001We serve. Help us to bring wisdom and humanity to our deliberations and nice spirit to our work. Thank you. Welcome to the November 20th meeting of a car police Board of Education Trustees Zino attended our executive meeting today, but did not attend tonight's meeting due to illness. Vice President Wein did not attend our meeting due to a personal matter. We'll start with comments from the board and I'll take the lead. Good evening everyone. I hope, um, everyone's getting ready for a peaceful thanksgiving and time for us to be, be thankful. And I'd also like to say a few comments, uh, regarding some thank yous. Thank you to the Car Place Education Foundation for a grant of $750. This is a donation to offset the cross for the high school course to attend the Board 1
0020 1 Workshop in New York City. I'd also like to say thank you to Senator Blanko for the grant aid of $10,000 for our district. It will be, um, it will be granted towards our STEM robotics program. I'd also like to say big congrats to the car, place Varsity Athletics team, and all the teams achieve the Athletic Scholar team recognition to receive this recognition with certificate, the average GPA of the top 75% of the roster must be greater than or equal to 90. The following varsity ball teams have qualified are Ball boys, football boys, soccer, girls, soccer, co-ed, cheerleading girls, tennis co-ed course, country girls, field hockey, girls volleyball, and boys golf. Congratulations athletes. Um, and also, if you are not doing anything this weekend, we have a car place Play Love Notes, a night
003of humor and romance. We could all use some chuckles and laughs and we could all use some romance. Thank you. Now turn over to Trustee Dog Food, Everyone. Happy Thanksgiving. Um, wanna take a moment to, uh, recognize the launch of New Crossroads, uh, Rob's News, digital News, uh, platform around for a while. The evolution, uh, to that, that digital platform, um, certainly gives our students, uh, really authentic, uh, audience for their work right place where their voices are heard with their ideas, interviews, recording, um, reach the, the whole new. So I, I encourage everyone to take a look. It's pretty impressive what they're doing, um, run entirely by students and, uh, always a nice thing to see. Um, I also want to congratulate the, uh, theater company, uh, from their participation in the stage of
004the change conference. One, 700 students from across the region attended workshops, including hours, um, view performances and engaging conversations about using theater to drive social awareness. Um, and that was a also a very nice thing to see. And then just, you know, the parent-teacher conferences recently, um, we have my family have a child, each of our, our three buildings. So, um, like so many of us, right? We're, um, prioritizing this, this important conversation, this, this opportunity to meet with teachers, um, and thank them for all of 'em, for their work. Um, but it was, you know, really nice to, you know, have that window to have more about the day to day and what's happening, you know, in, uh, in each of our classrooms from, you know, from the parenting. Um, so I thank them,
005their support, uh, and their support of each of our students and in our community. And again, uh, come see love notes after Thanksgiving of, I feel like, uh, everybody said everything I was gonna say, but I'm gonna say it again. So, thank you everybody for coming here and being with us. Um, happy Thanksgiving. I I hope everybody has a wonderful break and is, um, happy. I wanna say I'm thankful for being on this board. I'm thankful for the community, for the students and for the teachers and staff and the school. Um, not only for education, my children, but all also, um, all the community members. I wanted to give a shout out to two students, uh, Ava Lu, Ava Bertine, and Sammy Schwartz. They were at City Musical this past weekend. Um, not with Har
006Place, but they're LY students. And, um, they were performing, which I thought was amazing. And I wanted to shout out for teachers for, you know, giving them the training that they had here, as well as in their, um, re uh, treble choir. Um, I also wanna congratulate the students athletes and their participation in this fall. All of the students have, uh, received a scholar athlete team recognition. Um, we've got smart kids and athletics kids, which is great. We have a play coming on this, uh, Friday and Saturday. So please, if you haven't gotten your, uh, tickets, please do. It's always good. Unfortunately, you can't attend this time, but I can't wait to hear the reviews. Thank you. Good evening everyone. It's a very busy time of year at the high school. I'd like to start
007off by recognizing the key club And their advisor, Ms. Bino, for the incredible, incredible job hosting last week's drive. The Key Club also ran a food drive, um, and today was the final of 18. Last week, the newly formed President's Council organized by Dr. Kelly met for the first time. This group brings together club presidents from both the high school and the middle school to share ideas, strength, collaboration, and group communication among the different clubs that we had at our high school. I'd also like to mention that the student organization and the athletic department are also partnering to create a student section leadership club. Its mission is to model sportsmanship, safety and community in the stands leading positive cheers, dis encouraging negative behavior, and helping create a respectful, energetic game day atmosphere. It represents the
008integrity of All Frog fans. We're also excited to announce our third annual leadership symposium taking place on Friday, December 5th. We're expecting over 200 students from across Long Island to join us for a day of collaboration, connection, and leadership development. And that's hosted by the student organization. And finally, winter sports are now in full swing at the high school. Uh, wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. And now we'll have a few words from Dr. Co. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I will start with some really nice news. Earlier this year, we applied for a grant to, um, from State Senator Cino, and we got word yesterday that she granted us $10,000 to help enhance our STEM and robotics work. We are really grateful for that grant from Senator and and her
009office. We're going to put it to very, very good use. So I want to thank also the Business Office for their help with that. And, um, Barry and STEM fee to help us make that possible, and people, again, put to a really good use. Um, I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in the SEPTA Shred, hon. Over the weekend, SEPTA had a special fundraising event where people could bring documents to Shred and, you know, reduce the clutter in your house and the P of septa, she was the spearhead of that. But I want to thank, especially Dr. Nar for help with that. Chelsea Tio, one of our special educators, was there. Um, several of our students, key Club members were there to facilitate it. It was a really, really nice family event.
