001e good evening everyone and welcome to the April 9th uh Board of Education meeting calling the meeting to order we have a tobacco policy in place there is no smoking within 100 feet of any school building please rise for the pledge district clerk will you please call roll trustee Jerome here trustee Mitchell Morell here trustee goodr here truste Rondo trustee Hemingway Lynch here trustey story here trustey Bishop here thank you and our first order of business is the well welcome from Bennett principal Mr Gabriel Bono good evening every wow sorry so sorry that was a set up good evening everyone how are you welcome back to Bennett I hope you guys had a wonderful Spring Break um so good to see you I know you want an update but first I just wanna put president
002Bishop on the spot I know she always likes to do that so I have a question for you president Bishop what did the moon bring to the beach yesterday for the solar eclipse um sunscreen some block well done you are smart cookie well done president Bishop excellent job excellent job um you get to return the favor after I'm done so what's going on in Bennett um tomorrow starts our Ela exams um the state did it differently in case you don't know uh they gave us a w a large window to minister Ela and math along with fifth grade science which is new this year um Ela starts tomorrow we've really been um my world has been dominated with um preparation for next um I've been to Phoenicia I've met Phoenicia teachers um I've acted on
003behalf of the transition team and the stakeholders oh I did that unaa by some other recommendations um but I'm trying to meet their needs uh I have intentions of meeting with every single ventian teacher to make sure and Ure they have the materials they need for the rooms they're going to have um last night I met with the visha PTA that was a lovely meeting thank you fjer um just to answer questions and put out accurate information um I've partnered with the Phoenicia PTA and the benett PTA because they have the same people carrying the loads for both schools to help um the garden there's going to be a garden at Bennett for those you who don't know and if you look outside the window there you can see that uh Kyle hares director building
004of grounds has already started to help the prep work that we're going to when are we going to do that I think February 20 20th 21st that weekend April what did I say February would be a bad time to start a garden so yeah we're GNA go with that in the next two weeks we're going to be working over the weekend to build a garden and we're gonna transpose what's over there to over here I want to just give um a lot of recognition to Janice tier who's heading up and leading that charge um that that's that's about it for my report I I know it seems short but I can assure you it's overwhelming right now um do you have any questions for me at all I do have one more announcement I should
005share with all of you um we are going to have a special chorus concert on Thursday April 25th also the chamber Ensemble will be there as well um we kind of moved it up hoping that um one of our music teachers can still conduct that performance because um she's expecting anytime soon and if you see her you'll know why we moved it up we want to have the concert questions for me not a question but um I did notice on social media that there is a um crowdsourcing uh fundraiser to support the Bennett Garden yes and um I encourage any trustees who wish to uh support that cause to do so and um will there be birthday cake on the and the 21st the 20th on the 20th the no that's not my birthday when's
006your birthday wow April okay you remember that all right there'll be birthday cake no no it's not on the approved list we can't have that Sugar it's a weekend well done okay you zing me right back well done any other questions I wish you a glorious meeting good luck to all of you just want to remind you you could get out quickly and enjoy some of the last beautiful moments of this gorgeous day that's up to you though take care thank you Mr Bono uh next on our agenda item 3.01 our assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction Stephanie Laughin will present the sixth grade social studies textbook adoption thank you John thanks everybody all right good evening everyone um so today I just wanted to share a bit about the sixth grade social studies textbook
007adoption which um if you take a look on the next slide you can see the team that worked uh to make a decision on that we have a our sixth grade team uh both regular Ed and our special ed teachers worked in collaboration to find what they thought was a good fit for their students and also um uh Corey cavalero and James Grady our seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers worked in collaboration with them as well as Mr jadonna our Middle School principal so you can see kind of a discussion of the process um that they went in meeting in January February and March really looking for a series that would support all students and um be a great resource that all students could utilize and something that teachers could uh really make the
008most of all the resources that were um available there were two companies and um that were reviewed and considered and the team um um agreed on the mcra hill discovering our past uh to the Eastern Hemisphere and there is a New York specific textbook that that company uses uh specific to New York State Standards which is uh very good um they have both printed and electronic versions this uh sixth grade is was very a a hard copy version is something they really felt was very important and believe it or not not a hard copyed textbook they are getting harder and harder to find um obviously there's a great expense to those and it certainly comes over to the uh those who purchase it but it's just a lot easier to build a dynamic online text
009version however um you know with in their expertise and experience with our students they felt like they really needed that hard copy version as well they still have access to an online version but it's something that they really um they really looked for they were very happy with the primary source documents the videos and all of the um options provided to modify the work as it was needed um they also have a a Spanish version and the ability to level the reading um level as needed for Learners who might wanted uh we might want to adjust that at the same time um each lesson really focused on critical thinking and Technology as well as reading skills and they were you know it was highly recommended this is something just so you know seventh and eth
010grade teachers do not have a current textbook series they have been longstanding teachers in the district and they have really just kind of assembled their own as teachers who are long-term are that is as very likely especially when there's not a common textbook assembled but they have met and reviewed and are in support of this particular um this particular Source I really like the um focus on and the option for Project based learning which I thought was um a really great option to have and something to really lean into for for our students who learn best in that way the link on the next page was something um just as a hot link you can click on that you can look at the sixth grade social studies framework which you have content and skills all
011specifically focused on in sixth grade and again this is a New York version of the textbook so it really does work to um to support that and of course across the board we are always working on literacy skills always working on critical thinking skills and that's something regardless of class we we work we we work at one other thing I want to mention um our sixth grade will also be implementing the Inspire science series which is the same textbook adopted last year by the board on August 8th for 8th grade so that is a continuation and it will fit really seamlessly with the Middle School resources in support of that curriculum so as far as next steps um following uh your approval we will move forward with the ordering process so that all the books
012are ready to go for September provide any professional learning that's available for teachers just to really become familiar with the text and work with them to continue to revise curriculum to provide the most engaging enriching learning experiences we can for our students any questions trusty Lynch thank you superintendent Laughin I was curious how does the assistant superintendent Laughin forgive me um how does the process typically start is it like an audit that's done every set number of years or do the teachers say we're ready for a new curriculum what is the impetus for changing the the books this is um teacher Le really when it comes a point where they feel like they need another resource to move forward or there's um this is a good time obviously moving forward with them to be able
013to really have a common focus on social studies and I think with just an opportunity to really strengthen their resource because remember our sixth grade teachers are not specifically content certified in any one thing they are uh and all sixth grade teachers next year are teaching social studies it is a common uh um class within all of them we one teaches math one teaches science two teach Ela reading and writing and then they all teach social studies so um also I think just really important to have a a common text and resources when you have multiple teachers teaching the same thing any other any other questions for Miss Laughin thank you very much Miss Laughin excellent excited about that curriculum and our next presentation is from uh Monica lir our assistant superintendent for business and
