001to a public meeting at 8:07. Thank you, Dave. Second. Thank you, Diana. All in favor? I I. All right. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. My apologies for the late start today. Uh, we have a chance for board announcements. I'll lead it off. Uh, field day was amazing. Um, I got to attend the second grade field day and the fourth grade field day. And um once again, it just shows um what what a great job Mr. Jacobs does. Um it's it's really it's the it's the highlight for me. It might be the highlight for the kids, but it it's just such an exciting, exhilarating experience
002even for the crowd. Um is anything else? Uh I did attend field day for the fourth grade which was awesome. A lot of fun. Always is. Um unfortunately the first grade wasn't able to have one but I did attend today's first grade um end of the year party which was fun. And uh also the concerts. I was at the fourth and fifth grade concert and then I did attend the third grade concert yesterday and it was beautiful. And Mrs. She does a great job. Mrs. Green. That's all I have to say. Okay. Um, might as well get this over with. I uh I apologize in advance. I prepared a a speech uh somewhat of a goodbye to everyone. I thought I would just do it and get it out of the way. Um, good evening.
003I would like to start by saying thank you to all the employees of the school district. Everyone I encountered was polite, professional, and accepting. Also, thank you and all the well-wishes that I received and the prayers from my family while we're going through medical emergency. I love this town. I have loved serving this school district over the last three years and I will continue to support it from the sidelines. Um, however, I uh I do need to address some of the negativity I experienced 24 hours before the election. Um, it's hard for me to do this, but I would like everyone to imagine that you're in another country with a loved one in the ICU. People are publicly saying things about you that aren't true. Many of the posts were hurtful, and there was nothing
004I could have done to defend myself or at the very least try and fix the misinformation. Um, one parent decided to put uh my discipline record on Facebook. um friend of my wife, which is ironic, uh for the police department, which I'm not sure what type of bearing that has over a board of ed election, but it's on a website that's not verifiable and usually it's a lot of accusations that are misconstrued. Um that was a tough one explaining to my kids, especially with someone in the hospital. Over the past three years, I've been called a racist cop, a book burner, a bad father, homophobic, intolerant, uneducated, and a Republican puppet. I do not believe that these types of comments and accusations are beneficial in making the district better. Um, specifically to the former board
005of education members, I only ran for the board seat because you wouldn't talk to the parents you disagreed with. Concerned parents are not something to run from, but to listen to. Everyone's opinions matter. On the board, I never posted things on social media that promoted lies or misrepresentations of the other board members. Please be better when next year's election comes around. Diana and Katie have been a wonderful addition to the board, and they deserve better behavior, and they certainly don't deserve to have misrepresentation or to be attacked. Um, to my successor, please make sure you speak with all the parents in the district, even the ones you disagree with. I remember trying to talk to you when I was advocating for increasing school security. Please pay it forward and speak with all the parents. Over
006the last three years, I have actively engaged many people who have different political views than myself. I gave up a lot of my time for phone calls, emails, and sitdowns and coffee shops. The voters deserve the board of education support, and I made sure every person's opinion felt appreciated. Public service has always been important to me. I volunteered to serve my country when I joined the military. I volunteered to serve the city of New York when I joined the police department and I volunteered to serve my community when I stepped up for the board of ed. Nevertheless, now I will be able to spend more time with the family and I think my role as a father is truly the most important job I could ever undertake. Thank you to the voters for trusting me
007over the last three years. I truly believe that I left the district better than how I found it and I trust that the board of education will continue to improve the district. Thank you once again. Um, if I could just speak really quickly. Um, on behalf of myself and trustee Gravino, we want to thank Trustee Sansone for his service to the school board. We wish him the best in his future endeavors. You have been an asset to the board of ed and made a difference in our schools. Thank you. Thank you. And on a just to share on a personal note, um I remember Dave and I sitting down with a couple of they were previous board members and um it was amazing how just getting together made the difference and made each of us
008see each other as humans and not just words on a piece of paper on a screen that could be misconstrued, could be completely wrong, could be Right. Um, and I I definitely think that um, you went above and beyond your call and you you really did the work to cross the aisle. Um, and I I don't think I don't think enough people do that nowadays and you led by example and I appreciate all that you've done. Thanks, Dave. Thank you. All right, on to superintendent announcements. All right, so at the top of my superintendent report, I also want to take this opportunity to thank thank Dave Sansson for volunteering so much time to serve on our school board over the past three years. You've always been supportive of our students and I want to take
