WCSD Board Meeting - July 20, 2020

001alberta it's setting up hold on i think mrs johnson's gonna dial in by phone just so you know because our audios okay thank you okay you're live now i'll call the meeting to order take the roll call marie johnson marie i'm going to jump back on via phone peggy kellen here mike lopez here john lewis here keith odams president this is the rap report report spencer game spencer here can we stop derek can we anyone anyone who's not speaking should be muted and that'll take care of itself it sounds like uh lou gehrig's the uh farewell speech july 4th all right where's the public session no i'm missing i miss it anyway please stand for the pledge allegiance moment of silence for mr richie who simply passed away recently i pledge allegiance to america and

002to the republic for which it stands with the foreign thank you [Applause] 3.01 district-wide school safety plan darren it's all yours all right thank you i don't i don't have anything uh necessarily to report uh the the plan has been up for its 30-day comment period and there aren't any uh comments on the school well there is a comment on the school safety plan actually i think alberta's gonna read one for me but the plan itself is is is very much the same as it was for the previous year and the all the edits made from the previous year's plan was as a result of our most recent uh audit by the new york state comptroller uh so it had all the current revisions in there from the com from the comptroller's suggestions alberta did

003you want to read the comment sorry gave a comment alberto yes we did receive a comment on the district safety plan this is from liz vilado she said hi can you please address why you have not included high school students wearing id badges as a ketchum parent i have seen nothing but support for this idea an id would definitely be a welcome added safety measure for our students and staff also on page eight there's a small typo in the suicide awareness section change immediate to immediately and add a slash between and or thanks for keeping our district great thank you alberta thank you very much are there any comments from uh from the board okay see none 3.02 community input mr mr loomi i think mrs callan has her hand up all right debbie i

004see you i'm sorry linda okay yes okay peggy okay um mr lokima i was wondering in the event that we reopened school under the uh current covert 19 crisis either totally or with uh reduced schedule we will have to be working more for ventilation in the buildings with more doors and windows open will this affect how will this affect our safety plans if i may answer that i think uh mr bros responded to your concerns on an email i don't know if you read that yes about the ventilation yes he did respond about the ventilation systems but they also suggested opening windows and doors and i was wondering how this would affect access to the schools yeah i mean it is that is tricky uh and they've we've also been contacted by uh an outsource

005outside organization to rent tents for outdoor classroom space um you know i guess some other districts are interested in that as well uh and to some degree yes it make it it's a it's a it's a balancing act where you know for uh convenience and safe convenience may forever be at odds with safety uh and uh and it's very difficult i think in this unprecedented time for us to be able to answer that clearly clearly the the state wants us to maintain our safety regulations or even making us drill in these uh in in covet times even if we come back as a partial attendance uh or full attendance with social distancing they still want us to do regular fire drills but in a way that is socially distant they want us to lock down

006drills but in a way that is appropriate and not you know having all the kids go into the corner of the classroom whatever's considered socially distant so we're going to have to um we're going to have to do what's best for opening school and getting kids instruction with the priority of in person as a state uh guidance document has has also noted but we can't we cannot ignore the actual safety and put our kids in a physical harm's way uh and and we got to be cognizant of that as we plan so there isn't a good answer but the more we obviously open our schools physically the more risk we might have for any kind of an outside threat coming in thank you linda i believe you have a question can't hear you you're a

007muted and run you should be able to hear now do you are unmuted try pulling your headphones out of the computer see if it makes a difference no uh what was that there's a chat feature if you want to try and type it in john i just have one thing when everybody's done go ahead ruby linda's gonna take care of our problem yeah what's your question uh it's not a question so much as and i won't go into it here but i have really real concerns uh safety concerns with any type of classes held out held outside of a permanent structural building and you know china wasn't that many years ago that we got rid of most of the modulars too okay so that's it thank you linda can you can you can you answer

008the question darren is there any way you can uh well she's not she's not muted it must be your physical microphone she's we're really good at reading lips i could i could almost make out what you're saying linda uh i'm sorry linda if you can fight listen if you can type it type your questions in because uh there might be other no okay 3.02 community input on district school safety plan darren all right i'm sorry we uh i think this i think we're done didn't we just conclude that we had no no uh yes there was there was one comment mr lumion that's it i didn't receive any others regarding the safety plan all right uh the motion to close the public hearing motion tell second all those in favor linda hi hi eddie josh

009jimmy everybody's in favor all right yes all right thank you 4.01 public comments on agenda items comments related to agenda items are welcome at this time please submit comments on the on the form a total of 30 minutes at the beginning of each board meeting set aside to allow for public comments and agenda items only individual comments and agenda items are limited three minutes and are welcomed based on the open minion law and birth policy 12 30 debate or dialogue with both members are not allowed during this meeting compliments or complaints about student discipline specific student issue or personnel must not be addressed during public comment comments or questions submitted to the use of public comment form will be sent to the appropriate staff member will provide a response on the district public comment response

010webpage if you wish to address items regarding to our school district that are not on tonight's agenda another common period is provided at the end of the meeting for that purpose in the interest civility and respect for different points of view clapping booing or any other disturbance insurance is not permitted at this time comments related to agenda items are welcome please state your name and the agenda items you are speaking on alberta i believe have you have the floor are there any comments okay yes um several comments were made on the public comment form and submitted via email before this board meeting um and as well as right now on the public comment survey form live as where um the video is rolling i have 13 that was submitted so i don't know that i'll

011get to them all i have my timer ready to go um so i'll be timing and when it ends it ends um so here's my first one hold on dr mickey shore as an english teacher in wappingers for 19 years from 73 to 92 i have fond memories of ketchum the facility and the students i taught as a faculty member i joined with colleagues who approached the administration about changing the indian mascot which we felt was inappropriate and insulting our efforts were not successful but now these issues are in the spotlight and it is the right time to remove the indian mascot i hope the waffinger school board will join the aseaning kotona and nayak school districts as well as the many professional sports teams who are acknowledging the indian mascot is not how they

012want to be represented thank you and then we have an email from suzanne lamosh she's rck class of 1988 she is submitting a petition to the board of education keep the voicey ketchum indian mascot she started the petition from scratch as it was removed um from change.org's platform um this she says that the group feels that we are truly honoring the weapons indians that was sent to the board of education the next one is the board of education also received a petition from yvonne gore and grizzly layla who are also alumni of royce to ketchum high school class of 2001 they submitted a petition to the board and a sentence from their petition says although the native american headdress imagery was removed from some of the r ck logos the sports teams are still called

013the indians and caricatures of native americans still remain displayed on rck social media accounts school signs and athletic paraphernalia it is 2020 the wholesale retiring of indians is long overdue we urge royce to ketchum high school to make this change and then some of the comments submitted right now john louisvik i write to you today as an rck alumni class of 1995 an attendee of robinson's junior high school and as someone who has spent my entire personal and professional life working with indigenous people being welcomed into indigenous homes and into families without a hesitation i strongly support the renewed call to change the school's mascot and ban the use of race-based mascots throughout the school district using and perpetuating indigenous stereotypes and dehumanizing the very people that supporters of the name claim to honor adds