014she'll present the superintendent's recommended budget thank you very much so we are here um looking at it whoa what happened did I do that I touched something I should know better than to touch [Laughter] something John knows me too well okay um so here we are um superintendent's recommended budget and I am going to start with where we are with the state budget so as you can see um we've had budget extenders in place through Friday April 5th Monday April 8th and now Thursday April 11th so we still do not have a state budget so but um uh following the legislator's departure from Albany the governor did provide a brief budget update and in her comment she did note that uh some of the foundation a changes she Pro proposed would not end up in
015the final budget but rather that a process will be put in place to provide for formula changes in the following year um this morning um she also mentioned um a temporary routin on the cuts while still defending them as appropriate for districts where enrollment has plunged um or that are holding Reserve funds but rather than put push for restrictions this year she said the aid formula will be studied further so that it could be updated for next year's budget so um we're hopeful uh nisba also put out a a comment that um you know beyond her comments that the understanding is that the legislature has made progress on the convincing the governor to drop her proposed safe um harmless Cuts but that she continues to push for her inflation adjustment proposal which actually affects all
016schools but obviously would not affect us as much as the hold harmless so that's where we are with the state budget so with that being said we have pretty we're pretty confident that we will at least retain for the 24 25 year in revenues what we have for the 23 24 year so that is what this Revenue um projection uh presents you so it's um a $1.48 million increase with about a 2.55% uh increase it does carry a tax levy of 3% Which is less than our 3.6 five uh tax cap um I know in past last year for example we we held to a 2% tax levy um unfortunately it it would not be fiscally responsible to go to a 2% knowing that the governor is going to be cutting our state aid in
017future years we need to she's basically what she is saying is that because we are are allowed to Levy this much in taxes and this is what the tax cap says to Levy that's what we need to Levy because she's going to be reducing our state aid because we're allowed to Levy this so it's it's an unfortunate situation but this is where we are um just to let you know what we're what we would be looking at if we did not have any foundation aid restored we would um be looking at a decrease of course I forgot parentheses there my apologies would' be looking at a decrease of 1.2 million or a decrease of 2% even with going to the tax cap of 3.65% again Our Hope fingers crossed it doesn't happen so what we're
018here for tonight is what is the superintendent's recommended budget for 242 I think sometimes one of the hardest things to understand is that the board's job and the voter's job is to vote on an expenditure budget they don't vote on the revenue they don't vote on the taxes however they go hand inand in most years it's very easy we know what the state's giving us we know what our taxes need to be based on what the state is giving us and it marries um this year is a is definitely a little different so so um the budget that I'm that uh superintendent McLaren and I are recommending for you to approve and for the voters to approve is one that includes everything that we currently have to support our students it is um it's all
019about education and that's why we're here so um I'm sure there aren't any surprises our largest increase is transportation percentage wise um dollar-wise it's employee benefits that is uh an unfortunate situation when you um you know when you have the the benefits that we give not that it's unfortunate that we give them benefits that's not what I mean it's just that it is a much larger uh dollar increase um we are going to see a decrease in instruction and again that is really due to the many retirements that we got and um being able to really look at the retirements to see who needs to be replaced and who doesn't need to be replaced uh really looking at our systems and um I have to give uh assistant superintendent um Allison uh Kudos additional Kudos
020everybody gets Kudos but she gets additional Kudos because that's a tough job so we're looking at a little over a million dollar increase so a budget increase of about 1.64% compared to uh this year so usually what we do at this point is okay we know what our projected revenues or at our projected expenditure so how much of appropriate fund balance do we need to use so if everything is Rosy we're looking at about 2.7 million of appropriated fund balance if it's not we're looking at 5.5 million now obviously I would never recommend to the board that we use $5.5 million of fund balance that would decimate us so that is when if we for some reason do find ourselves in a situation where our revenues do not meet expectations then we would have to
021look at course responding reductions and those are things that we had talked about in the in the previous meeting areas that some bosies and and some things like that we do have some uh transfer to Capital work in the budget which we do generally every year so for next year um Kyle has requested money in order to fix the uh Corridor ceiling in the middle school high school kind of by the guidance office um money to upgrade the route 28 crosswalk I'm sure when you drive in you see those not so lovely cement barriers our goal is to get rid of those and put something a little prettier there uh some parking lot repair really just kind of some patching the middle school high school and then um we also talked about leaving some additional
022um support money in there as needed for the middle school and the Bennett transition uh knowing it's the first year that sixth grade will be in the Middle School the first year that will be 2K a K4 and a K5 um we wanted to make sure that we had the resources available if for some reason there's something that you know we didn't think of because unfortunately until they're here we don't always know what you know Seal's saying you don't know what you don't know so um so we have that in there as well so we also as I mentioned have the second prop the proposition number two which will be for a use of up to 1.95 million of Reserve funds again that is going to hopefully not be needed um it but in case
023we need it to support our current projects the high school generator the uh Woodstock finishe exterior doors the security vestibule that is um that we're looking to install at the middle school high school along with the cafeteria canopy in the middle school high school and then also a new serving line for the middle school high school because we will have more kids that'll be going through that line and um it is NE is it is necessary and again any unused funds will just get returned to the back to the capital reserve so one of the requirements is to show you the percentage of uh budget components that make up our budget so as you can see as I've mentioned many times uh instruction and and uh and employ benefits makes up a majority of it
024um General support three and a half operations and maintenance a little over five and a half and transportation took a big hit it's it's at 10% uh just as a side note um the employee benefits we are currently um covering 252 active employee health insurance plans we are covering 353 retiree health insurance plans um so another requirement is the three-part budget so New York schools uh must by law divide the budgets into three components administrative capital and program and then each year we must chose you and the voters um how much each portion has increased in Rel in relation to the whole budget so as you can see Capital went from 8% 8.2% of the budget to 99.2% Administration went from 9.29 to 10 and program went down from 82 to 80 now while that
025may look like we're putting more in administration and More in capital what it actually means is because the program budget is such a large piece that the program budget is actually going up dollar amount by more it's going up by 728 th000 whereas the administrative piece is going up by 162 and the capital piece is going up by 112 but because that 728 is such a smaller piece of that big program budget that's why the percentage of overall is going down but you can see that administrative is not just administrators it includes our legal it includes our insurance it includes um bosies um and all our our data stuff uh Capital includes the school bus purchases The Debt Service facility costs utilities maintenance and then all the custodial salaries and benefits and program obviously teachers
026Tas par professionals and all of the associated costs with that so total increase for 23 from 23 24 to 2425 is like I said just a little over a million so what will the voters see the voters will see proposition one to approve a budget of 62 million $325,500 and then they will also see a proposition um authorizing us to expend a maximum amount of 1.95 million from the 21 and 23 Capital reserves to fund any additional costs that I mentioned along with the middle school high school serving line another thing that were're required to show you is what would happen if the district ended up on contingency budget so contingency budget was completely different about 10 years ago maybe even a little less so once the tax cap came into um came into play
