YCSD Board of Education Meeting Oct 25 2021

001good evening welcome to the yorktown central school district board of education meeting for october 25th 2021 can have a motion to go into executive session further matters pertaining to contractual negotiations and the employment of a particular individual so all those in favor aye opposed thank you okay can i have a motion to go back into public session all those in favor opposed good evening welcome to the yorktown central school district board of education meeting for october 25th 2021. could we please stand for the pledge of allegiance which will be followed by a moment of silence for our armed forces and those in our community who have lost loved ones especially the son of iraqi soraka the niece of dennis for boys and the sister-in-law of andrea brown i pledge allegiance to the flag of the

002united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you i'm going to ask the board for a point of order can we please move the external auditor report to the top of the agenda yes yes ron do you need this the auditor's report do you want an interest we do not we've asked uh we've had our end-of-year external letter report but shall um miss bose introduce mr taglia's chair about it sure so um we have miss ali battaglia from rs abrams who will present to us the end of the year financials for the school year that ended june 30th 21. up now i see okay good evening i wanted to let the board know that i did discuss in full

003detail the financials ali your mouth needs to be out i'm sorry sorry um i did discuss in full detail the financial statements and communication letters with the audit committee so we did go in full detail so i'm just going to provide you with a brief overview basically there's two sets of financial statements there's the modified accrual basis of accounting which is short term in nature is basically your general fund your operating budget and then we convert that into accrual basis of accounting which means we put on all your long-term assets and long-term liabilities um the district did implement a new gasby statement and all school districts are required to follow government accounting standards boards and the standards boards basically issues new statements every year this year was statement number 84 which had to do with

004your fiduciary activities which is basically it just was a reporting change so where your activities were reported in your trust and agency fund and your scholarships and the private purpose got moved either to general fund or new miscellaneous special revenue fund we did go into detail we discussed the district's reserves and the funding level the district does have a fund balance plan and annually updates that to make sure that they're on compliance with laws and regulations overall the district has a healthy balance sheet we did issue an unmodified opinion and ordered his language we call that a clean opinion which is the best opinion you can have i'm happy to report there are no material weaknesses we just had some recommendations to improve the district's internal controls but like i said there was nothing material

005in nature i also wanted to thank tom alicia and the entire business office for another smooth audit we were able to get everything done in a timely fashion alicia is great as uploading all the documents that we need to complete the audit in a timely fashion and if there's any questions from the board i'd be happy to take them at this point thank you is there anything that you needed to add lisa no questions just um i'll echo ali's sentiments thank you tom and your team and and rush me for leading the way on that carol no questions thank you mike um the only question i have is i guess the extra classroom activity fund uh we did uh we have two minor comments on that um a lot of it is already been implemented

006these two got held up because of covid but again we have another meeting with the extra classroom funds treasurer to re-review it just one more time so i think we're going to have these taken care of soon and we're getting better with that yeah yes it definitely is getting better um i also did point out though because of covid there wasn't that much activity so i'm hoping that it doesn't escalate we have more findings you know as they start up coming with their fundraising so hopefully the district will you know they've been reiterating the proper controls and that will just stay in place for over this past over this next year okay and just for the audience to know it's it's nothing wrong with activity funds it's just their reporting mechanism is that correct tom

007yes the extra class activity funds are more student based and the idea is to push down these controls and the expectations to the student level and each one of the clubs that's something we continue to do it's an ongoing educational process and and we're on top of that again this year okay terrific anything else to be added nope just that well good ron lisa all right thank you tom thank you very much for all your hard work yeah safe drive thanks okay um we're going to go on to public comments so our first public comment i'm going to read this before we start although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community

008members about their concerns and issues please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns or questions tonight speakers were asked to sign up on the appropriate sign up sheet with their full name address and email if your name is not legible or readable you will not be called upon [Applause] our policy 1230 public participation at board meetings clearly states we do not allow discussion involving or using the name or situation of individual district personnel or students anyone who speaks in violation of our policy will immediately give up their right to continue to speak speakers are expected to conduct themselves in a civil manner anyone using abusive or inflammatory language using offensive language

009or in any way causing a disruption will give up their right to speak members of the audience are expected to maintain civility and respect for the views of others we do not allow calling out clapping or other disruptions from the audience we will be tracking each speaker's time and towards the end of your three minutes we will warn you to conclude if you fail to abide by the three-minute speaking time we will turn off your microphone our first public comment period is 15 minutes in length it is about agenda related items only and we will not be extending it so i will start to call our first speaker is catherine greybush good evening my name is catherine grabosh i'm a parent of a child in this district and also an educator i am here tonight

010to share my support of the equity task force dei initiatives that are being proposed by dr hatter tonight i spoke at the board of ed meeting back in july and i am glad our supportive voices were heard and next steps are being taken i continue to recall the meeting where yorktown alumni shared their experiences with microaggressions racist incidents and other traumatizing experiences because of them and because i want my children to go to a school in a culturally relevant environment i hope that the board moves forward with the proposed dei initiative our children need to be taught the truth and sometimes that includes information that is hard to hear however as the great american playwright novelist james baldwin once said not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it

011is faced our district should be empowering the teachers and staff to get the training and information they need so that they can in turn bring topics into the classroom to help facilitate critical thinking problem solving and equitable practices i want to see the district do what is right and move forward with things like reevaluating the curriculum to make sure all voices are heard in all subjects dismantling policies that may uphold prejudice points of view and exploring ways to make our school community more inclusive to name a few to ignore the fact that our country is at a crossroads right now is to play into the rhetoric the truth is subjective and that our students don't deserve to learn in an environment that both supports them and exposes them to facts that thinking ends up hurting

012everyone i urge the board and dr hatter to be on the right side of history by respecting everyone's humanity regardless of race religion sexuality disability and gender i hope that the board votes in favor tonight of moving diversity equity and inclusion work forward and i look forward to hearing all the wonderful things that come from that thank you thank you alyssa runco okay good evening my name is elisa renko i grew up in yorktown i'm a yorktown parent and an area educator i came also to lend my voice of support for the district's efforts at implementing diversity equity inclusion initiatives including the equity task force as a teacher and a mother i understand that school needs to be a safe place where students feel seen understood and valued regardless of whether they're part of a

013majority group new york times central school district provides a public education and the new york state department event is determined through academic study and listening to student voices that inclusivity unfortunately is not something that happens on its own it needs to be actively and consciously implemented the state has determined that schools through the critically responsive and sustainable education framework must bring inclusive practices into our work with students these practices are for our students about our students and to educate our students to include histories previously omitted and are misrepresented and really what is the alternative exclusion denial rejection lack of validation not being seen school is not supposed to put students at risk it's supposed to foster personal development and learning if students don't see themselves represented in the curriculum they disconnect so i fully support

014the student this district's efforts to implement diversity equity inclusion principles and practices because it is for all of our students thank you thank you jan miracondi it's a valiant effort um janmir gindani i am a parent of two children who have graduated recently from yorktown high school and i'm also here to lend my voice in support of the dei initiative to that end i want to share a personal story and since my kids aren't in the school dis system anymore and i do have my daughter's permission to share the story she came home one day from school and she was very very excited about this new kid in her class and she's like mommy mommy there's a new boy oh okay and so i said what's so exciting about this one you know he's he's

015brown i'm like okay and she says i'm not the only brown kid in my class anymore this is my child my first born child not shocking anybody here i'm not brown and it wasn't until that moment that i looked at my kid and said and realized she saw herself so differently than i saw her she was nine at the time i hadn't given my child's race an ounce of thought i confessed to you i'm embarrassed to say that now she clearly had given it a considerable amount of thought and in fourth grade she taught me what dei was all about she wanted to be seen she wanted to be heard and she wanted to know she wasn't alone there is not one parent on either side of this aisle that does not want that for

