Board of Education Re-org and Regular Meeting - July 7, 2020

001headset all right so now we are live all right hello everyone I would like to welcome everyone to our July 7th reorganization and business meeting and I would also like to particularly welcome Beth McFadden who is our new board member who will be doing her oath of office and and joining us officially starting today so welcome Beth we're so pleased to have you join us I'm looking forward to to working together thank you so much I'm really looking forward to working with you all - thank you yes all right so now we will move on to approval of the agenda so recommend an action that the Board of Education approved the agenda so moved second all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries all right so the oaths of office actually for all three of

002the recently elected board members myself Neal Hebert and Beth McFadden we signed and had them notarized separately given our virtual time frame with with Tracy Borges our district clerk so we have all taken those oaths of office okay so normally we would stand up and raise our right hand and do all that which I need why is it necessary so long as we have signed our own correct if you want to some of Tracy wants to like have us a little stand up in her house or wherever they are and do it we could but I don't know whatever people want is it legally required I don't think so we sign it and we had it notarized so all right well with that we can move on to the election of board officers um I

003would like to nominate Sarah carrier for president first I think we should say what we're doing here which is the nomination of the president I will second the nomination from Sarah Terry for president why thank you all right do we have any other nominations I'll just say all in paper well let's like we have clothes lamination first oh okay yet the declare nominations are closed sure all right well if there were no other nominations we can I feel like I can't declare that hey that's the old paper so I'll say all in favor aye abstention you don't have to abstain on your own you're allowed to vote for yourself all right it's all right well thank you everyone I'm happy to continue serving as president and again this year and we will move on to

004recommended action that the Board of Education nominate Brian Lotus for the office of Vice President of the Board of Education thank you wait Sarah did you move it I did move it okay and my rescue second cycads Irish second did all right do we have any other nominations all right we will close nominations then and when you say all in favor aye okay opposed abstain all right motion carries congratulations Brian welcome to board officers thank you and you will get the vice presidents after we're yeah Mary I was told there was a bottle of wine no this time I will verbally give the board officers their oath and then I will send them their oath to sign and by me Bert actually at a later another time if that's okay great yep Oh Tracy yes

005they sign does that have to be notarized yes it does it's to say it's the oath and we will make an appointment I make arrangements for them okay yes thank you okay so Brian and Sarah you solemnly swear or affirm that you will support the Constitution of the United States of America and the constitution of the state of New York and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the position of board president and board vice president for the term of one year according to the best of your abilities I do I do okay we are good all right thank you very much thank you my just say one thing quickly Sarah yes I want to thank you and Brian both for deciding to take on office if you continuing and Brian to to take

006on an office should officership it's so important that the board members all get an opportunity to sit in that role and appreciate the work that goes into it so I want to thank you both because I know it's a lot of work and I know you have all of our support and I can't wait to see the great things you do thank you very much I would also like to thank Andrea fury who has been vice president this year with me there was my first year in president and I was an immense help and able to lend a lot of guidance to me as I was trying to learn this role so and do so much Andrea absolutely it was it was a great opportunity working with you really but I'll continue to work with

007you all right all right well now we have moved onto into our next part which is part of the work session which is discussion of our board committees I did send everybody the different committees ahead of time and we will work through this but I do want to note that given that we have a business meeting and certainly a lot of other things in the rest of the agenda for the evening if we find that we're having some problems getting through this you know within a reasonable time frame I would suggest perhaps we table and finish assignment of committees at the board retreat so I think give us give ourselves its 712 now give ourselves about 30 minutes 30 40 minutes and and see where we get from there that work for everybody yeah great

008all right and Brian your first act as vice president and I will act asked you to kind of keep an eye on the time as we go through these things to make sure we don't go over that time we stay efficient all right so with that noted as traditionally we do we allow our newest board member to select the committees that they are interested in and would like to serve on in this coming year we generally make if I get this wrong let me know we serve on two board committees and then other committee liaisons as as your availability and your interest so great great thank you my god Oh yep yeah I was just going to say that for your for your edification if there's any questions you have about the nature of the

009what the committees are doing all the time commitment please ask for your volunteer yeah no that actually that was Thank You Neil I really appreciate you saying that because that was actually going to be my first question in terms of my question about both the committees and then some of the things like building plan planning councils because I was really interested actually in iris and Andrea and Sarah were helpful enough to help me understand what those councils do and I understand that I might have a little bit more flexibility to attend those so I wanted to because I would be very much interested in CET and PVC in the high school for the building planning councils so I wanted to weigh that against some of the other communities that might might really require a really

010significant time commitment yeah so I guess if if you want to let me know board which ones you think require the most time or and/or expertise that would be helpful I have thought about which committees I think I could probably start in the first year being helpful with but you know if you feel like you know hey there's one committee that you really need someone who can dedicate like 40 hours a week - you know just tell me that that would be helpful to know so what are you hours oh my god no but that was an exaggeration but you know what I mean you're saying hey you know this committee really this is an intensive committee and you know or or likewise I mean you can say like for example the that Communications Committee

011meets once a month and then as needed so there may be there's a yeah the audit committee is probably the lightest committee that probably meets a couple like three times a year okay and it's it's required it's it's it's a good buddy yeah Advocacy Committee is sort of again it's kind of hard to figure out what the pace of it will be you know why facing a lot of things but normally probably not more than once a month for development again maybe once a month and then like right now we're working on the retreat so we've been meeting weekly for about like an hour at a time any other committees and then policy committee oh and then the policy committee is very in-depth but we I was on it this year we didn't get a

012chance to meet that often we met both four or five times what do you think you know yeah I think probably we probably like to meet more frequently than four or five times to catch up with the work they do those committee meetings are with the administration so their time scheduling has to be with those members of administration who sit with us and probably last about two hours in evening because can't do it during the day with administration is busy doing their other work and there's a certain amount of homework that you know is hopefully done I can to do more of it because it's where I am I kind of had that area but that's about the timeframe the good thing about the policy committee is that it provides the members and particularly for

013Beth for you as a new member kind of an entree into a whole lot of different areas involving school governance right so I know iris had said one point relatively girl in her tenure there was good I remember it's good to be there because she can learn about a lot of different things and you know kind of really get a sense of what we're governed by but that's you know you may decide that you want to get your feet wet a little bit in different areas before you you go to that right that's very helpful oh I didn't mean I'm sorry the one thing I would add is that you probably the two busiest committees tend to be communications and policy so you probably wouldn't want to be in both of those that's okay that's

014very helpful thank you that's what I was just something okay and then I would say for the liaison or the different task force those are generally they can vary a little bit more or less like once a month during the school year so not usually over the summer right all right although that depends on the committee and Health and Safety is only four times a year okay and I was just going to add with advocacy I think we probably want to try and build a very strong advocacy committee this year I do believe that's something we we really need to focus on as we move forward regardless of which committees you go on the most of one of the most valuable things you can do is try to cycle through all of the committees at

015one point while you're on the board because it's just like with the officers it's really good for every board member to have a working knowledge of what each committee does so even if you say this you're okay I'm going to start off with these two you know that doesn't mean in the next you know two years that you won't cycle yourself through so you can understand how the others great yeah great well based on that feedback I I was initially going to say audit just because I'm not a you know I'm not a professional auditor but I do have a little bit of experience more than a little I I have some balance you know I have experience analyzing financial statements so there I feel like I could it would be interesting and fun and

016for me and then I was either going to say communications or advocacy so I have some flexibility there I think communications also this year are going to be crucial and for the community and have some ideas there and also around advocacy so depending on what other people meant one it I could be flexible but those were the other two areas I was very particularly interested in communications and advocacy so okay transfer question about one that I'm not sure is there and that is what is the status of the culture of respect ask force that that should be actually on there it's the yes yeah so the list that I sent that I emailed everybody that is the accurate and up-to-date list so yes do we still and I don't think we have to technology anymore