027contingency budget basically said you can pretty much do whatever you want but you can't raise your taxes any more than you did the previous year so as you can see if we were on a contingency budget we would only be able to Levy the 2324 amount which is the 47,1 13,135 and since we're looking at I had two different um tax levy options we would basically need to cut between 1.3 and $1.7 million in order to meet that contingency budget um other things that happen in the contingency budget is you cannot buy any equipment so we have about $450,000 of equipment in the budget we would have to cut that and then another kind of small interesting piece is that the administrative component part of the budget cannot change as a percentage of the budget
028so where I showed you here administrative budget for this year is 9.29 if we're on a contingency budget we would have to reduce the administrative budget to 9.29 so th those are the fun little and then we would also have to charge we have to charge uh for use of our buildings stay dead so in addition on the on the ballot will be two board trustee seats both starting with a term on July 1 they're three-year terms and the petitions will be due um to our lovely district clerk uh by Monday April 22nd uh 5:00 pm and it does require District resident signatures on the uh on the petitions so what's left uh my recommendation is is that the next board meeting we adopt this budget um we will have to also approve the property
029tax report card and then um we will also be voting on The Bose's administrative budget at the next meeting we can wait till April 22nd um I don't think we need to but again that's the board decision uh we will have the public hearing on May 7th we will then have the budget vote and Board elections on May 21st and then hopefully we will not need to do a budget revote on June 18th and that is the presentation for tonight any questions trusty gich great can you hear me great report very much so I guess the bottom line here is you're not going to exceed the tax so we don't have to have a 60% uh to pass the budget correct correct any other questions trusty Lynch testing testing um thank you I just want
030to um make sure I'm accurate in my assumptions and others may have similar um just need the clarification but in terms of the um the fund balance recommendation as you said um this figure from I'm on I'm on slide six um of 2.7 25.5 is contingent on our projected revenues and our projected expenses above it correct correct yes and the revenue is the one we don't know because that's what we're waiting for from New York State correct correct okay so let's assume we get a budget by the 11th um we come back next week you will have given us a firm number to vote on yes okay um but in our preparation until that we get that Revenue number we can assume that we'll try to fall um as close to the 2.7 correct as
031we can balance the budget yes got it thank you okay trusty Mitchell Morel hi I have two questions that maybe are obvious to people who have done this before um contingency budget is that if the budget doesn't pass correct if the budget fails my apologies you're right I just right and then the other question is just um is that is that what the budget revote is you kind of redo it and then everyone votes again so if the I guess I should I think the slide may have said it but I probably went too fast and I apologize for that so if the budget fails then the the board has the option of either resubmitting the same budget in June um submitting a separate Bud a sec a different budget reducing it or whatever or
032they can go straight to contingency so the board actually has those three options if the budget fails on the at the May 21 ballot trusty Goodrich I'm just curious about the history of the uh contingency budget uh many decades ago maybe not many uh when the budget failed we did not have sports uh when did that change do you know it changed about the time that I mean I think you could always have sports I think the issue was really the dollar amount that you needed to cut to get to contingency obviously you want to affect instruction as little as possible so if we're looking at millions of dollars in Cuts sometimes Sports is what ends up getting cut because it's it's not an part not that it's not important but it's not important to
033the instructional day of the students and I see superintendent Mclaren has something to add I just wanted to add um I started in the district in the fall of the 2004 five school year that was the last year that we had a contingency budget um we did have a subsequent budget failure on the first vote and that had to do with a large parcel issue um many years ago but thankfully um the community has been very supportive of our budget um I guess just in the same vein I was wondering how often it doesn't pass so you're saying it pretty much hasn't not passed since like 2005 so statistically schools that stay within the tax cap have about 99% pass rate and I will tell you that if a budget fails it's very rarely about
034the money I just have a quick question um in terms of voting on the 16th and not waiting until the 22nd is there any reason we should be concerned about um voting on the 16th I don't think so right I'm mean everything we've seen out there is we we will get it this year but then we will really need to plan and this is going to be a this it's going to be hard it's going to be a hard couple of years because you know we're getting believe it or not we're getting a lot of savings for the next year's budget because of all the retirees and with closing Venicia we're not going to have that the following year so it's going to actually be harder to build a budget in the future years without
035the state aid but but we will do it great thank you any other questions okay great thank you so much okay you're welcome uh item 4.01 the superintendent will report District news good evening um so we are in the unique situation of having experienced an earthquake a snow day and a solar eclipse in the past week and today it was 76 degrees and sunny so I want to thank everyone for your support and understanding in as we have navigated these um unusual situations uh barring any additional weather surprises we will extend the Memorial Day holiday weekend by one day and school will not be in session on May 24th so that would be lovely barring any surprises um this just in the date for homecoming 2024 has been set it will be on September 28th
036so mark your calendars uh everyone probably knows we have the musical happening this weekend you can attend on Friday or Saturday evening at 7 pm or on Sunday at 1 o'clock in the afternoon um they will be our students will be performing the School of Rock and I'm sure it will be a wonderful production so if you can please attend and support our incredibly talented students many of our student artists are being featured in an art exhibition titled future voices at Sunni ster the gallery there showcases the work of um a number of olster County high schools including antora our students have over 35 works of art in the show um Sunni olster alumni artist and gallery owner Allison constant of the Art Bar in Kingston is the juror and guest curator for this exhibition
037and the show runs from April 5th through the 19th assistant superintendent Laughin and I were able to attend the opening and see the artwork and we can attest that is really amazing how talented these young artists are there were any number of pieces that uh I would happily bring home and hang in my home because they're amazing uh once again the meet greet meet will be on Monday May 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 many of our local restaurants are participating there will be a silent auction that will benefit the phenicia farewell Fair um admission is free and each ORD will be $3 and the proceeds from the ordes will benefit The belir Bash um we heard today from Principal danana that the middle school will be holding an activity for the fifth sixth and seventh
038grade students a combined kickball game in the middle school this spring it will take place during the day and will be a fun activity and a way to bring the students who will be in the middle school next year together um for their first um kind of joint activity um and then we wanted to make one clarification in last Friday's Hudson Valley 1 article there was a misunderstanding by the journalist regarding uh one of Miss's comments from our last meeting uh the paper is quoting her as saying because of the high Equalization in rate in Woodstock we're seeing a lot of non-payment from Woodstock and really what Miss Clair was actually saying was that we're seeing a lot of taxpayers who paid taxes but after paying the taxes the school taxes they then challenged their
039assessments and due to the equalization rate and when their home was purchased many of them have prevailed and then were owed a refund on their taxes so the refund comes out of the school district's general fund budget so for example um someone who had a specific example that actually happened someone had purchased a home in 2023 for .5 million but because of the 46.5% equalization rate the taxes for the 23 24 school year were assessed it the value of the house was 3.2 million so it was doubled and they paid um $25,000 in taxes this property owner then challenged their assessment and they prevailed so the tax bill was then reduced to um $11,600 so they were to a refund by the District of $3,390 so that is one of the larger refunds and is