014to the generalization and ongoing trauma indigenous people experience i recall vividly during my time at rck the micro aggressions such a mascot brought out of people who used the name as an invitation to mock and lampoon indigenous people this should have been changed long ago but here we are in 2020 and it lingers on since my graduation in 1995 i have felt embarrassment from my high school's use of this mascot have you considered for a moment why the waving people no longer live in the town of wappinger for some historical context the town is named after the wappinger people who lived on the eastern bank of the hudson river and what is now dutchess county south to manhattan island and east to the connecticut river before being pushed out the first contact with europeans came

015in when explorer henry hudson entered their territory between 1643 and 1655 they were massacred in huge numbers by dutch settlers with the help of the mohawk allies descendants of the wappinger settled mainly around stockbridge massachusetts with the muncie people among them was daniel ninam and a whopper jolita who went to england in and lobbied the lords to return land to his people that land base was never restored it is important to note that the stockbridge muncie tribal council leaders of the only indigenous nation with direct ties to the wappinger have issued a resolution strongly condemning the use of native mascots and calling for their removal hopefully the school board will listen for some border historical context in chief standing there of the ponca nation won the landmark civil rights case united states ex reel standing

016bear versus george cook that declared an indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the united states prior to this ruling indigenous people were not even considered human in the eyes of u.s law indian is a word that a lost i don't know if i should say all this um gave to the taino and arawak people from what is now called okay i'll move on to the next one the next one please this is from zachary cox i have an immense love for the wcsd in the hudson valley i was born and raised in poughkeepsie wappinger falls graduated from rck in 2012 and vasa college in 2016 but i now look back with a deep sense of shame and cannot believe that i come from a town with a high school mascot

017still a racist caricature of native peoples indian mascots were born in an era when racism and bigotry were accepted by the dominant culture the intolerance and harm promoted by these indian mascots logos or symbols including including headdresses have very real consequences for native people as an educational community i know you champion diversity inclusion and understanding and i hope you will agree that it is essential to live up to these ideals in all possible ways i am asking that the board takes action to develop a comprehensive plan for the future beginning with a commitment to change the mascot of voice of ketchum senior high school from indians to a mascot that is not racist and remove all associated imagery and references to the indians mascot from official online plot platforms and school grounds complete an audit

018of current curricula 9 to 12 and integrate readings and discussions of race and systematic racism in all content areas by either modifying the existing curricula or adding to it with a specific focus on native peoples provide comprehensive training for all teachers on how to discuss rage race and lead difficult discussions on these topics including anti-bias training and tools to examine and dismantle internalized racism provide explicit support for teachers who actively engage in these discussions i want to specifically highlight the call to evaluate and modify existing curricula the difference between a racist mascot and nfl and a racist mascot in a public school is that the public school has a responsibility to teach its students about the history of its nation and the racial injustices that permeate nearly every aspect of american society removing an offensive

019mascot is only the first step in doing this but by ordering curricula and adjusting it to make sure it includes thoughtful discussions of race and systemic racism and providing educators with the training to lead those discussions you will not only be doing right but your students communities but serve as a model for other school districts for years to come thank you for your service and for empowering students to grow as responsible members of their communities i greatly appreciate you taking the time to read this please let me know if there's anything i can do to further this dialogue alberta have you read all the comments like are they basically all the same um let me see there's a total now 15. um number three is from an alumni who also supports a change okay number

020four is an alumni who also supports us a change um number five is also an alumni who supports the change let me see six it says it's the right time number seven um gave a lot of resources about tribal nations and mascots number eight this is i actually a current student who's a junior a voice to ketchum would you like to hear that one yes i'll leave out the student's name just because of ferpa and privacy issues okay i wanted to comment on the mascot of my school because in these changing times i feel it does not support my peers and i as i said to my principal mr seif earlier this month we need to change as well so that we may represent everyone at rck no matter where they come from or where

021they will go in life one suggestion i have is the ketchum coyotes coyotes are an indigenous animal to the hudson valley and play an important role in the ecosystem the alliteration of the name is also a nice touch i myself would be eager to help design the new logo for the apparel of our school and teams and i already have one in the making i thank you for your time and consideration of my comment i believe it's our duty as the weapons community on a land once cherished by the native american tribes of new york to stand with them on the right side of history i'd like to pull the board whether you want any additional comments raise your hands you want to hear additional comments are there any other comments from current students ms

022pedro okay let's see okay next one was an alumni i know [Music] i don't maybe just make if there's comments for or against okay um but there is something from a student i you know i think the board should hear something what the current student has to say one way either way okay so number 10 is um an individual they don't indicate that they even attended our schools but they support a change number 11 was a member of rck from 2006 and supports a change number 12 is from ivan gore who i mentioned before she submitted a petition this is um rck alumni from 2001 who supports a change can i can i just intervene for one second i don't i think it's part of our policy and we don't do that if we were

023in a live meeting where we would tell people that are you saying the same thing sit down we've been in numerous meetings for many years and it's a half hour three minutes per person and in the order that it came in once the 30 minutes are up um if that's the way it's supposed to if that's not in the past we have we i believe in the past went coming a big line of people with the same comments we said look just summarize that said i think we we we did prevent people from a long line that we've had before now we have 30 40 people i mean we can't hear all these comments i mean we've done it in the past it's obvious what he called what the what the gist of the comments

024are i mean uh there's anything different i don't know if people feel differently by all means chime in i'm only one vote i just want i just wanted to make sure i mean jose may excuse me the superintendent makes a good point i just wanted to make sure that if there were students um i'm more inclined to want to hear from the current students first not no disrespect to anyone else submitting but if we have a time limit and we don't extend the time um i just wanted to make sure that if there were any more current students on the list for ms pedro we would get to those first and i read i met all the students in the in the four and the uh i would agree with john i think everybody's point

025of view are valid let me rephrase that deserve a uh presentation and just for notice we have 14 minutes left in this time spot john can you hear me yes i can hear you um i just i i agree with both you and eddie and i think that in the interest of hearing everyone's voice if you know if uh alberta can do what she's been doing just like give us a synopsis of what they said at least that way we get a sense of what every every individual is is going to say as opposed to taking up all the time by three or four individuals we can have this we you can actually send us all those comments to all the board members i mean we then then then we hear the entire comment that

026to me be efficient yes no maybe yeah she could um miss alberto she could continue to give us a summary as mr spencer said they don't have to read the whole thing but just a summary and then yes i would also like to see the full write-up anybody feel that way yeah so that everybody thank you can you help me feel that uh it we do have 30 minutes allotted to public comment and whether we're on zoom or whether we're live we should follow our procedure that's board policy people should have a chance to talk okay can you hear me now yeah hey very good linda we can yeah i i signed in again okay okay okay kristin you're gonna time it for me 15 more minutes i am on it okay thank you all

027right so going back um kristen lawler submitted a comment i am an alumni of of the voice of ketchum class of 2001. i write today as an educator myself a public school teacher in the new york city department of education as an educator i have two primary responsibilities to teach content and skills related to my discipline english language arts but perhaps more importantly to help my students thrive as individuals and within the context of the greater community especially during difficult times such as a global pandemic all school employees must plan for the health of the children in their care likewise we must nurture the socio-emotional health of each community member the black lives matter movement and the powerful social uprisings of 2020 have reminding us reminded us that our society does not honor the social

028contract equally for all of our members black indigenous and people of color continue to fight for their rights and dignity in our nation within that context indigenous communities continue to keep their history alive for decades indigenous communities throughout the united states are fought to be seen as human beings and not as mascots according to the document entitled 1920 board goals for approval the robinson central school district school board proposed the following community goal we believe embracing diversity in all its forms enriches the human experience in the second sub-goal the board states we thrive for our students at every grade level to be open-minded and embrace all people regardless of race religion and gender identity by implementing curriculum services and or programs relative to anti-bullying peer conflict resolution and respectful social behaviors the school mascot itself