017as a committee do we do not so then on the only other thing I would reiterate is that um I'd be very eager to serve on the building planning councils iris and Andrea and Sarah helped me understand what what those councils were originally I thought those were about like literally architecture so I'm very helpful and explaining that to me and so and I think that it would be wonderful to be the board liaison is there a particular building planning council yeah if you if I if it's too many sure I could see et or PVC would be either one but I have I have two children at CET so you know it would be wonderful to be able to have another excuse to be there in the building and yeah it's great I served on

018the building Planning Council at CET for two years while Owen was there so it was it's nice to yeah to be there and and you get to interact it that the the group is made up of faculty and other parents PTA representatives so yeah it sounds like a great group so but again I can be flexible so if it turns out someone else but CET would be my first choice and then probably a PVC in high school great all righty any were there any other board Lee I don't want to you certainly don't need to take on anymore you had an interesting I'm I had done the culture of respect and I thought that was excellent coalition and also student faculty so there were a lot that I you know I can be a swing

019person for a lot of those and and re-entry but I understand that reentry has been assigned and that we're not moving those assignments but yeah so I also coalition and student faculty are to our faculty onerous yeah so absolutely I'm Sarah Sarah I don't think the Coalition is continuing I think did you mean culture of respect right I'm sorry I think the Coalition is listed and I do believe their funding expires correct doctor yes they're funding did and but we still have some carryover money that Lori Dean has been speaking about how we use and has been asking for feedback from coalition members okay yes so Sarah to clarify yes culture of respect student Falcon League Congress I would also be interested and I didn't understand coalition wasn't carrying over so okay all right so

020I bet you know student faculty Congress meets ready yeah I'm sorry at 8:00 in the morning no but I think they meet every every day every eight days yeah yeah so just so you you really I know that's why I'm saying they would prefer building planning councils like because that is probably where I you know that's what I you know that's why I'm saying building Planning Council and I could even do because those I could actually manage during a day but yeah student faculty class of Building Council would probably be a lot that would be alright great um I don't know how you would like to move on from here I can open it up to the next person who would like to eager to get their choices in Jojo I see you raising your

021hand yeah I think I would like to step off of advocacy okay this especially sounds like this people were eager on that and I think I'd like to step off of building planning council because I've been doing that a long time it's been in fact I think I've been on building planning council for all of my now nine plus years on the board so I'm gonna let that go to somebody else I think I'd like to do I like to stick with communications because I think there's work in progress I'd like to see through and given the new the the new order in which I'm working from home and probably will be for the foreseeable future I think that student faculty Congress so I like to put my head in for student faculty Congress okay

022I've done that a number of years yeah I like you know if you don't mind Neil I know you've done it a long time but you know you got building planning council Neil yes I would like to but well it depends my question is some of the building planning councils meet the same day as the board business yeah his high school one of them yes the high school always needs the same day as the business owning yeah why don't I subject obviously to what happens it work why don't I take building plan B PC in the high school because that way I can just you know make sure that I have that afternoon or day at home I have no idea whether I'll be working at home forever or Never or what but let's do

023that great okay and I'll go back again so I think I say communication student faculty Congress I we haven't talked about liaisons that Congress is liaison you still need to pick another board committee right no no I was also I was thinking about like the bicycle and pedestrian oh yeah bicycle pedestrian isn't that's a lizard that's not a committee that's a liaison thing and maybe audit audits all right well I've never done that for a while that is okay I could I did something today I said something to Tracy that almost made her fall over I said maybe I won't do policy this year but she located and so I told her I'm just joking on your face I will do policy and that's I have I mean I could go back to advocacy again

024because there will be some changes and if I'm gonna be doing westcott as I have in the past that ties in because whoever it is on that somebody from advocacy is also going to be the West but representative so I will take on those two unless somebody really wants to get into both of them or a number of people do perhaps Beth and someone else in which case you know I can move away from there those put me down for advocacy in West but yellow man and subject to obviously some change and building cleaning councils and building Planning Council in the house yes perfect all right who's next I can go next I'm just gonna look at the five standing committees I'm not worried about Julia's on five committees at this point the one committee

025I cannot do is advocacy but I applaud anyone that's willing to take on that mantle and I'm happily give you as much information that comes through my ears as possible okay well I will it is going to be a big year I would I'm willing to do any other committees in all honesty I will do I love being on board development it's one of the committees that I think is really important for our board and I really enjoy being on communications but if there are three other board members that feel it's you know time for hours to move on I'll move on Neil ljust policy but it's two hours and I am I can't do for our meetings so I can do policy but I already can't I get tired I I understand that book

026and we've been trying to start at 7:00 11:30 so they've had a little bit easier and between certainly when Betsy was there right and even when Andrea was there and Andrea would say I am telling you that you can't keep it out too late you can't believe a be out too late you have to let them go to sleep so she was always bugging me like all right I was its anyway but I mean that's something that you want to want to get back to so I can I the true that I'm onboarding more development and communication I'm more than willing to stay on both of them but if we find that there's interest in those two committees I will I will ship audit is really I did on it before I think it's a

027good entry committee so I don't I don't want to take that away from anyone it needs the lighter schedule okay so Andrea Brian so and there's like actually I think we're all gonna have to take at least three at the numbers you know I don't think two is enough so like I know I you know I worked in policy last year and I kind of felt like it was the first time I was on policy and I would kind of like to continue there because we were just getting going and I would felt like I was just getting the feel of it but I'm flexible about that I'm interested in board development and I would definitely be interested in working on advocacy so then in terms of lays on committees we'll see what people's interests

028are because we're on that my issue is kind of funny and that my work date kind of starts at 3:00 like in the afternoon and so a lot of these are afternoon the leaves on meetings are all afternoon committees so I was really getting squeezed last year so I don't know that I have as much flexibility to do a lot of those afternoon meetings that's understandable that's good so what we you know it will go through it will get everybody's choices and then we'll kind of see where we are so Brian that puts you up in terms of so in terms of our five board committees we have people we have three people who have expressed interest in advocacy to for audit to for board development three for communications and three for policy no three

029three policy right right but only two hours at a time right right okay but I know that among those baths is that's it add communications and advocacy so or at one one or the other sorry not an or so yeah one of those will swap out to you so okay I'm this was the second one on honored and Josh so I can I can do the third on audit and I can do the third on communications if that works so we've got three on communications in this bar right okay advocacy audit and communication right so Beth would you prefer communications to advocacy which which one would you prefer I prefer communications but okay when there's you know I can be flexible well I was just going to say Beth given given a lot of the

030things that you have talked about in terms of communication team an area that you've got ideas and perhaps concerns that might be something it's really good for you to hold on to I would welcome got away from Brian on the other hand I know it's something that's really been yeah it is it is something I think that needs that this son coming year is gonna be something we have to focus very very clearly on yeah yep yep I agree so yeah I just had my list drunk so how about audit and board development audit and board development perfect so then I'm gonna cross then you off of advocacy Beth awesome and while I have been on communications my whole time on the board I'm going to step back and I think a so I know

031that was it was I couldn't quite do it last year so I took on both which was which was a lot with the president and communications committee so I'm gonna step back on that but I do think that advocacy is a very important area this year so I do think that that is where I would like to focus my efforts so Theret I just have a quick question because I know over the past couple of years it's been kind of a seamless thing to have a board officer in the Communications Committee hmm so good right serve on the Communications Committee as a board officer position it just is really so well we can't have a fourth we can only have three people he's not a um if he serves there if he's on two if

032he comes to the Communications Committee he's coming as an officer not as an ex-officio not as a member yeah okay we can talk about that because that had actually gotten some conflicting feedback on that when we did when I did training through West but with regard to the ex-officio and whether or not that was right I think it does still become a coram issue you think it becomes a coram issue Andrea do you have the book that I have that discussed is it fun of me but I'll look into it yeah yeah cuz the we actually have the book I think it's from the lawyers that allows that because then you're not a voting man but that being said I know cuz that being said I think I don't know Sara I just I think

