001foreign good evening and welcome to the July 6 2023 reorganizational meeting of the katana Lewis Borough School District may I have a motion to return to public session Julia may I have a second Alana all in favor hi thank you very much Maybe please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you just so um well everybody know that the newly elected trustees uh Bill swerfeger and Lorraine Gallagher were administered the oath of office prior to tonight's meeting and the oath of office was also administered to the assistant superintendents prior to the tonight's start of the meeting at this time I want to turn the floor over to the
002board of ed to have a discussion regarding the Board of Ed vacancy thank you so nice to see everybody Welcome to our community and welcome to my board colleagues and to our administrators um we feel very fortunate that we had great interest from community members who were willing to fill a vacancy until the next Board of Education election in May and the night we have before us a resolution to vote on the opportunity to appoint Bill Rifkin A board colleague with whom some of us have served for nine years and who was elected by our community to serve three terms and um I think somebody can feel free to move the resolution if we're ready to I'll move the resolution so moved thank you Julia second bit okay bye Lorraine thank you is there any
003further discussion I'll just add that we um I think we learn I certainly learned as we went through the process it was nice to get so much interest from community members and serving on the board and um I think certainly was sort of we didn't have a criteria around how we would decide that and so the opportunity to appoint somebody who had been elected by the community felt like a really prudent Choice as and I really hope that this serves as a leadership development opportunity for all those that expressed interest to think about running in the future and to join our committees and different you know get it continue to be involved in the community but also really think about running that when we have robust elections it's really great for our community and for
004our school district um and I also know that one question that came up that I just thought was interesting for discussion is there was so much interest and is it are shorter terms more appealing to people because this would sort of be this would have been a filling it's filling for 10 months not a full three-year term and is the process daunting and if that is the case are there things we can do to make the process more open and inclusive and make people more willing to participate so those are just some of the things Reflections on the process thank you that would also just add gratitude to colleagues sitting here tonight and colleagues who had been sitting with us just a few short weeks ago um and to observe that I think this was
005a very collaborative process and an inclusive process and I think we all feel fortunate that we were able to have thoughtful respectful deliberations and we were humbled by the interest of very accomplished community members who um as has been said were clearly more interested in or comfortable with the idea of being appointed to serve rather than having to go through the process of petitioning and running for a school board so it is interesting to think of the election process as a barrier to school board service and whether there's anything that we can be doing as a community to make the process of running for school board feel more inviting or enticing but I think we learned a lot in this process both about our community and the interest of fellow community members in serving and
006also about our opportunity to work together through an unforeseen challenge to our governance team and to work toward a solution that you know felt um constructive and helpful to our school district at this time so anything further I just want to say I do appreciate that you allowed bill and I to be involved in um the process that was not a requirement so it was a very welcoming gesture so thank you well thank you for being willing to join us um at a time that preceded your formal term oh goodness knows you're going to spend plenty of time deliberating and we really appreciate you making yourselves available and helping us to understand your perspective and think about things in different ways so thank you hey um well it's my pleasure to move resolution this is
0077.02 correct um this is a resolution resolve that the Board of Ed will appoint Dr William Rifkin as a member of the tone lewisboro School District Board of Education to fill the board vacancy effective today July 6 2023 terminating on May 21st 2024 second thank you Julia and I'm sorry I think we actually did that yeah we can now take a vote all in favor please say aye aye 5-0 thank you I think Dr Rifkin is with us and we can invite him to please Bill once you put your stuff down if you could come up and I'll do the administer your oath of office [Music] yep please thank you and if you can raise your right hand and repeat after me I do softly swear I do solemnly swear that I will support the
008Constitution of the United States and I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New York and the constitution of the state of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office of board trustee the duties of the office of board trustee according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability thank you and if I could just have you sign here please you do it when you're elected a few years ago thank you so much thank you thank you now the next order of business is the non-president and vice president nominations may I have a nomination or nominations for board president michev yes thank you Kim it is my pleasure to nominate Julia Hadlock
