001Ms. James. Everyone, thank you so much for coming. We're going to start, of course, with the Pledge of Allegiance as we always do, but we have a special treat. Can I please ask Noah, Juliana, Madeline, Penelope, Eva, Gabby, Maddie, Sophia, and Tyler, my expert pledgers, to please come up. I just want to say that was one of the barcoder announcements. In the event of an emergency, be aware of your rear exit and your exits to the left and to your right. And again, thank you for being here tonight. We've had a great board event meeting. I hope everyone finds it enjoyable. We're going to start off right now with our Sherwood Elementary School presentation. Ms. James? Better or worse? Thanks for your honesty. We're doing great. All right, everyone, thank you so much for coming.
002It's great to see so many people out tonight. I have a feeling the kids had something to do with it. But thank you for coming to support Sherwood and Isla. Today was actually the 27th day of school. How about that? Yeah? 27 days already. And I share that because, I heard that, because in a way it feels like the first. We're very energetic, we're very excited, everyone has a great attitude, all the children are smiling, all the teachers are smiling, and the energy really is, you just feel it. You walk through the halls, you walk into the classrooms, you absolutely feel it. At the same time, we are building some really strong routines for our instruction so that we have the foundations we need for a great year ahead. We really do make work hard,
003play hard look very easy. That's a thanks to our teachers who do that. We have kids who are starting off in exploratory and starting with what we're calling soft starts when they come in in the morning. Rather than starting right away with a worksheet or on their devices, they're talking with friends, they're building with manipulatives, Legos, dominoes, playing cards, having nice conversations. And again, just a little insight into what goes on inside Sherwood day to day. For at least the past 27 days. If I can start off just by sharing, and for those of us who were here last year, this slide might look familiar, but it is different. It shows a little bit of what we are proud of over the past few years. We have our PLCs, which are professional learning communities, for
004our fourth year. So on the teacher side of that, teachers are meeting in grade-level groups, sometimes with a literacy coach, sometimes with a director, sometimes on their own, and they're analyzing student data, student growth, student need. and really making sure that our students have everything they need to succeed. The student side of it, of course, is that they are participating in STEAM, an additional PE, some yoga, some mindfulness, some really great activities going on for both teachers and students during that time. This is our fourth year of our exploratory cohorts for our fifth graders. So a small group of students, 12 or 13 students working together with a teacher on something they're passionate about. It changes a little bit year to year. We've had public speaking, creative writing, coding, forensic science is always a big
005hit. Really nice opportunity for students to get to know each other and their teacher in a different way in a nice small group and that's across classes. So instead of being with the same 23 children that you're with all day you get to mix and mingle a little bit with some others. Our Mossflower Reading and Writing staff developer is in her third year of coming, helping us make some really deliberate shifts to our literacy instruction. We're going to be talking a little bit more about that. Part of what's involved there is our formalized, targeted, small group instruction. Our staff developers have really taught us something that we can all take with us. Even if this might sound a little jargony in the education world, I think it's something we can all subscribe to. When our
006teachers teach their mini-lesson, It's about 10 minutes of very direct explicit instruction kind of like this right now. I'm standing here I'm telling you exactly kind of how it's going the purpose of their lesson is to drive the state standard home to move curriculum along You know that's not one size fits all So after those 10 minutes, we deliberately move into small group instruction because that's where we move individual students forward. So all of the students that you see here work individually or with a partner or with their teacher, and that's very specific and deliberate to meet their individual needs. We have a full continuum of special ed classes here at Sherwood. So we have an 8-1, we have a 15, we have a 12, we have co-teaching classes, we have gen ed classes with
007resource room pockets. We have everything and we're proud to. We're proud that we can have all students here at Sherwood and they can all be a part of our daily operations. It's nothing different. It's nothing that looks any different. It's just one big family. We have our literacy coaches for our third year now and our math coach for two years. So as I shared earlier, those coaches are helping us during our PLCs, analyzing data, helping us in the classroom, alongside us while we're teaching, making small little changes to our practice. This was really effective. Consider this. Try this. I noticed these students could benefit from that. Have you tried this book? We have targeted, deliberative homeschool reading connections. In our world, those are called book baggies. You might know about the book baggies that come
008home. That's a great opportunity to practice with your child, and again, it's very deliberate. Your teachers are very deliberately selecting the text that's going into those book baggies to really move your individual child forward. Everyone is not getting the same text home. So that's another very deliberate shift that we're making that we're seeing great results from. We have protected periods of the day for ELA and math instruction, and this is our third year. So we take great pride in the full continuum of service that we do have and that we can offer students. So when students are receiving speech and language services or intervention services through AIS, any support that they might need, of course they're going to need to leave the classroom for a period of time. And we want to support that transition.
009But we also want to protect some time in the classroom to be sure that teachers feel comfortable and confident that they have their entire class. They are available so that they can deliver that new instruction that ten minutes and then break into two We're very deliberate with our scheduling to make sure that there is some protected time Of course, they'll always be an outlier here and there not everything can always be perfect, but we're really very proud We have Jump Start for grades 2 and 3, and it's our third year doing that. Jump Start is a program that our teachers offer before or after school, and it's designed, again, to target a few specific needs of select students so that if a gap, we're starting to see a gap or any specific struggles, we can
010hone right in on what those children need and get those children moving as quickly as possible. And we are in the fourth year of our STEAM program, and I don't want to talk too much about that because that would be a spoiler alert. I would like to zoom in. I know I shared it just a few times in sharing some of the pieces that we are working on and proud of. But I would like to zoom in specifically, just for a quick second, on this chart. Don't panic. I know sometimes we see charts and think, ooh. So I discovered that this clicker had... So I share this. This is actually the data from one cohort of students. This is the data from the Sherwood graduating class of 2025. These students are currently sixth graders in
011middle school. They started in third grade at Sherwood, right there. I'm a lefty, and it's hard to do with my right hand, but here it is. They started with 42% proficiency level, meaning that they received threes and fours on their state assessment. And when they were fourth graders, they became that middle bar. But then, after three years of that deliberate instruction that I was speaking about, look at that jump. From 42% to 65.38%. That's a 23% increase in proficiency scores. That's incredible. We have a lot of teachers here tonight, so if you want to just kind of take a look around, this is credit to them. But they are very open to the ideas and the shifts that we are making and very committed to the success of your children. And this graph shows it.
