001Good evening. So today is Tuesday, January 28th, 2025. The board is going into executive session for the purpose of the superintendents media review and the employment history of an individual. Um, no action will be taken. And I need a motion and a second reading. Uh, Jennifer, a motion and a second. All in favor? Motion passes for Spiro Agnew will return at 630 for the public meeting. All right. Good evening everyone. It is, um, January 28th, and the board is returning from executive session. Um, to open our meeting, and I have a motion and a second that Cynthia on the motion and Leon are on the second. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Before we get going, I apologize that we are starting so late that it's not our usual practice, but we did
002have executive session, and sometimes those discussions are longer than we anticipate. So we apologize for the late start, but we will get going. Um, Sebastian, would you lead us to the pledge? The. He used to flag the United States of America, and she's really, really bad. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, so we'll move on to administrator remarks. Daniel. Thank you. On January 16th, members from surrounding districts visited JFK language classes as part of the Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network, or Arbor. The feedback from the visit was overwhelmingly positive, with participants being very impressed with our program, and this feedback shared will help us to bring our work going forward. Also, our NJ ROTC program has been collecting several honors lately. We recently received a report from the area
003Manager of Inspection, which took place in November, and the unit received an overall rating of outstanding. Additionally, the Nctc cadets are ranked number two overall in area one, and they have placed um well in a number of different um competitions for academics, athletics, inspection, color guard, and unarmed drill, as well as individual standouts. Uh, Ariana Clancy fifth place for individual drill Dina Hernandez first place, individual drill and Ryan Martin, fourth place. Individual athletics. Okay. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes. Thank you. Uh, just two quick recognitions. First, I'd like to recognize, uh, Dennis and Jocelyn at Wells Middle School. Well, tell those first, um, first. Apparently last Thursday that we had an option to attend. Uh, some things attended. There was a long list of folks that, uh, participated and presented, so wanted to give
004them a shout out, recognize them. And also last week, uh, we said bill and I posted our new teacher, TPR today to recognize an important opening on the way for us to stay with that. Great. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. I, uh, two announcements this evening. Um, the first has to do with, um, joint guidance that was released, um, from several interviews at the state level. So on January 17th, Commissioner Rosa, Attorney General James and Governor Hochul, uh, issued joint guidance called, uh, New York State guidance on safeguarding the rights of immigrant students. This guidance spoke to registration and enrollment, protection of student records of all school resource officer and, uh, protection from bullying and harassment. So this document was specific to, uh, immigrant students, uh, but could most definitely be applied to any student
005based on a multitude of demographic categories race, ethnicities, religious affiliations, uh, gender identity or sexual orientation. This guidance affirms what has been our practice and our priorities. Our job is to educate students. In order to do that, students need to be physically and emotionally safe. It's also further justification that, um, we need to stay the course and keep doing what we're doing, which is emphasizing physical safety. Fostering this sense of belonging and building and maintaining strong relationships. We feel that, um, questions, especially over the last few days, um, from, uh, students, parents, staff members, um, about whether or not immigration officials are allowed on school grounds. Um, and according to this guidance, um, the answer is no, except in very specific and rare circumstances. The only exception, which again, is exceedingly rare, uh, is when
006an individual has committed a violent crime and has a specific kind of warrant called a judicial warrant. Um, which again, um, is um, is very rare. Um, so it's important to know that both things can be true. Students are safe while they're on school grounds, and we currently do and continue to and will continue to follow the law as outlined by this guidance. We are continuing to work with our our legal team and keeping up to date on, um, any updates that might come down again from, um, you know, at the state level. Um, but we will continue to work to support our students who have reported that they are worried and to reiterate that schools on our campuses are safe place. Uh, so this is most definitely an evolving situation. Um, we want to
007thank the, uh, the building administrators who have been, um, working to support our students and our families while adhering to, um, to the law. And, uh, we will make sure that we continue to adapt and proactively support our community. Uh, second announcement has to do with the Gateway Summit project. So we've had discussions at several board meetings. And last evening, uh, trustee victory and trustees and Attorney Carbonell, along with Mr. Carlson myself, was met with a subcommittee of the Carmel board and, of course, our our counterparts in Carmel, as well as the town assessor in Carmel. I it's a good opportunity, I think, to ask additional questions, to review some maps that we had not previously seen and to flesh out what land, um, we would be seeking and, or, uh, what could be developed.
008Um, I'm sure that has been very strong, a little discussed more, uh, in detail of this in more detail during the board comments. But rest assured that the board will collectively and through the subcommittee has done its due diligence. And I'm speaking to Mr. Carlson, um, and myself, when I say that, you know, yesterday's opportunity to ask additional questions and to dig a little bit deeper. Uh, we believe that it's in the best interest of the district to move forward with the, um, original proposal. Um, but that is our recommendation, and I'm sure we'll have more on that during the, uh, board comments. Uh, and potentially have some meeting. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. Moving on to just the my remarks for tonight. I just wanted to highlight, um, just in that officer
009was our special. Um, and she has been working with us in district for several years now and has really, um, greatly improved and just directed our, our, um, social media and just sort of getting the word out there about Brewster. And she had a front page article on the On Board magazine, which is a magazine that sent to all board members and probably others, uh, which highlights issues in education and things related to school board service and also things that are going on in districts all throughout New York State. And there we were on the front cover with a large article about many of the different, um, our pre-K or ROTC program. Um, and Jessica, you know, contributed and made that happen. And it's really. A really a great opportunity for, um, people throughout New
010York City to see all the great things that are going on here in Brewster. So, um, and we thank her just for the daily, everyday sort of postings on, on social media. I think that really helps our parents and community, uh, see what's going on in our school. So thank you, Jessica, for the great work that you're doing. And now we will move to Sebastian, our city representative. This much, um, embers from high school. The VHS pops concert will be held on February 6th at 630 in the area. And congratulations to the VHS success teacher and department liaison for excellent Vo for receiving the Presidential Award for teachers in Stem. And she's one of the six teachers in New York to receive this award. Uh, Wells. The Harlem Wizards are coming to Brewster. Um, February
0118th. And there's a game from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. And thank you to our wonderful Putin for hosting this event. The Wellsville School PC and a middle school. All county festival is also in February. Good luck to our students who are performing, and visitors from the NYS Middle Schools to Watch program are coming to visit next February 6th and seventh, and they'll be visiting our schools for two days. If we receive this designation, we'll be placed in a consortium of other middle schools. That opens up a world of collaboration and sharing of ideas to meet the needs of a middle level learner city star. Yesterday, Mrs. Franco and Mrs. Micelli hosted a virtual assembly to share information about the Steam Expo evening for May 15th. This event is more than just a science fair,
012and it combines science, technology, engineering and mathematics and offers students a way for their interests and talents while solving a problem and sharing their work with their peers, teachers, and community. The Steam Expo will feature student events, inventions and innovations, and incredible artwork for everyone to enjoy. Market calendars for February 8th, where we're looking forward to healthy competition between the Harlem Wizards and our first year staff. We hope to have our community join us for two games at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Finally, February 10th and 14th seeds will celebrate Random Acts of Kindness week and celebration that encourages people to perform small acts of kindness. This week is a time to recognize the positive impact that kindness can have on people's lives. Students will be encouraged to spread kindness throughout their days at JFK.
