Middletown City School Board Meeting 04-10-2025

001Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Middletown High School and the April 10th, 2025 meeting of the Large City School District of Middletown Board of Education. At this time, I'd like to remind everybody that this agenda was prepared in advance of tonight's meeting. The final agenda for tonight's meeting is subject to change at the time of the meeting. Any changes will be noted at the time they are made and again after the meeting on the public board minutes which are available on the district's website. So I'm gonna hand it off to our student rep, Norma Aviles for our Spanish translation. Esta agenda fue preparada antes del reunión de esta noche. La agenda final para la reunión de esta noche su... a cambios en la momento del reino cualquiera cualquier cambio se antora en el

002momento que se realice in a moment a después de la reunión la actores de la junta public public a que estan disponible in a sitio web del distrito Thank you. And we'd like to remind everyone that translation and interpretation services are available during the meeting. And if you need assistance, please let us know and we'll be more than happy to accommodate you. Thank you very much. I know that's not an easy job for sure. At this time, if everybody could please rise and remove your hats, face the flag for our Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr. Freddie Williams. And if everyone could please remain standing for a couple of moments of silence for Mr. Perino and Ms. Romero. Thank you so much, President Estrada. The first moment of silence this evening is for the... people,

003the individuals who lost their lives in the Dominican Republic, 184 people at the last count. Not only a tragedy for those people, but for the families of these individuals. I'm sure they expected them to be home, and unfortunately that did not work. We have a number of families in our district who are from the Dominican Republic, and very possibly they have relatives who were somehow affected by this tremendous disaster. So I'm going to turn the mic over now to Mrs. Romero. Thank you. We're up to 228 lost lives and 100 people still missing. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the tragic loss of life in the recent collision in the Dominican Republic. As a Dominican, this loss hits home. My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and everyone affected by the

004devastating event. Thank you so much. Thank you. Another very quick moment of silence, Ed. Recently, as a matter of fact, this afternoon, a helicopter went down in the Hudson River, and there were six people on that who apparently are not with us anymore. So again, please remember these people also in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. And now for the mission of the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, Mr. Redd. We strive to provide fiscally sound educational opportunities in a safe environment that continuously supports our diverse student population. We will enable all students to graduate to reach their full potential to become lifelong learners and to be competitive, productive members of society. Roll call miss Monterey. Mr. Estrada. Yeah, mr. Moore. Yeah, mr. Perino. Yeah, mr. Rhett Miss Romero. Yeah, miss Tobias in Mr. Freddie

005Williams pastor Williams. Yep. Mr. Mitchell Williams. Thank you I need a motion to approve tonight's agenda so moved moved by pastor Williams seconded by mr. Bison all the any discussion All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We have 8-0. I need a motion to approve the minutes of both March 20th, 2025 and March 27th, 2025. So moved. Moved by Mr. Moore, seconded by Mr. Freddie Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. I need approval for administrative personnel memorandum 19A, numbers one and two. Move by Ms. Romero, seconded by Mr. Redd. Any discussion? All those in favor? I'm sorry. You may. Is that on the administrative side? Yep, go ahead. Good call, Ms. Tobiasen. We want to congratulate Ms. Nicole Brookens, who's here this evening on her tenure.

006Ms. Brookens, why don't you come up? And if you want to go to the microphone, but before you speak, we'll actually have to take the vote first. So all those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. Congratulations. Congratulations. And if you'd like to say a few words. Microphone. You got to put the microphone on. Is it on? Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for this. Thank you, Superintendent Creeden, Assistant Superintendent Adoma. Much appreciation for this grand honor. I would also like to thank my Twin Towers staff, my building administration team who is here tonight. Just appreciate their ongoing support. And most importantly, I would like to thank the students and the families of Twin Towers. who I have the honor and the privilege of serving each and every day. So thank you so very

007much. Congratulations. And we'll more formally recognize Mrs. Brookins, other administrators who have received tenure throughout the year, and our educators who will be receiving tenure at a special meeting later this year. What's the date, Mrs. Crawford? June 5th, thank you. So June 5th, we'll have our tenure celebrations. Mr. Perino. Thank you. You know, Ed, Denise and I are assigned, so to speak, to Twin Towers. And I want to say that Ms. Brookins does an excellent job there as far as the staff goes and as far as the students and the curriculum and so on. And as we all know, Twin is going through a construction period, and that's not easy. Believe me, I've been through a couple of them at that building. But they're doing it staff is doing it staff is hanging in there

008and the administration is extremely positive all the Administrators at the building so I can't say enough about how well that building has been running this year Thank you. I'd like to say something as well I believe that Ms. Brookins is vested, she's committed, she's amazing, and I'm very happy to work alongside you. This is very well deserved, and congratulations. Congratulations, Ms. Agada. Moving on to action item B, instructional approval of personnel memorandum 19B, numbers one through 13. I need a motion. Move. Moved by Pastor Williams, seconded by Mr. Perino. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. I need approval of personnel memorandum non-instructional 19C numbers 1 through 9. So moved. Moved by Mr. Moore. Seconded by Mr. Rett. Any discussion? I'm sorry, 1 through 10 is the motion. Motion by

009Mr. Moore, seconded by Mr. Rett. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. I need approval for financial memorandum 19D1-9. Moved by Pastor Williams. Seconded by Mrs. Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. I need approval for special services memorandum 18E numbers 1 and 2. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams. Seconded by Mr. Moore. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. I need approval of change orders 13F, numbers 1 through 2. So moved. Moved by Pastor Williams. Seconded by Mrs. Romero. Bill, do you want to say a couple words to the change orders? Yes. The two work orders tonight. reflect the first one is to relocate an existing fire dampers and provide additional units and the second one is

010to provide additional underground piping and add a drain to the mechanical room thank you any discussion all those in favor aye any opposed motion carries 8-0 I need approval of bid award for food service buildings cold storage expansion Moved by Mrs. Romero, seconded by Pastor Williams. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 8-0. Now I have to read a resolution to approve the Enlarged City School District of Middletown with Orange Ulster BOCES, a lease agreement. at Presidential Park Elementary, whereas the Orange Ulster BOCES Cooperative Board, OU BOCES, is seeking review of a lease agreement with the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, and whereas Thomas, Drohan, Waxman, Pettigrew, and Mayle LLP presently represents both OU BOCES and General Counsel, and Middletown is Special Education Counsel. Now therefore, be it resolved that

011the Board of Education of the Enlarged City School District of Middletown waives any potential conflict of interest interest that might otherwise exist and authorizes Thomas, Drohan, Waxman, Pettigrew, and Mayle LLP to review the lease agreement between OU BOCES and Middletown, be it further resolved that the board authorizes the superintendent of schools to execute the waiver of potential conflict of interest in the form on file with the district clerk. I need a motion. Move by Mr. Moore, seconded by Ms. Tobiasen. Any discussion? And for those for edification for our public, this is in regards to BOCES leasing some space at Presidential Park during the summer. It does not affect our own summer school programs as BOCES is undergoing a capital improvement project on their location in Goshen. So all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion

012carries 8-0. Board member recognitions and community updates. I'm going to hand it over a budget presentation that'll be followed by my brother's keeper and then board member community updates. But Mrs. Creed and Mr. Tuttle for our budget presentation. Good evening. Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity this evening to present the last component of the budget. Very important component revenues. We're just quickly going to remind our community each time we sit down at the table to think about programs and expenditures that were rooted in our vision and mission built on the values of collaboration trust growth and equity the budget development process is a collaborative process that involves everybody that you see up on this screen and probably a few that you don't see and truly starts as you know an opportunity to

013share space with all of these vested community agencies individuals and constituents to hear from them what they hope that a public school system brings to the school community and so many many conversations with these areas to come to the final presentations on programs and services that we believe the school district should be investing in Hi, good evening. So we'll just review our budget assumptions before we start the whole budgeting cycle. And again, the budgeting assumptions are continually, we're already planning for next year and the year after and possibly five years out for what all these mean. So we don't want to go bore you with all the details. We've already gone through a lot of these, but some of the big ones are the health insurance premiums, the teacher retirement system, employer retirement system. And

014always our tax cap is one of our biggest things. This year, enacted by the governor, is a foundation aid, a minimum of 2%. And that's where we're landed this year right now until the budget actually comes due. Whenever that will be, they just did another extension. So we're not sure when the budget will actually be adopted. So just a little bit about the revenue. So if we look at the sources that we have, we have the state aid, which is our biggest, it's almost 70% of our budget. Our local taxes, a little over 27%. And our other revenues make up about 3.2% of our revenue sources. So one of the challenges that we have in education is how much... Operating aid do we get from the state right so this this all comes together? And

015this is how this has to equal our expenditures, so we cannot It's actually backwards. We should be doing the revenue first, and then we know we can do the expenditures But the way the state is and then they keep extending the budget deadlines So we're going with their best guess they handed out Their best proposed aid on January 21st, and so that's what we're going off of right now So right now the total state aid almost 193 million dollars that's up about 1.5 percent and What they include in our aid is the universal pre-k funding so we that's not really operating aid for us So we back that out and then what we really have as our estimated aid is 108 almost 190 million dollars for operating aid. So that includes building aid, that includes

016transportation, our special aid, our BOCES aid, all the other different aids that we can actually have inside there and our foundation aid. So if we move to other revenues, that's up a little bit over almost $800,000, almost 10% this year. And that includes like interest. That's where we're seeing a little bit more revenue coming in is our interest. And we also have our cell phone utility bill that keeps rising for us. More people have cell phones and more people are getting charged the tax. So that's where we're seeing those types of revenues come in. We also have pilots that the pilot in lieu of taxes that's actually gone up a little bit this year So that's where we're seeing a little bit more money there So one of the things that we're gonna just kind

