001Good evening. This is a regular scheduled Board of Education meeting. The Board of Education was an executive session in accordance with open meeting laws 105E, collective negotiations pursuant to Article 14 of civil service law, nurses, and open meeting laws 105F, specific personnel matters, board development, excuse me, agenda review, and possible 3020A, and open meeting laws 105. H, the proposed acquisition, sale, or lease of real property, Unity Drive parcel. We ask that all students, parents, guardians, teachers who are being recognized this evening please stay until the brief intermission for photos, which will take place after the PTA, PTSA report. If I could now please have Ms. Elena Baldwin, principal from Jericho Elementary and her students to lead us in the pledge. And then I will ask that you please remain standing for the Star Spangled Banner.
002Good evening. I'm Elena Baldwin, the proud principal of Jericho Elementary School. I am joined tonight by Jericho fourth grade student and student of the month, Tavin Ifill. Tavin will now lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. When it was announced to the Jericho staff that Tavin was going to be recognized at tonight's Board of Education meeting, my inbox immediately began to ding. Tavin's current teacher, Mr. Sabini, noted that Tavin is always doing the right thing and working to be his best. He works hard on all assignments and demonstrates a high level of independence for a fourth grader. Tavin's third grade teacher, Mrs. Chianti, noted
003that Tavin was the perfect student to recognize tonight. She shared, I was so fortunate to have Tavin in my third grade class last year. He is such a kind, caring, and respectful friend to all. He always reached out to lend a helping hand or an encouraging word to those around him. His positive outlook in all things made him a joy to teach and have in class. Jericho teacher aide, Mr. Skula, added, Tavin is so kind and respectful to everyone. His sportsmanship shines at recess, and he always makes sure everyone gets a fair chance at playing football. And his football skills are amazing. He participates in class and seems to be a very hard worker. All around, he's a great kid. As a principal, Tavin is the kind of student that I just want to bottle
004up and clone. When you pass him in the hallway, his bubbly energy is contagious. He greets you with a smile and a hello. When speaking with him, he is articulate, thoughtful, and animated. He is the embodiment of the middle country character education words of respect and responsibility. Taven acknowledges putting intentional effort into being responsible at home and at Jericho. He notes that at home, one can demonstrate responsibility by doing chores and helping to support a younger sibling. As a student, he noted the importance of remembering to charge his Chromebook each night and manage his time and his workload. Tavin noted that he viewed being a good reader as one of his responsibilities. He works hard each week to make sure he reads Mr. Sabini's suggested number of minutes and logs them on his reading log.
005He is also currently working on a nonfiction writing assignment about hedgehogs and is on track to complete it by the due date. He's currently editing and revising his piece. When I asked Tavon to identify his favorite thing about Jericho, he answered, recess, before I even finished asking the question. He did quickly add that he likes math, too. When not at school, Tavon enjoys playing football for the Middle Country Generals, and his team is headed to the playoffs. He particularly enjoys playing wide receiver and corner. He shared that he was a responsible teammate because he always makes sure to practice and know his routes so that he can fill in for another player if necessary. Much to this Jet fan's dismay, Tavin noted that he is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, thanks to his dad. Tavin, it
006is a true pleasure to be your principal. Your work ethic, enthusiasm, and positive light shine all around you. Tavin is joined tonight by his mother, Kelly, his father, Tavin, his sister, Brooklyn, and Grammy and Papa. The staff and students of Jericho are all incredibly lucky to have you as one of our own. I look forward to all of the ways you will continue to make Jericho and the middle country community proud. Congratulations, Tavin. You sound like an amazing student and a wonderful representation of middle country, so thank you. He's like, I'll stay. Okay, certificates of recognition, if I could please have Dr. Endembera, Director of Science and Research, PK through 12, and Dr. Siegel, Director of ELA and Grant Funded Opportunities, PK through 12, to present certificates of recognition. AP seminar. Did you hear me
007in the beginning? Yes. Okay. Anyway, thanks again for the opportunity to recognize these students who earned the College Board's nationally recognized AP seminar and research certificate. To earn this certificate, these students were required to achieve an AP score of a three out of five points in two challenging courses, AP seminar and AP research. With us this evening are two AP seminar teachers, Rebecca Ziegler and Pat. Oh my gosh, I'm nervous all of a sudden. Ms. Duryea, Ms. Duryea. And we have our Center East High School research teacher, Mr. Eric Zieluski, and the Newfield High School research teacher, Ms. Ann Marie Hassett, wasn't able to be here today, but she supports you completely. So this means that these students successfully passed an on-demand writing assessment and utilized their strong reading, writing, research, and public speaking skills
008to complete rigorous college-level research reports and presentations. We are very, very proud of them. Please join me in congratulating the following students as they come to the podium to receive their certificates. And Dominic Salito. Okay, and if I could quickly just read their research topics, because I'd like for you all to hear what they studied. Sasha's topic was for AP research, how does carrageenan heavy diet affect the inflammation in athletes? Sina's was how environmental depression in cats compares to environmental humans through daily behaviors or cognitive functions. Ask her about cat cafes. Jamie's was the impact of sugar sweetened beverage consumption on high school students happiness and Dominic's was the relationship between supplemental carbohydrates and muscular power in varsity athletes. So now let's just talk quickly about the courses. AP seminar is the foundational course run
