001thank you 4 4.01 public comments or on agenda items anybody signed in for public comments ladies and gentlemen we're about to listen to public comments although the state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a debate or dialogue so please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and requests tonight we take your concerns and questions seriously and want to have significant time to process and research the issues if need be any questions from public should be submitted through the use of a public comment form which may be obtained
002online or at the desk of the district clerk we will have the proper staff member get back to you as soon as appropriate I also want to point out that under the state and federal privacy laws we are unable to address any comments or questions about specific students School Personnel we would ask you to go through your approp go through the appropriate administrative channels a total of 30 minutes at the beginning of each board meeting is set aside to allow for public comments on agenda items only public comments at the beginning of the meeting is limited only to its items on the agenda persons who wish to participate in public comment portion of the meeting are asked to provide their name and a specific agenda item about which they wish to speak a signup sheet
003is located on the desk with the district clerk individual comments on agender items is limited to 3 minutes and are welcome if you wish to address items relating to our school district that are not on tonight's agenda another comment period is provided at the end of the meeting for that purpose a second signup sheet is available for non agenda items in the interest of Civility and respect for different points of views clapping booing or any disturbance or disruption during either period of the public comment period is not permitted at this time comments related to agenda items are welcome so we have Allison Allison kyell education thank you I wanted to speak on the um board recommendation for the new position and I just wanted to say thank you for the school district for finally taking
004special education seriously and realizing that it does need um its own person specifically um with with that being said I was thinking about this on the way over in the description limiting to specifically and I could be wrong five hours of pure special ed or related and I think there are some employees in our district that might be close to meeting those needs but not completely um so with that I'd like to state that so many of on the stage um had started in our district many of on a building level some admin were once teachers um the the grave example that I use because I I I read it in almost knowing our district looked like is there anyone even qualified of our own and you know as we sit here our superintendent was
005a John J principal I I we've all worked really hard to get where we are and I think if we don't open it to our own employees it would it would be a little sad that's all thank you thank you anyone else public comments thank you 4.02 committee reports uh we have Capital Improvement and we're GNA get 02 oh I'm sorry 402 Communications announcements received by the board so I have a couple of comments if we all right thank you first of all I'd like to thank the rotary for the student of the month uh we had Angela Coffey and miss Liz McMillan from rck Nicholas Lockard and AER meia from wenes Junior Jess Sanchez and Mrs skinsky from Evans and ab abdina Gonzalez nidi and Miss Rossy from Myers and of course em Emmy
006Hass and Victoria R Rose from sheath road so I just wanted to thank the rotary one more time for uh doing student at a month it's been a great activity uh I think supporting our students and staff and also our uh families that support all these students is a great thing done by the rotary I have another announcement congratulations to the winter 2425 wer Central School District athletic teams receiving the following New York State scholar Athletics recognition John J's girl basketball team award and nine individuals awarded recipient team average 9578 rck girls basket team award and seven scholar athletic award recipients team average 92 John J's boys basketball three individuals awarded recipient team average 88.5 five 88.5 five rck boys basketball team award and six scholar athletic award recipients team average 91 John J's boy
007bowling two individuals awarded reciproc team average 88.9 five RC is boy bowling one scholar athletic award recipient team average 87 John J girls bowling team award five individuals awarded recipient team average 9493 rck girls bowling team award and three scholar athletic Award rean Team 94 Johan J's competitive cheia team award and 11 individuals awarded recipient team average 92.1 19 rck k competitive cheer team award and seven scholar athletic award recipient team average 90 John J's boys indoor track and field team award 27 individuals awarded recipient team average .06 John J girls track and field team award 18 individuals awarded recipients team average 93.5 n RC k boys indoor track and field team awarded 21 senior athletic Award recipience Team average was 93 rck girls indoor track and field team award 23 Scholars and team average
00895 John J wrestling six individuals awarded recipients team average 89.8 rck wrestling two scholar athletic award re recipients team average 83 w wenes Central School District unified bowling team awarded and 17 individuals awarded receipts team average 98.41% awarded recipients team average 93.6 4 criteria for receiving the team award the team average for 75 or 75% of the roster must be greater than or equal to 90 criteria receiving for individual Awards 90 or greater on the GPA so congratulations to all of the students all of the staff members and everybody all the families that participated and supported these teams thank you very [Applause] much Piggy uh some of me some of us board members had the opportunity to attend the National Honor Society inductions at John J last week and we were was very impressed 12