010Um, if you happen to be there, it was, it was a cool thing to, to see. And it speaks to the spirit of community and, um, it's actually quite a lot of fun. So it was a nice thing to be, to be present for. Um, as you know, we have scholar athlete teams this season. It's a really great thing for us. We are also going to have special recognition for our teams that won Long Island or Nassau County Championships at our December meeting. So I wanna thank Mr. Clark for facilitating that and insisting that scholar athlete status is the goal that we have here at Carl Place. And the coaches, and most of all the students are living up to that. That's a really great day. Um, can't say it too often. Love notes Friday
011and Saturday. Check it out. It's gonna be a really good play. Um, the tree lighting is coming up not too far from now. I think that's December 7th. Also an important historical day for us. We have our early dismissal drill on Tuesday. We have sent information home on Parents Square, and the principals have been reinforcing that as well. So, you know, I won't say you heard it here first, but you're hearing it here less, right? That early dismissal drill on Tuesday. Make sure that we know that at home. Very important. Um, in just a few minutes, we're going to have an entry plan presentation for Mr. Bennett and Ms. Shaw. Entry plans are an important thing for, for a new administrators to do. I did one when I first came to Carl Place, as well
012as Mr. Um, block and Mr. Re. And there's some really good, interesting learning that took place on the part of Ms. Shaw and Mr. Bennett. Um, I want to share this with you. I know that not the entire world can see this. I'm gonna send this home via appearance squares tomorrow. I'm part of the Nassau County Safety Committee, and Patrick Rider is our commissioner of police. They spoke with us today about electric bikes and Scoters. Nassau County Police Department has taken it upon themselves to enforce very, very actively that these vehicles are not meant for the street. And if you're under 16, you cannot ride one of them. Cannot ride 'em on the sidewalk, can't ride 'em over 20 miles per hour. They told us today that they, they'll be confiscating them when they find
013them on the street. And, um, we have some kids who ride them to school. They ride 'em pretty responsibly. I don't think we have any major problems with them, right Ms. We have no problems. And they are good kids. Not trying to cause problems for anybody, but the police department will confiscate and I pound them. Um, that's out of our control. I'm gonna send the parents square message, phone contact, because I don't want any students to, you know, get into a hassle over PD is taking this very, very seriously. It's safety issue, right? There have been children around Long Island who have been seriously injured, and unfortunately there's even been a fatality, um, related to these vehicles. So it's an important thing to know. It's a public service announcement for our community. And, um, best
014but not least, I will also wish everyone a happy, peaceful, safe thanksgiving. So, nice time of year and, you know, also try to remember anybody who's less fortunate that you know in your world. And, um, I would say I'm thankful to be part of the educational system here at Carl Place, schools, schools, and looking forward to some time with family and friends. So, thank you. Mad president. Thank you. Um, I would like to welcome Tanya, please stand to is the school psychologist lead replacement. Welcome to Carl Place. If anybody has now go to, um, public comments. If anybody has any public comments regarding consent, agenda, items only, please come to the podium. You could state your name and address to the district one. Hi everybody. Joel Ricardo. 54 Bright Street West, sorry. Oh, you got
015my other glasses. Sorry, stuff yet. Hold, um, army Current Agenda. There are three memos of agreement, um, with three unions here. Uh, one is the teacher's union, one is the administrative union, and one is the employee local union. Um, could you explain these agreement details? CPAA dependent survivor coverage, CPTA dependent survivor coverage and C-P-E-S-S-A dependent survivor coverage. I know we already have contracts negotiated and people have healthcare coverage and retirement coverage. So what's this matter? Wait, sorry, Wait for the volume That, Yeah, do you wanna answer? So you, you might know that one of our, one of our teachers passed away back in September. And it is a normal feature of health insurance that a surviving child or of dependent, the health insurance continues for three months. We have the ability to grant an extension
016on that so that a, a surviving dependent can have up to a year's worth of coverage. They still incur some costs themselves, but it helps to defray the cost of health insurance for a surviving dependent. And, um, the way it's structured, it has to be a person who is in service. It can't be a retiree. I believe that it's a person with 10 years of service or more. And it's a, it is a means for us in an emergency when a family is dire straits to relieve a little bit of their burden. So why are we doing it for three unions across the board? And why don't we just do it on an ad hoc basis when and if it happens, we are required if we do it for one person to make it available.