029depicts indigenous communities and is a poor model for student social behavior as evidence the opening summary of of warrior chiefs and indian princesses the psychological consequences of american indian mascots a 2008 medal study published in the journal basic and applied social psychology states when exposed to chief wahoo chief i'm sorry for my pronunciation linweek pocahontas or other common american indian images american indian students generated generated positive associations but reported depressed state self-esteem and community worth and fewer achievement related possible sales we suggest that american indian mascots are harmful because they remind american indians of the limited ways others see them and in this way constrain how they can see themselves for native students of the wappington central school district the royce to ketchum and wappington force junior high school mascot causes harm it is true

030that the waffling central school district population includes few students that are citizens of native nations centuries of disease genocide removal deport departure asian have made that so okay next one is from veronica avias class of as an alumni of wappington's junior high school in ketchum it has long since past time to change the offense of mascots and i iconography next one is from allison greenlee ketchum class of 2001. i would like to echo the statements of current students and my former classmates from moyesi ketchum high school to change the name of the school mascot and the school logo this racism cannot be erased but it can be changed today i have always kept voice of ketchum and my new york state public education close to my heart after graduating from aussie k in 2001 i

031graduated from cornell university with a degree in industrial and labor relations and moved to the san francisco bay area and up until recently have worked for seiu one of the country's largest labor unions as a project manager for the state of california i still get back to wappinger falls and i see a large number of my friends and former ketchum classmates often the public schools in california offer nowhere near the level of public education i received in new york state and i am very proud of my degree and very grateful for the rigorous public education i received to that point hashtag the time is now for this change if there is anything we as alumni or community members can do to support this immediate change please let us know i believe it would be a

032powerful symbol if the wcsd would apologize for the use of this imagery we cannot change the past but we can change the actions we take now and i believe this is an important first step next one is from karen will wheeling it is the right time to use a name that is in present times next comment is from dr ian record on behalf of the national congress of american indians i am inviting in response to a request for assistance that we receive from a member of the ketchum high school community this individual informed us that the ketchum high school community is currently engaged in a conversation about whether to retire its indian's name and mascot and asked if ncai would provide the school and school board with some general information about the facts concerning the

033harms caused by the continued use of native themed mascots in sports and popular culture that is the purpose of this email ncai is the oldest largest and most representative national organization representing tribal nations and peoples it has been leading in in indian countries contestants driven movement to eradicate offensive native themed mascots from sports and popular culture for the past 50 years as a revolution resolution passed by ncai's membership in 2005 explains the use of native american sports mascots logos or symbols perpetuates stereotypes of american indians that are very harmful the warrior savage myth has plagued this country's relationship with the indian people as it reinforces the racist views that indians are uncivilized and uneducated and it has been used to justify policies of forced assimilation and destruction of indian culture close quote below are linked

034resources that provide additional details about ncai and tribal nations broad and long-standing opposition to the use of these mascots as well as the harm they may cause and then it lists several um links and resources please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information as you deliberate this quick critical issue i look forward to hearing from you next one's from phoebe donato my name is phoebe donato and i will be oh i read this this was the student whoopsies okay next one is from jillian lola i'm submitting my comment today as a concerned alumni of walking to falls junior high school class of 2001 i'm voice of ketchum senior high school class of 2005 and preparing this comment i have researched and been in conversation with the descendants of the wappinger

035people the stockbridge muncie people through these those conversations i committed to furthering their work of educating people about the history of their ancestral homelands letting folks know that they are still here and helping to keep their history alive they shared with me that on september 3rd 2019 the stockbridge must see people pass a resolution that recognizes the need to eliminate race-based indian logos mascots names and images by educational institutions sports teams and other institutions referring to these logos mascots names and images as offensive and derogatory as well as demoralizing and calls of the greater community to eliminate the use of race-based indian logos mascots names and images they thank me for doing this work in the community where i grew up and believe the mascot logo and team name should be removed from the ancestral

036land as someone who received my k-12 education on their stolen land i implore you to join join me in working to honor their past history and current wishes their racist logos mascots names and images at walk junior high school and rck need to be removed in an attempt to keep their history alive i will outline a bit of relevant research i have done as it relates to how we got here today moving in chronological order prior to henry hudson colonizing the river in 1609 the waffinger people comprised separate communities that occupied most of what is now dutchess county the whopping germs were advanced agriculturalists that grew corn bean squash nuts and berries they were also successful hunters and fish in the river they lived rich lives with tradition celebration and ceremony they spent their winters

037passing down stories and learning the robin just people spoke a dialect of eastern language similar but distinct from the dialect spoken by the name neighbors lenape people and the mohegan the language of the weapons people has been eradicated since the early 20th century which is considered cultural genocide by indigenous leaders today early colonial period like most indigenous peoples of the north eastern united states the warping jews were devastated by genocide warfare and european diseases 1734-1856 survivors of the genocidal wars were forced to leave their homelands by dutch british and american mandates the weapons of people were then forced to endure at least seven force relocations an act defined by the united nations as a genocidal act the next one is by have hillowitz i am pleased to say that you have brought to the public's

038attention the use of a native american mascot by schools in the wappinger central school district the use of native american mascots imagery logos and symbolism for schools and sports teams is outdated and is derogatory racist and harmful i hope that the present effort to change the wappinger indians name for the sports teams has changed on an upcoming school board meeting and replaced with a more positive neutral name please feel free to know it forward this note to the board and post it publicly 18 months ago after a two-year struggle i was able to get the little league international the governing body for all global little league affiliates to ban all native american and ethnic logos mascots and names from their sports team i had the vital assistance of the national congress of american indians the

039ulster county human rights commission the southern poverty law center and other human rights organizations write letters to the little league international the only way to get the school board to change the mascot is to provide overwhelming evidence of the harmful nature of racist stereotyping to them to show them the power behind you in the form of public support and the support of other organizations i suggest that you contact www.ncai.org immediately and enlist their support they have led the success successful campaign to rid us over native american sports mascots for 50 years alberta yes reach your mac okay if i make a comment every one of those comments that have been read have been sent by email to the board if i'm not mistaken so we've heard every one of those comments on an email so

040uh all you got to do is go back to your email and read every one of the comments that were submitted tonight right but this is also for the community as well all right with that being said let's look at superintendent report 5.01 jose it's all yours thank you um president lumia good evening board of education um i'm just going to take a couple minutes to talk about the reopening plan and all the work that is taking place um i can tell you that i met with the duchess superintendents this past friday i also met with other superintendents for an entire friday afternoon evening workshop for larger school districts and some of the issues that we may be contending with as opposed to much smaller school districts in the state with that said um i've

041been really working with the team and the team has really done exceptional work and this is not work that it's either right or wrong it's work that's frustrating it's work that could feel debilitating at times and extremely stressful no one thought um i've been in school since i was five years old non-stop that i would be working with an entire team and a state a county local um government in terms of the board of education policy so on and so forth to really start looking at the three different schedules that we have to submit to the governor's office and the department of health regarding either 100 percent in-person school a hybrid plan which is um some in-person school and um remote learning as well or 100 remote learning um what i'd like to do is

