001thank you for this opportunity um i have been living in clinton for about 14 years now i've raised two children in school districts my son was a 2021 graduate my daughter is now in sixth grade i love this community my kids loved it i invested time energy into my sports here academically the relationships i've built through my business i've been a business in the community for about 14 years also i feel tremendously heartwarming relationships with families all over countless families in this community i've watched her children grow pretty much and i'm now witnessing again with smaller children these children i've watched since they were five and now they're in college coming tonight when they come home on grace so the children of this community have my heart not just my children but every single child
002in this community parents and teachers of this community that's also why i'm here so these three people are the backbone of the school district and that is what my beliefs are and that is what brought me here to run for the school board i feel like i can bring a productive voice to children parents and these impeccable teachers communication and transparency is a must we're lacking that i am going to be an advocate for that for all three of these people accountability from admin administration and i also feel children let's get back to basics that's my then my motto academics is so important socially social things i believe should be left to them and parents and that's what i stand for uh my name is sam tatterson i served on the school board from 2018
003to 2020 and i hope to be elected to represent the community this year my son writer is in first grade and my daughter quinn is in fourth grade uh i'm a 2021 or a 20 2001 graduate of ccs uh i have to create history from ithaca college and a master's degree uh from youth in college uh both in education with a focus on secondary social studies i spent seven years working in a high school in colorado as a campus supervisor during that time i was in charge of health and safety as well as enforcing the student conduct code at school with 1100 students i'm an expert in school security and disciplined practices workflows and work closely closely with the administration team to ensure the best possible learning environment during my master's degree i did observations
004at clinton i also did my student teaching at clinton i had in-depth knowledge of current instructional practices new york state curriculum and guidelines i've built strong relationships with teachers across all of our buildings i believe i have strong understanding of the needs of our students and how we can best address them i spent most of my adult life working with young people from middle school to college age my passion is pushing student athletes to excel in all parts of their lives and i have a track record for achieving that one of my goals is to push our district to excel in the same way as a board member i'll set high goals push our district to achieve them my experiences both in high schools and working at ut university will allow me to bring fresh
005perspective and push our district to be innovative and proactive in our approach to educating our students while all these things make me qualified to be a board a member of the board of education i don't think that's why it's involved for me i think you should vote for me because i've invested in the long-term success of our district in our community my family moved back from colorado this was the only district i considered living in and i'm always working to make it better i'm an aso volunteer coach i was a race director for the ksc 5k my wife serves as the treasurer of the clinton youth foundation i try to help out in any way that i can um when i serve my previous term on the board i consistently ask more questions and push
006for more discussion than any other board member i pushed our court to enforceable policy consistently excuse me sorry hi everyone i'm erica shaw and it's nice to see familiar faces in the audience but i'm also happy to see faces i don't know so that i can introduce myself to you my husband darren who graduated from ccs in 93 and i have lived in clinton since 2006. i have two children in the district one in high school and one in the middle school i received my undergrad degree from hamilton and my master's from su and i currently work as a speech pathologist working with school-age children as well as younger children birth to five i am currently finishing my third term on the board and i truly feel a sense of privilege with the opportunity that
007i've had being on the board as a board member i strive to ensure the district's able to provide the highest quality education to every student in this district as well as working to provide resources and professional development for teachers i believe the overall effectiveness of this board is dependent on its members working together in a respectful and thoughtful manner and i'm motivated willing to listen to different opinions and able to critically think about issues i pride myself in being able to communicate well with others and work as part of the team i do strongly believe in transparency and community involvement yet i recognize that this is difficult with the confines of word governance however i do believe that there is room for improvement there and i look forward to working on new opportunities to allow
008for better communication back and forth between the district members as well as the community i recognize there are fiscal challenges that require thoughtful planning and i'm happy to have been part of the strategic plan or the teams that develop the strategic plans for the district our newest challenge is hiring a superintendent i think that we're in a strong financial and academic standing that will allow us to bring in a really strong candidate and having been part of the process in the past i know it takes a lot of dedication and time and i'm willing to dedicate myself to the process i'm running again for re-election because i feel proud of the things that we've done we've got the district on a very strong track and i look forward to working with the new board good
009evening thank you all for taking the time to be here my name is lisa magnarelli and for those of you i don't know i appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself i have lived and worked in clinton for 22 years i'm originally from syracuse and i'm a 1996 graduate of hamilton college after earning my bachelor my master's degree at the university of south carolina and working for a small school in georgia i return to work at hamilton a place i think of this home my daughter nora is now in third grade at clinton elementary and clinton elementary she attended the clinton early learning center and i'm completing my three-year term on their board of directors i am very proud to call clinton home and love so many things about living in a small close-knit community one
010of the things i value most is the ability to serve and support my neighbors in big and small ways i also come from a family who instilled the importance of public service and public education these are the reasons i've decided to run for school board i'm deeply committed to supporting our school district it's students parents teachers and administrators especially during this time of transition i am excited about selecting our new superintendent and i know this process will require extensive time and effort i look forward to doing the hard work to set the trajectory for the district's next 10 to 15 years and i am prepared for that challenge as someone who is hardworking organized collaborative and motivated i am also a calm and critical thinker with the ability to break down large complicated projects and