040just an example but um the district has processed almost $440,000 of refunds since December so um we just wanted to clarify that we were not saying that people were not paying their taxes because that's how it read in the paper we wouldn't want to say that because our homeowners are very uh diligent and pay their taxes and then follow the process and sometimes because because of the way the process is laid out we have to refund the taxes to them when they Prevail so that's it for my news today any any questions for superintendent McLaren okay and now um superintendent is going to present the information that can be found on our antora school district website oh thank you John you're the best yikes um so I know we have been doing a lot of
041work and trying to put more information on our website for our community to access so I wanted to point out one item um people may have uh been receiving our board briefs emails that have been coming out monthly um and they are being loaded here under board brief the one that went out yesterday hasn't been put up yet but for anyone who's looking um and wants to look back at the history they can be found right here on the um school board web page and then our um soaring to new heights optimizing ontora web page um actually has a lot of great information and we hope people are utilizing this page so we are keeping our um spreadsheet of actions steps with our key of all the wonderful things that have been happening and I
042just made note that I need to add a couple things to April actually so that spreadsheet is updated regularly and then um we have our enrollment data which I don't know if everybody has um noticed this we have all of our historical enrollment and then each month as our um enrollment is updated this or this row is updated each month as we um produce our enrollment reports which can also be found on the web page in addition um this is the enrollment by Town zip code and building from last year and then based on a request we updated it for the current year and then this is our enrollment projection for um next year for the two buildings and then we have um a way to sign up to get the district emails which is
043uh we've gotten I think we are up to 56 people who are receiving the board email which is wonderful um and then we have additional information down here uh and there is a way to submit a question so we have created the um the FAQs and and we've had two questions submitted so we are going to um gather questions as they're submitted and add them to the FAQs kind of in a chunk um anything else so here is our I'm sorry here is our FAQs um so people can click on there and read through all of the information that we've gathered here and then as I said as we get um additional questions that are submitted we will add them to that document um moving forward is there anything else that anyone thinks is worth
044noting I hope people are finding this um a very helpful page but if we have um additional suggestions for information that can be put out there we'd be happy to um look at that thank you that was very helpful oh yes please um um oh there I am I just want to really encourage people to use this as a resource we get asked a lot of questions as board members always happy to answer them but um there's also granular pieces to the whole thing that we I can't pull out from my head at any given moment and it's really great place to just get yourself familiar it's dense there's a lot of information but um it's also so important for um our district for um the people who live here to know about um and
045what's going on and and we really are trying to get that information um out there and accessible to everyone and especially the superintendent thank you anything trusty gri I just want to say uh thank you to the communications committee U trusty uh Bishop trusty hu Lynch and uh trusty um Dr so uh I thank him very much a lot of work went into that so along with the superintendent thank you uh next on our agenda is the student representative report and um Sophia is not here yet she won't be here till about 7 so we'll just come back to that when she arrives um any Board District news to report trusty goodr so I was asked uh by our uh president uh truste Bishop to attend the uh town of olive comprehensive housing workshop and
046uh just wanted to give you a brief overview what went on there so the town of olive does include uh our high school Boysville and uh housing is is kind of very important because this is where our employees uh come from and they need affordable housing so so the introductions were from uh laella associate staff and Al a subc consultant uh for environmental planning so LaBella uh Associates have been hired to work with the town of olive uh under olster County smart communities initiative to develop a comprehensive housing plan so the first phase is to engage residents by scheduling Workshop in four different hamlets and so they're going to get feedback from from the community on what they want for uh a housing plan and then the next phase after completing a comprehensive plan is
047to look at the current zoning laws housing codes short-term rental laws to try to encourage you know uh affordable housing uh one of the U so as here's some socio demographics that they had there uh on their their list 19% of Olive is renter occupied 81% owner occupied some may be seldom used by the owner as a vacation home as somebody pointed out in the audience he's uh one of five owner occupied houses but he's the on his street but he's the only one that lives there full-time everybody else comes up once in a while on a weekend right uh they also mentioned that they want to they have no trouble having Developers come in and build million dooll homes right that's but obviously that's not going to solve the affordability problem uh 70% of
048the renters are housing burden uh and 20% of the homeowners are with a morgage or housing burdens so and I gave uh superintendent uh a complete list of their uh all their foils there so so that's uh kind of the highlights thank I can include this in the um update on Friday so everybody can have it thanks trusty goodr any other news trusty Jerome I want to do a shout out to you trusty goodr and say thank you for going um you have a very keen eye for numbers and details and so I'm really glad that you were reporting on that so thanks any other any other news Okay so on to item 7.01 acceptance of minutes the Board of Education hereby approves the minutes of the March 19th 2024 meeting May I have a
049first trusty Jerome second trusty story um we'll vote trusty Jerome I trusty Mitchell Morel hi trusty Goodrich hi trusty Lynch hi trusty story hi okay great that's unanimous thanks everybody on to item 8.01 under discussion and possible action the Board of Education hereby approves the school calendar for the 2024 2025 school year as attached may have a first trusty Goodrich second trusty story and we'll vote trust trusty Jerome hi trusty Mitchell Morel I trusty Goodrich I trusty Lynch I trusty story I okay great that's unanimous too thank you so much I just um as a quick comment it was I just wanted to um appreciate the administration's willingness to move the superintendent days um to accommodate transition moving those um important days and in the requests that I had and I just wanted to appreciate
050that thank you and also the 23rd thing I think will make a huge difference for everyone yes thank thank you administrators okay um before we move on to um item 9 .01 I'd like to propose that we add uh an agenda item and it's something that uh I actually forgot to add uh when we had agenda setting and uh trusty Lynch reminded me and um I think it's important to add this if the board agrees um trusty Lynch had asked us uh twice um and reminded us at the last meeting um that she would like to discuss ways that we may be able to uh centralize the two administr the the two Elementary populations uh through activities and things like that while the long-term planning and implementation process is ongoing so um may I have
051a first to add an agend add that agenda item trusty Mitchell Morell second trusty Jerome and we'll vote uh trusty Jerome I'm sorry any discussion before we vote trusty goodr um could you give me a detail of what that might include I'm Nota are you okay with the vote okay okay uh trusty Jerome I trusty M Morell I trusty goodr I trust Lynch hi trusty story hi and that's unanimous thanks everybody so um trusty Lynch are you comfortable kind of starting us off yeah sure thank you and I appreciate um the space it's just been something I've been thinking a lot about because in all of our briefings we've had um an appropriate amount of um attention on the long-term goals around educational excellence in the commit committees that have been established have helped us
052understand and obviously the update tonight from Mr Bono helps us understand the amount of energy and attention going into the transition focused on the um educational Excellence uh for our elementary students I was curious if um it would be appropriate to just talk through some of the other goals that we had put forward as a in terms of the long-term plan for a central campus around the culture and climate of the elementary schools um which was a real in my recollection of the debates last year you know was a real big piece of why we need to centralize um the school and I'm curious um if there're um in the spirit of um similar to what we did last year with the ad hoc committee if there's an if there's a discussion to be had
