001good evening everybody welcome we are thrilled to be joined by so many members of the community this evening welcome to so many of our students it's Thursday May 4th it's my pleasure to make a motion to bring the board back to public session seconded by Rory thank you all in favor please say aye aye aye and in a moment I'll be happy to relay the order of events for the evening but first if everybody would please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and the two Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and digestive School terrific thank you so this evening we are looking forward of course to our budget hearing and Welcome to our Board of Education candidates who will be speaking with
002us later tonight but first we are thrilled to be joined by three different student organizations we're going to begin in just a moment with a brief concert out in the gallery actually and then we are going to be joined by members of our robotics team from the high school and our unified basketball team from the high school as well and I'm going to turn it over to Neil to be the Master of Ceremonies please thank you thank you Audrey good evening everyone and yes it's wonderful to see everyone here in the community tonight our first guest is Mr Jonathan Flores he's our Middle School band teacher and he has three students tonight from the Middle School uh band uh here we go here's Mr Flores and his three students and Mr Flores do you want
003to introduce your students and they're part of the middle school jazz club correct yes so I'm John Flores I um to John Jay Middle School I teach discovering music and I also leave the Jazz Band so this is uh Nat um he plays saxophone and in Cameron and he plays trumpet so we're going to be playing out there some jazz standards for you uh Jazz standards if you're not familiar are these jazz tunes that are sort of the Rites of Passage for jazz musicians to play their these classic songs that have been played throughout the years and everyone puts their own spin on it we're going to be improvising on some different jazz songs and you'll hear these students put their own spin on it and they've been working improvisation and I think you'll enjoy
004it so if you want to come outside to see us great I will be performing the hall thank you [Music] thank you all right um actually been taking a solo and song to give him something propagation [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Applause] this is a back screw by Mills Jackson [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] um thank you so much sorry it was so confusing I brought two bottles [Music] um sir walk on music [Music] all right that's dying [Music] wonderful terrific thank you so much everybody for joining us out there and for making your way back here we should start every meeting with a few Jazz standards thank you Mr Flores and to our seventh grade students that was fantastic can we give them
005one more round foreign next it is my pleasure to ask Andrew to tell us a little bit about our unified basketball team and to introduce some other special guests thank you thank you Marjorie so last weekend as I'm sure most know was jfest here at John Jay High School and it was a great weekend thank you to everyone who participated and volunteered and helped out many of our teams had terrific weekends despite a little bit of rain and on Friday afternoon Jay Fest was kicked off by a unified basketball game between our very own John Jay High School unified team and the Hendrick Hudson unified basketball team it was a very exciting and high scoring game that I believe ended in a 48-48 tie every Point celebrated enormously and we are thrilled to invite our
006unified basketball team at team members to be here with us tonight along with their coaches Kim picolino and Carlin bojiko I believe are with us and they will introduce the members of the team so that we can upload you all and say thank you for being such great teammates thank you both thank you well thank you so much for this uh recognition it truly is an honor and I have to tell you that being part of the unified basketball program truly is one of the best things I have done in my 38 years of education so here's the funny part so Carlin and I thought that we only had about six members here tonight and so unbeknownst to me I'm just going to ask all the unified players to come on up [Applause] everybody's name
007and Casey and Joey and Natalie and Megan McKenna and Holden and Gerardo and Riley and Olivia and Sarah and Katie and Mia G am I missing anybody and Haley I got you we good that's a close one so just to give you a little bit of history about unified unified started about four years ago um I have to have my partner Carlin here right up here with me because she's been here with me since the Inception um it came about because Jen lavallo Terry Harlan and I were trying to figure out what to do for a group of students for after school and the only true skill that I have is playing basketball and so I have to also get just a shout out to Holden Sussman because Holden came to us and he said
008we didn't know what else to do we needed we needed some students to kind of help us you know get this going and so um Holden was the person that Miss pokikio said he's going to do it with us and sure enough Holden's been here since the beginning of unified and what began as a very very small program of maybe I would say maybe 15 of us this year and um you know best buddies was a wonderful venue to recruit to recruit for unified um we have 42 members of unified and we are an inclusive program so we do not believe in cutting anyone and so the um thank God for Carlin's organizational skills and if I showed you the piece of paper that she was showing me before about who's playing on what day
009and so what we did was instead of cutting students and saying oh no you can't be part of because that's just not philosophically what we believe in we decided that we would have some students play and others be howlers be the cheers be the squad and we would rotate those those roles um per game and so on any given day a play or a partner could be either in the stands cheering us on or on the court helping us to win and so I'm going to turn it over to Carlin and she's got a couple of things to say thank you here if you send an email they will come no idea my goodness I actually could cry um so thank you so much for inviting us um I'm Carlin pokiki I'm one of the
010high school counselors um and I'm also obviously the advisor at basketball team working in Canada for those of you who don't know much about us we are a competitive basketball team driven by the principal the training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding thank you to Mr selesnik for the invitation to be here um thank you to Dr Siciliano for being here as well and for your ever present part of this team we're so grateful um we are thrilled to be here as you can see by the show of participants here tonight um some of whom you will hear from in just a bit we wanted to take a moment to also thank Mr McCarthy for his full support of enthusiasm for this team we couldn't have done it without
011him including funding uniforms t-shirts and necessary staff for our games I would like to thank Mr piccolino for inviting me to be a part of this program four years ago when she said bokikio do you want to be a part of unified basketball I responded as I always do to anything Miss piccolino asks me with an energetic yes despite my worries about knowing nothing about basketball I was confident this would be a positive experience because every time Miss piccolino asks me to be a part of something I know that it's meaningful and rewarding in this case however this experience has also been joyous to me to all those who participate to our families and to all of those who attend this games if you have not come to a game I highly recommend it we
012have one more home game I think on the 24th uh we are proud as Miss piccolino said to share that we are 42 students strong and that's over double from last year so that's an incredible statement [Applause] senior award um for the unified basketball seniors I would just like to read what it states because I think it embodies exactly Who We Are each of us has the power to create more a more compassionate inclusive communities in this Spirit we are celebrating our students this year who are members of the unified basketball team who through sportsmanship leadership and meaningful peer interactions have fostered inclusion within the school Community I'm so proud to be here tonight and so proud to be a part of this community of young people thank you thank you who has much to
013say thank you and she's here with Casey good evening everyone my name is Haley Noki and I am a junior at John Jay High School I've been a part of unify basketball for two years now and it has been life-changing the feeling of inclusivity really shines through we're not only a team but a community everyone choose for everyone everyone is high-fiving hugging and clapping I think I can speak for everyone on the team when I say that unified brings you a sense of happiness that you really can't find anywhere else you can't help but smile while playing the game or watching it the bonds and connections made between teammates are incredible I don't think I can count on my fingers how many hugs my friend and teammate Casey gives me during one game this season
