are learning about firefighters. As they get to third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade, they're getting to pick the careers that interest them within those clusters. And then they begin to do the research. Those are the fourth grade clusters. We're looking at digital technology jobs, marketing and sales, energy and natural resources. And this is an example from Summit of our students. You see their Chromebooks out. They've got their different roles that they take on as they're doing their research and getting ready for their presentation. Same smiles, just a little bit of a different experience. Throughout all the grade levels students are also practicing soft skills that will be invaluable for them in any post-secondary path. So we're building those soft skills

068that Google tells us is so important as well for kids throughout this. Early feedback, we're only three months into this new course, but early feedback, every PTA meeting I've been to, my PTA curriculum meeting, teachers are telling us that they're hearing it, our principals are sharing, that the feedback has been really positive from our students, our parents, and our teachers. So I think this has been a win-win for everyone. A lot of hard work, a lot of effort, but I think this is an innovative and creative new opportunity for our students. And as I conclude tonight's presentation, I hope John Avina doesn't mind, particularly the section on career exploration, I want to leave you with this image as a reminder. No matter which path you choose in life, make sure it's one that makes you

069smile. Thank you for your time and attention tonight. Do you have a question? I just want to make a comment and a question. Go ahead. I have a comment too, but you go ahead. I just have a comment. You sure? Yeah, go ahead. But if yours is better, I know I went first. I'm not into competition now. You know me. I do want to say thank you for the comprehensive presentation and to all the teachers and administrators who came out to support this presentation. I think it speaks to, it's a testament to your dedication to the field of education and to your students and to this school district. So I want to thank you on behalf of everybody up here. Thank you for your time and for coming here and for introducing some amazing programs.

070I know that being in education in any capacity is definitely more. complex than it used to be. So I thank you for your dedication to your job here in Levittown and for coming out here tonight. That's up to you now, Pegs. Yeah, and I just wanted to say it's less than two years that we were down in Orlando and we went to this presentation and it was chock full of information and so rich and rich of culture and culture and rich in content and I when we first started talking about it as a board and Todd was present with us of what an undertaking this is going to be. And what I can say is in such a short period of time, Beth working with her team, working with your teams out there and really,

071really taking hold of this and this getting this into place is so commendable. It's unbelievable to me. And even when Todd, not Todd, sorry, Beth, when you and I met with Malloy, because we both work at Malloy, and we met with what's the upcoming programs, where are all these teachers going for the interest in the different programs in the bachelor's degree. And so much of it was just a ditto to what we just saw and witnessed down in Orlando, Florida. So I really want to. commend you say thank you and thank you mr. winch and everybody out there all the administrators and all the teachers and staff that worked on this I think it's really is gonna have such a positive effect Marianne Thank You Peggy I just really want to say, wow, that was

072like, like the ending was great. That's a fantastic program. And I love how it kind of weaves in all of these other areas that we're concerned about, right? Like reading skills and all that stuff. And so it's almost like you sneak that little component in there without them even realizing it. I'm sorry, I just gave it up. But no, it is wonderful. And the collaboration and the leadership. between yourself and those out in the field, those sitting in the audience, just bravo to all of you. Thank you so much. I said it at the last, the high school presentation, but the one great thing about working in Levittown and working with our teachers and our administrators and obviously here, is you kind of feel like anything is possible. Like when this, like Ms. Merangi just

073said, this was not that long ago that we kind of talked about it and we could have taken a very different approach. We could have been slowly reporting back on progress we were making, and that wasn't the approach that was decided upon. And it's been painful at times and a lot of extra hours. But when you see what the kids are engaging in, it's all been so worth it. It's wonderful and exciting. So it's been great. Mike, is your mic on? I really have to say that it's a wonderful job you've done here. Learning can sometimes be a job or a chore, and you just don't get it. When it becomes fun and interesting, you learn. You learn much better. Thank you. You're welcome. Are we all good on the board then? Okay. Superintendent Winch.

074Thanks. I just wanted to say, first of all, nobody has a comment on that photo up there that's up there right now. There's no comment from the board about the photo. That's mr. What's that? Can I get a copy? Yeah, who's the wrestler? Are you in training for when you retire? Is that what this is all about? You're not going anywhere. That's great. It's great And mr. Ravine I had no idea I was using so I thank him for being a good sport with that I just wanted to say that obviously we always talk in this room about the fact that there's always work to be done, right? Even in our presentation tonight, we celebrate the tremendous achievements. We also are not afraid to talk about the areas where we need to focus on and

075grow, and we continue to do that work. And it really is wonderful to celebrate. Sometimes some of the things that the board doesn't really get to see, like you don't get to see such an intricate look at the development of a course. Usually Dr. Zarianos will come and present to you a budget season about this course, that course, that course, but it's just the name of a course and you don't really ever see much more than that because of your roles. But the board has been like really very... intimately involved in this program from seeing it at the National School Boards Association in a different fashion. Like what we saw and then even when we contacted that California school, you know, they had sold their program to a company that was then selling it to

076others. And then there was a whole like assessment program involved. And we're like, we didn't want that. A little bit of fortune too. We said we could develop this on our own. Yeah, I think you said that. You said our teachers could do it. And you were right. they've done a phenomenal job and and like Xerion said it's been a lot of work from from the teachers and the administrators involved but it is definitely getting a lot of positive feedback I know a bunch of us have stopped into various classes they've been excellent so it is very exciting because I do think it's cutting edge it aligns very closely with what our district believes in regards to success for every student and really truly providing opportunities and and Interests for students no matter what their