016their child i can't believe that to be true so i encourage you to please support the dei initiative move it forward and and and support all of our children so thank you thank you maya price good evening dr superintendent dr hatter board of end members and the yorktown community hi my name is maya price i am in sixth grade and i go to me sms for those of you who don't think we need to teach the truth about our past and our differences i'm going to tell you a reason why i think we should what i'm about to tell you did not happen ten years ago five years ago it happened only five months ago i was on my bus and i got into a disagreement with another student in the middle of the disagreement

017the kid said shut up n n meaning the edward but i was taught and raised never to say that word because of how disrespectful it is i was shocked and hurt i was shocked that my generation could even still be saying that word and that there are still people out there who don't understand the true meaning of the word see when it happened my heart's reaction was to punch the student in the face but then came the voice in my head that told me to do the right thing be the bigger person and walk away i feel that if the kid understood the true meaning of the word then maybe the student wouldn't have used it in such a rude way and hopefully there would have been a different turnout i will never forget the

018way i felt it honestly feels like someone is breaking your heart in half so why do i think that we should learn about our past and differences so that what happened to me doesn't happen to another black or mixed kid thank you for listening and have a great night thank you rachel frederick good evening board members and dr hatter i look forward to the overview of the district's plans to implement the nice ed crs framework i fully support this and hope that yorktown adopts it with fidelity and urgency as outlined in the plan i think the implementation is a start in the right direction and i'm happy to see us moving forward how we do that should be guided by best pedagogical practices and widely established knowledge about creating welcoming school environments which means addressing

019underlying dynamics i'd love to share with the school community the hopes i have for my own children's educational experiences in yorktown i hope that they read books featuring main characters of different backgrounds ethnicities abilities and gender identities i hope that they read literature and poetry written by people who do not look like them or experience the world as they do not just for hispanic heritage month or black history month or women's history month but all year long i hope that they're exposed to world cultures by way of first-hand experiences like school-wide assemblies and partnerships with resources like peace corps or human library i hope they have teachers from diverse backgrounds i hope they're free to discover and express themselves and their perspectives outside of expected stereotypes and gender norms in safe and supportive environments i

020hope that they understand that history is subjective i hope that they'll be informed and brave enough to stand up against mistreatment of themselves and others i hope that they have teachers with adequate training to mediate hard conversations i hope that they never hear racial homophobic or transphobic slurs tossed around in hallways casually with no repercussions i hope that they discuss society current events civics and our true history good and bad i hope that they have tough conversations are celebrated for their differences are open to new ideas develop self-confidence and learn about the world past the lens of yorktown and i hope that they are ready to enter a global society that increasingly prioritizes diversity equity and inclusion the four pillars of the crs framework i do believe help us work towards the goals that the

021alumni and the students and maya spoke out about in 2020 and i once again thank the board for listening to the students that they serve it shows respect for those that you've worked to educate and faith in the systems that informed them yorktown has a wonderful reputation not in small part to your leadership and service to ensuring that best practice guides policy thank you very much thank you that is the end of our first public comment we're going to move on to the superintendent report ron good evening everyone it is wonderful to see an audience here this evening i wanted to before i go into my presentation this evening and provide our community with an update on where we are where we've been where we're headed with regard to the cultural awareness and equity task

022force i just wanted to take this opportunity to address a couple of other important items in our district first of all last week was board of education recognition week and i just want to thank members of our board you set such a wonderful example for all of us your support is so deeply appreciated and the number of hours that you spend whether it's in policy committee audit committee steering committee fiscal advisory at these meetings the time you invest as volunteers is remarkable and what guides you is what you believe is best for children and i truly appreciate everything that you do for the children of yorktown i say that as superintendent i say that as a resident here and i say that as a father of two children in this school district so thank you

023i appreciate you very much we all do with regard to just some other things that i want to talk about i am working with the county and the state department of health one of the initiatives that i'd like to see in place is a test to stay i'd like to get rid of quarantines for our students for me they don't make much sense because transmission within the school is very low given the mitigation measures that we're taking so one of the conversations that i had as recently as today was talking about if a student is exposed rather than sending them home for 10 days can we work out some kind of testing mechanism in school rapid test free parental consent and test negative and show up to school during that quarantine period we need our

024kids in school that for me that's a non-negotiable children need to be in school and we want them here and i'm hoping that we can get some leverage and if anyone wants to call the department of health and echo that they've heard it from me so this will not be a new conversation that they're having we want our kids in school we want them here every day and if they're exposed we believe that a test to stay option is a very fair way to proceed so that's one of the things that i'd like to share that i'm working on i generally i i work well with the state department of health and with the westchester county department of health but this is one that i really would like to see a greater sense of urgency

025on so i share that with you more to come and i'll update as soon as there's progress on that with regard to universal pre-k our school district was given an allocation to start up a universal pre-k program and we've reviewed all of the factors you don't just start a universal pre-k program there's a lot of work that goes into and it's not that we shy away from the work but there's no guarantee in my conversations with the state that the funding will continue beyond year one so you start the program you get the funding and then how do you sustain the program so that's something that's on my mind also room in our schools is a challenge we can accommodate about 88 children with the allocation that we were given we typically have about 250

026children on a grade level so that means that we would have to put up a lottery system one-third will make it in two-thirds don't make it in and that's something that i don't necessarily agree with and then if we were to assign this to a third-party provider there's no guarantee on the quality of the program that they'll provide and if we're going to put yorktown's name on something i really want it to be well done and thoughtful so i'm going to recommend to the board that we decline those monies we we just don't have the capacity to start a upk program also there's something in the federal pipeline where the program may look completely different next year so rather than start a program the potential of the funding being cut now now what do we

027do do we cut other programs to make this happen do we cut the program after a year i'd like to see a little more certainty with the funding stream before we commit to the resources and right now space is really an issue with the covet restrictions and we have to space the desks and the students apart so we have some space challenges so that's my recommendation um is that we will decline that money we we don't we don't but it's something that i think is important for us to at least have on record that we had this discussion and that there was a conversation that was had now with regard to the cultural awareness and equity presentation yvette if you can pull the oh i see it there thank you so i have a slide

028presentation the slide presentation will be on our website tomorrow i i'd like to share with you the presentation this evening there isn't i will not be asking the board for any action items this evening so i will not be asking for an approval on um on any adoptions tonight with regard to our work in cultural awareness and equity i just i would like to talk to you about where we've been and where i see the next aspects of this work and where we see the next aspects of this work i want to stop start by saying that we live in an amazing school district i am so proud to call your town home we have such a great school district and i think we all know that i think many of us know that sadly

029there's a reality and the reality has been some deeply troubling incidents that have happened to many of our students we have heard dating back many years but most recently spring and summer of 2020 we have heard stories of current students we've heard stories from alumni we've heard students stories from families about experiences that have been had in our schools it was painful it was painful to hear the experiences that we know that we're better than in many instances the individuals didn't fully realize the impact of their words and they didn't realize the impact of their actions some were with regard to race some were with regard to gender some with regard to ethnicity some with regard to religion and then there were some that didn't have any nexus to any characteristic they would just mean

030and it was a form of bullying i was also made aware of some considerations for our school district moving forward please be considerate when you schedule december events with regard to the first night of hanukkah please be mindful of religious fasting please be mindful of scheduling on days of religious observance for some religions when school is in session we hear you we hear that and we understand it but never forget we have the greatest students we have a great faculty and staff who are committed to your children you have a great leadership team and board of education who are committed to your children we always base what we do on the four principles that i shared july 12th understanding kindness respect empathy for all students understanding kindness respect empathy i go back to those four