014we have so many amazing partners that we even have a cheer squad that howlers sitting in the stands with posters and cheering I decided to ask some of the team that won't be speaking tonight about how they've about how they feel about unified basketball Katie Collins a partner States unified is my favorite part of the day I could be having the hardest week but it all pays off when I walk into the gym and see all the smiling faces unified brings such a strong sense of community Casey said I am proud to be a captain of John Jay unified basketball team I like practicing with my teammates I like practicing with my teammates and I get excited when the howlers cheers on during the game Megan Flynn States unified basketball has given me many friendships
015that I will forever cherish going to the games and practices is something I look forward to and it genuinely makes me happy seeing everyone so happy has helped us all form amazing connections due to the amazing feeling that unified gives me I decided to be a part of another club called bass buddies I'm now the co-president of John Jay's Best Buys chapter and the state ambassador for bass buddies New York unified basketball hasn't has introduced me to some of my favorite people as I always say these students have made an impact on my life the same as I've made an impact on theirs thank you so much for listening [Applause] hi everyone my name is I have one my name is I'm the one of the students here um I'm also and we're working with
016Mr Mr McCarthy and miss piccolino thank you [Applause] I would now like to introduce Sarah hello everyone I'm Sarah sternad a 9th grader and member of John of the John Jay's unified basketball team I'm very excited to be here tonight to celebrate such an awesome sports team this this is way more than a sports team this is a community a community for full inclusion of people of all ability and a place to welcome all backgrounds while having fun with such an amazing sport this team shows that John Jay is an amazing place because we have so many students on the team that we literally have to take turns playing and cheering there's not enough room on the sidelines some and this is something I haven't seen in any other school it really makes us stand
017out I knew I wanted to be part of the unified basketball team since I came to the 2022 JFS game so watch this girl standing next to me it was so easy to tell this is an incredible group of people and fans everyone's always so supportive fast forward to about a month and a half ago I joined the unified basketball team of 2023. the students on this team are wonderful people Everyone is always kind and considerate of all skill levels and everyone knows that they bring value to our team beyond the court this team is wholly unified as at our recent poster session I was shocked by the attendance we made posters to celebrate everyone on the team and this girl's birthday it just goes to show how attentive everyone is on this team and
018to really consider all the milestones in our lives I am truly proud of the team assembled here and the dedication of all the players to show up to every practice and every game to cheer us on thank you so much to miss piccolino and miss pokikio for making this outstanding team possible I really feel that it enriches our school and of course what a great job to our John J howlers [Applause] and Mia would also like to add something it was my birthday three days ago and I'm 17 years old now [Applause] thank you thank you so much to our students happy birthday Mia thank you to Mrs bokikyo Mrs piccolino for joining us congratulations to the team we look forward to cheering this team I guess this is our fourth year this really has
019been an amazing program and an amazing success for John Jay High School and to see the traction that you've gotten over time it's it's really awe-inspiring and what a great idea to take a super abundance of students and to decide to create your own cheering Squad that was brilliant really really brilliant and um so articulate and such beautiful Partnerships and we're grateful and very proud of all of you thank you for taking time to share your experience with us tonight we're so proud of you terrific job congratulations thank you we hope you'll stay at least for our final student presentation we won't require anyone to stay for the whole meeting but I'll turn it over to Andrew to let us know what's next thank you we have one more group of students of whom we're
020very proud along with all the others tonight and that is our robotics team recently returned from Texas where they've competed against teams from around the world we look forward to hearing more about that tonight I'm going to turn it over to their teacher coach advisor Mr Jonathan Peter and maybe Mr Steve zoler also and uh students who are going to come up and join us thank you all for being here thanks for having us um I'm gonna quickly give this over to uh Rachel Lewis oh well never mind okay I'm gonna give it to Spencer who's gonna explain a little bit about what we do in the class all right good evening so we're here representing the uh 10949 robotics team which is just one of the four at our school so holistically we're just
021representing the whole class that's offered there's uh in the high school and so the basis of our class is around to challenge uh hosted by first which is a company that does robotics challenges three levels one for like more Collegiate level one high school and one for kids um and so each year they offer a new challenge and in our class what Rachel's going to explain is uh you take your skills and you make the best robots you can for that challenge yeah so I'm Rachel I'm a senior at high school hi Jake hi Board of Ed thank you for having us here so something that makes our robotics class really unique like specimen Spencer mentioned it's a natural advancement past our principles of engineering course our computer science classes our design classes at the
022high school and since it's for juniors and seniors it's really a student-led class to give that authentic and real-life engineering experience so the entire class is centered around competing in the First Tech Challenge and then eventually once your season's over going into different robotics challenges that are class made and because it's a student-led class Mr Peter takes a hands-off approach which really allows us to experience fully the Engineering Process which is basically research design uh troubleshooting like inevitable failure and then doing it all over again uh and throughout this entire year we've gone through a very repetitive iteration process of finding out what works what doesn't and something that our team has done really well is creating a bunch of different robots and finding the best one that works in finding out which parts work
023the best and that's part of why we made it to Worlds I think that iteration process where Mr Peter is really our guideline keeping us focused but in the end it comes down to us and the robotics class it allows the kids who want to go above and beyond to go above and beyond and also gives a team experience where you have to work on communication leadership and cohesion in general finding your place on the team and ruling that role we really like to play to each other's strengths a good example of that is one of our Junior coders Lucas Oyen he came into the class knowing he wanted to code he came in also with a bunch of game design experience so he applied that to that team going into the world competition you
024have your competition booth and teams come around they say hi they want to meet you and Lucas decided to improve the interaction with our Booth he would create a power play simulation game which will simulate what you see with our robot if we're gonna drive it and show everyone guys [Music] the power play game allows people to come up to our booth with a game controller and drive it just like David and Jack are going to be driving it which was a really cool opportunity to show off Lucas's strengths and something that he loves to do Spencer so what's unique about this class compared to other classes when you walk into any other classroom maybe it's a math class everyone's uh working the same methods or similar methods towards a common goal uh what's really
025lovely about the robotic class is you can come in and we all have the same goal but there's many different jobs that people can be doing there could be one person that's coding Zoe runs our social media accounts so she's working on marketing and how can we sell our teams whether it's towards sponsors or just towards other students who want to take the class or towards the other teams that we're going to compete with um like I myself do a lot of building but this year specifically we had a Haas Mini Mill and a mini Mill allows us to take uh just stock pieces of metal we can Mill it into whatever we want so Parts on this robot are completely custom and that's the use of like DDP skills that are big as a
026freshman principles engineering and you learn how to mill custom parts and at the same time Jack and take parts that are already prefabricated and figure out how he wants to put them together and simultaneously essentially be coding and Rachel will be writing an engineering portfolio so just so much going on uh it offers something to everyone that wants to participate in like almost like a company if that makes sense and we have different roles that everyone can play that that makes it a really good class uh to feed into whether you did engineering or coding marketing Etc so they're gonna drive now so I'll explain about a bit about the First Tech Challenge which is the competition we compete in when I say FTC that's what I'm talking about as you can see this year's
