001[Music] so welcome everyone today is december 13 2021. please stand and join us [Music] the mission of the white plains public schools is to educate and inspire all students while nurturing their dreams so they learn continually think critically pursue their aspirations and contribute to a diverse and dynamic world good evening i'd like to ask you to join us in a moment of silent reflection in the memory of renald richard music teacher highlander school 1967 to 1991 and joseph williams masonry foreman until retiring in 1982. thank you good evening everybody and good evening uh president board of education members we are going to make a slight adjustment to the agenda this evening we're going to move the celebration of our scholar athletes up first but before i welcome mr cameron to the podium to celebrate our
002outstanding scholar athletes i do because i know what happens when this is over everybody leaves so i want to take this opportunity while you're all here with us right now just to on behalf of myself and all the members of the white plains city school district community wish all of you a very very happy and healthy holiday we hope that you have a great holiday we hope that you enjoy it with your families but please remember to stay safe and stay secure and stay wp proud and now mr count thank you dr ricka i'd like to thank dr ricka and the board of education for the opportunity to present our student athletes with the new york state public high school scholar athlete awards this evening this fall our teams were very successful varsity volleyball won
003their league championship and we're 20-0 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the varsity volleyball um league championships they were 20-0 before suffering a heartbreak loss of the sectional semi-finals our varsity football team won back-to-back league championships and were undefeated in league play our voice [Music] our varsity boys soccer team were also league champions and our girls tennis league championship came down to the last match of the season against new rochelle last week we recognized there were five swimmers one diver and cross country runner that represented white plains high school in the new york state championships next tuesday we'll be hosting our fourth ncaa scholarship signing as the athletic director i am very proud of the white plains tigers for all the championships and individual accomplishments this fall 50 athletes recognized as all league 13 athletes recognized for all
004section two athletes recognized for all conference three athletes recognized for all section honorable mention our football team had lineman wide receiver and linebacker of the year our volleyball team had the section one player of the year girls swim 200 free finished eighth in the new york state championship there are almost 800 schools in new york state and we had a relay team that finished in eighth we had a 200 medley that finished in ninth individual girls swimmer placed ninth and fifty free a diver and cross country runner that finished in the top 30 of the new york state championships one swimmer placed first and won both the 500 and 200 free in the new york state championships and was named all-american two times [Applause] certainly a season to remember for the white plains tigers more
005importantly as i talk to our coaches and student athletes all the time is what we're doing tonight tonight we're recognizing 166 white plains tiger varsity athletes at new york state as new york state public high school athletic associates excuse me scholar athlete association scholar athlete award winners in addition to the 166 varsity athletes that earned over 90 gpa while coming to school every day and practicing and traveling seven of our ten four varsity teams qualified for the new york state public high school athletic association team award for a team to receive this award 75 percent of the team needs to have over 90 percent great point average or higher for the seven teams i would like to congratulate girls cross country boys cross country field hockey girls soccer girl swim and dive volleyball and tennis
006for being recognized as new york state public high school clinical associates [Applause] our first coach i'd like to call up is our varsity swim dive coach with 44 scholar athletes coach gilmartin [Applause] thank you all for coming tonight it's so wonderful to see everybody here and back together i want to congratulate the team and i know that there's a lot of people so as i call your name if you could just stand up and then at the conclusion if the athletes could go outside for a nice picture or photo opportunity louisa nearhof captain christine agaman saskia aikman angeline argelis tyron becerra kayla berger madison bogart teresa castro kelly castantino jenny deng nicole ruke escalindo karen gallegos alexandre garcia iselle garcia cecilia gomez karaha riley hendrickson maya allen celia holden grace rickey maya jaguti alyssa kimball
007sorry um zoe kaczynski [Music] genesis leone sophia levy molly hassan rihanna lira leslie maldonado isabella mcguire catalina ramirez sal morena alexa arena emma mayo sarah rodriguez del averio quinn sterling zelda sutter zen taborda emily tendazzo lizzie tirado ava viola tiffany yan can you imagine i had to do all the averages for all these people so just keep that in mind athletes if you could stand thank you so much [Applause] thank you mr cameron [Applause] to the girl swimming [Applause] well that's about a third of the auditorium so come out here as quick as possible um next up i'll have both of our cross-country coaches coach hildago and coach singleton who have 40 student athletes with over 90 average [Applause] both teams also won the team award for the state [Applause] all right so it was
008an amazing season with a with an amazing group of athletes our scholar athletes for a girls cross country ariana allende julia beckman sophie ginsburg isabella mittal gianna priory captain mia priori abigail roman ariana ronan caroline chick captain marina stangelini captain and rachel villaporta [Applause] [Music] good evening everybody for the boys we had 28 out of our 34 athletes have a 90 or above average and this group amassed 68 a minuses 90 a's and 121 a pluses [Music] [Applause] [Music] sort of thing all right so here we go here's our list jacksonville benjamin goldman captain emiliano juarez captain aidan morgan timmy mastrotinova captain abraham cassettes ryan chung captain marcus chung yuki watanabe matt salinger ion character uh ronan stop who was our athlete who went to the statement patrick brown daniel daniel chung joe ferrara matt
009viola ellie goldman captain alex gaddon patrick stanton captain sean o'donnell brian mulvac sheridan keane christopher jewell joey demilio matt diaz matt captain matthew missett william white and william i'm sorry matthew [Applause] [Music] coach and i are very proud of both the boys and girls in the cross country program and remember 150 days left to the loudspeakers thank you [Applause] boys and girls cross country you can go out into the lobby and pick up your certificates and meet your coaches [Applause] our next team up um last year they had eight scholar athletes and the conversation with myself and the staff was you know football it's great kids are doing well two back-to-back league championships but we want to see our kids doing better the coaches took it seriously the kids took it seriously and they doubled