009students made National Honor Society thank you Peggy Cheryl mots yes first there is another athlete that I would like to congratulate you may not be aware but this year for the very first time Nisa held a girls wrestling state champion ship and wrestler gwindel and Brown from royy Ketchum quality qualified to compete at States um also some of us had the opportunity to attend the French Honor Society induction at John J on uh February 12th It's a Wonderful ceremony with some great entertainment the um winner of last year's John J talent show performed a beautiful song in French last Friday night um the Spanish Honor Society at John Jay held their annual talent show and it was a really really wonderful program on Saturday the um John J Winter Carnival was held and that was
010another great program almost every organization at John J was involved uh setting up booths and um there were a number of families from all of the elementary schools around our district participating and everyone seemed to have a great time I want to remind people that there are two big events coming up this weekend well three big events coming up this weekend for people who follow um rck basketball the girls will be playing in the um sectional champion in is it Championship Mr Cy oh in the quarterfinals of sectionals at the um at the count County Center on Friday night I would also um like to bring your attention to the fact that W van white junr high school is holding its production of something rotten this weekend and that both the John J and Ketchum
011cheerleading squads will be competing on Saturday at mayek in sectional championships thank you uh I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we let information that I gave you about the teams was sent to me by Kurt Jasmine so thank you Kurt Peggy you have something two of our faculty members uh Mr uter and Mrs crane are being recognized by The Duchess County Chamber of Commerce as a part of their 40 under 40 so that's a great honor and they're uh very well deserved thank you trusty Kellen trusty calara uh thank you president McFarland uh last Tuesday the 18th uh there were two absolutely wonderful pmia flag ceremonies first being at John J in the morning second being here at rck on behalf of the veterans in the district we want to thank the board
012want to thank all the staff the students and especially Dr Bonk and uh principal calawa and principal Cy for making it happen and last but not least uh director broas in the background he uh immediately snapped in form and uh got us the help to get the flag suspended up there and uh there was a lot of work that went into preparing this this event played out much better than we even imagined it was very touching we kind of brought it back to uh the school district history some of the roads including McDonald way named here um we're very appreciative of this this this District continues to honor its veterans to honor all the people that still continue to serve the community on behalf of all of them uh I don't think there's words that
013could really Express a level of gratitude thank you Dr Bon you are absolutely supportive from the moment this came into H fruition second I want to also give a special shout out to uh assistant uh principal Mike Lopez from Ketchum as he's been working tirelessly to get ready for this upcoming event this Saturday March the 1st pay lless for the uh dress it is where we encourage local community members to donate suits and other items on behalf of uh helping students you know be dressed for the big event it will take place on uh March 1st here at our shall I say rck it's in partnership with uh TEEG Q92 and iHeart radio and uh a lot of stuff that goes into this is really in the background and uh assistant principal Lopez always steps
014it up uh on behalf of all of us on thank you thank you Mr cavalary and thank all the Vets out there anyone else okay moving right along 4.03 committee reports Capital Improvement is chaired by Eddie slawa thank you president McFarland our Capital committee meeting occurred on February 5th 20125 at the rck annex at 9:30 in the morning my fellow trustees in attendance trustee capillari trusty Johnson as well as board president McFarland several updates our Capital project from 2023 Phase 2 Renovations for the main bus garage are continuing uh we had some leveling of the floor that needed to be done unfortunately uh the existing floor uh not up to Snuff so to speak uh so that work is being done uh we're also going to be installing a brand new water line into the
015building right here at wers Junior High School I'm happy to announce and everyone can hear me when I say announce our new sound system as you can see has been installed up and running so I hope everybody's happy and I can't wait to see the kids perform with the new sound system so want to thank our vendor Hudson Valley audio for that as well as our facilities department and director broas work continues in uh coming up with some ideas and um plans for the renovation of the John J uh School Press Box our architect is working with our athletic directors and our uh building principal uh just also to let everybody know that uh you know Dr Bach has always brought up what is the most uh excuse me the most recent school that was