027uh theme was well it's the game mode is called power play but essentially we had to build a robot that is able to pick up cones and place them on a junction which are those holes you see and every time you place a cone you get points there's a very extensive rule book that tells you all the different ways you can score but in an extended version of this field we were competing alongside another team against two other teams in the uh in the world competition uh battery's too low sorry second law of Thermodynamics is entropy and so we had another robot from States and if you leave anything alone for too long it will just eventually break on its own this world except when we went to elementary school so uh our string on
028the left side came off the school if you saw those four coins before us that's basically what it does [Music] I think we need to we need to give a round of applause [Applause] thank you to our students thank you Mr Peter Mr Zola congratulations on your fantastic success this year and in previous years um I remember seeing the robotics team present years ago maybe in the cafeteria and it's uh so nice to see I think the younger siblings of some of the students who presented back then and you're terrific um that was wonderful thank you does the robot have a name uh David Bond the second thank you thank you that was great congratulations that was great well I really I thank all of our students for being here with us tonight um you
029know recognizing that we had three different groups of students um it feels important and um sort of especially meaningful here on the night of the budget hearing to be so palpably reminded of what we're doing here and how fantastic our students are the community that supports our students our staff our administrators these are really three I would say signature programs of the John Jay Middle School and High School experience and we have so much to be proud of and grateful for and we really thank you for for sharing with us some of the highlights of your year and your experience at John Jay middle school and high school this evening thank you that was really terrific [Applause] tended to perhaps leave at this juncture we invite you to stay for the duration thank you have
030a great evening for those of you that are leaving thank you [Laughter] Jake you're gonna be good tonight you got fact checkers [Laughter] those two kids holding them towards the two guys yes okay terrific thank you again for organizing the participation of those student groups we really appreciate that we know it's a very busy time of year we appreciate everybody making the time to join us tonight and it's my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Jake for his student board report hi um so as you saw with the three things that just happened a lot is going on within the district so just to fit everything in I'm just going to hop right in starting with campus Congress we had our final General Congress Congress meeting of the current exec board on Wednesday the
03119th where elections were held for next year's executive board and we are very excited to announce that the following people have been elected to the 2324 campus Congress executive board our next speaker is Jordan blatcher with her Vice speaker Max Wasserman Zoe dollar is our new parliamentarian Jocelyn Blanchard secretary and my sister Samantha Sperling is the new Treasurer and very exciting for you all my replacement the next Board of Education student representative is China car who I'm very excited for you all to work with and is here tonight welcome as a campus Congress tradition we held a joint exec board meeting between the outgoing and the incoming board as a passing of the Baton and at this meeting we also selected our new executive advisor and we created a new position for a leadership advisor
032and those are Ian Paz and Catherine Martin respectively um a lot is going on at the high school right now and to start off with I guess the least exciting we are in the middle of AP testing right now um testing spans this week and next week and best of luck to all the students who are sitting for their exams um last Friday was the second annual jfest celebration as the culminating event of the year jfest is a day students look forward to year round jackfest began with a pep rally featuring the introduction of our spring sports teams songs by acapella groups as well as a reunion performance by the cast of nine to five the musical following the pep rally students were invited onto the lawn where they were greeted by Music performed by
033various School bands temporary tattoos by our art students class competitions and many more activities including a new one this year at bubbles people had a lot of fun with the bubbles um this day wouldn't have been made possible without the hard work of the John Jay lead committee members whose planning resulted in an incredible event that was a great way to cap off the year um a new initiative at the high school has just taken route meatless Mondays introduced by Austin Omni and Luke Penny was started at the high school on May 1st and I'm pretty sure they presented here at the sustainability thing a few weeks ago um by reducing the amount of meat consumed it pushes our district even closer to our sustainability mission um this is a very exciting moment for our
034seniors but also a very Bittersweet one as tomorrow marks our last day of classes for any of the seniors who are going on their senior independent experience internships starting Monday and they run through June the 9th um last week for the seniors was Senior Week which included a variety of fun events planned by the PTO including a very fun ice cream truck a bagel breakfast and lots of spirit week activities um and upcoming the seniors have a lot to look forward to including prom on Friday June 16th at the Surf Club in New Rochelle and padidante would be very mad if I didn't say this but tomorrow is the last day for seniors to turn in their permission slips and payment information as well as for the senior class sweatshirts on May 25th we have
035senior seminar where seniors get to learn about each other's internships and connect back with one another after a month gone seniors should fill out the forms and their emails to select the workshops they'd like to participate in and Senior recognition night is on June 5th where we honor many of the achievements made by the class of 23 and all of this leads up to the big moment graduation on Tuesday June 20th where we congratulate all of the hard work but done by our class and bid farewell as we wish them luck on all their future endeavors and now to turn to the middle school where again not so fun New York state math testing is underway um the second part that was fought that was started a month ago with Ela testing um upcoming at
036the middle school we have an array of concerts to celebrate their musicians on the 15th 17th and 24th of May we have the orchestra band and chorus concerts respectively on Friday May 19th the 14th annual Rock the Halls concert is back a much anticipated event that students have been rehearsing for months all proceeds from the event benefit klsd Arts Alive come and support The Talented 61 performers as they take the stage in the electric Rock concert and similar to the high school seniors 8th graders are in and for an amazing last few weeks at jjms the 8th grade social was on April 14th and the an upcoming is the sunset cruise on the 9th of June the 8th graders will celebrate their years at JJ Ms during a sunset Boat Trip on the Long Island
037Sound and the 8th grade moving up ceremony is on June 21st and now let's transition to our elementary schools and let's start with KES Katona Elementary recently held a bingo night on the 30th of April featuring great prizes and fun times for all the people involved currently at KES is Staff Appreciation Week where they thank all the teachers and support staff who made education for all students possible and always go above and beyond to provide for the school Oh I thought you were classic upcoming on the 2nd of June is the fifth grade variety show which has already begun rehearsals and is looking amazing Meadow Pond I don't really know what this is but tomorrow is the third grade bubble party I guess bubbles are really in style this year um also upcoming is the
038second grade star lab on the 8th a whole school NED show appreciation on the 10th as well as a whole school salad planting day on the 11th and similarly to KES next week is team week at Meadow Pond celebrating the team behind keeping MPS running for all of the students on May 25th is the fifth grade play The Adams Family at 5 30 and 7 PM The Adams Family is a classic story that tells the tale of love and friendship through adversity mixed with comedy and All Around Fun Time mpes has a host of fun field trips throughout May the fifth graders went to the sharp reservation this past Monday and on the 11th the first graders will travel to the Ridgefield Playhouse and on the 16th the second graders will go to see The