042and i shared is with the board of education we definitely will have to have a um one maybe two if we can manage it um a special meeting just so that we can provide um the board with um with the information and the work that we are doing um in addition to that it's also important because although the plan does not require the approval of the board of education directly indirectly it does because there may be items i believe trustee kellen put so well in an email of looking at policies looking at some of some of the things we have in our code of conduct our safety plan so on and so forth that may have a tremendous impact in some of the changes but more importantly policy and if there are things that are

043um that would be necessary for any of these schedules um that we're putting together that require a revisit a policy then we want to make sure that that's squared away i don't want to give the impression that by july by the time we have to submit our plan has to be fully completed in detail so there's a detailed component that continues to follow but we need to continue to place as much detail as we continue to work towards the plan on our local school website um with that um there's there's a lot of work to consider there's also besides policy the office of human resources um will probably be impact that will probably will be impacted as well and there would prob there probably will be some memorandums of agreements that the board would have

044to approve so i wanted to bring up the the the reopening of schools as a superintendent's report as a preliminary just to really indicate and put it out there to the entire board all together that indirectly no there's nothing that you have to approve but through memory but through collective bargaining um revisions and renegotiating some items as well as policy that you're indirectly approving a plan that we will be submitting to the state education department i would respectfully request that um we save questions for a special meeting specifically to this with the presentation because we will be here for we can be here for 24 hours non-stop there is so much to the document if you haven't had an opportunity even to skim through the document i encourage you to do so and along with

045these documents were impacted by the cdc the department of health and just the department of health supersedes any other documents and guidance that we may be receiving from other agencies i have to say that we're lucky to live in dutchess county marcus molinaro has been extremely active we also have met with him to discuss the plan they plan to really take on an active role not just to comply with some of the items that are on the plan but to also help with some of the professional development protocols so on and so forth so that we can be uniform and consistent as much as possible throughout the state throughout the county within the 13 schools in the county so that is my report and we will be definitely addressing many more items and for the

046board of education members and our president that's participating in the subcommittees um thank you so very much and as i said before it is not easy it is not easy when the state tells you to involve all stakeholders and trying to get all these different perspectives and lenses from from people and a diverse group of people even within the teaching community so on and so forth to deem what is value what is important and what steps should be taken so i i urge um that you continue to support wappingers we are not in any different position than i would say 99 of the school districts in new york state but everyone's tagging along um as i said before just 10 minutes before this meeting i went and got a shirt and a tie on because

047um i've been on that document non-stop and will continue to be even when this meeting is over thank you jose i know you want to wait for us to ask questions what guarantee the guidelines are not going to change a week from now two weeks from now and all the work that we do is going to be all to waste um well that that is definitely your opinion and um that's a possibility what i'm saying to you and that's why it's best just to we have guidelines if anything changes it's coming from the department of health or the cdc but overall in terms of the work that's being done in terms of looking at models in terms of trying to remain with some items that are consistent throughout the county um it is definitely we

048just got this document a few days ago and it is definitely a lot of considerations and i can tell you um yeah the at in the long run and that's why i would personally and respectfully request that we just have a special meeting and if it goes for ever for a long time at least and we could have um i know that trustee kellen the the members that are in the committee mr spencer as well as trustee rappaport um will be able to also share and um and i think president lumia you were strategic in your selection when you said in terms of really having mr spencer who can bring some um safety and um safety to the to the to the committees and the subcommittees and input because then we're the team that continue

049to do this work after we hear from all of our stakeholders and trustee callan and trustee rappaport as former teachers and um understanding what education traditionally looks like and the work that's ahead of us to see how we can do best for our students thank you thank you can i comment yes yes jim jim 30 seconds um so i i just want to commend jose and the senior staff um john your leadership as well i looked at the document the the guidance and it's humongous it's almost it's almost i don't want to say impossible but it's impossible it's very challenging uh but but the way that uh i guess jose put together the committee the reopening committee um with all the different community stakeholders and then how the committee was broken up into four different

050subcommittees um really um allows us to take a bite out of the work and it's it's almost manageable at that point i also want to commend my subcommittee chair lauren hernandez looks like she took the bull by the horns and dug in and and some really good work um was done today i'd also like to thank all the other subcommittee chairs it's a lot of work but i think as a team um it it is possible so thank you jose and the team thank you thank you for saying that um just another quick thing and one of the things that i'm really challenged with and i and i'm sure that um you would all appreciate this more so is the fact that moving forward it's not about under these circumstances it's just more so how

051do we continue to do what is best for our students after this new normal how do how do we say it's still not acceptable for someone's grades to start going down or for someone's reading level to drop how do we ensure that we provide um optimum instruction for all of our students and so i do appreciate your words mr spencer trustee spencer mr rubin i just want to say something that i'm familiar not as intricately familiar as a lot of people have been with um the requirements like you said mr lumia that seem to be changing on a daily and weekly basis not requirements that may be the wrong word but this is what i i would like to to echo what mr carriage said that this really is a herculean and ongoing task and

052uh it is it's certainly a work in progress and i appreciate what uh other folks have um already contributed to this it will probably go up to the day before school opens if school opens thank you yes aye any more comments miss kelland um our my committee was headed by mike corsano and it was also excellently run and among the comments that were made by the teachers was how appreciative they are of our technology department mr shoten and the other members of it who were so helpful all spring when they were suddenly thrown into remote learning and how they the members of the department helped with all the technology so patiently at all at all hours and they greatly appreciate it so i think they should get a shout out to all right any other

053comments just just quickly and um thank you for saying that trusty kellen um i speak um regularly to the presidents um in our collective bargaining unit i mean well mostly to our wappingers administration and as well as our w whopping just congress of teachers and um president de la carpini is constantly saying the moment he has an opportunity to take those professional developers out that he's going to invite me as well but the amount he's in all of the years that he has worked he has never received countless um um compliments to the professional developers in our district and the amount of time and dedication and commitment they gave to our teachers and our students through help to help through this continuity of learning so i really appreciate your words too thank you commute myself

0546.01 whopping your indian name mascot and logo 15 minutes i would appreciate comments from each individual board member and then finally a conclusion i'll start with uh the bottom mr rubin um there is nothing that i wish to say i'm really not sure other than the fact that i'm not sure um how people feel about this this is a rather large district and i'm not sure that we've heard from everybody thank you marie johnson sorry i was on mute um hi um i would like to say that i think this is a very complicated thing it's uh everybody thinks it's just we just change it there's a lot more components to this um that we have to also take into account so um i believe that this is gonna have to have a lot more

055thought put into it we can't just make a rash decision and say okay we can do this or we can't do that so i believe there's more stakeholders and i'd really like to hear more from our student body on their opinions myself and that's it linda linda yeah um i mean this is my personal opinion um i don't think human beings are mascots um i think it needs to be changed i think times have changed i think that awareness has changed and i think that we need to use our imaginations to put ourselves into other people's positions and how i would feel if my particular group of people were represented as a mascot as a caricature and um as part of a group that has experienced that historically um i think it's wrong and i

056would support changing it that is my my personal opinion i do think it's good to get students input but um i agree i think it's racist comment in your comments eddie i'm mute yourself thanks uh first want to thank everyone for submitting their comments and opinions via email text messages phone calls um and social distancing stopping in parking lots outside of supermarkets um so i just want to thank everybody for their comments uh for and against um i believe this community is not a racist community um i moved up here um for many reasons i believe there's a rich history within this community so i was a little upset receiving emails from people accusing this community and this district and this administration and this board of being insensitive and not understanding what's going on i