009for school board president and if you'll allow I would also like to extend my gratitude to Julia or her dedicated partnership and support um you helped me to be a better school board president than I ever would have been without your support and partnership and I hope it's okay because we're a school district after all to say that I learned so much from you I I learn every time we talk you have helped me to learn more about our community to learn about relationships to learn about school board service and to learn about industries that I wouldn't have known anything about had I not crossed paths with you for these years and so I feel very grateful and honored and privileged to have worked side by side with you and you've been a fantastic School
010Board vice president and you're going to be a great board president and it's my pleasure to nominate you thank you Mission I dare you to nominate somebody that was my next question are there any other nominations okay may I have a second for Miss Hadlock to be president Lorraine yes yes all in favor of Julia being president of the board of ed for the 23-24 school year thank you so much thank you so much thank you Julia and thank you Bill you're the only person we haven't quite interacted with or acknowledged in this but thank you for returning and for being with us tonight right now the next order of business is vice president for the school year may I have enough are there any nominations for vice president I'd like to nominate Alana Schneider
011for vice president thank you are there any other nominations well in May of the second for Alana as VP I've been prepared speech I'm sorry all in favor of Alana Schneider as vice president for the 23-24 school year thank you okay um may I ask Miss Hadlock and Miss Nair to come up and we'll do the oath of office okay it it doesn't matter whatever you guys feel comfortable so raise your right hand repeat after me I do solemnly swear I just solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New York and the constitution of the state of New York and that I will Faithfully discharge I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the
012office of board president and the duties of the office of board vice president the previous of the office of board vice president according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability thank you and Julia can I have you thank you okay thank you thank you before I turn the meeting over to the newly elected uh President and Vice President I just want to take this opportunity to thank Miss chef for all of her hard work and it was the pleasure of working with you as president so thank you thank you and I'm allowed to say something I'm president I just just foreign I have to um so marjorie's been on the school board now for 11 years she has missed one board meeting in 11 years her level of commitment
013to students in our district is beyond reproach she is always thinking about what is best for students she represents our district in our West putt BOCES and West Point um board leadership she has a she's the vice president of the West Westchester Putnam School Board Association and I will do my damndest and try to do I mean the number of emails she answered and the she I mean literally like a thoughtfully and individually answers every email we receive as a school board and just her attention to detail to make sure that we are following the rule of the law always and making sure that we are a school board Beyond reproach in terms of our work is really remarkable it's it's remarkable Marjorie seriously and I'm very nervous to see you but it's really been
014an honor to work with you and I don't think I could have learned from anyone with just a greater dedication to students and public education so thank you thank you if a board presidency can be a labor of a passion yeah it was a passion for you it was obvious and we are much the better for it thank you thank you very much I appreciate the kind words thank you I feel like I have to run the meeting okay is that where we are all right so word announcements I know that school's been out but um Andrew I'm sure you have some I don't know if any school board members have any board announcements if we met since graduation no so um I would just like to say I think that all of the end
015of Year celebrations were amazing just across the district at the elementary level middle school high school uh the speakers at the high school were just phenomenal but students and you know I'm sure that they worked with advisors to help them prepare their words that you know the teacher that our students chose to speak it just there was um so much connection and community and love in those engaging those um events it was really wonderful and it just really felt like you know this is a school district that has really put effort into connecting our our community together and we've had a tough couple of years for these kids and to see them really you know kind of after our you know our graduating seniors in a very unusual High School experience and it just was
016really it was lovely to see them graduate so thank you this you know so our girls lacrosse team as you know went to the state finals but we also just competed in or they just competed so I can in the National High School championships which is a pretty prestigious it's an invite only um and they compete among the best in the country been quite a run for a very very special group of girls okay congratulations cool so I'll I'll follow on Julia from where you just left off um uh we had a fabulous year I want to say thank you to all the board members and to my cabinet colleagues and to all of our colleagues and all our families and students and colleagues across the district it was a really wonderful school year uh