053around ways in which we can also support not only educational Excellence but improved climate and culture for our students um to answer your question um truste Clark or trusty Goodrich I was thinking a lot of ton of ideas because I I spend also some time on the PTA U for both schools and while they will continue to do great work to support um the children the community and the teachers um I also think we have a responsibility as a board and as a district to also see this through because we made this change and frankly in the next three years there's a cohort of kids between kindergarten and fifth grade who are going to go through a lot of change at a time and where their teachers are already dealing with a lot of change
054and so I think we have um more we could do um to be thinking about ways in which we ensure that these this particular cohort of kids um have also a positive experience and so um while our job is not at all to focus on implementation and I respect that I'd like to create the space for the administration to feel that they can also be putting the same level of energy on that those issues as they are uh in their current committees um around the transition and I think um when you mentioned this at the last board meeting I believe it was uh that time uh you mentioned something like um you know maybe combined combined field trips or things like that um as an example of of being able to combine maybe a grade
055level like so the second graders go on a trip to I don't know where and all of the second graders go and their teachers go as well yeah thanks and again I know that treads on implementation so I I really just I I I posit it as an example of what I'm talking about but could we be thinking about New Opportunities For example you know leaning on local Partners um in the district who also specialize around kids like we do with through the Watershed program you know or we do through um the olive recreational basketball team um that things that bring the children together from across the district that have we've seen have been successful could we bring in more theater programs art programs could we work with the seacam Mano campus could we work
056with other local Partners to be able to build new and different and sort of therefore exciting additive benefits for these young children to come together and Forge the kind of relationships that we hope the next cohort of kids will have after um a central campus is realized because frankly I think we all know this but some of these kids that transitioned into Bennett will only have two years at Bennett and um we've already said that that's a detriment for those children so what are we doing to support the deepening the connections with staff and with each other and the kids in the community because we've made these changes that will affect these kids some of the kids in kindergarten went to one campus and now next year they're coming to a new campus there's a
057lot of transition that's happening at every level but I think um while I know we're all aware of it I think there's a lot we could be doing now if we started um to bring more opportunities to these kids that would feel like a real bonus or an additive thing um even just you know if we could even open the gym through the winter months on the weekends and bring kids give kids a safe place to be together again I know these have costs but i' just like to have a safe space to have some of these conversations thank you um I was going to call you trusty Allison Amanda I've I've been called lots of names um you know I think um just to just to to jump in I I think it's a
058great conversation to bring back to our instructional leaders in our building to get their stakeholder um their input and and get the the feedback from their stakeholders their teachers their teaching assistants and and their staff I think um we have so many incredible talent in our in our district and so many resources I think that if we had the opportunity to think creatively I think there's a way that we can do that and also tie in academics and curriculum you know I'm thinking you know talking about pen pals and writing programs and different things and with our use of Technology thank you co for Google meets and zooms there's a lot that we can do to kind of bridge the gap but I think it's a great conversation to start with our building leaders and
059kind of start thinking together about how we could kind of build those opportunities naturally thank you thank you trusty story um before truste Allison or assistant superintendent Allison jumped and I was going to say I'm there's lots of ideas that is being thrown out but it's really not appropriate for board a board discussion this is these ideas are more Administration and inhouse as much as the board wants to have this discussion that's this is day-to-day operation and does not fall in the perview of the board so we need to let our administrators and our teachers and our staff do their jobs you know this is as much as I'd love to continue on this conversation we have to let our Administration do can I ask just a question on that trustee story so where does
060the line fall between helping to hold our Administration accountable for the transition and having a conversation like this like how do where does that line for just for our understanding for everybody is going to figure out what their own thing is right but I'm not going to tell you what to think you know what their what your opinion is your opinion but I'm sorry I'm talking about our role I cuz I I appreciate what you're saying not to get into the administration to get into the weeds we're supposed to stay at 30,000 ft and hold them accountable for the implementation of this ask questions we sit here at the board qu board table ask questions of our Administration or rfis and ask that's how we ask for accountability you know ask what how is this
061going about but for us to say we want this or we I I can't tell a principal how to run their building the board can't either and that's what it's kind of getting into the weeds of us having these discussions got it okay thank may I interrupt just for a second um I happen to notice that while um uh assistant superintendent Allison was speaking and while trusty Lynch was speaking superintendent McLaren was taking notes and she was jotting down all the great ideas that were being discussed and I think that it it is appropriate for the board to say at this table that we support um you know maybe enhancing the opportunities that um that may be separate completely separate and different for the elementary schools that if there's an opportunity to combine um the
062students for you know different activities different events that that we would support it as a board I think there I think potentially um also there would be an opportunity to create uh next year possibly um a board goal a district goal regarding creating a combined culture and climate that we would then Implement um but we can certainly start having those discussions now truste mitro Morel um I was going to [Music] say oh yeah like I do think there's some built in already like uh that stream thing at a show Canam I don't know if your kids are going or like soccer definitely and like even like one or two more events would almost like more school sanctioned maybe would push it over the edge for them to form more connections like I think it is
063kind of almost there in my opinion like I know my kids know people from Phoenicia just from going stuff like that especially if you're the type of kid that participates in stuff like that um I remember we had the dare dance and like it was literally once a year and we knew Phoenicia kids much better as a result I think you're totally right and I also think bigger picture we're not planning the events obviously but we're just saying wouldn't this be a good idea encouraging it from 30,000 fet above so I think it's a great idea trusty goodr so when we say say to create a a board goal would that be on um our superintendent's job description or what wouldn't be on there I was wondering how that works I I think um from
064my understanding of board goals um board goals are a little different than District goals and in antora I think typically we have District goals we don't necessarily have board goals um in order for us to consider right board goals I I do feel like we would need some training on that because it's not something that uh I don't know uh trusty story have you done board goals before we do board goals we do a board goal here that this the we did numerous board goals here and then the superintendent adopts that and makes that her goals off of ours but we have always adopted the board goals that superintendent has so I think for for this particular um initiative as an example potentially the board goal would be that the board would support the the
065long-term plan and and then there could be another goal or a sub goal about um supporting creating a um positive interrelated culture and then we would at the administrative level get more specific in our goals for the school year so you know we could obviously talk about that in the next school year but we're aware that that that is a an an issue of importance thank you and and I guess I just want to say again I don't I do see this as part of our long-term plan I think that was very clearly laid out um so and that is our goal for the year is our board goals is around the long-term plan my question that sparked that was just then how do we help again offer that support and um space to be
066able to um ensure that both educational excellence and culture are being addressed um and that was the that was the the intention of the discussion and I do I do think that just the fact that we're having this conversation is kind of what we do um you know that we're making some really positive suggestions and you know encouraging um you know for some of that to to happen as as it can I know that a lot of those types of things are budgetary concerns and uh schools have budgets and and it all comes out of the general budget so as as things like that can happen then uh it would be great and and I do I agree with what uh trusty Mitchell Morell said I just know um from being involved you know either