011problems into manageable tasks through my work at hamilton as the director of college events i have experience with capital projects logistics and volunteer management i regularly correct collaborate with other departments and constituencies through my work and i pride myself in being able to bring people together these skills will add value to the board of education my name is marie constantino and i moved to clinton with my husband in february of 1998. i was born and raised in rome received my bachelor's degree in art history from suny portland and worked as an art consultant before staying home to raise my children although i primarily been a stay-at-home mom i have worked throughout the years as a personal trainer a natural childbirth instructor and most recently as a community support specialist for the new york state contact
012tracing in michigan together with my husband i helped own and operate two businesses in the village and we have four children three of whom have graduated from clinton and a fourth who's currently in eighth grade since the time my oldest started school here in clinton i've been consistently active in the school community as a volunteer i was co-president and then president of the pta and i'm very proud of all that we were able to accomplish while i was involved at the time that i became active in the pta i had four children in four different schools from preschool all the way through high school it was a struggle managing all of their activities and announcements at the risk of dating myself this was before social media was widely used in a professional setting reminders from
013the school were usually found balled up in the locker of my kids they never made it home i made it a mission on the pta to increase communication between the parents and school i started the pta facebook as a way to do this and not only increase the communication but as a way to engage families i speak so much about my time with the pta because i believe it highlights a lot of who i am and what i can bring to the table i'm open and friendly i love to work alongside others for the good of a common goal as a parent i've been through all the grade levels and have a pretty good sense of the challenges at each stage and i'm still in the trenches with a middle schooler about to be a
014high schooler i'm efficient and organized i'm an effective communicator and a team player thank thank you the first question i i think that some people felt a little rushed with this that the next question i'm going to ask is almost follows up on what you've been talking about we're going to start the second person with sam so that it wasn't always mary kay that yes i have to answer because she doesn't think about it a little longer and we'll keep moving so the question is what has motivated you to run or to continue to serve us for um well i just want to thank you it was little extra time and i will actually reference my earlier statement when i was on the board uh during my last term i pushed our board to enforce
015school policy consistently uh i'm unafraid to voice an opposing perspective and i'm willing to vote no on items i don't agree with i believe it's my job to be a voice of our community and ask questions if they want to know the answers to as a board member i will push our district to do their business publicly as required by law i know that my perspective on the board will make better decisions will better represent our community um well i'm seeking re-election i've had the opportunity to obviously be on the board for a while and the ability to work with a group of people and impact the school in a manner which doesn't obviously just help my own children but all of the children and the children in the district as well as the teachers
016has been amazing and i would like to continue that but also i have taken a lot of time as a board member to educate myself on how to become an effective board member and going through educational opportunities and being able to bring some of those ideas back to the district and that's been really important to me so i would like to continue that and i also think at this point we're at a you know a crossroads are not a crossroads but at a very important time in our school history when we're going to be hiring a new superintendent and i think it's really important that we hire someone who can support the mission and vision of the district but also bring to the table some innovation and maybe some ways that we can improve transparency
017and communication that may have worked elsewhere that we haven't considered before so i look forward to that as part of the growth i am very interested in running because i like everybody at this field i think have a vested interest in the success of our schools like i said i have a daughter in third grade so i would like to be involved in the development and implementation of our district's mission and goals how are we assessing those goals how are we reaching are we reaching those goals are i think one of the biggest priorities i imagine this will be a question coming up but i think one of our biggest priorities needs to be selecting a superintendent and that's as much getting somebody interested in coming to our district as it is recruiting somebody we've
018got to sell them on on wanting to be here as well so i'm excited about that process i also agree with what has been said about increased communication i think covid was really hard for i would say everybody in this room and i started attending board meetings virtually and i think that is something i would like to see continue i would like access to board meeting and information be more available to the community i am running because being a parent in this district for so long i've had the privilege of seeing the change changes that the district has gone through evolving priorities different sets of challenges that need to be met and i'll be very honest i've been interested in running for a very long time i finally feel i have the time to do
019it i have less children at home and i can devote time to this to fully take this task on i think that as i've always been a very involved parent kovit allowed parents into the school in a way that they never were before and i think that we need to run with that we need to go with that we have parents that are engaged and want to be involved and want to be more a part of it and we need to go with those changes and figure out ways that we can allow that to happen and i um like lisa i'm all for virtual access um assigned a petition circulated a petition with over 200 other parents that believe um accept virtual access to all meetings should be something that's in our near future and
020i just would like to be part of this team and work with a great group of people for the betterment of our district like bernie i'm also a stephen parent the administration of the school pushing curriculum without parents consent was my number one reason why i started going to work meetings because i never thought that it was important i trusted the school district was doing the right thing for our children never had to worry so that prompted me to start coming to work coming to board meetings i've noticed then i started noticing the lack of compassion the lack of communication compassion to parents that were coming out expressing their concerns about these situations that have occurred this year and it disappointed me because i'm a parent here and my daughter is only in sixth grade