012Now that graph on the right where it says the county, that's because I couldn't help myself. I just wanted to be sure that our jump wasn't just because the test got easier or something happened. So what we're seeing here is, yes, the county average did go up a little bit, but not as much as Sherwood. So those results are real. So I'm very proud of them. Now. I'd be remiss if I didn't share that of course we're all about the entire child here. So yes, we're very proud of that data that you just saw. And yes, I spoke a lot about literacy instruction. And it's an elementary school, so of course we do a lot of literacy instruction during our day. But we have an incredible music program, and I would love to take some
013time to highlight it. So at this time, Miss... So we are Miss Jean and Miss Marquis, and the music teachers here at Sherwood. and we are excited to share what makes our music program and our students so special. Music education goes far beyond learning notes or instruments. It builds discipline, teamwork, creativity, confidence, and perseverance, skills that support academic success and personal growth. Studies show that students involved in music often perform better than math, reading, and standardized tests. The students you are about to hear perform participated in something called NISMA, a statewide festival where they prepare and perform solo pieces for evaluation and feedback. Many of these students qualified for something called SCAMIA, a countywide festival that brings together top musicians from across Suffolk County to rehearse and perform as one ensemble. These experiences help students
014grow as musicians, meet peers from other districts, and develop lasting friendships. Programs like NISMA and SCMEA motivate our students to practice, set goals, and strive for excellence. The statistics above demonstrate how strong elementary programs build foundations for success through middle school, high school, and beyond. Every NISMA and SCMEA participant... that is a statistic up there, begin their journey in an elementary school program. And I really wanted to just highlight some of the amazing statistics that we do have here at Sherwood. So we have 67 out of our 74 fourth graders participating in our performing ensembles, which is a huge number of kids. We have 80 of our 92 fifth graders participating in our performance ensembles. We had four students who were selected to participate in the specialized Skamea Peak Festival this year, which is another
015countywide festival affiliated with Skamea that Ms. Marquis was just speaking about. We had 37 students districtwide that were selected for Skamea last year, which again was added to by our students who were selected from Sherwood. 31 Sherwood students participated in NISMA last year and that contributed to the 224 students who participated in NISMA district-wide. So it's really important to point out the foundational importance that elementary music programs have for our students as they proceed through their middle school career, through their high school career, and eventually through college, which I still have a really great rate of students who go on to either become music educators or perform musically. For many students, band, orchestra, and chorus are where students can really discover their voice, their community, and their passion. Music can be a lifelong gift no
016matter what path they choose as adults. We'd like to thank the Board of Education and our administration and the families for their continued support of our music and arts programs and for giving our students these wonderful opportunities to shine such as this. So I will stop talking and we'll play some beautiful music for you. Next we have, and I promise you, you'll be equally impressed. In one capacity or another, even if it's just singing. All right, what would it take to get some more of you to raise your hands? I said singing in the car counts. I think it's really important for as much as we do focus on this rigorous instruction here at Sherwood, it really is important that we tap into these other modalities and these other interests as well. So I really
017am so thankful that the music department was here to present tonight. Very lucky to have them, so thank you again. Well, what are we zooming in on next? It's something new this year, of course. It's RULER. Next up, I'm excited to share some of the amazing things happening in our school as part of our social and emotional learning work. This year, we are using a program called RULER, which was developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. RULER helps students and adults recognize, understand, and manage emotions in positive ways. Teachers and students at Sherwood have jumped right in using RULER and we're really expecting great results. To tell you more about what RULER looks like day to day, I'd like to invite a few of our students to share what they've been learning. We're excited
018to tell you about something special we're doing at our school called RULER. RULER helps us learn about our feelings and how to build a kind, respectful school community. The letters in RULER stand for Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, and Regulating Emotions. We haven't learned about all of these pieces yet, but we are working on it. One of the first RULER tools we worked on this year is our classroom charter. A charter is like a promise we make together about how we want to feel at school and how we'll help each other feel that way. To get ideas, the whole school read the book, What If Everybody Did That? It helped us think about how our actions affect everyone around us. After reading it, classes talked about the kind of classroom we want to have. We shared
019words like included, safe, respected, and happy. Then we made a list of ways we can help everyone feel that way, like being kind with our words, listening to others, and helping when someone needs it. You can actually see our charters hanging all around the school. They're in every classroom, in the cafeteria, and even in our specials of PE, art, and music. That way, no matter where we go, we're reminded of how we want our school to feel. These charters remind us that we all have a role in making our school a great place to learn and grow. When we follow it, everyone feels better and learns better. Now Harper, Brielle, Sydney, Maggie, Ella, and Hannah will share their class charters. And then we'll take a look at the charters that everyone made. We want to
020feel calm, happy, respected. To have these feelings, we will promise to work calmly, quietly, listen to the speaker one voice at a time, follow directions, and be kind to everyone. We want to feel safe, respectful, love, community, kind. We will share our kindness by encouraging others and having a positive, open mindset. In the classroom we want to feel happy, respected, welcome, safe, appreciated, calm, and confident. We promise to help others feel confident by helping to make good choices, help others feel good about themselves, and talking about our problems to find solutions. We want to feel respected, happy, safe, and important, welcomed, encouraged. We will help others in need, have a good attitude, include others at all times, stay focused and on task, keep our belongings in their correct spot, personal space, hands and feet to
021ourselves, raise our hand, we should be patient. We all make mistakes, but we try to learn and grow. In this class we want to feel engaged, respected, safe, welcomed, humble, excited, confident, and comfortable. To feel this way we will greet people, use kind words and actions, always try our best, follow directions the first time, include others, learn from our mistakes, and keep our hands to ourselves. That was just a little piece of these charter specifics. students and they are sharing it best. This is what's important to them. This is what makes us a family. This is really good work that these kids are doing. And now here, hoping that this works when I press it, we'll get to see everybody around the entire school, all 19 of them. Love is the answer at least for
022most of the questions in my heart Why we're here and where we're going, how come we're so hard? It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together It's always better when we're together Yeah, we'll look at them stars when we're together Girl, it's always better when we're together Yeah, it's always better when we're together Morning light, say Good evening everyone. I'm Kate Keisling, the school counselor here at Sherwood, and I'm so proud to be part of the work that we're doing with our RULER program. As you just saw, RULER gives our students practical tools to build empathy, manage their emotions, and strengthen their relationships. These skills help make our classrooms and our entire school community calmer, kinder, and more supportive for everyone. We