067as an employee at the District or now as a board trustee and a grandparent um that uh it's like we know kids from all over the district it's not we're not we're not just U exclusive to the town that we live in and I and I think that's really a positive so we we can just hope to build on that a trusty story just to go back to the board goals real quick usually you only have the board goals you do that at the beginning of the year and you don't work on them throughout the year you don't do a board goal at the end almost the end of the at the end of the board term or whatever you want to call it but usually because the goals you work throughout the whole year
068it's not something you do towards the end of a a board year trusty Mitchell Morell um well I thought first of all that we sort of think this falls under our original board called goal so it's not like we're creating a new board goal we're just following through maybe you guys interpret it differently but it I see how it is our current board goal um the other thing I wanted to say I don't want to speak s for Sarah but I think another thing she may be saying is that we're focusing a lot on academic stuff and maybe infrastructure and maybe we just don't want the social part to Fall by the wayside um because it's so important especially for young teens um um I had one more thing to say but I forget it'll
069come back any anything else on this and you know I'm grateful for the conversation and it was a discussion we don't have to agree or disagree or vote on anything at the moment and trusty Mitchell morale also just to agree with what you said president Bishop which is that like just having the conversation is almost enough like you know let's say a p member is listening and then in September they plan an event like we're not doing that thankfully um but you know having the conversation is the work in a way great thank you anyone else okay great thank you so we are GNA go back to five yeah 5.01 our student R is here Sophia odato do you have a report for us welcome by the way okay all right so recently in student
070government We are continuing to discuss our mu contest and getting that running and also the steps we need to take to get our Outdoor Classroom functional by the spring um throughout the high school students are excited for spring spring sports are preparing for their first competitions track had a home meet today against Ellenville High School yearbook Club is set to submit to Publishers by the end of April and yearbooks will be delivered to students at the end of the year this week presenters from olster County Crime Victims assistance program will be coming into PE classes to teach about healthy relationships and teen Dating Violence their presentation will focus on red flags and relationships signs of abuse and the prevalence of violence in relationships um I think it's like a really important and impactful thing to
071be learning about in in high school and I feel like it's it's not really talked about as much as it should be um on a different note the senior class had a very successful pancake breakfast fundraiser this past Saturday at the deet Stadium Diner we made over $1 th dollar so thank you to everyone who supported um the Crispy Cream fundraiser put on by the junior class just came to an end and they close and they sold close to 400 boxes of donuts so congratulations to them um lastly prom is fast approaching and it'll be on May 31st thank you any questions for Sophia thanks for your report I I'm I'm really glad that they're um covering that topic in FA said that's really great good news Okay on to item. n uh 9.01 uh
072the board will acknowledge publicly heard comments at the last meeting we heard from Cara civas Esther DT and Megan brener um we do I don't believe we have oh yes okay we have a speaker tonight let me just oh I don't have my words to read you know okay well so you know that we can't respond and that we welcome your comments and we hear everything that you say and take it into consideration right and if you do have any Personnel issues at all please bring those directly to the superintendent thanks fedra you want try to um hi I'm fedra dagger manin I've spoken before you know me um I have a first grader at Phoenicia and a younger one in prek almost in prek late birthday she'll be in preschool Forever at Woodland Playhouse
073um my husband and I have been writing a public be herd for like a week and I'm actually throwing most of it out the window I think a lot of people know that we're passionate about this and and we're having the conversations on the side and anyone who's watching that we haven't talked to and wants to talk about it we are invested in this uh configuration issue I want to focus on a more important thing to say um so principal Bono took my second piece I'm going to start with that um I did not wear this sweatshirt on purpose I was actually really embarrassed when I realized I put it on it's just comfortable but um the Phoenicia PTA is working really hard um both to make this year extra special and to plan for
074next year right now as you've heard we're focusing on a collaboration with Bennett um to create the vegetable garden similar to The Garden that's been so meaningful um at Phoenicia and just really impactful for the students so we're doing this Garden build on April 20th and 21st um and could really use support so if people if Financial donations are an option that's awesome if not and people can just come out we can use all the hands we can get it's a great way I love these Community come together ideas it's a great way um to do that and um Janice is incredible our PTA leaders are incredible and they are working so hard um and we could really use some help so I wanted to come up here and give them a shout out and
075um our Facebook's uh both the Phoenicia and the Bennett PTA Facebooks have the signups um and uh you can email either one of us as well um so we hope to see some faces there but really what I want to do is express my um admiration and appreciation for the Phoenicia staff um and teachers they have been incredible I mean there are conversations going on everywhere about all this stuff that's going on but they're they're doing it with the kids every day um and I'm I see them because I go into the school and I I help and and I also hear first grader nuggets on what's going on and it's it's hard to tell what's actually going on from what is shared by a first grader but it's just been so clear to me
076I don't need this um it's been so clear to me that she feels like cared for and and looked out for and they are just being so thoughtful about what will help the kids in this change um and their jobs were not easy before and this is just on top of it um and it's really it's just so impressive so I wanted to say that here in front of all of you and everyone watching because I just think that um it can't be said enough and in enough places and and um really really appreciate them so thank you and uh I'll be back thank you fedra anybody else okay I I only said that as a joke because there's nobody else here um so it's time for us to take a break so we'll take
077about 10 minutes we'll be back e okay we are back from our break and we're on to item 12.01 approval of the consent agenda the Board of Ed hereby approves consent agenda items 12.02 through 12.10 May I have a first trusty story second trusty Jerome uh any comments or questions statements great thank you for reviewing schedule U that's great and we will that's why I repeated what you said years never happened before we'll vote on the consent agenda trusty Jerome I trusty Mitchell Morell I trusty Goodrich I trusty Lynch hi trusty story I great that's unanimous um just wanted to um comment on one of the items on the consent agenda was a list of donations um very very generous donations uh to the district for our students and we just want to um State
078how much we appreciate those donations trusty Mitchell Morel I was wondering where do the donations got towards that we on the on the agenda there's actually a grid on uh page well it says page okay mine is oh yeah page two and three um but they go to a number of different scholarships and um you know just different one of them is for uh which is not on that uh grid I don't believe is for lumber for the uh Garden build and they're they're just really spectacular donations did you want to say something I was you actually said what I was going to share which is that each each um intended purpose is listed uh on the agenda and and just Cindy 12.03 is the donation for the lumber right yes I know I saw
079that yeah so great one thing that I forgot to ask you when you were looking at the website and I think you mentioned that it is there but you know if I want to know more about the Henry bue Memorial award how do how do I know what that is or where do I go and look at that or Joe patella or whoever um we do have a page that lists how to donate to the school um I don't believe it lists all of the scholarship Awards those are all scholarship Awards so those are um awarded each year to our graduating seniors um and each year at the awards ceremony the program um details the intention of each award and the um the description of the students who were um eligible for that award and