010their number from one year to the next with 15 scholar athletes coach mike lindbergh and our varsity football team [Applause] thank you for having me guys um very proud of this group they really worked hard i mean obviously all the athletes work hard we're going to practice all day going to school getting it done um you know i've been here six years and this is by far the most we've had every year we've gone a little better i'm really proud of the group um i'm going to butcher some of the names because they all have nicknames so bear with me kenny ortega jay biandi but bondi um vincenzo very italian bonita jolie creston uh karan kabini it says john but he's really rudy to flip us jack herrman mason lang nicholas pascalini nuts and petite
011mason rank uh rhett excuse me that was an easy one jonas until nicholas vista jacob lee and jefferson boyce [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congratulations varsity football [Applause] our next team up had a perfect season during the season see the coaches all text me and they email me say can i go first i have the longest drive home plan go first i go first i try to accommodate it coach lives on long island so um she's next her team was perfect 20-0 her kids were perfect every kid over 90 average our volleyball coach caitlin mcdonald [Applause] [Music] thank you mr cameron thank you to the board of education um words can't describe how proud i am of this team for them to have gone for 20 consecutive wins throughout the season was really really unbelievable and then
012with every win you're like well we're undefeated how much longer we're going to get defeated and that so that feeling really kind of runs through the entire season all season and it's the underlying theme though you have to make sure you keep on simmer so that we keep winning games throughout the season so i'm extremely extremely proud of this team and what we were able to accomplish and very looking for very much looking forward to what we will accomplish in the future for every single one of them we had a nice small team this year we had nine girls on the team and for all of them to have had the averages that they had while doing what we did on the court was absolutely unbelievable in addition to what mr cameron stated before we
013had won all section player of the year so all the coaches get together at the end of the season and we vote we say my player is better than your player because of this and i was able to win that argument and it really didn't take a lot of arguing this year a lot of us got together everyone knows how good sequoia is at what she does and [Applause] and the best news is is that she's only a sophomore and we really still have a lot to expect from this young leader sequoia lane [Applause] ladies please stand as your name is called mario callahan sophia alexandru natalie escobedo amelie singer giselle loverbiere [Applause] one last thing that i would be remiss if i didn't mention was that in addition to this on all the other
014awards that they received we had two players win all state honors which has never happened in my tenure here in white plains and that is nyla trancoso and sequoia link thank you [Applause] congratulations volleyball way to go girls [Applause] all right next up is our field hockey team coach amanda could not make it tonight um any coaches said they weren't really feeling great don't come definitely don't come tonight so our assistant coach jerry mealy will be doing the presentation for our varsity field hockey team [Applause] good evening everyone i just want to congratulate all of our athletes not only were you able to compete on the varsity level but you did so by maintaining an amazing gpa so that is just awesome we are on behalf of coach amanda and i just want to say
015how proud we are of how you represented white plains high school on and off the field so congratulations ladies as i read your names please stand olivia alexander elizabeth armagedda greta brooks colleen brown tamar brumber sophia emmer riley falvi brianna hagridy elena ianacci hannah o'rourke jolie o'rourke sonia sawad and marissa thompson [Applause] thanks coach bailey congratulations field hockey [Applause] i will not make the same mistake our football coach made coach megan chase is not here this evening was not feeling well she was not in school today so our two captains kristen russo tasha mendes are going to announce their teammates who received over 90 hours the girls had 17 of the 20 and also received the team award lucy barris juliana battaglia tatiana brown paloma cano megan dennis maybelline enriquez ella concillo kimberly orozco sophia
016paramo annelise redfia kristen rousseau chabaney isabelle sidley lizette tonsado julia velasquez and sophie weisberg [Applause] thanks natasha thanks kristen all right next up is our varsity girls tennis coach stephanie top [Applause] coach has done an outstanding job just in her second year the team had 19 girls on the team jv team we doubled our numbers so she's really putting a lot of time in in season out of season and it certainly shows coach [Applause] hi my name is tuck and i'm the white plains girls varsity tennis coach this year we have 19 girls on the team and i'm so proud of them for earning the scholar athlete team award these girls continue to impress me both on and off the court with achievements in season including making it to the league tournament and now off
017season with this academic achievement thirteen girls on the varsity team earned the individual scholar athlete awards and i'm proud to read their names tonight our seniors jessica osorio and essie stani juniors natasha rappa captain leah morgan sophomores captain brian krauskopf olivia wilkins sabrina monty eva mandelbaum leah dennis and amber lau freshman anna strominger and eighth graders delphine laroccio and eloise [Applause] an incredible and truly unforgettable season and thank the west plains athletic office for their continued support throughout the season um a special thanks to coach seuman our jv coach for preparing the jv girls for varsity mr cameron miss dimes and miss leon zegoya for their support and organization sandra sensoda and his team for making sure our course are always match ready and detective brown and the entire security team for making our girls
018and families feel safe thank you [Applause] girls tennis way to go congrats we have a little change of plants here we brought our field hockey team back um coach mealy come on down we left two girls off and their parents are still here i hope so i left the best for last so girls come on up because you deserve it you worked really hard and we are so proud of you so we have chloe ryan garcia [Applause] next up is our varsity boys soccer team came so close to the team award uh 10 of their athletes had over 90 average coach mike lambert uh thank you very much um just want to congratulate all of our student athletes i think this year more than any other going from last year which was unique uh to
019write back into a full-time school environment along with playing a varsity sport six days a week is even more impressive uh in my eyes this year so congratulations to all of our student athletes varsity boys soccer as well as staying on top of their grades also went back to back on the league championship um and we had 10 players that achieved scholar athlete's status lucas antonucci eric antonecchia who's also a captain gael belardi sergio kalana daniel espinoza jack halpern milo chris phillip mann isaiah macrado torres and steven uche congratulations boys good job last but not least coach jess varsity cheerleading come on down good evening everybody congratulations to all the teams and athletes for their scholar athletes my team had jessica bellantoni sophomore milo bridges senior lisa grandma senior and lola ponce [Applause] congratulations to