016built which was John J in 1969 obviously with all the upgrades that we've done outside with the football field uh and so forth uh we don't have enough electricity power believe it or not so we are working on upgrading some of the electric lines to be run back out to the Press Box and the football field and at the same time once weather permitting once we get some trenches done our assistant superintendent uh Darren loka has requested that we uh since we have a trench uh dug up we run some fiber optics uh for some future work uh that uh he will uh I'm sure will undertake in upgrading um our systems from that standpoint uh we are Contin continuing unfortunately we've had some setbacks due to uh very cold weather with the sound systems
017for our athletic fields uh we're hoping that weather uh comes to uh a little bit warmer even though this week's going to be nice uh still not uh sufficient enough to do some trench digging and things that have to be done and some upgrades as well so we're targeting April to have those projects completed at both of our high schools uh we've talked about some of the traffic congestion in front of Meers Corner uh if anyone has uh listened to the last couple of uh board meetings we currently have a feasibility traffic study underway we anticipate having that report hopefully by the end of the month first week of March that we can have presented to us and ready for our March 10th board meeting um also just to let everybody know we've had uh
018two prior presentations at the last two board meetings uh with regards to our Capital project one of the items within the capital project uh we were looking at purchasing the adjacent property here wenes junior high to expand the parking for buses we received the feasibility study it was reviewed by the capital committee and unfortunately based on the information in the capital excuse me in the feasibility study uh the capital committee is not recommending to purchase that property uh what we need to do uh to convert it to a uh expansion of the bus garage and bus depot for existing parking just based on some of the environmental issues um yes Turtles bats and so forth the space and the cost involved um the committee recommended withdrawing that from the capital project and we've decided to
019reall reallocate uh those funds for the purchase for uh upgrading of bathrooms uh throughout all of the buildings uh within the district our next meeting will be Wednesday March 5th at the rck annex at 9:30 thank you thank you truste slosa uh curriculum Dr Codwell good evening everyone the curriculum committee met on February 19th truste mots and truste Kellen are members of the committee and were present our director of math and science for grades 7 through 12 Adam Panzer he presented to the committee on two new high school science uh course changes to labs and regions exams like the living environment course that we're familiar with the title has changed to Life Science Biology and Earth Science the title of the course has changed to Earth and space science there were also changes to the
020labs and Adam Panza also discussed the professional development that the teachers have received in preparing the students to be ready for the new labs and the new region exams which uh will be offered in June thank you Dr cwell uh municipality Virgil capillary do you have anything to add I know this is a fairly new committee for you correct yes on February 7th uh Dr Bron assistant superintendent loka and I had a meeting at the district office with uh Town supervisors from Fishkill East Fishkill and w while other members were not present information was communicated to them regarding the pending uh uh Capital project informing them kind of communicating with them that uh this is coming along the way not only providing information to them but also soliciting what necessary feedback uh Dr bong finds
021that the communication found the communication I think is equally helpful as I did and uh it's part of uh the district's effort to be a little more proactive in the messaging of this which is absolutely necessary and I can tell you that both as a a resident prior to being on this board it's something that I find uh quite refreshing and uh would like to see kind of continued uh did I miss anything Dr Bon I think you did a fine job trusty capillary thank you thank you trusty capillary policy committee chaired by Peggy Kellum the February policy committee met with uh board members John Lumia and Mike McFarland uh uh assistant superintendent Darren lakima district clerk Alberta Pedro and uh Human Resources Director Renee Harris in attendance we completed our three review of policies
022the only change was uh that the staff development policy now includes classroom teachers and that will be voted on uh uh today if the board approves it there will be that change thank you trusty K uh Duchess County School Board Association board representa by Peggy K okay uh we had an update from Evan Sullivan of asra Associates on behalf of the lower Hudson education Coalition on the current state budget status we also had an update from Jody uh DeLucia uh bo B's deput Deputy superintendent all school board members are invited to tour the Bose's facilities on March 11th or 25th from 9 to 12 and uh register with your district clerk if you would like to attend thank you truste K I do recommend doing that Tour by the way I I have done that
