001oh yeah I'll be taking notes tonight okay I'd like to call to order the business meeting of the palum Board of Education of January 3rd 2024 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible with and justice for all and I'll ask Mr Row for a reiteration of the executive session motions uh we entered executive session for the purpose of discussing the record of an individual employee as well as to discuss the proposed acquisition sale or lease of real property but only as it related to when publicity would substantially affect effect the value of that property um and I'll welcome everybody happy New Year um nice to see everybody back I hope everyone had
002a good winter break um our next item of business I'll do as a consent agenda 3.1 3.2 um ask for a motion to approve the minutes from December 18th and 13th so moved second all in favor I I any opposition no okay good evening and as well welcome everyone back um I said uh I said to Julian and Chris when I came in it feels like when we left on Friday somebody hit a big pause button and we walked in the door yesterday and everything resumed right where it left off um so we're excited to be back um and looking forward to a lot of great things in this second portion of the year um so just a few things quickly um next our next meeting I'll be presenting my midyear report the board's already
003seen kind of a preview of that at our Retreat back in December so I'll be excited to bring that uh forward our next time and then our third our third meeting of the month since it is such a long month month with Wednesdays uh we're looking forward to having the climate survey results uh Dr Allan Daly will be with us to present those um Dr Garcia who's not able to be with us tonight uh was able to get a preview of that with the administrators who helped to design that um and we're forward to them coming he'll be coming uh doing two sessions with the administrators prior one will be a remote presentation to go over the results with the administrative team and then the day that he's in District um he'll be working with
004the group as well so we can start to dig in and come up with some action items as a result with the hopes of implementing some of those things already this spring so looking forward to that um strategic planning we're also looking forward to getting up and running this month um Jim's office is finalizing the contracts for that so uh we'll be reconnecting with Hazard young and AA and we'll be uh getting most likely the surveys will be the first thing that folks will be seeing so be getting surveys up and running we anticipate focus groups as well so be more to come on that and it'll certainly be more in communication with the board about how we want to structure the process so more conversation to come on that um I know a big
005uh big grocery store topic has been uh the calendar for next school year from what I hear um we have been working on that internally um and I hope to be giving the board a draft of that this Friday when I send my weekly update home um there are some good opportunities in the calendar to come the way the calendar Falls there are a lot of regulations around it the state send sets Regent rating day which is the last day of the school year and then we back into the calendar from there given federal holidays uh State education holidays traditional vacation breaks that the schools take um so uh we are this year uh one of the pieces is there's in some years an opportunity to try to start with our superintendent's conference days before
006Labor Day so we're looking at that um that's something that we have to negotiate with our teachers union so that process is ongoing as we speak um and should have an answer uh on a direction for that uh by the end of the week so I'll be forwarding that to the board on Friday and then we can um at the meeting on the 17th we can uh discuss that the details of that calendar and I hope to be making an initial recommendation on a calendar for next school year to the board for uh for approval on uh this meeting on the 17th um a couple of things to uh be keeping your eyes out for we got a spelling be coming up on January 9th always an exciting time I believe Dr Bowman is that's
007right here in the Middle School library so that's fun right after school so I think we usually have a lot of our elementary kids are often pretty big competitors in that so that's always exciting so board's certainly welcome to join us for that and then um sorry if I'm jumping the gun on this for someone who might uh Natalie who might say something uh just reminder we have a board coffee on January 11th and that's going to be at flower power this time trying to Al alternate uh locations we were at Hutchinson in the evening last time which was a really nice change of pace um we are um since safety has been a topic on people's minds uh we've asked uh Mr Ricky and Tom Drake our alterist consultant to join us for coffee
008I'm treating um and they're going to be at the coffee with us on the 11th so folks want to come and have uh security safety questions on their mind we will have the experts here with us that day that's it for today okay thank you um next we have Board of Education committee reports okay thank you I can uh certainly give a a quick update on uh December 21st the facilities committee met uh there was a number of items that that were discussed and certainly I think one of the larger ones will be uh The Village Palm storm water mitigation discussion but in addition to that uh some of the discussion was about uh updated lead water testing on previous testing that had been done and sub mitigation uh that we undertook with adding filters
009to certain drinking fountains and we have clearances on those uh on those Outlets of water that previously over tested over the limits uh we worked we discussed the uh our the annual work of the facilities committee and benchmarking and our visits to other schools we're trying to work up uh two more visits uh before the end of this month so uh I think our Target is probably Scarsdale and Bronxville schools so uh we want to get a look and see uh again I think we've had a good breath of of looking at different structures and we want to look at this one as well uh we had a discussion about uh the facility use organizations and the fee schedules uh there's an amendment on this evening's uh agenda to include the palum uh Children's Theater
010which has been a long-standing organization in District since the 1960s and uh just a left off of our list and we want to make sure that they're included in uh as a a no cost organization um which doesn't mean if they drive cost they're not responsible for it that's important to clarify uh so if they have an event and require say custodial or or other labor supports uh they will be responsible for reimbursing the district for those expenses um and then last but not least we did talk about the village of pelum storm water mitigation discussion uh which again revolves around uh Julianne's playground park and uh some of the discussions again talked about uh use of the site um the uh the title search which was recently completed on that property uh confirming that