023also encourage families to bring RULER to home. You can start by asking your child about their class charter or by talking together about how you'd like your home to feel, what everyone can do to make it that way. Now, to share the next part of our RULER journey, I'd like to introduce one of our classroom teachers, and she's going to tell you a little bit about what our staff has been learning and what's coming next for Sherlock. Thank you. Hi, I'm Amanda Niswitz. I'm one of the fourth grade teachers here at Sherwood. And I'm really excited to be here and be a part of the work that we're doing this year with RULER. We began this work last year. A few of us were part of an introductory training where we started to learn about
024charters. At the end of the year, those that were trained taught all the teachers about another important RULER tool here called the Mood Meter. The Mood Meter helps us recognize how we're feeling throughout the day. It uses four color zones, red, yellow, green, and blue, to show different types of emotions. It reminds us that all feelings are okay. It's just about noticing where we are and figuring out what we need. As we become more familiar with this tool, we'll start teaching our students how to use it. Later this month, Ms. Keisling and I will be traveling to Yale University for an intensive RULER training conference. We'll be learning directly from the team that created the program about new strategies and tools we can bring back to our school. I can't wait to share what I
025learned with our teachers and our students and to continue building a community where everyone's feelings are recognized, respected, and supported. RULER really has just begun, but we've got a very strong start, and with great teachers and students like this, I know we can do great things. So we're really very excited. Last but not least for the evening, for our portion anywho, let's zoom in on STEAM and our STEAM night. Last year we had our very first STEAM night. We had some traditional science projects that were done at home and students came in and presented. Thank you very much to all who did that. We also had stations set up and families came in and participated, many of whom are here in the audience tonight. Thank you for joining us. Last year was our first time
026and it was a huge success. We even had our valedictorian come up that night to help us. That's great. I wanted that to happen actually, so it's great. This was it. This was steam night. what's going to happen next. But what I can share is over the past few years we've developed an incredible STEAM program at Sherwood. It started with pop-up STEAM a few years ago during recess and as a supplement to daily instruction. And to highlight just how far we've come, I'd like to invite Julia, Addie, Nico, Chelsea, Alex, and Miss Fisher to join me up here on stage. Hi, I'm Nico. Hi, I'm Chelsea. Hi, I'm Helen. We're excited about showing our STEAM program. At Truin, we know that mistakes are just part of learning. Having a growth mindset comes in really handy
027during STEAM. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. At Truin, we get to do awesome hand-held projects to help us learn. We've got so many fun activities in STEAM. One of my favorites was the marbles that we just finished. You take a plate, a straw, scissors, markers, and tape. You cut out the straw and then you place the pieces on the plate in the maze. Then you take the tape and you put it over the straw so it stays down on the plate. Then you get to decorate with the markers. Then you put the marble on the start and you shake your plate gently until the marble gets to the finish. One of my favorite STEAM activities was the hoop glide. The hoop glider is, you take one straw, a piece of paper,
028and you cut the piece of paper in half. You make one side of the paper a small circle and the other side a big circle. And then you tape it onto the straw. And then once it's all good, you throw it. And then with your feet, you count how much steps it took you to throw it. Here we held our very first STEAM night here at Sherwood. Families came to check out our science experiments, new creations, and try out different things with fun challenges. It was a really fun night. Thank you to Joy for fun. This is the Board of Education. Tonight you'll get to make your very own pom-pom launcher, and we are going to teach you how. I'm going to see you know where to start. Thank you. Step 3. Shred the cut
029end of the balloon over the cup. Be sure the knot is in the middle. Step 4. Use the duct tape to secure the balloon to the cup. It's okay if the tape looks spongy in some spots. Just smooth it out the best you can. I think we've got some good sports here. Should we cheer them on? Give them a round of applause. Are you ready? Load your launcher. Now pull back on the knot and on the count of three let go. One, two, three, launch! And of course it is fun. At Sherwood we really are very instructionally driven and we're balancing fun with rigor by creating opportunities for our children just like this one. At Sherwood we're very fortunate to have Miss Fisher, a teacher who holds both an elementary certification and a gifted and
030talented certification, and she will describe the science behind these pom-pom launchers. Thank you. My name is Sarah Fisher and I teach STEAM here at Sherwood. So while this was a fun craft project, there's a little science behind it. So we're going to talk a little bit about energy transfer. A pom-pom launcher is an excellent hands-on example for learning about potential and kinetic energy because it visually and physically demonstrates how energy is stored and released to create motion. Here's how it relates to these concepts. Potential energy. When you pull down the elastic band of a pom-pom launcher, you stretch it, storing energy in the form of elastic potential energy. The energy stored depends on how much you stretch the elastic band. The more you stretch, the greater the potential energy that you will have. This potential
031energy represents the energy ready to launch the pom-pom. Kinetic energy. When you release the stretched elastic band, the stored potential energy is converted into kinetic energy, which is the energy of motion. The elastic band returns to its original shape, propelling the pom-pom forward. The pom-pom's speed after launch depends on the kinetic energy transferred from the elastic band. The greater the potential energy from stretching the elastic form, the more kinetic energy it will have, resulting in a faster and further launch and a lot more fun for experimenting. Piece of cake! A round of applause, that was great! And here's our save the date. We will be having another STEAM night this year. We're looking at Tuesday, March 24th. It is on the calendar. And again, just thank you so much to all of you for your
032unwavering support, for being here for tonight, bringing your children out. Thank you to the teachers. Thank you, everyone. Big round of applause. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Did you see? Did you see? The girl was talking with the voice of the man. Like, he wants us to get a man. Where is it? Okay, at this time we are going to continue the celebrations. A giant thank you to all of the students. I know some of you out there may still be able to hear us. You're more than welcome to stay. We're actually recognizing a few magnificent teachers who have been recognized for receiving tenure this evening. I'm joined by Dr. Fitzgerald, who snuck around me there. For this I need my glasses. Next, I'd like us all to celebrate a special
033milestone in the educational world. One that represents years of dedication, growth, and impact. Today we are here to recognize and congratulate Ms. Christina Abruzzese, Ms. Megan DeRosa, and Ms. Amanda Nizowitz on earning tenure. A little bit about Ms. Abruzzese. Ms. Abruzzese, give us a wave so we can all look at you. She loves that. After working for the DOE, Ms. Arbuzesi joined us as an E&L teacher and jumped right in. Ms. Arbuzesi works with students individually and in small groups, and the relationships she builds with her students cannot be missed by anyone. Ms. Arbuzesi also works with her students by pushing into classrooms and either co-teaching with the classroom teacher or supporting students in small groups. And in true Christina fashion, the relationships she built with teachers and colleagues doesn't go unnoticed either. Her positive