031really really important points because they mean a lot to me on the next slide event slide three when we thought of the name of this task force i just want to take you back in time because there's some confusion as to the chronology of of events i just want to share that the creation of the task force that work happened prior to any petition that was received it happened because we began to hear stories from our alumni our students and families and we said gee we need to look at our practices to make sure that there's nothing intentional that we're doing we need to look at our practice to make practices to make sure that there's nothing unconsciously that we're doing and we need to look at our practices to make sure that these horrible

032experiences for children are not repeated we could have called our task force by any name we specifically chose cultural awareness and equity any vet on the slide that you have up are the definitions there but i won't read them i won't read them to you but when i think of cultural awareness i don't like to use the word to define the word but it's being aware and respectful of the diversity in our learning community when i think about equity i think about giving students what they need individually to succeed that can look different for all students it can be crafting an iep for a student providing english language learning for a student who isn't quite fluent in the language yet providing academic intervention services for students a summer reading program providing a robust arts theater

033athletics program because that's what keeps the child connected to their school that's how i define equity equity doesn't happen at the expense of others we look at each child individually and determine how we can best support them where they are on the next slide i just want to give you an overview of the task force we met between 60 and 75 minutes per meeting we attempted to meet every month covid was a reality for us because keeping our children in school every day was our number one and primary focus last year so the task force began last school year we spent the opening meetings on learning how to have honest and open conversations when you bring 18 different faculty and staff together who have different perspectives it takes time to build trust and rapport and

034that was important to our group so we spent the early meetings investing in that work we also identified priorities to guide the work the three priorities that we identified they were presented to the board in november of uh 2020. we're looking at the curriculum specifically our school libraries looking at policies and looking at professional development for faculty and staff we spent time looking at juneteenth which was a newly recognized state holiday and we didn't have a database of resources for that holiday so that took time to develop for our task force we discussed existing practices within the district what are we doing currently we were pleased in many regards to see our robust character education program and other programs that we had in our schools our middle school international night is one such night that

035we're very proud of our gsa at the high school is another source of pride for us so we recognize that our school district already had some really meaningful activities programs and celebrations these are not new concepts in yorktown i just want to clarify that these are not new the these celebrations these clubs have been in existence for many many years the dignity for all students act of 2012. was passed to provide students in new york state schools with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination intimidation taunting harassment bullying the district was named a national school district of character in 2016 and the 11 principles that went into assessing our application are grounded in inclusivity you can go to the next slide event in fact when you look at the mission statement and core beliefs

036of the district which is board of education policy zero zero zero zero you'll see that since the late 1990s the board of education district has placed a premium on respecting and embracing diversity on the next slide i can share with you some of the things that we've done to live our vision kindness and respect toward oral k5 that's our approach that's how we approach everything that we do our work in esteem has put empathy at the cornerstone at the foundation of the work we do each school has an acronym that they use to remind students of the expected behaviors its heart at crompon bark at brookside and best at mohancek our curricula are aligned to the new york state standards and of course nasa the dignity for all students act exists k5 it exists at

037all grade levels on the next slide in the middle school again i won't read the slide to you but there are some very very important steps that are done and we really appreciate all of the work that our middle school has invested in a really robust character education program the middle school was our first school district school of character both at the state and national level and then on the next slide in grades 9-12 there are some additional steps there that are happening um there are i just want to note there are objective and factual conversations on current events that do come up in a high school social studies class and i think our teachers navigate that my hats off to our teachers who navigate those conversations with such skill and such precision i i

038truly admire the work that they do every day and then i do want to acknowledge on the next slide there are some documents that were released by the state there are two specific documents the first was in 2018 the second was in may of 2021. i've heard support and i've heard concern within our school community on these documents i've heard support and i've heard concern about the implications of these two documents on schools the support the concern i acknowledge i recognize that there are multiple perspectives on this topic i think we all do yorktown will always do things thoughtfully sometimes differently than most school districts we haven't made a determination on how this will fit into our work moving forward there are a few steps that need to happen before we can get there and

039i don't want to step prematurely so this is important work in terms of these documents i've reviewed them our members of my leadership team have begun the review as well and we're going through and we haven't made a determination so i'm not here to recommend to you which parts of this document we'll accept if any that's and that's where we are but i do trust that you know yorktown will be very thoughtful in everything that we do and i think we've demonstrated that with regard to next steps and this is my final slide for this evening's presentation i talked to you about the first part of our work the first stage of our work which was working together as a task force 18 members of our school district coming together have honest and open conversations

040analyze our existing practices look at areas of priority and now we talk about how how does this look we're proud of what we already do we had a consultant who worked with us at the start of this work who facilitated the honest and open conversations to help us remember that everyone's coming to the table with good intentions and everyone's coming to the table with the best interests of children first and foremost in terms of next steps the next step beyond that first step where we've really come to understand a lot of our existing practices and celebrate some of the great things we're doing and look at our school libraries and classroom libraries next step now is to hear from our community and that's an important next step in this work so what will happen is

041a small leadership team in our district will get feedback in one of two ways we're going to and i will put out an email next week please don't send me an email with uh asking for the directions on how to participate because i assure you that we'll put something out next week with uh clear steps on how to participate you can elect to have an in-person meeting with us and and really engage in a a nice meaningful conversation you can submit a form electronically on our website we'll have something onto our website i'm hoping as early as next week i don't want to put a time frame just to members of our board i really don't want to put a time frame on it because this will be driven by how many responses we get

042so well i'd love to tell you that i'll have something after the holidays because for all intents and purposes october is in our rear view mirror and we're looking ahead to november but a lot will be determined by the number of responses we receive for the in-person so if more people choose the digital approach and fill out a form online okay we can analyze that quickly but if we have 400 people who would like to schedule time to meet we're going to meet with you if we have 40 people who schedule time to meet we'll meet with them obviously 400 people will take longer to process than 40 people to process so that's the next step we want to hear from our community we want to hear your perspective and we welcome all perspectives in

043this work so i whatever your opinion is we'd like to hear from you there will be information that comes out in a letter from me next week letting you know how to share your perspective you'll have the option if you'd like to schedule a time i'd in terms of the meetings what i'm asking for is that it be members of our school community who have that meeting with us in person online on the digital forum that will be available publicly on our website but for the meetings we'd like to make sure that we meet with our school community and hear our perspectives and hear the perspectives again that much of this is going to be driven on how many people register to have the in-person meetings and they'll be it'll be in small groups it

044will not be one-on-one meetings it will be small group meetings but more information to come so moving forward what i want to share for our board is my hope is that over the next two months i can gather a perspective from the community from there i'd like to report back to you once i'm ready to do so once i've been able to synthesize the information in the interim we also want faculty engagement as well i'd love to hear student voice as well in the upper grades students who have been through our school system if they're interested in in sharing their perspective that would be helpful as well the building level character education teams those will continue to meet that work doesn't end we're still looking at all of our practices making sure that we're as

045responsive respectful and sensitive to all members of our student community but i wanted to provide you with that update i'm happy to take any questions that the board has at this time but that's essentially the update i wanted to outline the next steps which is community engagement thank you um before i bring it to the board for questions i see people who have masks that are not on they must be on and cover your nose and your mouth thank you um lisa did you have a question i do thank you um thanks dr hutter for that report you mentioned that there were 18 members of the task force um who are they and how were they chosen yes thank you for that i'm sorry that i didn't mention that in the presentation there were 18

046members on the task force to start the task force i had sent out an email actually i sent out an email with two committees it was the reopening committee at the time and it was the cultural awareness and equity task force anyone who responded to express interest was selected to the task force so if we had some stu uh some faculty and staff who exceeded that they were given the option to go on to the building task force which which most took but we were able to accommodate just about everyone who expressed interest and it's faculty and staff in all five of our schools right so the email was sent to everybody on the every employee in the district received that email thank you cheryl uh no i'm good thank you freshway i'm good thank