021and i do not want to leave this community i love this community i love all the parents the teachers here i'm not going to get we're not going to get better anywhere else and that's why that's why i'm writing again children parents and teachers are my concern i want to work with a school board and with a superintendent with administration to make sure every single student doesn't go unnoticed is accepted and the teachers need to be heard that needs to start okay the next question i'm going to start with this time is what do you see as the most pressing issue to the district in the 2223 school year first and foremost i think the hiring of the new superintendent is the biggest focus for us going forward the way that the school district is
022set up the person who is in that role is the leader of the school the board sets the vision and the mission and the goal is to follow that but that person is key for directing the administrators below them and making sure that all those goals are being met so i think that that's crucial for us as we're looking toward what everyone here has said in terms of improving our curriculum for our students so that we continue on a good path but also improving communication that is something that you know can be a goal for the board that we set forth but it has to be implemented also going down so i think hiring a superintendent like i said earlier who is highly qualified eager to follow in the footsteps of what we have developed
023but also bring to the table innovation and new ideas is really a critical thing for the district thank you as i mentioned moments ago i i agree that the the most pressing issue uh is recruiting and hiring a superintendent for many of the reasons that erica shared uh for me personally i think another issue that uh i mean i believe the district is looking at this i would like to be part of the solution is how how are our children recovering from the pandemic i think remote learning i'll speak for myself was very difficult as a single parent it was very it was hard hybrid was hard have our children lost anything are they deficient in any areas are we assessing that i think it's really important to know where we stand so that we
024are sure that they are appropriately that they have the appropriate support and resources they need moving forward um the same superintendent the search for the superintendent is first and foremost that's the biggest priority um i also believe covered recovery in all aspects making sure that our students needs academically socially emotionally are being met i know that um there's work that will be working with me bringing in new social workers and doing all kinds of different i was reading through the um the budget notes and where we want to put our focus as far as meeting our students needs emotional needs mental health issues i think those are huge things that we need to focus on the school environment that we left before coded is very different than what we have returned to and our kids
025are facing a lot of challenging things that are new to us as well and so i think if we can put have some support things in place we have to address this vaping issue it's all over the country it's seeping into our community and we need to address it we need to have some forums to talk with our students and the parents and educate our community on what's happening and how our kids can stand up to this and lastly also i believe in open more open communication and transparency those are definitely two areas that we can work on sure what do you see as the most pressing issue to the district in the 2223 school year like everyone here superintendent main primary i would love to be a part of that changes is what we
026need and um communication is amazing that's lagging in the location um just proposing maybe a communication specialist in the school i know when people have reached out and mentioned that that is key um like marie said the vaping thing is i'm holding a very depressing issue with me i have kids in the high school and like i said my daughter's middle school baby is going on all day every day in the bathrooms it's going either unnoticed or ignored and it's a serious issue um especially stemming from our february issue where we had students on campus under the influence and also too i have a concern about the mental health issue that's in just society today starting with our children and they're limiting social workers on campus and i don't agree with that so that's going
027to be one thing that is going to be something that's important to me i guess i'll echo everyone obviously our district finding to be superintendent uh is a super important part for us to move forward uh in a positive way i can say i'm pretty confident our district with the history we have with the academic success we have the resources we have we will find a great superintendent i think it's a very appealing job and i think a new superintendent can push us forward in a great direction that kind of will also echo what some of my other candidates said i think our focus has to be on the students improving outcomes for them academically socially looking out for their mental health this generation has faced a lot of challenges a lot of challenges and
028we've seen it you know hands-on this year whether it's the vaping issue or other issues um supporting kids challenging them finding ways to improve you know i don't think it's so much getting caught up from covet as much as it is pushing this district to be the best district could possibly be when i went to clinton we thought of ourselves as being the best school district and i think that has dated someone and i think now it's time to raise our standards to support our teachers to support our students to address the problems that we have and to be willing to acknowledge them if you move our district forward in a positive way okay the next question is what do you see is the strategic role of the school board in maintaining a quality level
029of ccs education thank you well i think the role of the school school board itself is strategic it is the entity that sets the the goals and the mission for for the whole for all of our schools it's not operational it's not day to day it is higher level so i think setting goals academic goals i think making sure our teachers have the right resources and support they need to help our students make those goals meet those goals i think it's the board that sets that sets that standard for the district i agree with lisa i think the goal of the board overall is to oversee the district and make sure that we are upholding our vision statement and our mission statement we're all working towards the common goal we have input from our stakeholders
030that we actively discuss and talk about and take into consideration i think it's very important for the board to be aware of the stakeholders perception of the board and work to make sure that it is seen as something open and transparent and working with the community to achieve our goals we need to oversee the district's affairs personnel and properties and again make sure that our teachers feel listened to so that our they come to school every day where they need to be so that our students are the best that they can be i think our question is role of the school board to maintain a quality level of ccs education so communication with parents and teachers is that's seriously lacking the meetings that i've been to i've seen parents you know attacked by the sport