013The Wizard Fit Challenge is also a huge success. Last week, we were visited by two wizards who showed us their skills and let students with different movement activities. Our students raised a lot of money for this challenge and learned the importance of defeat. The bravest of Wizards game as mentioned and we expect to have a great turnout. February 3rd through seventh is the World Read Aloud week, and we have many fun activities planned for students that will get them reading and immersed in books. Busses will have guest tweeters, reading buddies, and our book character visits. And finally, our winter concert will take place the week of February 10th. Thank you to our music teacher, Mrs. Sheldon. Mr. Sheldon, for all his hard work in getting our students ready. You cannot wait to hear them say
014thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Um, those, uh, those wizards are not as nice as I have been playing in one of those games. And I think one of them blocked my shot into, like, the fact, you know, row of bleachers. So it's fun. It's fun to watch. Some fun to play. Uh, okay. So we will go on to our presentations, recognition and discussion, which is, uh, the climate and culture survey results. Uh, Doctor Ghosh and, uh, okay. Um, all right, so we are presenting this evening for the first time publicly, our climate and culture data across the district. Uh, you've heard us reference this data, uh, several, uh, several points, um, connected with other goals that we may have had or other data sets or outcomes. Um, so tonight we aim to
015give you a comprehensive overview of what we envision to be this twice a year unicycle, what it looks like, how we collected, how we make sense of it, and then operationalize that data or begin by thanking. This is a can our K-12 data social emotional wellness specialist. Uh, you've heard me live, Mrs. McCann. Uh, her word before and today is no different. She's an amazing analytical mind and always makes and and and helps us guide decisions towards what is best for students. I just want to thank the building administrators, principals and assistant principals, as well as the teachers. Uh, this is a really vulnerable process, and speaking about it tonight raises that level of vulnerability. So, um, the environment that the board has created in order for us to be able to, to discuss this
016in a safe space. Um, as well as, um, having all the constituents sort of see where we are and where we want to go. Um, hopefully this positions as well, um, to, uh, results in a positive change. Here's what you'll see during this presentation. You start with the why you're going to move into what we mean when we talk about the terms climate and culture. I'll briefly discuss Panorama as a survey, uh, instrument. We'll get into the survey composition itself and what we, what we had asked in November, last December. We'll leave you with some trends and insights and, um, we will then talk through what we're thinking in terms of next steps. So beginning with our why, an average presentation begins with vision 2026 or more long term strategic plan. Of course. Uh, inherent
017in this is, uh, student well-being, which is closely tied to climate and culture. But you'll also see, as we talk about, um, what the research says, how we're making sense of this data. It's also tied to, uh, things such as academic programing as well as, um, as, you know, resources. We know that one of the results statements within vision 2026 is this idea around, um, staff, healthy staff retention. It also is specific to our shorter term goals, uh, for 24, 25 and old, um, one physical and emotional safety. And so the guidance that was put out, uh, that I referred. To the beginning of the meeting, um, will be, uh, the importance of it will be reiterated throughout this presentation as we think through our operationalizing. Uh, this this information. All right. So when we're
018talking about climate, we're talking about the feel the the way, the qualitative way that you, um, sense what a, a school or a building is like. We're talking about culture. We're talking about sort of longer term, more sustaining that long term, more sustainable feel. So these are the shared values and beliefs and how people act and interact with one another on a daily basis. So school culture is really, uh, defining our climate. But the two construct are most definitely interrelated. So why does it matter? And I know that, um, preaching to the choir and talking about, um, why culture and climate survey might be important. Um, just some good reminders, new signs of having, um, some really positive impacts on being an emotional mental health. We're also seeing higher, uh, we also see, uh, improved
019academic performance, lower rates and bullying, uh, overall psychological well-being in early adolescence. We see in middle school improves obviously in high school, lower levels of drug use and greater job satisfaction. Satisfaction for teachers. So we in this research, uh, in case you wanted to read more about it, but it is, um, well, uh, evidence in the research literature that these climate culture surveys and why school climate is important. Um, it is, uh, laid out for us there. All right. About in itself you've heard us reference it again over, over the years and know that it's not just us who discovered it, who are the only one to use it. You can see, uh, 1500 plus districts across the country, over 13 million students and a quarter of all public high school students take panorama surveys.