017So you can still do it ad hoc, right? I don't think, yes you can Eric, or no, you can't do it a hoc, but you could do it by the unit. So we have to make it available to the unit. And is this across the, this is required by state to do this? No, this is not a legal required. Is this something that's nice to have or the state says go do it? This is not a required benefit. It's a, it is a, an act of compassion. It's an act of charity, ma'am. So, so I understand what happened and that's terrible, but I don't think it, it is worth, I don't know how much is this gonna cost? It's counted $7,500 per death, right? $7,500 per death. And, and, you know, a person dying in
018service is, and how many, wait, wait, wait. Is an exceedingly rare event. 75 per death for one year, two years, three years, nine months of nine months of coverage at $833. And how many dependent per family? That's the district total contribution would be $7,500 regardless of the number of defendants. Okay, so if a person had one child or five, it wouldn't matter. This is above and beyond and it should not be contractual. It should be a one off. What are we going to do? The same way we do things with the union, when the union has people who are running outta days and we should allow the union to ship in and pay for certain things. Okay. And what is the split versus what we're paying versus what the union is paying here? I mean,
019the prepay for our family health insurance annually is over $30,000. So no, for this specific payment, once this is incurred 7,500, It's 7,500 that we're paying. What is the union paying into it? Union's not paying. They're not paying any, no family. The Dependents are paying for the rest of it. And what percentage? It's not a percentage that we capped it at a $5 amount. So whatever the remaining premium is, which is over 30,000 per year with family Package, when does that premium run out? It renews every January. I mean, they don't inherit the premium for the next year, right? Correct. It's just the current year, Nine months from the death. So we did it in a way to be compassionate. And also, I get it, I get it. Limit liability, I get it. But it
020is just a, a contractual item. And when you start talking about benefits, you're touching the third rail. Okay? You're touching the third rep. So you've got contract negotiations coming up and benefits is always there. And they're gonna say, well you did this, why not do this? And I know because I've been through it. MOAs are no help to negotiations. Trust me. The other thing on this, I'd like to understand, um, There was something in here about a tutoring service with, can you explain that please? Uh, nar, Deborah, when our students are out for whatever reason, it might be a medical condition. Um, we are, um, so this is all special ed related? Well, special ed could be general ed. If a student had a, you know, they broke their leg or they had some kind
021of surgery, they can't come to school. We are mandated to provide them with, um, do we work with these people, this group before we have Oh, alright. I said thank you very much. Thank You. So we typically, typically do it in house if we can first We offer it in house, right? And that just goes out if we need it. Yes. Okay. Are there any other questions about the consent home? Okay, so now we will have presentation from the central office administration. Mr. Bennett, and you comfortable? No, we do not wanna know the score. Me? No one talk about me. You. Well, this is a good entry plan. Entering the entry plan will be as Alright can. We're very sorry about that screens behind you. And we know we had some hard copies out there.
022Let's take it away. Alright. Good evening everyone. I just wanted to thank the board and Dr. For having us here today, uh, to share our entry plans with all of you. For those of you that I don't know already, um, I'm haw the Assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction and innovation. I'm joined by my colleague, Hi. I am Andrew Bennett, the, uh, executive Director of Human Resources and Leadership Development. I'd also like to vent the board for this opportunity to speak to everybody tonight. And thank you for joining us. Go that way. Um, Maybe if I turn it on. Alright, so, um, for anyone I'm familiar with an entry plan. An entry plan is an opportunity, uh, to sit down and really meet the different stakeholders in the district, teachers, community members, students, um, faculty alike,
023and ask some questions to learn more about the district. And one of the things that was really quite amazing and really special is someone joining the district to know that it's actually true is the mission. And vision is not just something that you're gonna see on the slides and on paper. And what you're gonna hear tonight is every conversation we had, uh, with all stakeholders really resonated the points of our mission and vision. There was no conversation that myself or Mr. Ben had that the mission and vision wasn't alive and strong. Um, compassion and passion being on display, and I apologize, my voice is going, but, um, compassion and passion being on display was a big part of our conversations. You'll hear throughout the evening. Um, all of the ways that our faculty and community
024members go above and beyond for each other. Um, another interesting point that came through very strongly is the need for excellence and the desire to have excellence in our district while also honoring condition. And one interesting thing that came up was the symbiotic relationship at times between those two things. And sometimes the discord between tradition and excellence. Um, another piece that permeates our mission and vision in the conversations that we had, uh, was the desire to be involved and to be collaborative. Whether I'm speaking to a faculty member or community member, everybody wanted to really be as involved as possible and have their, um, opinion and their thoughts count. And the cycle of success is something that Carl Police feel strongly about. This entry plan itself is a part of that mission and vision. The
025cycle of success, gaining some feedback, putting in the work, applying those skills, and continuing that cycle. So a quote that really resonated with us, uh, by Ernest Hemingway is, before you act, listen, before you react, think before you spend, earn. And I think that's really important when entering any group, especially a school district. This school district is, um, full of beautiful tradition. We have many generations of teachers and community members here. And it's really important to understand where we've come from as a district where we wanna go. The hopes and desires and dreams of all stakeholders before just rushing ahead and going forth and, and creating things or coming up with new ideas. It should match what we already have in place and continue to drive us forward and up. So The purpose of an