031and when when when is it not appropriate to get teachers recommendations they're actually in the classroom teaching our children for some reason they're either their comments aren't welcome at board meetings or they can't i think that there has to be some something set in place where we're getting teachers input on their daily activities and functionality in the classroom and the communication it goes back to that we have a serious communication problem between administration teachers and parents and if we fix that i think we'll move forward i mean i think the role of the board is accountability uh we have very clear policies that we need to follow uh over the past two years we've seen policies not followed and it's resulted in problems for our district it's resulted in uncomfortable situations it's resulted in concerns
032from our teachers it's the job of the school board to oversee what the administration is doing to set goals to set policy and to make sure that those policies are followed if anyone has followed the school board and attended school board meetings we've heard a lot of complaints a lot of concerns how we react to those concerns is important i want to be an advocate for this community and when i was on the board people constantly reach out that's what i want our board to do to listen to people and we won't always be able to make all people happy all the time but we have to treat our community with respect we have to take their concerns seriously and we have to be willing to address them and i go back to them we
033have to follow our policies and too often this board will ignore policies that are inconvenient for them and use policies they like as excuses to not take action if we want to ignore policy to help our students and help our taxpayers sure maybe that's okay we can't do it to help our administration um so i'll second a lot of little pieces that people have said with the board being strategic you know our job is not operational and that took a little bit of a learning curve on my end because when i first joined the board i certainly wanted to be somebody that could bring stuff to the board and make all these big changes but the way it works really at the end of the day is we do need to listen to stakeholders and
034we need to listen to the community but that comes back to a group discussion with the superintendent the administrators and how can we implement that into goal setting and then i think the biggest way that we as a board can support the district is to provide the resources to make those things happen so we can ask the teachers and administrators to do a bunch of things but if we don't as a board prioritize those and then make that focus of the budget then we're really asking for something that just we're setting up for failure and i think as a board that is one of the things we've worked very hard to do um i think in terms of the policy i i think policy is important and i was chair of the policy committee years
035ago and i think one of the biggest things we realized is there were policies we were not aware of and we made it a point to cycle through and really review all of those policies so i do agree i think that we have accountability for that and we need to continue with that going forward but i guess i just want to reiterate that we are not on the ground and we are not the people that know the day-to-day stuff but we are responsible at the end of the day and i take on that responsibility um okay this is the last question that we have hopefully people have been writing some questions on those cards to the board of education i know that i will bring enthusiasm a hard work ethic i have already been reading
036manuals and searching online and educating myself on the things that i'm i'm not as well versed in so i will bring a work ethic to work together with the rest of the board and the administration to learn everything that i can and do my very best i will be committed i will be open and honest i will be open to hearing other community members thoughts and bring them to the board i will be a voice you can count on me to be a voice i think i always have been in this community i think people that know me know that i will stand up for them i will go to bat for someone and i will speak out even if it makes me a little unpopular so you will have my commitment that i will
037take this job seriously and bring with it everything that i have supporting my students my parents and the teachers i can't say that enough i just what i've witnessed this year with parents i my my heart goes out to them and also of a lack of communication from teachers um so what i'm bringing to the board is obviously working with the board with the superintendent i'm not working for a superintendent and i'm not working for the board but i want to be into i want to bring my voice my views my heart to this hopefully have some debate one thing i've noticed about going to board meetings it's all one kind of mind um one voice the superintendent the board okay um there has to be some sort of debate some sort of disagreement maybe
038advocating for different types or a diverse community your diverse parents having just a different voice on this board than the status quo and what is best and i believe that i can be a little different i have i want to see if i want to stand up and i want to just make my voice heard for the children for the parents and the teachers and hopefully come to a conclusion with everyone so that we can all possibly run this district uh i think i bring passion support i care about kids i care about our community like i said earlier this is the only community i want to live in this is the only community i wanted to raise my kids i think i can make our district better if you want to look at what
039i did when i was on the board i'm the person who's willing to ask the uncomfortable question i'm what he's willing to say are we following this policy are we acting in the best interest of our students or our teachers when i was on the board there was a lot more discussion there was a lot more debate and i was willing to put in to vote no on items i didn't agree with we haven't seen any no votes in a year we have seen lots of serious issues we haven't seen any serious discussions in board meetings we need to push our board to advocate for this community for all parts of it for different voices and we need to hold our district to our policies to you know when we say oh we didn't even
040know our policies that's why we didn't follow them that's a pretty serious problem i read our board agenda for tonight on our board agenda tonight we have a recommendation for hiring from our assistant superintendent our board policy clearly states our superintendent must take all hiring recommendations so this very night we'll see our board vote on a recommendation that does not follow policy there's no additional policy there's no explanation for why that should be done we should be following policy and we'll get to see our board both i think it's very likely they'll vote all yes on a recommendation that doesn't mean policy follow your policies that's what people expect people trust um well i'll second what mary kay said you know i think as a board member we do not work for anybody we are
041not even as an individual an entity it has to be the board as a cohesive unit so i agree with that and also sam's passion for the community i also when i moved here this was the only place my husband and i wanted to live i feel strongly having students in the district and having plenty of friends who have students in the district that we need to do the best that we can for our students but i think in terms of coming to the table i am a critical thinker i believe i work well with groups i do ask questions i you know even though those might not be out in public and every question doesn't have to be a question that is you know asking something or to get somebody to say something out