009through the ELA department where the students learn to investigate a problem or the issue, analyze arguments, compare different perspectives and synthesize information from multiple sources. Students complete a team project and presentation as well as an individual research-based essay and presentation. And then while they're in the middle of all of that, they get presented with the question of do I want to continue this? And some of them take that next. step and enroll in AP research which is the second course of the AP capstone experience and that is run through the science department in this one the students take a deep dive into a topic of interest for the full year this course builds on the skills that they had acquired through AP seminar and it culminates in an academic paper and a presentation with an
010oral defense so Dr. Siegel and I always appreciate this moment to honor the students One of the reasons why is because we're seeing the number of students we put in front of you increase every year, right? And something that we talk about when we bring them up is bravery when it when students embark on something like this and kind of like the evolution of how we describe bravery seems to change each year. You know, in the first year it was they were brave because they did it first, right? So someone has to do it first. But what's interesting about these courses is that everybody's doing it first because they have to each commit to a problem that they've designed, stick it through to the solution. throughout the full year they can't change their minds because
011there's actually no time to do so and then they have to be okay with the fact that after they just sat there learning about this thing collecting data analyzing data reading papers sometimes there actually are no answers to the questions that they posed right and so they end their oral defenses with like okay here's what i learned but also here are some more questions and it's really amazing to see them do that so um The next batch of students has earned the AP Capstone diploma. This is awarded to students who earn a three or higher in both the AP seminar and AP research, as well as a three or higher on four additional AP exams. So we'll call you all up now for these ones. So this is Joe Sangel Almonte, whose topic was pediatric
012perspectives, perceives barriers to health care in Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. Eloisa Alvarez, who I think is not here today, right? Okay, hers was how bilingualism and musicianship affects cognitive function. Kiara Collado, parasocial relationships with K-pop idols affect on consumerism in female adolescents. Okay, Yohani Chen, Avatar, The Last Airbender, not just a kids show. Okay, Amira Jota, Serial Killers and You, How the Show Impacts Our Perspective. Okay, Ben Tasiak, studied Analyzing the Competency of Investors on Wall Street Bets. Sarah Williams, studied Macronutrient Balance in Middle Distance Runners. Fatima Ali, now we're doing the Newfield students. The suppression that comes from consumption, does synthetic food dye, red 40 usage in America lead to limited cognitive flexibility through triggering ADHD in children? And Daya John, toxic truth, cobalt's cancerous consequences, does exposure to cobalt in women
013around the Katanga Copper Belt directly correlate to a higher cervical cancer population? We are so proud of you. Thank you very much. Congratulations to you all. Now for certificates of pride, if I could please have Dr. Cook, Director of Music, Fine Arts, and Community Media Relations join us at the podium to present her certificates of pride. Hello. Hi. Thomas Lasher, come on up. Let's hear it for Thomas. Okay, Thomas, you know how I do the Vanna White thing? You've done a number of board meetings with me. Can you hand this to everyone that's up at the tables? And when you come back, you can hand one of these also. Okay? Excellent. And I'm also going to talk about him while he does it. So on behalf of the Board of Education, we are quite proud
014of Thomas and his many accomplishments. But one of the accomplishments tonight that we're going to talk about is his Long Island Scholar Artist Music Award. He's one of two students in Suffolk County to win this, two. Okay? He's quite amazing. So congratulations. It's a Long Island Scholar Artist Award music. Thomas is one of four students on Long Island, two in each county, and Thomas had his photo and bio featured in the September issue of Newsday. Can you hold that up so they can see the Newsday thing? There you go. So that was in September issue of Newsday. In April, he'll be honored at the Long Island Arts Alliance Ceremony at the Tillis Center and also receive a $250 scholarship. Congratulations to Thomas and his sponsoring band teacher, Dr. Goldstein, on this amazing accomplishment. Now, Thomas
015is a senior at Newfield High School. He is intensely smart and talented, hence scholar, artist. Get it? You guys are so smart. Excellent. All right. He has gotten a high honor roll every year since sixth grade. He earned an AP Scholar with Distinction, a 96-plus GPA, 14 AP college-level classes. Okay? I'm going to read them because I don't know what half of them are. AP College spent, well. I didn't take Spanish, that's why I don't know what that is. AP College Spanish 1 and 2, AP Physics, AP US History, Government, and Politics, AP Calculus, AP Literature and Composition, AP Economics. That's just this year. Ooh. AP Biology, AP Calculus, AP English, AP United States History, AP World History, AP Seminar, College Music Theory, and then musically, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Drum Club, Musicals. In the
016musicals, he's been both on stage as a star and in the pit as a star. And he's in the Superintendent's Leaders Club with Dr. Gerald. He is president. He is president of the Tri-M Music Honor Society at Newfield this year, as well as an officer in the National Honor Society, as well as the Class of 2025 historian. He's also in the Spanish Honor Society and the Thespian Honor Society. He made Allstate two times, twice, two years in a row with hundreds. He played in the Nisbeta Band last year, which is also upstate. Ness came in Skamea, All County, every year from 5th to 12th grade. That's impressive. I made it three times. You made it whatever 12 times minus five is. Seven times. There you go. Okay. He has over 225 hours of community service.