017of focus on through this Budget cycle until we get the approval at the next meeting is right now. We're not trying to use fund balance or any of our reserves So you'll see that when we get to a couple slides But it's important for us to kind of maintain that we're not using a fund balance because then we're already behind In the budget for next year, so if we use two million now we're behind in the budget next year two million dollars So the district over the past seven eight years. We've done a good job of removing fund balance in our equation So that's kind of important for us and based on what's happening in the political realm. It's important for us to have reserves For the district to maintain reserves moving forward So right

018now is our proposed revenue. As I just talked a little bit about the state aid or other revenues. And then we're looking at the local taxes. I'll go through the whole tax cap with you. The local tax is a little bit over $75 million. And this is our proposed numbers right now. Again, hopefully by the time we meet in two weeks, the state has passed their budget and we know exactly how much revenue we have. And always our goal is to maintain the health and safety of the schools, the students, the faculty, and keep all our programming intact. Right now we're looking at a proposed, this is our proposed budget right now, it would be $277,122,504. That's up about 5.5%. A lot of that is contractual money, transportation, and healthcare. a lot of our special

019needs students that need a lot of residential those prices and a lot more students are going outside of the district for those services So if we look at our proposed tax levy we talked a little bit about that a little bit over 75 million And looking at a 2.9 percent increase again waiting on the state to come back and say hey Here's some more money Maybe get us up to 3% instead of the 2% foundation aid and then we can kind of dig into what that tax cap would look like So if I go through the if you go back in previous years, we've been pretty consistent zero We actually did a five million dollar decrease in a tax levy Then we were zero that 1% last year and last year if you remember we

020came out originally at 2.49 and the government the state came back with some more funding and we're able to get down to 1% So that's our hope this year and without using any of the reserves or fund balance We'll hope to get it under 2% once we get to those final numbers from the state So here's what the tax cap looks like. So although it says 2% the tax cap formula is never meant to be Less than 2% so if you go through all of our numbers I have a step-by-step here you use last year's levy use what the governor gives you as the tax base growth So basically at the bottom our overall maximum levy increase could be three point three million dollars or four point five six percent from last year So what

021I just presented before was two point nine percent. So we're not over the tax cap which means we only need 50 plus one to go out to the voters. If we wanted to go over the tax cap, we would need 60 plus one. That would mean we'd be over 4.5% to the tax levy. So a little bit about the budget overview. Here's what we're proposing. $277.1 million. That's a budget increase of $14.5 million. A 5.5% increase. A tax levy increase of $2.1 million. And the tax levy percentage is right around 2.9. Again, these are proposed numbers, and hopefully, historically, the state will come back once they pass the budget. Put some more money in our revenues. So that's where we are with that piece and just some considerations. We have a final community presentation April

02224th We have to vote on the Middletown budget and the BOCES budget And then some things about the contingent budget rule. So if the budget fails on Tuesday May 20th We go back to last year's tax levy And then we cannot have additional budget requests. There's no equipment purchases. And the big one for us is we have to charge for facilities use. So those are all state mandates. That has nothing to do with our policies or rules. Those are state laws. So what we're looking at is the budget on May 20th. We're under the tax cap, so we only need 50 plus one. And I said before, if we were going to go over the tax cap, we would need 60 plus one. We've never done that in my years here since the tax cap

023has been alive. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thanks, Ed. So just coming up, we have April 22nd. We have a budget recap, question and answers. Times and places will be presented soon. I think the in-person will be here in the media center and virtual. Usually we do that around lunchtime. May 6th, we have the budget overview with city council. And then May 6th, the same night here at the high school is meet the candidates. And then May 12th, the BO adopts the budget in-person question and answers. So again the next meeting we have the district budget adoption and both these budget adoption so with the next two weeks It's gonna be pretty Busy for us just making sure what the the governor is going to do and the legislators and then we have a budget hearing

024May 8th and then our Election is in budget vote is Tuesday May 20th Meet the candidates May 6 7 o'clock right here in the high school media center And then Super Tuesday, May 20th. And the voting locations are three spots, the Board of Education, Maple Hill Annex, and Presidential Park Elementary School. And that's it. If you have questions about where to vote, if you're registered, you can contact our district clerk. She'll be more than glad to help you with that. So any questions? So we'll go around the table. We'll start off with Mr. Moore. Mr. Perino. Thank you for all the work you've done on the budget. I know the next budgets probably will start in September But you know looking at this budget, I think we all have to realize I don't like to

025pay taxes And I play penny plenty of taxes and I don't like it. But I think what? myself remember the public and other members have to Understand that health costs go up electricity and gas go up and Contracts go up. This is just the way it is Personally, I would like to see the tax levy at below what it is right now and I would again hope that the legislature I know there's various proposals in from the Senate and the assembly which raises the amount of state a so I get my fingers crossed on that that we can bring it to the maximum of 2% and hopefully lower but you you've done a good job on this the whole team thank you Thank You mr. Perino mr. Rhett no questions just thank you for that

026comprehensive breakdown appreciate it mr. my son nervous Nelly here With everything that's going on with the feds and the state and I'm sure you're just as concerned What would the outcome of our budget be if we did not get the anticipated revenue that we're counting on That's kind of really hard to like pinpoint because we have a lot of things that are that fluctuate in there But we usually get right around five million dollars of salary from the federal government The biggest impact to Middletown immediately would be the food and nutrition department that received six million dollars a year for the free lunch. Right. So there would have to be some really significant decisions made about how we would move that forward. the district would handle that so Really kind of not thinking about that,

027but you know that could be a reality. It's the reality What about the scuttlebutt with the state budget have you heard anything at all? And I don't know pastors been in Albany and that has he heard anything about? state aid in that Um, they extended the due date for the budget yet again. So we are anxiously awaiting what the final number will look like. I think there's been pretty common communication that districts shouldn't expect a reduction from the January runs. But what we just don't know yet is if there is an increase, how incremental that increase will be. And I think in terms of the... that the district receives either directly through the federal government or as a flow through from the state from the federal government. I think we're all watching that very closely.

028which is one of the reasons why we want to continue to push forward and present the community with a budget that doesn't use our reserves because it enables this district to walk confidently, even in some times that are turbulent, by leaning in on some spaces where we have done a good job of saving some money. And Mr. Bison, at our BOCES meeting last evening, we had a report from the district superintendent. And then we also followed that up with a meeting at the Chester School Board. And the scuttlebutt was that. We don't think Chester for instance is preparing to vote on April 24th With no expectation because now they're on a break So there's no expectation that the budget will be passed before school districts take their vote on April 24th Which is a date

029that we are mandatory by state law required to vote on the 24th because it needs to be a certain amount of days before the actual budget vote so um there is not a strong expectation that the state budget will be passed before april 24th which means we're kind of shooting blind a little bit when it comes to but from what mr tuttle mentioned um there isn't there's not a lot of controversy my understanding on the school budgets right now that the number that they have agreed to between the Senate, the legislator, and the governor, they've all kind of agreed to that. And there seems to be no controversy. So my expectation is that there might be... Worse stay where it is, but there is an expectation of maybe a slight increase over what was proposed

030in January So that would hopefully cut into that 2.9 that Mike had up on the board the only issue right now my understanding from a school perspective is Where the cell phone the state cell phone policy ban falls? And my understanding is that now they're thinking they may take that out of the budget to negotiation and actually pass legislation after the fact specific to cell phone bans. Thank you. I mean, I little apprehensive there with everything that's going on as I'm sure many others are. Pastor Williams. So I will concur with the scuttlebutt, so to say, from what I've heard. I think that we can anticipate that it's going to probably be late in passing it. However, there's a possibility of a little bit of increase. What I can say is that whatever side of

031the aisle you're on, both sides of the aisle are pro-education. And so we've been working, you know, they've been speaking about making sure, especially surrounding, especially surrounding feeding our young people. I think those are big issues right now. I think that for the state, and I think the anxiety that most people have is what's happening in Washington. And nobody has any control over that right now. So I will say this about this budget and about this budget. And here's why I feel like I feel like Mr. Perino, I want to see it below where it's at now. And I believe that we will get there because I already know, Mike, you're a genius. And so I'm not worried about that. I'm encouraged that the last two years we have not used fund balance. And for

032those who don't know that, what that means is that we have not had to dip into our savings in order for us to be able to run the district. And what that does is it gives us a cushion or a fallback position should those days come, which we probably will arrive at. In years past, in previous administrations, Mr. Perino knows, Mr. Bison knows, Mr. Estrada knows, we've had to at times dip into the fund balance to the tune of sometimes $5.5 million a year. And so it's not really a lot when you look at the total budget of... of $277 million plus, but it's significant. It's significant. I'll say this, when we went back to the days when we had to close Truman Moon, if everybody remembers back, I think that was 2013, 2014, somewhere

033around that time, when we had to close Truman Moon, even the closing down of Truman Moon only saved us $1.5 million. So, you know, it's a significant amount. So why I'm encouraged is because if we do, and we will, I have to be honest, we will run into some hard times. Hard times are going to be inevitable right now. Middletown has set itself up and you all have always done such a fine job, an excellent job in drafting our budgets. We're set up so that we can continue to do the work that we need to do to ensure that our young people, our scholars are getting the education that they deserve to have. So good job, good job. I'm looking forward to see what does come out of Albany. So thank you. Thank you, Pastor

034Williams. Mrs. Romero. No questions. Thank you for your presentation No questions or comments, thank you Thank you guys and now something a lot more lively a lot more entertaining and For us a lot, you know, the budgets important, but this is more important for us our Update on our my brother's keeper program. Who am I gonna hand this off to? We are going to hand it off to Everton Brown and Kenneth Ward who are going to come up and share some updates with us. And we have our young men joining us this evening too to highlight a recent experience. Though I won't hold the Yankee jacket against anybody. He must be a Mets fan. Thank you for having us today. It's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to be speaking before the board,