042like sometimes i'm just out of curiosity asking questions but i think at the end of the day i love this community and people who know me know that i care about the students in this community and i hope to also bring my experience to the table i've been through the superintendent search before so i hope to bring a little bit of that to the rest of the group who has not been part of that and i just thoroughly enjoyed working with the board and i hope to bring that enthusiasm i will bring 22 years of professional skills to this role i am well versed in collaboration organization teamwork these are things i can bring these are qualities that i that i bring to the table i never do anything halfway i will do my homework
043and i will work hard but i think most importantly i care and i will listen i think those two things are very important i think there is lots of room for a for respectful disagreement amongst the board and within the community when we're having conversations about tough and important issues and i think to erica's point i think there should be robust debate about items that are brought to the board but at the end of the day the board needs to come together and support the mission of the school district from the audience excuse me could you speak up we can't hear back here okay thank you the question that i'm going to read is how do you as a board plan to deal with the with ensuring a positive educational experience for often marginalized students
044people of color lgbtq students of different ethnicities etc um so when i decided to run for the board i made sure that i reached out and i spoke with teachers and at all of the three buildings multiple teachers i spoke with parents i spoke with community members and i asked some of those questions and what i learned is what i have known as a parent but i believe and i have seen it demonstrated we have very culturally responsive teachers i believe that our teachers work very hard to make every student feel valued feel recognized and feel supported in the classroom even outside of the classroom we have students that or we have teachers that live in our community and interact with students on a regular basis whether they run into them at the nomos or
045in the grocery store or something so i think that we can continue that we already have a good track record of that and we can continue to build on that utilizing some of these mental health and emotional health resources that we've been talking about i've been hearing them talk about bringing in and starting up i think we could continue to build on what we already have and i do think our teachers do a wonderful job of making every student feel acknowledged supported and recognized it's my belief that every single child deserves acceptance no matter what their beliefs or views are i agree with worry i can't speak enough about our technical teachers and i know they are doing what they can do with limits to protect their children from bullying um and to be accepted
046it's my view that as a community and as parents this is something that starts with home teaching your child to be deceptive of other people and not looking at them because they look different or judging back because of that and it does start at home in school i believe we're not holding kids accountable for poor behavior also to i am all about having assemblies and workshops about these issues with parents consent and within reason and being inappropriate bullying is a huge issue with me i hope that dear to my hair i have very good friends in this district that are suffering with their kids with that and it's a serious issue and it's not just one group of children it's any child that is different it doesn't matter who they are what their family is
047that's what's happening so um just advocate i mean i can't make promises that things are going to change overnight but i want the chance i want the chance for me to advocate for all of you and your children how do you as a board plan to deal with ensuring a positive educational experience for often marginalized students people of color lgbtq students students of different ethnicities etc you know i'll say in my experience as a student at clinton a long time ago as a coach at clinton a few years ago i think we do have an inclusive school i think our teachers are teaching the right lessons and are modeling the correct behavior and i think we have to empower them to do that more i know when i was coaching track here we had openly
048gay students on our track team who were 100 accepted and valued just like any other kid uh you know diversity is an issue that you know it's tough to really work on and you know clinton's one of the few communities anywhere that actively works on diversity by having the abc program i think in the district we have to support that and do anything we can to grow that program to increase our diversity in our school but ultimately i think our teachers do a great job of that i don't think it's necessarily been modeled at the board level as well as it's been modeled by our teachers i as a board member you know will model that behavior inclusive uh language uh treating everyone with respect acknowledging concerns um and pushing our district to be better
049in every way can but i think this is honestly an area where we're actually pretty strong and if we continue to get stronger and if we put uh you know our support right our teachers there i think you know we can be great there um i'll kind of go piggyback a little bit off of what sam said in terms of like some of the other candidates you know i think we have a really strong teacher base um but i also believe that um you know as a board that our role is to provide some of the resources to continue giving teachers the support that they need to teach not just about diversity but allowing for everyone in the district to feel included so that doesn't just come from um you know who we see in
050on a school campus but i feel like it really comes back a little bit to the curriculum and what we're putting into our curriculum for diversity and the state does have standards that we have to follow for diversity equity and inclusion and i think that that's an evolving thing for the district as it is for many but um i think the comment about you know everybody in the district feeling acknowledged and supported is key and in order for our students to feel that you know it's connections with teachers but it's also seeing people like yourself in the material that you're reading hearing about stories about people that you can connect with knowing that there are other students or faculty that identify with you so even in high school having um the gender sexuality alliance that
051allows for some of that connection you know i think all of those things play into it but i think this is an area that we need to continue working on it's always evolving and i think as a board we support that have supported it but we would like to continue moving forward i don't think there's any one thing that the board can do i think it's lots of different things i think it's hiring practices i think it's curricular i think it's professional development and support for teachers i think it's school and community advocacy social and emotional programs i think it's representation i think ultimately our resources accessible for students to show up fully and with dignity and sometimes that support and and those resources may not look the same for all students so figuring out