033it's a good idea for a board officer to be on the Communications Committee I I mean and I don't disagree with that I just yeah it was I was trying to to to let it go myself this year so I know you know listen I can step off of communication if Josh feels he has a good enough handle on where we are and can carry the muster so that we don't go we don't start fishtailing because you would have bet then brian those new members to new members on the committee and remember we're only talking board communications we're not doing district communications right so for board communications would you feel comfortable watch ticking that yeah sure I'll step off communications and that way you have an officer on it but we've got to keep it

034tight you don't do we're not the district communicators with a for communicators does that work for you Brian I can do that okay so then in that case though why don't I take over board development and I will join iris and Andrea and board developments which we generally have usually had board officers on but we didn't last year so just Andrea was our application though uh no but yeah it sounded as though Beth you did you feel like the communications was for community no I have I have contributions I'd like to make for the board got it and I have separate concerns about communications to the community from the district but I understand that this community doesn't address that well but it does address also communications from the community to the war yes right stations

035by the board to the community yeah exactly yeah okay yeah yeah thank you Brian for clarifying that Thank You Neal for reiterating my concern so okay you'll take on setting that up sure Brian vision sure I'm so what I have on my list let's make sure we're all right advocacy beef Andrea Sarah all right correct sorted Beth Josh Brian Kretsch communications Beth Josh Brian that's for development iris Andrea Sarah correct policy me Andrea iris correct correct well I didn't say now I'm on ok now hold on you're on - yeah no no I policy was it ok I'm good yeah you're good as long as you're on policy I try to send lots I know actually just man Louie look at progress last year we really did a lot of stuff until we closed down

036no we were we were flying so we'll just keep that up in September you know as soon as we're all back together all right well I think so I think we've got our board committees settled yeah ok and then so that will require you know the members of those committees you guys can Circle up after this meeting and the following days to start to plan first meetings and figure out chairs and set meeting schedules etc things like that and that could just be reported back - I do have one thing I have to interject communications I didn't foresee stepping off of communications there's a meeting set up with John Griffis Denis and a couple of other folks John do you remember with the data we were doing the Town Hall pre-planning setting yeah we're setting

037the goal for the Town Hall on diversity and inclusion so the three board members that are stepping on to that committee in someone do you remember what day it is John yes it's Friday July 17th at nine am so if one of the three of you can decide or you could do that meeting Thanks Oh perfect Josh and so and Josh I think you were on it with me as the goals anyway to set the God for them yeah I think so yeah so it works perfect yeah so you guys can set the goal but the goal will address fried this is Friday the yeah I I have it on my cat as at 7:00 a.m. is that right well 7:00 a.m. where you're at baby okay 90 yeah Josh Josh make sure that when

038you put it on your calendar can you get back east it doesn't change it showing up at 11:00 it's actually already showing on my calendar at 7 a.m. which means that it's actually at that's it I am what I am gonna do is I'm gonna act binder to myself so that I may actually remember that the meeting is that all right so we've got our board committees squared away and we did that in in pretty good time we have a couple of district committee liaisons outstanding so if I can just kind of run through we do have a liaison for bike pedestrian that's Josh will continue with that building planning councils Beth if you would like to do CET Josh no Neil's doing on the high school and I would actually really like to take

039on PVC since it'll be Owens first year there so I will go with that culture of respect so Beth I know that was an interest of yours but if you're doing CET building planning councils I don't want to overload you with things is there anyone else who would like to do culture respect I've done it this past year I'm happy to step back if someone else would like to join that I'm interested right yeah it's a fantastic group and I think you're the one the one question for you Andrea is I presume that is in after school 3:30 to 5:00 something right so I'll just like take one of them or maybe two but no more than that yeah and there are always like if people you know if we need to sub in sometimes

040right I think most of us haven't had an issue with that like I can't make this one could someone else who do we have a backup or someone who else who could fill in as well the sustainability committee on that one that's interesting Ryan awesome yeah we'll do that okay health and safety committee I'm on it yeah all right um lunch committee if we Denise do you foresee that we will continue to need that for at least part of the year that in this coming year you're on mute yes and I would say partially due to Kovac 19 and the re-entry issues that we may face with that right um I'm happy to remain on that unless someone else would like to step in there there I can step in there or we can tag-team

041if you prefer I'm just worried that you might have quite a bit on your plate usually the board officer is that on so many committee you know I know I listen is banding committees I do have two standing committees but so yeah I'm happy to tag-team that with you okay yeah re-entry task force since we just assigned those in June we will maintain those ires ires me and Andrew yeah yes and so then the steering committee what we did last year given them that was new was that because it comprises the sustainability culture of respect Health and Safety Andreea served as the rep there because she was on the sustainability committee so if we wanted to continue following me that we would just select one of the representatives from one of those committees to also

042serve on the ste in committee if that works I either Brian or Josh or either Brian or Josh or yes right or no yeah Andrea who's on cultural respect which one are we talking about no the steering committee wellness yes well the committee's feed into the steering committee oh okay I forgot that we had reorganized this do we need to I mean honestly what happiness is carry each the head of each group asks you know members to be on it so that's she asked me to do it but I don't know what the guidelines are in terms of board members if it has to be from there or from the preference my liaison right each committee chooses a liaison to serve on the steering committee the board member can be the liaison or the board

043member can be you know just a board member liaison okay it's a great committee I can try that one sure I like to steer alright and then so student faculty Congress that will be Josh and West putt liaison will be Neil right oh yes best you though were preferring a building planning council to a student faculty Congress right because soon you're muted bat o'clock in the morning yeah sorry I'd prefer I prefer CET building planning okay perfect take her off all right all right so who's on PVC building Planning Council that's Mara Erin oh okay and I know we enlisted BOCES there really hasn't been a whole lot but I will be the person who and interface with BOCES to the extent there is any thing that comes up and I can tag team with

044you you know girl yeah it's usually good to have a couple because those evening meetings great alright so guys I think we did it and we did it working yes you had mentioned coalition right and David said that there's still a little bit of work that's being done more money that that war Dean there's still some funds left but will we need a board liaison for that I can touch base with Laurie Dean to see the status of where we are with the coalition if you'd like and get back to you okay it's honest tonight am i right about this I feel like the meetings were not convenient for any board member so the liaisons just basically we're on the email chain to keep track of what was going on and ask questions but I

045don't know if we actually did any board member attend the meetings last year I kinda think so yeah I don't think so you know I think I was the rep and I don't call okay yeah hey alright so that thank you everyone thanks for everybody thinking goes through got through that very well alright so now we will move on to the consent agenda for the reorganization meeting recommended action that the Board of Education approve all items under the consent agenda for the reorganization meeting as presented moved second on the question certainly nevermind all good alright anyone have questions all in favor all right opposed you're opposed Beth or no no I okay abstain motion carries then great all right and now we will move on to now we are moving into our regular meeting we

046are a little bit ahead of schedule which is nice so first up in the regular meeting will be our hearing of the public and I did get a letter from a community member that I will read for hearing of the public so we had a letter in from Adam reader who lives in the village and the letter said that I believe this New York Times article that he attached and that will the article was titled in the kovat 19 economy you can have a kid or a job you can't have both it was an op-ed piece in The New York Times this past week I believe this New York Times article eloquently summarizes some of the big concerns working parents faced with the decisions around school reopening if it's possible for me to request it

047to be submitted for consideration in the reentry Committee that would be appreciated one point it does not directly address is that with the various phases of reopening the requirements of the vast majority of places of work restaurants theaters etc as exceptions are vastly easier to open and get going than areas associated with children's school aftercare etc this mismatch not only forces working parents to make decisions about leaving the workforce but it will also lead to some just some making less than safe decisions on child care that will expose those kids to greater risk and therefore the school as a whole on the days they do attend I strongly believe that if the states shut down most workplaces then yes school needs to be virtual but if more most workplaces can open then school has to