035the administration, the superintendent. and kind of let them know what we're doing and what we've been doing. As you know, this program has been around for like, this is the fifth year. And in the previous years, we couldn't really get it off the ground and get it running. I think it started well, but it kind of fizzled out, and this was an opportunity to bring it back. You know? So we... We started back in July because I'm a 12-month employee. So in the summertime, with doing my job, I have a lot of time to do some MBK stuff too. So planned it out, had everything set, myself and Mr. Ward, and it's coming together very well. You know, we have young men that are looking forward to going to college. Looking forward to doing better

036things in the community. You know, we've done food drives, clothing drives, Christmas party for the actual, the whole school. And it's, the students have brought in so much, the scholars have brought in so much into what we're trying to do. You know, we have a day on Wednesdays now that they come with... Some of them have their ties on. I usually have my tie on on Wednesday, too. And they put it together well. They put it together. It's not traditional, but it's what they like. And they look really good in doing it. So we just want to thank you all for all the work that, you know, before us that everyone put in to get this going. Good evening, everyone. I just also want to just thank everyone for their support. That's the main piece

037there. This program also trickled down to our middle school. We have our middle school, a couple of middle school fellows up here as well. We're emulating the similar things in the high school, down in the middle school. They're wearing their shirt and ties as well. We have a lot of enthusiastic scholars doing this program. Right now we are currently running a canned food drive, so at the middle school, so just start sending and dropping off canned food so that we could support our community. We also going to be coming up with going back into the elementary schools. Our MBK are excited to read to our youngsters just to let them know that, you know, reading is important. You know, education is important. So we have a lot of things that's going to come forth and

038we just thank everyone for your support. We do have a video because we just took our very first trip out of state. We took a trip to... African American Museum, Morgan State, and Howard University. And we took 24 young men down there. I can't even, like, I couldn't even imagine what happened while we was there. Like, how it came together and how different young men from different circumstances came together. And we had a board member of Freddie Williams on the trip. He was there to experience everything that happened. And it was special. It was special. So we put a video together so y'all could kind of be there with us and see what type of trip we had. And just before the video starts, one of the great things that happened while we were there,

039there was scholars that wasn't even thinking about college. They weren't even thinking about it. And now they want, like, I know one student asked Mr. Ward, do you think I can go to college? He wasn't. He was like, I want to go to trade school, which there's nothing wrong with that. But now he's thinking of college because of the exposure we gave him. So stuff like that. Another student that was going to Albany, track star here, Quilara Beatty, he's like, I want to go to Morgan. contacted the coach for him. Now the coach spoke to him and he has opportunity to go to Morgan on a track scholarship. So it's the great things that we're trying to do to effectively change our community. But let's get that video going, please. Hi everybody, my name is

040James Mays. I want to talk about my experience here at MBK. Not gonna lie, coming into this year I didn't really have no interest in joining any clubs or anything. And then one of our mentors here actually, Miss Ortiz, she convinced me to join MBK. And you have a choice, like you don't have to keep coming every single Wednesday, you don't have to, but I came one day and he brought somebody in. to speak to us about business attire and how much a tie and a button-up shirt, how good it looks to everybody else. And that really made me interested in Keep On Comin' because we're not just going there to just play around or anything. We're going there, we're learning about good things to do in life. good morals to have, you know, taught

041us how to tie a tie, how to properly shake someone's hand, you know, stand up, look them in the eye. And he also bringing people to teach us about investments and how great a higher education is in colleges. And also the trip opened my eyes too, because I, me, I was going to go to SUNY Morrisville and, you know, play football, but. I reconsidered my decision and now I will be going to Hampton University. Thank you. Yeah, I never really thought about, you know, going to an out-of-state college. And, you know, that experience opened my eyes. And, you know, having these two, this is my roommate, Jaden, having them out there and the experience, it was just all great together. It was like a family we built, a great connection with one another. Thank you.

042Hello, everybody. My name is Eden, Eden Lugo. I am a junior at Middletown High School. I also wanted to share my experience with My Brother's Keeper in general and the trip as well. So My Brother's Keeper, how I really see it is like a privilege, a school resource, and it's very essential to life. Like James was saying, Mr. Brown and Mr. Ward have gotten these people who have talked to us about life and certain things in life and have shown us. how to be met, how I see it. It's like, we're all a family. These are all, this is my brother, this is my brother. All these guys right behind me are all my brothers. We're all together, we stand together, we sit together. You know, it all goes down with all of us inside.

043But I've seen My Brother's Keeper as like, it's really opened my eyes. I heard about it last year. I didn't really have any interest in it. But seeing the people I know around school, I've seen them going to My Brother's Keeper, suit and tie, or dress shirt and tie. But like you were saying, this isn't mandatory. This isn't mandatory. It's a privilege, which is optional. It's not all about... oh, you have to do this. If you want to, you do it. If you like it, you keep going. That's about passion. That's about what you love. But My Brother's Keeper has really shown me and really impacted my life in many different ways. I have so much academic progress that I can give My Brother's Keeper the credit to getting me to the point that I'm

044at now. So I just want to give you guys a round of applause for that. But speaking on the trip, the trip was amazing. We got here early. I was actually one of the first people around. I came in, suitcase, little duffel bag, got my bag checked, went through, got yonder pouch, whatever. Then we met at the Kaja Career Center where we all left our bags in the room, ready to leave, waited around for a little wait for everybody to get there. Got on the bus that was right outside. We took a... Leprechaun bus. It was a really nice bus. It was nice. Yeah, it's like, yeah. We had a nice time. We got to the National Museum of African-American History, which we all explored. We also went to the Washington Monument and the other

045surroundings. I have a bunch of pictures on my phone. Yeah, I just enjoyed it. I had a nice time. The second day, we went to Morgan State University. It was a nice time. They have a real nice campus. It was like eye-opening. It was a real eye-opening experience, this whole trip. And Howard, I enjoyed Howard. It was a nice campus, nice environment, nice place. You get there, and it's like when you get to somewhere, and you just get that fresh breath of air. Like this was the nice place to be I didn't even think about and speaking of that I didn't even think about going to college like if you would have asked me freshman year I would have been like college like college. Yeah, I'm gonna go to school for 12 years to go

046to school for four more years Nah, that that wasn't my idea But after all this and seeing what college could bring me to and could possibly do for my life It's definitely a possibility on my mind So I just want to say that again. Thank you to everybody for everything that y'all doing. And I just want to see my brother's keeper keep going and have a great future. Thank you. We also would like to thank our mentors, Sean Bunch and Jasmine Ortiz. They were on the trip too. Thank you for the opportunity to come before you and give this presentation, kind of let you know what we're doing. We're doing a lot and we're trying to change the community around us from the inside. So thank you so much. Thank you for your time. We're

047going to do questions. You guys ain't going to get off that easy. I thought I was leaving. Mr. Moore. I'll be quick. I just want to say congratulations on the success thus far and continuing the progress that has started from the beginning and seeing what you guys are doing now with it. And definitely look forward to collaborating and being, you know, be a part of the... This journey that you guys are on so kudos to you guys and appreciate everything that you're doing Mr. Perino Thank you so much for doing what you're doing and I want to congratulate all the young people up there You're doing a wonderful job. You look very very professional this evening and What you've said that verifies and justifies this program I can't say how pleased I am to hear

048some of you speak tonight. Nice job all around. And I think next year I was talking to Mr. Moore, and he'd like to be involved in the program also. So, again, good job, and keep it up. I'd like to see, if possible, some people choosing a... educational career here maybe come back and teach in Middletown. I think that'd be wonderful. Mr. Rhett. Yes, great presentation. Been involved with the program over the last three years and I'm excited to see the progress. One of my takeaways is we talked about this but I'm really excited about how we trickled it down from the high school down to the middle school and as Mr. Ward said we're looking forward to even bringing it down to the elementary level. It's so important to be able to let kids see

049this type of progress. I'm going to talk later about what I saw at the Capstone celebration because it aligns with that as well, how we're setting goals at early levels and kids are getting that light bulb moment about, wow, I can do more than what I see in front of me. So I'm really excited about what you guys are doing and great job. Thank you, Mr. Rapp. Ms. Tobiasen. One word, encouragement. But I have to tell you, Mr. Brown, you know, Mitch is trying to convert me to rap music. So I thought perhaps you might have that little presentation. I did. I put that music in thinking of you from rap. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Tobias and Pastor Williams. Go ahead, Norm. I was going to say. My apologies. Don't forget. To save you

050for last. You got to keep interrupting me. Feel free to say, Mr. Estrada, you forgot about me. It's fine. But before I say anything, I would like to give like a little, just a little thank you to tell you the 24 students that went to the. Washington trip. The names are Amir Armstrong, Jason Cortez, Kendall Surprise, Kyle Williams, Amor Boquette, Lawrence Hendrickson, Devon Frazier, Tyrell Glover, Jadon Dumais, Kayla Peterson, Chausse Blackwood, Kalar Beatty, Jared Edmond, Danny Wortham, Daniel... John Baptiste, Eden Lugo, James Mays, Jaden Turcos Rivera, Don J. Clark, as well as Isaiah Dajin, Taequann Perez, Torian Kelly, Makai Jones-Bose, Joel Adoche. Adoche? Adito. Adito. Oh, sorry, sorry. I was trying to practice before coming here. No, okay, so me before going to practice every day, I'm there a little bit on the Wednesdays, and

051I see that like family-orientated group that they're in. It's just the vibes in there always feels like it's just like another family cookout. It's just another hangout. It doesn't feel like, oh, it's just another Wednesday. All the boys in there are just like, yeah, I'm here. I'm hanging out with my fellow peers. It's just another day to learn and be better and be someone different in the community. As well as like MBK, like you, Eden, saying that it has helped you progress academically. That's something that we should very much like give a round of applause to, which I would say. Because as much as it is like just like other people would see it as an extracurricular after school, it has the brotherly, it has the academic. advantage that it helps the students to be