077path will be starting now in grade K We can truly say that really different than almost any other district at least on Long Island that I know of And I think the board should also be very proud about that because without having gone to that convention I don't know that we necessarily would have been talking about this just because without being exposed to those other ideas that are going on elsewhere You don't know what else is happening. And so I thank the board for their involvement in regards to their interest in wanting to bring cutting edge programs and I also appreciate their support of our staff developing it and making it our own because our staff knows what's best for our kids and so I do appreciate that and obviously everybody that's here I appreciate

078you being here I appreciate all your work in all of these areas obviously iReady is not as exciting as career exploration especially when you have to have the kids take it or book club which is very exciting but obviously day in and day out all of you are the ones that are really making the difference. And finally, just to Dr. Z, obviously this presentation itself took an enormous amount of time for you to develop, so thank you for that. And that... As we've said before in regards to about bringing new ideas to the district, you yourself have brought a lot of new ideas to our district. And we are very grateful for that and grateful for all your energy that you bring and your excitement. I will say you love books more than I do.

079I do like books. You truly have a love of books that I've never seen before. I was just telling Ms. Kelly this story. Over the weekend, I was at Barnes & Noble because what else do you do? And I walked in and there was a display of all these new picture books. And I just started like... And I'm like reading them in the store and I see my daughter, who's 19 and too cool for me, obviously start to... slowly move this way. And I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, I can't be, you look so weird right now. She's like, your face, she's like, I can't be seen with you. This is embarrassing. And I was like, I told you, you know, I love books. I can't help what this is. Well, if it

080makes you feel any better, we have no problem being seen with you. And so, uh, though when I walk into elementary schools with you, it's as if I'm not seen at all, uh, because you are the star. So, but anyway, thank you for your dedication to this district and for all, all the love of education that you bring to it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, if there's no further questions, we will respond to the board with the questions that were asked, hopefully in the weekly report. The next conversation on our agenda tonight, which does move from presentations to my report, is on security. So, Mr. Taitel, if you could just bring up the security presentation. So as you know, we talk about school security on a regular basis in the district. Usually

081it's about twice a year. And so tonight is our regularly scheduled update on security. So we're going to talk a tiny bit about where we've come, some enhancements we've made this year, and then, you know, potential changes for the future. You can move on to the next slide. So as you know, school security is mentioned in our strategic plan. We will be sharing with the board, hopefully at the December meeting, our updated strategic plan that our committee has been working on, but a variety of areas in our strategic plan that reference school security. Obviously, this presentation will talk about some of those items, but due to the sensitive nature of our security protocols, we do not go over all of them. But it's a continuous process of improvement over time, right? So it's really about

082planning, practicing, preventing, and protecting. Planning to determine what protocols we believe are best practices, especially with the help of our folks and colleagues over at Altaris. We do have Bill Mahan with us. We can just wave our security coordinator who's on site from Altaris, and Tom Donahue from Altaris itself. So thank you for joining us tonight. They are a tremendous resource. And this goes back similarly to the previous presentation where we talked about the board's support for the career exploration program by attending NSBA. This was something that was near to the heart of the board of bringing in a nationwide security consulting firm. And so once again, because of the board's involvement, we really are in a better place without Taras' help. So planning what those... you know new protocols or the current protocols are

083practicing them with our regular drills that we do um you know ensuring that we are always looking at our infrastructure to make sure that if there are any additional technologies we can bring on but we do that so that is the prevent and then step four is is protect which is to constantly monitor all these systems to make sure that they're all working uh and then if there is some type of issue at at that time that we address it immediately. And as you know from the beginning of the school year there were a lot of those situations that occurred and that's where all these things go into place and we make sure we protect our students and staff. I'm not going to read all of these. These are things that we updated in 2023.

084But just to highlight a few that are most important is that, once again, at the board's recommendation, we did start to, and with Al Terrace's additional recommendation, and start installing anti-ballistic film on our exterior windows. This is a long-term... years long process to do this not cheap but we prioritize areas that based on Altair's recommendation we believe are most at risk for breakage around entrances things like that first floor windows windows facing the busy intersections things like that we revamped our entire you know visitor protocol system Last year, visitors now wear yellow lanyards to identify that they're visitors. Staff wears blue lanyards. And now students at the secondary level all wear their school ID as well. This is really done so that when school security staff can look down the hallway, they can get a

085quick idea as to whether people that are here are supposed to be here or not. It also helps with if there is a crisis of knowing that these are students in this building and not from somewhere else. for reunifying students with their parents. We continue to do outreach to our parents about what our communication, what our emergency drills are. We did develop a emergency drill communication pamphlet that we send out every year that goes over them so parents know what the different drills are. And as you may know, we now are required to notify parents the week of drills, whether they're fire drills or lockdown drills, that are going to be taking place. These are just some more of the security updates that we did in 2023. And like I said, this is an ongoing

086process. So every year there are new initiatives that Altavis recommends to us that we bring on board. In regards to this current year, continuing enhancements, as I mentioned before, we continue to install the 3M security film on exterior glasses as well as will be installed on some interior glass where you have large windows, side light windows in classrooms. Some of our newer additions that were newer, maybe like 2000 to 2010, have very nice large... Side glass pieces next to the door that are not the most secure so applying them to those As well as those exterior glass areas that I talked about. This is the lanyard situation We started this really in January of last school year, but it continued this year With the introduction of this to the middle schools. So now it's really

087grades 6 through 12 this is just a photo of some very handsome individuals over at division ever high school it just shows the lanyards of the students and the and the administrators parent communication so I mentioned before the district does send out notifications now about when there's going to be drills that's an update on our end but it really is a requirement anyway from New York State Classroom doors, as the board once again was very supportive of, we had done a replacement of all the classroom doors with hardened doors with electronic locks that the swipes open. The doors are able to remain in the locked position at all time. With the completion of the air conditioning project, the classroom doors now are required to remain closed and locked during instructional time. That is not without