052what students need and i don't know that it's the role of the board to go out into the schools to make those determinations but to make sure that teachers and administrators are equipped to do that work so that the board can make the resources the funding the positions the social work support available to those students there's a couple of very similar questions here are you ready to keep your eyes open to questionable curriculum such as those with critical race theory components and sex education for k-3 that the state may be pushing a curriculum without parents consent or knowledge is wrong i don't agree with that so that's something that you all need to know um um i'm pretty familiar with the way our state creates and distributes curriculum you know our teachers teach curriculum it
053comes from new york state and i think they do a great job doing it there aren't any massive changes to the curriculum it just doesn't happen that way you know common core was it was it was a big change it required a lot of education for our parents and for our families and now honestly it's kind of a normal part of the educational process you know buzz words like critical race theory aren't going to change the way our teachers teach the state isn't going to come down with any sort of significant changes and i think we have to put our faith in our teachers to teach the way they know how to teach um i have direct connections to our entire high school social studies department and i had was asking questions about this before
054i think they do an incredible job teaching uh the history of our country the country teaching critical thinking teaching how to look from different sources and look at different ideas um i think our curriculum is very general and as a board and truth like we don't set the curriculum that doesn't come from us and we're obviously not qualifying to do that um i will second some of that i mean that is not the role of the board to decide on what the curriculum necessarily entails because a lot of that is directed by new york state but i think the buzzword of critical race theory um there isn't as far as i'm aware no k-12 school that does it this is very much a higher education theory i my personal view is that we need to
055follow what the state is you know telling us we have to do but when it comes to our students and we listen to the community making sure that we fall in line with all of those pieces but at the end of the day when our teachers are teaching about what happened during the civil rights movement and where our history of our country has developed those are really important things and the state has prioritized those so i think as a board we support that and in terms of having my eyes and ears open i think we're all on the board always willing to do that whether or not it's something that the board can always change or address is a very different story and whether or not it is something that um we could do but
056the k3 thing um yeah i understand big changes don't happen fast and i think we can all in this room agree that sex education at that level is probably not appropriate and if it was going to be discussed it wouldn't be about sexual material it would be more gender related is how i feel i agree with what erica and sam have said i think our curriculum is well established will i have my eyes and ears open for sure um but i don't think we're in danger of critical race theory becoming part of the k-12 curriculum it's not a thing so i want to make sure that we are in line with new york state standards i think some very smart people who are qualified and trained in developing curriculum are making these decisions and i
057don't have more expertise than they do in this area so i i support what teachers and administrators in your state brings as i have to agree also sam and i had lots of conversations about this and we talked about it and he educated me more fully on it i feel that again i'm trying to educate myself on how much influence the board has with that versus what is mandated by the state and it comes down to for me that um i would not be comfortable with anything that is inappropriate eight you know not age appropriate for our students and that being said any new changes that may be coming down the pipeline i think if we can just keep the lines of communication open between the the parents and the board and the community i
058mean i remember um our daughter was in kindergarten when common core came in and everyone was up in arms over the common core and nobody knew how to do anything about it and the school offered workshops and as a parent i went to a workshop and i learned mrs stiltz told me what subitize meant so i learned the terminology and the language and how to help my child with their homework so that's a huge thing that i'm a big advocate of and if things do start to change i don't know if they will but that would be my my hope that we keep everything open we keep talking with our parents and our community and we keep educating the adults along with the children because it's new for all of us the next question is
059being part of a board [Music] hearing information regarding personnel matters oftentimes public sees this as hiding information how would you handle being approached in public questioning a board decision about personnel matters i mean the answer for that is very straightforward as a board member you can't discuss things that you've heard in executive session that's that's just a fact and obviously i don't think any any board member would do that although i do think it's happened uh over the past couple of years um what our board needs to do a better job of uh is saying the things they can say in public publicly to putting stuff on the agenda long before meetings so the community can see it not adding these items at the last minute as a surprise to everyone across the board you
060know all respect the privacy of all of our all of our employees and also but honestly in truth i'll advocate for our teachers and for our employees i don't think our board has done that enough i think they've taken the information they've given and said yes to things they shouldn't have said yes to so well of course if i'm approached i'll share any information that i can publicly but the truth is that if i'm behind closed doors i'm going to be asking the critical questions those same questions that those community members are asking me and i think people in this community will know sam asked that question they took action it was with appropriate discussion and appropriate debate um i second that you know there are policies that restrict us from talking about personnel matters
061specifically if it's an executive session with that being said i think one area that we could improve upon with this is maybe specifically identifying a policy that does not allow us to discuss i think sometimes when things happen and the public feels like it happened without that transparency there are things that we could refer back to and that would be something i would want to do but i also feel like you know some of that is trust and people who know me know that i care about this district and the employees that work at this district and when we are behind closed doors or we make a decision that's last minute that it isn't an attempt to cause a stir and and some sort of ploy we make those decisions very thoughtfully we critically think
062about them and we do typically when it involves personnel involve a legal team because none of us are experts in exactly all of the pieces that go into that puzzle so you know i think maybe educating the public on what that process entails without getting into specifics about individuals might be beneficial in the future that's correct i don't know that i have much to add to what sam and erica have said other than i think anything any discussions in executive session involving personnel students legal proceedings union negotiations those are things that just can't leave the board there are policies and procedures surrounding that i agree with erica that there could be more information shared about those policies and about why things can't be shared but i wouldn't want personnel decisions about my employment to be
