001Yep. All right, we're going to reconvene to open session. So, be it resolved that the of Education reconvene in session. The time is 7:04 p.m. 7:04, I'll make a motion. May I please have a second? Second. Mr. Maine, and all in favor? Aye. Aye, and that's unanimous. Can you please stand and recite with me the Pledge to the Flag? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, and item number six on our agenda, which is our student board member remarks. So, Bailey, turn over to you for any remarks this evening. Hi, good evening. I don't really have anything to say tonight, except just for any high schoolers that our graduation packets
002are due in all of our senior dues are for April 24th. We have to get those in, and if you have any questions about prices or money that we owe, just text Mrs. Biglesia, and she'll answer you for that. Thank you so much. And item number seven, which is our presentation for this evening, which we have one presentation. It is our comprehensive school counseling plan, which I'd like to invite up uh Dr. Kate Sweeney. Hi, good evening. Good evening, [snorts] Board of Trustees, colleagues, and families here and at home. This evening, I'm pleased to present our district's counseling plan with a focus on how we are strengthening systems to support the academic, social emotional, and behavioral needs of all students. At its core, this work is about preparing our students to be self-aware, goal-oriented, emotionally
003intelligent, and resilient, equipped to thrive in an ever-changing world. This vision is closely aligned with the New York State Portrait of a Graduate that's coming out, and the competencies that our learners will need for success today. Why this work matters. Today's students are growing up in an increasingly fast-paced, interconnected, and complex world. They face academic pressure, the influence of social media, evolving mental health challenges, and uncertainty about the future, often simultaneously. As a result, schools must be more than centers of academic instruction. They must be environments where students feel safe, heard, and supported, and understood. Research and experience make it clear that when students because Make it clear that students cannot fully engage in rigorous learning when they are anxious, overwhelmed, or disengaged. Comprehensive school counseling plans are essential to addressing these needs. They equip
004students with the skills to regulate emotions, manage stress, and build resilience, foundations that directly support academic success. When these supports are strong, students are more focused, more engaged, and better positioned to achieve. So, I'd like to introduce you to our team. So, I just present print this. I'd like to to our team. So, at the top is me, Dr. Kate Sweeney. I'm finishing This will be I've been here a year and a half. Plan on staying, so thanks so much for keeping me. I am the director of pupil personnel services. We have Audrey Feliciano, who is currently a half-time assistant principal at our elementary school and a half-time special education administrator and chairperson. At our elementary school, we're so pleased to have Jessica Domio back, returning this year. She has brought a very big life
005to that elementary school with our students, and we'll hear more from those students soon. At our middle school, we have Deborah Ahearn and G. Marie Davis, who has been Courtney Quinn's leave replacement this year and fit in beautifully, and hit the ground running with our middle schoolers, who you will also hear from tonight. And at our high school, we continue to have Lisa Casal Seaman and Pamela Hildabrand. To start So, to start off, I'd like to introduce and ask to come up Jessica Domio, school counselor at our elementary school. >> [applause] >> Good evening. Okay, so the roles of the counselors in each building overlap in some ways and are very different in others. In the elementary school, I provide individual and group counseling um according to IEP mandates and 504s, as well as support
006in academic success skills, restorative circles, crisis interventions, whatever is necessary. I teach social emotional learning lessons using the Second Step curriculum, which you will hear more about soon. I facilitate team community, which is our group of student leaders, which you will hear more about soon. I collaborate with district-wide support as well as community resources to provide full support for our families. I work with Deborah Ahearn to facilitate the transition from fourth to fifth grade, and I coordinate personal safety, which is a mandatory annual program from the Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse. So, our district has a counseling advisory committee. This is a group of stakeholders who are invested in the success of the counseling program and provide feedback to counselors. Each year, we set a goal and collect data to measure the effectiveness
007of our program. In response to a Board of Education question last year, which was, "How do you know if Second Step is working?" we knew that that would be the focus of our data this year. And in addition, to ensure that the counseling programs are effectively contributing to the Portrait of a Graduate attributes, we have decided for the next 6 years to align our goals with the six attributes of the Portrait of a Graduate. So, this year, we focused on the attribute reflective and future focused. This attribute refers to engaging in self-reflection to identify strengths and areas for growth, setting meaningful goals, using social awareness to maintain supportive relationships, and demonstrating responsible decision-making that prioritizes social, emotional, and mental well-being. Each school looked at one way that counselors impact student growth relative to this attribute.
