001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing. We'll make our meeting invocation. In a spirit of fostering an atmosphere of unity and purpose, we seek a harmonious existence for all members of our community and strive to bring humanity to our deliberations and our work. Please be seated. Welcome to the April 28th meeting of the Carle Place Board of Education. We will start the meeting off with comments from the board, and I will take the lead. It's very nice to see a full house, a lot of smiles, and good energy. This is wonderful. Thank you for attending. We have a lot of happening things tonight. I'd like to say a
002belated thank you to all our secretaries and clericals, clerical partners in our district. Two weeks ago was Secretary Week, so thank you and belated thank you. I'd also like to thank the teachers, because on May 5th is Teachers Appreciation Day. So I'd like to thank the teachers as well. I'd like to congratulate William Leary for the New York State Class B First Team All-State for boys basketball. If you saw the basketball finals, we could all admit it was exciting, and as I keep on repeating, better than the NCAA championships, right? Carle Place has also been recognized by the New York State Public High School Athletic Association for exemplary display of sportsmanship, ethics, and integrity for the year 2025/26 school year. We should all give the district a nice round of applause, right? Thanks, President. Good.
003Thank you. Good evening, everybody, and thank you for coming to tonight's meeting. Congratulations, and I want to thank... Um, well, let's start this over. Congratulations, and I want to thank everyone who has contributed and supported our district to continue to be one of the nation's best communities for music education for the seventh consecutive year. The NAMM Foundation, Best Communities for Music Education, BCME award, which recognizes school districts across the United States for their outstanding commitment to providing accessible, high-quality music education. Val's class was a tremendous success. Congratulations to our students for raising an incredible $29,453 in support of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which honors and assists military veterans and first responders who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. A heartfelt thank you as well to our staff for their hard work and
004dedication in making this event possible. A big thank you to our Key Club students who supported the Choose to Include movement by the Special Olympics. This statement, to me, stands true: Inclusion starts with simple choices. Inviting someone to join you, show kindness in celebrating differences. When we choose to include, we create stronger communities, build meaningful friendships, and make sure no one feels left out. Today and every day, we choose inclusion. Our STEM students presented their research projects at the Long Island Science Congress Center for Aerial Aviation. Congratulations and keep up the good work. Cherry Lane students celebrated the arrival of spring with their annual Spring Festival, which included planting seeds, creating colorful flower crafts, and observing butterflies up close. A big thank you to our Cherry Lane parent volunteers for helping making it an enjoyable
005experience for all. You have the mic. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. It is nice to see this packed room tonight. I mean, there's been so much going on, especially this time of year. I think it's a lot of times the culmination of a lot of the year's work, right? A lot of competition, things that happen on presentations, a lot of opportunities for authentic audience, whether it's Long Island Science Congress. Our Steam Night a couple of weeks ago was another fantastic presentation of what we do in the district, and how it's only building. To echo a point about how great this district is also for fine and performing arts. I'm looking at Ramon across the way there. Last week and this week alone, whether it was the honors concert, that students just did an amazing job.
006NYSSMA, NYSSMA, all of our teachers were there. Of course, fundamental to all of these things are our teachers. But that experience, if you're a NYSSMA parent, you know something about this, right? If you have a young performer at home, right? They practice, and they practice, and they practice, and the teachers are on their case in a good way and trying to boost them up. And they get nervous, as steady as they can be. My younger son, this is the second experience with him. My older guy's kind of become a veteran of NYSSMA and that type of stuff. My younger son was definitely more confident this year. He's confident on the mound when he's pitching, but I think that baseball-- Or, the piano presents a little bit more difficulty there sometimes. He did a great job.