009this opportunity to thank you for your service to our school community and to present you with this plaque on behalf of the South Orangetown Central School District. Thank you very much. [Applause] [Music] I also would like to take this opportunity to present this board achievement award to Diana Corbel for uh New York State School Board Board of Excellence recognition program uh conferring uh more than 75 points for your ongoing association professional development and accepting additional leadership roles for 2025. [Applause] So before I get into some highlights from the year in my superintendence report, I I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge one of our staff members, Melissa Jacob, our speech pathologist, who recently completed her doctoral degree in speech and language pathology uh at Kain University with distinction a 4.0 GPA. So Melissa,
010if you would come up, I'd like to present you with a certificate. [Applause] It is with great pride that I reflect on the achievements of our students from this past school year. Our district is home to a 220 2025 National Merit Scholar and five commended students. 34 of our Tapenzy High School seniors earned New York State Seal of Biiteracy with one of these students earning special recognition for triliteracy. Sorry, I'm putting my glasses on. 34 of our Tapenzy High School seniors earned the New York State Seal of Biiteracy with one of these students earning special recognition for triliteracy as I just said. And in just the second year of being offered at Tapenzy High School, the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness was awarded to 28 seniors. We had six Tapenzy High School students
011named New York State Music Association Allstate Musicians, three of whom were invited to participate in the prestigious National Association for Music Education All Eastern Honors Ensembles. This spring, our high school robotics team, Sobots, advanced to the World Championship in Houston for the fourth time in its eight-year history. Four Tapenzy High School DECA members won their way to the state competition and two advanced to internationals. Four Tapenzy High School Youth and Government Club members held statewide offices this year and two were elected to state level positions for next year. In addition, three Tapenzy High School delegates were selected to attend the YMCA National Judicial Competition this summer and two others were selected to attend the conference in N on national affairs. One Tapzy High School Rocklin Bosei CEK student and her team won gold in her
012category at the New York State Skills USA Leadership and Skills Competition earlier this year. And another Tapenzy High School CEK student placed first in the Greater New York Automotive Dealers Association Automotive Technology Competition this spring. With regard to athletics, not only did our girls cross country team win a state championship, but girls track and field athletes Bridget Dunn and Polar Fernandez brought home state championship titles last weekend for steeple chase and triple jump. Thank you. And we are finishing the school year with two regional championship teams and eight section titles, the most in one year in one school year in school history. Congratulations to those. In addition, one team received the section one sportsmanship award and one of its athletes was named as an ambassador to the New York State Student Athlete Conference and nominated
013for the New York State Student Athlete Advisory Council for the 202526 school year. So, we're very happy to have student representation on that. 94% of our varsity teams earn scholar athlete team awards and our athletics department will be recognized as a school of excellence. Roughly 10% of the class of 2025, a total of 22 seniors committed to play a sport at the collegiate level and four of these athletes signed to division one teams. I'm often asked what makes our district so exceptional. It's not the wins. It's not the accolades. It's not the achievements. Although they are a testament to our student and staff's hard work, it's really about character and what distinguishes our kids is really how they've learned to deal with failure and overcome it. Our former athletic director, Dr. Liam Frolley, talked about
014building a program of character and one of my colleagues, an uh Andy D. Dominico recently shared this with seniors at senior awards that Dr. Froley believed that if we instilled good character traits in our kids, everything else would take care of itself on the field. And certainly that has been the case. All of the success of our students and district would not be possible without the support of our board of education, our teachers, administrators, coaches, and families. So, it's been quite a year, a lot of accomplishments, and I wanted to share that uh at the end of this school year. This is our last board meeting of the year. So congratulations to all our kids. Is there any public commentary? No. No. No. No. Okay. All right. Um, so that there was anyone that signed
015up for public commentary, so we can move on to board presentations. No, not tonight. Okay. Quick, I'm missing update. Absolutely. I'm sorry. Dr. Aretta is going to give a a quick reading update. Oh, there's no microphone here. Looks better. Is this on? Um, I just wanted to as we as the last uh board meeting of the year, I wanted to give a quick uh IMSC update and ELA uh review update. Um so as of last Friday uh we have completed our first phase of the IMSC training um and we have trained over 60 members of the William Ocha and Cottage Lane faculty um preparing us to roll out the program K4 in September. Um many of those teachers are are here uh who have been trained. Um so that includes classroom teachers, special ed teachers