011uh the the district owns the property that there aren't any um prohibitions on that property uh I think uh next step is to move forward and receive uh some sort of appraisals for that property so so we've moved in that direction and think also the consensus of the committee uh and also we've we've U was that if if this project were to move forward I think at this point the consensus is uh that the district not be in a position to own the property if that uh if that retention systems in place um just because of the long-standing nature of what this structure would be um water if there were any um any further liability or anything like that so uh the committee is still working on this they've I've met um we met with
012obviously with uh with the with the village uh leadership when they first uh proposed the the I the uh the project uh the Committees met and discussed it I think two times now and uh once that uh that appraisal comes back we expect that to be back by the end of the month uh again we'll U I assume there'll be further discussions about that as well so that's all I had for um facilities Jim I have I have a question um would the committee recommend a public discussion around it you know and getting feedback from the community about how they feel about it or what what they would like to see happen I think um I think the committee certainly has made up of uh board members and and community members already yeah um and
013I and I think they'll make a recommendation to the board um which could very well include that uh that public discussion um any any further discussion such as that yeah yeah CU I know weed the letter from the village and I think I think it's important to hear from uh from the community about this yeah I I concur I mean mayor Mullen sent a a request specifically um but I and I would want to use it to understand what the ongoing like if if this were to move forward it seems Seems like there are significant implications for ongoing maintenance liability buildability if if the I think that's the term you use Dr ch um uh uh not to mention it's Julianne's playground correct um so I you know I'd really want to hear how they
014would address all of these issues so I think it's it's actually really important to get that out um in public so that we can hopefully rapidly come back to the village with uh a respon Mon and just confirming the initial request was for potentially an easement right an easement agreements um but the the committee is recommending that that the district would not go that route that if the if the if if the project were to move forward um there would potentially be a sale or of the property or yeah I think the I think the original discussion was the the ability to place this um retention system under under the park and um I I don't want to say the recommendation of the committee right now but I'll I'll say consensus at this point at
015this point in time is that if this were to move forward and it were to be in this particular site uh just as Mr Rose stated that it's a it's a forever type of a u system that would be there maintenance um that at that point in time is probably in the not in the best interest of the school district to retain ownership of that site you wouldn't be able to to build on top of that site right and uh long-term maintenance and potential liabilities uh that could arise from from that uh that at that point in time it it again the consensus would be that the district would probably not wanton ownership of that land at that time and and uh I understand that we're not at any point of of making a a
016decision on that at all but if that if that were to be the case can you talk a little procedurally how how that how that might happen how so so how a district the sale of a property or something so the sale of a property is as I understand it uh would be done through a public vote uh and that would either depending on the timing it could it would be coordinated with uh an annual election or a separate vote at a at a different time period so it could be separate it could be separate at separate times was uh in in the in the committee meeting was the notion of a some kind of swap of property was that discussed well I think there was a um a thought that if there was any
017interest uh for the district is does does the village hold profit property or an asset that could be of value to the district if the district were to change ownership and uh just in kind of the rough um discussions what what could that be what again you think of the Property Holdings of the of the village uh versus the district certainly District owns more it's a primary property holder amongst the uh four municipalities and I'll go back to maybe the word that that uh Mr roow used buildability I know as I listened to a lot of the conversation liability and buildability really I think are what two major concerns um so while we don't have plans to build anything right now right you know we have potential there and I think that's some of the
018conversation from the committee has really centered around maintaining buildability for future boards so to sort of summarize the potential avenues that this could go down in no in no particular order there's the easement option which sounds like that's pretty much off the table based on at this point in time I don't think that's a right right there there's there could be sale as one option right there could be a swap as another option but it sounds like the buildability issues could be could make that unlikely but I don't want to be definitive on that and presumably the final option would be not to proceed um in in any form with this so have I missed any of the options I think that's those are probably the The Avenues that that the board has to decide
019between and their proposition is just to rebuild the playground right yeah yeah I think when when they uh kind of gave us a a broad stroke of the project it was to uh uh install or construct the water retention system and then restore uh the park in like or better condition right but you cannot build a structure on top of those T 100% I totally get it I have a question about the the potential liability because in the letter we received from U mayor Mullen it said that it wouldn't be it would be no different than any utility um being on a piece of property can you talk like what are some of the liability concerns for the district or want to be careful I don't I don't get council's um area I I just
020think at the end of the day if this if the school district is the owner of the property um regardless of uh assurances insurances insurances uh and what have you again for a a system that's there in perpetuity uh somebody would look towards the property owner in the event of a being harmed yeah and then the final the final stop may not be the district it may be those providing the insurance but certainly the district would probably be the first as the property owner would not be left out I'm going to stop there right sure thank you that's very well said okay but we did I mean we discussed and I guess just to back up because the the facilities committee really was engaged in fact finding very well and sort of due diligence and