023tour twice already because I'm on the Dutchess County bosies Board and it's very exciting to see what they're doing in those buildings with the students and how interactive the students are with all the activities going on so I encourage everybody to try to get up there uh New York State Schoolboard Association Lobby day Peggy Kellen okay I went to Albany with Cali lapen the executive director of The Duchess County School boards Association and Amy Fredericks from the Pine Plains board we were joined by Gully Stanford from The Duchess Bosey board and the superintendent of the pine plain School District we were uh when we went to see state senator Rob Rison and assembly member members an El BM and de Barrett all three gave us a full half hour of their time to discuss matters
024of concern to our districts especially preschool funding the electric bus mandate temperature requirements and CTI funding at bosis New York State School boards Association provided breakfast and lunch at no cost to the districts thank you again trusty Peggy hel okay moving right along thank you for the reports by the way from all you U committee members superintendent 5.01 superintendent Spotlight on programs Habitat for Humanity nov Partnerships Tiga ker and joh John samon thank you president McFarland members of the Board of Education members of the wer Central School District community before we get to the presentation on Project based learning every can counts cans for Habitat homes that will be done by John sammon and Tara hohler um as uh trusty kand indicated we're very fortunate this year we have two of our employees who have
025uh received the 4 40 under 40 award from The Duchess County Regional Chamber Of commer as you mentioned Mr uter uh as well as Mrs crane but this has become a pattern and this is a good pattern since this is the third consecutive year that we have had one of our employees on this list uh I go back to 2023 where we had Mrs regalia I go to 2024 we had Mrs champion and then this year we have two Mr uter as well as Mrs crane so I want to thank The Duchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce and I want to thank our employees uh many people say education needs to run as a business and I believe that within the past few years uh we have begun to make an imprint in our business
026Community with all of the Partnerships that we have all worked very diligently on in creating and getting out into our community and being a part of project-based learning some of the things that you're going to hear about tonight uh we all build our community together so again I want to commend Mr uter and Mrs crane this year and the past recipients again thank you for truly making a difference not only in our students lives but in the lives of our business Community can we have a round of applause for them please and with that Mr samon and Mrs Kohler would you like to begin your presentation Project based learning every can count cans for Habitat homes and if you could also do me a favor before we begin this could you give a little overview
027as to both of your involvement in project-based learning exactly indicate how long we've been doing project-based learning and what your roles have been I think it would be important for everyone to be aware that this is not something that is this is not something that is new to lingers thank you okay so we have 25 seconds 25 seconds oh okay so Project based learning has um been in the district for for quite some time now um it was definitely In Pockets in different classrooms like I was a classroom teacher before taking on the role of a PD specialist and Mr salmon actually was in my room um coaching me through some Project based learning um since then it's been about seven years that we've been growing project-based learning um through our elementary schools um with
028some Partnerships with the high schools as well so Project based learning probably started in our district where it was more Elemental we were just taking pieces of it and now it's actually grown into more uh full-blown or gold standard level Project based learning we have Community Partners where we're creating something for someone or our students are and so that's where we are current yet okay I'm just trying to do this clicker here um okay so we do really good with project learning and other Tech tools use a clicker apparently like where am I supposed to Darren there it goes oh there it goes okay thank you thanks perfect it could stay right that one okay super you wantan to go back y back again there you go look it teaching us you're the best um
029but first of all we we couldn't have the learning experiences happening in our district um without the support of our Board of Education Dr Bon and our central office staff um when you think about what our mission is for our students in this District um that mission came from the people listed right here and um and that's why we do what we do we also have to thank the um it's okay I remember what's on the SL there we go okay we have to thank our professional development team as well that's the entirety including Taran myself um whenever we do project-based learning it's an interdisciplinary learning so it really requires us to understand what's happening within the ELA Realms understand what's happening with some of the latest technologies that we're utilizing within the district and
030so we need to make sure that we stay AB breast and we collaborate cohesively with our PD team and so we would also like to thank them as well um Audrey Ruckers is here with us tonight as one of our directors we thank her for coming out um and we also want to give a big shout out to Mr luzy um Mr luzy is actually the person who put us in connection with Habitat for Humanity and it started out with a meeting at district office and little did we know that day how far or how much this would grow um we couldn't do it without the partnership with the following people Moren Lashley Jessica moio and Serita mongelli um which are all employees of Habitat for Humanity these ladies have donated so much of their