026entry plan is multifaceted and it is rooted in these intended outcomes that you see here on the screen. Uh, throughout this work, um, Ms. Shaw and I, uh, we sought to build trusting relationships with all stakeholders. Uh, that way we could gain, uh, a holistic understanding of the core strengths of the district, as well as the areas that need our attention. Along the way, we identified the, uh, key themes that emerged through our conversations, and we're putting that information, uh, to work as we progress through this, this year and beyond. Over the course of the past several months, uh, we had many conversations, uh, with our stakeholders. Uh, we conducted online digital surveys that went out to those individuals who had expressed an interest in participating in our entry plan. And we also conducted, uh,
027short form interviews, uh, with those individuals who said that they wanted to speak to us in person. Uh, in all, there were 76 people who were interviewed. Uh, you can see there on the screen the breakdown between the two formats. And we also included, uh, a breakdown of the data by the type of individual. Uh, we separated them into those that were employed by the district as well as those who were community members. Uh, and there were cases where people belonged to both groups. Uh, we included this quote that you see there on the screen because as we conducted our interviews, this was a theme that came up time and time again. Uh, this was set by, by one of the interviewees. When a student or staff member, former or current is in need, the
028community steps up. So what came out often in my conversations with people, uh, before we got started was, what exactly do you do with curriculum instruction, innovation? Um, and the answer to that is curriculums of what we teach instructions, how we teach in innovation is coming up with new and modern ways to do all of that, um, in excellent fashion. And some of the strengths that came up most commonly in the conversations that I had included, the strength of being a small, um, community. And it's not just great being small for the sake of smaller class sizes, but really what's special about Car Place is we're able to offer personalized instruction, have really strong relationships with our families and our teachers with each other, and we're able to collaborate easily. If we have an idea,
029we could communicate that quickly, um, and work in an agile way. In addition, passion, obviously that's part of our mission and vision, and we tout that a lot. Um, but that is very, very true. The community and the faculty go above and beyond. In my short time here, obviously you mentioned it earlier, we had a tragic, uh, occurrence at the beginning of the school year. I've never seen a community rally together The way that Carl Police had the scene can be true for my connection and work with the friends of UPK. I mean, that's passion on display. Our friends of UPK had an idea really pushed work together and are still working to make sure that we have a program for more little frogs in our district. Um, another strength of our district that came
030through in the conversations that I had were the curriculum and resources available to our students. Some of those were our field trips, our musicals, our shows like we have tomorrow night. I do hope everyone comes tomorrow. And on Saturday, leader in Me, our addition of the writing revolution, our AP course offerings, and our project based learning down at Cherry Lane. Some of the areas of need that permeated most of my conversations was really about the cater to all continuum. What are we doing to ensure that we have developmentally appropriate and systemic and thoughtful aligned programming A through 12, um, that could be seen when we're talking about technology and data. One of our graduate competencies is digital literacy skills. What does that look like in 12th grade? And how are we starting that process in
031kindergarten? What does it look like in third grade? And are we evolving that curriculum to make sure when our frogs graduate, they have all the skills they need even as the world keeps changing? So when I'm talking about K to 12 alignments with, uh, faculty and, um, community members, there's a lot of conversation about making sure that we're really intentional about everything we're offering along the way. And last but not least, an area of need was communication and transparency. And I wanna highlight this term, authentic shared decision making. And not just having parents come in and give feedback on a survey or join a committee once or twice, but being involved. But before changes happen as they're happening, getting feedback after as well as faculty members wanting more say in some of the, um, choices
032being made by the district. Um, in addition, some of the strengths that should be celebrated, again, is that willingness of everyone to pitch in and help each other. Um, I can say as someone that just started here in August, that is very true for my role. I have never been so supportive with, uh, community members and staff members just asking, what do you need? If you need it, you got it. Let us know how we can help you. Here's my cell phone number. Call me if you have questions. It's very true for everyone that I've met along the way. The connections with families should be celebrated, um, as I said, for friends of UPK and anything that we really need, the families are here to support and help make that happen. Uh, another uh, strength
033that should be celebrated is the project based learning. Like I mentioned at, uh, cherry Lane. Uh, we're having other faculty members and, uh, community members talking more about that, and we're looking for ways to scale that. An interesting conversation that was had was about traditions. We talk about traditions, it's in our mission and vision. But one thing that came to light is there's also a lot of stress around traditions. We wanna make sure that we preserve our traditions while also modernizing and innovating. Um, and there's sometimes a discord between the two. So really being thoughtful about our traditions and evolving them where they're needed and preserving them where they're needed. Some of those traditions that came through, we had a lot of conversations about Ashoka, um, homecoming prompts, sports and spirit teams. Another piece that