039Ugly Duckling and last but definitely not least and Chris Miller has so much going on the Imes Green Team continues to grow and recently showcased their projects to one another and planted a tree with the help of parent Michael Olmsted whose family business is involved in Tree Care students were taught about the importance of the protection of our Earth and about keeping it healthy for future Generations upcoming at increased Miller is the fifth grade play on the 8th and 9th of May at 7 pm the show is a Charming display of friendship displayed by a very talented fifth grade actors and Friday May 19th is their Spirit day students are invited to show off their best increased Miller pride and come together as one big increase Miller family throughout the district we are entering a
040period of great excitement but also a time where we sadly have to get ready to say goodbye to the students moving up and out of the district I'm so excited for you all to work with China when she takes over my position not yet um seriously you guys are all very lucky to get to work with her and I could not think of a better person to take this position thank you so much thank you that was a beautiful report we so appreciate your enthusiastic retrospective and also helping us to anticipate all of the really exciting milestones and events that are still to come in the coming weeks um and yes very nice to meet you and thank you for joining us we look forward to welcoming you at our reorganization meeting hopefully this summer
041um thank you for the update any questions or comments for Jake before we move on we we do have one more meeting with Jake right in attendance we do yes and we'll be able to celebrate him in good in good form all right well thank you again for the terrific update we really appreciate your student report Jake and um I think this brings us to 8.01 which is an opportunity for board subcommittee reports sure whether we have anything new from audit the audit committee met with our external Auditors and this is the time of year that they come and present to the audit Committee in preparation for their audit work which will take place this month and then they come back again in August to do their testing of our of our financial functions within
042the end today so we had a good meeting with them and look forward to the audit happening and they'll be back in the fall to report out okay great thank you um facilities committee facilities continues to meet and have focus groups at the different schools and we are refining plans and it's very exciting um and do you want me to do Finance as well sure yes please uh I don't know that we've met in between the two meetings but we continue to work refine the presentation and we're excited to present in June wonderful thank you Liz parent Council sure parent Council um well parent Council held their candidates tonight on Monday which was well attended and wonderful um we actually have very very short time between meetings so we did have a meeting a couple
043weeks ago and I think we have another one tomorrow morning at 9 15. um with the usual agenda we'll have an update from the superintendent directly to uh the leaders of the ptos um I'll provide an update on the last couple of board meetings um and then you know as usual the parent Council always has a couple of questions for administration and so we do have that meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning wonderful thank you and would you like to also update on sustainability certainly there's so much going on with sustainability we're sort of winding down the year for the sustainability committee having just gone through the big sustainability event at the last board meeting which I know many of you are in attendance at um it was so well received we do have another sustainability
044committee meeting tomorrow I'll be a truncated somewhat because we've been invited to one of the classes to actually witness firsthand some of the sustainability work that's going on in Mr panzer's class so um kind of a wrap-up session tomorrow we may have one further meeting this year but we were really so proud and pleased and enthusiastic to see all of the students all the way down to the elementary schools um really enthusiastic about the types of um ideals and ideas that we're trying to share and make um try to generate broad awareness across uh not just the school district but the community at large so so well received and so enthusiastic about it I think it was such a great year for the sustainability committee nothing to do with me being representing but it was
045really just so great and I look forward to more things to come terrific thank you and we're looking for information on a resolution for our new status reduction goal so thank you for serving that up we're looking forward to that and um I don't know whether there's an update from policy I know that we have a couple of policies on the agenda tonight for moving along in the process and adoption and just briefly from Westchester Putnam School Board Association we're also in wrap-up mode and starting to look ahead to end-of-year events social events our annual meeting we have the budget and slate of officers in front of us tonight in the consent agenda that's really about it if there are no further questions we can pause for further board announcements if there are any and
046if not we can certainly move right into Andrew's announcements you were there too Marjorie uh we were in Meadow Pond on Tuesday I think to witness some proposed changes to the library and maker space and it really is just wonderful to see um the work of the facility committees I know it's still an ongoing committee but the facilities committee last year did such Trojan work in conjunction with a large number of members of the community some of whom I see here tonight really a lot of work in deciding sort of where we were we would invest and how to manage the bond and it all seemed to happen very very quickly but sitting there at Manor Pond actually in the library and envisioning what might actually come was really heartening and I know there's a
047lot of those focus groups going on at the moment but I just wanted to shout that out because it really felt uh like it's almost tangible now you know and it's very exciting to see it happen thank you yeah I said and it is very exciting and thank you for all of the work that's going on behind the scenes to facilitate the meetings of the facilities committee ongoing it's a lot of work okay then let's hear from you Andrew oh and then perhaps do you have something else yeah just um I I know there were a lot of um community volunteers um who were involved I know we've mentioned a couple times J Fest and Senior week um and I just wanted to make sure that we really thank everyone in the community who made
048those um opportunities possible I wasn't here but I know Catherine was there for Jay Fest on Friday and so it was just really an awesome I think it was my favorite day and it really was just to see all of the kids outside mingling with teachers and playing and games and just relaxing and having a great day was really special for me to be a part of and to be able to witness that it was incredible the amount of people that it took to make that a really fabulous day for our students so thank you to all of the community members who helped thank you wonderful thank you so much okay and I think we're ready to hear from you thank you thanks Marjorie um Jake did a fabulously comprehensive job going over many of
049the activities so I'm going to truncate my remarks and then we'll get to the uh the budget overview for tonight uh I want to Echo the thanks to so many community members for helping uh it was a fabulous day and a fabulous weekend for Jay Fest um you had a we had a really lovely event here yesterday the board will be celebrating uh tenure candidates a few weeks from now but yesterday we had a chance here the administration receives a presentation from all of those uh candidates in which they reflect on their work over the last three or four years as they've been moving towards this Milestone they do a lot of work throughout this year compiling uh thoughts about their philosophy of teaching the learning that they've done in the course of the last
050few years we hear about some of their personal Journey we hear about some of the classroom projects and instructional methods and then we also hear about goals that they have for their future learning so we were in this very same library from about 3 30 to 7 30 or so last night hearing from candidates from all five of our schools and it was really impressive and nice to know that our students are going to be engaged by such thoughtful and caring people it was really really great to see and here and then I'll just mention next week and another thanks to our ptos and others who support us we're going to talk about the budget tonight but for those who are not here with us tonight we have another PTO supported budget presentation on Monday
051May 8th at 9 30 in the morning in the John Jay Middle School auditorium and then another one on Wednesday May 10th at 7 pm at John Jay High School also in the John Jay High School auditorium so if Folks at home would like to come and ask us questions in person that's why we do those events the back and forth is important and we invite everyone and anyone who's interested we thank you any comments or questions for Andrew okay thank you so much I think that means that we're ready to move ahead to our featured presentation which is our opportunity for a public hearing on the 2324 proposed budget thank you thanks Marjorie so just by way of context since our board trustees have seen this budget now quite a number of times and