020all of our student athletes i see the superintendent's cabinet sits up here in the front and they do a lot for athletics too frank staff all the time we're in communication frank thank you and controls the funds and certainly we have 96 coaches and 77 teams so um and scott's office you know we're appointing 96 coaches every year so thank you for all your support dr rick as always thank you and the border vet for giving us all the resources to have these type of nights so thank you [Applause] mr cameron just a thank you to you and to all of our athletic colleagues in the athletic department and our coaches and our assistant coaches also even though we successfully cleared out the room uh all of the parents and guardians who support our student
021athletes it really is a tremendous community effort we've had a great fall season and uh i think coach lambert really put it well after a unique year last year it is nice to come back and start to begin to at least regain some sense of knowledge so thank you very much mr cameron [Applause] madam president we are now going to move on to the next part of the agenda which is a special recognition um we are this evening uh truly bittersweet i think mixed emotions as we recognize um our our amazing colleague michelle schoenfeld and we all know mr shaw [Applause] is getting ready for um to to begin to think about retirement and we want to celebrate that but we also want to really as everything else in white plains and as everything michelle
022has been really make it a community event and i want to thank john shepard thanks john for helping to put together yes helping to put together what is um really i'm sure going to be a touching tribute uh to mr schoenfeld so for the trustees before we show the video for the trustees and for michelle if you'd like to sit in the seats across from you so you get a better view i welcome you to do that now what a wonderful career you have been such an asset to the white plains school district and the white plains community michelle knows everybody she takes wonderful notes has an iconic memory and is one of the most caring individuals that i have ever met some know you as the school board clerk and expert on election rules
023some know you as a volunteer for the hospital and friends of white plains schools your eye for detail and heartfelt desire to be of service has been admirable you are one of the most convincing professional and strongest women i know and your dedication and service to the students of the white plains schools is something for which you can be extremely proud michelle is always a wonderful gatekeeper of all of our information she has the answer to any and every question i have ever had i admire your kindness and your thoughtfulness most importantly has been your knowledge base that you brought to the board of education and to me as a new board member and i mostly appreciate all the history that you have of this district and all that you shared with me you've been
024the heart the head in the history of white plains and you will be missed greatly you have been the face of the white plains school district for as long as i can remember not to mention the only face that i can actually look eye to eye to if you look back to michelle's youth in 1948 she entered a contest that was offered by the brooklyn dodgers to write an essay on leadership and diversity and she won it and to her surprise she was asked to read it at a ball game michelle words are inadequate to express the deep respect and affection i have for you i value our friendship and collaboration and i will miss you very professional and very cognizant that what you are of the public's need to know the facts you believe
025like i believe that sometimes doing things the old-fashioned way that's the best way michelle one of the things i've always admired was your dedication and determination when faced with technology challenges you are truly a role model the example you set for me and sues growing up is what taught us to have the work ethic that we do so to say that you are a fantastic role model is quite an understatement you've helped so many people you've been there like batman i'm really going to miss you we're going to miss you i'm sorry to see her retiring but appreciative of everything she's given us community she truly is a woman of white plains and we're very very lucky to have had her i will miss your deep knowledge and love for this district and how you
026always have the best advice because your advice was grounded in where we were and where we needed to go thank you so much for all your support mentoring guidance you've just been incredible these past five and a half years and i've been with white plains the white plains public schools are better off because you are here you made a real difference even in the most difficult moments of your life you were there taking care of your obligations and commitments life has given you permission to sit back and relax and enjoy your family please make sure you do that and get really good at it i can't believe that you spent 39 years there you went through so many superintendents thank you for everything you did for me to support me when i was on the
027board and also everything you've done for the white plains school district over the years i also can't believe that when i was on the board we had so many meetings and that you stayed awake through every single one of them i cannot believe that i still say that the best part of you being district clerk was knowing very early in the morning if school was going to be canceled for snow or not thanks for all your years of dedication to the white plains school district much appreciated your more than 8 000 hours of service and leadership skills as past auxiliary president have left a lasting impact on our hospital and community i'm thinking about all of the uh efforts that you've made in partnership with us you've made our work easier you've been a great
028help to me um the department and the community all these years i'm looking forward to continuing our relationships so you can retire from white plains school district but we need you here at the rec department you've done a phenomenal unbelievable irreplaceable job in creating a situation that um it's going to be impossible to fill those shoes michelle best of luck to you and i know you're looking forward to spending more time with your family and those beautiful grandkids you really have done an amazing job in terms of your your passion and your dedication to the students and the staff please remember that the same way you were always there for us we will always be there for you over the years your contributions to airplanes certainly grew in fact we have to ask where would
029white plains be without you michelle you have served the white plains community with distinction congratulations for a job well done we love you i don't think anyone will ever come close to touching your record of dedication as the district clerk you know i love you you know i care about you like a second mom i want only the best for you michelle congratulations on great career work we know that you're not done yet but hopefully you'll enjoy the retirement years do exactly what you want to do and you'll still have all your friends and neighbors saluting you have a wonderful congratulatory celebration today [Applause] michelle was trying to sit down and we weren't finished clapping michelle this is so surreal um tonight but i have to um i have to let you know um i
030spoke to uh mclaughlin as well and tim and as you can see peter is here the geigers are here and you see everyone from the community here that recognizes you it's um as randy said it's hard to even imagine my plans without you sitting in your office executing your job with perfection after that we thank you um i'll just add one little funny story and that you know how multi-faceted michelle is uh one morning we woke up to a smoky furnace and it kind of caught on fire a little bit so you know we called everyone over fire department and i call michonne going sure i can't come to my my furnace and i just went on and on and on and she said oh so you just put that through your home on us