020Uh, part of why so many people have signed onto it is because of the extensive research and evidence base and because of sort of the quality controls that they have inherited and where they're making sure that, um, they have, um, that reliability and validity, uh, throughout and that their, um, their surveys remain relevant, um, throughout, um, the, throughout time, across different demographic groups and among the different constructs that we're going to talk about. As a reminder, for us, we, um, launched the Panorama survey in June of 2023. Uh, that was to teachers, staff and to students. Uh, February 2024 was our second administration. And then in November, December of 2024, administered for a third time. We were excited, anxious to, uh, launch the family survey in November 2024. So we're we'll have some longitudinal, um,
021survey data to look at for teachers, staff and students. Parent family is our first. Our first or first time, um, will be, uh, we'll be presented a little bit differently. This is the composition of the survey itself. Um, starting with families again for the first time, you can see in the, uh, left hand column the four areas that we surveyed families and where barriers to engagement, school fit, school safety and school climate. You'll see school climate is a similar, uh, survey uh, topic across uh students and staff as well. And when we were selecting the family topics to choose from because there are a number to choose from. Uh, we did why choose those that were most relevant and could help us, um, sort of triangulate patterns amongst the student and staff survey, um, as
022well as those that really, um, spoke to what we were trying to get you through our, um, our district goals and through vision 2026. You see, for the first time that we we launched this. We're, um, we're we're pretty happy with the response rate. Um, we had some good representation across the four schools. Um, and I thank everyone who completed survey encouraged friends to complete us. You know, one family in particular as a challenged boy. We did it four times, and it would be, uh, just down our word there. Um, for students, we, uh, surveyed them for three times over, um, school safety, teacher student relationships as belonging and again, school climate. You can see the response rate at the, um, at the bottom there for grades, uh, for each of the three schools. You'll
023notice, of course, Katie was missing in it because Panorama does not have a data, uh, survey. We go into staff and safety for data with instructional and instructional staff, uh, for non instructional staff or talking about Aids under teaching. That's the way it's classified in the way that the, um questions themselves are structured and relevant towards US groups. Um so they have five of the nine instructional equipment instructional staff. Uh, the first five bullet points. The instructional staff will have the first five plus resources and faculty growth mindset. At the bottom you can see our response rate. Um, starting with um, with staff. Those are the pure numbers of staff, not the percentage of staff. Um, and then you can see the number of teachers and the approximate percentage. Um, after that, um, what you'll
024see, uh, the reason why we had. The numbers stand out for staff. And so you can. We're going to talk about that as we unpack this a little bit. Um, we had a decreased, um, staff response rate. Um, and so we thought it was important to show that some of the results that we saw were from these numbers, a number of individuals. And just juxtapose that with, um, the results over time. All right. Going through the analysis beginning with students. So we have the across the three administrations. Um, and um, you can see, um, that teacher, student uh, relationships, although declining, is still very strong. Uh, school climate, uh, belonging and safety. One important note in this came up in some of the degree for the, you know, uh, more college unpacking session, but, um,
025when we had, um, teacher groups here, uh, talking about student survey data, you know, I wasn't, um, teacher. I was actually a social worker. Made a good point. So, you know, take a look at the different points in time throughout the school year when this was administered. And you would most definitely expect that a relationship teacher, student relationship will be stronger in June and it November at time. And that trust that that's built over time. Um, so you know, this is not an apples to apples comparison, but it is three different data points that we're looking at. And, uh, the CDC, our team was able to, to make some sense of and have some additional questions. And, and you'll see that reflected in the next session. 612 is packaged together. Um, because that's how Panorama,
026uh, does it. That's they're the same questions across the middle school and high school. An important note is that in June of 2023, um, we wanted to get data. We wanted to be able to get get some results back. By the time we were able to launch it, the high school was already in exam week. And so the response rate was, um, um, expectedly low. But we were happy to have the results that we did because it's still so full story. Um, so June 2023 is really reflective of, um, the, uh, mostly the middle school and some high schoolers and then of course, the same, um, point in time throughout when actually when we, uh, should have said this at the last, uh, the previous slide, when you see these percentages, these are percent favorable.
027So the way Panorama reports out is no matter how the word the question is worded, um, did it students or this constituent group that being surveyed answer the question the way we would hope they way. And if everything was perfect in our our climate culture. Okay. So that's what these percentages are showing which is interesting here is over time, um, we see, uh, belonging and safety, uh, in that sense of, of belonging, safety, increasing properties, these groups so that we disaggregated a little bit more in subsequent slides. Uh, you know, there's the percentage points, um, are interesting here to. All right. It's a staff member of staff is brought into the to to, um. Uh, staff and, uh, teaching. So these are all all staff were invited to complete this, uh, all building level staff.
028And see. So we get this and see like it's full climate and that's rare where you see it right on right across board. Uh, we also see some, uh, some fluctuation in these five topics. They're moving in future responses in our seven topics. And this is really, um, interesting to see too, if you notice that I have this in a subsequent slide, staff leadership relationship. So if you have three of our four buildings, um, how many principals we see that that number still, um, increased, um, which speaks to probably the time that those individuals have in the district and the relationships that were for their. We see some other, um. Do you hear that? We have questions about that may show consistency. Um, and that may again triangulate some other, uh, student data sets. The
029family servant, as I mentioned, was being administered for the first time. So we're going to try to go a little bit deeper into into this number of respondents rebuilding, which we shared in the previous slide. And these are the four subject areas in which we surveyed. So again z percent favorable. Did parents or families answer the questions in the way that we hoped it would? So barriers to engagement were most favorable if asked for that in the lowest. It's will fit as an FYI is defined as families perceptions of how well a school matches a child's developmental needs. So breaking this apart a little bit more, because there are some questions, of course, with which and within each of these topics. So if we think about barriers to engagement, so which things are not barriers
030based on this survey childcare, transportation safety, school staff um and communication both cultural and two way belonging and also all on school experiences. That's a that's a nice list of things that are not barriers. Something that that, um, we need to ask more questions about or be considered, um, looking forward. I mean, of course, parents are busy, right? Um, information availability and information on how to be involved. We talk a lot about communication and the volume in which we're communicating. Um, we've gotten we've seen increases in volume, but are we really targeting, um, volunteer opportunities or, um, you know, coming in and, and, um, ways to help out. And we talked about this previously as well. So this may be, again, that busy parents schedule that we're in, that's um, means that, uh, but these
031are items that we're striking down in the survey that we wanted to, um, talk about this last poll that also came up during one of the community forums, um, on, uh, extracurricular activities or athletics, um, this year, uh, treating each child differently because I was raised by parents. I'm not sure how very specific that is. You know, that might be what that's across the board. Um, but, um, thinking about ways to build that trust and to be able to have those conversations in order to, um, it's actually think about, all right, school safety. So overall, parents feel a strong, um, sense of safety when they send their kids to school. They're not worried about about drugs. Um, some things that they are worried about is violence. And so the way that we interpreted that was.