052better, to be that different person. And then having that exposure to go to that Washington, D.C. trip, giving everybody else that exposure, I really would like to round of applause that because it's something MBK is giving that change to every student. And then especially now having, going to the sixth grade, the middle school level as well, it's going to at least have more of a like connection that those kids now going into high school are going to be like, oh, I have another community. I have the same community. It's going to be the same, my brothers, but there's going to be seniors there as well. They're going to get that exposure once they're coming in. It's not just going to be straight to it, but at least they know what they're expected for and all,

053which is, I just love the MBK for doing that. Thank you. Ed, I just want to say one thing real quick. I want to acknowledge Jason. He's a senior member. He's been here the longest. He's also been a part of the Fellows Program, him and Amari. And, I mean, I can't say enough about Jason. I know when I saw him at least four years ago. how he was and how his leadership and how he has bought into this program and has really grown and I really applaud you. I appreciate what you're doing. It looks good. Say a couple of words. You want to say a couple of words? Thank you. Pastor Williams. So I think everybody at this table knows my passion surrounding this program. It's actually been, Ms. Brown, it's actually been seven and

054a half years, seven and a half years, just about eight years that we started this program in Middletown. And what I appreciate is that through the hardships that there was a commitment to continuing. Because it's easy. It's easy when you have hardships in a program and things don't always go the way that you planned them it's easy to give up and and to throw and to throw it away and Say and but what we what what I want to applaud our superintendent because She was committed to making sure that this program would continue and and if she wasn't If she wasn't, I was going to say something because I was committed to making sure that this program would have every chance to be successful. And it's proven that it's been successful. I want to thank

055you gentlemen for taking the baton and taking it to this level. And there's always work to do. And you guys are proving it. And we're going to keep going forward. We're going to keep moving. The term, these young men are fantastic. I had the opportunity the Wednesday before they left, the opportunity to go and sit in the room with them over at the College and Career Center and just be in the atmosphere. I don't think some people understand just the gift of presence. It is just to be around positive people. And watching them pour into young men trying to give them positivity in their lives. The term my brother's keeper is a biblical term. And it comes from the book of Genesis. And it's a term when Cain was asked, where's his brother Abel? He

056said, am I my brother's keeper? And the question is, yes. It's a question of family. It's a question of accountability to one another. It's a question of support. It's a question of watching out for one another and making sure that if I go up, you go up. And so you guys are exhibiting that. And so I want to applaud all of you that are here, all of the young men that are part of the program, all the young men that have been a part of the program from its inception. I want to applaud them. And I'm grateful that this trip to Washington was such a wonderful trip. Because now I'm going to put on my soapbox. I'm going to step on my soapbox for a moment. Because... The reality is the reality is and you

057guys got excuse me I know you probably want me to stay under the radar, but I can't The reality is is that there are there are powers That want to erase those opportunities for you there are powers that want to erase the things that you were able to go and experience there are powers that want to erase those things and And we see it we see it happening right now But even if they attempt to erase it, the experience that you have is something that you will carry. So be the torchbearers. Be the torchbearers. You carry our history. You carry your positive experiences. You carry the things that you're learning through My Brother's Keeper and through other areas within this district and within this school and in life and in this community. Be the torchbearers

058because when I see you young men, what I see is a bright future. I see a bright future. I will never subscribe to the fact that our future is not bright with our young people. We live it every day here in Middletown. So I applaud you. I salute you. And know this, I'm praying for you. So thank you. Thank you, Pastor Ryan. Ms. Romero. It's hard to follow Pastor with everything he said. But gentlemen, you look great. Nice attire, very well spoken, good posture. Amazing job. Keep doing what you're doing and congratulations. So I'm gonna make my comments next because then I'm gonna hand it off to start our board member community updates with Freddie who'll have some more things. So Pastor Williams kind of beat me to the punch, but my message is this,

059you know, Mr. Moore, Mr. Perino, Mr. Rett, all of us up here do what we do here for you guys. And knowing that we may not see the fruits of our labor or be alive to see the final results, but there is no doubt in this country that there are people conniving as we speak in Washington, D.C. and through other parts of the country, trying to erase what they feel was an embarrassment to our country. And with that, they are trying to erase history. And the only people that are going to stop that from happening are you young men and other people that are with you moving forward. You know, you're going to teach it hopefully on to your kids as you grow older. But we need action now. Right. And you guys are primed

060to be ready over the next 10 years to take the mantle and do with it what you want. However, knowing that there is going to be forces going up against you, strong forces. And the only way they will be defeated is through engagement. And what we hope to do here in this district is show you that you have power, that you have empowerment in your hands. And, you know, sometimes it's unfair that we're asking our young students to take on very serious subjects very early on in life. You know, I have a son who's... a young man with a disability. So my daughter, who's younger than him, knows that when mom and dad are gone, it's gonna be her responsibility to take care of her brother. And so it's important for you guys to understand,

061however unfair it may be that we're putting a lot of pressure on your shoulders, is that you're gonna be carrying that mantle and you need to take ownership of it. You know, there was a famous quote, and you guys probably know it better than me, because I actually saw it. I never knew the quote until I saw it on Driving Miss Daisy, that movie, Driving Miss Daisy. And there was a scene where Martin Luther King was talking about doing a speech. And he said, essentially, because I don't remember the quote. verbatim was that the disappointment wasn't in the people who were their enemies. They knew who they were. They were very loud about it. But the disappointment were in the people that didn't say anything, who were friends but didn't say anything. And so us

062not saying anything or not doing anything or not putting action to words does not help the cause. So hopefully you guys feel emboldened by My Brother's Keeper, just like Mrs. Romero is doing with Diamonds and Pearls. helping our students know that they have a voice, they have empowerment, and they can make the change that we're gonna need moving forward. So congratulations, Mr. Brown, Mr. Ward, awesome job. And you just need, you have a lot of great ears here, so whatever you guys need in support for the future, just let us know. Okay. The quote, the quote. We're gonna. The quote. Here's the quote. The quote is, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Thank you, Pastor Williams. So we're going to hand off to our board member community

063updates, and I'll hand it off to Mr. Freddie Williams. Thank you. So don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. That's my crew right there. Firstly, I would like, I call for an applause for Mr. Everton Brown, Mr. Kenneth Ward. Mrs. Gonzalez, Mrs. Ortiz, and Mr. Sean Bunch, who led the way down there, chaperoning and directing everything. So I want to give you guys a great round of applause for that. They kind of gave me a pass. I said, you know, which group is mine? And they were like, oh, no, you're a board member. You kind of just shadow. And I was like, that's fine with me. So this was an amazing trip. I had a little schedule hiccup. that didn't stop me from going. The thing was I had to fly back a couple hours early,

064cut my trip short for something for my son, an event for my son. That didn't stop me from going with these guys, right? We all sacrificed something in time and it wasn't even a sacrifice. This was one of the best trips I've ever been on, ever. As an adult, as a kid, I see myself, I see my son, I see my dad, I see my brother in these guys. Everybody has something special about them. One moment that really stuck out in my mind, I think it was our second night. You know, we're just in the lobby. You know, we're talking, myself, Mr. Brown, Mr. Ward. And just organic talk. Organically, it turned into every single scholar coming to that area. And the front desk lady said, you know what? You guys can have the conference

065room. It wasn't because we were being loud or rambunctious. It's just that there were so many of us, all 24 boys. And so we went in the conference room, and the conversation and testimony and the energy in that conference room was amazing. And I'm hearing their testimonies now. And it was happening at that moment. After they, that day, visited Morgan State that day. So that night, the guys were talking about, you know, and I hear it inside conversations. Then we went around the room. Every scholar got to talk, you know, poised, energetic, just you could see the excitement in their eyes. And that meant so much to me. That meant so much that this trip was able to. extract those thoughts. I don't know how many boys have been on a coach bus like that

066before. Something we take for granted, something so simple, right, meant so much to these guys. Well-behaved, funny. I think every one of them is funny in one way or another. I mean, these guys made me so proud to be with that group when we went out to eat, when we went to the museum, wherever we went. And they did it with class. They made Middletown. Middletown should be very proud to have this particular group go on this trip. Like I said, it was just from the start. We got down there. Weather was beautiful. The monument we started at, and then we went to the museum. The energy was the same throughout the whole trip. The laughter, the brotherhood that these kids, they said, you know, and I'm not going to say everything they said in

067the testimony, you know, in the conference room, but there was the energy of, I never thought I would talk to this kid, and now we're friends. Within one day. Within one day that happened. And that was amazing to me. So that's a life lesson, to kind of open yourself up to people, right? That was one, the first day of the trip. So, like I said, this crew right here, they set it off. This is the first MBK out-of-state trip, and I see so much more that's going to come down the pipeline with the energy and effort that's starting at the top of the directors. I say, I'm going to have to go over that a little bit, but I say that one bus can turn into two buses. Three can turn into four. East Coast

068could turn into West Coast. This was so amazing. And I was so glad that I made the trip. On the flight back, all I did, I took a flight back. I didn't take the bus. I had to get here a little faster. But on the flight back, all I was thinking about was memories of, you know, the trip. And that's how I knew how it impacted me. And the first thing I did when I seen my son is I gave him a hug and I said, listen. Stay in MBK because he's in MBK in Monhagen. So this is a testimony to Mr. Ward. Mr. Ward and Mr. Brown had a meeting the Thursday. Was it Thursday? On a Thursday, right? Yeah. About the trip. And my son came home from school. He said, Mr. Ward,