031i forgot i had homeowners we bought the most expensive furnace that we could and we we named it the michelle sean fell friends but but i say that because you never know in life when you're going to meet a friend and i don't even know how and when we we became friends but i'm very um grateful to you uh your wisdom your advice um sincerely grateful but we'll still be friends and we'll still see you around but enjoy this wonderful new phase of life thank you [Applause] michelle whether or not or not we know each other a very long time and i've always enjoyed our friendship and when i first got out of the board of ed um and i just wound up sitting next to you in the conference room and it was like
032having this brilliant little bird on my shoulder telling you these little facts and little issues because the first year you're sitting there you know what you want to do you're not sure how to do it i was getting his mentoring his coaching over here and it was wonderful i thank you for that and thank you for your friendship and for everything you've done for every kid and for the community and for white plains hospital you are batman [Applause] you taught me how to be a board member i knew nothing when i came to the board and you took me aside and you quietly and kindly explain how things got done and taught me how to do this and you're fond of knowledge about white plains and everything white planes and you know everyone here well
033um we talk about you being related to everyone you actually know everyone [Music] so thank you so much and we know where you live so we'll begin [Applause] i'm not sure the video was beautiful michelle i just want to thank you for everything um with with all my heart your collaboration your professionalism your integrity your partnership and all the years that you spent not only as district clerk but as pta leader and as volunteer for our school district and just the love that you have for us and for the district and and i also want to mention i really appreciated that you knew shorthand that you know shorthand i am one of the few people probably that you've run into who also knows shorthand um my mother made me learn it when i was in
034high school so i really appreciated seeing your notes so thank you for everything michelle go ahead well it's hard for me to say something that hasn't already been said um thank you for your guidance and your wisdom i'll enjoy i've always enjoyed our conversations about white plains our different issues on the board and uh and also how our conversations have straight into our personal lives and sharing about our families as well too it's really been wonderful to speak to you about that because really that's the most important thing in all of our lives and i know your family is very important to you and for the next for your next chapter i know that's your focus and that's that's uh that's wonderful so 39 years is a long time i work in numbers so what
035are we talking about in 39 years that's at least 40 elections right 39 years by the numbers at least 40 elections when we count special elections 600 meetings 1500 hours 62 days equivalent of meeting time and that's just in front of the public so you're local and i'm probably and i'll probably be a conservative that's exactly right but but really i mean the commitment and time you put into white plains thank you so much and have a wonderful next chapter and i know we're still going to see you which is great for us and great for the district [Applause] michelle there is one thing that i can say that no one has said no one else has and that's i'm here tonight because of you michelle showed up at a pta council meeting one night
036when i was president and somehow she managed to convince me that it was my time to step up and try and fill the shoes of donna mclaughlin well that was nine years ago and i'm still trying to fill those shoes but you have been an amazing support um i loved coming in and chatting with you in your office and i'll miss that but the one thing i know that i'm not going to miss is having you around because i know that you're always going to be there for us for the board and for the kids of white plains and i just want to say thank you [Applause] one last comment um uh there are three people that we haven't thanked at all suzy mike and matthew we want to thank you for sharing mom grandma
037and mom and girl with us it's a gift that we will treasure thank you so much there's more the first thing i'd like to do first of all thank you again to mr shepherd john shepard for putting it together and michelle and i brings a little tear my every time i watch because you are so loved and this time of year it reminds me i'll butcher the quote so i won't say it but you all know what i'm talking about at the end of it's a wonderful life i think it's a kipling vote no man is alone who has friends remember when they all brought the money to george's house so we didn't lose his house you have so many friends you have so many loved ones and i just think you should feel as
038warm and as loved as possible i want to invite mayor rocha he has a special message this evening as well i have to say that when we were checking my calendar when this came in and and another event came and um miriam comes in and says to me which event do you want and i said well what's the other event where's michelle oh i have to go 39 years is unbelievable um we first met on the recreation advisory committee as my memory served me i was uh chairing it as a new council member and um your devotion to our city to our community to our schools to our kids is unrivaled and you show up everywhere the hospitals everywhere and wherever you are it's with that big heart and that love behind it and so
039it makes such a huge difference i uh have a proclamation here it seems somewhat inadequate now that i know that you've had a a furnace named after you but for what it's worth uh for your service to our schools our community our kids and you're you're you're you're the per you're the type of person that keeps a community together that leaves a community together that's out there all the time and i'm happy you're being recognized i thomas and roach mayor city white plains extend my congratulations best wishes to you and the occasion of your well-earned retirement much success and having some years to follow and i hereby as mayor statewide planes hereby declare monday december 13 2021 as michelle schoenfeld day in the city of white plains [Applause] bye [Applause] thank you mayor roach we
040saw uh county detective latimer in the video michelle knows him very well and you also saw this evening unfortunately george has covered yeah he's okay i was just talking to him right before he came over here i told him use this time to rest put your phone away but he won't no keyboard but he said it's his very best and then of course chairman ben boykin got caught up in the contact trace so he couldn't come here but they both send a proclamation in your honor and among the other many many accomplishments and honors that they enumerate in this beautiful proclamation they also bestow tuesday december 14 as michelle schoenfeld day in the county of westchester [Applause] no pre-party from us from the board of education with our greatest appreciation michelle shaw felt district clerk