032Yeah, I mean, we we know that. Sure. A safe place and that's where all these the buildings are. We've been told by, you know, our regional consultants that, uh, you know, your top notch when it comes to our procedures or protocols. You still work, right. You still worry as a parent and just because of, um, what is happening and, um, the number of incidents of school shootings over time, etc. this was an interesting bullet point. First through the second one. And the child is bully. How difficult is is it to get help from an adult? We see in one of the student surveys that students, even though they report high, um, relationships with adults, uh, had a lower self scored when it came to the okay, how do I ask for help? Which to us
033it was mind blowing because we feel like all we do is communicate. Who you can go to is if you need support. Um, and so that's something that we're going to look at when we survey again in the spring to see if that number has, has increased. And then of course online bullying. So we can have it outside of the the school setting. But you know, it certainly impacts, um, how students feel at the school. So additional parent feedback when it comes to school climate, um, if teachers parents feel as though teachers respect children and vice versa, that teachers value diversity. Um, these are these are some interesting bullet points, something that have not come up before. And, and at least for me, and anecdotal conversations and any sort of, um, you know, committee work
034etc. Um, there were some concerns around classroom lessons not being motivating so that we could break them off. Um, uh, and that is administrator's role in creating an environment conducive to learning. So what's not happening in this in a district office and not allowing for that to happen to the extent that we would want that to be. But this is what about, um, this sub question on the bottom, fairness of how students are evaluated? Um, around 63% favorable. There was such a, uh, is it a five point rating scale? So that middle and end percent favorable to the top two. Right. So this is the research, a high percentage in that, in that third category where we felt like we couldn't really rank this as favorable or unfavorable because of how, um, how high that
035middle category was. And then I was told that the idea of families perception of how well a school matches a child's development needs you ever seeing again. If we have a 60% cut off, for example, fit for school, fit parents feel good about their kids. You prepared academically about the overall approach, discipline, teaching styles, matching, teaching, learning styles. Um, but were there still some more work to do around activities not matching interests or those instructional activities? Are those extra curricular? And again, this idea of child, the child not being comfortable asking for help, that will be something that we look at in this administration while being more cognizant of how we're communicating with families and students moving forward. We put belonging and cultural background, um, on the bottom because, again, we didn't feel like we
036felt on that either category. It was so close to that I cut off that it was a negligible difference. We had three open ended questions in the family survey. One was, you know, what can the board administration do in terms of community forums? Um, and so that was shared with the that was shared with the board. There were two other questions. The first was, what can the school do to help your child engage in learning activities more productively at home? Um, and so this, um, you know, word cloud works. The, um, more prevalent a word is, the larger it is, um, you know, word cloud. Um, so some of the things, you know, a lot of technology based, um, uh, in play here, um, and, um, not really much else to say about that. Um,
037uh, Isaiah, why did you steps that you can take, um, that school could take in the social climate. Uh, so in day, uh, 114 of Duolingo, I know, travel hard work. Um, and so if, um, when we look at the actual comments, um, it was work to improve our, uh, our child's, um, self-esteem in class or in school. Why was that? Why is it in Spanish? Was it like, was that prevalent from, um, artists that have Hispanic families were should I? Yes. Yeah. All right. So one of the challenges that, um, we talked about as, uh, a team was how do we take all of these, I mean, literally thousands of data points that could be sliced out, disaggregated in a multitude of ways. How do we take it, distill it down into patterns in
038order to make this, um, actionable and not just something that we do twice, uh, twice a year. So here's some things. After talking about it administratively about having, um, School-Based teams look at some of this, um, there's this, um, I studied sort of, um, uh, I don't know. Um. Feeling around, uh, that has been prevalent in each of the survey administrations around this idea of respect versus care. Students feel like teachers respect a very high score when it comes to respect. But, um, we're lower on the care marks. And so why is that? What's the difference in that? And, uh, just in the high school, I've done some work on that. And we're talking about in terms of next steps, what how we can further make sense of that. And I don't know that it's
039so much about students understanding what those two things are. It's about, you know, the questions that are within those. And and what does that, that show us. Um, this idea of student decision respect. I mean, there are questions around, um, you know, how often do you feel disrespected by a classmate? How often do you feel like classmates don't follow the rules? Right. Those scores were lower across the board, too, which was which was interesting. And then this this variation in rates across these board topics that we're serving. So if you see, uh, less than grade level, um, the, um, the X and X axis of office are the topics, and then you can see the number of respondents. And then this is a cohort cohort comparison. Right. So sixth grade school belonging they scored 11
040points higher than the sixth grade that year. Right. So if you and if you look at green obviously it means they're higher than the. And then then the uh average number of percentage points higher. So sixth grade across the board. Um is is um scoring high across these four categories. So what's happening in sixth grade and spending time in the middle school? I can um, I can think of some ideas. But again this is a sixth grade to sixth grade comparison. So what's happening what's different this year than in the past. And to see, you know the lesson 12th grade higher above average. But you know what's going on in that middle there. So is it being able to look at it this way which is still manageable but gives us um, um, not necessarily
041answers, but more questions to ask is, is the level that we're at now I'm thinking about staff. So there was a response in, um, a decrease in the response rate. And we that's why we, we showed you in those sort of hard numbers in the, in the beginning slide. Um, so we need to think about when we survey again in the spring, how we can increase that, um, that response rate. Um, one of the things that that came up when we had unpack this the first or second time, uh, with staff, is this idea of staff, families, relationships being lower. Um, and one of the, um, ways that we're again, asking questions about this is, you know, sort of the questions within that category are, you know, um, how often do you feel disrespected by
042a parent? You know, a, um, a monitor might not have a lot of interaction with parents. So, you know, answering that question one way or another, it might skew the score for the whole category. Um, so we're getting better and smarter at how we're looking at data. And that's just one example of, um, sort of looking at it with a critical lens. And maybe we are thinking about teachers. We also saw a response rate decrease. And, and you know, the previous two administrations, um, almost certainly gave I know the first one for sure. We gave time for teachers to do it. Um, and so maybe that's something we need to talk about a little. You know, time that we have is, you know, is really precious, but so is this data. So we're going to