057don't believe those people are from this community so i'll put those opinions on hold but let's deal with the situation at hand and i agree with comments that have been made already it is time to eliminate a mascot i don't believe a student should be dressing up as anything with a giant indian head and running around carrying a sign to pump up the crowd um i think we've moved beyond that and i think we should so i think the simplest thing to do right now and the rck administration can discuss it and consider it um is just right now eliminating the physical mascot of having a student dress up um in native american attire uh with a giant head and running around i think that would be the simplest thing and the easiest thing to

058take care of right now and uh i think for the most part i'll go out on a limb and say i think we'd probably all be in agreement on that although i'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth now as a as the next topic because some of these emails are concerned about the mascot only some emails are about using the indian name other emails or collection of these things so there's a lot of people with a lot of different opinions about different things three years ago we had a capital improvement project and part of that project was installing turf fields and doing a major overhaul of rck led by the superintendent and he can correct me if i'm wrong with input from students from rck a new logo and design was created with

059this situation in mind um to try to be more sensitive and also in a way to honor the heritage of this community we have a k on the center of the 50-yard line with two feathers i don't personally feel that is a racist logo in one of the end zones we have the name indians now it's debatable people may use the term or feel that the term indian or indians is racist or it's not i don't know but you do have tribal leaders throughout this country that use the word indians in their name such as the national congress of american indians which has been sent to us numerous times um now this is just my opinion we do have an entire school that was revamped three years ago this was done with taxpayers money as

060part of the capital improvement plan so something that we're going to have to consider is that if we're going to completely overhaul the school again who's paying for this and where is this money coming from so i did reach out to you mr president and ask should this be put on as a vote referendum in may you did send over some information did not get a chance to review it and i don't believe the rest of the board has had a chance to review all of it so i do think we need to have some con continue some conversation on this whether that is something that we should pursue or not pursue because we spent an enormous amount of money three years ago and in these trying times right now where is this money going

061to come from to change the football field to change the basketball court to change logos banners t-shirts sweatshirts and different things that are around the school this could be a half a million dollars this could be a million dollars do we need to change football uniforms baseball uniforms all the other school uniforms that we just purchased three years ago we're going to have to do this all over again again where is this money coming from we do not have money in the budget for this does this go as a referendum so this is a you know some continued dialogue that we need to have um the other thing is if this is going to change i mean i want us to continue to honor the natives that lived here so my recommendation would be mr

062president is for you to contact the stockbridge muncie tribal leaders if i'm pronouncing that correct and find out from them what would be something that's acceptable to honor them if the word indians is something that is not good what would they recommend to us to consider or for the community to consider because we've also received a lot of emails and a lot of calls about people that are proud okay and don't look at the name indian uh again as mentioned earlier as an honor so again and as prior trustees have said it's a situation where we do need to hear from more people um and come up with something that makes sense that honors the heritage of these particular natives that were here something with curriculum that's a whole other discussion with regards to uh

063state ed what we're allowed to do what not allowed to do obviously teachers have flexibility with certain things um possibly we ask the curriculum committee to put something together uh to present for the high school we've approved numerous courses over the last few years that could be something that we could discuss and have that committee look into but eddie with regards to i'm just going to finish up real quick so just with regards to changing changing things okay we need more discussion we need to figure out the process who's paying for this if it does get changed where is this money coming from so again these are just things that we need to consider and think about thanks for the time thank you mike michael you're next i also um you know agree with my

064fellow trustees um this is something that needs to be further looked at but um like trustee slow shower just said we need to look and see um in these times where all this money is going to be coming from as we know from what the superintendent just shared that there's going to be a lot of different things that will be changing as we get ready to go back to school so right now the taxpayer money where where is that going to best be served right now and i think that's getting our students back into school safely and same thing protecting our staff safely as well um and certainly as a taxpayer in this community as well you know definitely hearing from current members of the school community and the wappingers community as well okay see

065you next oh thank you i just i wanted to say i wanted to first of all thank the watchers school district the community especially the rck alumni and the current students for bringing this their concerns and challenges toward the attention of the central office staff and also to the board the administration and the board with open hearts and open minds to modify the rc k logo and mascot it you know we will do the work the process to achieve these goals to complete this request to deliberate and proceed with the process because it is about the process which is going to involve the entire community so i just ask that that everyone continue to be patient because it's going to take time it's going to take research and it's going to take uh working through

066the process uh to to do what is asked for us to do in a timely manner but to do it correctly and at the same time we always thinking about the the financials we have to be financially conscious while at the same time being socially conscious so again it is about the process and that we asked all those who submitted uh their their thoughts about it that to work with us not against us because uh we have a great administration that's been proven in the past to do things that nobody thought that they could do and every everything turned out well so we continue to ask for those uh that support from the community thank you jim spencer so i was going to say something but trustee odoms said it ten times better than i

067could have so i'm gonna uh abstain from making it anymore okay peggy peggy all right yes uh first first of all women can you hear me yes you can all right first of all i don't think i believe that the name indians was originally chosen to honor the indigenous people of the area people choose team names because it represents something strong courageous dominant that's why we have lions and eagles we nobody names their teams the rabbits or the mice uh some teams are named for ethnic groups we have the boston celtics the minnesota vikings uh fighting irish of notre dame uh but the thing is with those groups the boston and notre dame have a lot of people of irish descent and minnesota has a lot of people of scandinavian descent it's one thing when

068people kind of fool around a bit with their own heritage with a mascot it's different when you do it with somebody else's and because of historic mistreatment the that we have very few waffles indians in the community anymore so if they don't feel honored even though the intention might have been uh to honor them and it's not coming across that way then they're the ones who can best judge whether or not this is something they feel we should work on changing and i i would think though that certainly i agree with mr slow shower the mascot really isn't appropriate since we're not it's not our ethnic group to make fun of or joke around with we shouldn't be doing this with anybody else's group the actual team name or the logo with the feathers maybe

069that needs discussion and i think the uh the appropriate people to discuss it with are the current students in warping at ketchum and wappages junior high and the surviving members of the wappingers indians who apparently now are mostly over in stockbridge or any other groups that would represent them in other parts of the country so i think yes we do need discussion but we should certainly be moving forward on uh correcting what is no longer or if it ever were felt to be an honor but i do think we should make sure that we do have something even if we change the name that does honor the original inhabitants of this area and i guess i'm the last person to speak so i'll just say something i as you all know i taught across the

070kitchen for 32 years i told mathematics during that time not not one student ever came to me to complain about the mascot or the logo recently i contacted a local historian joey mr joey cavaccini to see if you can shed some light on the history behind the mascot i want to thank him for the following language he wrote i would be happy to find out and provide some information on the mascot the mascot was originally chosen for the k-12 robinson central school district and it was wappington indians the board of educational logic behind was to honor the whopping indigenous people who inhabited the area on the town of wappanges in 1961 when rck opened the mascot was transferrable to ketchum the logos over time have changed to be more inclusive but in historical understanding that

071the mascot name itself has not has not has not been found to be offensive by local of the native american descent that have been asked to give an opinion he also wrote he's cutting looking for them his understanding is that his remaining women and children of warfare people move the mass migration to stockbridge and then to wisconsin and so far it's the present logo as mr sloshover just pointed out two and a half years ago we spent a great deal of time and you know the committee got together a ketchup i believe students a teacher the principal and superintendent that designed a new logo which i believe the students found it not to be offensive and i don't find to be offensive either as one of my former rck colleagues recently wrote to me and