0411982-2021 in recognition of your 39 years of loyal service and outstanding contributions to the white plains city school district thank you for your dedication to the district students and staff happy retirement best wishes december 13th 2021 white plains board of education [Applause] oh in case you couldn't see him we have official michelle shawnfeld t-shirts what's on the agenda retired and finally madam president i need to ask that we include an addendum this evening's agenda which would be item nine f that of clerk and i will read the resolution and then find a president whereas michelle schoenfeld has served the white plains city school district faithfully and well as district clerk and secretary of the board of education for 39 years and whereas throughout her tenure she has been through wisdom and dedication personally instrumental in
042moving the school district forward and whereas michelle has earned the respect and esteem of all members of the white plains city school district community and whereas in appreciation for michelle's dedication to the white plains city school district the board of education wishes to honor michelle in a lasting fashion now therefore be resolved at the white plains city school district board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools hereby officially dedicates through naming the assembly room and education house five homeside lane white plains new york to the michelle schoenfeld assemblyman [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i need to take a picture next to a picture that will be in a different frame and it will have a obviously an engraved tag for michelle and the assignment [Applause] i'm overwhelmed this is really amazing and i thank
043everybody for their kinds words and the video was just wonderful hearing from so many people from the past and i want to tell you i've enjoyed every minute of it it's been a long time and a lot of meetings and a lot of superintendents and a lot of board members but i've enjoyed it and i hope i've given a little back from what it's given me and i thank you again everyone [Applause] and how fortunate we are that you'll be around a little bit longer it will be hard not to see you walking again yes yes we should get one we should get a board picture [Music] oh my goodness [Applause] yes [Music] i'm a quiet person as i look at this esteemed group and everybody here you're the only one who doesn't look much
044older than six years [Applause] thank you so much [Applause] [Music] so without further ado we love you we thank you for every single thing [Applause] but i got to be the last you always remember the first and last but not really because of course michelle's still going to be with us and she's going to be helping us and that's so important and that was part of the condition so again michelle thank you so much for everything thank you for everybody who came to i see linda oxer trying to hide back there there she is dr oxford so so many friends here drop demarco of course we're not paying you you've never charged hi bro wow i didn't see you i'm sorry i do um before we move on to the agenda i do want to
045i have to thank huge thank you to my partner eliza torres who did so much to make tonight come together [Applause] thanks to all me we appreciate you as always yeah and then i just have to thank um oh our cameraman our cameraman thank you so much we know we we got in a last-minute video and you did it with the grace and the patient that you always do so thank you john um we just appreciate you okay so next we'll have um we'll have announcements by the board members um but before we we um go forward i just i have a statement i'd like to to make and it'll be brief this was quite a night for us honoring our scholar athletes and celebrating our own michelle schonfell but i wanted to take a
046moment to address an article many of you may have seen in low hud regarding the sale of the ridgeway country club in the statement it was there was a sentence that struck a hard nerve with the board it said white plains doesn't have the best school district it was beyond comprehension how such a statement could have been made with what we believe is limited knowledge of who and what we are we will respond to the comments officially but we want to take the opportunity to invite the author of such comments to please come for a visit and see firsthand what a groundbreaking model school district recognized by the u.s secretary of education is like thank you so um i just have i've got a few comments not about that um this last few days has
047been very very interesting um on the one hand i'll get into one second i was reminded of the extraordinary passion and dedication of the superintendent the cabinet the administrators the teaching staff and the non-teaching staff of our schools i understand some people stopping on the street not many and they say well they get paid to do that well we all get paid to do something but that doesn't always mean that we do it with such passion so the first thing i went to was the curriculum and at the curriculum meeting oh i'm sorry the first thing i went to was international day at post road and it was wonderful each each classroom was a different country and the kids were so into it it was just it was wonderful to see that but then i
048went to the curriculum meeting the other night and they rolled out some ideas uh that were just wonderful gary west talked about uh intermediate level music technology program which is just amazing richard dillon the head of social studies talked about an elective for the uh based upon the united states constitution which seems to be incredibly fitting in this country right now and doug crock and jennifer hammond king talk about a writing seminar being brought to students in a seminar format to expand writing and to help kids express themselves writing and not just writing for a grade but writing for themselves and that's very very important i love to write and that's really important to me and then on the following evening we had um pupil services and special ed and what was discussed was a
049possible redesign or put on the table a redesign of the high school adding a third house and in doing so creating smaller communities and having every kid be assigned a counselor and a healthcare worker and at least three adults that they can be in touch with and in that way in this very very large high school creating communities to support kids to further social emotional learning which seems to be so critical right now there was also discussion of um what it's been like coming back to school for some of the special ed kids after having been out a year and the difficulties that the teachers are facing not just how hard they're working and and to celebrate the accomplishments as opposed to always highlighting some negativity i tell my spin students i'm a spin instructor
050we always tell ourselves what we can can't do we need to tell ourselves what we can do and in this district and i'm sending a message to that person we do a lot and we have a lot to be proud of so that was my those are my comments uh that was i might have missed something people pick up on that but thanks everybody for what you do every day the whole crew the ms cruz back there thank you guys tonight is the lower hudson education coalition legislative community where our county legislators regional legislators met and discussed public issues that are affecting a lot of the school districts in the area topics range from mental health for our students and our teachers as well as funding initiatives i caught about an hour of it prior