031time to coming to all of the buildings that are involved they've done virtual visits in-person visits um group visits individual classroom visits um and it's an amazing partnership Jessica is actually a Fishkill frog just to let you know so um we would have to thank the individuals as well the four buildings that are involved so we have Dr MCN and his staff and students we have principal fio over at Fishkill Plains her staff and students um we have principal Hernandez who was here with us today um her staff and students as well and then we have Mr or principle gearon who um his staff and student so who also here today thank you oh Adam is here as well oh okay so I I was celebrating Adam I didn't know you were here sorry um
032and we couldn't do it without you want you go ahead the custodial staff so it's not just partnering with our building administrators but them helping us partner with our custodial staff to make sure that it runs as smoothly as possible um so what is every can counts so it is a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and nollis which is an aluminum rolling company and so there's um tons of sustainability and environmental benefits to um nollis working with Hab tap for Humanity having us collect cans um of course it's good for the environment but in turn nollis takes the money from the cans that we collect and it gets donated to help reduce the cost of um building homes for people in need so this began last year um with two of our buildings they were
033the spearhead of the project it was specifically it was Evans and it was um kenry Road who were the two buildings that launched it um as we started doing that work we've acquired some more buildings more students that are part of it so it's really exciting that we're starting to see more come on to this hopefully next year we'll move forward and we'll see more as we keep growing but what we really believe is that we're strengthening our community connection or Community Connection we're strengthening our environmental responsibilities students are learning and becoming aware that their actions have impacts within their Community they're promoting that within their homes within their neighborhoods and so um this project began two years ago and now we're into our second year with it and we have four total buildings so
034who's involved so since two years ago when we first started it has grown to 600 students in grades three through six across the four buildings being involved and so um we chose the grade levels very intentionally knowing what our science standards are and the whole point of project-based learning is fundamentally shifting how students interact with their knowledge so we're having students take their science knowledge and apply it to this recycling initiative um and we have brought AI in as a support so the AI acts as a tutor I know that previously our Tech integration team had presented to you guys on some of the AI work and so John and I continue that work by helping bridge that science content with that real world connection um in various ways and platforms one of our board
035members actually gave us this phrase we talk about pbl quite often and when we talk about pbl Tara said fundamentally shifting how we interact with knowledge there's an authentic audience and purpose it's not just an assignment that gets turned into the teacher and so that's really how we view project-based learning in our district so how does it work so Habitat homes or habitat Representatives have come in Tera started talking about it they've been part of conferences they've been part of kickoff events they've been part of individual classroom work um so their employees connect with our students or collaborate with our students to help them understand what the initiative is what the impact is within their Community um they've provided numerous supports to help us understand it but also provided images as you can see that
036are part of the presentation um where they actually show the construction sites they actually show the homes they actually show completed homes so our children really start to understand what their efforts are going towards they can see the actual end goal and so that's all the product of the collaboration that we have with Habitat homes or Habitat for Humanity in particular so families can send students in with cans or families can drop cans off we make sure that it's done in a very safe manner we accept all cans students serve as ambassadors so they collaborate with their building principal to establish collection locations um it it cracks me up because they at fish go planes they were a little heartbroken when they picked a spot for a receptacle and Mrs fio was like it's not
037a safe spot this is why and so you know they really were part of deciding where things go they tracked the data on Collective materials so Serita at Habitat for Humanity sends the counts over monthly and the kids are responsible for putting that onto um some sort of display so that the building can see they're creating social media content so you'll see some tweets go out there or on Blue Sky videos or digital posters that kids are creating not only do they explain um the science behind the recycling initiative but they also explain like the heart involved like we're doing this for people in need um they communicate the key messages to the staff and they design all the signage and so you'll see pictures of the kids hard at work running assemblies collaborating to