047you all right um i just i just want to make sure i i'm clear on a few things this is still the beginning of the work yes absolutely um there haven't been the curricular changes that um that i'm hearing about they're ha we're not at that point at this time where we were as we understood where we were we took inventory of where we were we had some other really meaningful discussions and now we're at the information gathering phase from our community so that's where we are okay and the work is going to continue it will just it's it's an ongoing process it's probably never going to stop is that correct it's an ongoing process absolutely and the next step in continuing the work is hearing the feedback of our community all right thank you

048um thank you very much and i want to thank the entire task force for their hard work these tough discussions i know could not have been easy so i'm grateful you had a facilitator and i'm so grateful that our staff was willing to open themselves up and be part of this task force because that had to be difficult work so i thank you all for that um is that everything yes thank you for the opportunity to present tonight okay we're going to go on to uh board reports so cheryl policy committee sure we last met on october 15th and we're doing an extensive review of the code of conduct so that will take a couple of meetings uh we're next meeting on november 30th and we'll have more to report at that point thank you

049rush me the audit so it's been a busy time for the audit committee this time of the year we had several meetings in september we also met a couple of weeks ago and then tonight we heard from the external auditor this week our internal auditor will be on site to start off their fields work thank you to tom cole alicia um your work has been really stellar so thank you for everything and also the audit committee lisa roll uh peter versace they've been really helpful that's all thank you mike fiscal advisor aside from some work with contract negotiations the fiscal advisory committee kicks into gear as we get into budget season so we'll be meeting shortly to discuss upcoming changes to the budget okay and as far as steering goes we're still working with their

050contractors to finish closing out the final items in the gym and their punch list and we also met last week to start to review the summer 2022 work which is including air conditioning in the large spaces and a few other items so we're trying to get that out on the street so we can get the bids in as we're understanding that there could be supply chain issues so we want to make sure that we've secured stuff early enough that we can actually get our work done so those are the end of the committee updates we're going to go on to board action items can i have a motion to approve the september 27th and the october 24th 2021 board meeting minutes so move second all those in favor opposed can i have a motion to

051approve the external orders report and management response letter second all those in favor i opposed can i have a motion to approve the treasurer's reports for june july no july august and september of 21 and the approval of these reports is contingent upon board acceptance of the fiscal year 2021 financial statements so move second all those in favor aye aye opposed can i have a motion to approve the claims audit report for september 2021 so mood second all those in favor all right opposed to a motion approved the extra classroom reports for july august and september of 2021 and their approval is contingent again on the auditor's report so move all those in favor i opposed we have a resolution here i'm just going to read the beginning of it whereas the lakeland central school

052district has requested that one student from lakeland high school be permitted to participate the yorktown high school ski team is a separate ski team under the shadowing rules of section one and a new york state public high school athletic association yorktown central school district wishes to permit such participation and it just goes on all those in favor opposed personnel be it resolved that the board of education does hereby approve the payout of up to three additional unused vacation days for employee number 2458 upon retirement second all those in favor my opposed personnel upon recommendation of the superintendent a motion that the following be approved this is a long one um certified personnel we have appointments part-time and temporary appointments we have our extra credits i gotta get down to the end of it um we

053have extra duty i'm sorry um corrections in addition to the substitute list the teaching assistant changing hours we have coaches and co-curriculars volunteers at a resignation for the purpose of retirement and another resignation under classified personnel we have appointments to civil service and additions to the substitute list all those in favor aye opposed budget transfer is going to have a motion to approve the budget transfers that are listed below so mood second all those in favor all right opposed cares act and everything is freezing a motion to approve the increase in the 20 21 22 budget by six thousand six hundred and sixty eight dollars and four cents to establish the budget for the cares act grant expenditures revenue offset will be in the eser and the geo funding established by the cares act okay

054discussion time can you just explain that these are the federal monies that and state monies that have been provided the school districts for covet relief and this is the mechanism that we have to use in order to spend the money okay so we're not increasing the budget by no we're not we're only increasing it for this specific purpose it won't be used as an increased basis moving forward have no impact on taxes either this year or in the future thank you all those in favor aye opposed funding resolutions emotion to approve the funding resolutions as listed below in items one to three the final funding of the 2122 tax cert reserve fund the final funding of the ers reserve fund and the final funding of the trs reserve fund all those in favor aye opposed

055change order emotion accept the following change order from ag electric for the summer 2021 district-wide improvements all those in favor aye opposed i have pips a motion to approve the following yorktown congress of teachers professional improvement program proposals as listed below some of the second all those in favor aye opposed emotion approved the following placements as of october 25th 2021. so mood all those in favor aye aye opposed we're up to board comments mike uh none at this time thanks freshman i'm good thank you cheryl i'm good thank you lisa i'm good thanks all right i am too we are going to go on to our second public comment i am going to read what i read before so everybody is clear although state law does not require us to hold a public comment period

056we have chosen to do so because we believe it is crucial for us to hear from our community members about their concerns and issues please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions tonight speakers were asked to sign up on the appropriate sign up sheet with their full name address and email your name is not legible or readable you will not be called upon our public policy 1230 participation public participation at board meetings clearly states we do not allow discussion involving or using the name or situation of individual district personnel or students anyone who speaks in violation of our policy will immediately give up their right to continue to speak

057speakers are expected to conduct themselves in a civil manner anyone using abusive or inflammatory language using offensive language or in any way causing a disruption will give up their right to speak members of the audience are expected to maintain civility and respect for the views of others we do not allow calling out clapping or other disruptions from the audience we will be tracking each speaker's time and toward the end of your three minutes we will warn you to conclude if you fail to abide by the three-minute speaking time we will turn off the microphone our second public comment period is 30 minutes in length each person has the opportunity to speak for up to three minutes the board may choose to extend this public comment period by a majority vote so i will be calling

058carolyn lieberman hello um i'm an alumnus of the yorktown central school district i graduated from this high school in 2008. i received a great education and have an overall excellent experience here i've since completed bachelor's and master's degrees and now work full-time as a therapist i work with teens and adults with severe mental health issues most of which stem from trauma and abuse i love my job but my education here great as it was did not prepare me for it i left here with no real understanding of diversity and inclusion no real knowledge of how to support and help the real and valuable people that i work with every day i wasn't taught how to support the 60 year old black woman who tried to kill herself because she was physically forced to have an

059abortion as a teen something her strong religious beliefs told her was unforgivable in spite of the decades she worked saving lives as a nurse and the three healthy children she raised she couldn't reconcile what she had done and i couldn't understand her perspective or how to help her i never learned about her world i wasn't taught about the non-binary person raised in the deep south who as a child had two dresses to their name one for church and one for school their father beat them severely one morning in front of the whole congregation because they were climbing trees with the neighborhood boys their family couldn't afford a new dress if that one got ruined and it isn't proper for good girls to play like that i never learned about their world i wasn't taught about

060the young guatemalan man who immigrated here legally at 16 so that he could work to support his family who couldn't afford care for his brother with cerebral palsy he came here knowing no english and started two jobs and school barely having money to eat or time to sleep and blamed himself when after two years of this he broke down i never learned about his world i share these stories because more students of the yorktown school district will become therapists and will need to be able to understand and support their clients if they want to be successful and have these clients return for more appointments students of the yorktown school district will become doctors who will need to know how to safely prescribe medications for their transgender patient on hrt if they want continued business students