063shared publicly if it's something that's that's uh being dealt with privately as i'm sure nobody in this room would like that error publicly so i think you communicate what you can communicate and if there are ways to better collaborate with the community to share information we should actually absolutely absolutely do that but there are some things that that the board is limited in discussing um to answer that i'll go back to the statement that i made about the perception of the board i think it needs to be a priority that the board is not seen as secretive or dishonest or serving the needs of the administration over the district if we are able to accomplish that i think that people will trust that the decisions and the discussions that go on behind closed doors are
064in their best interest and in the district's best interest and they will have trust in the board members that they elect to know that they will like sam said ask those questions and be represented be representing the questions that we hear in the community no i would never disclose information that i am not legally able to disclose absolutely not but i think that it wouldn't be a concern if the perception of the board is one of um you know it's open it's transparent and it's working for the good of the school community keeping with policies i've been quite a student studying our palestinian since december so i am aware of board members um it hasn't been that way but again we go back to transparency being open and listening hearing advocating if somebody approached me
065on the street of course i'm going to listen i've dealt with going to board meetings and having board members backs turned towards me you know parents speaking out practically you know it's got a very closed feeling and parents and our community should not have to feel like that um but again like i said keeping with policies you know if i am if i do want to speak on this board i will be following policies um but again i want to hear and i want to listen and i want to advocate at board meetings outside of board meetings and the community knowing my bonus i think we've got time for one more question how do you believe the board of education should respond to parents concerns when they come to you saying their concerns are being
066brushed off last night okay um actually could you read the question again how do you believe the board of education should respond to parents concerns when they come to you saying their concerns are being brushed off by this by so i assume that means the administration um you know i think we have a process in place whether or not it's one that is well received you know as a board because we function as a unit i think that i would respond to that that it has to go to the board president and then we should discuss it now a lot of times the things that have come to us we have discussed and then made information available or what we feel like i mean one of the questions we typically ask somebody is what is
067the resolution you would like because that's part of the conversation so i think if somebody feels brushed off we need to know what is it that you're seeking as a board and then if that is something that we can discuss with them you know if it doesn't involve personnel or a student then that is something that should happen that we should try to work toward a compromise but there are instances where what is being sought by an individual or multiple community members is either not an option or we are doing as much as we possibly can so i think being receptive to that is extremely important and maybe that is you know part of our discussion but the other part i would say is i think we need to develop some sort of forum and
068it's not the board meeting where community members can come and we can have an actual conversation because the board meeting is difficult as a board member not to be able to respond and i don't think it ends up with anybody feeling as though they've been i agree with with erica i think i think there's a misunderstanding about board meetings this is a conversation i had yesterday board meetings are not public meetings board meetings are business meetings that are public and i think that's the difference so there can't be a real give and take necessarily at a board meeting because that's not its intention but are there ways to provide town halls community forums other listening sessions where the board can hear and interact more actively with community members parents teachers that want to come in
069and discuss particular issues i think if somebody came to me with what you're describing i would want to be well versed in the process you know have you have you sought remedy through this process have you gone to the teacher the principal the superintendent whatever that process is and if there's no resolution there then i agree with erica i think it should come to the board for the president for a discussion and a determination um so this is an interesting question because i've actually been on the receiving end of this so i can speak to this first hand i believe that the administration works for the board so if an individual is not getting a response it is up to the board to remedy that and it's not necessarily statements made at a board meeting
070because we certainly understand that the board cannot respond at those board meetings but there are emails that go unanswered there are phone calls that are have sort of a run around feel to it there are lots of different scenarios in which stakeholders in this district are not having their concerns answered to and i feel very very strongly again i've been on the receiving end of this so i know what that feels like and i feel very strongly every email every written statement every phone call every question deserves the respect of an answer it may not always be the answer that you're looking for but an answer a response and a willingness to work together to solve the problem or work together on a solution for the issue that is what a respectful board member in
071my opinion does we talk a lot about respect but respect is also answering an email answering a phone call not letting these concerns go unanswered months after months [Music] when you have a board working for the appropriate parties which is students parents teachers and not each other and the superintendent only we can't advocate i don't want to hear that things can't be done and there's limits i will find a way because that's where my passion is the interaction i witness interaction from the board to the community to parents because of something they weren't they were listening to that they didn't like i witnessed it i was there i have it on video okay so i don't want to hear the board can't interact maybe you're not supposed to but again policy has been broken so
072that's okay but we can't interact in a positive manner there has to be a way that we can interact in a positive manner if we can interact in a negative manner and lash out at parents because we don't like what they're saying there's a positive way that we can get this done verbally uh following up with parents when they come with concerns the president just an email hey during the meeting next meeting we're going to discuss this we're going to have an executive session i don't care what needs to be done when a parent comes in tears and is expressing their concerns it needs to be addressed not brushed under the carpet and i assign victims of us to share too even making proposals about the incidents that have happened let's learn let's use these