021we invited mayor Mullen and Deputy Mayor Carpenter right yes both came to the meeting and presented The Proposal yeah to facilities committee which was for I think a 3 million 3 million gallon water tank M under the tennis courts and basketball court which we estimated was about the size I think of five Olympic swimming pools six Olympic swimming pools underground plus the above ground diesel pumps I can't remember the exact number but it was five or six um I did do some research my on my own and the the federal government classifies diesel exhaust as likely to cause cancer in humans so little concerning having it on a playground um we the we we reviewed the title search M because there were a lot of rumors that the district didn't own the property and or
022there were you know it would revert to different but that wasn't the case correct and it seems that it was purchased I think over in several actions by Boards I think over a hundred years ago I think about 1925 20 mid 20s is when we found it right for the purpose of having the property in case it was ever needed to to build something in the future we reviewed with the architect if it could be used to build because there were some rumors that we couldn't build on it and the architect said it could be used to build something MH and some of the things that were mentioned were pre Center or offices and I think maybe someone even said a Rec Center that was thrown out as as an idea not that we're pursuing
023anything right now swimming pool swimming pool was mentioned also um um I had to get that in we reviewed with Council process yeah and now we're waiting on the appraisal Y and that's the information that we've come up with and and Michael or maybe you can comment on because th this was a question of why it went to the facilities committee the request went to the facilities committee versus a I guess a a board a full board discussion yeah I think it you know we all take um governance training that's mandatory for board members so we know about good governance practices and that's part of good governance that we did a process to do the fact finding and due diligence right three board members sit on your facilities committee yeah and an local architect an
024architect a uh engineering professional yeah and a facilities director professional so I guess it's the question is how to proceed I think at at this point um not to repeat the obvious but you said we're waiting for the appraisal I think that's kind of the the the piece at this point and once that comes in I think that will then beg that question are people wanting to schedule a meeting now or wait till our next meeting to discuss it or I mean I think is a public hearing or a public discussion or is it the work session yeah a work session I mean I think that's one one thing that we've been invited to to engage in so um Yan sounds like you're on board with that yeah I think I think mayor Mullen and
025any other um represent that again can address these issues of the environmental impact the buildability ongoing maintenance and again the fact that it's Julianne's playground like how would would that be addressed I think hearing that would be very helpful at the next board meeting that we could create some time for yeah I agree yeah yep so just invite them to speak at the next board meeting uh yes I think so okay okay all right and it can be a work session meaning engage back and forth dialogue yeah yeah yeah yeah okay we can uh definitely communicate that then to them okay and then obviously community members can just speak during open comments right like that's yeah I think when we do the meeting no notice we would include that there would be a work session
026or a presentation by The Village on the on the project so would certainly welcome that and I think as we usually do we we put multiple comment sessions in so we could certainly design a public comment session adjacent to that work session portion okay okay thank you did we have other commes should we ask them make public comment we could pause and do public comment if you meeting at a work session we could do both yeah so we're moving are we we're officially moving 5.1 up sure y yeah okay great good evening everybody um I know Dr champ and a few of you but uh my name is Moren borella and that's my husband Anthony and um just want to let you know how special Julianne's playground is to this community uh Julianne was our
027daughter and I don't know all the particulars of the project but the playground is just such a special place we don't have a lot of green space in the town and I just feel like it's not the appropriate place place to put these diesel power generators now hearing that they could cause cancer and I just urge everybody to please let the public like sounds like you're all doing your due diligence get more involved before any decision is really made it's very very important and it's a very cherished part of the community thank you thank you you any other okay thank you okay other committee reports uh po thank you than you uh we had a policy committee I can update on two of the items um sure so for the uh for each of these
028items this is the second time we discussed it at the policy committee but the first had to do related to digital devices and access uh during the school day uh cell phones smartphones uh airpods and it's it's all in the context of just the ongoing mental health issues that a lot of our kids are facing uh certainly in K12 I mean I think we talked about this last time there's there's just more and more recognition of the impact of the of access to digital devices and social media you know even New York State I think is suing meta uh right now for the algorithms that are used in a lot of the social media applications that are literally intentionally addictive um for young people that I just I'm always amazed at this study from 2015
029um at you know college students are using are getting uh some they're using their digital devices for non-classroom purposes 11.7 times per class whether that's like alerts from news or text messages and this level of addiction doesn't originate in college a lot of this is sort of learned um in the you know elementary middle and high school so we've just been grappling with what should we as a district uh do about this because I think it's time um so we have we had a discussion at policy committee back in maybe November and then we just uh in December we had a second discussion we had a few of the principles and I thought we had a very fruitful discussion about the possibility of actually taking the practice that's currently at the middle school and making
030that u a a policy k to2 um and the the implication of that is that um at the middle school currently basically digital devices have to be um stored turned off either in your backpack or in your locker all day so not just in class but in the hallways um you know and you you know you and for fear of God God if you if you um use it and so the quest but there importantly there are exceptions like if a teacher says there's a particular science experiment that has to happen or there were even some um special medical things so we talked about some very important exceptions but otherwise the rule would be um so any so we just talked about the implications of that um and so my sense is that our next