072stated years ago when this controversy serviced i voted to keep the indians as the ketchup catcher mascot she wrote that the indians are brave courageous good stewards of the earth and natural resources they're excellent role models i think that the mascots are praised and not a negative i concur what she wrote now where are we now there are some reasons some issues which obviously the board has to consider number one is the mascot the man wearing the mascot i think that that's one thing that should go go away i agree with that and so far is the the actual logo with the feathers and everything else i think they should be discussed with the uh ketchum community and the superintendent and come up with some recommendation i think we should try to get hold of

073some some members in stock bridge to see exactly what the what the final offensive with the logo where you have the ketchum symbol with two feathers i like to know from them what they find what what they found so offensive and most importantly what would what would they change their name to i think that they should be they should be contacted so as far as i'm concerned that's my opinion that's my comments so uh and last but not least if the people in stockbridge feel that that is not offensive then there's no need to change so very simply i think that the the individual wearing the hat meth that should be abolished right away and i think we can decide on it tonight if you want if not we can wait until at the next

074board meeting to further discuss this or in the future what do you guys think all right can i if i can just say because my name was mentioned and i wanna i do need to make some clarifications i i have countless um emails regarding the capital improvement project as well as communication to the board of education so in the in the years i have i i've yet to really think that this has been politicized by me however i think it's important to note that there there isn't an accuracy of history so that people need to understand also when we're educators and as educators we're not in the business of providing inaccurate history um so for example very few tribes the uh a headdress was worn by the chief throughout the continents so when you go

075to rck that was my that was my first contention to say this is inaccurate this is not accurate history to have a major headdress where we still have them in some of our sculptures and areas that that depict the wappinger tribe inaccurately so overall that is offensive because if you're going to discuss a name and a tribe that you are representing and we should be very proud to be called the wappinger central school district we have a responsibility not just as um not just as citizens but as educators to really inform and be accurate with how we represent ourselves therefore in the school district when we rebranded as a district you may have seen we looked at many options the communications committee i believe trustee kellen oh we were part of it we looked at

076different things to look at how do we rebrand ourselves and the difficult piece was understanding the history of being a wappinger um was that it landed where we looked at certain logos it would have seemed disrespectful to the poughkeepsie city school district had we used the hudson river with the bridge um so we we came up with the k then with the k at the same time there was no way that we can have a headdress that's misrepresenting our tribe the last thing i like to say in terms from a historical factor is that if we look at our continent or we look at another continent for that matter let's just say you take europe and then you say okay we're called pick any country the french central school district or the german central school

077district or the italian central school district let's just say we were any of those names as a school district and then we decided to go to royce ketchum and name the mascot the europeans what does the european look like so when you use the word indian this is not even politicizing the situation this is just from an accurate perspective what what is that if that term is whether politically or not we're not even in that that conversation but overall native americans are represented throughout many continents so what does that look like so we took the smaller of the tribe and then we took a major word and then said all these different people from different continents and throughout our country that represent so many cultures their own cultures and and there's not just one so

078that to me are two things that historically or from another perspective should be addressed even prior to getting into conversations about whether you know you know politicizing because there needs to be some accuracy moving forward and what it is that we're discussing so we can start off looking at some of the headdresses that still exist in some sculptures because that is not accurate of a wappinger native american that's just um and we i i look forward to continuing this conversation i will but one quick question i was like two and a half years ago we did this your time's up on this item so if you want to make a motion throughout the motion to constrain it for five additional minutes second all in favor raise your hands okay how many one two one two

079three four five okay five four more i haven't minutes against you against yes sir anybody else against uh linda all right dude uh marie i said yes all right so seven to two could just a quick comment two and a half years ago we designed the logo with the two feathers at that time the capital improvement committee voted along with the student body i believe was acceptable how could that be acceptable now i don't understand and how as mr slasher pointed out what in how in god's creation we're going to change a logo at the center of the football field along with all the stuff that the uniforms is that money gonna come from and why was in the final offensive two years ago two and a half years ago when this thing was first

080proposed and voted on i guess so they know i don't know maybe that discussion should come up further i'm in favor of a further discussion but uh one thing should show there's one thing one one thing that i think we can settle tonight and i wish you can namely the headdress i mean that to me is something that we can vote on right tonight are you asking if we vote on removing the use of the the mascot uh character that goes to the game that that's exactly it i mean that to me i think it's a i find that offensive too so i mean that is that should is that a board vote or is that uh rck administration to just eliminate the mascot that that's the same thing yeah is it a board vote

081in that case no it's it's it's rck administration you have to you have to remember each bill each building runs it's runs its own okay unless i agree the superintendent can correct me if i'm wrong sorry the administration of rck you can just eliminate the physical mascot that's it and for continued conversation as the superintendent brought up i mean yeah there are certain pieces there that he brings up the stone in front of the flagpole and there's some other minor things around um that's that still has the the headdress the football field does not it just has the name indians so which is what i was trying to bring up before some of these emails that we're receiving there i don't like the name indians i don't like this i don't like that so i

082would like just to continue to have a conversation john if you're able let's figure out reaching out to stonebridge have a conversation with them i have no idea whether they've even seen the the okay the k with two feathers okay as you just said how did they find that offensive we have no idea if they've seen any of this material okay we're receiving emails uh from people we have we have we haven't directly communicated with the tribal leaders i would feel more comfortable if we had a conversation i'm sorry you would have a conversation with the tribal leaders and bring the superintendent then okay and figure out do they find the defensive yes or no and then we bring it back to the community and we share the information with the community to make it

083listen make a decision i'll talk to the superintendent and see if in fact can contact the tribal leaders of stockbridge and see what they think of both issues okay and then the mo and then the financial responsibility who's paying for that so that's another you know again continued dialogue so i think we made some very good progress great discussions great input from everybody tonight let's continue the discussion any other comments i agree eddie i agree with you in terms of continued discussion i just i i because of that continued discussion i would not want to see any changes at this point and what would you say ruby ruby i agree with eddie that there needs to be or mr slaughter there needs to be continued discussion but because of that continued discussion i do not

084i would not want any changes made at this point at a board level i think that's uh that's that's a given and with that being said uh 7.01 consent agenda items is there any item consent agenda that people want to remove uh eddie 6.02 item 11 7.02 6.02 that's 2.0 sorry i'm sorry 7.02 let me double check i apologize i don't know if this falls on there yeah that's it that's the one you were talking about earlier yes i'm sorry yeah 7.02 not 6.02 i'm sorry thank you uh mr spencer 7.2 number 11. anybody else well that being said uh anybody else you said number two right 7.02 okay number number 11 i think you said right no two no 7.02 item number 11. that's what i thought item number 11. keith thank you so

085much resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the following consent agenda items as stated seven point seven point zero three seven point zero four seven point zero five i'll get i'll get to that seven point seven point zero excluding item number eleven read it again please okay resolve that the board of education does hereby approve the following agenda items as stated 7.02 excluding item 11 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 and seven point zero nine all in favor so moved second second unanimous uh seven point zero two item number eleven eddie yes i had sent an email in and thankfully uh dr caldwell we need to get the motion and the second please on that it's almost eye motion memories i sent an email uh to administration dr caldwell was uh kind enough