088issue. There are issues with that that we are working through. Just that, you know, in the very youngest classes, the doors are locked. And so, like, where almost all of our kindergarten classes, not all of them, but most have their own bathroom. First grade, second grade, student leaves to go to the bathroom, student comes back. can't be seen in the window and is knocking on the door, but the class might be active. And, you know, it definitely is something that we're working on and trying to resolve those kind of issues. I will say I put an Amazon $20 doorbell for my classroom because of that exact same problem. Who can hear them knocking with their gentle little knocks? Yes. So that was one thing because it was difficult and it's constant throughout the day. If

089you're a teacher, you know people are in and out of your room all day. Yeah, it's kind of funny when I go and observe classes and I'm in there and that's happening and I kind of feel bad in the back of the room like this teacher is constantly being disrupted. But in the end, it's one of those things where you have to weigh the disruptions are annoying. but it's safer. And so we want to definitely do those things. And it's just the new world that we live in. But that's a great idea. We'll pass it along. We did implement this year something that I don't think any other district, at least in Long Island, is doing, which are weekly... Security Roundtable meetings. So what we do every Monday is we have a Zoom meeting with

090all the principals and the facilities director and with Bill Meehan and the central office team where just for about half an hour we talk about security issues in the district. It could be things that are happening outside the district that we become aware of. It could be recommendations from Altaris. This past meeting we had Lieutenant Connolly from Homeland Security join us to just talk a little bit about When we have situations where a student may say something very regrettable, but it's threatening, is there a way to tailor the police response? And so it was a great conversation. We were very grateful that he was able to spend about 45 minutes with us about some of our concerns, but also letting everybody know kind of like how does the police department kind of handle these things

091when they come in? And as much as we may feel that this situation doesn't require five cars and officers, You know, is there a way it's not like you call 911 and it's like choose option one for a, you know, a large response, press button two for, you know, so we were kind of working through with him how it might be that we might be able to involve the police department immediately, which we want to do, but also make it that this is not that kind of situation. That was great. And school activities, we did develop district-wide plans this year to include specific security protocols for use before and after school and on weekends. It was an area that, in speaking to Altaris, we felt was somewhat... Weaker in regards to our protocols after-school activities

092are very difficult like when you think about some of the events you've all gone to like the pink out games and things like that homecoming lots of students lots of adults hard to know like you know, but it's really about developing Protocols so that before large events principals are meeting with mr. Meehan to go over what the posts look like that are needed how many security guards are needed And in the case of an emergency what the plan for that specific venue You already know, because once again, the board supported this initiative of proposing to the community the use of our capital reserve fund for replacing our public address systems, our fire alarms, installing a one-button lockdown, additional door sensors, and cameras. So wiring started over the summer. And this is, once again, not a

093fast project, but that is already beginning. I want to say, is it Lee Road's fire alarms already on? They've been tested, right? Yeah, so Leroy was the first, I think, with their alarm system. And so we are hoping that much of this work is done by the end of this upcoming summer. So we're very excited about that. It's a very expensive project, but very needed. These are PA systems that are very, very old, and that we're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on maintenance. Are we doing this in-house? No. Is that correct? Did I answer that too quickly, Mr. Fabiano? That's correct. We're not doing it in-house. Like I said, door jar sensors are also being installed. We have many of them now, but this is not all doors, so that is being

094done as well. And our elementary buildings with more cameras. We have, just so that people know, we have about a little over 600 cameras in the district currently, but we imagine that this will probably bring that number to about 800. Does that sound right, Michelle? Does that sound about right? We did start last year with using our swipes for students to go in and out of bathrooms. As you know, we have an old school method. We used to have kids sign in and out, and that's primarily because of issues that happen in the bathroom. And so we felt maybe it was a better way to use the swipes. It was faster. And so we were able to actually install swipes on the outside of the bathrooms in the high schools. The middle schools, I think,

095are still using the kiosks. But it definitely keeps track of who's in the bathroom, which is also good in case of an emergency if you need to know who's in the bathroom during a lockdown. Exterior door alarms. So as you know, all doors in the district are alarmed aside from the front door and doors that go to a faculty parking lot. The problem is that while we primarily focus here on keeping folks out of the building, there are times where we also have to focus on keeping students in the building. You sometimes have students that are at risk of eloping from the building. And so what we were able to do, this was through Mr. Fabiano, through Mr. Meehan, and our facilities department were able to contract with a company that could install a swipe

096on the inside of the door where you would swipe either to leave or come in, and it would disable the alarm for about 10 seconds. And that way then it's always alarmed even for the faculty doors. Once again, a lot of bugs had to be worked out at first. And it's even difficult. Is that from Lee Road, that sign? I believe it is. I think I took that photo when I was leaving for this presentation because I myself forget to do it. And then when you don't swipe out, it sets off the alarm. And so. It happens to your gardeners. Yes, right? Yes, so This is you know, once again working out the bugs But it's been and I think the technology department was involved in this as well. So this is ever all hands

097on deck What's that? Yeah As I mentioned, as with all of our emergency plans, some things are discussed in public, some things are not. Like our district plan is discussed in public, but our building plans that have student names in them and so forth are not discussed in public. So there are other things that we are working on as well that are not part of this plan or part of this presentation. But recently, it was kind of brought to our attention through some public be heard comments about... what is the district considering for the future? And so as part of this presentation, what I wanted to just share with the board were, you know, okay, so we've done a lot of these enhancements, a lot of the things that Altaris has recommended to us, we