017Yeah. And just for fun now, he's working over at the library. So if you need to find something, go to the library and he'll help you find it. So congratulations, Thomas, on your Long Island Arts Alliance Long Island Scholar Artist Award. Okay, next can I have Catherine Lucero Amaya come on up. Catherine doesn't know about my Vanna White stuff, okay? Can you please hand one of these to everyone at the tables? All right, thank you. Okay, hold on. Here she is. On behalf of the Board of Education, I'd like to say congratulations to Centridge High School senior, Catherine Lucero Amaya. Catherine won the cover design contest of the Septimura Annual Magazine Contest. It is here. I will do a little Vanna this time, too. They're going to see it where they are right now, but
018I will show you her contest. Now, do you see those ladies right there? They represent all of the qualities. Hold on. I've got to read it to you because they're bigger words. Hold on. Okay. Catherine's been drawing since she was four years old, was excited about this contest because she had the marvelous idea to draw the women that represented each quality of strength, resilience, justice, and unity. You see that now? Ooh, okay. The magazine committee stated, Catherine's work truly embodied this year's theme of strength and solidarity, resilience, justice, unity, through her remarkable art. Her work powerfully captured the essence of our mission and the values of the Septimura. Am I saying that right? It's pronounced Sepa Mujer. Do that each time. Okay. At Center Ridge High School, Catherine is the president of the Art Club
019and a member of the National Art Honor Society, Thespian Theater Honor Society, and World Language Honor Society. She is also part of the Center Ridge High School History Club, serving as secretary. This is the club which plans all of the Heritage Days, including the Hispanic Heritage Month activities that she's very involved in. Catherine's one smart cookie. with over a 96 average and takes lots of AP and college classes at Center Ridge High School, including AP Chemistry, AP English, AP U.S. History, College Precalculus, AP Seminar, AP World History, as well as spending quality time in the art department, taking AP Studio and Art, Advanced College Computer Graphics, Computer Graphics I and II, Advanced Drawing and Painting, Drawing and Painting, and Studio and Art. In the beginning of the month, and this is really exciting, Catherine was
020honored with a joint legislative proclamation from the legislators Leslie Kennedy and legislator Nick Caracappa at the William H Rogers Legislator Building in Hoppog for her winning cover design as well as her outstanding involvement in her school and community. Way to go Catherine. Thank you very much. Congratulations to you both. I could please have the PTA president from Jericho Elementary join us at the podium. Just say your name because I would have butchered it. It's Jennifer Caponegro. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jennifer Caponegro, and I am the current Jericho PTA president. I'm here to speak about some of our wonderful events and activities that have been organized for our students. We started the school year off strong with our back-to-school social, which had over 300 students and families. They enjoyed a DJ, lawn games, Mickey
021Mouse, and snacks, to name a few. This school year, we decided to use a new photographer. The owner, Gil, of Joe R. Photography, was easy to work with. He was organized and had all their pictures taken before lunch. He had a quick turnaround. We had proofs within two days of the pictures taken of the students and within 11 days family started to receive their pictures. Also each student will receive a class picture whether they were purchased pictures or not. Our students recently had a visit from our wonderful Center Reach Fire Department. The students learned fire safety and were able to see the fire trucks. Our fall ball was a huge success. The children enjoyed dancing with Bluey and getting balloon animals. Our fall harvest was the most recent event where the children picked pumpkins, made
022crafts, had relay races, and enjoyed a mad science lab. This year, we had the made a truck from the movie Cars for a photo op and minion hay bales. It was nice to see all the kids smiling and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. This year, we have some new exciting events coming to Jericho. In a few short weeks, we have the New York Islanders working with our students and teaching them floorball. I am happy to say we will be gifted the equipment after the program ends. Another new event for Jericho will be the Boosterthon Fun Run, which will coincide with our PARP week. There's plenty of other events to look forward to, like Wingo, our special someone dance, and more. I am looking forward to another successful school year. THANK YOU. AND ON BEHALF OF
023THE BOARD, WE THANK ALL OF THE PTA AND THE PTA VOLUNTEERS FOR ALL THE TIME YOU VOLUNTEER FOR THE STUDENTS. SO THANK YOU. THERE WILL NOW BE A REFUND TO MISSION SO THAT ALL THE STUDENTS THAT WERE RECOGNIZED TONIGHT CAN HAVE THEIR PHOTOS TAKEN WITH THEIR FAMILIES, TEACHERS, ET CETERA, AND THE WHOLE WAY BY MS. PABON. Thank you for giving us a moment to take some pictures with everyone who is acknowledged here this evening. Now for a special presentation, if I could please have Dr. Siegel, Director of ELA, to the podium to give an instructional overview. Test, test. Good evening and thank you for this opportunity to share with you information regarding the ELA department on this Board of Ed Appreciation Night. I don't know if everyone's aware but we are recognizing our Board of
024Ed for their volunteer work and so we earlier we saw some wonderful presentations from the kids so I'm really excited that we have this opportunity to also share with you what we're doing in the ELA department. So even though we all know that hearing an ELA presentation is by itself a gift, at the end of this presentation, why are you all laughing? At the end of this presentation, we added a small token of our appreciation. So there is a present within this presentation. So tonight, a few slides. Okay, so here we have the New York State Education Department's ELA timeline. As you can see, the next generation ELA standards are now fully implemented in grades kindergarten through grade 10, and the high school transition will culminate with the administration of a revised ELA Regents exam
025in June of 2026. While New York State has not yet released any samples of this new assessment, we continue to be informed that the New York State Regents exam will not be very different from our present exam. Since this timeline was released, educators and researchers have been taking an increasingly closer look at literacy instruction and what strategies actually promote long-term literacy growth and engagement for our kids. You might recall that last year we shared with you information regarding the science of reading and New York State's plan to improve New York State's literacy, students' literacy. As we move forward, it's important to remember that the science of reading is not just about reading. It includes years of research regarding all areas of literacy, including writing, and it recognizes the importance of creating among our educational... community,
026equity, and a strong sense of belonging as outlined in the New York State Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Educational Framework. Also, while the science of reading provides guidance regarding what in fact works to promote our students' key early literacy skills listed on this slide, the science of reading is not limited to the conversations in early grade levels, kindergarten through grade two. It actually provides guidance for instruction at all grade levels. In addition, New York State educators have been engaging in research and discussions regarding what our New York State diplomas should signify when considering equity and educational excellence. Regardless of what impacts these discussions will ultimately mean for our New York State graduation requirements, with the research behind these discussions presently point to seven key attributes that are aligned with success in college, career, civic life, and