043talk about that as an administrative team. Um, and one thing that I wanted to point out, and this was relevant again, to the guidance and, and the question that I saw was the, uh, opening, um, uh, ministry to comment. But look at, um, at how we score for educational students. Okay. So one of the, um, one of the things that some of the questions under educating all students here are some of the sub scores. So this asks teachers, um, efficacy or their confidence when they are um, in certain scenarios. So you see the first question, how easily do you think you can make a particularly overweight student feel like part of class? 87% answer that in a favorable lens. That's pretty good. How easy would it be for you to teach a class with a
044group of students from very different religious, uh, religions? From 185%? Yeah, those are great scores. Look at the last question in response to events that might be occurring in the world, how comfortable would you be having questions about race with your students? 41%. You know, drastic difference. And that's all black female students. Um, category. So what that tells us is two things. Um, one one relationships between teachers and students are pretty strong. Um, and being able to help students feel as though they're part of something bigger, uh, despite maybe having physical differences or other characteristics that might have, might have made them be different. Teachers can do that when it comes to these external influences where they're talking it out really challenging. And, um, in tough situations, teachers are uncomfortable. And so that's important information
045for us, not just for professional learning, but also for, you know, maybe that number is so low that we don't push that in terms of. You know, even, um, you know, getting things that could be going on in the world and you pick your pick your controversial topic. Right. You would have to be really careful about how we, um, how we would push a particular issue. We would have to make sure that teachers feel supported in doing it, that the instructional outcomes are clear, that we want kids to be active consumers of information, and to be able to make sense of the world around them. And we want to be able to have guardrails off where we could still make sure that teachers feel supported and that students feel safe. So that was just an
046interesting sort of disparity for us within that, um, that category, that is and again, there's an example of how we're using this data to help inform our decision making. So just in closing, some trends across groups, uh, we want to really, um, unpack this a little more, this idea of, of both parents and students reporting you're not sure where to get help if they need it. We feel like we have more resources. We feel like we do a good job of that. But if we're seeing that across multiple data points, there's something more that we need to do. Uh, we're proud of. Um, despite the leadership changes and people in different roles, there being a reported strong sense of teacher, uh, leadership results. And this idea, which I mentioned earlier, you know, different times of
047the year, we can expect easier results, and we bring it closer as we can to, uh, talk about next steps. Okay. Okay. So as Doctor Ghosh mentioned, there was just such an abundance of data that we could have looked at. It was easy to really get lost in some specifics and to go down various parts when you're trying to interpret the data. So it was helpful for us, um, when the doctor offered guidance with the help of Panorama, to really be able to focus our next steps on our long term goals. And. So, um, in teaching, we really wanted to take a look at staff and teachers, obviously, because we did do a student survey at that level. One of the things that we noticed, the teacher two 2000 was, um, low scores. He wrote
048like a one teacher. So, for example, when asked how much teachers have been approaching or to what extent the teachers change their intelligence about the subject of the teacher, we saw very low numbers, so low, favorable and makes the some of the teachers don't feel confident in their teaching. Teachers probably do feel very confident in their ability to follow their all students, but they don't feel as confident in their themselves or their colleagues ability to change their teaching style over time. So this is really just kind of how well do you feel you can change your practice over time? So some of the things that we can help teachers with on the help of staff members with it, is really to help them with going back to our goal of, um, taking supportive learning environments,
049helping them to develop a culture of safety, or teachers feel like they can be innovative and creative with their teaching and student learning. We can help to promote a culture of continuous learning through our Learning Communities in Innovation classroom, and then we can also embrace effort and process and really advocate for teachers to control challenging tasks. These are these are things that we ask our students to do in and talk through them. And it's good to be able to model work as well. That's coming from an administration going down to the classroom. And just like our. Growth mindset is actually the first unit in second staff, which is something that's covered, um, in the K-5, um, schools. So really, it's an important reminder to teachers that the lessons they're teaching to the students in that
050first reading and setting that are really also going to be modeled by that. We can look at different subgroups of staff and teachers. We saw some some differences, um, between teachers who have been in the teaching field for 11 plus years compared to teachers who worked in the field for a short amount of time. They're really working to get to know of mindset or really understanding where those differences are coming from. That a lack of motivation. Is it a lack of, um, innovation? So really having conversations with each other, understanding why those numbers might be so different from the standard teachers, and then working with teachers to share, um, individual successes and failures. It's your mind. That's what stutters. Um, at the three sites, I really like to focus on the study group. So, um,
051I started off change and we saw some, um, some data that we had questions about. So these focus groups will allow us to really have a language to better understand the context for responses. So this would be specifically language like disrespect for a third through fifth grade. Um, what is disrespect look like? What does it feel like. How does it come across to them? Um, it would help us to clarify the language of violence. Are you doing that in school or outside of school? So having these student focus groups helps us to better understand how students might care for any questions. This is also true with regards to disrespect. So, um, we saw low scores for respect when they were asked how often are people disrespectful? But in some hundred very high scores, when asked
052if they felt like their teachers respected them. So really understanding from student what they're seeing, um, with regard to just was that second step had quite a bit of overlap with some of these concepts that we measure. So some of the relevant units we're going to be looking at for second step to help us navigate some of these um data points would be the motion management unit, which is the unit that's being covered right now K through five. Unit three will we understand finances as part of it goes to plan. And then second step also has a new program that is specifically police work to see if there's room within, uh, you know exactly where that within our students. Um. And then some specific data points we'd like to watch in the three five building