098have been working on. You may have seen even in one of these previous photos, like on that room right above the door, you'll see the interior room numbering, right? That was a recommendation from Altaris. Mr. Meehan worked on with the building principals in order to make sure that if there was a lockdown and students need to identify to... first responders what room they're in they could see what room number they're in without having be on the outside of the building or before as other board members have brought up about the tape line on the inside right and so what what else are is available really that other districts may have you know moved forward with for the board to consider in regards to future enhancements and so You may have some, so I'm going to

099open up to the board when I'm done talking about this for things that you may have seen or heard elsewhere, because obviously I am not the keeper of all knowledge. And so the ones that have come my way are anonymous reporting systems, metal detectors, firearm detection, AI software, and armed security. All right, so just to go over each one kind of briefly. The district did initially have its own developed anonymous reporting system, but it was not effective. It was really primarily just used for nonsense, and that was really not a good use of that system. We changed it where it's not anonymous, it's still a reporting system, and it is still sometimes used. It was used this year once, meaning in a way that we took something and it was kind of actionable. Really, there

100are better versions of this that are run by companies that monitor 24 hours a day these systems and then notify the district as well as local authorities about a threat. And so I asked Mr. Meehan to work with Altaris on looking at some options. These are two of them on here. I think, is it Sprigio? Is that one of them? That's used by several Long Island districts as well as Sandy Hook Promise. In this scenario, like I said, it's just a web link that parents would go to on our website and then they would put in their anonymous report, whoever would do it. And it would cost anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 a year. I do not think that the district can run this on its own because, once again, if you put out there

101that you have an anonymous reporting system, you need to monitor it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And so I do think you would need to contract for something like this for it to be legitimate. I believe that in the reaching out to these two companies, Sprigio did reach back out to us. It was in that range, right, Mr. Meehan? But I don't think Sanhik Promise has. It's been like about two weeks, right? Artificial intelligence firearm detection software, a product that the board has seen at several board conventions called Zero Eyes, is a product that utilizes our camera system to detect guns. And so basically it uses AI to review all the footage from all of our cameras all the time to try and identify if there's someone with a weapon. The cost

102is really by camera. And so for a district of our size with our cameras, the estimate is between about $100,000 and $200,000 a year. Mr. Meehan and I were talking about this recently because we were trying to find if there were any local districts that were using ZeroEyes. There were none on Long Island. There was one, I think, in Westchester. Mixed feedback on this. I think Mr. Meehan did provide me some additional information tonight that I will just share with the board on this product. But this is another product that's a possibility. Metal detectors. Some Long Island districts have metal detectors. I know one out in Suffolk County is recently moving to them. What was it, William Floyd? William Floyd, yeah. Those are approximately $5,000 per detector, but that's not including if you're going to

103do a bag, like an x-ray machine for bags, nor does it include the staffing because you would have to have multiple metal detectors. Let's say if you're talking about the high schools, you would need multiple metal detectors at the front entrance as well as at the student entrance. And so you're probably talking about... $160,000 a year for the metal detectors plus ongoing staffing you would have to hire more staff to process the kids in time to get into school. You're talking about 1,300 students entering in about 20 minutes. You would have to have enough staff to process them so you get the time. No, that's just that's one-shot deal 160,000 for the detectors and then plus whatever the cost is for staffing I don't know what that would be. I think I got no I

104was just gonna say I'm William Floyd They have 3,000 kids in their high school, so I can't imagine how they get all these kids in but it's something that's necessary Unfortunately out there at this time and I think what what when mr. Me and I were talking about it is that This all comes this particular protocol all comes down to training of whoever's doing using the metal detectors or if it was wands or whatever it may be, like just like kind of going to the airport, right? The use of this is as good as the individuals who are actually scanning the backpacks or, you know, the individuals. So it just, I think what a lot of the research has shown is that It's good, but there's ways around it, I guess is what you would

105say. The last one that I had to recommend is about on security. So you probably know that about 20 districts on Long Island have moved to have some... some form of armed security. These models are either that the school district contracts with a outside vendor to provide armed security or they arm their current security. And so we did just for this presentation reach out to several districts that have armed security and for a district our size, which is going to be closer to like a Massapequa size that has armed security, Private vendor cost is about $750,000 to $1 million per year. That's what Massapequa's paying. And they are just a similar size district, so that's why I use them. And then it's cheaper to arm your own staff. So if you have former law enforcement,

106which most of our staff are, that is obviously much cheaper. Believe it or not, there is no, and this question came up before, there is no additional insurance requirement when you arm your own staff. There's an additional insurance requirement for the private vendor if a private vendor is doing it. But NICER does not charge an additional amount of money, believe it or not, for arming your own security staff. So... I'm going to explain to you my recommendations, and then I'm going to turn it over to President Messina to, I guess, seek thoughts from the board in regards to other options you may have heard about or how you may want to proceed on these ideas. My first recommendation is to pilot the anonymous reporting system because... I think that it's definitely a recommendation from both

107Altaris and then for the board members that were at the convention in New York City. There was a workshop we attended that we reported out on last meeting that was run by the Secret Service on school security, and they highly recommended an anonymous reporting system. So if Altaris is recommending that and the Secret Service is, you know, seems like a no-brainer to me. Yeah, I just want to say that the seminar that we were at at the convention that one of the things that really struck in my mind, stayed in my mind, excuse me, was that they said with this anonymous reporting system that the data shows that 94% of all attackers have made their... have said things and you know just in passing or threats or whatever and unfortunately they're not taken seriously so