069we didn't have Mr. Ward at MBK, but let him know I have my tie on. And he showed me his tie. And I was like, so that's just a testimony of like it's becoming when it's becoming a lifestyle and it's embedded in you. This program and me and me and our pastor have been members from the very beginning. Started with good intentions. Right. It didn't really hit the ground running. We wanted it to. But it started with some good people and good intentions. And to see where it's started. to where it is now is just amazing. And I'm excited for what's to come. You know, we have, I think, the next symposium is April 30th. April 30th, right? Up in Albany. I look forward to that. These guys have a bright future. They all have

070a bright future. The way they were talking in the conference room and the excitement in their voice made it all worth it. Like, any trip that comes up... I don't care what I have to do. I'm going to make sure I make this trip for them. The same way I was there for my son is the same way I'm going to be there for these guys. So congratulations, guys, for killing it. Thank you, guys. It was awesome. Continued success. We'll continue with our board member community updates. Did you want to add any other community updates at this time, Freddie? I don't know if the pictures went up. Right? I don't think so yet. They showed pictures from the trip, but I don't know if you have other so I had pictures well I got another

071community update. Yeah, it was today. Um, well you were there the first college and career day of Mon Hagen Yeah, I wasn't playing around me and crystal got we got a connection. Um, so today at Mon Hagen middle school They had their first college and career day, which was awesome. Energy was awesome. The kids were coming in, I think, during their lunch, right? They kind of cut their lunch short. They were coming in and out, asking a lot of questions. I represented my barbershop today, so they came in asking about, you know. How to be a barber, how to become a barber. And I told him I cover cosmetology, too. So the young ladies were asking a lot of questions. Once again, great energy. They're doing a great job over there. Roxanne and Sean led

072the way with that. And it was just an amazing event. I'm due. Don't jump me, Denise and Mr. Perino. I'm due in Twin Towers tomorrow. Yeah. So. We bounce around class to class as far as the business owner and answering some questions and giving some insight. So just good things going on in the district. I can't say enough about the energy and the growth of the district and the impact it's having on our young ones. So that's what I got. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Williams. Mrs. Romero. I have some Twin Tower updates. Twin Tower Middle School has been making great strides with the Middies Love to Read Challenge. The goal of the challenge has been to encourage the scholars to discuss the book they're reading with each other. and the Twin Towers staff and

073celebrate their accomplishments. So far, they had over 100 books and talks within the first week of the challenge. For every book talk a scholar participates in, they earn a chance to win exciting prizes each Friday, including gift cards, sports apparel, and more. They also have the opportunity to win the grand prize of a Kindle e-reader, and they can also join the annual breakfast of readers. where they are celebrated alongside their families. Eighth grade scholars spent last week being transported to the stars and exploring the observable phenomena of the universe with Star Lab. Educators went through training at BOCES to bring the galaxy alive and help Demystify the source of the seasons on Earth Study the constellations and discuss how planetary bodies move throughout the solar system and larger universe and they had a great time

074Tomorrow Twin Towers will have college and career that college and career day there They will have a keynote address all the eighth graders and two classroom sessions led by 15 community members representing various fields. So that's very exciting. That's all I got. Awesome. Thank you, Mrs. Romero. For this next one, Justin, can you just let IT know not to count down the time for Pastor Williams because I'm going to have him do his Oxba and Nisba report along with the community updates now since I know you have to leave at 830. All right, well, hey, good evening, everybody. I won't report on community because there's so many things that's going on and I think that everybody else has got it covered. But I do want to, because I do have to leave shortly, but I

075do want to report out. For those of you that aren't aware, I serve in two other capacities aside from sitting on this board. I serve as the president of the Orange County School Board Association, which includes our 17 component districts here in the Orange County area. And then I think some of you are aware that I also serve as the Area 9 director for the New York State School Board Association, and I sit on the board of directors. I want to report out first for our last OXPA meeting. Our last OXPA meeting was last Wednesday. We had Mr. Shaw, who is an attorney from Shaw, Perilson, May, and Lambert, who came and had a presentation for us. He dealt with some of the... subjects that we are hotbed subjects right now, primarily dealing with DEI,

076the DEI initiatives and the things that are coming out of D.C. Also, we dealt with the coming legislation or the legislation that has been passed that mandates that all boards have student representatives now. And then he dealt with the cell phone policy and some other things along those lines. It was a very thorough, I have to say, it was a very thorough. presentation, I want to take the opportunity to invite all the board members, all of our board members are invited to Oxpa. It's not just for whoever the delegate is. It's every first Wednesday. down at the Carl Onkin Center at the BOCES campus. And so I want to invite you to come. Those meetings start at 7 p.m. We're normally out between 8.30 and 9 o'clock. So come and get a chance to know

077some of your other colleagues from other districts. I think it would serve us good to know that we're not in this fight alone. As for NISBA, I just returned on Monday night from the National School Board Association Convention. Let me pull up the information. If you could bring up, I have some pictures. I have some pictures and some things. The National School Board Association was, is, is. It's an educational forum which includes educational leaders, school board members from all over the nation. They were coming as far as California and Utah. These are just some of the pictures. This is the board. This is the National School Board Association's incoming board of directors. If you see here, I took a picture with our yonder people. They were vendors, vendors there from all over. There were so

078many subjects we had. This was one of the presentations was the crises of attendance, chronic absenteeism. And that was the first picture from Principal Mo. Her name is Ashley Moore from Baltimore, facilitated that particular session. There were sessions dealing with anything that is of concern right now. This is the question, what is re-engagement? How do we re-engage? Not just restore, but how do we re-engage? And so we had sessions from Jay Rorona, who is the retired legal counsel for NISBA, and Mr. David Albert, who had a session about deep fakes. Deep fakes I'll get back to that the Bacon Brothers the end of the the end of the day on Sunday the Bacon Brothers Came and they presented and they performed So there were so many different things that were going on. I know that

079sometimes we feel like it's good to be in our silos But it's good to get out and find out that there's so many around the country that are going through the same things that we're going through and we can learn from one another. This is... Ms. Jacobs is the executive director for the National School Board Association, a former school board member herself, the first ever former school board member to serve as the executive director for the National School Board Association. A very dynamic woman, very dynamic woman. You can go on. Again, there's, yeah, that's just me posing in front of the sign. I was happy to be there. In Atlanta, you can see all of the different people diligent board Doc's all of the different sponsors Donald Donald R. Hubler is the outgoing president from

080Macomb Intermediate School District in Michigan He's the outgoing president and has served for the last two years and very inspiring now What was really exciting for me in all of it were the student? the student performances. A little bit earlier there was a picture of the choir, thank you. The picture of a choir from, I can't remember off the top of my head, but they're from right there in Atlanta. I have a couple of videos, if you could play those videos real quick. The video of the groups. All right, this one. is because school board members work so hard, they have to unwind. This was in the exhibit hall during the downtime, and so it was a bonding time, and they bonded through dance. The Bacon Brothers. If you look around the room, there was

081at least 4,000 people in the room. The students behind them are students that were from California that learned to perform with the Bacon Brothers right there on the spot. This is the choir. And the last video is a group from California, from San Bernardino, California. I hope I sent that video. Did I? No, that's it? Okay. Well, the last group was a group of musicians from San Bernardino, California, that might as well have been professionals, keyboard players, horn players playing all kinds of R&B music. All of them Hispanic scholars who were just amazing on the instruments. And so I'll close this by saying this. While the sessions were wonderful, I had the opportunity to sit in many sessions. One session was also facilitated by our attorney. Mr. Howard Miller, who was there as well. Session

082facilitated by Dr. Sadan, who we had here in the district some years ago, back in 2020, I believe it was. Mr. Perino remembers Dr. Sadan, I'm sure. Mr. Bison remembers Dr. Sadan, facilitated a trauma-sensitive session. I wanna... say this and encourage encourage all of us as board members and for the community as well just as we expect our our Instructional staff to go through a professional development. It's vitally important for us to also go through certain levels of professional development so that we will Stay relevant to the things that are happening in education Education public education is under attack It's under attack. And we're the torchbearers. And so it's important for us to stay relevant. It's important for us to continue to learn and to grow. So I'm grateful that in the last couple of

083years that we've been able to take a larger group to the state conference for NSBA. But I don't know how we do it. I would encourage that we... that we send one or two board members to the national conference. The level of professionalism, the level of the presentations are amazing. And I don't think that anybody that goes there will come back without learning something. So I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow. I'm grateful for the opportunity to represent not just New York State, but to represent Middletown. There was nobody else. There was many New Yorkers there, but there's nobody else from this region. I was the only one. I don't want to go alone again. I don't want to go alone

084again. So that's it. There's so much more. I will send out all of the... all of the slides that I have from the presentations, I will make sure that those are made available for all of the board members so that you can review them and you can look at them, the ones that I do have. So thank you. Thank you, Pastor Williams. Thank you. Norma. Okay. Good evening. Almost. A little bit of updates. As I like to mention, I am a part of the leadership program that Mr. Donahue has. It's just a lot of students being like student class officers, many ambassadors, NHS National Honor Society. And here are updates that they have going on in the school. We have a senior class trip and possibly a senior field day. I mean, I would love

085that. COVID kind of took away minds from middle school. The junior class having prom, actually the prom nominations have closed, I believe, today at 2.40. The prom queen, the prom courts are going to be, for voting, are going to be out once we come back from spring break, I believe, April 23rd. 22nd? Yes, it will come out the 22nd. The sophomore class has a popcorn fundraiser going on. I will love some of that. Freshman class had to reschedule their talent show, and I believe the new date is May 29th, and their auditions are April 23rd and the 24th. We also have the NHS had their meeting at... induction ceremony and we I think that's it like not a lot not a lot we try to get we try to do every two weeks to at