007I'll share he got a 27 out of 28. Woo! ... that because they're right around the corner. You're in Mineola, but Park Place is right there anyway. You're surrounded by red, but there's some green there. And that's kind of the way it sits. So, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Don and to say thanks very much. And just one more shout-out to the Park Place Fire Department because we should be doing it all the time anyway. But I had a couple recent experiences in my family where we actually called on them the last few weeks. One was my church, my dad, and they did a great job in attending to him. And I wanted to thank everybody too for everybody reaching out and seeing how he was, and he is okay. But among
008those heroes here locally was Charles Carey, who is just a decorated hero in so many regards. So, I want to thank them. They are volunteer. They do a great job. So, thanks. Thank you for coming. I always have to follow these people. They always have everything prepared. I did not prepare tonight because I had a busy week and busy day so far. But I wanted to thank everybody for coming today, and although I love seeing the adults here, what I love most is seeing the children here because they are our future. They're why we're here, all of us are here, and why this school is, or our schools are here and what we do. I want to thank the clericals and all support staff for doing Student Appreciation Day. I didn't get a chance to
009email everybody, but I wanted to say that you are our backbone of our school district. You guys do so much. And to parent-teacher conference-- I'm sorry. Teacher Appreciation Day is coming up, and we all wouldn't be here without our staff and our teachers. They really do everything. They do the hard work day in and day out. So thank you for that, and congratulations to all the kids that are here that we'll recognize for their contribution today. So, thank you. Hi, and welcome everyone. Last Wednesday, Sweet City Jazz Band, Chamber Orchestra, and the choir performed an annual honors concert, and these students have met outside of school and have spent the spring preparing to showcase their talents during this concert. And additionally, last week was very exciting for the high school as it was the week
010of Battle of the Classes, and it's very competitive. Each day, students from different grades dress up to earn spirit points as well as competing in a number of helpful events to get ready for battle. And these events included a scavenger hunt as well as a baby food taste test. On Friday, grades nine to 12 competed in a series of competitive games to determine the winner of this year's Battle of the Classes. But the most important part of this annual event is the charity we raise money for, which this year was Towers Foundation. And we raised more than $1,150, which is the most we've ever raised. So just thank you to everyone who made it possible. And so thanks, everyone. For those who do not know Carolina, she is one of two seniors that sits on
011the board as the ex officio student. So all you seventh graders, when you become a high school student, you too could hold this seat in the future, so just keep that in mind. We will now continue to hear comments from Dr. Kelly. Thank you, Madam President. You may know, for you have students in grades three through eight, that we had New York State mathematics testing today and tomorrow that seems to be going really well. Thank you for you parents who got your students out there for that today. Thank you to our teachers and our administrators for helping make that happen. Miss Sullivan, you were right there in the thick of it today. I know that for sure. That's continuing through tomorrow. We have the Fine and Performing Arts Wall of Fame tomorrow night. That is
012one of the reasons why when you look at the people who have performed in fine and performing arts over the years and think about the folks who have done all of that instruction and the support from Arts in Education, that's why we have been a best community for music education for so long, right? There's a lot of people who have a big, big role in that. Michael Chief among them. Incredible music teachers from Charlie through the Rushmore, through middle school, high school, and kids like our friends who are here tonight who are dedicated to that. And you're going to get a chance if you come out tomorrow night to see folks who down the decades have helped support fine and performing arts in Park Place. It's a gala event. It was super exciting last year.
013It'll be really cool tomorrow night. Beetlejuice is coming up next week. That's our middle school play. Do not say Beetlejuice three times, but go and see it twice on Friday and Saturday. It should be fun. It should be pretty cool. Why are there so many kids in the room tonight? Because tonight is the night where we celebrate PTA Reflections. I know Bruce is going to have something to say about that. I have been following PTA Reflections for decades. It is a really, really cool annual event that New York State PTA puts on. It is wonderful to see how students respond to the theme each year. We have some really lovely artwork in response to this year's Reflections theme. I'll leave that to the presentation. It's a really, really exciting thing. I want to say also
014a special thank you to Dr. Kelly and to Mr. Bella for their presentation they're going to give us about Theatre of Dreams. I know Mr. Plaza, you gave them a lot of support as well. They have done tremendous work empowering our high school students to really embrace those seven habits that they've been learning since they were kids. We talked a lot about agency the last year. You guys have done a tremendous amount of work for them to show their agency. Very grateful for you guys. Big deal. And if you missed it, I would echo the fact that Battle of the Classes was not only a tremendous amount of fun, it did a lot of good for a really, really good causeSee those things happen. Our students put a gigantic amount of work into that. They
015make the whole thing happen under the guidance of the adults who help them. It's good to see. It's a good time, but it's a lot more than just a good time. It's a lesson in leadership that they will take with them far beyond their time here in Carluke School District. So that concludes my announcements. Madam President, thank you. Thank you. Before we have public comments on the agenda, Vice President Riordan will read the public comment disclaimer. The Board of Education allows time at the conclusion of its regular meetings for comments from residents and attendees. Please note that any person wishing to speak during this time should comply with all provisions of board policy. Although a total of 30 minutes is allowed for comments, the board president has the discretion to adjust the total time. We