034attitude and willingness to collaborate make her a true team player who always puts students first. Christina's dedication, flexibility, and genuine care for every child shine through in all that she does. Ms. Abruzzese is an excellent addition to ICELIP's E&L department, but most importantly to us, Christina is an excellent addition to our Sherwood family. Congratulations, Ms. Abruzzese. She recognizes the skill and professionalism of an educator, but it also celebrates their resilience. The ability to adapt, to keep learning, to find joy in growth, and to make a difference day after day. Please join me next in congratulating Ms. DeRosa. Ms. DeRosa, you've done all this with grace, heart, and a deep belief in the potential of every student you teach. From the moment Ms. DeRosa joined our school community, as Ms. Glenn, some of us may remember,
035she has made a lasting mark on our students and their families. Her calm patience shines through during challenging moments, and she brings warmth and joy to every child who comes through her door. We also forgot to wave to her so they could all look at her. Ms. DeRosa's classroom is a place where students feel seen, supported, and inspired to do their very best. She leads with kindness, models empathy, and reminds us all of the power of a caring teacher. And those skills simply can't be taught. Congratulations, Ms. DeRosa. Teachers, are they new to do that? Great job. Next, I'd like to share a few words about another teacher who has a wonderful rapport with all students, Ms. Nisowitz. Oh, let's wave to her. There she is. Ms. Nisowitz has a calm, positive demeanor and consistently
036delivers rigorous instruction. While maintaining a fun, supportive environment, she keeps her students focused on learning tasks and provides a safe environment where students feel comfortable and motivated to learn. Although Ms. Neisowitz has been in ISLIP for just a few years, she too joins us from the DOE and is always willing to lend a helping hand and jump right in to be part of the action. Amanda brings creativity and enthusiasm to everything she does, always looking for new ways to make learning meaningful and engaging. Her dedication to her students and her commitment to the success of her colleagues make her an invaluable member of our school community. Amanda's willingness to share ideas makes our team stronger and we're grateful she chose Sherwood as her home. Congratulations, Ms. Nylund. Congratulations to all three of you. You have
037earned this honor through hard work, reflection, and genuine care and compassion for your students. I am so proud of you and we are all so grateful that you're part of our team. Ms. Abruzzese, Ms. DeRosa, and Ms. Nizowitz, thank you for all you do, all you have done, and all I know you'll continue to do. Congratulations. And also, if you could please come up for a photo, that would be fabulous. Thanks to Miss Chameleony who always puts together a great set up of on entry you may have noticed the fall decor by the sign in table and everyone was guessing how many candy corn candies were in the jar. Would have been great if we announced while we still had all the children but perhaps they're watching from home. Congratulations to Juliana Silifo. Round of
038applause. You guys are perfect. A build your own volcano set because it's part of STEAM. See what we did there? She gets 235. This is TA to P. Folks, we're going to just take a two-minute break and then we'll start back up right up again. Thank you. Board of Education, ISO administration, and the community, thanks for having us today. And tonight, we're here to chat about our organization on what we do for onboarding. operating home to school transportation, just a little bit of insight into our operation. And we appreciate you having us. We were looking forward to presenting today and we appreciate the team having us here tonight. So a couple introductions myself, Thomas Smith, or Tommy as some may know, Chief Operating Officer for Suffolk Transportation and Suffolk Bus Corp, which is our public
039transit arm. Next up is Johnny Corrado to my right, Assistant Vice President, part of the Corrado family. John Corrado is the owner of the organization. Joseph Corrado, Assistant Vice President at the end. Susan Williams, Chief Administrative Officer at Enright, Director of School Bus Operations. And Frank Klein, Director of Safety and Training Operations. And last but not least, Janella Oriana. Orlina, Human Resources Manager. And I don't know who lined this up. All right, so I'm going to just go on to our slides. I'm going to pass the mic to Johnny Grotto. Good evening, everyone. So I just want to start off, before we get into the rest of tonight, this is actually a photo. So we've been a family company for 65 years, starting with my grandfather, who got into the school bus industry as a
040rich man. from his father. So we just passed over 100 years in the school bus industry. Next year will be 110. And now that we're up in here in Suffolk, we have 24 different school districts as well as a transit operation for the fixed route and the entirety of the paratransit division. We employ over 3,100 employees in Suffolk County. 110 of them are here in Islip and most of them drive for the Islip district. On top of that, we've received a few recognitions over the years, first of which is from NSCA, the National School Transportation Association. We got their Contract of the Year Award this year. And the year prior, USA Today labeled us as one of the top places to work in the country. And a big surprise, or I shouldn't say surprise, but
041most importantly, Frank Klein got the New York State... Association of Pupil Transportation Presidential Award in 2023. It's worth noting that usually this award is reserved for school board members and Frank is the first and the last person to receive that award not associated with the school district. Speaking of Frank, he operates a very tight ship in our safety and training department. Frank is a master instructor as well as his cohort, Karen Such. Master instructors are individuals who are designated to be able to train other school bus instructors to put drivers out on the road. There are 50 of them in the state. We said 35 of them are active. 30 of them are active, 38. And we have two of them in-house, so we're very happy to have that. On top of that, we also
042operate three main hubs in Suffolk County, one in Bayshore, Lunkhankma, and Quorum. But we also have 13 other satellite offices, all staffed with supervisors, dispatchers, and center managers, making sure that they're properly surveying the operation. And without further ado, I'll pass over to Susan Williams. Good evening, and the safety and well-being of the community. We understand the trust you place in us. We prioritize individuals who are courteous, exhibit compassion, and professionalism. Each driver candidate participates in a thorough screening, which includes initial face-to-face interview with a member of our human resource. Janelle Oriana is our human resource manager, who has over eight years' experience in the school bus industry. Janelle is going to walk you through the screening and interview. Good evening, everyone. So I just wanted to start through the process of an applicant coming
043in through the door. They come in, their applications in hand. We have them fill, complete out some forms. Some of these are released authorization forms to allow us to run their background checks. They sit with us during this interview. During the interview we go over their work history, education history as well. We go over all of these items and really dive deep into why they came to Southern Transportation, why I work with children, why I drive a school bus. During this process, we also ask them questions related to passenger related situations, how they would respond to some of these, and based on their answers, we verify if this is something that is in the standards of Suffolk Transportation. If not, we wouldn't move forward with their application. It kind of removes them from the process
044right there. So also after that, we... go through a criminal history record search. We also run their DMV abstract, national sex offender search. If all of these items come back clear, we then move forward with the remainder part of the process as far as sending them over to obtain a DOT physical. Their DOT physical is done by a medical examiner. If they pass this portion of the process, then they would move into our safety and training department, who then review their medical exam, and then they go in to get fingerprinted. Once they obtain their fingerprints, they go into the New York State Justice Center and the OPWDD. It's a little history of myself. I've been with the company for 32 years. I'll just let you know I started there as a walk-in off the street.