051to this board meeting and senator shelly mayer was discussing foundation aid and how we were she was helpful of instrumental and acquiring 60 of the aid last year we're on target for acquiring 80 of the foundation aid this year and she's hoping for a full restore restore restoration of our foundation aid going forward as well as recommitting to giving sed state education department the resources they need to assist local districts and some of the mandates that we're given she committed to diversity equity and inclusion initiative from the state ed and uh committed to helping districts with that initiative as well as acknowledging the need for more mental health funds for our teachers and students and that was this evening and i also attended the craft fair on saturday which was awesome right around the corner
052from here i got to purchase some beautiful student artwork from the art associate was the national junior art group it was a great afternoon and a lot of local vendors were there so i just wanted to add to charlie's comments um about the um special ed committee meeting um we talked about um that was special that we talked about senior internships um mr emily um mr emily sorry emily martinez sorry about that mr martinez came in as a new principal and had a very very strong interest in starting an internship program and we gave him a lot of support and so he's put together a committee and he's working on having our seniors here um spend time trying to figure out what it is that they want to do after high school internships in the
053community um working in neighborhoods and working in in different fields um in in the community and so we're looking forward to working with him on that and and supporting our students as i told him i did a number of internships myself as a student and i i had my children do the same thing and they've gotten full-time jobs out of it and i'm very proud of that um i also wanted to mention that i went to the um white plains rec committee meeting and i don't have my notes with me but i can quickly say that it was the uh master planning meeting just as we're doing a master planning for the school district and for the city this was for the wreck department and the parks department we basically gave our wish list of
054things that we would like to see and the two main things that we talked about were the senior center which was uh destroyed basically by the flooding and they're still trying to renovate and give our seniors a place to be and the other thing was a community center for our kids we have children that are in that in between age where they're no longer doing sports and they're no longer doing after school centers and then the middle schoolers who really after friday night skate in sixth grade have nowhere to go so we're we're trying to find a way to build a true community center that would take us from our younger kids all the way through our seniors and they have a website and and anyone who has any suggestions i would ask you to
055go on the website and they would truly appreciate any ideas for the again it's the parks and recreation comprehensive plan just uh quickly i was able to attend the public high school championships for his girls swimming up in ithaca so uh i'm not that much of a swimming fanatic i'm a i'm a dad fanatic so i was proud enough to be able to go there my daughter swim it's great watching white plains and all the other kids just do their best and you look on the wall of that ethical pool and you see some really impressive people uh swam in that pool and there's a lot of talent in new york and uh just a really great event so i'll try to be brief technology has really allowed me to attend like lots of things
056and so i was able to get to the westchester public school boards association legislative advocacy meeting and also their program on understanding and mitigating conflict that was presented by a professor from teachers college columbia teachers college swarthmore college did a presentation on reimagining public education post pandemic a focus on equity and racial justice with distinguished education professor pedro negara and professor joseph nelson of swarthmore i got to a special ed coffee talk i want to give a shout out to east view's veterans day program which pre-pandemic i used to go to every year on the last two years they've recorded it it is moving and browsing and the kids take real ownership of that program it's been very rewarding ridgeway pta meeting um nurse desiree answered lots of questions about health mrs torres and miss
057jackson gave updates really well attended thank you to pta council we heard updates on the new york state pta conference and they are also planning a speaker on a social media for students and parents so we really thank the ptas for everything they're doing high school guidance meeting going to college with an iep and a 504 the guidance really has a department has really put together some wonderful programs for our students there were local colleges that were presenting as well as our own guidance department um the elementary science curriculum i've joined uh their first meeting which was to go over the new york state science learning standards there's another meeting tomorrow i'll be attending um looking at evaluation vehicles so um lots of great things going on in this school district yeah i just i'm
058sorry i just forgot one thing this afternoon dr yen and i attended uh seed meeting at the uh at the high school so seed stands for students seeking educational equity and diversity it is a national program we have a club we have a chapter here and students in a very diverse body of students run the meetings and the guidance of wendy dale i can't remember the other person right now um and they uh they discussed topics that are important to them social topics um political topics and they lead the discussion and they felt it was very important after the november 4th shooting at oxford high school in michigan to have a meeting today and i attended that meeting and it lasted about two hours and um the meeting on the one hand was very hopeful
059because when you listen to students and we have a tendency not to listen to students and not to listen to young people young people the barometers of their time and most of the time we talk at them sort of like the charlie brown want wah if you ever watch that but we need to listen to them because they're on the ground and they're experiencing this and this is their life that was hopeful um listening to them but on the other hand um it was very depressing because it's almost become normalized for them this is part of their high school experience people getting shot by weapons going to school and being afraid having lockdown drills um i reflected that when i was in high school in the 1970s the biggest fears i had was a coach
060yelling at me because i didn't do something right on the ice or whether annie was going to break up with me one of those happened one didn't but anyway um we need to do something about this issue and we need to help kids get through this and all of us get through this and to address this and i just want to thank those kids today who had the courage to speak their truth and that is an amazing thing that happens at white plains high school another amazing thing thank you thank you thank you first thing i'd like to do is welcome our white plains high school liaisons um to speak if you're still here come on up oh i knew you were there give me that out easy uh good afternoon everyone uh we're just
061here really to deliver some good news from all of these schools at the white plains high school school district so i'm going to start off with church street so church street i actually celebrated a computer science week where they learn how to code they learn computer science how it helped the world and how they even had a coding dance party so that's pretty great the fifth grader has also had a zoom meeting with a computer scientist who's using coding to protect the environment they also with the help of fleet donations the 4th and 5th graders are creating double-sided blankets for animals and elderly at local shelters and at an elderly adult bay center second is a ridgeway so they're doing a outdoor celebration as we celebrate the seasons and include families each grade also shows