016remind you to keep your comments to three minutes and to conduct yourself in a respectful manner. Please address school matters only and refrain from addressing topics related to personal matters or individual students. Such concerns should be discussed privately with the superintendent or administrator at an appropriate time. The board is here to listen and cannot provide immediate feedback or engage in open dialogue. Any necessary follow-up will be noted and provided at a later date. Thank you. Are there any public comments regarding the agenda? No. Okay. We will continue with the presentations for tonight. The first presentation is PTA Reflections Recognition. Hello, everybody. Can you hear me okay? My name is Heidi Brusic, and I am the chairperson for the middle school, and high school PTA Reflections program. I'm also the president of the Arts and Ed
017Booster Club and had the opportunity to serve on the committee for the Hall of Fame, the Arts Hall of Fame. And as you were saying, it is really exciting to see this new growth of artists and then to see the artists who have graduated being selected to be on our Hall of Fame. So, very exciting there. I'm here with Rachel Lubertine. She's the chair for the Rushmore PTA Reflections, and then Jeanne Scott, and she is with the Cherry Lane PTA. PTA Reflections program is a nationwide arts recognition initiative that encourages students to explore their creativity and express themselves through the theme of each year's program. This year's theme was I Belong. Students can participate in categories such as visual arts, photography, literature, music composition, dance choreography, and film production. It provides a meaningful opportunity for
018students of all ages and abilities to engage in creativity and to have the chance to be recognized for their work. The students we are celebrating today have their work displayed, and have been selected by our judges to move forward to the county level, and we also have one student who has moved forward to the state level, and then from there, students will move forward to the national level. So a lot of the student work today has been done with teachers that are here at the school. But I just want to let you know that outside pieces are welcome. So if you have a dancer, a musician, someone that likes to make film, next year, all of those categories are open, and it does not have to be something that's done within the school. That could
019be something on your own and then submitted through the school. So we encourage all forms. Thank you, Heidi. Good evening, everyone. Thank you to all our students, families, and volunteers who participated in this year's PTA Reflections program. Your creativity, efforts, and willingness to share your voices through arts made this program truly special. We are so proud of everyone who took part. And for visual arts at Cherry Lane, honorable mention goes to Hannah Brenner. And if you don't mind, we're going to have all our guests stay up here for a picture at the end. Congratulations. Great job. Visual arts honorable mention, Margaret Scott. Congratulations. Third place, we have Valentina Shymak. Second place, we have Clara Falgstrom. Congratulations. And for first place, we have Mila Zimopoulos. And now for our literature winners. Honorable mention goes to Fiore
020Mastroianni. Honorable mention goes to Sarah Salas. Third place, we have Eliana Bass. We have Hudson Kaiser. And for first place, we have Reginald Randall. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you, Rachel. And you guys are going to stay up here, and then we're going to call the Rushmore and high school, and then we'll take a group photo all together. So for the Rushmore winners, for visual arts, third place, we have Evelyn Scott. For visual arts second place, Daphne Silvan. For visual arts first place, Ava Luberty. For music first place, not only in the Nassau County, but who's also moved forward to the state-level competition, Evan Karenzi. And for film first place, Ajuni Exline Singh. Hello, and I'm Jeanne Scott, the jury team chair. So I'll be announcing the high school winners. All right, for visual
021arts, second place, we have Sophia Viscuzi. Visual arts first place is Alyssa Fetterline. Photography first place, Lydia Toscano. For visual arts special artist, second place is Daniel Green. And visual arts special artist first place, Leanne Gonzalez. Thank you. So we'd like to give a special thank you- Can you come this way? Stay there ... to the people in our community who have helped judge the students over the years. A special thank you to community judge Alicia Evans, who's a former board member of Westbury Arts. She's a local award-winning artist and author and filmmaker. Unfortunately, she's not able to join us today, but she's been a big help over the last three years helping us to judge the Reflections. We're very grateful for her help. Additionally, we'd also like to thank some of our high school
022teachers, Mr. Plotkin, who helped us coordinate the high school honor society to help judge the entries from the jury division. And then Mr. Krauss from the high school, who helped facilitate the art students from the high school to help judge our charity students as well. So thank you to them. And we encourage all students to give Reflections a try next year. Whether you're an experienced artist or just beginning, your voice and perspective matter, and Reflections is the place to share it. So be on the lookout next fall for details. Thank you. Congratulations, artists. Now I have an honor to present and we'll be back to school tomorrow. I'd like to thank you for an excellent presentation, which is either in May. Okay. We'll now get to our presentation with the Leader in Me. For those
023of you that stayed, thank you. I'm going to move around a little bit. I'm not a stationary presenter. My name is Chris Bell. I am a school counselor here. I also am one of the city Boston football coaches and serve as a co-advisor for the senior class. I'm joined today with my colleague, Mohammed, Dr. Michelle Kelly. And the last time many of you saw me, it may have been with me and Dr. Kelly on stage. It was probably when we won Dancing with the Frogs. I hope that we can do as well as we did that night even taking the throne from Dr. Leffler and Sasha. So where we're going to start is with a quote. The quote, "Necessity is the mother of invention." So a couple of things led us to this point in
024terms of the development of the reimagined Leader in Me program. So the first thing was a failure to integrate a sustainable programming initiative. I was part of each launch of Leader in Me, and there was a lot of challenges structurally. It was very difficult to integrate into the high school. And I've come to learn that Leader in Me doesn't really have a high school program, so no wonder why it was very difficult to integrate into our high school. So it wasn't just a Carl Place thing, and the main factor for what we were trying to do was tailor it into the complex. But study hall numbers played a huge part in the necessity to develop this this year and the need for leadership development that really Dr. Kelly assessed in some of her research. I'm
025going to let her talk a little bit about that. So this year, I have a new role. I am the director of student activities. I also am the student organization advisor. I have my hands in all different clubs and organizations, and I have student leaders coming to me all the time for all different positions. And what I was noticing was that I was seeing the same faces, and we needed to create another avenue for other student leaders who have not had the opportunity to really develop those leadership skills. So we really had to reimagine Leader in Me to make it fit the Carl Place High School way. So we thought this would be the best way to structure the presentation, just to give you context, where we were, where we are, and then where we'd