052for those who join us regularly you've also seen the budget quite a number of times New York State requires that we do one final review of the budget within two weeks of the vote itself so it's a requirement that we go through the budget one more time tonight and that's what we're going to do but and please I asked my my board up here if you have questions at any time please don't hesitate to ask we begin as we do with so many of our presentations with our learning commitment this drives uh so much of our work in the district house striving to create classrooms that are engaging relevant and active for our students always and then there are two particular goals set by our Board of Education at the beginning of each school year
053you see the first up here on the screen the goal around leadership which talks about support supporting our work with the learning commitment and other areas of important leadership also and then the one that's particularly relevant to the development of the budget the board's fiscal stewardship goal where they set the task for us of developing a budget that both supports everything that we want to see happening in our schools and at the same time is fiscally responsible to the community and in this case the ab board asks us to create a budget that does not exceed the New York State cap tax cap which is the case for the budget that we're presenting one last time tonight the next slide looks at a timeline that developing the budget is really a year-round process I won't
054go through all the dates on here but we do work with our administrators and our teacher leaders very closely throughout the fall and then we present the budget to the board actually we do a budget conditions back in in the winter time when we talk about what's happening in the world around us and how those things in the environment will impact our development of a budget and then in February for the first time we present a draft budget to the board we spend an entire Saturday going through it line by line and then we have additional meetings after that where the board has opportunity to ask us questions and we refine the budget in response to those questions uh the enrollment slide that we've shown for many years we've talked about and I think the
055community knows well that our community like many around New York State went through a period of decline quite a steep period for a number of years that has become shallower in more recent years as that decline has slowed and we do show a slight uptick in the enrollment population that's projected for next year but I caution I think that we showed an uptick last year when it was being projected and that uptick proved not to be true so we work with actually two sets of demographers who do their best to use historical data and what they know about live births in the community to project for us but it's not a completely exact science but it does help us very much so to develop the budget this slide breaks out the enrollment by school level
056and we point out here particularly that boarding Community can see that enrollment has actually grown a little bit in the elementary schools while it continues in general to decline in the secondary schools as those smaller grade levels move up so you see again for next year projected is an overall increase across the three elementary schools you see a slight increase rejected next year at the middle school and then you see a decline of about 30 students or so at the high school overall projected an increase of about 20 students for the district and we will see whether that comes to be the case or not then we talk about uh the drivers the things that most Drive the development of the budget and there are some major areas here enrollment and class size uh in
057a school district is always one of the very most important and most significant drivers of the budget we think about the programs the professional learning that are very important to our students and our staff and we think about maintaining the infrastructure of the school district once again on the next slide you see a learning commitment and the focus areas that we care so much about and that we think are intertwined very much so with our learning commitment the areas of diversity Equity inclusion social emotional learning and sustainability which we've already heard referenced tonight moving it to the next slide we start to talk about some of those things that are supported by the budget that we are talking about one more time tonight so in this budget is support for new Staffing that supports uh
058particularly favorable class sizes for next year you see there a focus on the middle school where we're looking to slightly lower class sizes from where they are presently in the sixth grade the seventh grade and in the 8th grade math classes in particular and we've talked through some of the details of that with the board in the past and then also you see one additional fifth grade teacher and that's because of a particularly large fifth grade size at one of our elementary schools and this helps us to bring that size down to a more favorable class size and then finally and very appreciatively to our board the board continues to support the inclusion of four contingency positions in the budget and this allows us to be sure that we have Staffing available should there be
059fluctuations in the enrollment that we just projected or should secondary students for example make choices in their schedules that are not what we're predicting at this time and it gives us flexibility to add staff where necessary which can prove to be and has proved to be very helpful past years here you see some of the highlights included and supported in the budget in terms of school program and professional learning we've talked quite a bit about next Generation science standards next year we'll be implementing those science standards in many grade levels you see continued study of enhanced instructional strategies in K-12 always looking at comprehensive literacy instruction K-12 so that continues to be support for professional learning in that area you've heard a bit tonight about sustainability that continues to be an important Focus for our
060students we're thrilled by the amount of student engagement that we see growing in that area as well as the number of teachers who continue to make that a focus in our work the Dei work continues we've added the word belonging which is something we've been talking about quite a bit with our colleagues throughout this year we'll be talking about it more through the summer and into next year and then not so many weeks ago the board had a really terrific presentation from this year's uh Innovation cohort which is wrapping up its second year you heard quite a bit about how much the professional learning means to the teachers in that program and this budget supports the beginning of our fourth Innovation cohort which would run for the next two years next slide uh talks about
061some particular positions that support uh professional learning and programming schools you see enl Staffing our enl population just as it does in districts around us does continue to grow and we really appreciate and our students certainly benefit from The increased and Staffing that supports students in the enl program we're looking to add a substance abuse counseling position to support our secondary schools in next year's budget two additional monitor positions to support student safety security here at John Jay High School we've talked about a slightly different instructional support model for technology in the elementary schools now that we're in a much more mobile technology environment we're looking for more instructional support rather than kind of break and fix support that we used to have when we were stationed in computer labs and then some additional coaching
062Sports coaching specifically at the middle school where our modified program will be able to grow in terms of the number of students participating and then a reallocation of some existing staff to create a staff developer position in the area of special education that will support teaching across the district and support students in the especially program across the district so lots of really terrific things in the budget that we're thrilled to include and then that final category of infrastructure you'll see a number of different things up here at the top a new scoreboard for the John Jay High School gym which allows us to reallocate so I'm still functional but rather old school boards that we will move down into the second Middle School gym and allow that space to become much more functional and particularly
063for after school sports and then you see lots of other uh types of infrastructure that are needed to keep our buildings uh safe and in good repair roof and gutter repairs playing field upgrades very importantly some drinking water filter filtering systems that we need to upgrade in a couple of the schools and then I'll skip over some of the others you could certainly read them up there on the slide but you see the very necessary types of upkeep that's needed in buildings of the size of our schools and I'll jump to the bottom uh where we really appreciate the support for growing what's currently a part-time communication specialist position into a full-time position in next year's budget we look forward to being able to take advantage of that position and now we come to the