031policy committee meeting will probably start to actually craft draft policy that we could all take a look at um and then Natalie I know you were talking about having um just again for the larger public some kind of information session about what's happening why we're thinking all this Dr champ and I and Alex met today just to um solidify the agenda for the engagement committee and one of the things we want to do is have a a similar World Cafe as we did last year with the Excellence um question about cell phone usage um in the high school um and engage the community members about how they feel about it y um so that's one of our proposals to the engagement committee and I know that it's been a Hot Topic um I do know
032the Junior League is holding their January um meeting next week at the Hutchinson school and their topic is um digital devices so it is a Hot Topic right now within the community of what are we doing with cell phones as parents and you know living in the real world we know they have to be used um but then how do we what is the right kind of usage versus putting it away versus you know when and how and you know kids are not their brains are not developed enough to kind of make those decisions sometimes I let you say that but yes yes I'm with you I'm with you so and I I just want to add to I know that Mr burkowitz uh is doing some you know Gathering has scar gathered some information
033is continuing because I think also understanding student perspective is going to be critically important where District that believes in student voice um and I think the the the boots on the ground understanding The Faculty perspective I think is critically important as well as you said there's I think there's pros and cons all around there's management challenges but there's also great instructional opportunities so um I think getting all those voices and as mandal said getting you know opportunities for feedback to um to understand where the the the Learning Community as a whole is on the issue um can certainly help the board in crafting a policy Natalie a quick question I don't remember last year at the World Cafe was it just parents that came to that it was parents it just parents okay and you
034mentioned it I was just thinking that like would we involve students in that session or is that I mean basically i' agree that we need to make sure that we hear from the students and the teachers and whatnot so yeah I think I last year if we were replicating last year I think the thought was a parent event in the evening um just to make it accessible um we could certainly you know I've um talked with Mr burko with some I I know he was going to do some surveying yeah of students um but we can also talk with uh if you know if we want to do more focus group work with students or you know T tap into some of the student leadership right you know variety of ways but I think it's
035it is important yeah um and I think you know Natalie raises a good point you know they are young adolesents they're growing and developing um so I think there there's a perspective may not um may not you know necessarily understand all the implications of it um but I do think our students generally bring some really great perspective yeah yeah they always do so last year when we had the World Cafe then we had the students come and present at a board meeting um they talked about Excellence with some of the teachers that's true as part of the work session yeah yeah okay okay so we this will be a I think it it'll be a little bit of time I think over the next couple months I think it'll be a good you know we'll
036try to get as much of this information you know together um to help direct the policy committee on this it's definitely not an easy issue yeah andn had stated like you know this is something that's not just in this district there are several districts who have gone in the way of just Banning cell phones so together there's a lot of districts that are you know somewhere in the middle so we're really are just gauging the interest of how we as a district want to you know react to or proactively right and you know take action on this yeah Mr bur was also Gathering Regional information on exactly that what are other school policies doing yeah and I know we often use cell phones but what was interesting about the discussion of the policy committee even
037at the elementary school level they were talking about smartphones um being an issue I'm you see that yes smart watches being an issue um so it's it's really even more broad than just uh cell phones so more to come on that front um the second issue that we discussed at the policy committee also again for the second time was just in response to uh in June of this year New York State uh issued revised guidelines for transgender and gender expansive students and it's important to recognize that they are guidelines um and the guidelines have been sent out to the I guess pelum high school and middle school school um so it's important that you know the board provides some guidance as to you know what of these guidelines um you know are are in place
038in pelum and among the things that the guidelines at least uh appear to create the flexibility for is the district and you know this is obviously a very you know sensitive topic but as it relates to gender transition plans for miners um you know giving the flexibility for the district to unilaterally uh Implement uh gender their transition plans um you know things like you know calling kids by a different name or pronoun than they are called at home and so it's you know one of the things we're just talking about is that's a that's obviously a pretty big um uh discussion that we we' definitely want to have public dialogue uh on it one thing I thought was important was for us as a policy committee to get sort of professional Counsel on what it
039would mean if the district were to you know implement um agender transition plan so we you know so we were able to secure actually I think one of the you know very prominent uh psychoanalysts a licensed clinical social worker Erica kassar um you know to get her Counsel on you know is this a benign act and she was in my view very helpful uh around how we should um interact with kids who are you know expressing an interest in some kind of social transition that we should definitely be supportive of of these kids and really assess if there's any um um you know abusive or self harm situation that's obviously something that we should um take action on for for independent of this reason for um we we already have mandates in place but she
040was pretty clear this this idea of moving forward with a gender transition plan you know unilaterally like that is you know what she called a a clinical intervention a psychosocial intervention on a minor and so that's something that's very important for us as a district to to um take into account because that kind of action you know we wouldn't be able to do under um you know um you know given our current policy so it's just important information for us to gather as we again try to formulate what is our approach to um to how to how the these guidelines are adopted um in pelum or not yeah and I and I think really too as as as I recall the conversation a lot of a lot of this you know when you say that