048match that if it does not then we risk spreading the infection more than if the kids are there that was Adams letter into the community and I sent the article around to all of you and to administration as well okay and now we will move on to the superintendent's report and I will turn it over to dr. O'Connell you are on mute Deb off to a good start my family only wishes they could do that well welcome and good evening everyone and welcome Beth to the board congratulations to Sarah and Brian and Thank You Andrea for your service as vice vice president again yeah I don't even know how you can clock the hours that the board officers spend with administration so thank you now Brian I didn't mean to scare you away by saying

049that as I see you darting out of the room but I like to start with a quote and now we welcome the new year full of things that have never been so I'm very excited for our new year and again it does come with perhaps some challenges perhaps some new opportunities and I just look forward to working closely with our board of education in our community our faculty and staff and most importantly our students so I have a few items on my agenda to address today and I'll call upon my assistant superintendents as well as with our communication plan with our school reentry task force I I will be sharing with each meeting in my superintendents report information relative to the task force work and our re-entry our task force that worked diligently through June

050really starting and then in June we are going to reconvene next week as we've mentioned I'm sure as you've read the governor has not come out yet with anything in terms of an executive order relative to school reopening and also the New York State Education Department has finished their regional meetings and they we anticipate hearing something from out of that office after July 13th so right now we don't have anything in terms of an executive order or anything out of New York State Ed nonetheless we are going to reconvene as a task force next week and the week after that we've scheduled two meetings and as I know the public has been following our task force has several key focus areas just to reiterate in case somebody is joining in for the first time we

051have health and safety two areas there one of the physical plant and the other students and staff protocols under teaching and learning that focus area we have several areas assessment of the learning plan instructional program social and emotional needs and sports and extracurricular the other focus areas key focus areas who are staff training and then transportation of students so we're one large task force and then we have subgroups within that task force that have different focus areas but we communicate as one object force and one of our previous communications we basically looked at three possible scenarios for September 1 where there's a reopening of school 100% in-person learning with no physical distancing requirements or other mitigation factors that would be the beautiful scenario however way in which we're hearing from various states or different communications

052we need to be also examining other scenarios such as a hybrid in-person / remote type of scenario which considers physical distancing also a third scenario which might be a total elearning remote learning without in person so the task force is examining different scenarios what's involved in that and I thank our community member for sending us that article we'll be certain to include that article on send it off to our task force members we do this often with good good pieces we see or hear about we share with our task force members so thank you so much for sharing that with us as you can imagine we're spending a lot of time as a task force looking at the different scenarios and the implications of each as the board knows we've launched two surveys we're putting

053the final touches on creating the executive summaries of those of those surveys and we thank the community for taking part in that that information will be given to the task force that information will also be shared with the board as well as the public we'll be putting it on our website we have a landing page dedicated to school reopening reentry and we're housing all of our information there so again thank you those were two of our internal surveys that were developed by the task force based on their conversations and when they got to a point and said wouldn't it be nice if we just had some feedback in this area that is basically how we determined what kinds of information we were looking at in terms of our internal surveys but you may have noted

054this week we did launch a k-12 alert which talked about a regional survey it's a very short survey but we're using a tool called thought exchange program Harmon has joined the region on participating in this in this survey with thought exchange and twelve other districts so the twelve other districts were listed in the in the k-12 alert and I'm very excited to see what the information what kind of information we could glean from that it's as I said a regional survey and I am one of the members of the team that will look at the results that emerge from from that the taskforce wanted to also have regional information what are some of the thinking from the region with that said looking forward to seeing what those results are so next week I believe it's

055Wednesday the task force is meeting and the following week after that it's the Tuesday that we're meeting it is our hope that in the meanwhile we continue our conversations that also some guidance will be coming out so that's my school reentry task force update the next item I have on our mind list today I'm going to ask John Griffis if he would share a little bit about the NYU metropolitan center for research on equality and the transformation of schools and I'm very excited about our work in this area so John would you share sure thank you dr. O'Connell and good evening board members yes the the Metropolitan Center for Research on equity and the transformation of schools thank good is shorten most people using the vernacular the NYU Metro Center it is a group of

056researchers out of NYU Steinhardt school of education and their executive director of Westchester resident Natalie's burger is somebody that I had the opportunity to see on numerous occasion as a dr. O'Connell and really really impressed us on how she really started to engage administrators and other school officials in the area of equity diversity inclusivity and she's been doing really wonderful work with her colleagues with other school districts so we began the process of really inquiry and what kind of work they could do to benefit the Curtin Harmon schools as a research organization they separate the areas of research they do in terms of equity in education in terms of nine discrete areas that of student performance teacher capacity parent engagement and empowerment immigrant transitional education cultural and linguistic diversity gender identity constructs academic abilities and

057engagement teacher and student career pathways and community stakeholder models they do not enter our district with any cookie cutter approach on how to work with us they very very much are interested in going through a period of consultation evaluation of structures that we have in place before they start to make reviews and recommendations on things from community engagement to building task force to professional development and teacher education we do have a date on our calendar where Natalie's worker will begin this process with the district on August 5th with the administrative team I did mention to the to Natalie's burger doctor's worker and she's very excited to hear that as the Board of Education the work that she is doing is aligned with the goals of you as a board and is very very exciting and

058willing to work with the board in terms of you know and within the constructs of you as a as a governing body to consider how she might support and help on unfold the goals of the Board of Education as well John I have one quick question just because a lot of we've been hearing from the public is is there going to be any examination of curriculum yes definitely that's that's definitely part of the work when it actually you know makes sense to enter the work is not something that's prescribed because it's very very much a part of assessing the culture and readiness but certainly I think we would all say that in the age that we're living in it is something that is prioritized and hopefully something we would move towards in the short term

059John thank John also I am a question related that so is the scope of the work intended to be how long before we can start to see some of the thought leadership that would result from this collaboration impacts curriculum you know flowing back to like our professional development plans even edification for the board so is this like a year-long scope or is this you know a couple months and so thank you that's an excellent question and I appreciate it the the the work that we have basically engaged in will be an annual process is certainly the districts that have engaged with them having you know chosen to go on to subsequent years but certainly from what I have heard from my colleagues it has been within the scope of the first year that they've really

060started to do substantive work in the area that has shown positive results right so we so theoretically within a year we could see the input the output of this collaboration and flow into professional development for our teaching staff curriculum changes enhancements that would reflect some of the areas of need in our community I mean I'm anticipating that the the we'll be beginning within the course of the school year so yes I would say yes we would see the beginning of this work starting to take place within 2020 2021 and I think natalie is also going to have the opportunity to reflect on the work we've done already as a faculty we've had several consultants work with us over time I'm thinking of Devon Thornburg's work I know Karen is on this this call I believe

061as well the zoom meeting and she worked very closely with bringing Devon Thornburg and his work in when we looked at microaggressions and cultural competencies and and I think what was going to be very exciting about the work natalie is going to be doing with us is really helping us pull that all together you know see HHS met had great faculty presentations we've had Glisan come in and work with our understanding of LGBTQ how do we pull it all together so these pieces of great opportunities we've had as a district so that's another thing I'm hoping that Natalie's work with our district is going to be able to further enhance what we've already been engaged in how do we strengthen it how do we you know make them seem less episodic and more of a

062woven thread in in our work so I'm really very very very excited when we first met Natalie I was hoping she wasn't going to be too stretched stretched and thinly that she wouldn't be able to fit us in so I'm very excited thank you John for that leadership in in getting her to be able to work with our district and I'm sorry one just one last question is the scope of the work going to encompass anyone who relates to a student ie bus drivers lunch aides custodial staff anyone who has impact to a student there is it limited only to administrators and educators no no the work is definitely systemic okay I can't say what our timeline would be and if that is and to what degree there's an intensity of work throughout the system

063within the first year I would I would really just infer from the multi-year work that other districts are doing that that there is a timeline and I'm really not sure exactly how that will play out but I do know that the intention of the work is to be systemic great great John I'm Debbie have a quick question so just in terms of wrapping my brain around what they're gonna do at New York NY you midgel syntek Mitchell Center so it's sort of like when we had the culture of respect come in and they do it I can audit up your systems they'll say this is where you are this is your desired state and these are what you need to do to get to that state or is it a little different I believe that's