016and reading specialists in grades K through four. Um the next phase is to train the fifth grade and our ENL teachers in the fall. Um and we uh will be implementing IMSC in the fifth grade earlier than we had originally had planned. Um you know sometime in the spring semester of next year we will be implementing and then we'll be full K through five um in IMSC. Um just a reminder we're going to continue to evalu our our evaluation of our ELA program, our reading and writing program in the fall. uh looking at other programs. Um the reason that we put a pause on it was to implement IMSE uh we feel that having the experience with IMCE will give us a new lens, a different perspective as we're looking at the uh ELA programs
017and we plan on making a recommendation around budget season um for a new uh ELA program. Um, and then I just the the final thing I wanted to say is uh with having those 60 some odd uh teachers trained, I just wanted to thank every single person who works in William O'Hafer and Cottage Lane. um the administrators who put together schedules um and how to cover classes that we have not seen you know anything like that since I dare say it co um and every single day um all four administrators in William O'Her and Cottage Lane were problem solving and figuring things out to get classes trained um so that the teachers could go I mean to get the classes covered so the teachers could go to the training. Um obviously want to thank all
018the teachers um at William O'Shea and Cottage Lane whether they participated in the training or they did not. It was a team effort and everyone you know kind of rolling their sleeves up and covering all those classes so that um the teachers could attend um the training. So again, whether someone participated in the training, whether they were covering someone's classes, whether they were co co-teers covering for each other, um instructional coaches who also covered classes, secretaries who you know don't get enough thanks uh for for for anything, um obviously played a huge role in helping manage the sk schedules and uh getting the materials to the teachers as they were coming in. Um there was one day uh where uh EMR and an the secretaries of my office had to do home deliveries uh because
019the the materials were late. They delivered it to the teachers who started the training at their houses. Um so it truly truly was a team effort and we've talked we've talked a lot about reading publicly um over the course of this year. Um, but I think the the faculty, the administration, the staff um of William O'Shea Schaeer and Cottage Lane uh need a huge huge pat on the back uh for what they pulled off this year and uh getting everyone trained and then being able to uh to roll it out in in the fall with a new phonics and word study program. Um and so that's kind of just the update and I just wanted to kind of share that and also more importantly is is thank everyone at William O'Hafer and Cottage Lane for
020for getting it done. Thank you very much. And it was a huge lift and we, you know, couldn't have done it with uh without everybody uh rolling their sleeves up. So, thank you. I have a quick question for you. I I I want to say thank you to to everybody, all the staff, everybody that participated in getting what we needed to get done done and ready for the fall. Thank you. I've just out of curiosity, when will we see any type of results as far as the new programs being implemented? When's the first time I guess something quantifiable will come out? Yeah. So, actually uh so Sheila uh and Brian and I have a meeting tomorrow at William O. Schaefer. Um so the things that are kind of like on the the docket, the next
021things to talk about. Um is so now that the the training is there is what does it look like in during the teacher's day? Um and then what type of assessments will we use to to start to measure that? Um and so Sheila and I were just having a conversation. It'll be one of the things we talk about tomorrow. um about how do we how do we quantify that? How do we see that it's working? Um so we have some ideas about looking at you know previous um assessments that we've used and then looking for um if there's assessments that are are better geared to go with the IMC. Is there anything that's statemandated? Is there anything that the state requires before the end of the school year? No, just yeah, nothing as far as
022the uh you know, we'll have to do the the certification by September 1st. Um but uh as far as not as far as the uh assessment piece um so that's kind of like the next thing that we'll be you looking at. So to answer your question I think that we could probably have a board meeting in the you know probably in the middle of the year. We want to get some baseline data very early on and then in the middle of the year and then definitely towards the end of the year kind of to see how it is doing with that group of kids. But that'll be obviously a small sample size. I think the parents would appreciate some type of update midway through just because curriculum change is such a drastic difference. So, I
023think something just to give them feedback of some kind. Yeah, I think it's going to be something that's going to continue to be on our radar, especially as we're going through the ELA. It'll be definitely something that continues to be a huge part of the work that, you know, William O'Shea and Cottageland are doing. Um, and I think the thing that I took away from this was like how invested every single uh teacher and administrator was in this process. um we didn't always agree on kind of like the the route that we should go. Um but I think everybody wanted the the same the same result which is to give our kids the best program. Um and I think you know from what I hearing anecdotally I think the teachers you know felt that the