017the cabinet and I were fortunate enough to attend the moving up ceremonies fifth grade eighth grade and the high school graduation as Julia said we heard a lot of references to covet at every stage of the game and the impact that it had and how thrilled people are to be Beyond it we saw fifth graders actually being charged with the responsibility of running their own moving up ceremony which was awesome to see we heard great speeches as you said and most importantly a very celebratory mood at all of the events so that was really really nice uh and a very nice way to end what's been a terrific year I want to welcome China to our board welcome as our new student trustee under the board this year uh we're thrilled to have you it's
018really a tremendous tradition here at cadillosper that we have a student member of the board and what thrilled that you're with us this for the coming year um I want to share a little bit of news that we did share with a certain population of our community earlier this week and uh the board is aware and our staff are aware but um we did a little bit of restructuring at the very end of the year in how we provide support in the office of student Support Services we had a colleague Jeffrey Cole leave us as our assistant director and we took that opportunity to restructure and we now have two positions where previously we had one we now have a position that we're calling a district-wide assistant principal position that will report to the office
019of special services and will be a little bit more building centered perhaps than Mr Cole was in his work and then we're also creating a CSE chair K-12 chair CSE meetings where previously in the budget the board is aware and community may also remember we had advertised that we would include a position called a staff developer for special education we've reallocated that position into this CSH Fair person it's going to actually free up a little bit of the administrative support so they will be able to provide some of those staff development needs so it's no addition in Staffing overall same number of teachers in the district same number of Administrators just a slightly different structure and and we think it'll be a good support for some of the programs that are growing in the buildings
020themselves and we look forward to seeing how that alignment works out and then assessing it as time goes on I'm happy to announce that miss Monica Burmese who's been our Middle School principal it's a system principal for a number of years we'll be moving into that District wide a system of its whole position which we're very excited about and she's excited about too so that's really good news and we'll be looking to fill the CSE chairperson position correct yeah so thank you to Alex for helping us think through all of that and put those pieces in place and I know you're excited also to have this new model in place I think it's going to be really nice and finally uh just a short piece of news for our board here our administrators are on
021there our administrative Retreat uh yesterday today and tomorrow we traditionally have a three-day retreat at this time of year where we reflect on the year that just passed and very importantly we look ahead to the year to come we do a lot of thinking together um it's it's a good time it's a good time of year in which to do it and that we're just coming off the year I know some some wish we might have had a little bit longer break between the end of the year and now but at the same time it allows our administrators to then have the somewhere ahead of them and there's lots of other things to be done in the summer too so it's been a very thoughtful couple of days so far I really appreciate my administrative
022colleagues three of whom are sitting here with us tonight uh and they put it to the entire team 20-something administrators who are with us and our final day will be tomorrow so we'll be wrapping up then that's it for my update thank you thank you um and then I don't know if we have any committee reports um since the last meeting oh we're gonna do okay so so we will um as a Ford think about how we want to um serve on committees so I think we'll probably have this be our starting point and then our next board meeting we can actually decide who will be on which committees and make those appointments I think from a just from a process standpoint I think keeping in mind that Liz was the chair of the facilities
023committee as well as the finance committee so those two chairs are open as well as committee positions are open so um I think it's an opportunity for people who are already on the boards those of us who are in to think about do you want to continue on the Committees that you're currently on WE generally ask that you serve on three committees if you can um I would say two at a minimum but three is great um and uh I know that the parent Council liaison often is a new board member but I also know that Marjorie that's not never in her 11 year service has not been in that role and that's something that does interest her so I just want to put that out her there because we've had that conversation um so