034stood out was honoring veteran staff. And I got to be a part of that. Um, during superintendent's comp stay in August, veteran staff have been here for 20 or 30 years. They're part of the reason this district is so successful. Um, and also the honor that they get. We say very special words about them and whether they be clerical, um, teacher aides or our teachers, um, our custodial staff, no matter who they are, they get a special call out. And we recognize the peers of service when talking with the teachers and, um, our faculty at large. I talked about professional learning. Uh, some of the pieces that our, uh, faculty really feel are necessary is that our professional learning should be practical, sustained and connected. Um, what that means is really being transparent about how
035does one year lead the next year? Is this something that sounds great, but I cannot use in my classroom or I cannot use in my practice? And if so, we don't want it. And being really thoughtful and intentional about what we're bringing in and presenting and using our teachers time for, um, as well as our other faculty, our clerical and support staff wanna be included and given opportunities to learn and grow. We were able to do that in November. We built a schedule for our clerical staff, our teacher aides and our faculty to make sure they had, um, opportunities to learn and grow and continue as a district moving forward. Also, a desire for agency and clear alignment. And by agency choice, teachers wanna grow, but they also want some choice in what they have
036the options to select. And we wanna make sure, um, that we're giving that to them. So of all the conversations had the most positive feedback, um, that everyone said was about our tight-knit community. And that while we're proud, we're also hungry for more. We wanna modernize. Um, while we also wanna stay true to our values. Most need attention was the uneven communication. Some things were overly communicated, we heard about it, we know about it, and other things were under communicated and maybe not explained as clearly as they could be. Uh, lastly, just as I said before, strengthen our curriculum to make sure all three buildings were, um, lock step, and that when one ends, the other one begins. And it's really thoughtful in those transitions. So my last line is, how will this inform my
037practice? Some of this is already deals in motion and some of these are steps I'm going to be taking in the near future. So I will be developing our P to 12 curriculum alignments, providing intentional and developmentally appropriate experience across K through 12. One of the ways I'm doing that is through our work with portrait of a graduate, starting to work with different grade levels in departments to talk about what does critical thinking look like in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, what are we doing? The purpose of that is to identify gaps and find areas that maybe we have overlaps and we could find some more time for to fill some of the gaps we might have with instruction. Making sure that we are supporting our teachers in ways that are tied to district initiatives,
038include teacher choice and are matching our commissioner mandates, making sure that we are doing what we can to meet the mandates in place. And being transparent with parents, very open about the ways that we're instructing and teaching and our curriculum changes each day. In terms of innovation, I'm modernizing systems that are advancing our practice, including our middle school and high school schedules. Communication styles with families, providing teachers more effective ways to learn and grow, and seeking a lot more input in that authentic shared decision making. Um, and lastly, including more students and families in some of that work. And then going back to our mission and vision and that cycle of success, really living that piece of the mission and vision and making sure all stakeholders like in this entry plan are, um, considered and
039asked and included in those choices that we're making for curriculum instruction. Thank you. So, uh, one of the more important parts, uh, that a human resources department takes care of is the development of a positive culture. Um, and I spoke to all of the interviewees about, uh, the culture and climate here in Carl Place, and I'm very happy to report that across the board. We, we have a very nice positive culture in climate. Um, our stakeholders, uh, feel supported part of a tight-knit community that works together, build strong relationships and accomplish goals as a unit. Uh, while we do have a strong sense of community, some of our stakeholders did add that sometimes stakeholders can feel brushed aside. Uh, and that sometimes we don't recognize all of the wonderful things that are going on in
040our school community and share the contributions that our stakeholders have. We always want to celebrate the positive, and we want to be real and authentic about those things that require our attention. Um, everybody that I spoke to agreed that communication is an integral part of a, of any district, uh, in order to meet success. And it was clear through my conversations that this district does that very well in some areas, but we also have some room to grow. Uh, you can see here some of the suggestions from, uh, the people I spoke to about how we can augment what we already do. Um, echoed here is the sentiment that we can celebrate those achievements of our students and our staff and our faculty. Um, we can, uh, use a variety of methods to communicate with
041our stakeholders, making use of our resources like our digital sign and our local publications. Uh, as close knit as our community is, they do want to be more involved in broader decision making, and they'd like more detailed information about the programs and initiatives that our district offers. Which brings me to the strengths and areas of need, uh, in terms of human resources and leadership development. Uh, having a separate human resources department with, uh, a single leader in that department is new to the district, but I was very comforted by the fact that the respondents reported that there were many, many, uh, strengths associated with the work in those areas in the past. Uh, for example, respondents were appreciative of the mentorship that goes on in the district, and they cited availability and support as key
042elements of the success that the human resources department has had in the past, especially when explaining things, uh, processes like taking a leave of absence. Um, however, stakeholders want to know more about what a dedicated human resources department can do for the district. They'd like to know more about the person who is leading it and how that person can help with recruitment. So to answer that basic question for everybody here, what the human resources department really does, uh, human resources oversees all aspects of the employee's work cycle. Uh, so what that means is it starts with recruitment. It moves on from there to compensation and benefits onboarding, uh, then handling things like training, mentorship, and professional growth. Of course, evaluation of performance and things like leaves and eventually assisting with the transition to retirement. In