026like to go and where we plan on going with this program. Where we were. The challenges, as I said, integrating into the high school. It was disjointed in many ways. The rollout, the planning. The rollout was during COVID. A lot of the planning was done via Zoom. It was difficult, and like I said, it had a disjointed effect to it. There was limited buy-in by students and staff, and the task that we felt was the most important thing was to tailor fit Leader in Me to Carl Place culture and structure. And that was the big effort. Additionally, where we are right now is the development of the President's Council. So there's a couple of different components to the Leader in Me program. I'm going to talk about the mentorship piece a little bit later. But
027this President's Council piece is really Dr. Kelly's baby. I'm going to let her color in the details on that. So where we are right now is that Leader in Me comes with a lot of their own language that we were adopting in the high school. But with that language came a little bit of, "Oh, I don't know." So for example, the Lighthouse Team was something that came with Leader in Me. We rebranded, and it was successful. We rebranded to the President's Council. The President's Council is simply made up of presidents from all different clubs and honor societies. They meet monthly, and this is a forum for our leaders, our elected leaders, to meet on a monthly basis. And so instead of our clubs working in silos, so for example, the Environmental Club, our Unity Club,
028and everyone having their own agenda, they all meet, and they all see what they can work on together. Something that we did just this year was something that's as big as PSA Lunch Day, a district-wide initiative. All clubs got their hands in it, saying, "How can I help you?" Something that SAC usually took on as their initiative, our Unity Club president said, "Unity Club logs in. How can we help you?" We even went over to Rushmore and worked with their student council to really draft out where we're going with this. We'd love to see we can get into our smaller and younger leaders at Rushmore and Cherry Lane. The President's Council also serves in another way, another function, if you want to talk about it. Yeah, I'll talk a little bit more about that piece.
029So just to speak to what Dr. Kelly's talking about, the President's Council, them having those monthly meetings gives them the opportunity to collaborate. Otherwise, they have to act independently to collaborate. So the opportunity for clubs to partner with each other has been a huge, huge benefit to the students and the school. But the other function of the President's Council is these are the students that we have going into middle school classes and executing on habit lessons. And Dr. Kelly and I haveBasically trained with the students. We've worked with the coach from Leader in Me. We've allowed these students to develop lessons through raw Leader in Me materials so that they have ownership over what they're presenting. And then we provide a little bit of oversight to make sure that there's consistency and there's uniformity in
030the lessons. We feel like it's so important to allow the kids the agency to develop it on their own. Because if we just give them the cookie cutter thing, the cookie cutter presentation, they don't want to do that. They want to present what they've got their fingerprints on. So we've given them a little bit of a bank of resources that we've accessed through previous experiences and running Leader in Me groups and working with the coach, saying, "Guys, here's a Google folder. Here's a bunch of things. This is what we want. This is the goal. You guys get at it." There's been a little bit of a challenge in having the time to do that, but we've made it work, and it's been better than it ever has been. And what you'll see here is the
031President's Council students going in and doing these lessons. The most recent lesson we had- This was actually our most recent lesson. We did it just last week. It was just Habit 3. We were talking. And we were teaching students Habit 3. How much do you have on your plate? Do you have enough on your plate? Do you have too much on your plate? And then we talked about delegating I know everybody here is versed in the lessons, by the way. Yes. Habit 3. So just for you that don't know, Habit 3 is putting first things first. Essentially, that's prioritize. Yeah. So we looked at what would be a great way, and this is a discussion that we're having with the President's Council. What's a way to connect this to the kids in the middle school?
032How can we make this something that's real for them? So we got paper plates for everybody. We had them color in their priorities. And then our students went around, and they said, "Oh, you got half your pie in video gaming. That might not work." Absolutely. "So are you going to not see your family, or are you going to edit the video game time?" So it was a visual where they were able to see having too many things on their plate. And so that was probably one of our most successful lessons. We're really proud of that. The other component of the Leader in Me program is the peer mentor piece. This was the piece that was really spawned from an initial study hall issue earlier in the year. There's a lot of new schedule dynamics over
033the course of the past several years that have caused some gaps in the schedule. And there was some kids who had free time, had some study halls. So we thought it would be a better utilization of our old TA program, our old independent study program, and reimagine that and fit it into an arm of Leader in Me. So we analyzed the study hall schedules, seeing which students were available at certain periods, and Gianne Sullivan, she's here. Yes, thank you. She was a huge help in this component, being the new principal in the middle school. We were able to identify students based on their schedule, the class need, and the student strength. And really, the most important piece of this is that it created opportunities for a wide range of students. There are some members of
034the President's Council who serve as middle school mentors. There are students who do not serve as President's Council members that are mentors. There are students that are classified who serve as middle school mentors. There are students who are high-profile athletes that serve as mentors. And that can be more class at large, just being a presence in the class and assisting the teacher in that capacity. Or it could be really sitting with one student, in particular, and helping them stay on task. So that high-profile athlete, that academically driven kid, or somebody in the President's Council, or the knucklehead in middle school who matured a little bit. And we saw a connection between this kid, who's a little bit of a knucklehead in middle school and needs to be directed and put on task. "Hey, would you