024I think between now and the next meeting if you can think about which of the Committees you'd like to serve on um and then we also then um in the not too distant future sometime in September we'll send out a community call July we point them in September in July we'll send out a community call to ask for committee members from the community to join us on the finance committee on the audit committee on the sustainability committee and on the um facilities committee so um you know we certainly certainly am I missing anything okay okay um and so I think also facilities committee we should maybe have a discussion about the continuation or the composition of that now that we're the bond has been because that the facilities committee really was was formed to kind
025of in interview the committee again interview the community get input from all of our schools we did a lot of focus groups that committee really looked at our um five-year condition survey what things were priority and then really worked with the administration to think about what would be in the bond the bond then passed and now we're sort of in that phase of construction so I don't know whether we want to talk about the composition or continuation of that committee um do we want to talk about that now do we want to talk about the next meeting or I I think there's a very good chance that they'll continue to be a need for kind of liaison work down between all that's happening with the various firms involved and the board itself so I think
026some it may not need to be as large perhaps but I think okay continuation of some sort would be good excellent all right so be thinking about committees and we'll revisit that at the next board meeting and figure out who's going to be on what committee and who will chair each of the Committees is there a max number of board members on each on for committee three three so we don't have a course no more than three board members okay and there are no board committee reports either right correct right okay um and send item 12.01 I think we've covered right with all of our nominations swearing in ETC that's all covered okay all right so there's no presentation for this evening because it's really our reorganization meeting it's our opportunity to get ourselves realigned
027for the school year so we're going to move on to item 13.01 which is our opportunity for public comment and community members at this point are invited to comment um and we ask you to come to the microphone introduce yourself we ask that you speak for no more than three minutes this is something that in terms of our policy we've really decided to try to make an effort to really stick to this so we apologize if we cut you off but our goal is to really make sure that we focus on the business of the district and that we keep our comments limited so that we can do our work we just want to remind you to follow the code of conduct and that no individuals should be named or you know discussed in public
028comment so I think with that we can call our first person who is Sophia Chang good evening everyone uh this is not my first time speaking to the board but I would just like to say hi um my name is Sophia Chang I am a rising sophomore at John Jay High School and I have been in the Katona lewisboro School District my entire life I am here tonight because as a queer and biracial student I wanted to share my thoughts on the recent email that has circulated throughout the community regarding Dei work here is something that I have known to be true Dei saves lives I attended elementary school before Dei work began as I grew up I felt alienated by my peers why were the traits I had and I had inherited from my
029Asian ancestors something to be ashamed of why were kids giving me the Chinese middle finger why did I feel like I didn't belong I didn't understand this lack of understanding has shaped who I am as a person and it has taken me a long time to accept who I am and continue to grow as a person I have a younger sister who has recently finished her time in the elementary her experience thankfully was much different my sister came home from school and told me about how they read Carter reads the newspaper a story that follows Young Carter G Woodson the founder of Black History Month she told me how there was a bulletin board in the main hallway of her Elementary School featuring openly queer celebrities with pictures when my sister told me these stories
030I cannot verbally describe myelation though some may believe Dei topics are too advanced for elementary students to grasp the main idea is that representation for the students gives them an immense feeling of belonging they feel centered and seen when historically they have been pushed aside allowing students and staff to celebrate marginalized groups does not mean other groups are being forgotten I found an analogy on Twitter of all places and I've used it in many situations when people say save the rainforest it does not mean that other forests have no meaning it means that the rainforest needs more Focus because the situation has gotten out of control the oppression and outright bias of groups such as people of color queer and trans people and the disabled community and more has gotten out of control having celebrations
031and months dedicated to marginalized groups comes with a price the price of being oppressed the world already works against us we don't need members of the school board to be against us as well thank you Kade schwark I'm sorry if that's not the proper pronunciation of your last name hello my name is Kade schwerk I am a transgender male I use he they pronouns and I'm a student at John Jay High School I'm also the vice president of John Jay sexuality and gender Alliance otherwise known as Saga when I attended Katona Elementary School we didn't have a proper education on marginalized groups in fifth grade when we had our first glance at sex education and an explanation on puberty we learned that boys love girls and girls love boys there wasn't a talk about varying