061of the yorktown school district will become teachers who will need to understand how to effectively work with kids with trauma learning disabilities so that they can help them grow into successful adults the students of yorktown school district need diversity education not only does their decentness as human beings depend on it but so do their future careers thank you envy okay first i want to thank dr hatter for all his hard work through the years we may not have always agreed uh but i respect the fact that he stays neutral and many educators could learn from him including a one specific guidance counselor i am here tonight because i am concerned as to why non-residents many here tonight are permitted to speak at our board of ed meetings preventing tax-paying stakeholders from speaking i inquired with

062dr hatter who provided me with guidance from new york state committee on open government that yorktown board of ed is using as guidance this is not a law as we are being told i reviewed the document which specif specifically states we are unaware of any provision in the education law or upon open meetings law pertaining to community forum meetings this is guidance only so there is no actual law or ruling relating to not to not allowing non-residents to speak this is an opinion-based document only i would like to point out that if the board of ed is using this document as their guidance then in all fairness they need to abide by all aspects of this document specifically the board of ed president should no longer shamefully be be permitted to require speakers to identify

063themselves by name at the podium nor shall they forbid the names of school district employees from being said [Applause] the guidance specifically states that public entities cannot require a speaker to identify themselves by name resident or interest in addition according to federal court decisions specifically shulov murphy the guidance states we note that there are federal court decisions indicating that commentary is permitted within certain subject area negative commentary in the same area net cannot be prohibited i recommend that the board of ed find and adopt the guidelines that lakeland school districts follows which only allows residents to speak but if they do not then in order to protect tax paying stakeholders who elect this board i make the following recommendation that will abide by the guidance that yorktown board of ed is choosing to adhere to

064i recommend that the board transition to a delhi counter numbering system giving tax paying residents priority and a letter system for non-residents as secondary this will prevent speakers from having to publicly identify themselves but also give priority to tax paying stakeholders to speak i also highly recommend that the board of ed remove any prohibition regarding commentary that violates federally protected first amendment rights off the website immediately specifically prohibiting stating a school employee's name and just so i have since i have a little extra time it does not sound like any parents are going to be put on the dei team i believe lakeland has parents on the dei team i believe putnam valley has 40 parents on the dei team and i highly recommend that parents be placed on that dei team i've reviewed the

065entire crs framework there's a lot of good information in there but there's also a lot of concerning information that is similar to critical race theory which i think that parents need to have involvement please finish up and if it's my understanding there is a member on the task force that is par is an activist and has that's it thank you thank you i'm going to ask that people continue to keep their masks completely on their faces tomorrow as you said my name is tom maron i'm a parent in our community and an educator let me begin by saying as i've said here in the past i'm a fan of yorktown central school district like many other families we looked at school districts when we searched for a town to call our own when we saw

066that yorktown maintains vibrant music and arts education programs we knew that everything else would be funded and that this is where we wanted to ground our family still i'm here tonight to congratulate the school district on something on a somewhat different matter across across the country it seems school board meetings like this one have become battlegrounds for those who would have us turn our backs on educating our children not yorktown central schools here we have a board and a faculty who understand that we have to teach all the history not just the shiny parts the efforts to bring diverse and inclusive education to our schools should be commended and the professionalism and courtesy with which you have listened to even some rude remarks is a credit to you our children will become better adults and

067better citizens for all that you do here thank you thank you george price good evening um i came here i didn't know what i was going to say um the diversity issue shouldn't be an issue um i wasn't educated in yorktown i was educated in new york city school district um for a kid like me african-american history books don't do us justice um right now in texas they're trying to take slavery out of school books what happened in the past in this nation is in the past but it still needs to be explained all right the holocaust is explained pearl harbor is explained then the encampment of asian people during world wars was explained but a lot of things are not explained a lot of people don't get credit for things that they did helped

068and did for this nation learning the truth is the truth we have the internet now kids go online all day long and look up things fake news and all the stop and all the rhetoric that is being put out there needs to be stopped and the school district can do something about that the inclusion of everybody helps everybody helps this nation this nation that was supposedly a melting pot where everybody came here for the sidewalks of gold all right and i understand that some people come from other countries and things were harsh and things were bad and the government were bad but it's not here we have politicians yes they lie yes they cheat yes but they're not going to take over your life it's not going to come to a communist state or country

069all right um as a minority in this community i want my kids to learn everything i want them to learn about my history about the contributions of african americans puerto ricans asians indian native american the inclusion of it all what everybody did it doesn't belittle anybody and it doesn't make anybody's ethnicity seem smaller or bigger it's just the truth kids can handle the truth they're not going to break they are not going to be fragile this little pond in your town is a pond and when they leave here they go out into the big world into the big ocean and if you do not equip them to deal with minorities and people of other ethnicities they will be held back please finish up i'm sorry all right they will be held back and i do

070not want to see any kid mine alone or anybody's here to be held back because thank you we can't speak the truth thank you thank you ali belloff davis oh i'm sorry no anika anika's first good evening dr howard and members of the board of ed my name is annika belloff davis i'm nervous to be speaking but i wanted to share my experience in yorktown schools i moved to yorktown in second grade from seton in august of 2017 i had a brain injury since i couldn't start school on time i received tutor every day for almost two months my tutor was a second grade teacher at mohansek when i was okay to go back to school i asked my parents if they could ask the school if i could have her as my teacher i

071felt comfortable with her and was learning i formed a relationship with her and she made me feel confident my parents tried so hard to put me into her class but the principal and superintendent agreed that they were not going to change my teacher i was so sad i had a lot of anxiety especially since my new teacher told the whole class about my injury kids i didn't even know asked me how come i wasn't bald being in the class gave me stress and anxiety but no one seemed to care except my parents i started to feel like the school didn't care about me or care if i succeeded my parents fought hard to try and get me the support i needed but the school didn't do what my doctors recommended my parents have tried to

072help me get the support i need but nothing seems to change ever since second third fourth and fifth grade i know a brain injury is a very serious injury and to do to this day i do not understand why the school didn't help me every year seemed to get worse between the teachers and the staff all the meetings my parents had with the special education committee they didn't help me either i wanted to share my story because no child should go through what i went through bullying exists here in yorktown schools and i'm here to tell you that it is a big problem and that it comes more from teachers and staff thank you for listening thank you [Applause] holly davis hi yes i wasn't going to speak today but i felt compelled by some

073of the people that spoke here saying um a lot of bullying exists that's what i heard um i want to explain to you um what my son went through in second grade he was talked about slavery which i know we should talk about we should always remember what we did in our past but not just black and brown slavery there was a lot of irish jewish slavery there was a lot of things that went on and in second grade he did not concept the fact it took his innocence from him because he doesn't look at color he looks at his friends he looks at his peers he loves everyone we teach respect kindness for everybody and that transpired into a whole downward spiral for him and he actually asked if his life mattered my seven-year-old

074son asked if his life mattered that is not acceptable to me on any level and then so we went through a conversation with the slavery because they did a discussion and a lesson memorial day comes there's no discussion in lesson there's no book that's going to be taught my son didn't learn anything he learned from me but he didn't learn from the teacher when i reached out to the teacher and expressed my concern because it's a big problem her response was that we have to be sensitive to our peers i thought we lived in america and to me that's unacceptable so i just felt compelled to share the story that comes from the other side that needs to be talked about thank you [Applause] trevor griffiths hello as mentioned my name is trevor griffiths i'm

075a senior here at yhs i'd like to start by thanking dr hatter and the board for their continuous support and commitment to the principles of dei it's so important for at any age a student to feel comfortable with who they are especially when it's something beyond their control such as race ethnicity gender or sexual orientation the fact that this community is beginning to adopt these practices means the world to so many students here at yhs and across the entire district you break down dei it's diversity equity and inclusion these are three principles that are not up for debate and they cannot be argued these are empathy these are the entire principles of what our district stands for i remember when dr hatter first arrived here the big thing was coining the e for empathy and