043addition to those things, uh, human resources, uh, is really attuned to the health of the organization. So what that means is they're fostering a positive culture, uh, attending to employee relations and making sure that the district is operating in compliance with all laws and regulations, and that there is, uh, a real solid foundation of record keeping going on the, the leadership development part of my role kind of drills down a little further on some of those aspects of human resources and focuses in on the training, the mentorship, professional development and succession planning. There were quite a few trends and challenges that were cited, uh, when our conversations turned toward, uh, hiring. And as a result of those conversations, there's some work that can be done to streamline the process without compromising our standards. And we
044can also seek ways to identify and hire the best candidates who will meet our students' individual needs, despite the fact that the talent pool is shrinking because far fewer people are entering the field of education. Uh, finally to address retention concerns, we can increase the work we already do to nurture and support our new and existing faculty and staff. And we can expand, expand our reach and our appeal through some new recruitment tactics. Yes, All of those conversations that I had with stakeholders led me to these, uh, following goals. In the area of human resources, I will develop innovative recruitment tactics to attract the best and the brightest to will ensure that current hiring practices are efficient. And in the area of leadership development, I will furnish faculty and staff with ongoing support through meaningful
045professional development and prolonged mentorship. Also, I will explore avenues for faculty and staff to demonstrate their leadership development. And beyond those goals, I will seek opportunities to recognize and highlight the talents of our students and staff. And I will seek to provide stakeholders with meaningful shared decision making opportunities. Uh, earlier we, uh, kicked this off with a quote. We're gonna end with a quote, this one from Johann who wrote, in the end, we retain from our studies only that which we practically apply tonight. You've heard, uh, some words from Ms. Shaw and me about the, the conversations we had with our stakeholders. And now it is time to put those ideas into Action. Thank you. Oh, thank you for the presentation. It's very informative. Um, you were able to share your vision and we look
046forward to see how it's going to be applied and executed. We already received positive feedback from the professional development of, of, um, some transitions that's happening among the district. And we look forward to see what else will be coming our way. And what's most important, as we all know, is that if we are focusing for, to deliver the best for our students, it has to come from people of your, of your expertise to make the stronger and better than we are today. So thank you. Thanks. Yeah. I just echo thank you so much for the, uh, presentation. You know, I think in the book and of the Before you, what exactly Do you do, right? That this question some, you know, some folks will ask, right? And, you know, new faces and things, um, new
047roles, some of the titles, you know, you've expanded your roles on, right? Um, and then kind of like the, the later book end of action, right? And the throw, uh, quote, right? So of like, yeah, you, we are thrilled. I I've heard nothing but but good things. Um, and excited to see, you know, what comes next for sure. Um, I love, uh, Lee that, you know, you continue to hit on the continuum that, you know, three buildings sort of become one in that way across the district. Something that I, I hear quite a bit and that there's a lot of development there and that there's family involvement throughout, and it's not like kind of, uh, you know, standalone, uh, sessions. You know, that's, that's not the vision, which is, is good. Um, I like the
048idea of, you know, what you're describing in terms of, and it's things we've heard before too in other settings, right? Middle school, high school, um, you know, scheduling, you know, some exciting new, you know, offerings that could exist there. And then of course the clarity in communicating that in the right way. Uh, I think families will be excited too. I know that they already are so excited to hear what that might look like, uh, in the future. So thank you. Great presentation. Probably one of the better ones I've seen in a year and half, two years we've been doing this. And, um, we're lucky to have you that made these decisions and the students are even luckier. So, thank you. Would anybody like to come to the podium with questions? I don't have a question.
049I just have a, a request. Um, my daughter teaches, yes, she just received tenure. And the one thing when I sat through the tenure presentation, because I was on the board, I was embarrassed at what we do call place for our teachers with pending, they make a big deal about it. Um, during her four years, she did a heck of a lot of work in terms of every time she was evaluated. And I think we had an easier process here for many years. Not only the years I was on the board, but many years then they do it. Ola they certainly do a great job of acknowledging everybody, teachers, administrators, whoever's getting tenure that year, they have to do a portfolio. They present the portfolio, you know, created it. Um, yeah. And I hope that
050we evolve to where we're doing a similar practice here, making it, you know, they have to require, you know, rigor to become a teacher here. And we acknowledge their achievement when it happens and they get coincide. Um, yeah, so we actually started that this year. Uh, we had it in place already for our year one teachers. We have a new teacher academy and based on teacher feedback, the board, uh, teachers actually asking for it, the teacher's union, um, and everyone involved, administrators. We are growing that into a four year program. Great. And this year, actually our second year teachers wanted to get in on it. So we're working with year one and year two. And our second meeting is December 5th. So we're ready for December 3rd. I want to say we're ready. That's great.