035mind sitting with this kid and helping out period four every other day?" And we got a lot of yeses. The big piece as well, all of this has been voluntary. Either Dr. Kelly or I have asked a student, "Hey, can you help out period six? Would you be interested in doing this period seven in Ms. Ostrow's class?" Or wherever it might be. And most of them, really a large majority of them, have been not just willing to do it, but eager, excited, and enthused to do it because they want to make the Leader in Me program better than what they experienced in middle school. And having the ownership for them to execute on it has really been something special. It's a win-win-win, which is Habit 3 all the way. Habit 3. So where are we
036going with this? We've worked so hard this year. We're just so proud of everything that we've accomplished. While our students we have in this program, we want more. We want more students in this. So next year, we are launching a Leadership I elective. We're so excited about it. So that will be for 2026/2027 school year. And that will be an elective that is open to any student, and we'll be using the Leader in Me curriculum. And what we're really excited about is that we know there's a lot of graduation requirements that are changing. This aligns directly to the Port Huron undergraduate. So again, a win-win for everyone involved. And, of course, we want to continue expanding this peer mentoring program. We keep seeing matches, and it's helping everyone. Our students are excited. They're voluntarily giving
037up their time. And they're opting to be a peer mentor instead of having a study hall. And we want to just want to offer this opportunity to more students I know I'm a mentor now, but in high school, I probably wouldn't have done that. Yeah. Right? And I don't know if you saw on the last slide, we have over 35 kids that we placed in middle school in different classes, whether it's every day, every other day, semester one, semester two. We have freshmen to seniors- Yep ... also doing it. Yeah, freshmen, some kids in life skills classes. So it's been a really great opportunity for the mentees, obviously, because they get to see older students that they look up to. I think, Ms. Michael, you touched on it earlier, right? Highlighting Carolina and all the
038students that were here, seeing themselves in her, seeing what they would like to be in her, and now kids have that opportunity every day in class, right? And that's super special. It helps the class at large, it helps the school culture at large, it helps the mentee, it helps the mentor develop mentorship skills, and it helps the teacher. The teachers that have had students in the classes have really provided us with a lot of solid feedback, and specifically Jeanann. We ask that those teachers funnel their requests for a TA to Jeanann or any type of feedback that they can provide. And I think the large majority of the feedback has been like, "These kids are really helpful." And it's a better dynamic having the upperclassmen, the older students in a middle school classroom, as opposed
039to the old TA where, "Hey, I really love Mr. Renga. I'm in the TA's class." When you're with your peers, you don't necessarily have as much influence as what we've been able to create with this dynamic here. So just the last little bit is some visuals that we have that just align the skills and principles of the program with the portrait of a graduate. We really think that the leadership class is the best opportunity to grow this program effectively and sustainably. And we really hope to have the opportunity to grow the program because this provides value to students. And you spoke about it before, Ms. Miller, and everything that Dr. Kelly and I have ever done, and I think that's why I really enjoyed working with her so much, FTK. It's for the kids. Right.
040It's got to be for the kids. And we can't allow more work for us to be a deterrent to help kids. And this is a benefit for all of them. So we're really grateful to have been able to piece this together. I'm really grateful to Mr. DeBlasio, Mrs. Sullivan, Mr. Foraker, for your empowerment, your trust in our ability to execute something like this. Mr. Foraker really allows Dr. Kelly and I to spit, right? Yeah. He trusts us implicitly, and I know that for you to trust us with this level of responsibility, it's something I'm really grateful for. So I appreciate that, and I know Dr. Kelly does as well. So thank you all. Thank you. Any questions? You all can answer them. So I think the same that I love this presentation. You should give
041more presentations. Both of you, you're great. The one thing that really got to me is the ownership. No one wants to teach somebody else- Correct ... other people lessons. Yeah. When they get the opportunity to create their lessons and really go with it, there's so much pride in it, and that's amazing. And also, the confidence that these younger kids feel that they see the athletes or the theater people, whoever is mentoring them, that alone is amazing. So thank you so much. I hope this goes into the younger grades. I think you're on the right track. Amazing. Thank you. Thanks. Michelle, yes? This was great insight, and what seems very valuable is a pocket of opportunity that the kid, the students did not know they could have. Yes. Right? So this opens up a door and
042a gap of visibility. So now as you become successful over time, the reputation gets out there, right? So from Carolina Rush Middle High School, it follows through. What's really nice is when the student finishes towards the end of the high school year, when they go for their interview, whether it's career or college or military- Yeah ... they have the opportunity and leverage to have a story. Yes. A story with their experience, their process, their hands-on. So thank you. I do have a question, though. Yeah. Because you had mentioned that the students are volunteering their time. Yes. Is their volunteer hours recorded and added to their student record? That's a piece that we've been working on. We're collaborating with Madelena Buffalino, who is the Passport for Good czar, if you will. Right? And we feel like
043that's the platform in which we need to fully understand in order to have the kids keep record. And something that we've been talking about in this capacity is the development of some sort of service hour program, right? A lot of different schools, Dr. Kelly can speak to this, the research that she's done. Schools have a service mandate, right? And you can earn credits or points or some sort of record keeping, and it's all about club involvement. This would be something that would align with that. So we have all of the meeting dates and all of the backlogging recorded, right? I have a giant spreadsheet for every kid that's in every class and every placement for how long, and we have all the meetings that we've had recorded. So we just need to fine-tune the technology
044piece with Ms. Buffalino, because I do want to backlog these kids' service hours over the course of this year, and really in the future, develop more of a comprehensive global service hour type of a program where it creates even more incentive, right? Like-The reality is that you can sit here and tell kids, "Hey, this is going to be great for you and your job," but their job is just so far away from them. It's not something that really resonates with them. Right. But earning a service hour, that's going to be something that can go toward a shawl or a certificate or something at graduation- Right ... is certainly something that's super motivating for them. And we do have this mechanism. We have Passport for Good. Yeah. It's ready to be launched in, we have it