008In the elementary school, the Second Step lessons are grouped under four units, growth mindset and goal setting, emotion management, empathy and kindness, and problem solving. The emotion management unit teaches students how to be reflective, how to rethink a situation, and how to calm strong emotions so one can think logically. Therefore, to evaluate the efficacy of Second Step and our contribution to the Portrait of a Graduate, I collected data on the emotion management unit. But before talking about the data to illustrate the impact on the learning taking place in Second Step, I would like to introduce Brinley and Leo. Please come up. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Brinley. I'm in fourth grade. I like doing arts and crafts, and I love my family. Hi, Dad. In SEL, I learned that our brains have a logic center
009and an emotion center. The logic center helps you think about what could happen in a situation and to think clearly about outcomes before you do something. Your emotion center tells you what you want and need, remembers how you felt in the past, and tells you how you feel now. You need both centers of your brain to make the best choices for you. Sometimes when you're up or upset or overwhelmed, the emotion center takes over, and it can be hard to think clearly. You can balance your brain by rethinking. This means thinking about a situation in a new way. For example, once I was taking a test, and a kid in my class came into the room after I had already started, and then she finished before me. I got sad and thought I wasn't good
010enough. I spent time thinking feeling upset and wondering why she was done before me instead of thinking calmly about my test. After learning about rethinking, I realized that my emotion center had taken over, and if I had been able to rethink, I would have thought, "It doesn't matter who finishes first. Everyone should just take their time and do their best." If I had just focused on myself and the test instead of worrying about how someone being done before me, I probably would have done better on that test. After learning about rethinking, I'll rethink stressful situations and calmly think about the world around me and what really matters. I'll even say to other people, "How can you rethink?" which can help them have less stress and be able to think more clearly. SEL lessons have taught
011me how to be a better person and how to think in a more positive and focused way. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Leo. I'm in fourth grade. I have three siblings, Nova, Geo, and Ethan. I'm going to share about how I use rethinking and what I've learned how to see things from other people's point of view. I've used rethinking a lot in my house because I want to be respectful of my parents' rules and not get in trouble at home. So, Sometimes I push things off and forget to do them, and then I get in trouble. Instead, I can rethink and tell myself, "Just do it now. It'll be done with. My mom won't have to tell me again and I will and I'll my parents will be proud of me. I rethink it at
012school. I usually thinking at school when I get really stressed because I forgot to do something for school. I rethink and I tell myself tomorrow's another day. I'm getting better at writing everything down that I have to do. I use rethinking for little annoying things that happen like someone taking my book nook. I wanted to read it at at recess. I tell myself it's okay. I sat there before and I'll sit there again. In SEL, I've learned when someone has a different opinion than you, you can learn you can you can ask them questions to understand their point of view and that's a way of having empathy empathy for them. I remember this when I work on group projects and people tell with different opinions needed to decide on an idea or how to do
013something. I'll ask them questions to understand why they feel the way they do and I'll explain myself. Then we'll be able to compromise. The S the lessons in SEL will keep on helping me and probably save me for my whole life. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you Brinley and Leo. So to go over the data from the third grade, some highlights are so the way this is organized is the percentages include the percent that they answered agree and strongly agree. The light blue is the pretest and the dark blue is the post. So I can name at least one emotion management strategy. In the pretest 64% agreed or strongly agreed in the post 92%. So students learned how to breathe, take a break, count slowly and other emotion management techniques. I can identify
014differences between three gradations of the same emotion. Pre was 51 and post was 75. So in this students learn to self-regulate by understanding the level of their emotion. Am I furious? Am I angry or am I just annoyed? It can help them figure out the size of the problem and then have a proportionate reaction. I like what I learn in second step lessons 91 to 90. And second step lessons have helped me in real life 81 to 76. So I will comment on that decrease in a moment. Highlights for the fourth grade. I know how to use helpful questions to think about situations. 62% pre, 89% post. So students learn to ask themselves questions when they're upset in order to gain perspective. So for example, what actually happened? What are the facts versus the opinions?