045That's what people are doing right now. We have dedicated safety training centers. We have actually three of them. One here in Bayshore, one out in Corham, and our newest one, right around Concobo, where all the applicants come after they've been vetted by Janelle and her team to make sure that they get started in the company. Next slide, please. We have a large, very large training department. All of my trainers are either school bus drivers currently now and trained in between, or they've been one for many years. They've all got certifications of being a 19A examiner. What that means is they've been vetted by New York State DMV to road test these people to certify them to drive. Also, they are school bus drivers instructors. As they mentioned before, I'm a master instructor, and I'm allowed
046to teach them what is required for them to teach. coming on board and to retrain drivers that need it when they come on. Those two certifications are required for them to be in our training department. They gather those certifications while they're in the program learning, but they must be those two things to stay in the department. Also, again, as I spoke about, we have two master instructors, myself and the assistant, Ms. Karen Sucher is back here today. I'll go through this quickly, guys, for the sake of time, because they gave me the bulk of this. Just to let you know, these people spend a lot of time with us. When you come in the door most of the time they do not have a CDL permit yet. We walk them through that process. We offer
047them classes, paid classes, to learn to pass that test through DMV. And once they do that, they've been vetted by the HR team. We start training them on the road, classroom training. They spend 50-plus hours with us, with our people. They get to know them as school bus drivers as they are. They get the ins and outs of what they are and what kind of people they are. And if there's any issue along that process, they would bring it to me or Karen to say, hey, this person may not be the right person to do this. this job and we better people that we perform. Again, we do third-party road test training. Something else that we came certified in is third-party road test training, which means I've been certified by New York State DAB to
048do our own road test right on site. There was four of us right now that are certified in the company to move the process along to get a CDL license. Once they've gone through their road testing and they've passed, they do DMV 19A road testing. That's another road test after the fact, to verify they're school bus drivers. The education department has requirements like physical performance tests, which I'll get into in a little bit, and the Department of Transportation, like the background checks and also the physical drug testing. All drivers are required to do a basic course within their first year and we offer that class. My SBDIs are qualified to teach that class and that's done continually through the school year. We do DASA training, sexual harassment, mandated report of all initial training, and then
049it's due annually, and that's documented to you gentlemen and ladies every year. We're very involved with Homeland Security. We have a very good relationship with the TSA, Homeland Security, and we do what they call a cash-side training, which is see something, say something. That kind of delves into when they're doing their pre-trips. They look at the bus, make sure nothing's left on the bus, the bus is safe. If they're in certain areas, they notice certain things. to get back to a supervisor and let them know that, hey, something's not right, you need to check this out. And we've all been taught that. We have our safety program. which is what we call our Bible. It's our rules and regs of pretty much everything that can happen within the company. It's updated every five years. It's
050amended every two and a half years. And we have to send it to the PTSB, which is the Public Transportation Safety Board, to make sure it's approved that they are okay with what we say in that book and they agree with our practices. We are always, as I say, it's all about myself, especially being there 32 years. What makes you want to stay somewhere for 32 years? When the company cares about you, they do the right things. That's one of the reasons why I've been there so long. Also, we have the SAC cards, which is called the Safety Action Card. And it's a form that can either be put in through paper or online through our parking space for the drivers to submit. All these come to me with their issues. We address them. We
051get back to them with what we did to try to rectify it. And they also can do this anonymously in case they want to kind of... telling somebody else in the company that they're not doing the right thing and we encourage them to say, hey, you see something, let us know and we will take care of it. We will not involve you in that process. This all helps us with our safety and our experience of what we do and how we do things, make sure all of these bullets are checked off and we do them to the best standards that we possibly can. How do we keep up with all this? Again, 3,100 employees, there's compliance that's due yearly and biannually that we take care of through all those trainers that I have. Every year,
052required by SED to have a physical. That's every year. Drunk alcohol, pre-employment, reasonable suspicion, post-accident, or return to duty, all have to be done through the federal clearinghouse now. So it's documented through the feds. State Education Department recommends that, they regulate that they have two hour classes each year on refresher on topics that the advisory board, which I sit on, we build that curriculum and every year we teach them the things that are important, what's going on through accident data, what they need to know. Physical performance test is mandated by the State Education Department too, to make sure that drivers, monitors, and attendants are physically able to help your children in case of an emergency. They have to do this twice a year also. Safety drills which is done by the district, but we help
053you by supplying the buses and drivers help you with that three times a year and then made by C.D. 19A which is DMV, defensive driving observations have to be done annually. So every year we have to look at all of our drivers through a 19A form. We also add a little bit of our own spice to this. We call it mentoring. People who are testing them, once they do the road test itself, they've gone through the particular... They will say, hey, is there anything going on in the company that you need to talk about? Is there something wrong with your route? Can we help you with it? And whatever they would give back to them, feedback, they would write down, and I would get that, and we would take care of it and try to
054look into it further. 19-day road test, again, is a DMV qualification. Every two years, this is a pass-fail road test, a long-ass fail-win test that has to do two years, which is, again, documented on the forms. Our camera system and our road observations help with our student management observations. all camera systems are looked at, there's on a schedule, which Beth will talk about that a little bit in a second, they're looked at in a order that there have to be so many done per driver every year to make sure they're looking at what's going on with their driving and also looking at what's going on with their student management. Thank you very much. have a video of that exactly what happened but that video does help with the safety of the students boarding and also
055to do while they're actually on the bus how does this encourage positive behavior students see a camera on the bus do you think that they're going to be as rambunctious as they were without it and let's not just call out the students let's call out the drivers why not do you think the drivers might not be as a pulling a brake test anymore that went away years ago right so the cameras on the bus is helping us just establish a better safety environment on the bus knowing that they're there. And one other big purpose of the cameras, training. As far as training and coaching, if an incident occurs on that bus, if an accident occurs on that bus, we can go right back to those videos, bring the drivers in, bring even a driver assistant,
056maybe it was an incident on the bus, and we can retrain and show them maybe where they went wrong or assist, maybe help them again. So that's a great part of it. And my favorite part of the camera, to be honest with you, accountability. transparency for everybody. There is no, you can't lie to the camera, right? They picked it up, it's what the student was doing, the driver was doing, and we can actually have conversations that either improve the behaviors or address them as soon as possible with them. These cameras, like we mentioned earlier, they are reviewed daily for functionality as well as just to make sure that things are going to a prosthetic on the vehicles and the drivers and the students are actually behaving in matters that they should be respecting the need
057for everybody out there. So besides that, we're going to run over to the compliance field of things. For compliance, I know my colleagues talk a lot about compliance. What does it take to get a license? As I was sitting here listening to this, I said, oh my God, I don't even remember going through all this. Because it's a lot getting all these things thrown at you. And I was going to make a joke and say, hey, who wants an application for a family member? But after hearing that, that's a lot, right? So we're putting people through a lot just to get employed. Then within their first year of training, they are still going to have to be going to refreshers, taking these physical performance tests, taking 1980s, doing the mentoring. Who's lobbying this? Who's taking
058care of all this for you guys, for the districts? That's what we do. So what are we doing actually? We have an annual district file review, which actually was held today, where for ISA we take 10% of the drivers and DAs, and you can actually interview them. You folks, it's anonymous. You guys can actually pick the object driver and DA. It's not us. The district picks them out. Who do you want to interview? You are asking a list of questions. We're not in the room. No supervisors are in that room with you guys. It is strictly district and a one-on-one interview with that driver. It's a great tool that we give you guys to make sure that we are actually doing the work that we said we are. Who's to say? Did we send the
059driver for a physical performance test? You get to ask them. Did you really have to take that written test? Did someone hand you that answer key? You get to have that one-on-one with them to show, yes, okay, we aren't trying to hide anything. This is what we're doing, and we are guiding our... Quarterly SharePoint submissions, what is that? So, us and Suffolk Transportation provides the district an actual list. It's a file thing that they have done for that year. Just because, like I said earlier, they went through all the training with Franklin. It's not over once you get hired. Every quarter, we're up and it's set up perfectly. to getting that license, staying, do the best for last. Hey everybody, yes I am last. I'll try to be as brief as possible. As you can
060see, my team is extremely passionate. And this detailed program that we have, it's extensive, right? Frank talked about the training program. I mean, it's weeks and weeks and weeks at a time. It's not, you know, a 10-day thing for many people. It's upwards of a month. So, you know, we take a lot of good care, right? But I want to talk a little bit about technology as well. So, Beth mentioned our camera program that we have, which we're adding to. But I also want to point out another important feature of our bus, and maybe not everyone's worried about, but it's the child check that we have on every single vehicle. This is a button that's located on the back of every single school bus, right? And an alarm will go off if it's not clicked.