053with you. Following that, you mentioned students scored very low, favorably a low Favourability rating and saying that students follow the rules. So again clarifying that stations for students, students are reporting that they feel the rules are fair, but that students are not following the rules and making sure they understand what are the rules, what are the expectations for students, and how do they perceive their peers for himself, not following the rules. And it's tied to nine inches terms of personal responsibility and responsibility. We are trying to teach our students. We are informed that they can do something that. Uh, in our middle and high school building. Um, we want to create opportunities for meaningful and authentic interactions between students. Students are learning that others don't understand another person they are, or they don't feel respected
054by their peers. So we can create opportunities for students to be heard not only by their teachers and staff, and also like peers. Again. Here we saw students reporting that they feel like students are not following rules, although again, rules for high school students reporting that the rules are fair. So this is really just conversations with students to understand what they feel on important looks like part of this framework that we can pull from the Research institute. Their development relationships framework is sharing power with students. So allowing some of that student voice to enter into the development portion of the rules. And then also for the high school. We're administering Research Institute survey as part of our partnership with Research Institute. Um, is a development relationship survey that will really help us to learn more
055about this idea of risk factors here, how our students are pursuing relationships that help with the building. K through 12. Uh, doctor mentioned some of the trends that we're going to be looking at closely over the next few months. Um, and again, student to student relationships and interactions is very important to us. So how are we reinforcing the need to interact here in the new Colgate and developing relationships for our students, helping them learn to communicate effectively in that complex, uniform conceptual design generation? Also, let's talk about the nice opportunity for our sixth graders to their practical skills, understanding that we're going to have respect versus care. So if we go back to the research Institute framework, their development relationships framework, one of the pillars of the framework is the idea of expressing care. So
056that shows up as on show. Show me that I matter to you. You're listening to me. You believe in me and your form towards me. We encourage and respect within the sharing power. So that really looks like you taking seriously and truly care. So some of our work can really be around helping students understand the difference, and working with our faculty and staff to build their capacity as well as partners. And then as I mentioned, really engaging in this analysis. So the feedback that we've got from this data is constructive and it can reinforce some of the things that are doing well. And a lot of our this time. And so we're going to continue to look at these surveys. We're going to engage teachers acts like also to figure out where our resources and
057just utilize. He has an idea of all the possible way to learn how to do that this whole time. That. The message. And I. I, um, would like to comment and say, I have no question. I suppose it's not cause I have to get out of here. Um, I do want to thank you. I know, um, prior to joining board, I. I've been in trouble about surveys and feedback for many years, and, um, the board as well. So I want to thank you for bringing this to the district. I think as someone is corporate, um, this is how you learn and adjust and learn and adjust learning and trust. And so being able to actually have a better grounding of really what's happening, which is still, uh, a phrase from, um, my teenagers. You get
058the vibe. And like, it's so important for us to be able to have that, um, that goes back to what we think is happening. And I think, you know, some of the scores are good and some of them are not so great, but how now, you know, the levers and what you might be able to do. And then you try this and you're able to see what happens there. And then that didn't work. So you try something else. So I'm just super excited about that. And I can't wait to see what what comes out soon. Uh, the dream one to be able to see if that is the timing of the year actually has an impact on that. Um, but I do think it's critically important to understand this, to have a baseline. So I
059do just want to say thank you. And see, when I saw the face you just made, like wow. So nice. So. Yeah. It was amazing. Um, I was also going to say that I was on a budget. Um, before that, if there was low staff participation, my suggestion would have been given the time to do it next year. And I think that is, um, important. And if there was a part that was, um, I remember exactly where it was, but asking for help or feeling like there were adults in the building that you asked for help seem to be low. And if there are ways that it was higher, you know, is there a way to approach those adults and then think like, what are they doing to make them either more approachable or kids
060feel that they can speak with these adults or things like that. So just looking into what is working and finding ways to, um, kind of improve on that and students not feeling that there is adults there. Um, I think that was about bullying or um, not so. You. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Both of you. Thank you. All right. So we are now going to move on to our first opportunity for public remarks. This opportunity relates to action items right. So this is just a few public remarks, um, relating to action items, which are, um, you know, our, uh, agenda. So if anyone has any remarks you'd like to make, we just ask that you go to the podium, um, state your name, direct comments to the board. Every speaker has three minutes to
061make whatever remarks they'd like to make. And we just ask that you not identify any staff or students by name in your comments. So if anyone has any remarks you'd like to make, uh, relating to the action items, please make your way to the podium. I don't have anyone here tonight who wants to make, um, comments. And we did not receive any emails related questions, so we will move on to action items. Action item number one approval of tax refunds. I was playing a roll of lectures. That's me. Reminder. Um, yes. So we had some, uh, time sensitive, um, refunds. Uh, five refunds totaling, uh, $12,866 resulting from reductions in current year assessments. So these are then recalculated by our treasurer, reviewed by our attorneys and approved staff. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion
062and a second because I got a motion on the session. Does anyone have any questions or comments? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number two. Approval of tenure. Yes. Thank you very much. So it's, uh. My pleasure. I'd like to recognize, um, we have Martinez, who is a teaching assistant at Wellesley Middle School who is being recommended for tenure this evening. Uh, this time, I'd like to invite. Uh, well, let's just share a few words. Um, I'm. Sorry. This. I'm very happy to do this because, uh, it is like everyone's mom at school, so, um. So I first met Maria, actually, um, six years ago, um, making. I was doing an interview, and we interviewing for, uh, MTA, you know, Tina. And we desperately
063needed at the high school at the time. And, uh, we interviewed Maria, and we literally offered the job to her on the spot. Unfortunately, we couldn't hire. Reason being is because we were so impressed by her, and she told us that her daughter actually was looking for an AP job. So we ended up hiring her daughter and this is called yet. So we felt terrible for Maria. Um, because they couldn't work in the same building and then there wasn't a job available, um, in other buildings. But here is the sacrifice that she made for her daughter at that time, which was great. Um, so we were lucky to have two seats against. Um, but. Now, you know, six years later, um, we're lucky to have Maria at the middle school, and she's been everyone's model.