045in May 10th. Yes. Yeah. Late this year, towards the end of the year. We're ready to train teachers. It's ready to go. It is all set up. And I don't know if you're familiar with what Passport for Good is. We were briefed. Oh, you were briefed. Yes. We were told about it. It's a really, really amazing program that essentially will track all of the programs. It'll give you a stamp of what type of community service you've done. Mm-hmm. So we are raising our backlog, everything that they've done, so they will get credit for what they're-- They built their time- Yeah ... here. We're so conscientious here. Yeah. We're very protective of this group. Yeah. We want them to get not just recognition, but be able to leverage the experience into something and have it recorded,
046right? Right. And so that's why. I think that would be helpful. As a board, one of our responsibilities is to review the curriculum and instruction binders. So it's 12-plus binders. And reviewing it, I see a POG alignment and a LAW alignment. Yeah. So it's nice to see this presentation because it connects the dots for us even more. Yes. So thank you. You're welcome. I just want to add that Madeline Buffalino, we are set for the training for the staff for this spring for Passport for Good, and she was actually in my office, in Anthony's office today, and she got off a big Zoom call with the Passport for Good rep, and now we're starting to plan how we're going to train the students. Because when it comes down to it, the students have to enter
047their own hours on Passport for Good platform. It cannot be an advisor. It cannot be Dr. Kelly or Mr. Bello or Ms. Buffalino. It has to be the students. So we met today, and we talked about how we're going to roll that out. We have the teacher training part or the advisor part rolled out. But now that's the next step. I just want to say, you see the energy of these two individuals up here. It doesn't even compare to what you see when they're in front of students. And I'm not kidding. You could say that we empowered them, but yes, we gave them a little bit of freedom, but they ran with it. These two are so impressive in front of students, in front of faculty, in front of administration as you see. We couldn't
048thank them enough for what they're doing because they took an issue that we had with students with some free time, and they've turned it and they've morphed it, with Ms. Sullivan as well, into something so positive in this building where students want to get involved. There are students that have come to me, to them as well, and said, "Well, I don't have a free period. How the heck can I do this?" Right? But they just can't right now. They can't. They're trying to find a way for them. So that's a testament to what this program is, whether it be the Leader in Me connection, when I was in the science classes and seeing some of these students lead these lessons, where really, I'd never heard them speak more than five words before. And I'm with
049Dr. Kelly in the back of the room saying, "I can't believe what this student is doing." By themselves, leading a middle school science seven class, not doing science seven, doing the plate activity. It's amazing. We have parents here whose children led some of these lessons, and just impressive and shocking in a perfect way. So thank you. Thank you. It's the ownership. Yeah. It's the ownership. They want it. It's amazing. It's what they want. It's cool. All of a sudden it feels cool. Yeah. Our first session with the President's Council- Mm-hmm ... we had the coach. The coach literally is raw, right? So we have all the kids in here in this room, and she's providing them with the cookie cutter presentation from Leader in Me, and I could see, I could feel it. I could
050feel the kids like So we're like, "All right, guys. Do you guys want to create your own? How do we want to go about doing this?" And they wanted to create their own. They wanted it to be specific to their experience. And that really is what makes it special. And the additional piece is what makes it special is that it's not just the superstar kid, right? Because everything was landing on the SO constantly. "Oh, we have an issue with the social development with SO." Right? The SO was always that governing body, but the SO is really a small population of students. They're the five students elected and really held class office positions prior. The President's Council has a much wider breadth of students, given each club having representation, and then the students that are doing
051mentorships. Like I said, there's kids that you would've never expected to be sitting side by side with a student in a science classroom. Or a certain member of the President's Council being up in front of the room, teaching kids, working one-on-one with seventh and eighth grade students. It's not the kids that you would typically think, and that's the beautiful part of that, is it's creating those leadership opportunities for more kids than just the ones who already have the skills. Right. So thank you for the opportunity to put you guys in. We're now through with our business meeting. The next topic is the Nassau Roses election and administrative budget vote. Be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby casts one vote for Deborah Coates to fill a vacancy on the Nassau Roses Board of Education
052and authorizes the district clerk to record the outcome of the election and notify Nassau Roses. We have resolved that the Board of Education hereby casts one vote for Gene DiSpirito to fill a vacant seat on the Nassau Boces Board of Education and authorizes the district clerk to record the outcome of the election and notify Nassau County. Be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby casts one vote for Norman Greenstein to fill a vacant seat on the Nassau Boces Board of Education and authorizes the district clerk to record the outcome of the election and notify Nassau County. Can I have a motion on this resolution? I'll make a motion. I am going to recuse myself due to appearance of a conflict of interest. All in favor? Aye. Whereas the Board of Cooperative Education Services of
053Nassau County, herein Nassau Boces, has proposed and presented its tentative administration budget for the school year of 2026 to '27. School year July 1st, 2026, through June 30th, 2027. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Nassau Boces tentative administrative budget for the 2026-'27 school year in the amount of $28,233,061 be and hereby is. Can I have a motion on the resolution? Make a motion. Do I have a second? Second. I am going to recuse myself due to the appearance of a conflict of interest. All in favor? Aye. This is to approve the budget, the desk vote for the budget? Yes. Thank you. We're good? Okay. Thank you. Approval of the minutes. May I have a motion to approve the Board of Education business meeting minutes of April 16, 2026? Motion. Do we have a second?