086least get a lot of information and thank you thank you so much Norma that's awesome Miss Tobiasen Not much, but I just have to say Mrs. Creeden put a smile on my face in executive session when she told us that our robotics team for OM will be going on to Worlds. I think it's in Michigan this year. So I'm absolutely thrilled. It's been a long struggle here in Middletown, just like some of our other organizations, to make a dent in getting to the top. So we're well on our way, and I'm just thrilled. Though you did scare me with the opening sentence of, Ms. Creedy, don't make an executive session. Well, because, oh, well. Give the president a heart attack, will you? But thank you. Mr. Rett. I asked the question. How's that? On the

087way out. Okay, yes. Wonderful things going on at the high school and in the community. I have a couple of video pictures that I would like to show up here on the board. Starting with this outstanding author, Jason Reynolds. He came by and he is very transparent and open about the several books that he has written about his life growing up in inner city and just relaying some of his experiences to the kids. He had them very much involved and they was very much listening and enjoyed this experience. Couple more pictures there with that. Yeah, really had them captivated. It was, you know, just a great experience. I applaud, in particular, I believe she's the librarian. She asked him some very poignant questions, and he was very open and transparent, again, to just express how

088it was a great experience. You know, I'm a person that likes to write also, so I was able to pick his brain a little bit and got some really good information on how to move forward. with some of the projects I have. This is the personalized learning capstone celebration that was at the high school a couple days ago. It was in the lower collaborative space. And this is one of the young ladies. She's an elementary school teacher at Carter Elementary. Her name is Monet, and she was doing some really fantastic things. Just in general, this forum was awesome. You know, it was a gallery walk where... He had several different presentations going on and people just sharing a lot of information that's going on that's really hands-on, opportunities for children to learn, you know, using

089tactile and kinesthetic learning. I think one of the, well, okay. Hold on a minute. Let me finish talking about the capstone thing because that was special. And so... Again, there was a lot of experiences where there was higher level learning. You know, I talk a lot about dual intensity where kids are not just. comprehending but they're also understanding information you know and you can see from the elementary level from this teacher and a lot of presentations with middle school and high school but again I talked about that staircase of complexity where children are building on their own experiences and they're also taking ownership for their learning so kudos to this particular presentation. And I want to take the time to acknowledge the district team, but in particular, Ms. Camila Doma, the curriculum instruction person here.

090She does a fantastic job of really hashing out some really innovative new ideals of learning for our kids. So I think we should give her applause for that as well. Okay, moving right along to what's coming up down the pike. Well, okay, well, in the community. Kids are gonna be off all next week. Team Open Basketball. This is on Thursdays from six to nine. It's at the Recreation Campus Gymnasium. If you need any information, you can reach the district office. But again, one of several programs, opportunities for children to be involved and things to do while they're off. For the vacation. This is another one youth organized activities again this one here is at the Middletown Recreation Campus gym and That's going to be going on ongoing throughout the rest of the year throughout the

091summer Also, nope. No, hold on now. We're gonna finish this Let's continue. I think yeah Yeah, and then we hope that the whole community comes out on this is open for the community multicultural night here at the high school Friday April 25th It'll be a great opportunity to network and just Get experience and experience the diversity in our community and in our schools Thank you very much Thank You. Mr. Rutt. Mr. Perino Thank you, Mr. Strada. You can put my four minutes. I don't like to go over, so you can put that up there. Thank you. Okay. You know, as Kurt said, we're not only members of the board, but we're members of the community also. So at this time, we're coming into a very, very, not only a solemn season, but a very celebratory

092season. I'd like to wish all of us who are celebrating Easter, all community members, a happy Easter. Barna Pasqua. Passover begins this Saturday at sundown. So again, all our Jewish friends, a very nice Passover. And I'm going to try to say this, and I'm probably going to be wrong. Hanasemeach. I hope I got that right. I don't think I got the guttural sounds right. But again, a very happy Passover. And finally, Ramadan ended on March 28th, I believe. And I hope everyone celebrating that had a very productive and peaceful and happy Ramadan. So now let me go on to some of the school in the time I have left. You know, there's been some great musicals, great plays the past few weeks. I covered the... Matilda at the Twin Towers Middle School and that was

093done very well. You were going to play also, Don? Oh, of course, right. I'm the one on the upper left, I believe. Touché. Or upper row. But also at Menhagen, Dominicus here, The Wizard of Oz. That was a nice job. And I want to just... say a couple things about that. Great community support. The parking lot was filled. There were two performances of that. The directors of that, you can see that they put their heart into this, not only the faculty, but the students. Director Antonia Hayema, she does these all the time. Assistant Director Ryan Carlucci. Janet Andrew Coyle, artistic director, and the pit director, Francesca Carlucci. So, again, good involvement by the students. It takes a lot to put these on. You know, it's something that the kids will remember all their lives, being

094in these. The costumes were good. These sets were good, and so on. In addition to that... The William A. Carter School did a nice job with the Frozen Junior. And Frozen Junior, they tried to unfreeze the city of Arundel. And I want to give a lot of credit, again, to the parents who supported this community. Miss Renee Williams was the director. Miss Karen Shaw, the assistant director. Approximately 50 students participated in this and really you can't do something like this without the support of the parents because they not only attend but they purchase refreshments there. and they also stick with the students when the students come home late for practice. So just a nice job, a shout out to all the staff members and students. You can see this evening. We have an excellent district

095here. the students and staff and I'm done. I don't want to go over. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Perino. Mr. Moore. I'll be pretty quick. I just want to say congratulations to the Monhagen and twin modified track team. I had opportunity to see last week's track meet and today in the. Frigid weather see them perform pretty well. So I just want to give them a shout out today and that's pretty much it Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Moore. So I'll be brief as well. I I had the table for my my bank at career day at Mon Hagen. That was a great Outing I don't think we were very popular, though, because myself and the other two branch managers brought orange stress balls, and they went like gangbusters. And then when the second group of

096kids came in, one of the Monhagen teachers came up and goes, are you guys the table that gave out the orange stress balls? And my colleague said, yeah, we only have four left. Would you like some? She goes. No, I've already confiscated a few of them. Stress balls might not be a great idea for Career Day. But it was a great outing. We had a great time. The kids were engaged. Mr. Coates was there doing a Hall of Fame contest for free Subway cards. We all had a really great time. I want to give a shout out to the NJROTC that had their change of their guard this evening over at the high school auditorium, unfortunately, because it was scheduled on the same day as our school board meeting. We weren't able to attend, but

097our thoughts are with them as well. It's a great ceremony, and we'll see them a little bit later in the year for their annual event. as well. I'm going to end, you know, there is, you know, all of us here at the board, as you can see with each of our Board of Education meetings, are always pro-student. We want our students to come out. We want to acknowledge all the greatness that they do. But this message is for our students. Spring is coming. I'd like everybody to take that one week to recharge themselves for the home stretch. But please know that we probably had probably a little bit of a bump in the road over the last two weeks in our district with some incidents. We kind of acknowledge that spring is coming out. Everybody's...

098feeling the warmth of the air for the first time. But one thing we will never tolerate here is injuries to staff, whether it be food service or teachers or administrators or our security guards. So if you're a student and an incident occurs and you see adults whether it be again a food service worker a security guard administrator a teacher what have you I'm trying to do their job and protect students please take note of that all right but we will not at this table ever tolerate injuries to staff members of our district That's a no-win situation for anyone. So that's a little bit of a communication to our students to please make sure that they are respecting our staff who are just trying to do their job and make sure that there's safety in our

099buildings for all of our students and our staff. We want to keep the building safe for our kids, but we want to keep them safe for our staff as well. So please use this time off as a recharge, a refocus. trying to get to the final sprint the last 60 days, essentially, right, of the school year. But 99.99% of our students are A number one. All right, so we need to work together as a group on the .00001, who still have to be reminded every once in a while to be respectful to our staff. So that being said, we'll move on to our public participation. I'm going to pick real quick. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Perino. Nice job. I've got a bone to pick real quick. No. This kind of behavior. No. I don't care

100where the students or what the form of schools are or where they've come from. You follow our rules in this district, and that's it. Thank you, Mr. Perino. Mr. Pastor Williams. So I've got a bone to pick real quick because nobody ever invites me to the career days. There's one at Twin tomorrow. Maybe nobody wants it. Everyone thinks because I'm a pastor, that's the only thing I do. But, you know, I've got some other things to offer besides being a pastor. I'm only kidding, but it is true, though. No one invites pastors to career days. And I can't make it tomorrow, so you'll be orange stress ball free at Twin Towers tomorrow. So we'll move on to our public participation. The board will designate a portion of its meeting agenda for public comment for a

101period of up to 40 minutes. Each speaker will be allowed up to four minutes. The public is not permitted to discuss topics and their matters involving specific individuals. Speakers must sign in prior to speaking and speakers are not permitted to cede their time to other speakers. Norma. . Thank you very much. So if anybody would like to come up to the board to address the board at this time. Not you, Dr. Johnson? Not today? I did. But you're also very eloquent every time you're up there, which is why we want to make sure. Oh, don't apologize now. It's too late. Actually, I do want to remind you that we had the dedication of Fireman Joe this week. And if you want to talk about glue in the city of Middletown, this is super glue. If

102you look at the stone that is underneath the fireman, you will see it was first dedicated, I believe, in 1909. And then it was dedicated again. Fireman Joe had a respite. There was a kidnapping involved. It was a hostage situation. None of you know what I'm talking about, right? So that's really, really good. So we had a little bit of altercation with getting it redone and the contract. But nonetheless, it took a little longer than expected. Please go and see that statue. It is exquisite. It is beautiful. Please go see it after sunset. It is well lit, including the lanterns, I'm told. And it'll be around for a long time to come, and it's right in the center of town. So that's what I have to report this evening. Thank you for your kind and