076i thought that was a really excellent idea i think now is our chance to back that up to show how we are supporting our students with empathy and how we could be empathetic towards students who are minorities and are parts of these discriminated against groups di is empathy di is a promise that all of you made years ago i'd like to thank you for living up to that promise and i hope you continue to live up for that promise in the future thank you thank you paula it's your handwriting i can't read i apologize sorry it's my whole life it's been like that it's followed your coot um paula d paula d that's right when i was teaching that was that's what i was called okay well i'm a tax paying member of this community

077i have three children in this district i have a senior who's now sleeping because she's just done all of her college applications and she's exhausted and i have twins who are in the eighth grade right now some of you may know me in the community some of you may not sometimes i wear hijab sometimes i wear a baseball hat sort of just depends on how i feel i wanted to share with you um my daughter's college essay if i may at first glance i'm a regular student i have white skin long curly hair and an athletic build not many people would see me and automatically assume that i am muslim i often feel as though i walk around with an invisible mask one that cannot be seen but is always present it is the mask

078of the majority of which i am not a member i am a muslim i do not cover my hair and to be clear my particular mask is effective in the face of ignorance only many do not realize that being a muslim and white is not mutually exclusive nor are they aware that many muslim women choose not to cover their hair i find myself enduring two levels of ignorance one is islamophobia and the second not really realizing that i might happen to be muslim consequently some of my classmate classmates have hurled their anti-muslim insults in my presence this is when my mask fails me for as though it may shield me as sorry for though it might shield my identity it does not protect me from the pain caused by their comments these experiences leave me

079with hard to explain feelings even to myself at first i am grateful that i am not seen as a muslim but just as quickly i feel guilty the thing is after telling the offending classmates that i happen to be muslim their hollow apologies ring out they are hollow because though they feel bad for making the comments in front of me they are not always sorry for saying such things at all i'm not going to read the rest of it but my other experience has been my blonde-haired blue-eyed muslim boy was told by a middle school teacher a few years ago before kovid that he was not muslim because his name is christian his name is zakaria he is christian he's muslim he's not christian separation of church and state we shouldn't be telling our kids

080what religion they are in our classrooms i was born a christian i worked for the jewish organization for 20 years i choose to become muslim i was raised in northern maine in a very white community the catholics were ostracized there's no catholic churches in my town three white meth three methodist churches in one conservative and those were not okay catholics had to go to the next town my great-grandparents both white one english one french were ostracized and not allowed to marry each other the racism in this country has to stop we have to teach our kids we have to teach our kids that people are people not based on the color of their skin this is a girl who has been in the school district since fifth grade since fifth grade and she's now a

081graduating senior she wants to become a psychiatrist she wants to become a psychiatrist and i commend her for that i can only hope that she's more prepared than the young woman back there thank you thank you very much thank you laura cappell and i'm going to ask that the audience does not shout out i am doing my best to make sure that i can read everybody's name so you all have a fair chance to speak thank you good evening i see my name is laura koppel i had three three children go through the school district k to 12. i fully support the diversity equity inclusion efforts that you are working towards in this town and i am going to share with you as paula did um the words of my daughter class of 2011 yorktown

082high school as a k-12 graduate of yorktown who went through the public schools here i'm grateful overall for the wonderful education i received i studied hard got good grades made lifelong friends and got into my dream university upon reflection now that i'm 28 i know there is room for improvement in the public schools in yorktown in terms of diversity equity and inclusion i believe that most of our teachers sincerely did the best they could with the education and tools they had to make students feel included however i know that many of my friends were minorities often felt singled out and excluded by the curriculum our education focused mostly on the history of the united states only two years were devoted to world history where the teachers attempted to squeeze in the history of every major

083country outside the us and western europe additionally our world religion unit was far too short as a jewish student i often felt that i was supposed to be the spokesperson for my whole culture teachers would call on me during our world religion class or any time there was a major jewish holiday and asked me to explain my culture to the class it made me feel very self-conscious and called out even our curriculum for u s history was lacking in modern day diversity and inclusion our social studies did cover major topics such as the history of slavery the civil war the trail of tears japanese internment camps racist integra anti-immigration policies segregation and martin luther king jr however i think we could have done more to cover after martin luther king jr was assassinated include more

084ins to include more civil rights leaders besides him we also learned nothing about systemic racism and modern day forms of discrimination that still exists the perspectives with which we were taught certain topics should be re-examined for example i feel that we were led to believe that all major inequality issues have been solved and everyone in the us was treated equally which is factually incorrect a final example is that when we learned about the ku klux klan in the south we never learned about black wall street or the tulsa massacre of 1921 which again i had to learn about as an adult teachers should be trained in how to provide curriculum that covers the history of the world and us through a more inclusive lens and should be provided dei resources to continue their education on

085how to teach students with less bias and i just want to say i agree with her and thank you very much she loved her education and she did very well for herself but we can always do better and i applaud your efforts to do so thank you thank you mel tansman good evening i'm melvin tansman i've been a yorktown resident for over 30 years as the father of two african-american adult children i applaud the board of education and the superintendent for moving forward with the dei initiative for yorktown schools i ask that the district continue to work in an expeditious manner to enact the dei plan in accordance with the region's dei framework i also commend the board for its procedures to not allow hate speech and attacks during public comments we have seen appalling

086behavior by some opponents in a neighboring school district once again i thank you for creating an environment where all views can be heard in a civil manner thank you that's it thank you uh we're approaching 30 minutes do we want to extend public comment so can i have a motion extend public comment until moved second all those in favor all right how are they opposed oh you're still there oh we're gonna extend it for another 30 minutes i think then we should get through it all hopefully susan cody thank you for this opportunity to speak and address this most vital and challenging issue my name is susan cody i'm here representing brace amity of northern westchester and putnam as our name suggests we are about creating amity friendship between all of the members all of

087the diverse members of the human family we often refer to race amity as the other tradition because the members of because the existence and history of races in america gets nearly all the press but friendship and cooperation between the many diverse members of the human family and we do believe we are all members of the same family a truth that science all the sciences support as i said cooperation friendship and mutual support have a history as long as racism sexism and all of the other forms of othering so in keeping with that tradition and our national motto e pluribus unum out of many one i want to assure you that this organization ray samiti of northern westchester and putnam applauds and supports every effort to infuse our school curricula and atmosphere with that which welcomes

088students and staff from every branch of our family you may have noticed i'm a white lady i cannot tell you how much my life has been and in fact i'm an old white lady so i cannot tell you how much my life has been enriched by my close and loving association with the diverse spectrum of humanity and from learning as much as i can about our history this is an ongoing process i believe this will be true for our students no matter their gender identity physical power or limitations a religion i believe that this will um or i'm sorry or how much little or as much let me try this again how much or how much or how little melanin they have in their skin i would like to close with a quote from the

089great religious leader abdul baha the diversity of the human family should be the cause of love and harmony as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord when you meet those of a different race and color from yourself do not mistrust them and draw yourself into your shell of conventionality but rather be glad and show them kindness think of them as different colored roses in the beautiful garden of humanity please wrap up and rejoice to be among them thank you thank you lynette waterhouse good evening thank you dr hatter for your informative presentation uh as the mother of a student who graduated from yorktown schools many years ago yorktown gave him a very good education however it isn't until recently have i realized how divisive this

090district has become because of varying viewpoints at the time that he attended schools here everyone was a family whether it was through arts whether it was through sports whether it was through parent volunteering i am very dismayed to hear some of the requests that we follow the state guidelines for dei whether it's an offshoot from crt which has marxist roots dei and based on what i've seen in the state documents foster a belief that there is white privilege that there is implicit bias and this is something that is being taught to our children it only makes one group pit itself against another all groups should be acceptable all children are entitled to a quality education the bar needs to be set high for all of our children so that they are able to compete in