032sexualities through genders I also don't remember there being many discussions varying religions or cultures and now look at what John what happened at John Jay this year swastikas are being carved onto desks transphobic rhetoric and slurs are being written on bathroom stalls I've been called the F slur by fellow students too many times to count we need Dei initiatives to bring valuable education to schools specifically elementary schools about these things because clearly we cannot rely on the parents to teach their own children how can we when we've seen that adults can be just as ignorant if not more so about these topics as their children are if we were given if we were given the opportunity to learn about these different cultures religion sexualities genders Etc then School environments would be far safer than they
033are now since students would have a proper understanding that the world shouldn't revolve around white cisgendered heterosexual men and that anyone who doesn't fall under that umbrella is a valued member of society and should not be scrutinized I want our schools to be a safe space where everyone feels recognized and heard and not ignored because some people think their identity isn't worth learning about I want to feel safe and heard recognition means the world to a person who has been forced to adhere to societal standards their whole life recognition can mean the difference between life and death because it is so hard to live in a world where you're Outcast for something you have no control of according to the Trevor Project an lgbtq plus hotline every 45 seconds in lgbtq plus youth attempts suicide
034because they don't have the resources and recognition in their Community or at home allowing your children to have access to these resources could save their life I know you all want the best for the children and students of this community so that is why I on behalf of the students in this community implore you to see the value in these programs and organizations that better the education of students about these marginalized groups thank you for your time this is another last name I'm going to apologize for in advance Nicole schererillo cervilo the last name finish and pronounce um hello um a meeting like this I first want to say um thank you to students who spoke so beautifully um I'm here as a parent of two young children at KS and um I'm also a
035therapist so um I truly care about um the impact that education has in the short term and the long term and I care about um the safety of of children and as a road to become adults the impact that they then have upon their communities so I was very relieved when we joined this school Community to see the DI efforts and um and to hear my young children talk about what they had learned and how it was helping them have a more expansive and inclusive view of the world um I I just would like to have an open discussion between um the board and and the community um and I'm hoping we can resolve differences in the way that we are trying to teach our children to resolve differences so you know questions came up
036recently um um this Facebook post I'm wondering if if there is an effort to discourage celebrations um I'm I'm just wondering you know who who are we leaving out you know if if these efforts towards inclusion um seem to be leaving people out well then who are we leaving out and and I'm wondering could we make more room you know at at the table to celebrate um more cultures and identities and um I think that that is the definition of education is to Enlighten ourselves with more information rather than to cut back or to squash or to um put more boundaries around people um and so I'm trying not to repeat what has already been said so eloquently um but I I was um grateful to see the newsletters from our superintendent notifying us when
037there were um what might be called hate crimes and um and it was scary to receive those and I felt relieved that attention was being paid and remedies were um were being enacted because we can't let a small infraction become a bigger one I think we're all in danger if that happens um so I'm grateful to the work of everyone here who's working on behalf of all of our children and I hope we can continue to do that to help all kids feel safe thank you Sybil patry everyone my name is civil patri my pronouns are she her and I am Indian American I'm a member of the erjc as well as the Deni compact team at increased Miller I work on the bulletin boards there I was pleased to be here with cagework who
038actually ended up speaking before me and Kate and Sophia you just did such a wonderful job my statement here tonight is in response to an email that one of the newly elected school board members sent sharing Community concerns about Deni in our schools the idea that everyone is already equal we are all part of the human race and we are living in a post-racialized and or gender expansive world is simply not correct or factual for example the bias and celebration of European heterosexual cisgender white males throughout our programming curriculum and holidays already exist in schools there's no outrage at this right many white people not all white people don't notice this because it is so deeply entrenched in our lessons and programming and it reflects the demographic of themselves and their children Deni exists to