108by having this reporting system they feel that it will you know somebody doesn't have to be definite that this is really real all they have to do is think it or hear it or whatever and then you know that kind of shifts it from what they talked about to a behavior based approach to like a formulating an assessment team and then two twofold hopefully be able to stop any attacker but i think the other part that's really important to us at the board in levertown the ones the kids that you know have the behavior that we can get them the help they need because nobody wants to carry that amount of rage and anger and stuff inside so and i think sorry I think what struck me was what they were saying that a lot

109of, I don't have the, I didn't do my data like Peggy, but that there was a lot having to do with mental issues and that a lot of that, you know, like you pick up on that too. And I thought that was critical. I thought what was also interesting was that in regards to the folks using the anonymous reporting system, a lot of it also helped to prevent self-harm in regards to, right? It wasn't just about. potential harm to events of mass harm, a lot of it also helped to prevent suicides. And so it was, once again, had multiple benefits. And so I just think that that amount of money is not a large percentage of our budget. And I think it's just something that can be done very quickly that we can just pilot

110next week. My other suggestion is really because there are a lot of these enhancements that could be made, but many of them are significant. And I'm going to say, like, obviously, the armed security would be a significant move for the district. Metal detectors would be a significant move for the district. Even starting to use AI with our cameras to kind of identify weapons, I think, is something that would... I mean, they made people a little bit concerned about privacy issues and things like that, that I don't think any of those other recommendations or any of those other possibilities are things that should be done lightly. I think those are things that really, if the board is interested in considering any of them, doesn't mean that you would do them, but consider them. I do think

111we would have to come up with a mechanism for investigating them and then reporting back to the board, similar to what other districts have done. Farmingdale did it recently. where they put together a committee and they had that committee present to the board on various different options across several months. I believe Plain Edge is using that same model this year. It just would seem to me that you could incorporate some surveying of different stakeholder groups, things like that, that then could inform the board about whatever decision the board chooses to make, but that you would be giving it its due in regards to... I find this board to be one that considers things, decisions like that very seriously. And I think that the board would probably not be comfortable with these kind of decisions without

112a lot of information. So now I turn it over to you, President Messina. Thank you. I saw Marianne's hand first and then Mike and then everyone else can also get a chance after that. Sure. Well, thank you, first of all, for the presentation. I like your recommendations. Definitely. So one of the things, knowing that this conversation was coming up, was that I personally had conversations with Fred Guttenberg and Max Schachter who lost students in the Parkland massacre. And they've taken that loss and they've turned it into... some like information gathering like Max Schachter is involved with school safety in Florida and he helped developed all of these Florida state laws and regulations for school districts. I mean Fred Gutenberg is a gun control activist I guess. But neither here nor there. So some of the

113common themes of what they were in the discussion was, first of all, he couldn't believe that we didn't have an anonymous reporting system, right? And so that's something that we were discussing. Some of the other recommendations that we've seen at some conferences, but also that they've said is, like, the lanyard with the button. Right, the security button. So I know we have other means to make those emergency calls, but it's almost like... It's right here. Something's happening. Press the button. I don't know how exactly it works. And you know, of course. I believe that in Florida, that's like statewide, right? That's a requirement. Correct. And that's where they're a little bit, well, a lot different than how we are here in New York. They have a lot more regulations in place that all the school

114districts have to follow. The other thing, you know, I have to bring up the dog. Daisy, Duke, whatever the dog's name was. But there are definitely other, it really is such a multi-layered approach to look into these things. And I know that we will do so thoughtfully. And I do hope to engage other interested parties in these discussions and not just among the seven of us because I do think it's a district-wide and community-wide. thought process for it. Thank you, Mary Ann. Mike? Can you put your mic on? Thanks. So far away from it. The first Parkland shot was actually fired in the parking lot, which zero eyes would have picked up. I'm not saying zero eyes is perfect. It doesn't use facial recognition. That's one thing. But it also doesn't pick up a bulge.

115Like a police officer, you'll see a bulge on your side. You do a pat on it, and obviously you see it's a weapon. It doesn't have the technology yet, what they said, to identify a bulge under your clothing or on your ankle or something like that. Regarding the amount of money you're going to pay for armed security, they said it was $75,000 to $1 million in Massapequa if you use outside. To arm your own aides here, which I would think would be, I would trust them better than just some guy hired up the street with no law enforcement experience. But you're not going to have an armed security aide at the price we're paying. And plus, you can't even raise that price up because there's a cap of $35,000 if you have a pension. Excuse

116me? Not yet. It's still 35,000. No, but it's still, as part of the budget, New York State budget, even this past year, they keep extending it out another year. So, yes, that will be a problem once that stops being waived, which could happen next year. So right now, for this moment. It was only supposed to go up to $50,000 several years ago. So $50,000 for armed security guard for 10 months is not, you can go work at Madison Square Garden and get the same thing. Make twice that amount you know so I don't think that's it really an option you know So even though the other one is more money, and I trust the law enforcement Officer much more than I trust a private citizen. We just took a eight-hour training course to be an

117armed security guard I don't see how we can go here and make this work if we did go with armed, retired law enforcement or active law enforcement. Question, Mike. Yes. How about if you, I mean, maybe it's not, instead of having like one person, you might split that. So like it's somebody who's working part-time. So they're not making 50, you know, because you can make up to 50 is what Todd said. So, you know, if you have three people instead of... Two people. You divide up the hours differently so nobody goes over that. Maybe you don't want to work that many hours. I believe our security aids range from $17 to $20 an hour. I believe it's $25. Not the starting pay. No, but pretty much on average. The rate for the security aid. But