091this equally diverse world not feeling that one is more privileged than another which is not true privilege can exist and not exist it is all a matter of how you look at it i am hoping that when the district does consider what the state has brought down that some of those things that are included in that document do not come to fruition in this district it will only serve to divide more create more hard feelings and when we talk about cultural awareness it should include all groups as a former educator i know that as a white woman i always worked hard in a minority district to educate myself to bring to my children all that they needed in order to succeed if i did not have a high bar for them whether it is in

092history math science any other language that they chose to take any language that they came into class with to learn english then i was not succeeding and my goal was to have them succeed all cultures need to be respected are you aware that even for italian americans there were camps not just japanese americans during world war ii my family was in there are you aware that there was a lynching of over 10 italian americans back in the early 1900s and i never saw that in the history book so when we talk about implementing such a program how will we possibly reach all cultures i think the foremost thing that needs to be done is we start out on the right foot where children are taught respect at home so that they learn that everyone no

093matter what their color their background is to be respected and then hopefully it makes the job of the schools easier and brings respect there thank you thank you no i'm no clapping thank you eunice stevens i'm gonna ask not to have the audience shout out hello i'm judith stavins i've been in yorktown 25 years my son attended this district k-12 and it certainly did well by him so very much appreciated we have very strong affinities here thank you so much for providing the opportunity to speak thank you dr hatter and the board and the task force none of this is easy none of this is simple requires lots and lots of hard work and we greatly appreciate that and the civility and the listening to all comers when it comes to setting direction for our

094schools i think that everyone can agree that we want the focus to be on the children how can we provide the very best education for each and every child what skills do we want them to have how can we best prepare each of them for their lives after they leave our schools i know this is these are guiding words for all of you over the last year and a half students alumni and parents and even tonight have have bravely shared their stories about impediments to achieving these goals including some traumatic experiences it is clear that adjustments need to be made in order for every child to feel safe and comfortable in their school on their bus in their community and by every i mean jewish kids kids of color lgbtq kids of every kind immigrant

095kids kids with varied physical abilities muslim kids and yes white kids every single kid and again i think that's guiding you please don't take this to mean that we shouldn't emphasize fact-based learning as we explore our country's history we are compelled to provide our students with the truth anything but truth does our students a disservice both during their school years and as they mature and become adults quality professional educators such as the wonderful teachers right here in our district must provide the age-appropriate critical skills to evaluate the context of historical events a critical part of creating a fostering environment for diverse children is to develop a diverse staff i hope that the board is exploring best practices for reaching such a goal as you may have heard business 2 has been working on finding ways

096to make each employee feel safe and valued companies implementing successful dei programs are seeing the benefits reflected in their bottom lines which certainly incentivizes more companies to do the same this is the world that our children will be joining and it is the board's job to ensure that they are prepared for it and again i i believe you're addressing that i strongly support the work that the district has undertaken and look forward to hearing more regular updates on the progress we have no time to lose thank you thank you patricia heckman hi i'm patricia peckham i live in yorktown i have been living here for almost 20 years i have two mixed-race children that graduated here uh 10 years ago or so and a lot of what i intended to say was already well said

097by a variety of speakers but i did want to i was thinking about the fact that our school system needs to help teach our young adults to survive and do more than survive prepare them for the future in a global world and the global world is diverse and the global world our kids are going to be out there meeting many different people having to have an education that includes learning about different cultures and really embracing the diversity of life is i think really important and it's something that school can do through this framework of the new york state uh uh cultural awareness and dei framework i'm probably using the words wrong um the other uh point i wanted to make was uh to thank the school board for really working forward on this to including

098the community gathering their information and i will have what i want to say more prepared and write you the email but thank you very much thank you rob winpate see thank you i'm rob wingate i'm the former executive director of a healthcare workforce organization that has conducted a good bit of training on the topic of trauma-informed care on work in partnership with organizations like westchester medical center and the county department of community mental health i do live in terrytown but i've worked in a regional setting in health provider training and especially with school health professionals so i just wanted to step forward briefly to say thank you to the board here certainly this is my third meeting sort of attending and watching and partly because of the kinds of polarization that we've been seeing in

099lots of different school districts but certainly just at a regional perspective to say thank you for the time and effort that you as administrators and board members put into trying to navigate these waters which are pretty challenging and and draining um an observation i have just quickly is that you know again like tonight's been an easier meeting to watch if simply because we've had two students in the room and there seems to be more effort sort of taking place amongst us all here as westchester county residents you know as well as yorktown residents to to understand that like what what gets said in this room and in any other board meeting around the county can have mental health impacts on students and children who are choosing to be here but with their parents so some

100of the training work that i've done which i would and some organizations you could look at for supports in this area at a technical level and your health professionals may know of this already are the new york state center for school health which may have training information about dealing with trauma needs of young people there's also an after-school association or an after-school program association called the new york state network for youth success which has materials and training assets if you will on social emotional learning which is a you know part of the concerns we all have and the challenges we all have right now there is a trauma coalition that operates out of westchester library system they might also have some information and it seems to me like what's sort of like consistent across all

101of the like challenges we're facing here is this question of what kind of trauma children face and both students tonight talked like at some level about situations they've seen that relate to trauma and how they process it in their families and and the school district which is such a challenge so these are some of the resources that that i found to be useful in training school health professionals school nurses psychologists social workers um and you know i do support diversity education um but with the understanding obviously that you know i was interested to hear actually about the information on like the italian experience like i didn't know some of those things also so so you know it's like this kind of listening is valuable and i find it hard to like suspend some of the

102you know my own preconceptions but i appreciate that this board has like been able to help do that i think in the community and maybe to like help us understand how to set some of those standards for other districts in the county where this polarization is also present please wrap up sorry thank you thank you thank you i think it's jim mckean my name is jim mccain i live here in yorktown in his play no exit jean-paul sartre says that hell is other people [Laughter] hell is other people from the day we are born our sense of ourselves is shaped by the world around us by our parents our family our neighbors by our fellow students at school by their parents and by our teachers hell does not have to be other people we are

103the other people and we cannot escape the enormous responsibility that goes with that is up to us all of us to ensure that every single member of our community but most particularly the children are afforded the respect that each is entitled to thank you thank you um i think it's merrill frank and i'm going to ask everybody let's not shout out let's not laugh let's keep it quiet in here for everybody thank you no sir you need to keep your mask i'm sorry evening my name is merrill frank class of 1979 grew up here attended yorktown schools teachers inculcated with us basic civic values going back to grade school i'll give you an example fifth grade teacher pretty much every day said go home read the paper we'll discuss it the next day uh pete's

104girl evening star i had clips from the ap washington post etc next day we discussed attica uh no holds barred everything that went on then um through into high school took uh comparative religion regions history we had something called mock congress where i had to where y'all to play a congress member or senator i had to play john stennis who was a dixiecrat from mississippi it helped me to put my feet into someone else's shoes so to speak we also um read some of the great authors some might be quite controversial to this day uh dick gregory name of his autobiography i can't mention here because it might be ripped out of context um but even with all that there were gaps that needed to be filled we discussed slavery when it came to reconstruction

105it was kind of thin there um some jim crow civil rights etc tulsa not much on that japanese internment a bit the italian part not so much so i'm just here to speak up why this is important you need to just make a nice broad history and inclusive uh inclusion curriculum you'll all benefit from it thankfully i caught up you know later in life read a lot more history graduated with two college degrees including one in public administration thank you and good night thank you we anna navin hi good evening my name is brianna naven i have three children a 15 year old and two 11 year olds i would like to thank the superintendent and the board on the task force for all their hard work in general and especially around the dei efforts