064part of it I think I think a lot of it you know because of the sensitivity and the difficulty of this work I think that they really work typically within a small a smaller group of where there's of the readiness and start to really build understanding on conversations within a core group and then really begin to think about how to learn from that core group and how to then move out from that epicenter to the larger culture so that's been my understanding of their methodology but once again I recite I think it really is about them spending time within the culture of our district to really learn and then discuss with us the best approach moving forward I think that was one of the attracting attractive pieces to it it wasn't cookie cutter and to

065your point John and through that assessment what Natalie will see when she's with us and here about you know the various pieces of Croton Harman what she comes up with as our next steps to and then just one last thing because I for me it's about the children and it's always should be for me about the kids so and being around kids these last couple of months and just hear that will she be working with or is there any indication that they look at how the children how to students interact then the behaviors and any parent workshops because a lot of I mean the system is one thing right but that's one thing that can be fixed but the way the kids interact with one another is to me more lasting yeah and and and

066and I would say that the work has to go there I mean I think that that's an important part of the work you know I think once again I don't know exactly you know just to say that that happens in April of 2021 is not something we can forecast but I think that what starts to happen is new conversations with doctors worker we started to really start a prioritized focus so I think if we say one of the priorities really are you know within this cohort the way students are treating with each other I think she would be okay let's talk about that let's let's see how we could get a lens in on that let's see how we could get a bigger understanding of the nature of the culture and what might be propagating

067that so that we could think of interventions that really start to educate students on on on alternate ways of approaching each other so I think well there's a tremendous interest in this topic and rightly so I'm very very happy that we started these conversations months and months ago before the climate within our country is where it is now so that we really take an opportunity of this relationship I don't know what would be like if we try to really engage a conversation with the NYU Metro Center you know in the present tense and just start a relationship I do know is that I'll be very very interested to learn more on August 5th and certainly if it's a topic of interest we could dr. Connell I could really bring back our learnings from that first

068meeting and really further update you on exactly you know how that went and we appreciated yes very much so second in Incheon I just want to say it the fact that I was in a meeting with you for it was the diversity and it's a diversity and I don't know the DI group that's not the DI group that the village the village has and you were yeah and you were already talking and making this connection back I think it was last September and it really is going to bear fruit and the one thing that you really brought up in that meeting that I think it's so important for our district is that you really have to go deep and spend the time there aren't any you know quick fixes and the fact that it's going

069to be so individualized and so thoughtful I'm really looking forward to this so I thank you very much yeah and I want to echo I would rather you take however long it takes then rush just to say we did it so I'm supportive of how what you know helping wherever we can and however we can I don't want to just rush through it that's that serves no purpose well thank you and you know it might be another opportunity we're always looking for opportunities to partner with the village and you know we we've set that relationship up already and if that's still in existing committee for the village it might be a great opportunity for us to partner again with you know at some point as we've done like the culture of respect and etc so

070I can connect my next statement directly to the NYU Metro Center because my next topic is the regional equity and diversity coalition and steering can for platinum Northern Westchester BOCES so as you can imagine the conversations that are ongoing with superintendents we reached out to BOCES to say we want to form a coalition and therefore we have of course with every coalition a steering committee of such so I've joined my colleagues from the region in forming the regional equity and diversity coalition and I'm very happy that I can serve on the steering committee we've met twice already and just to share our mission the equity and diversity regional coalition will promote equity and celebrate diversity by pipe and to provide learning opportunities for all stakeholders to ensure anti-bias and anti-racist communities and our vision and

071value statement is as follows as a regional equity and diversity coalition we recognize the importance of each child and the reliance upon our educational institutions to ensure social social justice as a result we weren't we will ensure that each student feels that he she or they is a valued member of our school community we will collaborate across districts to leverage resources for all cultivate and raise student voice create policy structures and curriculum to support our mission and acknowledge the emotions of all members of our school community and I'm really excited to be able to serve on that to see how the strength of our collective you know can result in to your point iuris not just the check the box and we've done this but something that is deep and rich and how can we

072leverage the strength of other other districts in this important work you know can we leverage joining districts together I remember one of the statements the students made when I met with a few weeks ago was about you know how we have sister schools in France then we have a sister school in Spain but we have a sister school that's closer you know and you know looking at you know again leveraging the strengths of each other and to build each other up so I'm looking forward it's really deepening the work in the region because it will also deepen the work with the district initiatives that we have ongoing so keeping with a certain theme is the culture of respect and so that's my next topic and I wanted to chunk those three pieces together we reconvened

073our culture of respect task force a few weeks ago and we opened the meeting by reviewing our mission statement and the charge of our committee and we did so purposefully because as the name implies it is about a culture of respect and so as a taskforce we wanted to look at our mission and our mission does talk specifically about prevention of sexual assault bullying and harassment we just wanted to make sure we felt it as you know district administrators that you know given what's going on in in our society in our world you know currently is there room to broaden our work with the culture of respect we felt it was like a perfect fit but we didn't want to just assume so we reconvened that the task force and facilitated discussion about our role

074and we asked two questions what is our role in this din in the district and in the community and how do we broaden our scope to create a strong all-encompassing culture of respect and the sense of consensus of the group was definitely to broaden our scope of our work to encompass the issues of race and bigotry and we clearly saw the connection between the efforts to create an environment in our schools and community free of sexual violence of course but also ready to combat hatred and racism so I think our culture of respect Task Force for twenty twenty one school year is poised to wrap our work around this and I'm really hoping that between the the work of the NYU Metro Center the work of the regional equity diversity coalition in the region as

075well as our culture of respect that we keep our focus on these very very important pieces and I'm really hoping that and really pumped that the three can really show great results moving forward I'm gonna pause there for a second because those were three pretty meaty items of along with the re-entry task force I'm gonna change gears slightly now to summer programs and summer construction but just to pause for a second in case you had any questions I just would like to make a statement if anybody wants to join me on the culture of respect now that is even in broader I think we could there's always room for two board members on that committee so just putting that out there okay I would like to join if they expand it to include that I

076mean there's someone else Brian where you getting ready to say something no okay yeah I would gladly if I can make it I know you guys normally meet during the day which makes it sometimes difficult yeah we're um we usually right after school because we try to accommodate students now sometimes I will say the students they sometimes come to our culture of respect task force meetings sometimes they'll work with is Traci through their student activism group and then they report out what they did at their student activism group at our culture of respect task force so they've they've used both avenues sometimes they're present and sometimes they are not so I'm gonna transition to just to give a brief update on our summer programs I know Karen godoh is I think she was with us

077I think you know for God's sakes I think she has the the best time timing for jumping right off I'm gonna throw it to you an update on summer programs it would be my pleasure so we we are a 12-month operation we do have students who with individual education plans who are part of our esy extended school year program that did start a last week on July 1st this is its first full week of operation we do have about six students from CET attending esy virtually out of 13 that were invited of in addition to those six that we do have for special class students that are attending a live and face-to-face instruction every day at TBC we did send out 27 invitations and have 21 participants and at the high school there were six

078that qualified for esy and three are attending they are are as I said for the most part receiving their services virtually this summer with the exception of CET special class we do have 12 staff members covering a wide range of service and services from special class teachers to specialized math and reading to ot speech and language physical therapy behavioral consultations in addition to our esy program we also are running our PVC summer learning camps every those academic summer camps are provided to students today is the second day of the ela writing camp that's being run by Kara Herbert and Matthews Inman upcoming throughout the summer we will go move on to a Creative Writing camp two sessions of a math skills camp a math think camp a math enrichment camp and attend a Regents science