086to get back to me uh this afternoon uh so majority of my questions were answered obviously that was shared with everybody so uh from that standpoint i'm satisfied i did have one follow-up question if if the superintendent's able to to answer um are these two positions going to be tenure track positions or are these strictly contract positions that we can terminate at any time you um not telling your track positions but we can terminate at any time if for whatever reason budgetary concerns or no need for the position yes okay thank you yes sir jimmy jim so it just seems like um last year we were paying x amount for um these two positions and this year almost doubled um and if it's a contract i would think that it would cost the same amount

087of money to hire the same two people um so i don't understand where that increase i really don't understand where the increase is coming from if we were paying last year less to pay 40 000 for salary and whatever benefit they were getting from the company they were working for now this year they're working for the district and they're and we're spending like almost twice twice the amount um i can speak to that if someone if i can speak to that jose if you would like um right kristen i just have all of my notes right here so right now i'll be happy to hear you you can speak to i'll keep it very brief we had been utilizing um orthopedic associates for since the inception of the um athletic trainers the price did double

088um in the 2019-20 school year so we had already made an adjustment in the 1920 school year based on information from orthopedic associates on the increased cost for these two trainers to be in our building um when we were notified in march with no reason um we real i mean we knew at the time that we were getting a pretty good deal the fact that we didn't have to worry about any of the personnel related issues or costs with regard to this these positions however now that they are going to be staffed we do have that related benefit cost which almost is is a double when you look at what the starting salary would be for these positions quick question so let's go jimmy continue you have a follow-up question no i'm just i'm trying

089to make sense of it so we knew that it was going to double so we have no well that was in 1920 when we were yes and for orthopedic associates we knew it was we knew the cost was going to double so in the 1920 school year we budgeted for it accordingly and then in march of 2020 is when we were advised that they were not going to be coming back as um as a vendor and a contracted service so the budget process why would we be pulling the funds out of the um fund balance because that was the answer eddie got from uh dr carwell in his email well she said it was a possibility that reserves would have to be used at this point in time i i i again i'm still we're

090still trying to figure out what kovid looked like for 2019-20 as we close out the school year we have no idea what 2021 will look like the possibility of using a reserve at this point in time is not really something that we had even talked about we would look to reallocate funds um we're using budget transfers like we've always done in the general fund when costs come in either higher or lower than anticipated well uh christian uh did we did we set an rfp to other other possible vendors uh yes we when we did we have bid this out on a couple of occasions including last year when the cost was going to double and we had always been advi that was the only company that ever responded uh was orthopedic associates there was nobody

091else who ever responded to our rfp in order for us to um procure their services secondly if sports as from what i gather as of now sports are not an option in other words there will be no sports at all come september if that is the case do we have to pay then we will not need these positions no so um again we still do not know the status of summer workouts and i believe september 21st is when we'll be getting some additional guidance from the new york state physical athletics association um as to the status of fall sports and going forward so again we would be looking to hire these people when we needed them however if we continue to push off a start date and we do go with us a fall sports

092season in some sort of fashion we just will not have those trainers on site and as dr cardwell indicated they are not mandated however the only mandated service will be a doctor medical service that has to be available at a football game any home football games but we also should be mindful that these trainers not only see our athletes but they also see other district athletes when they are on our our our playing fields in our court so we do offer i mean that our trainers do assist any other student who may have an injury or a need during one of our athletic events kristin i've seen um the the trainer at rck um in action uh uh in recent years kelly she's awesome and she handles our kids you know the other kids i

093was just curious because you know we have to be fiscally responsible if there was a salary that was paying through orthopedic associates you know why wouldn't we be giving them the same about amount of money but i guess you answered the question yeah just well again when you go into a contract and into a contracted position that's different than an actual contract with a with a vendor it's automatically associated just be going to a home game for home game football games uh unless it was a sectional or a championship based on my understanding if they went to a section they would travel with us to sectional or trans um also they may have traveled with us to some tournaments on weekends um but not for the most part they were at our home events so

094we're talking about eight home games between ketchum and john jay correct yes which means we're paying ten thousand dollars per game you know they do they do other sports so they go to all all sports they are they cover all the sports whether that be baseball softball track indoor track in the winter time basketball football lacrosse those trainers covered all of those events if that is the case if you have john jay track in one place and then catching track in another place they're actually going to send people about those places well yes sir because when you have john yes they were we had a trainer at each high school so each high school and then they would use the carts and go around campus to the different locations so say baseball and softball were

095happening at the same time at home and a lot of times they're scheduling so that that doesn't necessarily happen so we don't run into these conflicts but if you have baseball and softball happening at the same time or boys and girls soccer happening at the same time on a specific campus they would go between the those um those two competitions yes okay thank you any others you're welcome yeah robby i may be wrong i may be wrong but it's my understanding that there is no longer a relationship between the castle point va and orthopedic associates that have been in the past but i may be wrong on that okay all right all those in favor of uh where it is number 11 7.2 number 11 all in favor yes yes yes raise your hands everybody

096ruby yes okay unanimous 8.01 approval of supervision a supervision of 2018 hvac renovation project resolve that resolve that the board of education had authorized in december 2014 august 2015 and august 2019 for the rhyme back architect and plan and pc to provide an on-site representative to perform services in connection with district capital projects in the absence of director of facilities in operation now therefore be a result that the board authorizes rhyme back architect and planning pc to provide an on-site representative to perform services to coordinate the contracts and oversee the construction in connection with the h hvac projects at john jay rck bias corners elementary school at a rate of sixty five dollars per hour a two hour minimum per rate on july 27th 28th and 29th for a maximum total of 22 hours it's

097almost decade discussion well i have a i have something to say first of all i'd like to thank mr mr broaz who has done a super duper duper job i assume that those dates are the days he's going to be on vacation am i am i correcting that assumption we would have to go to into executive session for that just get it that's all right but um he has time he has he doesn't have he does not have time in the district i understand all right i have no no objection all those in favor hi hi unanimous 8.02 adoption of new textbook resource of tank mathematics resolved that the board of education does here but i approve the textbook resource adoption of tank math as indicated in the memo dated july 2020 from the assistant

098superintendent for curriculum and instruction to the superintendent of schools uh keith discussion peggy i believe you have some questions on this you sent some questions peggy oh i got answers on the weekly memo review anybody else i also have my god receive answers on a number of books just to let somebody people know i participated in tang uh math at myers conan's elementary school i was quite impressed with the program it was excellent in fact that dr carwell beat me at several of the math the math games and i was kind of upset about that i said i was going to learn i was going to take it up and then i was going to challenge her again i totally but the true true statement uh anyway i i agree with the resource and uh

099hey yes sir you can't complain tang went all the way to the boom and shut up anyway [Music] board members may request additional agenda items any addition to the agenda seeing none comments from the public 30 minutes on an agenda period comments from the public alberta are there any comments oh yes oh okay let me drink my water okay kristen can you time me please oh my god already on it okay okay board members jennifer lawler on n um nigro writes my name is jenny nico and i am a member of the rck class of 2006. as an alumna i have great pictures over the district's use of the indians nickname and mascot at wappinger's junior high school and ketchum for three seasons during my time at wapp junior high school in rck i i