064Are we a little excited? Um, so this is Martinez's tenure as a result of her ability to foster a positive learning environment, which, uh, changes to preparation, behavior management, and cultural sensitivity. This. Martinez is committed to education for students to speak with our English language learners and special education students. So that's one of our key communication. Uh, she's been to Central Region communication to the teachers and health system is that it's passion and inflexibility. Her willingness to take on a task, such as providing support for students with special needs and popularity demonstrates with dedication. Humility adapts to change and offers invaluable support to the administrative team, which we appreciate. She effectively manages to an area and enhances the individual's mobility further, for various roles within the school community. Underscore a commitment to supporting student social
065emotional development to lead earning respect from staff and students. Even today we had a meeting. And the best part of the meeting, when we brought the student in afterwards to talk to him about a plan. She was happy about them as against the voice. Um, that's part was when he looked over at Maria. He smiled at her because you could tell that there was a lot of that. There was warmth. Um, so that was amazing to see. So congratulations, Marie, on the line. Thank you. You have it? Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I have a motion and a second for the judge on the motion in the summary. Any questions or comments? I would just like to say it sounds like you are the type of adults that we're looking at having for every kid in
066our school. So thank you for playing that role. And you can see me show up for me. All right. Anyone else? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes, seven zero. Congratulations. Thank you. We take no offense. If you guys want to leave. You heard my son listening to our survey results. So, uh. Congratulations. Thank you for listening. We didn't know yourself thinking. All right. We will see on down to action item number three. Approvals, first rate policies 7330 searches and interrogations of students 5681. School safety plans 7555. Educational services for married pregnant students. Thank you. Policy 7330. Includes updates regarding the type of ID that CPS workers are required to show when coming into the school, to interview students, and also rewording for clarification, uh, that accepting extenuating circumstances
067as an administrator should be present in law enforcement. Are interviewing or questioning a student. Policy 5681 reflects revisions from the commissioner that are already reflected in board policy 5683 with regards to how and when drills are conducted in schools. And although pregnancy or related conditions have always been a part of title nine regulations, the 2024 amendments expanded the obligations districts have with respect to students who are married or pregnant. Under the amended regulations, districts must offer reasonable modifications which a student may accept or decline, as well as accommodations for lactation spaces, and these changes are included in policy 7555. All these policies have been reviewed by our attorneys and are submitted for a first reading. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second for those items? Not on the motion, gentleman. Second.
068Any questions or comments? I did just very quickly. So I see in seven, three, three um the changes. I didn't see the changes in five, six, eight one. Um in in the in the four dots. So I wasn't certain if that was a new policy, but from a man who just said it's not. I need a link from a red line perspective. And then the last one, the sample, is that a state sample pack that came through. And then uh, it was modified from the state sample. Yes. Correct. For the last one. Okay. So for the second one, uh, this is a first reading. So is that something? But it's it's usually whenever there's an update, I understand. Yeah. So is that something that could be uploaded for the second read? Absolutely. So that we
069can see that. Yes. And 5681 there was uh, maybe um, just updates to it. So it might just be that it wasn't uploaded correctly, but okay, I'll get to that. I think it's the word uploading in word format. But you that's where I was. Okay. Uh, okay. So I'm a second if you could include that. Sure. I can see it. Perfect. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Okay. Um, I didn't do a motion. Okay. All right. So any questions or comments. That was it. Okay. Um all right. Let's go to the, uh, vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number four. Preliminary approval of overnight field trips. A NJ ROTC area marksmanship national championship. Anniston, Alabama B and JROTC National orienteering championship, Oak Mountain State Park home, Alabama. Thank you. Are
070ATC program as members competing at the national level, and we are requesting approval for these members to travel and compete at this time. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Leon, are you ready? And Allison on second. Any questions or comments? So I would just like to say congratulations, of course, to the group. And about these five students. I know they're both and it's an incredible accomplishment. I don't know, just based on my history with rights. I mean, these are things you've never seen before. So this is incredible. And just give thanks to, uh, Doren and. Thank you. What else? All right, let's go to the vote. All those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Action. Item number five. Approval of resolution for pre-K RFP. Thank you. Yes. Uh, tonight we are
071submitting, uh, RFP for Creative Kids Childcare and Saint James the Apostle School who have indicated an interest in. Um, providing pre-kindergarten classrooms for first year students for next year. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Scott? On the motion. Gentlemen. Second. Any questions or comments? Um, so the teachers that would be in charge of these classrooms would be. Um, PTA members or employees? So yeah, they would not they so they would be employees of crickets and sages. And these are additional. Um. Such classifications. Thank you. Additional to what we have on campus. So the Saint James, we currently have three classrooms. We are looking to maintain those three classrooms for next year. The, um, create a kids classroom would be in addition to what we are currently offering. And do we
072think with these additions is that additional to that that that would cover like all of the kids who all the parents want to have their kids pre-K just about okay, just about any other questions. And the pre-K teachers that are in house are 88. Yes. I think any teacher working on campus is a member of our staff in that department. Is there an extension or an additional grant? We're getting to cover the cost. So this is something we're taking on ourself. But the additional sections. So we, uh, put out an RFP to area, um, preschools and childcare centers. And if, um, they were interested in partnering with us in providing a classroom for pre-K, um, they would be entitled to a portion of the grant that is allocated to us in terms of funding those
073classrooms, um, for student allocation. And so that's what it would be based on what our, um, allocation is projected to be, would be able to cover, um, those classrooms, plus what we have here on our campus as well. Okay. And so that's the, um, increased allocation. Probably also why they might be now interested in getting others interested is with, uh, certify like the teacher certification, whether, uh, the carrot carries out. And how long is that Grant going through? Like, do we have kind of like a guarantee that it extends to a certain period? Because I know federal funding grants was something that just came up on the federal level. Yeah. So this one, um, just because I've been, uh, involved in it, um, it they this has shifted more to the state level. Um, before
074it was different pots of money. Uh, some states, um, federal essentially is now shifting to the state level. We see, uh, in the governor's proposed budget get an increase in that allocation for next year. So we still get the expansion grant, which they have told us in perpetuity. We would get as a 10,000 per. And then the allocation has as increase as well. But the per pupil allocation doesn't increase. That doesn't necessarily help. Um, but it does allow for more opportunities if people if, um, community partners can take it on 50 to 5400 per allocation and. Okay. Now all right. Let's go to all those in favor. Motion passes seven zero. Moving on to the consent agenda. Yes. Thank you. Tonight's consent agenda is. Maria martinez again. Graduations to her. Uh, as well as our
075chaperons for seventh grade Valentine's Day. All right. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second? Second. The motion. And, Cynthia, answer any questions or comments. Just a quick question. I'm looking at the number of chaperons for the seventh graders, and maybe just they have never seen this large amount of chaperons existed before for them to be chaperons for the full year. Are this for this one time event? Typically it's for the one time that. Seventh grade. One. Two. Three. Oh, really? Yeah, I missed him. He was upset. Caged. Okay. That's correct. From the audience, Miss Rodriguez. Thank you. So we, uh, appoint in half a year. And by his specific to, uh, to the event. So you have to get 22 adults. Bring the court. Right? No, no. That's fine. I was that
076way. The wrong of my side. Thank you. Um. All right. Anyone else on that? Okay, let's go to all those in favor? Motion passes seven zero. Okay, moving on to our second opportunity for public remarks. Again, if anybody would like to make remarks, we just ask that you go to the podium, tell us your name. Uh, direct your comments to the board. Every speaker has three minutes to make whatever remarks they'd like to make, and we just ask that you not hear from students or staff in your comments. So if anyone has any public remarks, this is not limited to action items. Uh, please make your way to the podium. Okay. I don't see anyone here who would like to make public remarks. And Cynthia will address some email communications we received. Um, yeah. So
077we had received three emails on the similar topic. Um, one on January 23rd, on January 25th and one January 28th. Um, sharing concerns about how the recent executive orders may impact students and have faculty and staff interacted on how to handle this, and to please help reassure that students will feel safe in school. Doctor. She. Kind of address that? Yes. Thank you. And just to reiterate, um, the guidance does affirm our position on and being able to create a safe space possible both physically and emotionally for students while following the law. So that's what we'll continue to do. Thank you. And, um, January 25th, we received an email from a representative from Cpat, um, asking us to spread the word that as Black History Month approaches, um, Cpat will be having a zoom, um, event.