041that the district can unilaterally implement it really is a social transition plan that that the guidance indicates um as opposed to medical and I know her her contention was that that it's clinical making it more medical that's the first time I'd heard you know a discussion of that um the guidance really does come from a a gender affirming uh approach which we've talked about some um and I think it's just important to note that as we've talked about whenever a student um shares something about them in this nature with a school staff member um their our goal our primary goal is always to work with the parent and the family in a unified way yep so um you know if a child comes forward and they haven't made that that you know had that conversation
042with the parent that's our first goal and that plan is to help them bridge that conversation in a way that they feel safe like you said assess a safety situation but then um you know we all believe in in partnering with parents um so I just want to be clear that we're we're not um we're not moving forward with medical transition plans it need to be crystal clear that is not our role as a school it's not something we administer uh we're talking about um simple changes of that students are asking for and we again we we honor we do our best to honor student voice and respect student requests right so you know nickname name change Etc things that we traditionally have a long-standing practice of of honoring right and that's why I thought
043it was very important for us to have a licensed clinical social worker a psychoanalysts come to tell us that what we may see is benign in her professional opinion and and we should get other Council too that that's what she call even what you just call the Social transition just calling kids by a different name or a different pronoun at school different from home it facilitates this idea of almost like a double life um and so she just you know told us professionally that we as a board have to make decisions knowing that this is a clinical intervention a psychosocial intervention so it's just important for us to absorb that were there any um Dr champ any in in in kind of giving this guidance has the administrative team and has the administrative team and
044sort of the staff review reviewed the the new guidance and were there any particular particular areas that they felt they needed more clarity on I think I think in our in some of our discussions on this for the most part they you said they feel comfortable like dealing on a Case by case yeah sort of basis I don't know um yeah know I can speak that the guidance was distributed by State education department everyone who's on their list so all teachers would have gotten it from State Ed um and then certainly you know it's been distributed as Ian said it has been distributed to teachers um we haven't spent any significant amount of time you know we haven't done a training on it per se uh with teachers the administrators definitely are very familiar with
045it um and I should add we've been implementing the initial guidance since 2015 so this is nothing new we're almost a decade in now to the State education department having guidance on transgender students um and so this was updated guidance to the 2015 guidance so um the administrative team certainly has looked at it we've had Council come in and provide um training sessions uh uh they've been doing actually keen and was great they I know that they spent some time you know with with us as a governance team looking at it um as well as uh their host they're hosting a great series of uh kind of lunch and learn sessions so they just held one recently with the administrative team uh from all their it was available to all of their clients um they
046also had done uh seminars for superintendent so there's been a variety of opportunities for the administrators to uh to dig more deeply into it um and yeah that really was the consensus we've been we've been working with this type of guidance very similar guidance since 2015 there's certainly updates to it um but the consensus of the team was again our our goal is always to work with parents and to to create a welcoming and affirming environment for our students and that given um given those natural relationships given that the counseling staff the clinical staff that we have folks feel very comfortable knowing what the guidance is and working in a caseby casee manner to help to really work to support the child and with that ultimate goal of of integrating as you said the inside
047school and outside of school life that's our goal um so that the children really can be on the same page with their parents you know whether their parents have different perspectives you know that's fine you know we it's not our you know our our goal is to try to to forge that relationship and support the student so um they did feel comfortable with the guidance as is I think it is provides enough Clarity for us to navigate the dayto day um does give some clarity to that I think I think is just re recognizes the humanity of you know of what we work with um you know very often growth is a process whether it's learning whether it's physical growth um you know understanding of identity especially during an adolescence it's all a process um
048so yes they were comfortable without and didn't necessarily feel a need for uh more concrete policy behind it um we do have psychologists and social workers available so if any student comes to the administrators or teachers they could be referred and that's generally that's exactly the process if some if someone were to you know become a student would ask something um that a teacher you know caught a teacher's attention ask for a name change or pronoun change um they if they had any kind of question or concern they would that would be their first uh go-to person would be the the child's counselor uh and or a psychologist we have two psychologists uh each in the middle school and the high school um or social worker any one of those uh resources uh would be
049available to them are these psychologists or professionals are they also available to speak to any parent that may want to have the conversation absolutely y although the school wouldn't the parent the school would unilaterally uh tell the parent right the parent will have to approach again yeah it's it's someone case dependent which I think is why you know to that question I think there each case is a little bit different I think really the the in most cases and we even took a look at our own student body I think in all cases that we're aware of the F the family is already involved in the conversation and in aware um so it is very rare I think especially by the time they get to middle school high school that parents wouldn't already be um
050knowledgeable about you know what's going on with their child and I mean that's I think ATT tribute to you know quality parenting and good strong relationships between children and parents um so we're there to just kind of be a partner in that so but again if we did have a unique C situation where a child did come forward and did say you know ask for a name change or a pronoun change but please don't tell my parent okay let's talk about that and that would be definitely the referral to a counselor or clinical staff they'd talk about that and then they'd work to to set goals around how what do we need to do to make that uh make that connection for you um and then the guidance does give you know does give guidance