024training gave them you know the they're they feel equipped to kind of handle that next stage. That's good to hear. Keep us posted. Absolutely. Thanks Rudy. Dr. Aretta, thank you for all the presentations you've given this year. At every board meeting, you've been giving a reading update uh to the public and to the board, and it was a big lift uh for you to pull off, not only u with the ELA leadership team and then all of the staff at William O'Hafer and Cottage Lane. So, dinner table and ELA updates. You have you use the sand, but thank you. Okay. Um can move on to board discussion and committee reports. I have the facilities. All right. June 11th facilities meeting. Um phase one CL and William Oafer. Uh the packing review and coordination between buildings,
025facilities, technology and safety and safety. Um we have phase two at the high school packing review and coordination between buildings facility technology and safety. When I mean by packing I mean packing up the rooms getting it clear and ready to do the work uh over the summer. Then we have the high school nurses suite ADA restroom in the 2025 2026 budget. Proposal is with the contractors for pricing per board resolution on 64. superintendent authorized for approving this change order once final price is determined. Uh then we have phase 2A uh the high school auditorium. Uh the we had a successful bid opening qualified three low biders TPG calling references alternates we have isle lighting close to 100K and they do not recommend replace treads on risers is 20K and it is recommended. We have additional
026theatrical fixtures at 85K and that is also recommended. Then we have facilities committee agrees with the recommendations and TPG to make formal recommendation for the July 8th meeting. Then we move on to the 2025 2026 budgeted capital transfer. TZ school store entry William O'Shea for casework will be scheduled for summer 2027. And we have the 2025 2026 budget capital transfer safety enhancement vendors uh compared and narrowed down for final review. I would just like to add I was sorry I couldn't make that meeting. My son had a soccer practice. But uh I just one last time I like to advocate for the fact that we have great sports programs here but we have limited field access. And I think that in the future this district needs to get another multi-purpose field because there's too many
027teams that are waiting to access that field. Unfortunately, it's going to have to probably be a bond. Um, but I think this is something the school should look forward to in the next couple years of discussion at least. Um, like I said, great sports programs were highly successful, but the the kids need more field access. So, I think that should be a main priority with facilities in the future. I know that uh we spoke great length of that. Um, but I think that that would be one of the next steps moving forward and hopefully we get another another multi-purpose field. Yeah. And just to add on to that, we have a few designs that we looked at with school facilities from uh our architects and we're pursuing some other options, but to your point, it's
028going to require I think uh we have the space. We just need to figure out how to best use it for the multiple sports. And I think that we have a great example in NYAK. They have four large multi-purpose fields. I think that we have the same availability here as far as square footage. And I think we can do that but it has to be done cautiously and we has we have to be aware of costs overall because we are facing some financial issues in the future but I think a bond would be the most approach or appropriate way moving forward. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. All right. Were there any other committees? No. Right. Yes. Yes. Uh we had the uh policy committee. Um I apologize Karen. I'm probably going to butcher this
029so I'll need you in a couple seconds. Uh we had a few uh policies we discussed as far as updating, but there's still um the infy stages, so I won't go into them. Um specifically, I'll talk about the the therapy dog that's going to be discussed tonight and the uh students and personal electronic devices, which I believe we're going to discuss in a little bit. Uh both those policies are going to be read tonight. Um we had an agreement that we weren't going to pass any policies over the summer. We didn't think it was fair to all the parents. So there will be two readings tonight. One of the policies is going to have to be put forward because of a time constraint. It's a New York State law and that's the electronic devices and
030it is a complex policy. So, we are going to try and explain it as best as possible. It's going to be confusing and frustrating for a lot of parents, but please be patient. It is statewide. It's not something that we decided to do. So, we were we're going to have to learn on the fly and try and adjust accordingly. So, are we having both we having two readings for that? So, we'll do Can you pull it up? These will both be read, but this one because it's time. Okay, I understand. So, just really quick for the public uh at home and and for the board and everyone as Mr. stand just explained uh during policy committee, we typically do not adopt policies over the summer, but we are making an exception and it's because uh
031New York State Education Law section and uh requires us to adopt the policy by August 1st. So, we'll be doing that uh over the summer. the goal of the policy, which we've already done. Um, you know, as a district, we've taken uh a lot of steps in all of our schools to to really make sure that our kids are focused in school and on instruction and not distracted by devices. So, we feel like we're in a very good position uh across the district. And the goal is to reduce distractions, support student mental health, and enhance academic engagement. So, here's just the timeline. This law actually went into effect May 9th, 2025. We're having our first reading tonight. We plan on adopting the cell phone policy uh over the summer and we have to do it