054Second. All in favor? Aye. The minutes of April 16th are approved. Now for the approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I'll make a motion. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. The consent agenda is now approved. Are there any questions or comments from the public? Please come to the podium and state your name and address. Hi, good evening. Thank you for the presentation on Leader in Me. My sixth grader was sitting here, and she saw it on the agenda, and she said, "Oh, I hope that's what they are. We're getting rid of it." So I would've appreciated if she had stayed. So my question is for the presenters. You had discussed that mentors and the trained students are going to be going in to do the lessons
055or do the activities. So the question is: Is there a reporting system for those mentors if they are noticing that maybe a kid is struggling somewhere outside of school or struggling within school? Is there a higher-up that they will be reporting to, and then obviously the situation will be taken care of? And the second question is, because I only have three minutes: How are you going to encourage or make sure that everyone has buy-in and is participating if there's a leadership course for the high school? Because as you said, the kids coming up from sixth grade absolutely hate this program. My daughter has been sitting in an advisory class all year while her friends have a flex period or another opportunity. So kids have that stigma. Should I ask my next question, or is the
056time going? Or- I'll ask your next question. My next question is, I didn't know who to reach out regarding this. So yesterday was a half a day of school for students, for parents. It was an opportunity for parent-teacher conferences. My question is, I'd be interested to know in the K to six classes, what is the number of students that were absent yesterday, completely not in attendance? And parent-teacher conferences in the spring are not mandatory, not obligatory. We're flexible. But my question is: How many parents actually meet with the teachers in the K to six? Because with only 40 days left of the school year, parents should know by this time how well their child is doing. So that's just my next question. And grades three to six, I would be interested to know the number
057of students who opted out of ELA since the ELA test has passed and how many students have opted out of math. Thank you very much. Is it all right if I take this writer's final questions before we go on? Yes. Thank you very much. Okay. So as far as the absence number and the number of conferences, I'll find out and get that information for you. And then for opt-out, we are going to report on opt-out for mathematics and ELA after the mathematics test is done tomorrow, so we'll get that to you. Okay. Thank you. Of course. As far as the Leader in Me program, I just want to make sure I have the questions correct. Students who are either doing a mentorship or teaching lessons who they report to, right? Then the other one is-
058If they're noticing- Say again? If they're noticing that a student is struggling- Struggling ... or a student is demonstrating some additional support- Challenges, right? Yeah. So I guess the first thing is there's the students who are teaching the lessons, right? In the middle school, there's a teacher presentRight? And then the students who are offering the mentorship piece, which is a little more consistent, either every other day or every day, they're also in the room with a teacher. They're never unsupervised. And those students have a direct line of communication with us. They can come to us, we meet with them regularly, and we allow them that two-way communication where they can say, "Hey, I'm struggling. I don't know if I can really do this." Or, "This kid really seems like he needs a little bit more
059help." And that would be something that we would circle back to Mrs. Sullivan in the middle school, who's the principal, and she can have a conversation with the teacher. We can either try to find a new kid or remove that student or give them coaching on how to work through that. So that would be that piece. Also people are working on leadership skills with the students. Sometimes they don't know what to do. A student keeps throwing the tent on the ground. It's almost like, "Get attention." And the mentor, I think kind of goes funny, but the mentor just kept picking it up. I talked that out with the mentor and said, "What is your role in that?" And then it was just the who our mentee was mentoring. We had the discussion and said, at
060that point, that it is not your response. So something like that, we're there for that. And if it rises above, then we bring it right to administration. We have monthly meetings with these students to kind of just talk it out with them. And then the other, the elective- Oh, yes ... the class. So how do you ensure that everybody is participating and gaining some sort of benefit? Some access. Yeah. So I think the first piece is the president's council teaching students in the middle school. They're going into math, social studies, science, world language, history. History, yes, that's one I missed. So at some point, every student in the middle school is getting access to a lesson taught directly by an older student. That's the first touchpoint. The next is as students develop into high school,
061they have the opportunity, if they have some sort of study hall or a free period, and we're actually thinking of other ways to be a little bit more refined with it, like offering it in the course selection when you elect for electives. Not just the leadership course, but the opportunity to sit in a middle school classroom and help with mentoring a student. So that would be offered to students, and it would work similarly to their availability with other electives. It's not guaranteed, but the guidance counselor's going to do their best to make sure that they can put that within that student's program, as long as that student indicates that they want to do it. And then the last and final piece is the elective course. That would be something that students would put in their
062course selections amongst their electives, right there, recommended for their academic courses by their teacher for the next year. And then they choose five electives, and they rank those electives as far as the courses that they'd like to get the following year. Students have the autonomy and the choice to put that in their selections as one of their requests. And it would be treated just the same way it would be sociology or AP psychology or wherever that student ranks that course. Once again, it's not guaranteed. There are limits to scheduling. But as a guidance counselor myself who does scheduling, you're looking at those rankings for each student individually, and you're doing the best you can to configure the puzzle piece of the schedule to give that student all of the core academic classes that they need.