062a specific day and time where they're putting on a short grade-wide presentation for families classes are meeting outside at the bus loop the sing song and recite poetry families are invited to attend and observe most grades have followed the presentation with hot cocoa shared between teachers and businesses in general should a great way for them to engage with families and school communities also there's a roshan vote uh last uh last thursday roshambol had their quarter one award assembly over the third of the students received various awards like kayano and uh character education awards in general is a nice celebration of our students we also want to celebrate rochambeau's junior and varsity wrestler jonathan uh arana placed fourth in a recent tournament and they are very gotten shambo is gearing up for its annual holiday feast
063which will be held on thursday december 23rd this is just an exciting time filled with great food and great fellowship right before the holiday season begins good evening everyone my name is zyda i am co-president of white plains high school along with alex and again as alex said we're here to share some good updates at mamaronic avenue elementary school this month is kindness month they are learning ways to show kindness to all they had an entire school read aloud of the mitten tree and have a school-wide donation drive hats scarves and mittens collected will be donated to the blitzdale children's hospital in valhalla one student and their family hand-made 121 items this month for the mas principal's corner parents and grades k12 were invited to ela night learning all about our formative assessment tool and
064approaches to reading their band orchestra and chorus are preparing for another magical winter concert it will be recorded and shared for all to enjoy at eastern middle school eastfield faculty staff and students are sharing pictures of family celebrations and rituals for this holiday season as you walk through our school you will see on their tv screens pictures of their students and their families they want students to feel welcomed and affirmed by seeing themselves as part of the learning environment [Music] at highlands middle school on december 21st 22nd and 23rd all students will be participating in a skating trip each team will be spending a half day at eversoul skating rink for our annual skating trip on december 22nd and 23rd east view students will engage in the avid steps to success program it is a
065mid-year program supporting college and career readiness for all 6th grade students the goals of this is to raise student awareness with focus on college and career development it also provides students with exposure to the academic commitments global citizenship and community involvement necessary for the college pathway and it also provides strong and healthy student models for expected behaviors from grades 6 through 12 for college readiness the other day eastern faculty staff and students are sharing pictures of family celebrations i said that already and we have one more update from post road elementary school that we just got in today they celebrated world cultures day on november 19th all students had a chance to visit five countries over the course of the day to learn about the cultures and traditions of others around the world while recognizing
066their own culture they learned how we are different and yet the same thank you to the board of education member charlie norris and dr ricka for visiting us that day our girls on the run team ran a small food drive as our final service project they were able to feed families in need in the post road community we are proud of their efforts on their off on and off the track uh and then of course for uh high school we want a short thank you for mr martinez and dr ricka for their formative and reassuring assembly on school safety and the impact of social media in response to the recent social media disturbances after the officer has pursued this effectively demonstrated the school's prioritization of safety to maintain a healthy learning environment and we are
067currently working with mr martinez on figuring out a way to educate the student body on what signs to look out for amongst our peers that would indicate a potential threat further ensuring the safety of our school thank you again to our administration for acting swiftly and accordingly thank you so much you you make it so that my superintendent supports are like cut in half now you do such a great job with your updates and thank you so much to both of you um you're tremendous students we really appreciate you coming out tonight thank you uh dr yes i just wanted to just throw out one more thank you and congratulations i completely forgot about this weekend's high school pta craft fair and i wanted to congratulate the pta for another great year i went out
068and did some shopping and spoke to some of our long-time vendors who told me it was very well attended this year it was wait great to see everyone come back out they were very happy and all of the money that was raised goes to our senior scholarships so thank you again and congratulations to sandra alexandra and her and her staff and her team i should say i know exactly how much hard work goes into that event yeah absolutely thank you very much well it's funny i i actually i had somebody reach out to me by facebook and say that that doesn't live in my plans i came to the craft fair and said with the craft fair was really fantastic but oh wow was white plains high school big what is white plains high school
069big i said yeah it's it's pretty quick over 19 update numbers are going up nothing that we haven't talked about before we have to continue to be vigilant and continue to make sure that we're watching ourselves and our loved ones for signs and symptoms and uh continue to follow those best practices to try to stem the spread we have seen great turnout at our pop-up vaccination opportunities here through throughout the school district and i want to thank maggie raciopo and our health services professionals uh as well as our community partners for allowing us to have those opportunities i do also have to give a special nod to deb al garten for continuing to champion that work so thanks deb for that as well we will continue to watch we are the process actually tomorrow morning
070we have a meeting with our testing provider and dr shelita amler from the westchester county department of health we're going to be talking in part also about gateway testing when we return after the recess what gateway testing is is a opt-in for children and [Music] colleagues employees in the district following the recess to be able to get a baseline test for anybody who wants to opt in so positive or negative and that would be taking place the week january 3rd and then subsequently the week of january 10th so we'll get that information out to our community so folks who are interested in signing up who are not already part of our testing program we'll be able to do that as well and through the county support and through mount sinai our community partner we have
071the ability if if 100 of the community members sign up in the white plain city school district 100 will be tested so it's it's a great opportunity and folks are strongly encouraged to consider being part of that at following the holiday reasons the importance of doing that is that certainly we're seeing breakthrough infections these days even in people who've been vaccinated so it's important to know and the ability to opt in is wonderful because with most of us being vaccinated which is outstanding you can still potentially be infected and be asymptomatic but by opting into this testing you can find out whether you've been infected and whether you're a potential risk to anyone else absolutely thank you very much dr stein winter weather just a reminder we are approaching the winter not this week though