079prep course each one of those are at capacity with between 20 and 23 enrolled for those online opportunities join quick question are those this is just a new board member question are those open to everybody that the camps portion or those specifically are specifically for certain students so some are targeted yet you know as as the interest is expressed I know that why mr. Plotkin does his best to accommodate a wherever those interests okay specifically the camps and then there are no CET camps that's correct okay and is that just because of resources or this is a pilot program and we're you know we're testing out to see if this is something that could be available to the other buildings the other grade levels the history history is really has been to summer programs existing

080within the middle school structure okay oh those opportunities for you know people as they're transitioning into the middle school but there has not been to the the similar kind of summer opportunities traditionally we do run a summer opportunities for CET students in the form of hosting camp opportunities but but they have not been academic opportunities they haven't been academic okay great thank you and if if I could have Denise give us a summer construction update in the evening so our unoccupied buildings have certainly aided in our construction progress as you know we are in our third and final year of our little project and product gross is well underway we are at the high school we're doing some case work in the art rooms upgrading the library bathroom renovations as well as some general abatement

081at PVC we're installing a guardrail in front of the windows at the library for safety purposes fire dampeners we're working in the gym also adding some path lighting by the tennis courts as well as some work in the crawl space and on our piping at CET we are doing some exterior masonry repairs we have replaced the floor in the main corridor and other HVAC work and case work as well and then district-wide we're replacing doors and doing overall HVAC work so I just want to commend our construction management firm Barone construction our architect ksq and of course our Director of Facilities Paul Gibbons it has been a very very challenging time amidst the kovat environment and we are getting new regulations daily that changed all operations certainly the screening and social distancing requirements require that

082everyone is escorted and certain areas are cleaned promptly afterwards so they have just done an incredible job and and now we're you know beginning the second phase of that work and then thereafter we will begin preparing our buildings for hopefully a September return Denyce I have a quick question can you explain why the asbestos removal didn't go forward with CET and that PVC was that around was it around these new restrictions with Cova door was it you know actually we had discovered some unanticipated extensive abatement at the high school that required a considerable change order so as as when we have change orders we're always looking for ways to compensate us we end the this project we are very tight on our financial schedule so they revile you ated some of the the items that

083were were in our bids some of which were actually contingent items so what they did was they did a really an honor our architect and construction manager and quest which is our abatement consultant and they looked at other areas that could possibly though we had hoped to do some work there there was there was no disturbance everything was intact and there was no safety or otherwise concern so we chose to hold off on those areas they are they are not at all a safety risk it was just a matter of a preference we we wanted to move forward with but at this late in the phase of the project and being so tight financially that we chose to hold off on that okay great thanks for reading the safety aspect of it yeah that concludes

084my report so that was a lengthy superintendent report right while we had you all here and sitting ducks here we figured let's give you a business a piece of everything that's going on so thank you so much thank you know that was a very very good overview of all the many things we've gotten going on summer might be summer vacation for the kids but it's certainly not a slow time for our administrators and stuff so we thank you for very robust update and now a question Sara before I have a question for Denise um Aneesh you said this was a third and final year of our of what our the to 2016 bond authorization oh no again it was initially four years but we compressed the schedule for financial purposes and decrease the timeline from

085four years to three years so this is the final year of that capital bond authorization okay I was I was thinking you were referring to the building condition survey and I'm like I so I just want them to make your clarification thank you that that will come up in about three years the annex building conditional no that will come up this year yes oh I thought they extended it well actually yes we have a an upgrade but no decision has been made on that and they are talking about the visual inspection in place of the building condition survey though we because we are five years out we will probably do a modified building condition survey at X the least okay so I'll put that on our list because waiting iris was just the way the

086state changed all we were ready and up for it and I change the dates so we really feel we need to have you know even if it's our own version of that in order to make good sound decisions moving forward okay thank you all right any other questions or we will move on to ongoing business all right so moving on to ongoing business recommended action that the Board of Education approves the amended 2020 2021 board of education meetings calendar as presented don't move clacking on the question you just explained what what's changed absolutely so what we've changed here is the July work session yep the original work session date was July 23rd and we are moving that to July 14th to coincide with our board retreat as we have done in our July work sessions

087in the past we will use that work session as our retreat time so that is the change there and just so for completeness I had started to mention the fact that I was going since we're talking about the calendar and moving the date of the 14th I was wondering should we move the retreat back an additional week but there are all kinds of problems with moving it so I won't be proposing that we moved it from the 4th we won't need to change the calendar edgy great all right any other questions okay all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries right now move on to 6.2 recommended action resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the 2020 2021 building use waiver fee for Croton Academy of the Arts and be it further resolved that

088the use of the district's facilities are subject to any and all federal state and/or local laws and or regulations related to the reopening of schools and the use and/or reopening of school facilities during the cove at nineteen pandemic which may result in the denial rescission and or modification of any facilities use requests thank you on the question all in favor aye opposed abstain dan abstain as well motion carries two abstentions there were two abstentions Andrea and I okay great 6.03 recommended action resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the 2020 2021 building use waiver fee for the Girl Scouts of America Croton troops and be it further resolved that the use of the district's facilities are subject to any and all federal state and/or local laws and or regulations related to the reopening of

089schools and the use and/or reopening of school facilities during the cove of 19 pandemic which may result in the denial rescission and or modification of any facilities use requests okay on the question i just want to call the the board's attention to the fact that i will be opposing this building use waiver and the next one for the same reason that i have over the past several years which is that both the Girl Scouts Boy Scouts continue to have items in their oath for participants they require acknowledgement of a deity and I just don't think that's appropriate for something that is done inside of the schools not much bit of an external power outside of outside of the human being who is making the oath is Israel wigeon and I just can't see voting for

090such a waiver all in favor opposed one abstain motion carries thank you we'll move on to 6.4 recommended action resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the 2020 2021 building use waiver fee for the Boy Scouts of America Croton units and be it further resolved that the of the district's facilities are subject to any and all federal state and/or local laws and or regulations related to the reopening of schools and the use and/or reopening of school facilities during the kovat 19 pandemic which may result in the denial rescission and or modification of any facilities use requests second on the question all in favor all right I oppose just abstain motion carries all right thank you now we will move on to 6.5 recommended action that the Board of Education approves of the bond resolution

091as presented in this is the transportation bond on the question did I get a second second thank you on the question so this is the idea so make sure I totally understand this and and also that the public tour even says this is the resolution to actually go ahead and issue the bond that was approved by the public in the recent school election correct correct formality any other questions all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries all right thank you we will now move on to donations recommended action that the board of education gratefully accepts a donation of two hundred and fifty dollars from Agnes Zaharias as a contribution to the Christos Tahari a scholarship fund at the Croton farm in high school boob okay on the question one question which is I know we're

092accepting that's now would I just don't remember on the list is this a an award or a scholarship that was provided at the senior award ceremony a week week and a half ago or is this a different award I believe so I'm not certain but I believe so yes you believe it is one that has already been awarded to a student okay I'll be honest meal I don't recall hearing that I don't either iris I'm speaking of listening through the the virtual event yeah okay well if there is a scholarship that has not been awarded but this is a scholarship or which funding will be provided for next year that's also fine I just was wondering well I won't even get back to the board on that okay all in favor aye aye opposed abstain

093motion carries all right thank you very much we always like to thank our donors for thinking of our school district and supporting our schools we very much appreciate it we will now move on to item number 8 which is instructional personnel and 8.1 recommended action that the Board of Education approves the instructional personnel appointment of James Casey special education teacher at the Carey E Tompkins elementary school as presented so moved second on the question all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries 8.2 recommended action and that the Board of Education approves the part-time instructional personnel appointments for the 2020 2021 school year as presented so moved second on the question all in favor hi I oppose abstain motion carries and now we're on to 8.3 recommended action that the Board of Education approves the appointment

094of dr. Deborah O'Connell as superintendent of schools for the Croton Hartman's School District as presented ok on the question Oh in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries all right and we will know that we are now onto the consent agenda portion of the meaning recommend an action that the Board of Education approves all items under the consent agenda as presented so moved second on the question I would just like to point out Sarah that item number nine point one eight the budget increase there was a slight change from our originally produced board report so every year our budget increases by any amounts that were utilized through our reserve funds so we had originally had a figure of 1 1 million 5 6 559 102 and that number has since been changed to the 1