063Obviously, that's the priority. And then putting them into the highest priority courses that they requested regarding their electives. Does that answer each question, not just one? Yeah. I'm more curious of when the mentor goes in and does the lesson or activity, and we all know there's those one or two students- Sure ... who just don't want to participate. They don't want to do a paper plate. They don't want to make a Venn diagram. They don't want to make a cookie capture, whatever it is. To be perfectly honest, it's so much fun in there. Okay. We've made these lessons. How we posed it to the high school students, they didn't have a great experience the past couple of years for reasons to be explained. So when we meet with them, we say, "How do you want
064to present it to you? Imagine yourself back in the seventh grade or in the eighth grade. What would you want?" All of a sudden, they've recreated these lessons. And I see Caroline sitting there because she's also part of this. Yeah. And all of a sudden, they took ownership, and they were like, "So you can teach the habit. We'd like the habit, like win-win. How are we going to explain that?" Instead of it just being real cookie cutter, what's fun to you? And so everybody knows pictures. They did a team-building activity. What's win-win? Our high school students are coming up with fun activities. Everyone wants in on this. The middle schoolers are going crazy for this. Yeah. We're making it fun and tangible, but they're also walking away with like, "Oh, wait, I actually learned something."
065Because then at the end, our high school students are really proud of it. They're like, "Well, what did you learn from that? Do you remember the habit?" They're like, "Win-win." So it takes away the cheesy element, but also it's really fun, and they actually learn the habit. It's not all over the place, but they get something out of it, and they learn from it. You have to prioritize, you have to delegate. It's okay. It's win-win for both of us, and that's really it. We haven't had that experience yet because our high school students have been tasked. You do what would be fun for you as a seventh or eighth grader, and they're all over it. Okay. It's like a rebrand. Yes, it definitely- It's activity driven. Yeah, no, because the kindergartners, the first graders, they've
066been hearing win-win for six years. Yeah. Enough with the win-win. Yeah. No, we just kind of revisit it. Yeah, okay. But we're still using it. The habits are the habits. Right. But we're just teaching them in a more tangible way for middle schoolers. And it's fun. I mean, I think- Thank you ... I can attest to that because I love Mr. Michael. Yeah. But if my son comes home one more time and tells me, "I'm in charge of my whole body." Yeah. When I tell him he needs to go take a shower. Yeah. This would be better. But an older kid would be like, "You have to take a shower." Whatever. It's how they interpret it. Yeah, exactly. It's like my mom used to make vegetables hidden in tomato sauce because I didn't want to
067eat vegetables. So it was like sneaking it in there without me even really noticing because of the activity piece, right? And the older students being in there develops excitement. And if a student is not participating, that's not something that's uncommon in a math class, a social studies class, an English class, whatever it is. So that's a great opportunity, as Dr. Kelly said, for those students to work through challenges. And if they are met with two challenges that are way above their head, that's when the teacher steps in, and that's when they come see us. Thank you for the clarification. No problem. Are there any other questions or comments from the public? Hi, my name is Shane Hamilton. I just want to actually go onto the leader thing. Mm-hmm. I mean, when I was in high
068school, I think we began with that the first year ever. And I kind of hoped, your daughter said that you guys were getting rid of it today. Mm-hmm. But after seeing that presentation, I actually really think it's a good idea. And that it's great that you guys rebranded it because none of the kids in our class were motivated to do it. I was a leader, and I couldn't care less. But I think it actually sounds fun now, that kids will enjoy helping out the little ones. Yeah. Or just doing a little bit more than we did. Mm-hmm. Than just line up and try to guess whose birthday is first with our eyes closed. But- Thank you. We appreciate it. We had to make it to complex work, so it was- Thank you. Thanks. Are there
069any other questions or comments from the public? I am going to close the public session. May I have a motion to close the public session? I make the motion. Second? Second. All in favor? Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you for coming.