027one's personal life. As you can see here, these attributes are being a critical thinker, an innovative problem solver, being literate across all subject areas, culturally competent, an effective communicator, and being a globally minded citizen. So what does this mean for middle country and the ELA department? As I shared with you last year, this research has shown that practices that have the highest impact on student growth are those that are systemic and cumulative, which means that what we teach is connected and builds upon prior knowledge, and our teaching is explicit and direct, which means we don't assume that students will pick up on certain understandings and knowledge on their own, particularly in the early years when it comes to phonics and phonemic awareness. In addition, this supports that what students learn must be authentic or useful
028and responsive to their needs and interests. And tied into that is the importance of getting to know our students, fostering a sense of belonging, and helping our students learn more about themselves through inclusive educational communities and strategies that promote social-emotional literacy. In addition, learning experiences should be integrated so students can see the big picture and develop deeper understandings. Capstone projects allow students to develop their skills in critical thinking, creative problem solving, writing, research, teamwork, planning, public speaking, and apply their knowledge to real world scenarios like you saw earlier. Now through this presentation, we will demonstrate how we are incorporating this into our curriculum and our instruction. And we will also share with you what steps we are taking to progress our students forward. So let's begin with our ELA level, our elementary ELA instruction. So
029first of all, thanks to your support, our elementary teachers have continued access to the HMH inter-reading thematic modules and skills-based resources that revolve around the explicit and repeated teaching of increasingly complex topics. However, while the students are being challenged in order to promote their literacy growth, they enjoy literacy because the students have the opportunity to complete their choice of creative projects and writing assignments. They also read engaging texts that honor our diverse student population by representing a wide variety of cultures and perspectives, thus enhancing their cultural competence and their global perspective. To provide our youngest students with the strong foundational skills that are essential for long-term engagement and growth, we are continuing to provide explicit, systemic, and cumulative foundational skills instruction mentioned earlier. Through this, our students are taught how words can be broken apart
030and put together. In addition, in writing, students write daily to develop their writing skills and their creativity and their voice. This, of course, includes explicit instruction in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Moreover, as you can see here, this and all elementary instruction is integrated and provides students with a balance of print and digital resources necessary to develop our students' digital literacy. On this slide is a portion of the third grade integrated curriculum grid. And as you can see at the top, the core area instruction is explicitly interdisciplinary. And at the bottom, you can see how we have added keyboarding resources to facilitate our students' ability to complete digital writing tasks, which are becoming increasingly digital only. A few minutes ago, we listed the research. We talked about the benefits of the capstone experience. And here you
031can see that in middle country, our students' capstone experience starts with building the student's inquiry and research skills in kindergarten and culminates in grade five through each student's self-selected research-based capstone topic. project to support the fifth grade students with their culminating capstone project a scope and sequence is embedded within the fifth grade curriculum throughout the year as you see on the left helping our teachers meet the rigorous New York State demands our three elementary ELA literacy coaches and our ELA committee members who provide our teachers with targeted ongoing support guidance. Our literacy coaches meet individually with each of our teachers to help them effectively utilize their available student performance data to meet their students specific needs. These coaches have also created a Google classroom to house helpful resources and information for the teachers and at
032the kindergarten level the kindergarten teachers from both centers gather under the direction of their coach to learn and collaborate at two after-school professional development workshops and to provide additional ongoing support and professional development. Our ELA committee members work diligently throughout the year to update the ELA curriculum, to post helpful resources for the ELA teachers in the grade level ELA classrooms, and to provide their colleagues with turnkey professional development that happens throughout the year. Our assessments also support our work because they provide our teachers with evaluations of their students' writing, insights that enable them to target their instruction, as well as the specific information that helps us assess the effectiveness of our curriculum and our instruction. Here you see our grades three through five New York State ELA exam participation rates from the years 2023 and
0332024. Last year was our first year of the New York State Computer-Based Testing Administration in all of those grade levels, grades three through five. Our overall participation rate is still low, so we continue to rely on the data that we can access through the various district-level assessments that we receive through your support. However... The participation is increasing, so we are incorporating into our ELA instruction more explicit strategies that will promote more New York State test readiness for our students. These are strategies like mastering text-based multiple choice items and responses to on-demand writing prompts, as well as utilizing more digital literacy tools that help students gain comfort and proficiency with computer-based assessments, as I just mentioned, that are becoming increasingly utilized at the state and national level. levels. As you can see here we have a
034wide variety of printed and digital ways by which teachers can assess their specific ELA skills and content at the elementary level. Just like New York State demands these assessments enable us to identify what our students need so we can provide the target instruction necessary for each child's literacy growth. Through I-Ready, our teachers can easily measure our students' key literacy skills in phonological awareness, phonics, comprehension, and vocabulary, and they can easily access the instructional resources they need to address the students' needs through individualized conferences and small group instruction. And in addition to iReady, teachers also utilize assessments that are available through our HMH inter-reading program. While available in print or digital form, the digital assessments help promote our students' digital literacy, and teachers have immediate access to informative student performance data reports, as you can see
035in the middle image there. Also, through HMH, students develop their writing engagement and skills for all types of writing as teachers enjoy access to a wide variety of writing assessment resources, such as this narrative writing prompt and this rubric. As you can see, we already have in place much of what New York State recommends, and while we are still adjusting to the many curricular changes we have made, we are happy to see that our students are growing. For example, based on our Rigby and I Ready data, our students in kindergarten through grade five have demonstrated increases in reading proficiency. However, there is still a lot of work that we need to do if we want to see that all of our students are meeting our grade level literacy expectations. Overall, we are striving to increase
036our proficiency levels and build our teachers' capacity to support each student's growth. To meet our goals, we are continuing to utilize our literacy coaches and our ELA committee members to support our teachers' continued use of the HMH and... i-Ready resources to measure our students progress and promote growth through small group and individualized instruction. Also, we have added more special education teachers to our ELA committee, so we can help ensure that our self-contained special ed teachers can best support their students literacy needs and to ensure that students grow into confident and proficient readers and writers, we are continuing to provide the students with daily writing instruction coupled with targeted support or whatever enrichment they may need. We also motivate our young writers through celebrations such as our district-wide literacy and humanities expo events, which reminds me...