118that's for starting. Yes. Right. What does it go up to? About $25? Would you take that job for $25 an hour? Yeah, I just, I don't want to break the rules. I know the board was discussing about raising hands for rules, so I don't want to. Yeah, I would like to try to keep it so it's not just like anyone has a government. No, no, no, I just wanted to make sure because Phil has responded and I wasn't expecting it. So I just wanted to make sure that you're completed because I know Peggy also wanted to say something. I'm good. I'm good. Do you feel like you got everything in? Okay. Yeah, I just want I this is what I'm thinking I don't even think we're at that point in discussing if we're gonna like

119their money and how much it would cost and if we could afford it I don't think that's gonna be the primary I would hope that that's not the primary driver whether we do this or not Marianne had touched on you know community input into this what the what the thought of the community is I know that there are different districts that are making it work in nassau county um so studying more of what's out there what other districts are doing what the data reflects what our community thinks i think that comes into play much more before we go and discuss about the money and stuff like that because i think the state is realizing that this is becoming more whatever people are choosing is becoming more and more important uh and it's creating a lot

120of priorities i think so even as far as the salaries for you know, retired law enforcement. You know, I think that's going to be, you know, you hope that that's going to be reevaluated as the need continues to grow. But I think at this point, seeing how other schools went about it, like I know you talked about what, Farmingdale? No, Farmingdale and Plain Edge and Mass Pequot. You had mentioned to me about West Islip. West Islip and the way they did it and stuff like that. So I think a lot of research could be done that first and really just listen and gather that information, then decide about sending out a survey to, like Marion suggested, the different groups in the community, and let's gather all this information so we can make it a formed

121decision whether we want to and then how are we going to. You know, that would be the next part. Jimmy, thank you. Todd, thank you very much for your recommendations. I agree with what I'm hearing around the table that, like Ms. Marenghi just said, I don't think we're at the point yet, you know, salary-wise and whatnot. You know, it's going to cost if we choose to go that route with armed security. Yeah, it's going to cost. But, you know, I'm curious about the involvement, community involvement, surveys. How would you? Yeah, how would you well how would you go about doing the survey part and how would you get the community involved in such a conversation? So I think that if that I guess if the board wishes We could from the central office team we

122could work up some suggestions on how to do that for our, because our next meeting is only in two weeks. So we could reach out to the other districts that I referenced that have done it this way in regards to a plan and then come back to the board and say, okay, these are, this is how it's pretty much done. This is what we're recommending is the structure that we do. We survey a lot of people all the time. We just sent out a survey about the virtual parent-teacher conferences. 200 responses. It was only sent out yesterday? Yesterday. So on topics that are of interest, no different than you talking about if kids are excited at school and they learn and you know what I'm saying? these topics, whether it be parent, you know, virtual

123conferences, parent-teacher conferences, or school security, people will respond to. So we could use a variety of survey tools that we have. I know some of the districts that I already spoke to, they use ThoughtExchange because it allowed people not only to... rank each other's feedback. It also allowed them to put in their own kind of free form feedback. Some use that. Some use just regular like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms. But I think we use Google Forms for this one. And I think really my suggestion would be that... Let central office come up with some options for the board in regards to the structure of what it's going to look like and then the board of the next meeting can just could agree upon the structure of the of how the information is going to come

124into the board from the various whether it's whether it's a literature review whether it's how it's worked the data from other districts how it's worked and then as well as maybe what survey questions we would ask and that way then after the December 4th meeting we can then move forward. Because what would be good would be is if we could work on this, let's say, December, January, February, March, and before we adopt a budget for next year, that we are in a place where we at least have an idea of what we might do, because it could very much be, you know, as much as obviously it's never about money, in the end there is a financial impact that we would have to then figure out, right, as a board and as a district. And

125we'd want to do that before the budget is set. Right. Jimmy did you get everything? I just wanted to thank Mr. Meehan for being here and the other gentleman from Altshires thank you very much and Todd once again thank you for your recommendations I forgot was Marianna Peggy was first I'll just be quick I just wanted to I know we're talking about things we can do going forward but I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the fact like being on the board all these years the thoughtful and progressiveness of the district in regard to school safety it really has been you know hot and heavy on people's minds right and so I I think that you know we've we've been doing a good job of staying ahead of things and I just wanted

126to kind of say that out loud because I You know, I commend the board for that. I commend central administration for that. And all the staff that works here. And Al Tarras, thank you so much for being here. But I just wanted to say that and just make that known and say thank you. Peggy and then Phyllis. Yeah, just real quick. Todd, can we have that? You're going to get that information for us before the next meeting. So can we have it like three or four days in advance so we have time to read it and ingest it and have constructive thoughts put together if the board's going to discuss it at the next meeting? Would the board like it in print? Is that better? Yes, sir. Yes, please. Yes. That was a resounding yes.

127Peggy? I'm not Peggy, sorry, Phyllis? Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to jump ahead. I just wanted to ask Mike a question that was in response to what he was saying, which is why I kind of jumped in there before. I know, I didn't think I had to raise my hand to ask him a question about what he was talking about. I thought I had to raise my hand when I wanted to say something new. I thought because I was responding to what you said about dividing up the time. But what I was actually raising my hand to say in order was that one of the things I remember, and it was in response to the anonymous reporting, was that you can't miss a beat. Which is what that's what I got out of the cotton

128when we went to the conference You cannot miss a beat because you don't think it was important it it has to be every single Thing that's logged or has to be followed up That's what they said at the what the Secret Service people and all those the people in charge were saying and I think that's why we need to have apply like somebody else doing it because it has to be every single threat or or thing that said some kid says Has to be followed up. I think that's why we need we can't do it internally. That's all yeah Had it on before He did Whoa I will have to just add one thing today. I agree with you. We have to be right 100% of the time. The bad guy has to be right