032by August 1st. So, it would be at the July 8th board meeting or sometime before August 1st. These are the devices that are covered. I'm not going to read it all. It's on the slides. And we already have protocols in place in our schools for storing devices. And then here are the exceptions. And I think this is where parents are going to be most interested to know that while we have this uh policy and law in place, there are exceptions um for when students uh will need to have access to electronic devices, cell phones, and so on and so forth. And then this policy will align with uh New York State School Board's policy 5695 regional school districts and adapted to also meet our instructional vision. Just just one last thing on that. We did
033uh also talk to other districts around the county and in the lower Hudson because we want to try to just be consistent with our policy and the language so we're not just doing this in a vacuum and in isolation. That's it. Thank you. Okay. So, um policies for review policy 5695 students and personal electronic devices first reading. policy 4605, therapy dogs first reading. Um, anything else discussed on those? Uh, no, I just wanted to explain the therapy dog uh policy to the public. Um, this has been in the works for quite some time. I think this is a great example of different stakeholders coming together and this is going to be a fantastic addition to our district. Um, we have made sure that we have uh covered ourselves from a legal standpoint. Um, this isn't
034going to be any cost to the district. Um it's essentially going to give children an outlet um with anxiety, stress, etc. to um come face to face with a dog that is trained to deal with these types of situations. And I think that our kids since co can use all the help they can get. And this policy, I'm so glad to see that it went forward. I don't think we're going to have any push back on it. I think it's going to be a wonderful addition to the district and I'm going to love seeing the photos in the next year. Excellent. Uh, and I was just going to reiterate on electronic devices. I know we just talked about it great length. I just want to reiterate one last time, please be patient. This is a
035statewide mandate. Please be patient. We're trying to do the best we can with it. The policy that was already in place was, I think, a very decent and fair policy, but now we're mandated by the state. So, there's certain things we have to do. We don't have any leniency. So, please be patient with us. And like I said, it's it's going to have to adjust on the fly with it. So, thank you. Okay. All right. So, we'll be we'll be adopting that one at the next one at the next meeting. So, um discuss So, we have board discussion on the agenda items. Um and we have the one addendum that I have to read. So, I'll if we don't have any discussion, then I can go right on to the add agenda. Yeah, I didn't
036get a chance to read the Okay. So, motion to make any changes to the agenda. Superintendent's office consent agenda addendum. Resolution to appoint impartial hearing officer. Resolve that the board of education hereby appoints Vanessa Grandbach from the state education department list of individuals who may serve as impartial hearing officer effective June 17th, 2025 for the purpose of conducting an impartial hearing involving case number 65394. Okay. Do I have a motion? Motion. Thank you. Sorry. Second. Thank you for the second, Dave. All in favor? I I. All right. And then we have uh the motion to approve amended consent agenda categories 8 through 12. Motion. Thank you, Diana. Second. Thank you, Dave. All in favor? I I All right. Excellent. Uh any new business? You good? All right. Once again, Dave, thank you so much for
037your service. I appreciate everything you've done, man. Motion to adjourn the meeting. Oh, Dr. Sorry. Oh, yeah. One more thing. Here he comes. One more. Here he comes. Save the best for last. I don't know about that. You're probably right. Uh, good evening, Board of Education. I just want to make sure that we rec recognize a number of individuals who are here this evening for comparative tenure. Um, I can't see above the first row, but I did try to take notes before the meeting. I think we have Brian Galvin here, assistant principal. William O'Hafer, Caitlyn Baker, Mystery Elementary teacher. Allison Birdie Elementary. [Applause] This is the second time receiving tenure in South Orangey Chevri. Greeting. Yikes. Stacy Costic Elementary. Second time receiving tenure in South Orangetown. Joe Napoli. Melanie Non, special education. Annconor, English speakers
038of other languages, South Orangetown Middle. Victoria Conway, world languages. Sam Cordone, special education. Shaina Eron, school psychologist. Kim Pasano, special education. Shannon Freyer, elementary. Jenny Graziano, school psychologist. And Marie Scott, social worker. Seromi Verky, English speakers of other languages. Ashley Javier, teaching assistant Crystal Carion, special education, and Kelly Walsh, special education. Conferral of tenure is the culmination of three to four years of hard work in South Orangetown. are super proud of our teachers who've developed fantastic relationships with our students, amazing classroom environments, and they're are very exceptional pedagogical um leaders. Um we're going to be recognizing you next fall. We'll have a ceremony with with some nice beverages, some snacks. We'll have some more words to share about you. Um so sit tight and have a wonderful summer. Congratulations on receiving tenders. Congratulations, everyone. That's
039the way to end a meeting. Thank you everyone. Motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:41. Motion. Thank you Diana. Second. Thank you Dave. All in favor? Hi. Thank you.