037That's little Diana right there. Mark your calendars and start planning your costumes, if you're up for it, for the 10th Expo anniversary. This year we're calling it Middle Country Through the Decades. This is being held at Newfield High School from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m. on Monday, March 24th. So we hope you'll all come, join the fun, and help celebrate our young readers and writers. Next, let's see how we are aligning our middle school curriculum instruction with the New York State standards and research-based best practices. Like at the elementary level, the middle school curriculum and instruction is strongly aligned with the next generation standards, science of reading research, and New York State graduation goals. Our skills-based curriculum and thematic units of study promote our students' growth, encourage student collaboration, expose students to high-interest, diverse, and increasingly
038complex texts, and address the students' specific writing and reading needs as they prepare for success in high school and beyond. To build upon the incredible research and inquiry foundation established through our elementary capstone project program, the ELA department has established a middle school research scope and sequence that requires that every ELA student complete increasingly demanding research reports in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. The big six capstone research steps, use of digital research tools, and writing skills are reinforced through these yearly experiences. In addition, our eighth grade teachers begin the school year with a mini research unit that provides the students with reinforcement and the foundational research skills and knowledge that they need in order to successfully complete their grade eight National History Day capstone projects in their social studies classes. Also, thanks to your continued
039support, our middle school teachers are using powerful research-based instructional resources such as StudySync. Through StudySync, our students get to read a wide variety of diverse, engaging texts and learn through integrated units that help them see the interdisciplinary connections that exist, as well as the ties that these units have to their own social-emotional development. To promote our students' reading and writing growth, teachers have access to assessment tools that challenge... our students with standards aligned questions and provide our teachers with detailed reports on their students progress. And here we have our participation rates for 2023 and 2024 at the middle school level and like at the elementary level last year was our first year of the computer-based testing in all middle school grade levels and as you can see our middle school participation rate still remains low
040so we continue to rely on the data that we can access through the various district level assessment tools that we receive through your support however in anticipation of our middle school participation eventually increasing we are incorporating into our ELA instruction more explicit strategies that will promote our students test readiness so they're successful in digital assessments moving forward. These are strategies as I mentioned earlier like mastering multiple choice test related items, responses to on-demand writing prompts, as well as utilizing more digital literacy tools that help students gain comfort and proficiency with computer-based assessments like the SATs. But here's, like I said, we rely heavily on in-district assessment resources that you have helped provide. So here is a list of those assessments that teachers use as a part of an ongoing cycle that informs instruction and promotes
041student growth. So our students are well prepared for the administration of the ELA state assessments, as well as for the demands of the Regents exam and AP exams in high school. As you can see at the middle school level, we already have in place much of what the New York State research-based initiatives advocate, and our assessment data is showing growth. For example, based on our iReady data, our students in grades 6 through 8 have demonstrated reading proficiency growth, and through our writing assessments, we are happy to see more students demonstrating strength in their text-based writing responses and with their research projects. However, we will not be satisfied until all students are meeting their growth and proficiency targets. So we are continuing to enhance our effective use of the research-based strategies and resources that we have
042as a result of your support. We are providing our middle school ELA and reading teachers with ongoing targeted professional development so they can effectively utilize these resources to provide the rich engaging instruction that our students deserve, measure our students progress and promote our students growth through small group and individualized instruction. Also common writing assessments are being administered to ensure that teachers are recognizing and addressing their students specific writing needs. And finally in addition to engaging in a cycle of identifying and addressing our students literacy needs and interests teachers are learning more ways by which they can promote the students effective and ethical use of digital tools to ensure that they are prepared for the demands of the 21st century and now let's discuss our high school ELA program are you excited that we're getting to
043the end of this because you know there's a present coming all right Like at the middle and elementary levels, our high school ELA curriculum and instruction is fully aligned with the next generation standards, science of reading research, and are designed to promote our students' academic, personal, and interpersonal skills. The next generation ELA standards and College Board course descriptions explicitly outline the skills and concepts that students need to understand by the conclusion of each course. Study circles provide opportunities for students to address grade level and course needs. And during after school department, meetings teachers have an opportunity to engage in district-wide collaboration and receive professional development regarding research-based instructional strategies here you see a list of our high school ela courses while elective offerings have been streamlined to accommodate budgetary considerations we maintain a robust selection
044of elective offerings that continue to promote the students capstone skills And while it's exciting that, what is exciting is that we're in our 11th year of the Capstone Initiative after having had all the students within the first cohort of seniors graduate with a Capstone requirement. In ELA, students develop strong research, writing, and speaking skills in all of their core ELA classes. And then through the ELA Capstone courses, the electives, AP seminar, public speaking, and sports media lit, students are able to further strengthen those skills as they pursue their areas of interest. Like at the elementary and middle school levels, our teachers truly appreciate and utilize the many assessment resources that you help provide. To ensure that our students can achieve mastery on our ELA regions, we use our common assessments and the print and digital