095million 561 oh wait we in our last check run had dispersed some additional money related to the phone upgrade at PD 3 and C et in high school so that number has changed slightly and just just to explain this year through our capital reserve fund we did all of the work at the CET survery and the PVC cafeteria as well as the installation of phones into all of our classrooms in of our buildings so this monetary amount reflects that work thank you very much for the update okay any other questions all in favor aye aye opposed abstain motion carries we are now moving into the closing of the meeting and which we will start off with board reports I for development I don't know if you had additional items regarding the retreat report oh yes

096I do thank you so as know together we will finalize it we we meet one last time Andrea and myself and I guess Brian you'll be joining us hopefully on day morning I'll send you the end by we're going to no actually sir yeah it's me actually Brian's communications so we're going to meet and we'll so what's another final notice so that everyone knows then has worked put together a fantastic agenda for us the purpose of the retreat is new beginnings as we welcome new board members it's also going to be a new way of educating and a new way of Education being provided in the district so it's really a theme is going to be about new looking at things in a new way we one of the things I would like board members

097to think about and this is with Amy what are our protocols and our procedures and I would like to get clarity and confirmation but we would like to get clarity and confirmation from the board we've noticed sometimes like within the past two weeks there's been some email exchanges that go back and forth a little or questions are being asked in a way where the chain of command is not clear clearly set forth so we want to I think reiterate our you know like we do the mission and vision what are our protocols and so we all start the year off on the same page so just think about the protocols and we'll touch base with them briefly during the retreat if it is virtual you don't have to worry about get it out of your

098refrigerator if it's in person gonna send me my dinner I was in charge of the food to miss anything but the one thing is though there will be like a dinner part of so you probably want to have some snacks or something that you you know we're gonna break bread not to worry I sent over some Indian well Traci is really good at getting those right so we should be a see but I'm yeah there will be a dinner break inserted into the agenda as well so that I think is really we're gonna look at effective board meetings and as always they have some really fun activities to engage incident for team-building and just to get to know everybody a little bit better and just how we can really work most effectively with each other

099in Andrea and iris this is for the meeting next week correct just a yeah this is next week's meeting okay yeah this is the meeting on the 14th yeah just a reminder I'm not going to be back yet yes you joining us virtually I will join you virtually yeah and I will allso unlikelihood be joining virtually just because of I'm high risk for kovin and a daughter who is high risk for covent as well so yes yeah no so is it going to be that those who did not already say they are not going to be there actually that is Josh Beth and Brian the remainder of the participants will be gathering or will also in the air up in here okay most likely it's going to be virtual because there's so many parts that

100are not able to join in person that you know we want to have a meaningful experience so everyone can get involved so most likely will be virtual but we do want to check in with our clothes and the activities were planned with an eye to the fact that we might have to pivot to virtual at the last minute so it there's really it's going to be a pretty seamless transition to virtual for poor BOCES or BOCES friends okay hey thank you great well if any finalization details looking forward to it Brian you will be at the retreat you just want you can't do lie yes yes I will attend right all right great so moving on to next board report which is communications oh sorry Andrea just clarify one thing iris what can you tell

101everybody what time we're starting just because I know it's p.m. right now we have it set to go from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. it's a three hours it's up it's three hours of hard work we didn't think starting at 7:00 to 10:00 would be wise because around 9 o'clock everyone will start getting punchy so yeah we don't know I have a huge night out yeah ball in the school year night owl supper in the school year yeah so yeah yeah so usually the the learning curve dips quickly at 9:00 o'clock so we didn't want to go beyond 9:00 for that is I'll have a lot of chocolate on him yeah not a bland bad plan for all of us all right cookies so now we'll move on to communications which is sticking with you iris

102okay what communications at our last meeting we've been discussing two main topics at where at the last meeting the one was the town hall that we would like I'm calling it a town hall but it might not actually be a town hall so please don't get confused by the terminology we want to have some sort of community meeting on the issues of race and diversity but we don't know yet exactly what that's going to look like so Josh and John and the rest of the Communications Committee will be taking on that we sort of looking at the format for the meeting so that's really where we are with we're in the planning stage for that community meeting the other thing we discussed is some of the look yes Andrew I'm sorry I was just going

103to say there may be an opportunity to sort of dovetail with you know with the culture of respect might be an opportunity you know to sort of I mean we'll see how that goes but there may be some issues that we we can find out what are some of the you know pertinent issues that the community is interested in right through that that committee because it you know it involves students and and parents and community members so there might be an opportunity there that's great Andrea mm-hmm good point and then we've been you know just discussing some other communications and there are some I wanted to pass the baton as well with the Communications Committee we do need to revisit and look at the black cow that was something I will actually send the three

104board members a list of issues that we need to that we were in the process of working on so that there's continuity but remember the black cow is something that we constantly said we need to look through as well as board evaluations self evaluation of our board yes and Josh will be there as well for continuity with with Brian and Beth so you guys won't be yeah totally on your own and feel free to of course reach out to Iris or I for things that that we were that were on topic or discussed last year that that we could provide any insight or background on alright yeah I don't think we've had any other boards any other board committees that have met Neil has party met policy has not met and what we will do

105in the near future is now that I know it's iris and Andrews find sometimes find some dates and then be able to bring administrators together the portion of our ongoing review of policies based on the news Malloy is now but we really didn't get through the instructional and student area and we were going to go on this new student area the five thousand and we were going to give in hit the six and seven thousand which will require Kinesis participation does that serve the areas of her responsibilities but we'll see and try to figure out when people are available and try to do it I think well I'm gonna try to do something well before mid-august at the first meeting because I know it's always going to be very busy this summer but as you

106get closer to the end of August it will be even more busy for administration yeah and if there are any policies that will be it that are impacted by the eLearning that's something we should start Mabel we we've already dealt with that insofar as we made changes based on what had been recommend by news for him that area but if there are others we will will you know put them at the top of the pile yeah great alright well that would then conclude our board reports like I said earlier yep can I just jump back to communications for one moment so late myself a note communications I need you to get in touch with Greg Cavallari so that you have the ask the BOE password so that when members of the community send and questions

107on the ask the BOE it comes to you and once you've determined who's going to be your chair so that you can start filtering and answering those questions so yeah reach out to Greg as soon as possible I actually may have an email from Greg that gives the instructions on how to get access to that so if I I will look through my email tonight if I have that I will send that to everyone so that you all have access because the whole all all three of you should have should have it so that you get those emails pings in it and it took me like a year and a half to have it actually work so Greg finally solved it for me so I've got it and I will send it off to you

108because I had to rely on IRS being like did you get this it's not good and we try to gently turn around those questions and answers nope within a week sometimes you have to get information all right doing as far as those go do we normally the answer question answer the questions or just say that we have received your email and there and we will like how does that work so you may recall I usually will see see the full board when once we put an answer together but generally we answer the question because that's the Preferences that if the community has a question that they come to us instead of just passing along amongst themselves questions and answers come asked us we want to answer your questions so to ask to be elite we

109answer the question most of the times you know you may require you to go to administration and say hey they're asking about X Y & Z can you give me a little bit more information so I make sure I'm accurate is it okay if they follow up with you I'll put that in the email and then you can pose an email you know thanking them for reaching out to the board for information and here's the information they were looking for in where they can go for further information okay it was it was it was created when we had our community audit the theory was the rumor mill is the worst place to get information the board should be the best so we should strive to be the place where people can get their questions answered

110okay great okay I had a question I'm sorry just for the communications I feel like I saw something and I did not follow up on it yet but now that we have a new board member we need to bios updating our BIOS who who is in charge of that sure AC has been sending around requests for that I did I I am I sent out a request if anybody wanted to the IO u today their BIOS I do need one from Beth because she's new but Neil and Josh had sent me one so if you feel like you want to update it since your last appointment to please forward to me and I will put it on the website Gracie I believe I had sent you sir one few weeks ago you did I put