061So what this means is that when a driver is done with their route and they turn off the bus, they must walk the entire length of the vehicle to ensure that there are no children on the bus, click the button to disarm the alarm, and they get off the bus. This is every single time a bus is turned on or turned off, and they also do it after their runs at individual schools. If you drop off at a middle school, you just do that same check, right? But what's new for us? Well, I want to talk about something very exciting. So this September, we installed AI cameras on every single vehicle. This is a company called Metrodon, and you can look them up. Very impressive company. And it's a camera that goes on the windshield
062of a school bus or school van. And it looks outward and it looks inward. So what is it looking for? It's looking for dangerous road conditions, but it's also watching the interior of the vehicle, looking at the driver for dangerous driving behaviors or incidents that might happen on the bus. It actually creates alerts that will record a 30-second clip event, shoot it over to dispatch so we can address it immediately. So this is a really cool piece of software that's going to really revolutionize our company and really make our training program dynamic. So adding more work to Frank's plate. But I know he can handle it. He's great at what he does. What else are we doing? Also, we upgraded our facility cameras. So we talk a lot about the school bus, but also it's
063important that we have yard security. So like Frank mentioned, the TSA comes down and does an audit of our processes to make sure that our public transit system is safe. And we're upgrading our cameras in our yard to also have AI technology. Why do we have AI in our yard camera? Because we go to sleep at night. And although we have rotating security, patrol cars, this camera will actually pick up any sort of suspicious activity, someone vandalizing a vehicle or doing burglary. And it will automatically alert our safety staff that that's happening. Also, we're expanding the tablet program on our vehicles. So it's a driver tablet, but why are we doing this? Well, it's to create more transparency for the parents. So we have Where's the Bus that tracks the vehicle, lets you know when
064it's going to come. But this tablet application will actually give you exact time stamps of what students scan in and scan off of buses. It's a great program that we're looking into that can hopefully get launched in the near term, but one of the major things that we're looking to do. And I do want to call out a point, we did miss one bullet point before I call my brother, he is still my brother, but there was one point. We also have the top wage and benefits union contract in Long Island for transportation companies. It's actually language in our contract that if someone does create a higher pay rate, we must match it. So why do we do that? Well, because we really want the best individuals coming in. So we don't want to make
065any sacrifices. We pay our people the best. them with respect so that they respect their own people. To reiterate, you can hear that we care about safety and it's important to us. We're making huge investments outside of the work that we do that's regulated by the state to make sure that we're the best bus company. So that's it for me. I guess we're almost done. Does it point out? Yeah, so that's a great point. So by the way, a reason why we also made this investment, listen, most cars nowadays have sensors, right? And unfortunately, the school bus industry, the vehicle have the same sensors. It might be a little bit unfair for someone to drive a new vehicle. They hear beep if something is in front of them. So this will give active, passive collision
066avoidance. So it gives the driver a lens, hey, the speed at which you're going and the stationary vehicle in front of you, collision is imminent. Take the brake and we'll go to a... But it also tracks, so the drivers get scores as well. So it's a way for us to have even more oversight over our fleet, to understand where are our pain points. And it's based on a multitude of criteria. So you have made tremendous investments in your future share of community incidents weekly, daily basis. So currently each supervisor or each district has one or two, three supervisors, even depending on the size. And those supervisors keep a daily log of cameras that they do. All the drivers, in the case of cameras, we're supposed to actually be pulling right now. My expectation of the
067folks are three videos per driver, random, per year. If you're pulling nodes and then you also get just, okay, maybe there was an incident on a vehicle, that's not counted as one. If you had an accident, perhaps, and we had a look at the vehicle, that's not counted as one. So we specifically go in there. We actually have also to check on the camera and the health of these cameras. We'll get an email with us with any camera systems that might not be working so that we know right away, okay, let's go out there, replace it, and make sure that we are on. So it's more randomized. Yes. However, the AI camera is targeted towards specific events. But we also forgot to mention something. The AI camera also has a We Are Calling A panic
068button on the bottom. So this allows the driver to click a button on the bottom of the camera if there's an event on the vehicle. It automatically creates a 30-second clip and shoots it to the manager of our centers so that they can address it immediately. And by the way, we also have the ability to tap in live to these cameras. So we can be in the vehicle with the driver if needed. Sorry just to add to that we recently just approved this but great technology. This is we actually had a student that wasn't to really understand what happened on a second occasion we also were able to attend to where we were and we just wanted to make sure everyone was okay and while they were still at the scene meeting my room supervisor
069goes to the scene of this accident out there and she had no information on the accident what really happened We were able to pull it, call her, so she could tell the officers at the scene what happened before the investigation. But a great tool to have. We're just starting to unpeel the layers of that onion to really see what it's capable of. But like Joseph said, to be coming out soon. Yes, we have it, but we're still working on the whole implementation of the program. And we just really, we smell success in the future. So thank you for the question. So the applicant runs their fingerprints through the system and they are already registered through the OPWDD and the Justice Center. So if anyone does get charged, not convicted, even charged with anything, we do
070get a notification sent to us and that goes for all employees that work with Southern Transportation. Any kind of loose timeline as to how quickly you're notified if someone is charged with something? Or charged with something, how quickly are you notified? Sure, so on incidences that have happened in the past, we've seen notification happen. There's weekends, so you have to be mindful of the weekends and the holidays, but From what we've seen it could be like two to three business days from what we've seen and experience again with the holiday weekends Yes, correct so the notification comes through electronic transmission to our compliance department And the situation occurred on the 23rd, which was an arrest. We got notification on the 25th at, I think, 109 p.m. Well, there were yet two holidays with school closures
071for about, I think it was Tuesday, Wednesday of that week. 23rd and 24th, no school. Yes. And then just to add, sorry, I just want to add. So from the point of arrest up until we were notified, at no point was this. So every situation is different, however, we have a safety Happening that we have concern that comes through transmission, you know, we're gonna pull that individual off the road Could be with pay without that's our decision but You know just in the benefit of safety we pulled off the road and we always say let's Slow it down pull the employee off the road and conduct investigation You know you in some cases where it might be something minor you keep the employee paid so take your time Let's do a thorough investigation and understand
072all the facts and then make a decision from there But it does seem that crime that the mayor may not have been officially charged with, I'm not certain, happened quite some years ago. So he seemed to go either undetected for quite some time and or... It's very unfair to the community what actually happened and how you got through this process. And honestly, I've had a very good experience with you guys. Excellent two years. I wrote a letter on behalf of one of your drivers to come rescue her with her. So this did come as a shock. However, what are you guys seeking from this that you will take forward to make sure it hopefully never happens again? Well, I'd say a couple pieces to this story is... I've worked here for 15 years. Obviously you
073can see this is a great caring team. We instill that culture within our operation of not taking shortcuts, caring about who we transport. We care about our drivers, our driver assistants, everyone in the workplace. Also with the role here, I'm also the president of the New York School Bus Contracts Association. So we head up policy within the state, work with the government up in Albany. And this situation is something we've tabled with legislators where we, you know, folks that work with children, is there a mechanism that can ping that there's something going on that would alert us to have some concern about hiring? Because right now, we're doing the file of this individual was a very... One, met everything that we do criteria-wise. It was a good file, good community connection, good references, a good
074career path before they came here. Found out about us, they had a child that they put on the special needs van. So connected and a very well-recognized file. And it's unfortunate that the communication isn't, I would say, a red flag that we could see. people that are going to work with children that we should have some kind of indication that there's some kind of trouble brewing and that's something we've talked about up in Albany where can we get this information because we're ultimately responsible for these folks that are coming aboard. So that's the components there. You know, one piece I think what we do is we're never rushing the process. You know, the driver shortage is a big piece in this industry and you want to fill the seats, but we tell the team. Never