106and its implementation thank you for allowing me to speak tonight as you might be able to tell by my accent i'm originally from germany the history of my native country is obviously a difficult one and so is my personal history i am a descendant of nazis when my mother was born in 1943 two years before the end of world war ii her father was in italy he was an interpreter for the german armed forces he took part in interrogations of partisans and american and british prisoners of war who when then who then went on to be executed in the years before my mother's birth both he and my his wife my grandmother who worked as translators at the gustavo headquarters where they translated the foreign press this means they were privy to the persecution of

107jews at the full extent of it much much sooner than a general german population was after the war ended my grandfather was detained as a war criminal by the british army but my grandmother went on to work for the british army as an interpreter and somehow managed to have my grandfather released after only one year of detainment neither of them ever faced any consequences for their actions of their complicity i am also a descendant of a victim of the nazis as my great-grandmother was euthanized by the emperor mental illness growing up in germany my peers and i were taught about the holocaust many times throughout our education always in completely age-appropriate ways i don't feel ashamed of my country's history because i know i am not to blame instead i feel empowered i feel empowered

108because i was given the knowledge about my roots and without knowledge the tools to become a more compassionate person i am proud of how germany has addressed its history head on and now as a proud american i know that we are strong enough as a country and evolved enough as a people to acknowledge and share with our children even the darker chapters of our history again not to place blame but to create well-rounded and fully informed compassionate human beings the future i believe of any democracy depends on our understanding of our past i strongly believe that it is it is essential that our children understand the roots of racism and recognize the injustices that still exist today i hope you will continue the good work that you have done on the equity task force and

109move swiftly to implement the needed changes thank you thank you michael hickens [Applause] good evening my name is michael hickens i'm the father of uh incoming kindergartener and i want to thank you for the opportunity to speak and to thank you for your work on dei of which i'm a very strong supporter i think that while we all like to think that we are good people and we are um we we have unconscious biases and we transmit those biases to our children and i believe that school is a way of balancing that of giving a different hopefully more objective perspective on matters corporate america is um entirely on board with this now um i work for a large public company and we have a very significant dei initiative uh for the same reason we we

110believe that we're a better stronger company if we have a diverse population working for us and if that population is and this is very important is included at all levels in decision making we had a recent example of what happens if you don't have dei in the public domain john gruden the head coach of the las vegas raiders had to resign his position and lose probably 80 million dollars because it turned out that he had been sending messages that had um racist and misogynistic and anti-lgbtq content in it he claimed that this was not intentional and the main we can't judge what's in his heart but the fact of the matter is that that language was there and it's coded and it's hurtful and it may or may not be a coincidence that the raiders

111went from having the highest percentage of african-american players in the nfl before he became head coach to having the lowest today um and this is a a study that was done by the 538 so he may or may not be racist um but his uh words cost him his job and his actions were deleterious to african-american players i think that we want for our children to be armed with the knowledge of what is hurtful to other people and what is not hurtful so that they can treat other people well and so that they can prosper in what other someone else here has said is an increasingly global diverse community thank you juanita ford um can you right want me to afford here no we'll move on then katie schmidt federer good evening my name is

112katie fader i am a resident parent and taxpayer in the district this is the third time i've spoken at a board meeting in recent months in support of dei initiatives along with many other community members teachers students and alumni i am grateful to dr hatter and the board for your patient listening and work on so many issues but especially on this issue i have to admit feeling a little disappointed however because i thought tonight's report was going to discuss the process by which yorktown central school district would be implementing culturally responsive teaching guidelines as well as diversity inclusion and equity initiatives i was disappointed when dr hatter mentioned that i was surprised actually that you do not know which of these guidelines will be implemented if any that was very upsetting to me um so

113i hope that you are listening to everybody that came up here tonight because certainly to not implement any of these guidelines would be unthinkable so i look forward to participating in the discussions to come i hope i'm correct in assuming that community comments that have been presented over the last four board meetings will be entered into these discussions and i hope the decisions on this matter are made in a timely manner so implementation is not delayed or neglected i would be happy to be a parent on the dei task force for me diversity equity and inclusion initiatives are about three things number one helping all students feel every day safe included honored supported and respected while at school number two teaching the truth about our history and that includes history that was brought up tonight

114that i didn't know about all people i would love to learn that and i would love for my children to learn that but we have to learn about the chapters of our history that have caused generational trauma especially for persons of color and those with disabilities and the lgbtq community our children deserve to learn that it is so important and number three we need to make sure that our students are exposed to the history and literature which celebrates the contributions and perspectives of our diverse population and its many cultures i want my children to be empowered with the knowledge self-awareness empathy and understanding that will prepare them to participate in the global community and economy you said that your motto are is understanding kindness respect and empathy i think those should be reordered it should

115be empathy which leads to understanding and understanding which leads to kindness and kindness which leads to respect if you cannot understand the paths and the experiences of others generationally thank you oh you cannot have that empathy and understanding thank you thank you uh gregory rivera good evening my name is greg rivera i want to talk about the importance of the dei initiative especially as latino male but before i do i just want to take a moment to thank the board of your work on the di initiative so far for allowing me to speak and um also i think that all of us should also take a moment to thank all of you for continuing to have these public input meetings um i'm i'm not in your position but i think it's fair to say that

116it has been easy not only for you guys but other school board meetings from school boards across the country given the last few months so i really thank you um sincerely for that so um i have lived in yorktown for almost 18 years the this upcoming january um i'm 22 i'm gonna be 23 years old next month and i went to school here in yorktown um i can say that overall i did have and i continue to have a overall very positive experience here in the town this is the place i call home but given the demographics of the town i am always aware both in past and present that i am different given how my last name it's latino last name and the way i look and rightly or wrongly in the sense that

117people are going to judge me either way just be it based on how i look and because of my last name or sometimes before they even get to know who i am as a person and i could tell you that i would have loved to have had this opportunity to have this di initiative when i was going to school now of course i have since graduated and i won't have that opportunity but the students are coming after me including some who have spoken here tonight have that opportunity that i didn't get to have and of course i want them to have the um the opportunity to learn and about people who are different than them as much as possible and it's something that always never seems to completely release a set set in in terms

118of how he's purposely ignorant or unaware of how people are of individuals who are different than themselves and um i just want to share a personal and anal personal story about myself i do happen to volunteer in mohegan fire department and the reason why i bring that up is because um if you look at me without any of that gear on that i would wear a response in since you may as i said before you have people and i have had people judge me a certain way but some of those very same people look at me very differently the moment i'm responding to an incident and helping them whatever issue is now there is this uh notion that firefighters are heroic now i personally as a volunteer firefighter myself would disagree with that notion but

119that is beside the point the point being is that it shouldn't take someone doing something with quote unquote dangerous to help the community in order to gain respect as just as a per as a human being and just one final point i would like to leave to you all on the board is just the concept of being brave and just having courage and i'm not saying this as an insult or disrespect to any of you i'm just sharing myself personally because it's not easy as someone who is a fire volunteer fighter to admit is that nobody in my fire department anyone else ever wants to admit that we're scared of anything please wrap up i will do we're always taught to be courageous um in the face of danger no matter how frightening it may

120seem um so i thank you for your time um and um i wish you the best of luck in all these other indie finishing initiatives thank you um that was the last speaker i believe dr hatter wants to clarify something if i may i just want to clarify one of the remarks um with regard to which statements would be included if any i just want to clarify that piece um we have a process that we're following the next step in the process is to engage the community i i'm looking forward to sitting down and we are looking forward to sitting down having a conversation and we don't want to get two or three steps ahead we want to enter these meetings sit down hear the feedback hear the perspectives with an open mind and then

121make some smart determinations moving forward so i just wanted to clarify that piece okay can i have a motion to adjourn thank you all very much good night everyone