045assessment tools available through Newsela, CommonLit, and Google Forms. For our AP students, the AP classroom continues to offer a variety of resources, including practice assessments, which are aligned to their corresponding AP exams. So now let's talk about the data. On this slide, we have our performance on the administration of the English Regents compared to the students' performance in Suffolk County and New York State. But as you can see, while the New York State data is not available, you'll see that the middle country students have again exceeded Suffolk County in both proficiency and mastery. Also, you will notice that while our proficiency and mastery percentage is decreased in June of 2024 from the year before, so did that of Suffolk County. So our goal is to achieve growth regardless of the county trends. So the entire
046department has worked together to closely analyze the students' performance on the June Regents exam. We use the information then to guide our instructional choices. We also administered new Regents-aligned pre-assessments in grades nine, 10, and 11, and met in groups to analyze the students' performance in order to set goals and then develop. and action plan in each grade level. In January, we'll then administer mid-year assessments to determine the student's progress and then adjust our instruction accordingly. On this slide, we have the region's results disaggregated by our ESSA groups. ESSA stands for Every Student Succeeds Act subgroups. As you will see, our Hispanic white students with disabilities, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students showed improvement from the year before. However, a continuing departmental focus is to enhance the achievement of all students in every group. So
047we are using this information and more student performance data like fall pre assessments and mid year assessments and available in class formative assessments reports to determine each student's specific needs. We are also careful adding to our classroom text selections to further increase the diversity of topics, characters, and our authors so our students all feel represented and valued. When looking at our AP results from last May, you will see that in all of our AP courses, our students outperformed New York State in mean score and percentage of students achieving a three or above. We also saw an increase in our enrollment in all three courses last year from the year before. However, we are always striving for growth, so we closely analyzed our AP data to determine last year's specific performance strengths and weaknesses in each
048course, and we administered pre-assessments this fall to determine our present students' needs. So as you can see here, our high school ELA program has a lot to celebrate. However, we are well aware that we still have a lot to do. As mentioned earlier, our focus is on increasing our students' mastery levels, and because we want to see our students challenging themselves by enrolling in the most rigorous courses, we are also working to see increases in the number of students choosing our AP classes and succeeding on those AP exams. Finally, with the teachers' continued access to engaging research-based resources, we want to see that all high school ELA teachers are effectively utilizing those resources to engage all students, target our students individually, needs and help them develop a strong sense of belonging within our community. All
049goals that are aligned with the next generation ELA standards, the science of reading, and what research is telling are the attributes that are associated with our students academic, civic, interpersonal, and personal success. To accomplish these goals, we are providing ongoing research-based professional development at study circles, after-school department meetings, and through individual conferences to facilitate the use of teachers' available resources to promote their growth and the students' love of literacy. Also, to ensure that our students are developing into strong writers, we are engaging our students in frequent print and digital writing practice and support, administering common writing assessments, and closely analyzing the students' performance in writing to propose. about their writing growth. We sincerely appreciate this opportunity to share with you the ELA department's accomplishments, goals, action plan, and how we are working together to use
050research-based practices and resources that we believe will help our students thrive. We end our presentations every year with the Middle Country Mission Statement because it all begins with the Middle Country Mission Statement. Hopefully you saw evidence of this through our students appreciation demonstrations earlier the recognitions that you saw prior to my presentation and then through this presentation itself i also hope that you all know how much we appreciate all of you volunteering your time and showing your ongoing support even when times are tough so here finally is the present part of your presentation thank you and so you can put this on when you're having a bad day Just remind you of why we're all here and what you're doing what you're doing is a printout of this photo for you. Any questions? Do any
051board members have any questions for Dr. Siegel? No? OK. Well, thank you very much again for everything. You did an outstanding job. Thank you. Board commentary, Mr. Halleck? Oh, yeah. I just want to I'm sure everyone's going to jump on it too. I just want to thank Dr. Cook and everything that she did for us tonight. This is one of the best days of being a board member when those presentations come out and you get to see all the students and all the hard work. And they directed towards us and give us a thank you. So just thank you very much for everything. Thank you to the MCTA for giving us a big thank you last week. It's just rewarding to see. We work hard here. All of us up here are constantly involved and
052taking a lot of time out of our day to make our community better and our school district better. It's just nice when we get that thank you from everybody. So thank you. Thank you. Ms. Mann-Rodriguez? Just a second, Mr. Halleck. Thank you, everybody, for tonight. Definitely one of my favorite nights. It's just amazing to see, you know, what the kids are working on and I appreciate all of you. I know that we work, you know, hard for this district that we love and appreciate and we just want to see these kids shine and that's our common, you know. goal and I appreciate each and every one of you and I just love seeing you know everything come full circle and it makes you realize that why you give up time from your families and why
053you leave work early and why you you know even though you're tired you come here and you do the work because you know that you know we believe in our kids and that's it. So I appreciate each and every one of you. Also, I just wanted to mention that last week I had the pleasure of attending Hispanic Heritage Night. It was amazing. It was at Newfield High School, sorry. Center H High School, sorry. I'm getting everything confused. And apparently it was the 17th anniversary of the program, and that is just amazing. And it was just fantastic. There was food, there was dancing, there was poetry. It was... really just amazing and just seeing all members of the community come out and support it was just great and i love this district and i love our