039help us all understand that everyone's Norms are different de and I exist to make school accepting and safe for children of all Races for lgbtq Youth and children of lgbtq parents and other historically excluded children racism and inequity is built into our country so much so that the New York State Department of Education formally addresses it with their programs and guidance if someone that serves on the board of education denies this you're denying the reality and experiences of many of our children and as a result this is a disservice to the school board and community Deni initiatives do not exist to cast blame or make anyone feel bad they exist to raise awareness and celebrate those that may have been in the margins of the school system this is a beautiful lesson for all kids
040the email stated schools should be focused on learning and that all classes are engaging and fulfilling and that all students are getting what they need to be successful in life I agree fully with this and we know that kids learn best when they feel inclusion and a sense of belonging so until we get to that day where we are actually equal members of the human race and judged by our character alone and not how we dress not our pronouns how we identify who we love our religion or the color of our skin we have to continue with these initiatives and we have to support the school and the school board on these initiatives we have to start an elementary school so we can see a decrease in kids in middle and high school using racist
041homophobic and anti-semitic language so putting up a bulletin board or a flag or including books with Children of color disabilities or trans and non-binary kids does not take away from math science reading or history it enhances the learning experience and makes it complete and we all benefit from these enhancements especially as we're raising children to be Global Citizens aware of differences that make us unique as a parent I promised my children a Bill of Rights as did all of you we said they can be anything they want to be and it is their Birthright to live up to their potential in this country um and just knowing students like Kate and Sophia just make me know that I know I'm doing the right thing and I will continue to do this work thank you thank
042you Amy Heath um Amy Heath my kids graduated a few years ago I live in Katonah good evening I too would like to speak tonight in support of Dei education in all grades in our district it has come to my attention that some in our community have questioned its value and implementation my older brother Bruce died of AIDS in 1996. just months before the newer life-saving good drugs were available funding for AIDS research was not a priority in the 1980s because it was thought of as a gay disease because of fear hatred misunderstanding and discrimination vital research Scholars were not allocated And Delay caused thousands of additional preventable deaths my brother missed the good drugs by a few months I'm convinced that but for anti-lgbtq plus sentiment in our government and Society was drugs would
043have been available much sooner and Bruce and many others would be alive today hate fear and discrimination towards people who are different than you is learned no one's born a racist no one is born with hatred or fear of the LG lgbtq plus community if you wait until children are older to expose them to the wider world you invite fear and discrimination you risk that they will be exposed to ignorant people who will teach them to fear and to discriminate and then you have an uphill battle to teach them that people are different and then that's okay when my daughter was in first grade she was playing the game of life with her friend and when it came time to be part of the game where you get married she asked her friend if he
044wanted to marry a boy or a girl her friend responded he didn't think he could marry a boy because he was a boy Abby told him matter of factly but of course he could marry a boy it just meant he was gay her being gay had no other meaning than girls could marry girls or boys could marry boys nor the meaning Than Love Is Love no ugly connotations being gay was just as normal to her as being straight I don't remember ever sitting down with Abby and discussing this she just knew that my brother had been married to her Uncle Tom and that that was we call that being gay she had just learned it the way you learned that people can look different or sound different it was perfectly normal some have asked why
045some groups need to be celebrated with special days or months well the last time I checked no one was beaten tied up to a fence post and left for dead for being fat or thin Republican or Democrat rich or poor that happened to Matthew Shepard for no other reason than he was gay these are the groups that some say are left out don't have words associated with them that are so hateful and evil they are only referred to right for their first letter and I do not dare speak them here the idea that summon our community object to pride month or black history month or Juneteenth is exactly why we need to celebrate these things we've come a long way since 1996 when my brother died and it was considered Brave of my family to
046put in his New York Times obituary that he died of AIDS but we're not quite there yet I don't see anyone else signed up to speak with anyone else waiting to speak okay thank you I'm going to close public comment we're going to move on to uh our consent agenda so just for people who are maybe new to public comment we do a consent agenda which is the business of the district and then we have board discussion um and often we just listen to our public comment and we'll reflect on it in a future meeting we don't necessarily respond immediately to public comment um so I have um the consent agenda are there any items that need to be pulled out but we need to um approve the annual resolutions okay first first as a