103courteous attention. Awesome. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Would anyone else like to address the board at this time? Seeing none, we'll move on to, do we have any letters? No letters, thank you, Mrs. Montchere. We'll move on to our superintendent's updates with our grade six through eight legacy plan spotlights as well as our summer program preview. Mrs. Creeden. Great, thank you very much. Well, I'm really excited for this long-awaited opportunity to highlight, continue to highlight all of the awesome programming that's happening inside our school. So I'm going to invite the entire middle school team to come up to speak a bit about what's happening in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. and share their video highlight reel that will make it feel like you had an opportunity to experience all of the things that our young people

104are experiencing. Thank you, middle school team. Thank You miss Creighton before we get started I just want to take the opportunity to say congratulations again to miss Brookins on her tenure recognition tonight We're all really super proud of her the leadership. She displays every day at Twin Towers. So congratulations superintendent Creighton assistant superintendents Adomo and Tuttle President Estrada and members of the Board of Education. Prior to the inception of the Legacy Plan, there was the Monhagan experience in Wallkill, and there was the Twin Towers experience in Middletown. And what we've done over the last couple of years is the people that stand here before you have created the middle school experience. That's what the Legacy Plan is all about. Whether it's morning intramurals, daytime academics cultural assemblies after-school academics athletics and clubs We've created a

105middle school experience for all of our kids Not only did the people before you create this plan and implement it but the very talented and dedicated staffs at both buildings have played a huge part in implementing the legacy plan as well and then of course all the events that have taken place, we're actively engaged in by our scholars and our families who are huge parts of the legacy plan as well. Everybody here has been a huge support and you've all seen bits and pieces of it and what we're going to do tonight after Ms. Bricken speaks is we're going to show you not bits and pieces but we're going to give you the whole picture. So we also just wanted to say thank you for giving us this opportunity to share this with you this

106evening. And we wanted to give a special thank you to the communications team as well as the technology team, especially Brian Seaback, Paul Fox, Kevin Witt, and Jason Tomasulo, who really took the time to see what's special in our schools, our middle school highlights, and to put it together in this wonderful video for you tonight. Let's start the tape. We have something called a legacy plan and it's based on our district strategic plan. It's an action plan that the administrative team puts together and talking about areas that we felt like we needed to improve. We are all working together for the benefit of all the scholars. We are aligning our values not only with the district but with what our community has come to expect. In the media club, we produce the school news and

107we produce daily content each week. I work with Ms. Mascara and we do an after school program. So I do all the video recording pieces with them and then we send it over to the editors. We have a chief editor and we have other editors as well. It's really fun. But they are learning a lot of different skills in both the editing side and on the talent side. The Lighthouse team deals with giving scholars an opportunity to take on leadership roles. Scholars, teachers, and administrators can collaborate and talk about issues around the school. They're groups that try to make the school better. I like doing it a lot. It gives me a better chance to connect to the school and see how I can make the school better as well. The scholars present ideas and

108we're, as adults, there to support them. So at the middle school level, we offer Extended Day Institute. It is an opportunity for students to stay after school to get additional support. It's basically an extra help for students. And I really love how the school is doing that for us and how they're trying to help us improve so we can have a good future. Language Bridge is basically a program for students whose second language is English. It really creates that bridge between them and all the subject areas that they're in. Even things like physical education or if they're taking a computer science. It's a place where they feel like they can be themselves. acquire a new language, and get acclimated in a brand new place. The Passport Club is where we take our ENL students and

109we explore the country that they are from. It's creating projects to showcase different aspects of their country and they get to learn about it and then they turn around and present that project. Our scholars seem interested in representing their own culture but also learning about other cultures. Here at Middletown Schools we have a dual language program, we have a bilingual program, we have an E&L program, and we have world languages. Bonjour, je m'appelle Alina et j'adore parler français. J'ai appris à parler français pour mon voyage à Paris. We offer a Seal of Biliteracy program where scholars can show proficiency in two languages. Their language in middle school is their first step of getting their Seal of Biliteracy. To provide students with more elective opportunities, we've added civics. They show you problems of the world, solutions.

110We talk about how we can help people or like help the world right now. I feel like this class helps you build your confidence in yourself. We just want students to see they have an impact in their community but also in the world. Financial literacy starts off by scholars really digging in to understand potential jobs, careers, colleges, and then all the work that we do around financial literacy, budgeting and planning, all are based on their choices of where they want to go to school, their professions, and so they really can see the value in that. So this year we really wanted to do something different with our cultural assemblies. This year we wanted more of our scholars to take part in the assembly. For Hispanic Heritage Month, we were able to have our very own

111mariachi band as well as some other scholar-led performances with dancing and a band. We also had poetry read by some of our scholars and it was an enjoyable assembly for all. in the Black History Month assembly program. We had scholars who read some poetry. We also tagged in the high school and we had the high school step team come over and perform. We had our very own twins jazz band come. We had a professional come in to teach us a little bit about African drumming and scholars were dancing in their seats, dancing in the aisles and even went down to the stage to dance to show their appreciation for the event. We had an event where our high school scholars came to visit our eighth grade scholars and just present to them the different academies

112that there are at the high school. It's a good exposure to what we have in the district. It was nice. I think it's important to start thinking about it. Not only is it like an amazing experience, but it's also finding what interests you, what we want to advance to in the next four years. So we're always looking to find additional ways where we can really celebrate the successes of our scholars. For example, the honor wall for anybody who received honor roll or higher will post their name for their families to see. So the PTO, we got together, we decided that we wanted to find a way to celebrate the scholars who made high honor roll and honor roll. So we came up with the idea for an ice cream social. We also had an eSports

113night where the scholars came in the evening. They were able to compete in different video games. They seemed to enjoy the break from academics and coming to be with their friends and being able to have a little break from studying and also being celebrated for making high honor roll an honor roll. So we were thinking of ways on how to incentivize attendance, how to engage our scholars, connect with them so that they want to come to school. Our plan was to do it by grade, right? So we have grade competitions, sixth grade versus seventh grade versus eighth grade. Last marking period, our incentive was a movie afternoon. We did see an increase in attendance in all three grade levels, but sixth grade won. We gathered our sixth grade scholars at the auditorium. They were able

114to watch Zootopia as their prize all together as a class. So March Madness is our March incentive opportunity where grades are competing to have the highest percentage of attendance. The grade that wins will receive a little bit of extra time in the gym participating in an organized basketball tournament. Well, they'll have a little bit of fun and really kind of enjoying that experience together as a grade in celebration of what they did. Our morning basketball intramurals is offered to all of our grade levels here. It's an opportunity for our scholars to come play basketball before the school day, hopefully increasing their attendance, increasing their ability to perform academically in class. I think it's a really good program. You get to bond with other students that have the same interests as you. So one thing that

115we wanted to do with our communication with our parents is make sure that it is consistent. We started putting out a newsletter to really inform them of kind of the past, present, and the future. So what are some of the great things that have recently happened? What's coming up now? And what's coming up next? So, My Brother's Keeper is an initiative where we work with young men of color and we provide a lot of leadership skills, volunteer opportunities. Just learn how to be a young man, how to make right choices, learn how to become a leader. It's very important. I see changes in their academics. I've seen changes in their behavior. This program has really helped them to really value education. Legacy plan is a way to actualize our district vision. We put all that

116together to do better for this year. To create greater opportunities for success. This school does a really good job of giving the students a voice whenever they can. It's a very positive place. I mean it's great with leadership it's definitely gonna be even better. Merci. Bonne journée. That was awesome. Does anybody have any questions for our folks? I guess I'll be quick. I just want to say kudos to the entire team at both schools. And just knowing that the importance of middle school is... sometimes consider to make it a break of years, but with all the initiatives and the plans and the collaboration that you guys are doing is definitely instilling a positive learning environment for the students. So continue the good work and I appreciate you all. Thank you. Mr. Perino. I'll echo the

117comments made by my colleague, Drew Moore. And I want to say, you know, we have middle school educators here and middle school. I know I worked there for almost 40 years. It's a very challenging time. And it's not only challenging for the students, but it's challenging for the parents and the instructional staff and administrative staff. But you're doing an excellent job, believe me. I know I go into these middle schools. And when invited, and I see all the programs you have. So, you know, nothing's perfect. And if you deal with students, you know there are some students that don't always follow the rules as we want them to. But the vast majority of students, as Ed said, are credit not only to the district, but to the community and to the nation. So thank you

118very much again. Thank you, Mr. Perino. Mr. Rapp. Yes, great leadership, collaborative efforts between the schools. And I really like how you guys really have those extracurricular activities, how you embed them into the academic day. And it builds children's self-esteem and confidence so that when they go in the classroom, they're a little more confident. And that's very evident in what we saw here today. So great work, you guys. Thank you, Mr. Rapp, Mr. Bison. I just want to say thank you for your very informative and exciting video. It really shows our students and how... They have adapted to middle school, which, as Mr. Perino said, is a challenge. It's a transition for them out of elementary and before high school. And as I always said, and of course it's changed a lot, you know, the

119hormones are busting out all over as middle school students. So thank you for all that you do to make it such a successful experience for them. Thank you, Ms. Tobias and Ms. Aviles. I'm kind of jealous that these middle school kids have what they got. But I still, you know, you can be jealous, but at least I'm grateful that these kids can experience these programs and to become better people in their lives. Because as much as, like, when you come into high school, you're just overwhelmed with, like, okay, you have to choose what you want to be when you grow up. At least you're learning, like, life skills and, like, broadcasting, which I really love because that shows, like, another, like. Subway of of a career that kids can really want and be and enjoy