075take shortcuts. Let's put the best people behind the wheel. Let's do what we do and keep it up. And it's just really a great team here that cares deeply about what we do every day. And it's a great operation that runs 24 districts. So it's a lot that we do every day, and we're proud to do it. Constantly seeing videos uploaded onto the dashboards in live time, as in since we're going to occur on the bus and we're going to leave. On top of that, we also have GPS software. to track the bus, make sure that it's on route. I just want to add, so we are interviewing these folks and they sit with us for whether it's 40, 45 minutes, 30 minutes, and the interviewers are tasked with the question, would you put your
076child on, put your grandchild, I mean, anytime I have someone sit in front of me, would I put my son on? We make sure, as much as we can. Yeah, last piece, now I would admit you're a friend, but I know that in a lot of... talk to school districts and try to mimic their application process. We all have the same concern. So we've reached out to school districts in the past asking them, hey, what are some things that you do in your interview process to do a psychoanalyzation of your individuals that you're hiring in your schools and let's replicate the same process for our drivers. So we've done that on multiple occasions over the last 15, 20 years as new things come up. Even we'll have people reach out to us and say, hey,
077we thought about this. And we have no problem adding it. As you said, we never rush the process. As you can see, our product presentation was very involved tonight. I just want to, first of all, I was remiss in saying, I don't know if anyone noticed, but we're wearing the stand up to cancer. And I'd like to recognize Rob LaVienne, the ITA president. Dr. Howard, he was the one who spearheaded this. Yeah, all right. He was a good fellow to join. Sure, just to raise money for the fight against cancer. And probably every person in the room knows somebody who's been impacted. by cancer. So I think faculty and staff raised over $3,000 and around the district we'll be wearing these t-shirts every Tuesday for the month of October. Tenure recognitions, I didn't believe everyone
078left, but it was wonderful to see the dedication from these teachers and their tenure and which is a much success in the future. And to Subtrancentation, thank you for that presentation. Like they said when I had children in the district, I had no problem putting on the bus and I feel the same way today We're great hands with Southern transportation unless it's James. Thank you for the presentation that you didn't see thing And I've said this before and I'll continue to say it again When it's fun, you want to learn and that's what it is what I saw here tonight So thank you very much for you doing all your staff. It's great Okay, so that's going to conclude all current presentations. We're now going to move on to our agenda items that we're going
079to be voting on. At this time, are there any questions from the board on any of that we're voting on this evening? Any questions from the public? Okay, with that then, I'd like to get a motion to consent items 5A through 5I. Can I get a motion? Mr. Corrine, the second is Mr. Leggio. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstain? And they will carry. Okay, we're now moving on to public comment. Two cards up here. The first one I have is Colleen Osamo. share their thoughts. I also would like to thank Dr. G for changing the schedule, the openness, professionalism. With that being said, I strongly feel that it's important moving to a nine-period audience so that the community, having these numbers allows for informed conversation about what is feasible. Since requesting attention numbers from
080fourth through twelfth presentations, amazing and really the importance of the music, but I did find in the performance. Again, it just further begs the question as to why we're seeing such an early audience may be contributing, specifically whether it costs them next steps. Good evening. Quick answer to the cost to add a nine-period day in the middle school. Somewhere between $550,000. The second part of your question, I'm sorry, I didn't know that you were going to ask that. So that's about what the cost would be if we incorporated it into an eight-period day. Right. So what would the difference be if we kept the current bell structure but moved the ensembles in? Yeah. I don't think that would automatically cost us money. Okay. But I would have to look more closely. But in terms of
081steps that have been taken, we've had two meetings on the topic since the last. And so we've done some studies of our students in the ensembles and what it would look like if we put them into an eight period day. It seems like putting them into an eight period day would exacerbate the. So what it appears, one of our counselors did a great job with sending ensembles, what other courses they require and their schedules and so on. So an early look indicates that sixth grade, we might lose 20% of the students in the ensembles if we move on eighth period day. And could possibly lose 23% of the seventh graders and potentially 11% of the eighth graders on eighth period day. And that cause seems to be a result of the course. It doesn't seem
082like it would be a good move to move it into an eighth period day. However, we're not giving up. on the ask because we philosophically we all agree with you. So we're investigating a lot of different things which includes trying to restructure the start times of our buildings because one of the concerns we heard was that the zero period is too early. So we're trying to maybe flop with that. And we're also looking at what we can offer students if we don't want to require general music for students that are in the performing groups. That's another area of philosophically we're in agreement. So those are the things that we're investigating. Those are the things that we're working on. More work to be done. I don't know if I answered all your questions. No, that's great.
083And I appreciate all the conversations. Is there a way to get why that drop would occur? I'm sure that whoever did this worked it out and has it on paper as far as why. Were those students in that, like what coursework in sixth grade would prevent them from taking music ensembles during the day? Yeah, it's AIS, it's ENL, it's other electives that they wouldn't be able to, not so much electives, but special ed, ENL, AIS, and mandated credits like tech, art, things like that, they would all come into conflict because... the reason it's in zero period is so that we can offer more things and to take that zero period away and then cram it into an eight period day would force choices i again is there any way to see that kind of why
084that's happening or meet with someone to get an idea of the sure because i would know it would take a tremendous overhaul of the master schedule in the middle school like that's no question but it seems i can't picture how a grade level yeah can you like i mean it's hard to kind of So there's a few things that we're still looking at. One of them being some of the students, how that's going to impact them. So when we look at that, that's what we're talking about. That won't fit in their schedule. So does that mean 20%? That they would need to have those, if you look at a full schedule within a period day, everything in there. I know it can be done. I know it can be done. So that's why I'm wondering.
085I could see with the special education classes and the E&L, those are very specific classes. Would that number drop? or 10 percent it could but right now when you look at that as the schedule stands now currently yes okay so that's we looked exactly at what we have today that's not what i'm asking i'm requesting a look at restructuring the master schedule to allow more flexibility so that those kids are not made to take a stumble during this specific so you might then yes absolutely i know it can be done and still be within the mandate there are other schools yes i would agree with you i just can't imagine with a restructured master schedule. So that's what I'd be curious with. And I'm not trying to be argumentative, but if you're engaging in a
086conversation, I'm just asking. And also, people who are also in chorus and, let's say, orchestra. Right. Yes, I agree. And we may have to also put in where the kids won't drop out. Or every other day lunch period places, which may not be popular for everyone, but is also an option. If we move the ensembles into the eight period day, there's a likelihood we would have less time for lessons as well. Teachers now teach zero period with the ensemble and then they have the rest of their day to operate lessons. And if we move the ensembles into the eight period day, it would take away from the lessons. Or it would require a .2 or .4 in the final. Yes, we would have to, well that's another way to skim that cat. Right. But we
087have some concerns about where our budget is headed. And so we might need... we likely will not have the luxury to be a faculty challenge. I don't know tonight that we could promise that. No, not looking forward to it. But just looking at all the different ways. I had a question for you. You mentioned that I want to make sure I understand it correctly. You said something about the ensembles having different periods. What did you mean by that? Oh, like if general music right now is period three. If you're taking out the kids and swapping ensemble for period three, then I could see, like if you're pigeonholed into the current master schedule, I could see why numbers would have to drop to ensembles. But if you can shift things, then there could be a greater
088possibility that kids wouldn't be scheduled versus keeping rehearsals. What's happening in zero period? Yeah, so that's the whole group together, right? Right. So that can't happen at different periods during the day. That whole group has to be together at one period. No, I meant in the way the master schedule looks now. So if those kids weren't taking general music but had to plug in there, then it would be a good idea. But I was just talking about the master schedule. It's not a perfect system either. Yes. You would have to get rid of it. ways for teachers to collaborate and have those PCP periods or professional development that they might need to have that bridge the gap a little bit. But yes, thank you. That was much more than a thank you. I appreciate it.