038make these posters and a sample of what one of the posters looks like so some of the children are very excited they're like we get to do social media and we're like nope nope nope you don't get to do the social media yeah that usually gets filtered through the business or the building Administration and then it goes out through the building uh social media the children do not have access to no they are not going on I learned that at a meeting when I was saying and the kids all were very excited and I was like oh nope nope let me retract what I just said so how many cans at this point um our district we've collected 13,000 cans um between the four buildings so what does that equate to so this graphic is
039here it's provided to us through um nollis and so when we look at it ultimately that's funding for a window and a mailbox for a home so that puts us right around that 13,000 Mark um so that's what the contribution from just the four buildings has done and so we're of course hoping that we can up that a district of our size we have size to our power or something like that so we could really make a great impact in our communities um so call to action I I am G to read this quote because we think it's pretty powerful we're excited for the future knowing that our students efforts today are building a stronger more sustainable Community for tomorrow and if that doesn't align with our District's Mission I don't know what does and
040taking a look there's another sample of a poster kids collaborating and this year have habitat had an amazing idea to bring in these wooden beams and have the kids um write positive messages to the family who will be moving in and it was put as part of a ramp so the day that the family moved in they got to see all the positive messages from the students in Wappingers and that is it so that's it so thank you for having us thank you thank you very much thank you good job good job thank you thanks you're going to thank you than him yes Mr Lum you have a question no another question just like to thank John and Tara for all you do with the students you guys are really fantastic we're very lucky to
041have Youk you thank [Applause] you 6.01 consent agenda resolution anybody want to remove anything from the consent agenda I see nothing resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 and 6.11 motion trustee Kellen second by Mr Lumia all in favor I see nobody opposed thank you 7.01 approval of new club Charter for John J American red cross resolved that the board of education does hereby approve the new club Charter for the American Red Cross at John J high school as submitted motion truste Peggy Kellen second by Mr Morgan all in favor I 7.02 second reading and Adoption of policy resolve that the Board of Education of the whoer Central School District hereby approved the second reading of and
042adopts the following policies based upon the first reading by the board and the recommendation of the policy committee as stated Peggy John Lumia second all in favor any opposed so moved 8.01 board members May request additional agenda items discussion items or request [Music] information I see none 9.01 comments from the public thank you mumia Amy James Oliva okay sorry my name is Amy James olaris and I from whoers Falls I'm a member of the defense of democracy Hudson Valley Chapter during the last school board meeting Laura Lee Abby our organization's co-founder asked you to consider sending a message of solidarity and support to the lgbtq plus students in our district additionally she provided you with an email which included an example of what other school districts have done in regard to messaging and support the
043attack on public education is in every headline and I am sure you are all aware of the executive orders issued that directly conflict with our state guidelines I am here in Laura's Place to follow up on her request Laura has not received a response from any of you although she did receive the automated acknowledgement of her email so she knows it was received she was hoping by this point there would have been a statement issued by the school officials distributed through the district news letter something more than the initial statement that simply said the district would follow state guidelines Laura has asked that I remind you of her request which specifically asks that you look at the letter sent by the other school superintendent in Lexington Massachusetts its wording was so heartfelt and ass assuring
044to the parents additionally she asked that I remind you that she is both a parent with children in this school district and a member of the lgbtq community she stresses that it is a critical that it is very critical right now in this moment for you to show all families that the district understands the seriousness of this issue if you are not going to make a statement to this effect then it would be appre appropriate to respond to her email and explain why not Laura is also willing to meet with you in person or on the phone to discuss this issue finally it's always possible that she or I miss messaging you put out so please if you have issued a new statement could you forward the message to her directly at your convenience thank
045you for your time and attention to this issue thank you thank you very much moving on to 10.01 uh I just want to remind before we adjourn that our next meeting March 10th is going to be at rck so please you know for the public please remember rck will be our next meeting on March 10th and uh I ask for an adjournment motion resolve that the the board of education does hereby adjourn the February 24th 2025 Board of Education meeting the time is now 8:28 PM trustee cillero second by Mr Morgan all in favor I nobody's opposed thank you thank you very much