080some are focusing on academics some are focusing on uh community service or Civic engagement some are related to um a love for the outdoor there's really a broad broad range of scholarships available for our students so if I wanted to give money to support our students in their Futures and I what where would and I wanted to maybe um focus on children who are interested in pursuing music or the Arts how would I find out how would I know which one of these I should would I talk to you or if you were interested in doing that if you looked on our website on the very far right on the Community Resources tab there's actually um a page titled information on community donations and um that includes uh information for donating for the middle school
081high school for scholarships for clubs um we've included the booster club we also have um links and information related to each of the ptas and then um anyone who wants to make make an additional a donation that doesn't fall into any of those categories there's also um information there for that thank you you're so welcome okay onward uh we are up to item 13.01 uh approval of contracts the board hereby approves item numbers 13.02 through 13.10 May I have first trusty Goodrich second trusty story any questions or comments all right we'll vote trusty Jerome I trusty Mitchell Morell trusty trusty goodr I trusty Lynch I trusty story I great that's unanimous thank you uh onward we have uh um some policies to discuss we have the first reading of policy 5330 which is budget transfers
082first reading of policy 5322 District owns cellular phones 14.03 first reading of policy 5510 fiscal accounting and Reporting 1404 is first read reading of policy 5321 use of credit cards and 1405 is resend policy 5340 borrowing funds and 5511 collection of non-sufficient fund funds check and the recommended uh action is that the Board of Education hereby resends policies 5340 and 5511 and that just means that we are charged with reading the first the first readings of all those other policies and then we will vote on them at our next meeting um so may I have a first for resending 55 11 and 5340 trusty Lynch second trusty story any questions or comments so we'll vote trusty Jerome I trusty Mitch morel I trusty Goodrich I trusty Lynch I trusty story I okay great that's unanimous
083and we are up to committee reports any committees wish to report trusty Lynch sure the communications committee met um on the first Wednesday of the month and um we proposed uh we brought the um ideas forward from the board to just make sure that everybody has visibility on the role of the committee and what we're trying to do and where they we need more input and ultimately approval for anything that we um that we do so um one of the outputs of the committee has been these briefs and I think they've been well received um so we did provide some um uh uh advice to the Bosey colleagues who were um helping us put them together that we that they remain succinct um so we went through and edited it as a with that in
084mind but the content was all um something we all agreed with and then we as you know forwarded it around to everybody and everyone agreed it was fine but going forward we're very happy to also solicit more input into the content itself um and um just wanted to um um ask that we get that kind of input before the first Wednesday of the month so that we can still have a productive meeting and then we can pass it on um as a draft final draft to each of you to continue to approve it great thank you can I i' I'd like to add something one thing that um Holly Brooker is our consultant from Bose's and she's the person one of the people one of the two people that are supporting supporting this work that
085we're doing with the communications committee and she's brought it up before but she really kind of um was a little more clear this time about her her advice to us from a um PR perspective I think and community service perspective that we um attend as many community events um School District events that we possibly can to really become more visible and so uh I actually made a list and I did um send my list to um our district clerk Amanda gates to kind of just compile the list and she's going to send that out to all the board trustees and it just includes things like homecoming um High School Musical the Middle School sh Shakespeare play Olive day um Holly has encouraged us to try coffees with board trustees like having a coffee clutch you
086know kind of thing um you know we've I think that has been attempted in the past and it's never really worked so you know but you know never say never um sporting events obviously from um Youth League through Varsity uh concerts PTA events like uh the Woodstock holiday fair or the spring plant sale Community playground build and now the garden the Garden build uh the meet greet and eat and um local farmers markets even if we wanted to set up our tent like we've done a few times um uh recently especially to generate more um more interest in getting our Communications uh our emails and everything so those are just some ideas I'm sure there's a lot more that I didn't think of or that we didn't think of we kind of brainstormed some of
087those in the meeting but but um you know just if you can uh you know show up at at events and I think you know people are we're elected officials people appreciate seeing us out there trusty Lynch just to add to that one thing that she also mentioned if it's useful to you to think about is what other districts do is they you know they are much more visible but also with intentionality so you might want um something to hand out or a paper or even she suggested a button that says like I'm a board member ask me questions like that kind of a thing so it's just just something to be thinking about because I think we all are often going to events but going to events intentionally with your board hat on essentially
088and I think that's the difference right trusty story it's going to events where it's not you're you're not there as a parent you're going there at the colonial fourth grade fair or you're doing stuff this is what board members are supposed to supped to be doing this whole time and this isn't you know you're supposed to be going to the concerts and the musicals and the sporting events throughout this just on top of your this is part of your board D duty to Avent to attend these things great Amanda did you catch that the colonial Fair um oh maybe they're not truste Mitchell morale so for example if I'm getting the same question around town would that be something I would email to the communications department and see if you want to address that in
089your newsletter or FAQs well it maybe the FAQs or or you could suggest to the the folks that are asking you questions that they submit an FAQ and then uh uh what was the other I forgot what I was going to say um yeah it's not to the communications committee it's it's for the whole board or it's uh you know send send a question to to our email address um and the other thing I just wanted to clarify you're going to send a list of the events okay great um I just wanted to rate say about the meet the board or the coffee with the board and coffee with the superintendent we've tried them and they've people have never showed up we've sat we've been there and we've gone out to the community different places
090and so that's one that generally doesn't work around here but I think um I totally appreciate that um trusty story I I think the suggestion was again like to go where people already are but to be present and be available um to help with some of our goals just around better communication being transparent being available so that it it could even be something like instead of a coffee shop it could be at you know pickup it could be like where parents are or where communities congregate or where staff congregate like just being more intentional about that so that we are available and um able to answer questions if they come up or just hold conversation or get to know each other assistant superintendent Allison might I suggest at the wonderful me greet eat coming up
091May 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 at our Middle School High School uh if the board would like to have a table um if you guys would like to let me know I can certainly have you guys there as a vendor and you could have information there about the budget or whatever you you'd like to do um it is the same night as the but if there are some members that wanted to kind of divide fight and Conquer we can certainly use that as an opportunity we're hoping to get a good number of participants just to plug May 53730 thank you good suggestion anybody else any any other uh uh committee reports it's obvious the policy committee's been working just to say yes we did meet and you were um either you were sick or a
092child was sick and then tonight obviously trusty randoo is not well so um I'm happy to give an overview but I think you see we just reviewed um multiple policies um and and we will continue to do that to update our policy handbook great thank you all right moving on any old business business any new business trusty story um actually this might this is kind of new business and a request for information uh from the superintendent um we've had the discussion over and over again about um so I've seen recently there's a change.org petition going on that some uh residents of the Kingston School District would like to join the onour school district we've said there's re there's a process that has to be followed and at the board table we haven't really had this