073things as learning tools the vaping into that let's have an assembly about that so i don't want to hear that the board can't interact because there's a way and if there's a way i will find it um yeah i i think i have to echo um marie uh and mk here as well um my experience getting involved in the board was being a community member who presented my concerns directly to our superintendent it didn't involve my family involved my role working here and concerns that i saw about the way our students were being treated i brought those concerns and for a year i got no reaction my next step was to come to the board and bring those concerns to the board the reaction i got was a meeting with the superintendent and the board
074president showed up to tell me that i was wrong and that my experiences weren't true that that was their response and i think that's kind of the response parents have gotten you get kind of nice okay yeah we'll look into it and then we don't take action you know i i don't ever need to hear it's a private meeting in public it's not a public meeting anymore it's our jobs the board to represent the community yes there are let me slowly ignite interact but as everyone pointed out our border will interact negatively and will attack our community we'll shout it community members for them raising their concerns we need to take concerns seriously and i will say this school boards can bring individuals into executive section to hear their concerns about administration our board has
075always refused to do this how can you speak openly and honestly without the opportunity to interact with the board we could have done that any time over the last four years and we when i was in portugal we could never bring someone into executive session other school boards do it all the time it's a fully accepted practice if you don't want people to come to the board meeting and raise their concerns publicly give them the opportunity i will say this i know that i'm out of time this year i raised my concern about something that happened to my daughter and i reached out to our fourth president repeatedly that president refused to meet with me and it was about actions of board members there's no one else who could meet with me they flat out
076refused and that is what our board will do sit quietly yell back we have to take the swim seriously so we're going to take a short break because we have to move some furniture [Music] wow tonight and i appreciate everybody's thoughtfulness um i will say that our school district needs thoughtful and careful planning there are state requirements we have to follow there's finite funding so we have to be good stewards of our taxpayers money we have to be creative thorough and systematic in allocating resources and we also have to be transparent with the community to the extent that we can be i believe our school district is on solid financial footing and is academically sound which is a good foundation on which to build and i hope to contribute to the next phase of growth
077and progress for our school district i would like to thank everyone that came out tonight and for all the thoughtful and important questions i hope i did my best to answer them in a way that allows you to see that i'm qualified to hold a seat on the board of education i will work very hard to carry out our district's vision and mission statements and i will strive to always live up to the high standards of respect honesty and transparent communication i'm just going to finish from my opening right out of time i'm efficient and organized i'm an effective communicator and a team player i believe that i have the skills necessary to build strategic partnerships throughout our community create and implement a shared vision for our district maintain strong ethical standards and help create
078a healthy environment for work and learning thank you thank you for coming this opportunity honesty and i can't say it enough i'm here to work for your children i'm here to work for my fellow parents and the teachers i love all of you i have relationships with teachers i want clients that are clients of mine i love this community and i will be productive but i'm going to bring something a little different and it's a voice and it's an opinion and it's a different view obviously i think that you can all see that tonight with a few of the other candidates and we need that it's 2022 let's get real things are different our kids are changing culture's changing you know we speak about all this diversity but we don't have any diversity on our
079school board and i think that's important so um again thank you for the opportunity and hope to see you soon um i'm really excited in the direction our district is taking we have a great opportunity to hire a great superintendent at our meeting later tonight i think we're going to approve two new great administrators who look like they're going to be great hires who can take our district in a really positive direction and our district is going to get at least two new board members this year and potentially three this is an opportunity for our district it's an opportunity to move past the space we've made in the past to be open to be transparent we've heard everyone say transparency but i don't think people really know what that means i will make sure that
080this board is transparent i will make sure that we do our business publicly um and i will represent the community that that's why i'm here i've said i'm invested in this community for the rest of my life and if i don't win school board this year i'll probably just run again next year i'm not going anywhere my kids aren't graduating anytime soon and i'm invested in their experience and everyone else's um as the only person here who's currently on the board i feel an obligation to at least say that as a board we do really work hard for everybody in this district and i am proud of the things that we've done is there room for improvement for sure and i think any organization whether or not it's your not an organization but any group
081your family your business whatever it is if you're not constantly looking at what you're doing and reassessing and seeing how you can make improvements then you're setting yourself up for problems so i do think that we have room for improvement i think i bring to the table the experience but i also think i bring level-headedness compassion and i am willing to ask questions sam served with me we might disagree but i think i'm willing to listen to other sides of a viewpoint and even change my own if somebody comes to the table with certain information that i didn't know and i think that that's key we don't want a whole board that everybody just sits around and says the same thing and even though we vote yes i want everybody in this room to know
082that there is conversation and a lot of times we do agree but that is just because of the way that the systems have been in place and it isn't a negative if we're in agreement but at the end of the day i have students in the district i'm vested in this district but i really feel strongly that this community is amazing and i would be very honored to continue [Music] oh wow [Music] i told [Music] but it doesn't charge while it's on yeah [Music] let's turn it off now and see if it does charge at least it's kind of yeah like a closet and turn off i'm not sure we stopped