051Already, um, started that process in our own Carl Place version though. And Mr. Lao, uh, part of the tenure process does fall into my realm. And if you want to sit down with me at your convenience, I'd love to Hear your items. She, she's, she went through it. She knows I, like I said, when I was here, we didn't do it. So I, I failed. They did a great job. I was embarrassed. I really Was. Thank you. Does anybody have any other questions or comments? Okay, may I have a motion to approve? I have question. I got a non presentation question. A non presentation. Okay. That will, that's not, no, no. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the board of education business meeting of November 20th? I make a motion.
052Today is, here's no minutes on here to approve. Oh, sorry. I'll, I'll pass that. Ract that. Okay. Now for approval of the consent agenda, may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion Second. All in favor a Aye all are in approval of the consent agenda. Any other questions from the public? Not regarding the agenda, please come to the podium. Take your name, the address. Thank You. Brian Rose Avenue. Good evening. Wonderful presentation. I'm glad I had the opportunity to sit down in person with both of you and express my concerns and answer questions. Um, a question, um, is, I know last time we had a board meeting, um, meeting Dr. Simon, you had completed a presentation on school-based work learning, um, School-based Work learning. Yes. So my question, like, you know, after
053we had left and talking with other community members who were watching on livestream, um, was prior to the consultant being hired, um, was any communication done with Chamber of Commerce or local universities and colleges to assist par place with getting such program off the ground? Be still the same question because, you know, the budget is set previous in previous year and I went through lots of, uh, appropriation status reports all from last year that we've discussed. And I don't recall seeing anything that is like consultant based for, you know, this additional program. So that's my one question on that. So I, I think the question is, So like, like before the, the consult, like the, the consultant was hired that she's coming here and she's splitting her her week between our school, our district, and
054another district was other communication or talks happening prior to her being hired with, with free, you know, free, free help. Gotcha. Like that kind of thing. Like was the chamber of Commerce, like, did, did we have a group or an outreach to go to chamber and say, Hey, we wanna bring this, this to our district. Can you help us? As far as I know, there is no free service that does this. We, we did some research on work based learning and how work based learning coordinators work and there is no one who will just give you, give a district a person s Right. And in that research we looked at a few different options and as our initial cut at doing work based learning, it became obvious that OS was a really good partner for
055this and it would also be an affordable entry for us into the world of work based learning. So that's how we arrived there. So, so I guess the same question is, so I don't remember from the presentation previously, but is it a, like is she, is this contract that we have with both CS multi-year, this Is a one year contract and we will be able at the end of that to say, to evaluate and say, are we getting excellent service exactly the way we want it continue? Are we getting really good service, make these changes for us, continue. Do we want to bring this in house and make it a wholly owned car place function? We have the ability to do any of those things. Okay. And my next question was, um, regarding the budget.
056I know that budget discussions are probably talking or, you know, always happening. And I, in one formal presentations will occur in, you know, the 26, the beginning 2026, beginning of the year. So my question is, h how are new hires, support staff, additional security, uh, movement among central administration increases in benefit packages? How does that happen when the budget is already set for the new year? So we had one central administration employee retire, however, two employees were hired for the one person, but the budget was already passed and set in May. So like where did that money come from? And you know, we, you know, every bimonthly we, I see an additional new hires, you know, additional school aide, additional aba aids, more security district. Where where does that money come from if it wasn't
057budgeted for in May In June? Uh, I'll, I'll pass, I'll pass part of that over to Ms. Dean Martino. There are people who get hired in the course of the year because someone leaves, let's say an eight leaves. You have to replace that date, right? You have an obligation to, right. Of course. Um, we needed to hire a second grade teacher this year for obvious reasons. Of Course, of course. But the money was in the budget, right? So We don't, we don't do unbudgeted s and at that point, I'll pass it over to Mr. Martino to get a more precise response. Um, so just to back up really quick, uh, the work based learning coordinator is included in this year budget? Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, so we're not paying for that from, it Was even in
058a presentation. Okay. Um, okay. So I believe, but I won't scare to it that, um, the, the decision to split the positions was made during the budgeting process and we did have to move funds around within the budget. And I, I hope that it is reflected on the changes sheet that is included with the budget binders. Um, but that's how that happens. We had to move money around within the budget. We had to take some things out, reduce some items to get there. Um, we don't grow the staff, uh, unnecessarily during the school year. And you know, the staffing presentation to say if we were planning on doing that and as far as the unsettled contracts and the benefits, um, from, from an accounting perspective, we are allowed to make an approval for that at