093discussion but it's something that's keeps popping up over and over again so this is my request of you is can you reach out to the superintendent of Kingston and see if he would be even if they would be even um he would allow hit they would allow to get rid of H some of their tax properties you know if some of our uh some of their students could come to antora could you engage in a discussion with the superintendent see if this is even possible or plausible um I can ask I'm not sure that he would be willing necessarily to give me a response since I'm not one of the parties who would be officially asking um and so it it may be that they need to follow the process and go uh to the
094Kingston board but uh as you noted I have I've been um contacted by two separate individuals and I have shared the information about the process and um anyone who wants to um petition to to change school districts has to um the properties all have to be contiguous to our district it can't be properties that are um in in Kingston but not necessarily touching our border the Kingston district has to um approve it our district would have to approve it and then the commissioner would also have to approve it and there are two sets of rules um There are rules for transferring properties between central school districts but this um is different because Kingston is actually a city school district so if it were Central School District to Central School District it would not require the
095commissioner's approval it would require the um local Bose's approval but because it's a city school district it would require the commissioner's approval um so the people who have inquired I have provided that information I can ask but as I said I may not get an official response because it's not really an official request because I'm not um the party that would be impacted but it's something that we as a district can have and say okay this is we engaged this with the the superintendent and this is what there is but this is you this you need to do this yourselves but just so the district has an understanding we know there's a process but this is what we are you know working through and I have provided the um individuals who asked with the superintendent's
096contact information um and told him that I have been contacted by these individuals with this intention so that he's aware that those conversations have been happening in our district thank you any other new business uh trusty goodr so I was wondering if maybe in a future board meeting um let me back up so as um superintendent McLaren just showed the uh web page soaring to new heights optimizing onora and off that is a frequently asked questions list and I encourage the community to to go through that and if they haven't already there's a a new item there uh that was just added recently and it's a it's great uh why a central campus and uh I get that question a lot in my community and uh because they we don't understand why but so there's
09715 bullets there and um I would I guess I'm asking if the superintendent would be willing to go through those 15 bullets at some point in the future to better describe there's a few of them that I I don't know you know uh what they are so it I think it would be good to to go over it it's an important list I think the communications committee did a great job and uh it'd be nice to have a better explanation I think over some of them trusty goodr are you asking that um that she like present it as a presentation and kind of open it up for discussion with the board uh yes that be good okay um I have something um I wanted to um bring this up to the board and um and
098it's a lot it's a big deal and um but I I I'm asking for the board to consider it and initially uh a couple weeks ago I got very interested in the possibility of aora the of us us as a school board uh writing a diversity equity and inclusion um resolution and so I started doing a lot of research on it and um I found a there's a ton of information I you would expect and so I just printed out a few things at home and I'm and Amanda is passing them out uh the first page is just a joint statement on diversity equity and inclusion initiatives and it is co-signed and co-authored by the president of the of nisba the president of the New York State Council of school superintendant the C uh chairperson
099of the Council of big five school districts and the board of directors of the rural schools Association the next document is an actual board resolution and I really liked this one because uh it's not just diversity equity and inclusion but it's diversity Equity inclusion and belonging and this one is from the Pleasantville Pleasantville Union Free School District and there like I said about really anything about uh Dei there's a multitude of information online if you're interested in doing the research and then the last piece is uh a the nisba sample policy uh around Dei and so when I said that it's a lot of work um I think that the way that these kind of resolutions and and um initiatives happen is that um a task force or a an ad hoc committee or something
100like that is is typically created including you know maybe a board member uh members of the community teachers and absolutely students and um and so uh if you take the time to read the resolution and read the uh the sample policy you'll see that it it's very very involved so um it is something that that I think is important um um as we move forward as Educators in education and um in a in a divided uh political environment in a divided like right now our community is even divided and I do think that um that something like this assures for our students that um that they're getting the the best and most accurate um and most caring and uh and considerate education that they can get and and and challenging so there's I I could
101throw a lot of adjectives on that but anyway it's something to think about and um if there's interest in it we could um discuss it at an at a future board meeting trusty Lynch thank thank you for raising this and I'm just reminded um of truste De Jesus's work I believe Daphne De Jesus I believe also put a resolution together for Aura on um diversity equity and inclusion I'm I'd volunteer to reach out to her or look it up in our board docs but I'm I'm recalling that um from maybe three years ago or so might just be something to build from we'll take a look any other questions or comments trusty story this is more about what you were saying about uh you want to do a board resolution and but then you also
102talked about getting a community thing because I'm you got me so confused right now because a board resolution is written by the board itself it's our resolution we don't have a community come in to you know do that so if it's a board resolution then we the board would work that out at the board table you know we that's how we do that in the past so but I I like the community ASP aspect that's where you're like confusing I I think that um in some cases uh the community is consulted on things as this is a big de you know it's a it's a big thing so it's it's um it's something that you would want to draw from the people that are kind of in the trenches like students and teachers before it
103is it written into a a a resolution and made you know um like you know it's it's a it's a legal document then so um uh depends on the district a lot of districts have a committee and it's not just the board working on it as especially in terms of the policy and the um the oh what comes after a policy the um the regulation then maybe a board resolution is not the right terminology to use for this because a resolution is the board is the one that is doing that that's what we're not it's the board that is composing the resolution okay so I'm I'm just throwing it out there that I'd like to pursue this if um and we'll we should talk about it more after people do some homework anything else about
104that okay thanks for listening everyone um on to requests for information trusty Jerome first thank you for putting that together it'll be interesting to start wrapping our head around that um I am wondering whether there is a districtwide I have no visibility into homework and how that is um are there standards are there requirements is that uh decided by the teacher or the school or the grade level I would love to know a little bit more about that as I do get asked about that um strangely more often people want more homework you know um so or I don't know I mean I don't know but in any case if I could get some brief like just or the board I should say some overview of how that works um that would be super sure
105um we have a homework policy but I believe homework work is also addressed in our um student handbooks at the elementary level uh and then the middle high school I'm not sure if it's in the handbooks I can't remember off the top of my head but I'm I'm seeing head shake yes um so but we can gather all of that and provide it for you trusty story The the we as a board the former board has had numerous discussions on homework and there is a lot of information in board dos for you to go back on to and look in there also oh great well it would be great to have you know what can be pulled from just what we know right now I think definitely looking Beyond just the element the school that
106my child is and I'm more interested in the district as a whole and glad to hear that this has been a topic that um you know that people are obviously interested in um so great can't wait to start that with this version of the board great thank you any other requests for information trusty story would you like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting May I have a second trusty Mitch Morell all in favor I