047role and then we can move on to perfect okay so item 14.01 is the adoption of the annual resolutions um and these uh make appointments for different District staff who have roles that need to be appointed by the Board of Education um certain uh policy record management things anything else I should name or Consultants attorneys our Auditors so those are all included in this set of resolutions for the annual resolutions so if I can get a motion to move the annual resolutions that would be great first second first by Bill I get a second Ilana thank you um all those in favor all right six zero and now I got it so item 16.01 is the consent agenda um are there any items that need to be pulled out of that any board members want
048to pull anything from the consent agenda for discussion no does anyone like to move the consent agenda Marjorie moved by Marjorie did I get a second I'm gonna buy bill all those in favor you six zero um and now we have an opportunity on agenda item 21.01 which is an opportunity to accept a very generous and exciting and fun gift for our athletic department which is a wolf tunnel and fog machine so this will be an opportunity for our student athletes when they enter the field in any sport and even you know if they're running the track it's a like a tunnel that you might see at a sporting event where they've run out it's a big wolf head there's a fog it's very exciting so thank you very much to our booster club for
049all of their efforts and all of their efforts to raise money on behalf of our Athletics program this is a donation for the wolf tunnel and fog machine in the amount of fifteen thousand dollars um so if someone could make a motion to accept bill seconded by I saw the picture which looked very exciting is it going to be used for all the teams it can be used for all the teams it can be used for elementary school events it can be used there's a lot of different it's portable it's very portable heavy but portable heavy right okay all those in favor all right six zero and thank you again for that very generous donation and um now we're at item 22.01 which is an opportunity for board dialogue and discussion um and again I
050will say if we want to use any of this time if anyone wants to talk a little bit about committees we could do that now or we can wait until the next I just wanted to say a few words if I could yeah um I want to take a moment to Express gratitude and clarify intentions first to gratitude as I stated during what I thought was my grand farewell serving the community for nine years as a board of education trustee has been one of the singular honors of my life I've taken very seriously the trust the community placed upon me to serve them well by trying to be wise caring and a fair trustee now I am certainly honored and humbled by the trust and faith my colleagues on the newly constituted Board of Education
051have shown in me I'm particularly aware and mindful that this trust has been expressed by both trustees I've worked alongside of as well as the two newly elected trustees who have seen Fitz to support me with much less experience with me to base this upon they are certainly taking more of a leap of faith is my sincere wish to serve well and be worthy of the support of my colleagues old and new and of course the entire community in terms of intentions I think it's important for the community to understand that I see my role from now to the next election in May as being a bridge from where we are now to when someone is elected to fill this position I will not be a candidate in that election and hope the position will
052be vigorously content contested and the election carried out in a manner such that the community's voice and Collective vision is borne out thank you everybody thank you thank you we don't have any items for discussion regarding committees would you like us to email you with our references and priorities that would be great and I can um just flesh that out and I can you know figure out where we need people again I think we're losing two chairs um what you get to add a committee maybe I'm very flexible okay I'm happy to serve okay anywhere yeah so if we could just if you guys want to just email me and then I can share that at the next meeting and I can try to sort of figure out where to place people that would be
053great any other items good okay um thank you community members yes thank you very much tonight important to underscore what has been said already which is not that we don't hear you but that we typically don't engage spontaneously and back and forth but we reflect upon what we've heard and we have opportunity to come back at a future meeting or to think about ways in which we can ensure that um we're capturing what has been shared appropriately yeah acting appropriate thank you and so next on the agenda is future meetings so our next Board of Education meeting is Thursday July 27th and then following that the next meeting after that is Thursday August 24th so we love when the community is here with us at our board meeting so please join us for future meetings
054and um I think that takes us to item 24.01 opportunity to adjourn Elon are you moving that motion I want to second that Bill Rifkin second all in favor all right 6-0 thank you very much thank you everyone for being here we really appreciate it