072um 60s we'll take it and of course we'll keep watching as we go into january and tonight is mas night uh thank you so much mas for being here with us i was i was saying mr janowicz on the way in it's apropos really because i have three um these are my final the three announcements having all pertaining to mas first we have two folks on the agenda this evening that the board of education will be considering for tenure we have uh ta leonardo cappello congratulations [Applause] hopefully all goes well during the voting no i'm kidding but one other announcement barry w grade one [Music] one won a full scholarship to any suny or cuny school when he graduates completely paid for um through the new york state vaccination program rather congratulations to barry maybe
073more so congratulations to barry's mom and dad because that is not a bad piece of news to get at the first grade level so so again congratulations thank you mas for being here with us celebrating this evening and of course a very very happy holiday uh to everybody if you're celebrating merry christmas um and a happy healthy prosperous new year to everyone in white plains thank you very much thank you thank you thank you um next we're on to public participation is there any public participation oh we have someone standing up only kidding [Music] next we'll move on to summary summary action items we have summary action items four through eight yeah have a motion second any questions item by uh donations item b i would like to thank uh we're very grateful for our
074donors we have photography equipment from andrew courtney for the high school photography program uh five thousand dollars from peter borrego for the james a borrego scholarship fund 360 and 43 cents for the white plain substitute teachers association for the james a borrego scholarship fund art supplies from tova ephron for ridgeway school 875 from the friends of white plains public schools for a program at george washington dictionaries for all third graders from the midwest chester elks and safety supplies for agi repair for all the schools thank you very much to all of our donors thank you [Applause] all in favor next we move to individual action items but before we start now i have a motion for an agenda to the agenda for item f um a recognition for michelle of schoenfeld to be named to
075be added as the michelle champion all in favor hi so next on the individual action items may i have um the recommended um that we approve michael champis um for assistant director of athletics the probationary period is uh december 2021 through december 13 2025 assistant athletic director may i have a motion any questions all in favor congratulations i will i will say that mike's former superintendent uh reached out to me a while ago and congratulated us and i love to see that you're already wearing your white plains mask [Music] welcome to the family next we'll go to item b under um individual action we have the recommended approval of the appointment of maggie uh nurse coordinator um district-wide to the pandemic relation position of district covet 19 coordinator effective july 1st 2021 through june 30
0762022 for the stipend of 20 thousand may have emotions second any questions all in favor next we have the recommended approval to appoint michelle schoenfeld to a temporary position to support the district clerk's office january 1st 2022 through june 30th 2022 at a stipend amount of 20 000 payable by monthly may i have a motion so moved second any questions i think we made a fine choice all in favor next item d we have um the recommended uh the recommended um recommendation to vote to elect shelbrady area 10 director of the new york state school board association may i have a motion any questions on do you have questions okay all in favor aye next we have um the recommended action for the board of education of the white plains city school district uh classifying
077the project as a type one action and declares its intent to become legal lead agency for secret purposes may i have a motion so are there any questions well i think we should probably explain what we're doing because we have a timeline issue and we're not necessarily improving a project at this point in time yeah we're absolutely not approving the project right now a project right now but this is the timeline that we need to follow in fact on the 20th monday the 20th we are going to have a special board of education meeting where the board of education will be considering uh potential options for the master plan projects that we have been talking about over the last several months in earnest but really building over the last couple of years so the secret
078process is is really just to get the paperwork started in terms of the the project site work and i see ralph nodding which means i'm on the right track it's always good with council knots right charlie that's gross and i think part of this is again contemplation of replacing of some state of some square footage in some spaces so uh well in doing this we're maintaining our flexibility as a district and we're not compelling ourselves right now to any one decision at this point in time they just want to make sure that's for anybody who's viewing and people who look at these things i want to make sure it's important there's no decisions have been made this just maintains our flexibility in our decision making as we work through a process that we've been working
079through yes thank you thank you thank you for that all in favor next we have item f the recommended action to approve the naming of our boardroom at ed house the michelle schonfeld border may i have a motion so moved back and questions all in favor [Applause] and we're just about um at the end i think we've already had our um board committee reports the human resources uh we met as a board of you know for human resources and we discussed the appropriate topics which are confidential also supported and financed and we have met with our internal auditors and it's all on the website yes rosemary uh curriculum and instruction even though it was reported on earlier for our december meeting when we met in november it was actually after our school board meeting so
080if i may just mention a few things that we discussed uh in our november meeting which is a stem ambassadors program um which is a grant program with mercy college and we have teacher leaders from white plains elmsford new rochelle austin in port chester and terrytown and it's really to create a cadre of stem teacher leaders in best practices and so we're really proud that we have a very large group of teachers participating we had an update on a regeneron program again more stem they have a day for doing good and they actually recorded stem experiments for grades k through five regeneron volunteers did and had stem book read-alouds which were available to our students and then ibm has a science saturday's program and we're able to send 25 fourth and fifth graders to participate
081to do virtual science experiments with ibm researchers thank you okay so thank you again john john shepherd and john the savage thank you you always show up you know in the nick of time for us so we thank you and it's good seeing you uh happy holidays to everyone a happy and safe and peaceful and joyful new year and without further ado we'll see you in the new year may i have a motion to adjourn the meeting all in favor have a great holiday season everyone [Music] you