064numbers themselves the current year Budget on Top Line there 115 million dollars 778 000 and the proposed budget of 119 million nine hundred and eighty eight thousand dollars an increase of 4.2 million dollars or a 3.64 increase of budget to budget and a 1.56 percent tax levy increase and I think it's really important here to point out on this next slide that the budget to budget increase uh is larger than we've seen in recent years but it's also true that almost two-thirds of that increase is accounted for by uh Revenue other than property tax revenue so uh how Governor uh this week our state government finalized the governor's budget the governor has made a tremendous commitment to education with an enormous increase in what's known as Foundation aid for the first time actually in New
065York State history Foundation Aid which goes to all the schools throughout the throughout the state some receiving more based on need than others but for the first time in history that Foundation Aid is fully funded we're seeing about a million dollar increase in state aid as a result of that other districts are seeing even larger increases than that in some cases and that along with some other increases in Revenue uh due to increases in County sales tax and some other areas that will get named later does allow us to increase the budget substantially while still maintaining a tax levy increase the 1.56 increase that based on information we receive from Westchester Putnam school boards Association we know that that tax levy increases in the lowest quartile of tax levy increases across the Westchester Putnam region
066and that's the direction that we've received from our Board of Ed for a number of years is to be really moderate about the impact that we have on our taxpayers we have moderated that increase we've been in that bottom quartile for quite a number of years now and the overall Levy increase itself this year the 4.2 million dollar number I can't say it's within the bottom quartile but it's just very very slightly above the bottom quartile so it's it's fair to say that all school districts in our region are seeing larger larger budget to budget increases this year because of the increases in state aid and other Revenue sources that are allowing them to do things for their students that we're really feel fortunate to be able to do in the coming year the next
067slides we look a little bit more closely at enrollment in this in schools we break out kindergarten because it's always the trickiest to project from one year to the next when we when those students are not yet with us so rather than showing kindergarten enrollment by school we show it district-wide you can see here we're projecting a number for next year that's very similar to this year 280 208 students projected for next year versus 205 this year um we're showing uh the same Staffing 11 teachers or 11 sections but we do point out that this time last year we were actually only projecting 10 sections so we used one of those contingency positions last year when we needed it to grow the number of kindergarten sections to 11 and now we're reflecting uh with that
068increase is remaining steady at 11 so that's actually an increased position in next year's budget over last year's budget so that we can maintain what we think is favorable class size in kindergarten and then we look at each of the schools starting with increased Miller if either if you just look at the bottom of the slide you'll see 21 sections this year and 21 sections next year with the overall school size this is reflective of grades one through five this kindergarten's broken out but you see the overall size of the school projected to stay about the same from this year to next it increased Miller we jump ahead then to Katonah Elementary School there you see growth of one section and I I think you see it reflected there in that first grade next year
069that's this year's kindergarten moving up into the first grade for next year with four sections and all the others remaining at three and maintaining what we think is favorable class size across all those grades and then finally moving to Meadow Pond and it's at Meadow Pond where you can see that additional position that we noted earlier the additional fifth grade position so if you look and see the this year's fourth grade has two sections and those classes average height at 25.5 next year the demographer is projecting an increase of two two students when the students move to fifth grade so rather than allow the fifth grade which is already the largest in the district to get even larger uh we're thankful to the board for supporting the addition of one more teacher there and bring
070those class sizes down with three sections and as a result the Meadow Pond sections overall grow from 14 to 15. next we look at middle school and high school and we always put the caveat here that unlike the elementary schools these class sizes are based to some degree on student choices the programs that they take so these are much more reflective of average class size than they are of actual class size excuse me but you can see here again reflected the overall growth of the school 662 students to 687 with some grades getting larger some grades getting smaller and what you see in the bottom chart there when you look at the number of sections that's where we so appreciate the support of those additional teachers in sixth grade and in seventh grade and that's
071what's bringing those class sizes down I think we said previously that those numbers would be more like 27 26 if we didn't add those two sections so we think uh given some of the ongoing challenges still from pandemic times and wanting to best support all of our students and provide a really favorable and healthy environment we appreciate the support in bringing those class sizes down finally we go to John Jay High School and again we point out that these are average sizes of the classes if we've had a number of high school students with us tonight and I'm sure they would be quick to say I have some classes that are much bigger than the numbers that you see up here on the screen and I might have in some classes that are smaller than
072what you see and that's just the nature of the program at the high school where there are many many electors like robotics that you saw here tonight and again you see overall the school shrinking a little bit projected to shrink a little bit with some grades getting smaller others getting larger but we think the Staffing allows us favorable class sizes there and now we're going to break out some of the Staffing changes in a little bit more detail and I'll hand over to Neil sure thank you Andrew uh yeah the next few slides are really just kind of a synthesis and consolidate uh some of the FTE that Andrew was alluding to on this first page for elementary I'm sorry for overall proposed Staffing changes in teaching as we mentioned we're really grateful for the
073four contingency positions which you don't see there in the subtotal but you see at the bottom there with the asterisk there is if we go back up to the top of the elementary teachers we're proposing a change in Ft of 3.0 and that is the overall one extra fifth grade class at Meadow Pond absorbing the contingency position from this year's kindergarten at KES into first grade next year and as well as a Kindergarten class at KES based on our projected enrollment numbers of kindergarten incoming for the 23-24 school year in the end it's an edition of three elementary teachers for the Middle School teachers as uh Andrew alluded to we're grateful to maintain that biblical class size in six and seventh grade that's four of those positions there out of that 4.25 2 and 6th
074grade two and seventh grade and the 0.25 is to allow for a lot more flexibility in math so we appreciate that as well we are asking for a edition of one enl teacher and that really has to do with some growing enl numbers as well as the number of minutes that certain students who qualify for enl need um and some and those minutes um impact the number of Ft that we'll need for the projected for the next year PE in elementary is an increase of 0.3 and that really is just making sure that we have enough individuals in FTE to cover the number of sections within our elementary schools and the parentheses there next to high school teachers is a reduction of 0.3 giving us a subtotal of an Ask of 8.25 total teachers for
075next year in this slide this has proposed a support staff changes and I know that number 1.87 change in teaching assistance it looks a little odd and it really has to do with what Chris Nelson had highlighted for us that day back in February and a little bit of a paradigm shift in in that department and having the three teacher aides who are at a 0.71 FTE actually become a full-time at each one of our elementary schools as teaching assistants Andrew alluded to just a little bit more of the um the ethos of becoming a little more mobile and having teaching assistance be a little more supportive in the classroom and be able to stay at the elementary schools each of our elementary schools every day instead of having kind of a part-time job where