015Was there anything good that happened? I can describe the benefits of rethinking 58 to 87%. So students learn that when they pause and rethink, they can make better choices for themselves. I like what I learn in second step lessons 91% pre to 93%. And second step lessons helped me in real life 75 to 68. So overall, the second step data happy to report um clearly shows that it improves second step improves emotion vocabulary, increases knowledge of emotion management strategies, strengthens cognitive reframing skills, and maintains high student satisfaction. The growth opportunity according to this data is helping students more clearly see and articulate how skills transfer to real life situations. Class discussions, private conversations, what Brinley and Leo shared showed that the real life connection is happening. Um so perhaps this was an issue of misunderstanding
016during data collection or maybe students just don't remember where they learn these fabulous skills that they're using. Um but the middle school data for this question um showed similar results a little lower than expected. So therefore we are both going to make sure that we continue to improve the connections made between lessons and real life application. Moving on to team community, I would like to introduce Irene, Zara, Haley, Ariana, Jace, Declan, Domenica, and Julia. Domenica, you can come up to the podium and everyone else please stand in a line right here. Team community is a group of student leaders in third and fourth grade that create school wide events. Everyone in those grades are welcome to join. I think it's amazing that we can impact our school culture by creating events like start with hello
017week and mindful March wellness week. This group of students was part of creating mindful March wellness week. Classroom activities taught us our school how to breathe and listen mindfully. Special teachers taught us about singing bowls and meditative art. Following yoga and wellness did a fun family yoga night. And team community put on a play for the whole school to demonstrate what we have learned. We would like to do a short portion of our play, mindful moments. So I Zara. Hello. Welcome everyone. Today we're going to learn about something called Mindfulness means paying attention to what's happening right now. Your thoughts, your feelings, and your breathing. Sometimes kids and adults feel worried, frustrated, excited, or distracted. When those feelings get really big, mindfulness can help us calm down and make good choices. Mindfulness can help us
018feel less anxious, focus better in school, be kinder to our friends, and solve problems calmly. But first, let's practice mindfulness together. Everyone put your back up straight. Take a slow breath in through [snorts] your nose. Now blow it out slow like you're blowing out birthday candle. Great. Now let's watch some kids use mindfulness at school. Two, the scary test. I'm ready for class today. We have a big, important, very serious test. A test? I forgot everything. I forgot my name. What if I even forget how to hold a pencil? Jace, you're holding a pencil right now. Oh, right. Remember what we learned about mindfulness. Oh, yeah. Let's try it. Step one, take a slow breath in. Step two, blow it out slowly like blowing out birthday candles. Irene, let's help Jace. Everyone take a slow
019breath in >> [snorts] >> and blow it out slowly. Step three, say something positive to yourself. I studied. I can try my best. And remember, it's okay if it's hard. Hey, my brain feels calmer already. Excellent. Mindful students are ready to begin. Okay. Scene three, the hard book. This book is impossible. My brain is quitting. Your brain can't quit. It lives in your head. >> Well, it's taking a break. Try mindfulness. It can help you calm down and think clearly. Just take some deep breaths and focus on the rise and fall of your chest. Fine. In and out. Now positive self-talk. I can try. I can take my time. I can ask I can ask for help. Take a breath. Wait. Look Look at books. Oh, hey. I can read these words. See, your brain
020came back. I'm so Good job. There you go. Okay. Final scene. Mindfulness doesn't make problems disappear, but it helps us pause, breathe, and make better choices. Mindfulness helps us calm down, be kinder to friends, focus in school, handle frustration, and believe in ourselves. Mindfulness isn't about emptying your mind or being perfectly calm. It's about being present enough to notice your life as it's actually happening. The real value is in that awareness. It gives you a small but powerful gap between what you feel and how you respond. In that gap, you get more choice, more clarity, and often a bit more peace. Audience and students, let's take one final mindful breath together. Breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly. Thank you. And bow. Thank you. And now team community would like to share a few thoughts
021that they've had about mindfulness and about team community.