051as to procedurally what we do um you know in the meantime and we certainly one of the you know one of the things they talk about in there is you know if a child does ask that it's important that you know the adults in the school have a conversation with a child like you know we understand we want to respect your wishes But please understand there we may not be able to fully keep This Confidential you know if your if your parents are coming in for parent teacher conference and they want to see a work sample I'm I'm going to show them a work sample and it's going to have your name on it you know I'm not going to we're not asking teachers to lie um we're not asking them you know in in
052that sense but they think to have an honest conversation with the child that's exactly what we're looking for counselors and administrators are often part of this conversation as well because they take a team approach to supporting the child yeah and I think that's I think that literally is the situation that we're you know uh that we have to discuss that um there's a s a child wants a social transition related to their gender um they don't want their parent to know we certainly support that child with all of our uh counseling support the question is at the at the point in which the the the the school district then says yes let's move forward I think that's what we have to um discuss because that's the point at which now a community has information about
053a child and the only people that don't have that information is the parent or legal guardian um Ian you mentioned that you had an expert come in to the policy committee and that being it's a sensitive topic it would be a good idea to have other experts come in to get yeah I to I think I think we should definitely I think it's really important that we understand from CU all of us I think have feelings about these things but I think because I've spoken now to a bunch of uh different um LCSW psychoanalysts both those who support gender affirming care it's it's quite amazing the level of agreement there is that this is a clinical intervention but we should definitely bring in more people to educate us on what we would be allowing as
054a district right right CU we have to acknowledge it's a it's very sensitive and they're definitely varying opinions and feelings about it so I think it it makes sense to to do that yeah so more to come on this one um as well but we know that you know at the core of this is doing what's best for kids maintaining our strong relationships with parents as allies um and doing the right thing actually one quick question so is the policy committee at a place where they're exploring whether policy needs to actually be put in place is that kind of the convers what the conversation that's been happening yeah we haven't actually drafted an actual policy yet because I think we're still doing this we're still trying to figure out the parameters but at some point
055at some point we will have to decide something either policy or or public discussion but I think we owe it especially now the guidelines have been published we owe it to the district to say um what you know what what we have G what we as a board have given the district the flexibility to do gotcha okay any other committee reports got some good committees with okay I think we're good all right so we can move on to assistant superintendent update on authentic learning okay um so to start I want to talk a little bit about our upcoming computer based testing simulation which is going to happen later this month um for our grade 3 to8 students um New York State mandates that uh because of the mandated computer-based testing that each each building administer
056a simulation the simulations last for um one period of class instruction and no long no more um in palum we have each grade participating in some degree in computer-based testing in the spring and so in order to provide as many of the teachers who will be Proctors as well as the students the opportunity and no Stakes dry run to see how the platform looks and what um changes we might need to make to our um Administration procedures we will be administering um between January 22nd and January 2th in each of the buildings one one only um per grade um more information will be coming out from my office later this week to families as well as um from principals and classroom teachers um with specifics about which assessment is going to be administered in which
057classro um as well as more information about the upcoming spring assessments because we are rounding that corner to getting to that part of the year um also coming up shortly next week week we will be hosting Michael reig who is a um master master scheduler um he will be here from January 9th through the 11th he's we're planning to have him review feedback that has been collected from teachers and administrators about the changes that were made to the Elementary schedule um after his last visit before the pandemic um in addition we've scheduled time for him to meet with secondary administrators as well um to discuss secondary schedule needs desires limitations and offer possibilities to make improvements in our um schedule and also programmatically what we can do schedule wise to help um improve program offerings
058um after that because of a because of a cancellation in December we have one more session with him which we'll schedule next week for later this year as Dr champ mentioned next week we have our District spelling be um which will begin at 3:30 so I want to wish all of our spellers good luck um before the break at the beginning of December on the 8th here in the middle school it's a hot spot for all sorts of things we hosted a um author visit from Jasmine warga who is a a young adult author um who is who wrote Such titles as other words for home the shape of thunder and a Rover's story I was here for much of the um much of the visits and a couple of the different presentations which were
059conducted by grade and um she was wonderful the kids loved her they loved her stories not they loved her Stories the you know her writing but they also loved how she spoke about the process of writing that she under goes and what she uses for um characters and how she develops a plot and um all of the research that goes into it and I think that we have some buing authors among star ranks here um in terms of professional development which is ongoing I just want to remind everybody that next Wednesday is the PLC day so that will be an early release um we do have upcoming math professional development for our Elementary classroom teachers as well as our interventionists next week with um Shelley Duos who's a math professional developer that we use um
060additionally we continue to have ongoing PD for our Elementary classroom teachers with TC for literacy um and I just want to talk a little bit about some stem PD that happened in December we um Dr Callahan spearheaded having some menu based PD um and also got feedback from all of the teachers who participated the topics included were enl students in the stem classroom Delta math users group artificial intelligence academic dishonesty versus productivity Singapore Math remediation and support in secondary mathematics using the Singapore approach inter orbit assessment development for nextg and new standards in math work session um as I said he collected feedback from teachers who were participants and it was overwhelmingly positive and I just want to highlight the different ways that we have been ensuring that our teachers are continually professionally develop developed