076they leaving in the afternoon we're also asking for two extra monitors or two more monitors at the high school and as Andrew alluded to as well a Communications specialist leaving us a subtotal of 4.87 and finally the third slide puts it all together and with a total ask of 13.12 . thank you now we're going to turn to Danelle for some further analysis of the numbers Levy tax tax cap tax rate and some increases and decreases that we see throughout the budget so this slide just reiterates what Andrew had spoken to before our current budget for the 22-23 school year the proposed budget of 119 million 988 980 and you can see on the slide the increase in the percentages that Andrew spoke about before in this next slide you can see some of our
077major budget increases the total of this slide is slightly over 4.6 million dollars you can see health insurance is our highest increase at about 1.9 million dollars we also have some contractually obligated increase related to salaries and that's 1.35 um we have those new positions that Neil just spoke about they equate to approximately 945 000 and then some increases due to the cost of inflation so again these are the major highlights of the increases of course they're offset with some budget decreases that we'll see on this slide um TRS and ERS which is our pension system that we are mandated to contribute to we do recognize some Savings in that that is uh State sets those mandated costs for us so we see between the teachers retirement system and uh the support staff retirement system
078a reduction of 351 000 and then you can see it we have a budget line for transfer to Capital those are those infrastructure needed needs that we talked about earlier in the presentation and we've reduced that line approximately a hundred thousand this slide gives a brief overview of our budget history I won't read all the numbers to you but you can see again that our tax levy increase is 1.56 and this is well below the tax cap um calculation that I'll go in to a little bit more detail further on and then our budget to budget increase of 3.64 this just gives a couple years back history of where our Levy changes and our budget budget changes have been foreign part of the presentation I'll talk about tax cap the levy and those other sources
079of revenue um so we have we are under a tax cap uh environment uh just a reminder some people equate the tax cap to a two percent uh it's not two percent two percent is used in the calculation um it's a factor and CPI is also a factor so we use two percent in the calculation or CPI whichever is lower so this year CPI was eight percent and when I spoke to those slides previously about those inflation factors that we use eight percent for some of the inflation factors but in the tax cap calculation we use two percent um and then we also have we use what's called an assessment growth factor and I think if you go to the next slide you can see that in the calculations so assessment growth factor is your
080actual brick and mortar uh builds within the community so we use that in the calculation this slide represents the total calculation of how we come to the tax cap you can see this for the 2324 budget we were permitted to go up 2.52 and our tax levy uh without going over the tax cap or and which requires us to get a super majority vote of 60 plus one uh we are not going close to that we're going to the 1.56 Levy to Levy increase so with that we're only required to get a majority vote which is 50 plus one um I think I just went over that I got ahead of myself in speaking so well um we'll go to this slide this slide speaks a little bit of those other Revenue sources so the
081majority of our budget is raised by tax levy um however we do have other sources of revenue we use an appropriated fund balance of 3.2 million dollars and then the other sources of revenue and that's where we see a rather large increase of those other sources of revenue and that's how we are able to keep that Levy uh reasonable for the community uh this slide shows the detail of uh those Revenue sources and you can see that state aid increased over a million dollars when we created this budget back in February these were our projected revenues and just this week as Andrew spoke about because State finally released the state aid runs so I did do a comparison between what we were projecting in February and what the governor released this week uh the variance
082was minor and actually the variance was in our BOCES Aid which is an expense driven Aid just like the expenditures is a budget revenue is a budget these are projections uh you can see also interest earnings we increased we don't know how interest will fluctuate fluctuate throughout the year uh so these are also rejections uh tax rate so this is uh scroll scroll to the next uh uh slide this shows also a history of where our tax rates um have been in the past couple years so these are the tax rates which are based on your assessed value you see North Salem as a negative 15.75 percent it does not mean that North Salem's residents will see uh a huge decrease in their tax bill it just has to do with the tax rate what
083your assessed value is multiplied by on your tax bill and if your assessed value changes that changes in the tax rate changes so uh these are just the tax rate projections the board will finalize the tax levy in July we will send this information out to the assessors at the town and the tax collectors and they will appropriately uh regulate the bills accordingly so now we just come to a summary uh and we've really gone over all of these things before we're uh really excited about this budget we think it has a lot of great support for our students across the district uh all all students uh in lots and lots of different ways uh it continues to support the infrastructure that's really important to keeping them safe and healthy in the buildings uh and
084creating the best educational environment for them so we thank our board for supporting this budget and putting this budget in front of the community when a community does come to vote on May 16th they'll see two propositions on the on the ballot proposition number one which really speaks to the budget itself this is the proposition that would allow the school district to Levy the funds necessary to fund next year's School District budget and then proposition number two uh which we have done this for a number of years now and we always are careful to spell out this is a proposition that allows us to purchase new vehicles primarily school buses to keep our students safe get them to school safely and we we want to be carefully point out this is not a request for
085additional funds this is simply a request to move existing funds that remain at the end of this year's budget into a line that allows us to use them to make these purchases so we're not asking for additional money we're asking permission to move the funding so that we can make the purchases and I think the community knows that last year with the same proposition we purchased our first electric School Bus still waiting on the arrival of that school bus we anticipate very soon and we've written next year's proposition to give us flexibility we very much hope to continue purchasing electric vehicles uh in line with both the district's commitment to sustainability as well as with New York State's mandate for all school districts to be moving towards all electric vehicles in the very near future
086but we've written it with some flexibility because we haven't received that first vehicle yet and so we want to be be able to have an experience with that vehicle in our community we want to see how it does on the various runs that we have before we make that next purchase but we absolutely hope that the next purchases will continue to be electric and in fact they really have to be electric so we're really accounting on that first one to be successful and we hope to have it soon the final slides we're getting to now we we show you some dates here we are now May 4th of the public hearing and the vote which is the same date for school districts all throughout New York State May 16th our polls will open at six
087o'clock in the morning and be open until nine o'clock at night and as I mentioned earlier there are still two more opportunities if you'd like tonight's presentation so much that you'd like to hear it again come back on Monday in the morning at 9 30 to the Middle School theater or again on Wednesday in the evening to the high school theater and there we'll have opportunity for those in the audience to ask questions about any aspects of the budget the slides themselves will be the same so if you do come anticipate the very same slides but we hope that we'll see some of our community there and we encourage Community to come out to vote and we thank our board for all of your work and support and thinking with us through this budget and
088if there are any questions I'd be happy to we'd be happy to do our best to answer them great thank you so much we appreciate the opportunity to move through the budget hearing after having had several opportunities to hear about and deliberate line by line each of the budget recommendations and thank you not only for this presentation and for providing an overview this evening but to all of you for your collaboration and Leadership and to our directors and principals and staff members for articulating the needs of our students helping us to understand how the changing needs are evolving how our population is changing and for helping us to understand the resources that you recommend to best meet the needs of all of our students we feel very well educated on the budget we appreciate the