089Yeah, that was a thank you. And like I said, philosophically, we are aligned with you. So we just want to figure out what the trade-offs are and what we need and what we need. We're actually trying to dig in student by student to consider everything. Public comment card. terminology being thrown around. And I know, I don't have any social media so I had no idea this was even a thought. And I'd like to present some. And I think this is a big issue because we all are here because we do have children. We want our children to be safe, supported, and able to learn. And I truly believe when people are talking about security, we're talking from the same place. As a child psychologist, because all of us are safe in doing the information together
090with open minds. Feeling on their roles are very different. They also come with safety is limited and mixed. I think is important. I'm not saying that no security Produces better safer community and there were up to what comes up when we get a lot of also work when we get no There's a lot of complacency. The biggest concern is that there is an increase in disciplinary discipline and that's the effects so that means when there are there's words that greater or most is that Whether or not there's some specific training because these are not standard for the and preventative supports more counselors restorative practices and climate reactive Thank you very much for your comments, I appreciate them all so since we were presented with a petition we've already taken a few steps One of them
091was to survey our faculty and staff, so that survey will close this Friday. Before I came here this evening, we had 157 responses, and it was a whole series of questions, some along the micro scale and some open-ended. How many people were given to? Yeah, great question. It was given roughly 800 employees in the district. It was sent out Friday late in the morning, and we have a three-day weekend. And some of our employees we have to do some extra outreach to when we do a survey because custodial buildings and grounds, they're not on computers all day. They actually don't utilize email communication the way our just clerical do. So it's not really a true... I understand that considering it's a lot of things, but if it could be given in person or even right
092at the sign. Yeah, you can rest assured we will do everything we can to get as many people. So we are also... Brody and I spoke. Brody is in a statistics class in high school. And for November 19th, so everybody can mark their calendar, we're planning a community forum on this topic. Probably early to mid next week, I'll send out an invitation to everybody who has a child in the school district. Just to address some of the things, if you don't mind, that you shared with us. In terms of... Mental health and any more counselors and stuff over the last number of years we've done exactly that and so we're one of the few districts I believe a school counselor a social worker and a psychologist in each of our elementary schools and we have
093I have more meant if we are leaning towards there being some sort of safety concern rather than investing in some reactionary measure that maybe we needed something. Yeah, so I mean, philosophically along those lines, there's two things I believe in, which is you can turn a speed motor around on a diet, but it takes miles to turn an aircraft carrier around. And that's my analogy for working with elementary school students and secondary students. So you can impact behavior changes, start early. and you can eat more easily than you can when you start later. And regarding mental health, the quote that the board is probably sick of hearing me say that I'm very fond of is, there comes a point where you have to stop pulling people out of the river and you have to go
094upstream and figure out why they're falling in in the first place. And to that end, two years ago we started with a ruler program that we saw a presentation on tonight, so it was originally just in lane, now it's in all of our elementary buildings and growing. We have a course that although it's not like the . And of course I mentioned the professions that we've added. So we think that those things are really important also. You mentioned cultural competency. We have a professional development program that We are working through our entire faculty, certainly on a secondary level, and we're catching elementary school teachers as they're new to the district. And a major component of that profession is cultural proficiency. So we're working on that with the faculty. Where is that program from? Research for
095Better Teaching. They're out of Acton, Massachusetts. RBT. So if you Google Research for Better Teaching, you can find a lot better. So those are some of the things you mentioned that resonate with me. And I'd be interested in reading all of the information you have to share. And then I just want to reiterate to the community, November 19th will be the opportunity for everybody to, whoever wants to come, to share their perspectives and their insights. And I appreciate your comments on the difference between an SRO and an on-guard in our school security. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Soto. You're very informative. Thank you so much. Okay, that concludes our public comments. We're going to move on to reports and correspondence. Mr. Deutsch, you're up. I hate to say it, but today's our last day.
096Yeah, I'm sorry. Oh, I thought you said you wanted to say something. Oh, no, you're there. I don't have an official report tonight, but I can say I'll give a little sneak peek into what's in the works. As Dr. O'Hara mentioned, we are working on a survey with the students just to gather some information on how the students feel in high school about safety and security. Basically how that would work is for each grade level in the Google classroom there's a class page. So for me it's the class of 2026 and they put information in there and we would add a Google form in there that students could respond to and they would be encouraged to respond to it just so that we could really just gather all the information we can to Try to
097see not just how the administrators and the parents feel about this whole Debate about armed security guard also how the students feel because at the end of the day that's one of the important parts of the students so Yeah, that's that's it. Thank you The next will be New York State School Board Association proposed resolutions. Thank you. So the annual business meeting of the New York State School Boards Association is on October 16th. Prior to that, Islip's Board of Education has reviewed and voted upon resolutions which have been submitted by the school boards across New York. The NISBEN Resolutions Committee met in August to determine which of the resolutions will or will not be recommended for adoption. I am our district's voting delegate and board representative again this year. I will vote on the resolutions
098at the meeting based upon the board's decisions. The meeting and voting is held virtually. All of the resolutions that are adopted at the annual business meeting will become position statements and advocacy objectives of the State School Boards Association. Many of these position statements are affiliated during meetings with state and federal legislators as well as public your state school board look at the resolutions worksheet sheets are provided by Nisba which will be posted on board docs you can view how the Nisba resolutions committee voted and whether or not they are recommending or not recommending a resolution and then how the islip school board voted I want to thank the Board of Education for giving me the opportunity to represent us and I don't take that faith in me lightly. It was really nice to see how
099well we all work together and how like-minded we are when it comes to the students at Islet. Thank you. Thank you again. It is a lot of work that you do. I appreciate it. That's going to conclude our reports and correspondence. That brings us around to our dates to remember. Our next Board of Ed meeting will be on October 28th. Executive session at 6 p.m. Public starting at 7.30. And again, we're taking our board. We're going to be at the Cove Elementary School at our next Board of Ed meeting on October 28th. Folks, that concludes the meeting. Thank you for attending. We're formative tonight. Got a good motion for adjournment. Second. All those in favor? Aye. opposed, abstain. Thank you everyone.