054community and i i love doing this work so that's all thank you miss haggerty Deb, that's a hard one to follow. But I do share so much of your sentiments, including the love that I have for this community. I've always felt that it is the people that make this community and the students that we saw tonight and those that we did not see tonight who make up this wonderful school district. I know I concur with you that all our energy goes into... delivering the best possible product to our students, and we couldn't do it without the assistance of many of you in the room tonight who take that to fruition and deliver the best possible education that middle country students can receive. So right back at you. Thank you. We appreciate all of you. Thank
055you. Ms. Barisi? Well, I don't want to repeat what they were saying but also too I want to thank everybody for what they do if it wasn't for the amazing staff that we have and the amazing programs that we offer our kids just to listen to them picking those topics I don't even know what they are and I want to tell you if I had to take a math test to get into this board I'd be out But it's amazing what we do and we should be so proud of this district and our children And thank you to all of you for what you do. Not only with the sports, I went to the competition for the cheerleaders and the people that were there. And the way they put their all into everything that they
056do. We're so proud to be here. And this work is nothing. This is fun. Thank you. Ms. Walsh? I just echo the sentiments of everyone who spoke before me, and I do want to thank everyone for the last couple of weeks of all the board recognition and the appreciation you all showed to us. It's very much appreciated, and again, thank you all for all the work you do, all of you. Thank you. Ms. Feldman? I want to thank everybody for the recognition, but I also would like to say that we've had the honor the last few weeks to meet with our secondary students. First, I want to thank every parent who lets us spend time with their kids. And then I want to thank the parents for how wonderful these kids are. They were amazing
057people. And they brought up situations they'd like us to handle. And they do it so much nicer than I do. They're just so kind and smart and loving. And people say we don't get paid for this. But I have to tell you, seeing what they did tonight. showing me how to do a math problem. I still am not understanding the ABC one enough. Three of them tried to help me. But I'm so proud of every one of the kids, and that's how we get paid. So thank you, everyone, for everything you do for our kids. Thank you. Mr. Feeney? I want to also thank everybody, Dr. Cook, the directors, the teachers, and the students were amazing tonight. Their presentations were fantastic. It was very heartfelt. And as a remedial math student, I'll never get it,
058but thank God she was there. I, too, just want to thank everybody, and I also want to shout out to Ms. Mayorkas. Is that how you say her last name? I think it's Mayorkas. I apologize if I'm not saying it correctly. Yes, the mindfulness. I just love that. That is my wheelhouse. And I remember a couple of years ago, she had started an initiative with just within her class that you could write a feeling or something and just leave it in, I believe it was a box or a bag. And it was just so impactful. And I remember her and I having that conversation. And then to see her tonight, how it's a district-wide initiative and how... In the middle school, they have that time, that 10 minutes in the morning. And all the students
059that I was around said how important that was. And just to kind of come in and take a deep breath and then start their day and let go of anything maybe that might have been bothering them or they forgot to do. So I want to give her a shout out because she's been. wanting that initiative and starting it on the classroom level and now it's district or at least in the I should say it's in the elementary middle school so I want to thank her and thank everyone else for all that they do for us and I want to thank my fellow board members you know without any without you I would not be able to be in this position I'm in and help accomplish a lot of things so I thank you because you
060all put in a lot of time and I appreciate AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. SO THANK YOU. WE HAVE MINUTES FROM OUR REGULAR MEETING ON OCTOBER 16TH AND OUR SPECIAL MEETING ON OCTOBER 23RD. IF THERE ARE NO COMMENTS OR EDITS, WE'LL ACCEPT THE MINUTES AS THEY ARE. I NEED A MOTION TO ACCEPT THE CONSENT AGENDA. MOVE IT. INSTRUCTION, QUESTION, COMMENTS? I JUST HAD A QUESTION. A question on academic intervention services. Are we missing any students that we need to service through that process? Because it's kind of a hit or miss whether they're going to get that attention, correct? There's a variety of assessments we use to identify the students who require intervention. So through that process, the principals have a data team that reviews the needs of each student that's brought to them. and selects
061the correct interventions for each student. So it's a pretty robust process. We feel really good about it. So I don't know that I can guarantee you we never miss a student, but we try real hard, and we do review students periodically throughout the year. So once a student begins AIS, it's not a permanent assignment. We review that student's progress, and then some students are cycled out and others are cycled in. At some times, those caseloads are larger, and other times those caseloads are smaller as the needs of students change. Thank you. Pupil personnel, services, questions, comments? Personnel instruction. Personnel classified. Finance. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Superintendents report. 24-10-SR-11, New York State Health Care and Mental Hygiene Worker Bonus, HWB program. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. POLICY 24-10-PO-2, SECOND READING OF
062THE FOLLOWING REVISED DISTRICT POLICIES, 2160, SCHOOL DISTRICT AGENT, OFFICER AND EMPLOYEE CODE OF ETHICS, 5500, STUDENT RECORDS, 9645, DISCLOSURE OF WRONGFUL CONDUCT. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR? OPPOSED? Motion carries. Correspondence, you know the drill. Please check your emails, RSVP if anything changes, whether you need to not be able to attend or you can attend now, just let myself or Stephanie know so we can let the buildings know. Unfinished business, new business, Board of Education Committee reports. Mr. Feeney. Yes, the Educational Advancement Committee met today. ELA Director Curie Siegel presented the extensive overview that she did today of the ELA program and all the interventions that are taking place. Guidance Director Mark Palios provided the committee with an update on the district and building attendance committees. He indicated that the attendance rate of our students is improving.