078Um, and there will be a zoom link that if you would like the information to that, you can reach out to info and CPR putting um and y.org. The zoom uh will be on Sunday, February 2nd at 4:00 pm, and it will focus on remembering private Frank Myers. How how should we direct that person to go back to get it published on that fact? Because I think, um, I could speak to that individual, and I think that was probably more of the, the expectation. Um, and I forget how how as a community member, I get, uh, anything published on Fairfax. You can submit a request there. But in this case, uh, maybe if to, um. Okay. Perfect. Thanks. Yeah. And this was for a future if you want to do that is I think the
079application is on the, uh, website. The discharge. I'm inviting you. And, um, that was it for us. Okay. Thank you. All right, so now we're up to board remarks and BOE committee updates. Did you guys want to give us a little bit about the meeting that you attended? Rock, paper, scissors. I just like somebody who says, like, um, so we did. We, uh, via zoom with our counterparts in total. Um, I think we need to make this a discussion moving forward. It was part of our conversation yesterday. Um. It was. An informative meeting in terms of the castle. Town assessor gives more information to us, more maps give us a better understanding of what we're actually looking at. Um, as opposed to just like the drawings we've seen in past. Um. I mean, Carmel's not
080really much, but that's really what it boils down to. But I think if we have more of a conversation, um, we can. Decide for ourselves where we want to go about that. Yeah, so that makes sense, I think. That something that we can add to, and it's also trying to get copies of the maps that you saw to help facilitate that process. Yeah. So we'll all get educated on what you guys learned and hear what our position is. And it because I have received some of the information to change things like just. Okay. Anything else on that? We'll hear more. Let me just ask. Okay. All right. Great. Thanks to both of you for attending. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else have any, um, any updates or remarks? Yeah. Ahead. Um, yesterday may have held
081their safety symposium, and Frank had mentioned it at the show, uh, last night. So I did go down and see how they handled their presentation. They had the same representation as we had about 20 people in the audience. They had about 30 law offices. So it is very safe place to be. Um, they had the sheriff there. They had, uh, Carmel police chief. So all the items, they, uh. Um, they brought in representatives of a couple of the vendors. I guess they use this thing called armor one. That's the shield that they use on their device, windows and door. And they actually had a representative to, uh, do town hall hesitation on it on a video screen. And they had they also did, um, CIA CRM, I want to say is imaging, which I believe
082you've done already, where they come in and they do a mapping of all the schools, and they do it in grants for the sheriff. And I believe Mr. Did that already. And they're also tied keeping up with the target of Homeland Security to do 3D mapping of their schools. I don't know what's going on over in back, but they have these all these powers. And I was very impressed with the presentation, uh, the thoughtfulness they put out to it. Um, they showed the presentations, um, you know, they have eight spots to SROs in their schools throughout the district. They also, um, they're not as lucky as that one contiguous campus. They're spread out. So they have no more need in that. But they did show there was interest in the community about the safety of
083the students, and that they've come out and represent and represent to them on that. I would just ask if we speak to Mr. Gary again and if appropriate, if he saw if there is anything that they're doing in the presentations that might benefit us. One of their board members or DHS. That might also have something. But, um, if there's anything that he thinks I think benefit from, because we're all doing the same thing, we're not reinventing. But if there's something that I think is education wise or, um, actual security, if there's something we could possibly look into, um, shout out to the kids again, I can't say this strongly enough how proud we all of this program, um, that I was at its, um, southeast meeting and they have a supervisor, has fascination with stuff
084going on in the schools and wanting to show representation. And they were asking it to our physics teacher and this I was like, oh, I'm being able to present her with some type of water certification. I find it in a quote to doctor Dash to reach out and if possible, take advantage of that. Very supportive of what's going on in schools. Thank you for that. Yes. Yes. Uh, just one more thing. The Brewster Public Library is looking for a new trustee. Um, the application is on the Brewster website. It is not as labor intensive as this activity. Um, but you're. If you're interested, please fill out an application. And I just want to add something to do or later. Um, we also had quite an accomplishment by, um, wrestler Ryan Brace, who is a senior.
085Um, uh, his hundred, when you might even have 101 at this point, but, uh, 100th win, which is a huge accomplishment in wrestling. And there's a banner in the gym to, uh, to prove it. So congratulations to him. And I know I also saw tons of, um, postings about the track team and counties and how wonderful they all did. So congratulations to to all those kids as well. Or anyone else. Um, I don't know what you mean by labor intensive though, because easiest thing I do in life. I was going to bring up that, uh, Westchester Putnam School Board Association was having your annual legislative forum on public education via zoom. If any of us are interested, it's for superintendents, school board members. Uh, January 30th, from 7 to 9 p.m. And there's, you know,
086I don't know if everyone's on it, but, you know, anyway, um, for you to register as you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, next. Uh, as always, if you have any remarks that you want to share with the superintendent of the school board, you can do so by sending an email to the school board. Um, and now I just need a oh, I skipped I'm sorry. Our upcoming meetings. We have a work session. The board has a work session on February 4th. Um, and that is relating to our capital project. And then our next meeting is February. Um, so now we're going to adjourn in a second. Scott. On the motion. John. Second. All those in favor? Motion passes zero. Thank you everyone. Happy evening. We're.