100don't the uniform what the indians name i wore my jerseys proudly on various courts and fields ignorant to the trauma that racist symbols have inflicted on the groups they caricature as my sister says when you know better do better in my work around anti-racism and accountability i have gained consciousness around the fact that these symbols serve no one in an educational system least of all the black and indigenous people of color that attend the waffling central school district i have written to you all privately and now submit this as public comment to demand that the school board dismantle the use of the indians mascot and nickname at ketchum high school and weapons junior high school the demand for vacating the use of the racist logo and mascot has been ongoing for many years our renewed

101call for change however does not occur in a vacuum in the wake of the murders of george floyd briona taylor ahmad abre tony mcdade dominique fells and maria milton organizers have intensified their demand for the removal of racist symbols and statues across the u.s since dylan wolfe murdered nine black worshipers at the emmanuel ame church in charleston north carolina the southern justice poverty law center has been documenting the existence of monuments and namesakes in honor of the confederacy across the u.s in the publishing of the data they put forth that the removal of symbols and statues is more than symbolism that it's about starting a conversation about the values and beliefs shared by a community it's about understanding our history as a nation and it's about acknowledging the injustices of the past as we address

102those of today the history that's claimed to be involved by the preservation of racist symbols and monuments does not represent the history of enslaved people or the indigenous nations that thrive before colonization these struggles are and explicit and explicitly linked in the worship worshiping of whiteness why why racist symbols persist in america from the guardian alvita akibo a history professor at the university of michigan discusses how historically native american peoples were robbed of their land to make way for farmland sustained by slavery labor state sanctioned monuments of enslaved enslavers do not honor history caricatures steeped and vicious stereotypes do not honor the people on whose lands our schools are built if this school board is to live up to its goal of community believing that embracing okay i can't hear her okay i'll try to

103be louder no no okay now i got you okay okay next one is um yvonne gore two weeks ago i launched a petition asking wcsc to retire the boise ketchum indians mascot i grew up grew up in wappinger falls why i attended royce to ketchum and watfordshire's junior high school which also serves the indians mascot which also i'm sorry uses the indians mascot as a student of color throughout those years i felt that it negative negatively stereotyped native people the use of native american mascot symbols and names has been and remains offensive harmful and derogatory to native people listen to the national congress of american indians the new york state department of education the american psychological association and the state of maine among others that are not acknowledge this reality as you know there are

104two petitions with close to seven thousand signatures supporting the removal of this offensive mascot chrissy lola me and other alumni have been interviewed by the poughkeepsie journal and local news 12 westchester hudson valley we have strong support and will garner more backing from native american organizations within the region and nationally that have spoken out strongly against the use of native people as mascots in addition your peers in neighboring school districts with native american mascots have engaged their communities and students to remove them last week john jay high school and cross river changed his mascot to the wolves from the indians as they concluded that the mascot was divisive and now part of having an inclusive environment and multiple responses to concerned alumni about changing the vast racist indians name and mascot for voice of ketchup

105high school and wappington's junior high school wcsc board president john lumiere also noted the cost of changing the mascot's current logo as a con to making the changes we have proposed i want to address this issue per mr lumia ketchum changed the mascot logo two years ago from the caricature of an unnamed native american man in a headdress not accurate representation representation of the wappinger people to a logo of a k with two red feathers mr lumiere noted it cost over twenty thousand dollars to place the logo on the football field i reviewed the wcsd 2021 board adopted budget and was surprised that at 245 million 41 769 dollars the budget increased 10 million dollar 10 million ninety thousand seven hundred eighty one dollars from the nineteen twenty budget also i noticed that wcsc added

106three million eight hundred forty thousand six hundred and sixty dollars in savings to the general fund balance with a net savings of seven hundred and forty four thousand nine hundred thirty two to the general fund balance and the worst case scenario should new york state reassess school aid to reduce 2021 aid by the one million nine hundred ninety five thousand seven hundred twenty eight dollars in federal cares funding all that said a twenty thousand dollar cost to change the racist indians name and logo on the field okay next one from allison greeley an alumni from the class of 2001 royce to catch up i'd like to echo the statements of current students and my former classmates from royce ketchum high school to change the name of the school mascot and the school logo this racism

107cannot be erased but it can be changed today i always kept rck and new york state public education close to my heart i believe i've read this one before this is the um um former student who attended the california school district we were everywhere i read that one before so i will move on okay this one is from nicolette jays i write in support of yvonne gore chrissy nigro and others who have submitted their thoughts regarding the changing of the rck mascot as a proud former ketchum cheerleader and third generation rck graduate i write with deep roots in the community and strong conviction that this name should be reviewed and ultimately changed i know you have received the deluge i hope i said that right of research and material to convince you to review and

108change this mascot so i won't be redundant here although i have done quite a bit of that reading and hope you all have will as well my reason for writing today in support of this effort is to share my own belief that not reviewing this mascot and exploring alternatives is a disservice to the native american community as well as the rck student body past present and future as per the board goals we believe embracing diversity in all its forms enriches the human experience we strive to enhance positive relationships by informing our community members through all channels of communication we strive for our students at every grade level to be open-minded and embrace all people regardless of race religion and gender identity by implementing curriculum services and or programs relative to anti-bullying peer conflict resolution and

109respectful social behaviors i think today's question at hand could be a clear way to walk the walk on that commitment growing up i have always knew that my grandfather was a well-known athlete in the area and that my mom was a proud member of the rck chair team i grew up wearing vintage sports regalia and using old pom-poms to cheer on the indians it wasn't until 2011 when i traveled to the country of india that i questioned why two very different groups were both referenced by the same name only to discover that this was not only academically incorrect but culturally offensive this is my turn to attend this this then it was my time to attend the school i hung out with the athletes and shared that every single basketball football game for four for

110all four years i was also a regular spectator at the non-chair supported sports like baseball soccer and softball thinking back to all the times that i screamed go indians with all of my might i could still feel both the passion and loyalty for my hometown but it later in life was mixed with feelings sparked by newer realizations ones that come with embarrassment and disappointment i feel vividly remember the happy times feeling like i was part of something a community a legacy but i have started to wonder why i don't remember the uglier truths maybe because we never learned them in school maybe because they were downplayed maybe because it was too ugly and we and all of our privilege decided not to spend minds mindshare talking about things that would make us sad or look

111poorly on our community and answer i'm not sure why okay deborah jackson writes as a parent who watched two of her daughters graduate from ketchum high school i believe it's time to stop and think what the name associated with the sports team represents it's your duty as educators to set the right example racism should not be condoned in any form um this is a this is a student um i'll withhold her name she's going to be a sophomore at rck and um i'm going to be a sophomore at austin k and want to stay in indian as a latina student i have never felt discriminated against and feel that rck is a very inclusive community if you even consider changing our local please ask all students and families what they think who will pay to

112change our field and basketball court and all the signs we can't stop people from using a headdress but ketchum doesn't use it anymore so please leave it alone and the last comment is from vivian gore she's an alumni from rck from 2003. i was an alumni of boise ketchum high school 2003 and waffling junior high school i write in support of removing all native names imagery and mascot native mascots don't honor native people native mascots team names and imagery are racist the name of the washington football team is a dictionary defined racial slur scientific studies prove that native mascots demonstrate direct negative effects on native americans and that these mascots activate reflect and or reinforce stereotyping and prejudice among non-native people it is past time to remove this spacious logo and in 2020 i hope

113the board comes to the correct conclusion that's the end of the comments thank you for your comments thank you thanks alberta nice job thank you okay