111it on with a new photo you sent me another photo okay so that should be up-to-date fine it seems on there yes but thank you you are and I apologize I haven't looked for that photo is it down of the board no so that was my next question was actually oh it's down now like I took it down and I put our Croton Harman logo emblem on and so they are able to physically be together to take a picture yeah but what may be communications can follow up with Jackie Burton on was I know she was trying to think of some solutions of what she can do to get up to date photos of each of us up there so even if it's not a group shot right now she might be able to you

112know stop by and take some pictures of you all in your yards so um I know they did that for me like a few weeks ago so uh yeah so if communications could follow up with Jackie Burton on that she might have some ideas with regard to the photos yeah and there was one other thing I wanted that communicate all communications we have we had a communications audit which is on the website I think on one of the audit pages which I would reference everyone to that's on the communications committee Josh I'm sure you've read it already Brian I'm not sure you if you have because that has been the guiding focus for the Communications Committee in terms of figuring out the gaps that were discovered when the audit was done with the district so

113um I would refer both of you but I think Brian to that okay okay and then as far as the other board committees go I will send around the the new assignments or the new representatives for each if you could all then discuss amongst yourselves shares and meeting times bearing in mind that you know when we do have board committee meetings those do need to be noticed at least 24 hours in advance so when you set up your meetings please make sure to copy Tracy on that so she can get a meeting notice out I know Tracy likes to do one sort of set of meetings for the week so if you could get them to her well ahead of 24 hours when you can I know I'm sort of on or last minute but

114one question in terms of liaisons like ceg of each building planning council student faculty Congress other with other entities who will take care of informing whoever needs to know at the various schools who they raise will be for this year bringing you know certainly we each could contact the appropriate person and let them know who the lady that we have been appointed for for taking on that role I would like to have Tracy send out yes to the buildings and to let them know okay and so true Tracy you will also I guess send to high school administration and the student faculty Congress advisers that's John Bionic and Pam Morrison that Josh will be taking that role on this year yes I'll send to all the the administration and buildings that I have to send

115for I don't other than that it does I guess then the steering committee and Health and Safety the two coordinators at the moment that would be our new athletic director and Paul Gibbons would have to know who's correct okay and ng Tracy Tracy will you well you'll at West pipe now or should I just let them know because I deal with them what they always ask they send me an email and I always I tell them okay so you take care that is yes okay okay thank you alright now we will move on to polling the board and does anyone have anything for polling aboard no I guess the only thing I would add is someone who has participated in the reentry task force and listened to the comments that have emanated from parents from

116staff of students and looking at some of the emails back and forth I would just say and this is more for the board and for the public that everybody who I have seen participating in the reentry task force all really committed to trying to put the best possible plan in place with the appropriate flexibility that we're going to need I think everybody has been committed that nobody that I have seen has been negative or obstructionist or everybody's everybody's in the moving in the right place moving the right direction I just wanted to say that because I appreciate what I have seen with a 56 member group could fall apart because there's so many people and that has not been my experience today Thank You Abby I want to commend the students that were on the

117subgroup that I was in I mean they were it's what I love is they had they express what they their reactions to certain ideas they were able to say hey this didn't work no we need more that I felt that was probably one of the more powerful parts of the conversation I mean I kept dropping in and out of course because it's my signal but and I thought that dialogue there that opportunity was really really key to having the conversation move so I want to thank you for that insight just to add the students your team to add to students because prior to the the meetings prior to that I think it was a little bit it wasn't as concrete as to what what would work how can we get this done so thank you

118well thank you for saying that we purposely waited to give them a little time to finish out their requirements of the year we didn't want to overwhelm them and as soon as I saw that opening they joined and they make me so proud so thank you for saying that this you wouldn't know but several of them have met individually with me because they missed part of a meeting they they wanted to catch up on something I mean they took it so seriously and I just that anytime you let me know when you want to meet and we continued the dialogue but because they missed something because of another you know obligation they wanted to you know catch up and I'm just so proud great does anyone else have anything for pulling a board okay I

119know area sorry I was too quick oh I know unmute I just wanted to add that you know as we started a new school year that we do have our board goals and everybody should just kind of look at them again and you know all through our committee work we're going to start actualizing them we got sort of pushed back a little bit on on our ambition for these goals so you know it's going to be time to pick them up again through sustainability through culture of respect again dr. O'Connell you'll be keeping us up-to-date with with what's going on with the strategic coherence plan Jeff you and John and then what's our we have four goals oh and then restoratives are an injustice justice so that's you know we you know that's something that

120we can work on through for development if we were planning and giving a speaker they just wanted to just put our eyes back on those goals as we start start the next year and best if you need a copy of the board goals I can I can direct you to where you can find them on the on board Doc's actually okay great yeah thank you I think I've seen them but yes I'd just like to make sure it's the same thing i document I think it is definitely I would lend you the link okay I think yeah I don't want to I don't want to make everyone crazy but I did just realize there was something else I wanted to I want to take the time at Demetri we had a lot of balls that

121were in the air right before kovat 19 on March 13 2020 changing our lives and I think at some point we during the retreat we should actually identify what those balls were and take stock of where we are on them because uh well III think it would be a mistake to just walk away and let them fall so okay I'm a basketball player Andrew sorry I lowered the clarification all right so items needed for the next board meeting so while our next board meeting will be our retreat on the 14th we will get the final details on that from board development I do want you all just to briefly keep on your radar the fact that our next our next business meeting following that is on August 6th which per the governor's latest executive order

122two oh two point four eight expires on August 5th so it is quite likely that we will be in the same sort of waiting game to see whether that is extended yet again or if we will be moving into a meeting to pivot to an in-person meeting per open meetings loss so just something to keep on your radar certainly we don't need to worry about it for the next 30 days but come August 5th I will be refreshing the governor's web site all day I'm sure it extra later on I'm sorry Neil but I just wanted to say I know I'm going to be away on vacation at that point which I wasn't worried about it to zoo but you know some we just have to make sure that we're meeting our requirements correct so

123if anyone could also I know we normally do this and we haven't been quite as a pro about getting that to Tracy given given kovat and people's lack of plans as much but anyone who's going away if you're going to be away on vacation if you could just let Tracy know when you're gonna be away that if you're gonna be missing a meeting so that we are aware and we make sure that we have quorum I have one request apropos of what you've mentioned which is what I would appreciate his if board communications if it's the right people or administration could work with Greg Cavallari to figure out when we come back to not having what an executive order suspension of virtual meetings takes place members of the board can still participate from a remote

124location right with appropriate notice and that it would be helpful for that member or those members to be able to participate with video now in the board community in a community room in the high school with the various monitors that we have there is I believe the technical ability to have the board member participate in the corner of each of the screens or something of that nature I would like just to make sure that if that's gonna happen on August 6th or if that's gonna happen at any time in the future we will be able to have that technology in place worked out no bugs so that anybody who is going to participate from a remote location will be able to do so we haven't really thought about that before but now it becomes something

125that may be a greater of greater urgency and we should have the technology in place well I think now we can I think board officers we can follow up with Tracy and station and Greg - so we're all mindful of these things and we make sure we can we can pivot when we need to at some point yeah yeah I just want to make sure he's not going to continue suspending Open Meeting Law so we are going to be back to meeting alright so anyone else have anything for next board meeting all right so with that we will be moving into executive session and for the public that means that we will conclude our livestream and recording this evening because we expect that we will adjourn immediately following executive session so recommended action that the

126Board of Education enters into executive session to discuss the employment of a particular person or persons Oh moved back in all in favor aye opposed abstain motion carries thank you all I will see you on the Google meet and to the community thank you for tuning in to join us for our meeting okay get it did is well that I'm gonna stop recording we're stopped recording for good did everybody here's the live he did ever