129only once. And that's the scary part in this world today. That's all. Peggy, I just have one more thing to say. Either Todd or somebody touched on it before, but I think that the byproduct of this, I think, will be even just as valuable, if not more, as being able to... Reach out to those kids that can be identified through this that have suicide ideations and have, you know what I mean? The chances are they're going to say it to somebody, one of their friends, and their friends feel like they're ratting. This happens all of the time. So if we could really... uh hone in on that skill and being able to help the kids that are really hurting i think will be so so important to the work that we want to do here

130in levertown or are doing in levertown thank you i'm really quiet this time I definitely think the importance of school safety, it can't be overstated. I will say the safe school environment is not just about the physical security. It's also, while that is a vital part of it, I think the school environment that creates a sense of belonging is equally as crucial. And I think part of our security, I guess... plan or safety they kind of go interchangeably in my mind is looking at as it as a like multidisciplinary approach because there is a behavioral component to it there are services that can be provided in conjunction so I'm gonna ask mr. winch if you can please give a copy of the improving school safety through bystanders reporting Toolkit for strengthening K through 12 reporting

131programs. It's created by the NTAC I wrote it down for you. I know I didn't expect you to write all that that fast I mean, I know I have written It's a it's a comprehensive report that's made by the National Threat Assessment Center, which is created by the Secret Service, and it's created for K-12 programs, so I think that addresses a lot of what we're talking about. It'll give us some time to read it and digest it, if that could just be part of the resources you give us. I have it written here, if you'd like to. It's right there with the three stars. That means it's important. If it only had one star, it wouldn't be. But is everything, is everyone good otherwise? Quick close? All right, I'm sorry. Superintendent Winch has my script.

132Thank you, President Messina. That's it for my presentation. We're on to board comments, I believe. I'm going to put the light on so no one falls asleep now. This is not exciting. Marian? Yes. So as the board knows and some of you may or may not know that are out in the audience and listening, we do have a policy review committee. President Messina and myself and Superintendent Winch. Anyway, we're working. We just finished with the 2000s. We already did the 1000s and now we're on to the 2000s. And it's going really well. Just wanted to share that we are learning so much about our policies and what we have And it's really just about like adjusting the language where appropriate Making it uniform as much as possible Just to have the same look and feel

133across all of our policies But it for me, it's like a great exercise in What we have in place to run the district because you know, the board is here for policy as well. So anyway, I just wanted to share that with everyone. I know it was very exciting and you want me to report more next time and I will. Okay. Thank you, Marianne. We're not, there's no correspondence, right? Oh, James Moran. I have a comment or a report. Please don't forget MacArthur's play is this weekend starting tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, seven o'clock. Be there. Thanks, James. It's the play. Mary did you have anything else you wanted to add or do? Can I proceed? Oh, okay. Okay. We have no one sign up for public be heard. Correct? Even though we have a nice

134new sign to invite people. We're now going to move to schedules. Do I have a motion to accept item 5.1 on the agenda? Mary Ann, can I have a second? Peggy, any discussion? What's that? Schedules. Yeah, schedules. Yeah, 5.1. I did say that you did okay all in favor 6.0 6 to 0. Thanks All right now we're gonna move on to the consent agenda number six on your agenda Do I have a motion to accept item six point one? I like to separate six point two. I have a separate discussion on it So I need a motion to separate Mike, I'll second it. Oh, that's a lot of things. Mike made a motion to separate out 6.2, and Jimmy seconded it. Correct? All in favor? We're at 6-0. So are we voting on 6.1 and

1356.3 and 6.4? I need a motion for that. All right, and then we'll discuss the other one. So can I have a motion for 6.1, 6.3, and 6.4? Phyllis, can I have a second? Mike? Any discussion? All in favor? 6.0. 6 to 0, sorry. And then, Mike, you want to discuss 6.2, which is the agreement with the town of Hempstead slash Bus Patrol America LLC? Yes, thank you. One moment. Okay, so you guys all know that I'm retired law enforcement, so I think you're thinking how red lights are very good and save lives and everything. I really do not like... this agreement with town of hampstead or the suffolk county agreement where they raised 90 million dollars no excuse me i think it was 98 million dollars i probably have it written in my book

136here somewhere but the problem is that There's an appellate court ruling that knocked out 90% of those summonses saying that they couldn't show that there was students leaving the bus, exiting or entering the bus. Summons that were issued for crossing over Route 347, where there's no children are allowed to, a bus cannot drop you off or you're allowed to cross over. And in my opinion, it's a money grab. And maybe you don't know this, but in New York City, As a police officer, you're told to write at least two red light summonses a month for safety reasons, they would say. But the bottom line is that one-star chiefs and above get a bonus on red lights. And there's a thing called red light overtime that the insurance companies pay the New York City Police Department

137to write summonses, red light summonses, because their revenue goes up by that as well. As much as you think it's a safety issue, one more thing I'd add. So the issuing municipality gets a cut of the money. So if this is on our bus. I would like to believe that we are actually issuing that summons. None of this money goes to education. It's a money grab. I think town of Hempstead got $13 million, $13 million. $5.8 goes to them. The rest goes to bus patrol. It's just not what you think it is. And the fact that the appellate court threw these summonses out and those that were in an extended backlog because of this case, the money's not coming as much as it used to. Unless this thing gets fixed, where they can show that