120when they grow up. It really, I see a lot of like the branching out and I appreciate that. I wish there was there. I wish that was there when I was in middle school and Ms. Brooks, congratulations on your tenure. I've seen you from like presidential and all, and then, um, Twin Towers and then to now Mr. Redonia, you too. You haven't aged a bit yet. Thank you. It's like she's running for re-election, right? Thank you, Ms. Aviles. Mrs. Romero. I just want to say stellar job to each and every one of you, and thank you for everything that you do. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Romero. Mr. Freddie Williams. Yeah, amazing job, guys. The middle school level is not easy. Norma took the words out of my mouth. I started thinking about me in

121middle school. and what was offered and i think i went to um a scared straight program one time at shawungung prison and that was pretty uh it was impactful right but everything that middletown offers is like amazing i know a bunch of um you know i run an au basketball program so and other sports so we we have some kids that come from other districts and um i hear them you know to always talk about middletown even when we went to the um Nisba Conference in Buffalo and how people just, and the one this year in the city, you hear Middletown and their eyes kind of widen and they're like, oh my God, Middletown. It's just a great feeling to see this. You can hear about it, but when you see it in videos, it's

122super enlightening. You guys are doing an amazing job. Dominic and Nicole, congratulations. You guys have an extraordinary team, would you? I'm in the middle schools often, more Monhagen than Twin, that I'm a liaison over there, but I'll be in Twin tomorrow. But yeah, just kudos to you guys. You guys are doing an excellent job and keep up the good work. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Great job as usual. And, you know, I think what's great is, you know, when we think of graduation rates and stuff like that, we think of the high school, but they don't get there until before they get to ninth grade here in this building. And you guys making sure they have that foundation before they really can then move on to bigger and better things is a testament to all the

123hard work that you guys have done in the middle grades. So we thank you very much. All right, so have a great break as well. We'll move on to our summer programs preview. Mrs. Creeden? Mrs. Adoma is going to come up and give us a sneak peek at what we have scheduled for academic enrichment, gap closing, and our camp programs. Good evening, Board President Estrada, Superintendent Creeden, Board of Education trustees. I hope I can inspire a little bit of warm weather with our preview of summer programs tonight. So we know how important it is to keep our scholars engaged. Research shows that a student of race can contribute to learning loss. Our summer programs are designed to provide enriching, fun, and meaningful opportunities to keep minds active and bodies moving. We have a variety of

124offerings that include academic support, academic enrichment, music, STEM, art, sports, and robotics. Scholars are able to explore their interests, build new skills, and stay connected with their peers. We are proud to offer over 20 programs for incoming kindergartners through 11th graders this summer. Scholars must be registered in the district in order to participate. All programs are offered at no cost to families. Bus transportation and meals are provided. This year, programs will be held at Maple Hill Elementary School, William A. Carter Elementary School, Monthagen Middle School, and Middletown High School. We will use the same process as last year for registration. We'll begin registration on May 2nd using Arbiter, which was formerly known as Family ID. Registration will close on June 6th. During the initial registration period, scholars will be limited to registering for one program.

125Slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. If a program is full, this year families will have the option to be added to a wait list. That's a new feature that was added to the program. If there are openings after the initial registration period, we will send a school messenger out, notification on Facebook, the website, that families can go back in and register for more than one program. So last year we were able to do that. So I anticipate that will probably happen again this year as well. Later on this month, we will be providing more information about some of our programs in our digital brochure. The brochure will include dates, times, descriptions. and informational how to register and frequently ask questions. Families will be able to access the brochure through the website, Facebook,

126school messenger, and the parent portal. And once again, we want to thank the board for your support to allow us to provide learning all throughout the year. Thank you. Just briefly, does anybody have any questions about the summer programs? Norma. Just looking at the grades is so it's the 2024 2025. So if the child, let's say right now is in fifth grade for the 2023, no 2024. Okay. 2024, 2025. They're still able to join in. Saying like less they're going to sixth grade this year. Yeah great question So you don't use so when you register them with it this is fifth grade. We're talking about the current year So you're correct. Oh 24 25 Yeah, cuz I feel like that's like sometimes something now some parents would get like mistaken of is like oh no

127now my child's gonna be in the sixth grade, but if it's okay it makes 20 24 20 25 Thank you. Good question. Any other questions? Thank you very much. Appreciate it We'll move on to our student board member report. Ms. Avila. I'll go up there. Okay. It's almost going to be bedtime, guys, but we're going to go with it. I'm going to go quick with this. So as I said with the leadership program, things that we've talked about that me and Ms. Sheedy and Mr. Donahue are trying to... do and implement in the school year, but we have to go through security and all that, is how can we appreciate and achieve those students, reward the students that are doing good behaviors in school? And we could say attendance and then all that, but one

128thing was how can we... Like the yonder pouches. This is how we're going to, I'll say it. Like we talked in the meeting with Ghost Shit, where you're going to take away something with kids and all that, but you also have to reward the ones that are continuing to doing the good and all and showing like how we said in the meeting, video games, board games and all that. But then stuff like that is just, that's in the cafe right now, that's like for everyone. If you're doing good in school, if you're behaving, you're not, it's for everyone. We were saying something special for the students that have their pouches, have their phone in their pouches every day from 7.30 to 2.30 and all. And ways like that was at least having them to, an

129idea of giving them like a lunch pass to go at least outside and have fresh air, like a little limited. space just for them and you know we're gonna try at least with the seniors first because you know seniors are a little bit mature and all and then we're gonna go with the grades because when a student, Ms. Sheeting, reported saying that one day she saw a student phone out. She said put it away and then a girl said is that student gonna have like repercussions with that? Like what are we gonna do with them? And she thought about it. She was like that was a hiccup moment like what are we gonna do and how? Because she has her, that student, she has her phone away all the time. And just saying, put it

130away, what does that student feel like? Oh, I'm doing a good thing, but when am I getting rewarded for that? So doing little things like that to at least have those students that are doing the good. doing a good in school following the rules is what we're trying to look for because it's those little reinforcements that we've seen that the middle school and the elementary grade levels have done for their students. We also need it here in high school because we're thinking about college, we're thinking about our credits and all that and that could be stressful and just maybe having that little lunch period to go outside and breathe that fresh air after being in here for eight hours I think is very much. needed for everyone, as well as that. So we thought of

131other rewards, like the middle school show, like an ice cream day and all that for the students that are doing good. Maybe little Dunkin' rewards, raffles, and stuff like that. Little things that right now could be like. Everyone gets a ticket and then you can get a dunker award and stuff like that because I mean students would rather have money or free time outside than just a you know Just a certificate saying good job. You know it's something like that. I'm speaking as a student student as well I'd rather get a little bit of money, you know a little bribery but But after that that's it as a student for the student room That's awesome, Norma. Thank you. No questions. One thing I was thinking about a reward. How about, no, but because we talked

132about when we were doing the presentation to the Goshen School District about doing like, you know, they can't go off campus for lunch, but maybe allowing them to eat outside or something. But maybe what you do is you reward them with like have an invite of certain food truck or something. in for the afternoon and that way other kids can see the reward that kids get to go out and because that would promote more of a better behavior but i'm like saying like in a tennis court in a tennis court because that's more of an enclosed area of the school we're not saying that it's going to be or we can have our own food service food truck how's that hey don't trick me that's when i said it yeah yeah yeah okay thank you

133so much don't trick me with no Okay, so if there are no objections, I would like to get a motion to table items in the interest of time, items 13, 14A, and 15 if possible. Are there no objections to doing that? No objections? Okay. Okay, so we will allow one report. How's that? All right, so then, okay, so let's do that now. So go ahead, we're gonna, so for IT's perspective, Mrs. Romero's gonna do her Diamonds and Pearls, Mr. Redd has a picture to do, and after that, we'll do the audit to finalize that, and we'll call it a day. Go ahead, Mrs. Romero. So we had the Diamonds and Pearls event, and it was a great time, as usual, we had some guests. I'm not going to talk too much. I have a whole

134lot to say, but it was a great event. The girls had a great time. There's also a picture. These are all the women that make it possible, including a guest. We're missing Mrs. Creedon and Mrs. Kira. But yeah, thank you all for making this happen for the young ladies in our district. But I think maybe we can invite them, just like we did for the gentleman tonight, pick a date and have them come. I think that would be great. Yeah. That's what we'll do. Give them their own time as well. You can't come, Freddie. But we should. Mr. Rett? Yeah, Mr. Rett? I just wanted to share some positive words of encouragement while people are out. And it says, life never seems to be the way we want it, but we live in the best

135way we can. There's no perfect life, but we can fill it with perfect moments. Always remember, be kind, be fair, be honest, be true, and all of these things will come back to you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ed. That's awesome. Probably should have ended the night on that. So I do officially so since we did some committee reports were good there So I'll just need a motion to table items 13 and 15 Moved by mr. Moore seconded by mr. Rhett All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries 7-0. And now our Audit Committee report. Ms. Tobiasen, it's all yours. The Audit Committee met on Monday, April 7th, this past Monday. What I need from the Board is an approval of the minutes from February 3rd, 2025. So I'll entertain a motion. So

136moved. Moved by John Perino. Second. Second by Curtis Rett. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. There was no old business or new business. We did review and approve the weekly claims report for the weeks of February 3rd, 10th, 19th, 25th, and for March 5th, 12th, and 19th. We also reviewed and approved the Treasurer's Report for January and February. Our next meeting will be June... Tuesday, I think it's a Tuesday. Wednesday, Wednesday, June 4th at 5 p.m. And at that time, we will do the entrance interview with our accountants. Thank you, Ms. Tobiasen. So given the fact that we took some time in exec session today, 915 is not totally bad for it. So a reminder that our next school board meeting will be on April 24, 2025. The board will vote on adopting

137its budget as well as the Orange-All-Strabosi's budget as well. And we hope everyone has a very safe. We hope you had a great Ramadan and we hope you have a very safe Passover and a very safe Easter as well. So with that being said, I need a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Mr. Bison. Second. Second, Mrs. Romero. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 7-0. Good night, everybody. Thank you.