063On the elementary level, 21.3% of our students... have chronically are chronically absent down from 31.4 percent in 2021 school year on the high school level the rate is 17.5 percent down from 33.7 percent in the 2021 school year there were also 204 home visits by our social workers during the course of the last school year Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Singer then provided data on the number of students that were denied credit and the amount of students who appealed those denials. The committee had an extensive and very vigorous discussion on this topic and agreed to look into the appeals process and the application for the next meeting. Oh, the consistency of its application for the next meeting. That's the word. There was also a request for the attendance policy of other districts and how they addressed the
064matter of denying credit to students. Any other reports? That's who is on. So the Pride PTSA met on October 21st, and we discussed the LGBT workshop 101 at Newfield High School at the next Pride PTSA meeting, and that will be on November 18th, and the next LGBT. 201 workshop that will be held at CenterH on February 10th, 2025. We also discussed bullying in schools in terms of DASA complaints and we discussed if the students, parents, and faculty really concretely know the process of making a DASA complaint and the purpose of it. We also discussed how to better promote Pride Month in June and what activities and events could take place that still work in progress. We discussed ways in which we can increase membership. And as I said before, the next meeting will be on
065Monday, November 18th at 7 p.m. at Newfield High School. Also, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee met on yesterday. no the day before yesterday so october 28th and uh we started out by identifying the thrust that we would like to um concentrate on throughout the year uh we first started with speaking about rounding out the dei policy for the policy committee um to take a look at and you know possibly approve we also discussed how we can get the most out of our parent committee and um how we can structure it and reshape it just to meet the needs of the um committee and we also talked about increasing parent engagement whether that be through building representation principals reaching out to parents asking if they are interested in being part of the committee and
066we talked about including older secondary students in the discussion to learn the local needs So, and I'll take a page from Rachel. So, instead of just having the parent committee, we spoke about expanding this to the community stakeholders committee. So, the committee would like to send out an interest form via Connect Ed Style. Text message blast and include dates for the two meetings which are TBD still yes TBD and will hold this One in the winter and one in the spring the objective for this group would be for us to present our district goals around DEI and get feedback Then we'd have time to consider their ideas and implement with the intention of reporting back during the spring meeting Writing that any other liaison committee reports follow-up board discussion Public input there was none last
067meeting so we have no response of their public meeting on public input this We have one speaker this evening. I'm miss Pizzo Although miss Pizzo has been here before I just want to reiterate that you have three minutes to speak I will keep the time let you know when your time is up And please just conduct yourself in a civil manner. If you wish to speak about individual matters, please direct it to the superintendent. Please don't use any personnel names or student names. Additionally, the Board of Ed, this is a public meeting and not a public hearing, so the Board will not respond. Please know that the Board of Ed does not permit public input during. I'm sorry. And, of course, if there's any follow-ups, you'll be responded to by the Board of Ed or
068anybody that needs to address the issues. Thank you. Thank you. All eight of you stated comments that go back to why I'm here tonight. It's my understanding that last night New York State Department of Education gave a presentation on the regionalization of our school districts. Their plan was published back in September, and it was put into the register. So I'm concerned about this because... As we learned during COVID, regulations need to be followed. So this claim that this is an emergency ruling is concerning to me. We are looking at another misuse of power by our state government again. As a community, we've elected all of you onto this board. As a community, whether we've chosen to vote for you or not, we are standing behind you as a board. So it's concerning to me that...
069New York State wants to take the power of our community to make choices for our children and your heart is here because you wouldn't be sitting here. I'm here as a parent and as an educator. We had a group of teachers that were here because this is their other home. They care about our kids. I'm not here just about our students. I'm here about our staff, about our board. What are we as a district going to do to prevent? BOCES taking over and overseeing everything. We need to come together. We need to send a letter up and we need to speak out. We can't let this happen. We are a community that brings a very strong, powerful group of staff members together to look at what our students need. You give my children and every
070other student in this district a quality education. I don't want that taken away from your control. It's important to me. And it's very sad to learn that most of our community members are completely unaware that this is being done. I know that this was done quietly. I know that for many people that sit on boards, not just here, because I do have family members that sit on school boards in this island, not many people even knew there that are sitting on school boards. That's alarming to me. At this point, I am going to ask that our board consider. joining the other Long Island districts that have spoken out and sent letters up, and asking for at least more details be given to us before any of this is forced on us. As a community, we
071need to come together not only for our students, but our staff, teachers, principals, our social workers, all of them. They give everything to our children. They deserve us to fight for them because at the end of the day if this is gonna happen What happens to their contracts that we have with them as a district? What's gonna happen to our teachers? People are gonna force them out because other people have more seniority because I don't want that I Want the control here? So we know that our children are getting what they need from us as a community I'm asking you to please look at this Please make sure that our community knows what's going on and we need to stop it. We can't We voted you all in to represent us our children and make
072decisions to support our children. Please consider this. Thank you Thank you. I Need a motion to adjourn second Oh our pub our first are you want to explain our procedure is you have to be here beforehand to sign up before our meeting starts if you have something in writing if you want to give it to us and then we will pass it through the board and the cabinet, and then someone can respond to you. OK. I apologize for that. You're more than welcome to come back to the next board meeting if you'd like to speak at public input. But you need to sign in prior to the board meeting starting. Excuse me? November 20. I need a motion to adjourn. Move it. All those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening.
073Thank you.