138the car actually, the bus was actually discharging past at the same time, that their door was opened instead of just talking to a parent on the street. There's a lot of issues if you do your research. I just don't like that we're issuing our conveyances, are issuing the summonses, and it's not going towards education. It should be going towards education, not in a county or town or state coffers anywhere. That's my take on it. Sorry. Thank you, Mike. Jimmy? Mike, I'm glad you brought that up because I feel the same exact way that, you know, for us to put the bus patrol on our vehicles and not to get anything back from it, I think it's a crime in itself. And, you know, we pay enough taxes in the town of Hempstead and Nassau County

139that, you know, if we're going to... Vote to put these on a bus. We should get something back for it It shouldn't shouldn't just be you know The company's getting rich the town and the county getting a little bit more than they then they need or you know that they want but I Totally agree with Mike. I don't think it's a good plan You know we need to get something back for it if we're gonna use our vehicles for 100% way I feel should go back to the students if we do this just to just for clarity We don't get money, you're right, but we do get equipment. So the company provides the exterior and interior cameras on all of our buses, which are much better than the cameras that we used to have on

140there. So I don't know. I'd have to find out what happens if we do not renew. I don't know enough about the contract to know, like, if we don't renew, do they come and take the equipment out? You don't know, right, Mr. Fabiano? Well, this is just an extension from 2024. It was supposed to end to 2029, correct? Correct, right. The original contract when they installed the cameras was that contract that expires in December of this year. Yeah, we'll have to do some research in addition to taking out. There could be a charge for having to take the equipment off the bus now. So I don't know. We'll forward the contract to the attorneys and find out what the implications are. I mean, I would imagine that being it's a regular contract that you don't

141renew it and that's that. But we'd have to just make sure before we, you know. But we probably could. We put it on tonight because I think it was the date of it was like December 1st before the next meeting. But we can probably get that information back. For the next meeting with the right correct for the fourth and still be okay one way that even whether the board approves it or not Right. Yes. Okay, so I just to share like I said, we can get that information in regards to is there any Liability I guess you'd say on the district's part if it does not renew To at least share with the boards that you know when you make the decision on the December 4th I mean I don't, but I want you to

142know that. They've already made their money on those tickets. The tickets they get, they've made the money, probably about three tickets it pays for the installation and about four or five tickets pay for the camera. Why don't we pull it for tonight and then if you gather information about what would I guess happen if we choose not to use them or we choose to I guess renegotiate the contract in some way or look into other things further, but for tonight we'll just pull 6.2. Are we good with that? I'd like to ask one more thing. Can you, Mr. Fabiano, can you research on how many districts are not doing this program and maybe even what reasons they're using? Sure. So the red light ticket is a, let's say you shouldn't go through red lights anyway,

143but it's an expensive ticket that hurts you for 42 months if you're found guilty and it proves that you're driving that vehicle. You know? And then part of that would need be if we potentially don't renew the cost of putting in cameras on the inside of all the buses. That would be part of that. And just as a comment, like you said, it's not good to go through a red light. Nobody should be passing school buses. And lots of people pass school buses. I agree. This is... Once again, one of those good ideas gone slightly bad in that the way that it's been done is not really, I think, what was expected, similar to when the red light cameras first came out, right? If you didn't stop before the white line, you got a ticket,

144which I believe they've been more lenient. And you got to rearrange it sometimes. Correct. So people shouldn't pass school buses. I've been 30 years in education. I see it happen all the time. I do think that this has stopped, or at least... made people more aware. I mean, I live by Jericho Turnpike, and when I tell you the number of times I've driven in the past where a bus would stop to pick somebody up, and the cars coming the opposite direction would keep coming even though they're not supposed to, that has stopped where I live, I will tell you that, and I do attribute it to this because it's a very, it's a $250 fine. It's a lot of money. The problem is that there have been so many issues with... I guess you would

145say inappropriate fines being issued and so forth that it once again takes, I think, an idea that's not bad, but the way it's implemented is problematic. Well, for the most part, people see a school bus because of these red light cameras on any bus. They're going to assume to stop when they pass up a bus, whether it has a camera or not. I'd stop them no matter what, you know. We could put dummy cameras on there. It smells like the election. It's like the electric bus thing. It might be a great concept, but it wasn't planned. If the electric bus, the one we wanted to buy, doesn't have a camera, will you let me buy it? With the windmill. As long as we get those windmills. Sure, I'm probably we would do it sounds like

146that's something legal that we should do. I've seen a motion to pull 6.2 Phyllis that I said we don't table it, but just pulling it correct. This is to Burbage is there that one that you Yeah one Never oh My apology, can you give Bob I retract me so I can't remember which one is either. Don't worry. Can I can I If you pull it, it can't come back unless the maker of the motion brings it back. And there's a substantial change to it. So, Mary Ann, you're asking to motion table it? What do you want? I'm going to give the motion to table 6.2. Christina, you seconded it. All in favor? Can I just Google table versus pull? Go ahead. I bet you I'm right. Absolutely. Robert's Rules. Tables first. Why don't we just

147do it? Yeah, just do it. Go, Peg. Because if you pull it, if you do it the wrong way, you can't pull it back. You can't bring it back. We said table, and then we'll put pull in parentheses in our head. You have to table it. Table it. You put it on hold. Table it. Yeah. All in favor. Okay, so it has to be tabled. Okay good, but I'm public notice for the meeting and what it's next great all in favor act on it seven for table zero great Okay The number seven we're gonna move into gifts to schools Yes, are there no gifts there are not any gifts to schools yet Thank you. We're good. Okay, no head no ad hoc whoo upcoming dates December 4th a regular meeting and then January 8th a

148regular meeting Finally on behalf of the Board of Education and the entire Levittown School District. We wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday May I have a motion to adjourn the regular meeting Mary Ann do I have a second Peggy all in favor 7-0 meeting adjourned