061pardon me both on the elementary and secondary levels great thank you and next we have assistant superintendent update on the whole child happy New Year Happy New Year to everybody um just wanted to mention uh last month we did uh have visits with our ICT Consultants um they worked with um our elementary team and our secondary team um I sat in with the principls on the debriefs and um things are going well with their coaching we are also believe it or not getting ready for annual review season so our planning begins this month we start with all of the staff at one of our upcoming plc's we do our annual review kickoff where we review housekeeping and procedures and protocols and get ready for um how we're going to handle um IEP development for this
062year and uh my office will start believing or not planning meetings and sending invitations uh to get ready uh after the February break um I also wanted to mention that in uh on Friday December 1st uh SEPTA did their first uh their um semiannual sepa Got Talent Show which was held in the high school at Alumni Hall um students both classified and non-classified worked together and had the opportunity to put on a performance for the audience that featured singing dancing and some acrobatics um and also featured some incredible artwork um just incredible budding artist that we have so I just wanted to make sure I thanked everyone who worked so hard behind the scenes cuz that is a huge Endeavor and a lot of work to pull off um Joanne cologne and Stephanie Otero the
063former sepa presidents it's their uh brainchild so thank you for for them for their hard work and there will be another SEPTA got talent show in the spring um I also wanted to mention next week on January 11th at the next septa meeting uh there will be a speaker um I worked with the co-presidents to organize um Evette gorich who is the former director of special education for nurs school district and Norwalk School District who now works with Westchester Institute for human development and she's going to be talking to parents on uh the opwdd approval process and qualification process um and that's Thursday January 11th uh last month the wellness committee had its second meeting um we talked about the focus of the work that the committee wants to do this year some areas of
064focus that were identified um is we will have the opportunity as a district to work with the New York Life Foundation who served as one of the largest supporters of providing grief and bement support to schools so we're going to work with them on how to get some um professional development here for us in our district in that area um another area Focus the committee identified would be continued support in the area of conflict resolution and peer isolating peers um this is a theme that came up both at the elementary and secondary level and we're talking about what tier one and tier 2 interventions would look like in that in those Realms and uh the last area of focus this year is going to be write new policies specific to um our Naran use and
065guidelines um that we need to follow now that we've been approved as an option one school district which means we could train our own staff in house um in terms of counseling I just wanted to mention last month that uh the counseling department in collaboration with pelum Civics did have a workshop um about careers and communication so they had guest panelists um Caitlyn O'Neal who was uh she was director of corporate communication for IBM Olivia Leatherwood who is director of communications for Kandi Nast and Alex deloka who is VP of corporate Communications for the Tia so that was really nice and well attended um f ffva link became live at the end of December that's a new process this year for families as they go through the college app application process um so uh that's
066off and running just some upcoming events from the counseling department um they will have tomorrow night their grade 10 college night um so that is going to that's their annual discussion with the sophomore class about the college application process um Miss Jean rener she's the campus director of admissions from forom University she'll be presenting on the topics um of college search strategies and factors in selecting a college and updates in the College admission process so that's for sophomores to kind of get them going um January 11th is our grade8 information night um that's Mr juain our freshman counselor will be meeting with the eighth graders parents and students to talk about getting ready for high school they usually invite some upper classmen to talk to the students about what that transition is like and that's
067January 11th and then January 17th is our GR 11 college night and that is going to be admission reps from Penn State Barnard Iona and cuni um they do uh sort of a mock transcript review for students and parents so they get a flavor of what colleges are looking for when they see a variety of transcripts and then they'll do breakout sessions on different topics and the topics can be from the college application and Essay to applying to test optional schools and parents and students have a choice uh what work session they want to go to so that's in the counseling department um I also wanted to mention that our College admissions have been starting to roll in and just give some insight as to you know the hard work and of our students and
068where they're getting admitted so some of our students have been accepted to Tain Boston College Davidson Wake Forest Bucknell Rollins College University of Virginia Georgetown Fairfield forom University of Tampa Providence College Welsley Duke Clemson Villanova Sunni Albany University of Penn College of Worcester Cornell Skidmore Brown and Elon so nice uh acceptance pull so far and and more to hear very good um and just quickly from the nursing department as we're kind of coughing and sniffling um Co is a thing a little bit again we're seeing Peaks but also flu and pneumonia um is u a lot of cases swirling so just a reminder from our nursing staff and Dr Leu our district medical director about the cold and flu season reminders they're all posted on all the school's um Health Services page you know just
069guidelines about when to think about keeping your kids home and uh went to send them back so um hopefully everyone will stay well and we'll zip through right till spring and that's it for me thanks Tracy thank you and opportunity for further updates on finance and Facilities I can certainly add just a couple of quick items uh we're certainly working on our budget and uh that'll be more time also in the future working with our finance uh committee uh with facilities we had the week off uh but certainly not everybody in the facilities Department was off so it provided a nice opportunity to wash and wax some of those hight traffic areas which was great uh there was some activity in the buildings there was a basketball tournament uh sounds like there's a game going