059the end of the year. So if some of those leftover funds, I, if I know the contracts are open, I'm allowed to set aside accounting for that. So that's how we handle that. Okay. So the, the hire the, okay. Alright. Thank you. Are there any other Questions? I just have a follow up to what you were just talking about. So I wasn't here for the work case study. I know I was here way back when we first started talking about it. The B CS hire is not full-time, right? Correct. Okay. Split half with us, half with Visa, long Island High School and yards. Okay. And but they're here like it's like uh, every other day type thing or however that works. Correct. So after this year, after like you said, you see how things went
060go with all that, maybe there could be some thought of a position, somebody in-house because I know there's always talk about us not having a business, enough business teachers. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And a lot of programs that kids wanna do can't be open 'cause we do not have enough and the teacher can't do it. You only teach so many. So I just kind of bring that to your attention. Maybe it's been thought about already, I don't know. But to me it, I do prefer in-house if that could work and and benefit other kids. 'cause when you have somebody in-house, I know in my district we do something similar and it's an in-house teacher and she's constantly has to talk to these kids, meet with them and and talk about their work study. So I feel like
061it would maybe be better if it just says a thought. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you again for the calculation. I know they didn't get them yet since I asked my nephew. It is inpro. He did not getting yet, but I know they're getting them and I think that was a great decision. So thank you for listening. Are there any other questions or comments? Um, some questions on the prior agenda because it wasn't at the meeting, but I did review the agenda. Um, in this agenda you had an amendment, uh, section on agreements and there were agreements for three administrators where you altered their health benefits. So the question is why, especially when two of 'em were already new employees and it sounds like the way it was written, it said amended terms. So
062it sounds like they had a contract, you amended their existing contract and what were the changes made and what's the impact financially? We withdrew that on two people and we kept it on one person. Okay. So let's talk about the one person. What were the changes made and why? If they already signed the contract, why are we change of benefits and what did we change? I'm going to defer and see to what extent are we able to talk about a question like that. You talk about what the changes were in there if you so wish, but you are not required to. It's a, it's a confidential person. Okay. So I'll foil the data of course. But here's the thing then here's the other question. You change three or one. One, what about what happens to
063all the other people? I mean we always try to keep all the administrators in sync. This sounds like they're not So what's going on? And again, it is benefits if, if you'd like to foil, we will absolutely 100% furnish that information. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you. You're welcome. Um, next one on this agenda, and this gets to another MOAI talked about on this agenda, teachers were given a stipend for doing curriculum writing, right? It was list procedure, curriculum writing. I don't know when it was. It was just a list of teachers. 30 hours. 30 hours. November 6th agenda still. Yeah, the sixth agenda. Gotcha. Um, so as I had stated, when I had issue with the MOAs for the committees, right, we do pay teachers for curriculum right now. Right? It's in the contract.
064When I said it that night, everybody looked at me like I had two heads, especially Eileen was not here anymore. So again, now my question, because you have MOA, are these people on your committees getting paid for that MOA or the MOA plus? This increment? I'm not a hundred percent sure what you're asking. There's a increment, there's a statement in the contract. If they write curriculum, there's a opinion summer curriculum, right? Yes. It's an hour. The committees in place to do research and then continue to write curriculum. What is a curriculum committee? Right? We had a curriculum committee in the 24 25 school year. That's correct. And it's not around anymore. They were all of the four academic committees last year were one year committees. Okay. So were there presentations to finalize all those committees?
065Yes. Like I know you were at the I was at the river the Friday, you know Port River grad and the other three also had presentations. Yes. Okay, so I can get those. Yes sir. Presentations as well. I can see the three. You don't even have to pull 'em. They're on the website. They are, yes. Okay. Alright. But were those people then on those committees paid per the contract for curriculum writing and per the MOAI You mean like double paid what you mean? Like paid for the summer and then paid for the year. I mean paid for the MOA whatever they were gonna get paid. And then because it also falls onto curriculum, right? Paid for the curriculum. Right. So just just to be clear, the curriculum, the, I'm sorry, I'll say this correct. The
066four academic committees that we had last year are completely and entirely separate from some from summer curriculum science one does not. You say summer curriculum writing. What happens if they're write, if I, if I year, if I write curriculum materials during the school year, paid all of my regular days work, I'm not sure. Okay. The four committees, portrait of a graduate. Mm-hmm. Curriculum alignment, literacy, stem, those were one year committees from the beginning to the end. Each of them concluded with a public presentation. And every summer school districts car place included authorized summer curriculum writing. Mm-hmm Curriculum creation units. That is done outside of the school year that, that happened in summer 25. And we authorized a payment for that, I believe on the last agenda. Okay. Thank you. Thank you too. I am now
067going To close public session. Can I have a motion to close the public session? I'll make it second. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you for.