070on downstairs right now I know um the boys and the girls were both in the finals so that's great I wasn't sure about the final outcome of it but it's good that they make it to the final and if you've if you're running the tournament your team should always make it to the final but uh again I think a lot of people were enjoying it which was terrific uh our our lock system our uh door proximity system which uh was formerly uh part Wireless and part hardwired so the hard wirring of that system has been completed system is up and running uh throughout the district on all of our building buildings which is great uh we had some Wireless components on Gates which we have changed to being hardwired and the final applications are expected
071to be set up on those gates in the near future as well so all good news that work is done and uh by knocking out that wireless part of it uh we really have a high degree of confidence in the reliability of that proximity system uh working uh regularly where before with the wireless system it got a little janky at times so uh we wanted to make sure we're okay there but we're all online uh we met with the architect today our architect who's still doing our building condition study uh fiveyear plan and then uh discussion on our capacity study uh they're they're they're on that particular work the goal here is hopefully to provide some early information to the facilities committee uh in the late February early March time period uh prior to the
072completion of the building condition study and then as part of the development of that 5-year plan so uh we hope to have that as we move along uh safety uh of course uh we're meeting with our safety folks uh regularly we're doing some some additional training on the PLC day next week uh also during the Martin Luther King day um our local law enforcement uh agencies will be conducting some training at Prospect Hill School this year uh which is what they've done on on regular basis and it's uh it's a it's historically been a coordinated Trading between departments to provide some uh training uh in our buildings so that that would be happening usually rotates from building to building this year it's going to be a Prospect Hill we're gearing up for snow maybe we'll
073get it it's been however many hundred days since we've had snow uh but it always seems to fall on uh weekend days when you when you think about when you're in the position of the person who thinks about paying for the time so uh again it's falls on the time and a half for the double time day but that's okay we're the the people hav't uh better than being up at 5:30 and making a snow call I don't like I don't I don't enjoy that either and last uh certainly good news Hodel Sano a uh custodian of ours he's been with the district uh eight maybe nine years now his wife delivered a new baby boy Bentley 7bs mom and big sister are doing great and Jose got just pushed got pushed down to Fourth
074position in the family so we're really excited for him and uh we want to uh extend our congratulations to him thank you great thanks um okay so next we can move on to six Financial reports and motions and I would accept a mo motion to approve item 6.1 and 6.2 as a consent agenda so moved second any comments or questions about this this includes the change to the build building usage fees which includes uh p p children's yes theater in the uh in the documentation we've just it's the same thing that the board saw at rork but we've highlighted or bolded Pon Children's Theater so that you can see that that's the difference yep I would just add on 6.1 um this memorandum agreement is uh just to give us a pathway to um to
075pay for teachers who assist with supervision and After Hours the hourly rate is what was already within their contract so um it's just giving us that pathway to um if they help to supervise events okay all in favor I any opposition no then I'll accept a motion to accept donation so moved second okay and I'll read this resolved uh that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the uh board of education does hereby accept the monetary donation of $456 for a grant preventing academic failure reading program special education grant and that gratitude be bestowed upon its donor the pelum Education Foundation and that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board of education does hereby accept the monetary donation of $4,500 for another Grant superintendent conference day keynote speaker and that gratitude
076be bestowed upon its owner the pelum Education Foundation yes have anything to add about that um yeah I would just say I very appreciative as always for these grants um I I don't want to get too far ahead of this but we have requested it's not confirmed yet but requested um the national teacher of the year to come as a keynote speaker so um appreciate the pf's support of that we're uh I think mid-February we'll get the final confirmation if she's available um Dr Bowman and I and uh Miss Garcia got to hear her speak in um Washington DC at the Blue Ribbon panel and very inspiring so fingers crossed and thanks to the PF for their support great all in favor I any opposition no okay then moving on to Personnel recommendations I would
077accept uh motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.3 as a consent agenda so moved second any comments or questions no okay all in favor I I any opposition no and I would accept a motion to approve 8.1 uh Schedule D so moved second okay all in favor I I any opposition no and opportunity for new business none for me okay then I'll accept a motion to just one question sure um the letter that Kristen Burke sent to the politicians yes any I mean it's not your job to know but have you heard anything from that I do have an update um it's still being revised um she just sent me uh the latest revision last night um she she had proposed broadening who it's going to instead of just the county uh really looking at
078um our state uh assembly and um Senators as well figuring the broader the uh the reach hopefully the better the opportunity for some resolution um and I know that she's uh was in touch with PTA Council The Pedestrian uh subcommittee so I think uh just waiting for feedback from them so I actually was uh meeting with uh Crystal Howell today to plan our PTA council meeting and she mentioned it so still waiting for the final language final signatures and then that will get launched ASAP and I know Jim and Tom were in the process of planning a safety committee meeting uh before end of the month yes and I know that we've got a variety of issues that we've already got in the hopper uh with the Glover saf yeah I just think we we're
079in this sort of winter period where if we're going to get creative Now's the Time to plan it um so uh when when is that in the next couple of weeks yes uh part of that was we wanted to uh see with uh Town EMS on on board kind of how that's if there's any any early indications of how that's looking right now with response times okay and what have you I know it'll still be early but uh that's why we were thinking a little bit later in the month try to get some early feedback for our committee okay motion to adjourn so moved second second all in favor I I we are adjourned right thank you very much okay