089opportunity to ask questions and to discuss it with you and I'm happy to turn it over to board colleagues if there are any further comments or clarifying questions thank you not we look forward to seeing you at the budget Road shows at the high school and the middle school thank you for arranging those and brings us to I think the close of the public hearing do we need to do anything to close the hearing we're all set okay move along in our agenda and this brings us to 10.02 which is our opportunity to hear from Board of Education candidates it's my pleasure to invite Lorraine Gallagher to speak with us first and then Bill swartfeger and to please introduce yourselves and speak with us for approximately three minutes welcome good evening thank you for the
090time tonight to address the community I am Lorraine Gallagher and I'm running for seat on the school board I picked up my petition the first day it was available I talked with people got the necessary 45 signatures and returned it 10 days later I have been invested in this election from the beginning never wavering on my decision taking the necessary steps to be on the ballot I'm invested in this District my husband Peter and I have lived in Pound Ridge since 1996 raising our three children here we have two in college and one in high school we purchase our home specifically in this District because of everything we knew about the schools I'm running for the board because I care about the children of our towns they deserve to have the best education that we
091can provide at all levels they deserve to have the essential programs that will help them succeed in life from literacy and Mathematics clubs music drama Sports all the things that make them well-rounded these children deserve to have a safe place in our schools free from violence bullying discrimination hate I'm running for all the people in our town that feel that they have not been heard communication is vital I understand the frustration about the board not responding at meetings or feeling that our wishes are not considered in the discussions but I know there are two sides to each story and not everyone will be happy with decisions that are made but I know it helps when the reasons for the decisions are clearly articulated and there is a dialogue people want to feel heard and their
092needs answered I am running to ensure we have a financially stable District that we are taking a hard look at the programs we offer the people we hire while providing for the future people traditionally moved here because of our outstanding education programs but our scores are slipping while our education costs are rising and our population has declined we can't have taxes that force people to move or prevent people from moving in more important our children are not excelling we have to look hard at why and find new ways to do things the community is asking to meet with the board and set up committees on special education and literacy I don't know why this can't be done I want to help resolve the friction we should be working the hardest to serve the needs of
093our kids especially at the youngest ages where the right intervention can make all the difference I am a doer a collaborator a communicator as an attorney a resolve conflict and find Common Ground I bring people to the table I will work to do that as a board member I volunteered at countless school events Jared past tonight been the Teen Mom helped coach youth field hockey and I am the John Jay booster club president for me being on the board is the next step in serving my community my chance to give back for all my family and I have received I promise to ask the hard questions put in the hours needed to get answers to the community to be engaged thoughtful and deliberate to listen and act see each child as an individual whose needs
094deserve to be met I want to improve how the board communicates with the public position our district financially for the future to ensure each student has the support they need with the tools and resources needed to reach their goals we make sure each student feels safe in their schools to make sure that each child has a firm grasp of the basics Reading Writing and arithmetic from an early age in that early intervention is provided when needed I will do my best to meet the expectations of this community by working together with this board and administration to meet the community's needs I ask you to vote for me and Bill and the budget on May 16th thank you [Applause] thank you Maureen and it's my pleasure to invite Bill swart figure please sure good evening everybody
095um and thank you my name is Bill schwartzeger I've lived in this district for almost 40 years with my wife Diane our three kids were born raised and graduated from John Jay and are now back living with community if you care to read more about my background my experiences my volunteerism you can go to my website billswagger.com there's a lot of great information there it's open and it's honest I've been to a lot of art shows musicals science symposiums sporting events sustainability cafes students are truly amazing the students you saw tonight the mob unified team the jazz band is a testament to that I've been to every board meeting for the last six months and the teachers from every department and equally impressive I think we have really good people here in this District I'm
096running because I believe positive changes are needed they're needed now our educational and school rankings on a scary downward trend that needs to be reversed Westchester Magazine U.S news world report both rank as 15th in Westchester used to be much higher schools that are ahead of us right now Briarcliff Bronxville Ardsley Byram Hills Croton Edgemont Harrison Hastings Irvington Mamaroneck Scarsdale Rye flybrook we didn't even get ranked in the westchester's top 10 by New York State Department of Education in our Ela third eighth grade report card which is basically how well our children are reading and writing on top of that we are paying one of if not the highest cost per student in all of Westchester or not getting the results that we need what is happening we're losing out to these other school districts
097and attracting young families looking to settle down who value education the most our enrollment is down almost a thousand students over the past 12 years we've even had to close in elementary school president I sent out a survey recently to our residents and asked the school district how it's doing these are the areas of concern special education and special services almost a third of our students are supposed to be getting the proper services for their needs for many that is not simply not happening and please don't forget about our gifted students reading literacy we need an early intervention science-based approach can't read you can't learn Administration and board communication Community simply wants answers to their questions fiscal responsibility out of this budget gets so big over the past years bullying drug and alcohol abuse mental
098health Athletics these are all concerns real concerns from the community I'm asking for your vote because I know how to run and I know how to help run large successful organizations I know how to get the right people into the right places I know how to install the proper programs systems structures into an organization maximize the success of everyone involved especially our students I know my way around budgets revenues expenses I've been doing this my entire life we have an amazing Community here of talented bright and caring people we need to do better we must do better please vote for me on May 16th thank you Bill and at this time we're going to move into our public comment portion of the meeting 's opportunity to share concerns and comments with us pertaining to agenda
099items on tonight's agenda or other areas of the district we invite you to please introduce yourselves we request that you please respectfully limit your remarks to approximately three minutes and please don't expect us to engage in a back and forth this is our words meeting in open sessions and this is our opportunity to listen to comment um and it is my pleasure to look at the sign up list we have a computer at the circulation desk if anybody's waiting to speak and hasn't had a chance to sign up please feel free to do so in the back and I think first is Lorraine Gallagher please see you again thank you um good evening J Fest this is one of my favorite days of the year this and homecoming I couldn't do it without the support
100of so many people Chris McCarthy and his vision to improve but jfest and pep rallies have been it's just amazing see everybody come out Dr Siciliano for allowing it to happen Andrew thank you for coming out um your words of kindness to all of our volunteers was very much appreciated our staff members our facilities people our custodians the booster members the athletes and their parents in the PTO this year um donated the snacks and the drinks and the chips to um just really make it a great great day Catherine thank you for helping us through Grill and wrap 520 Burgers 510 dogs next year I promised we were going to have the veggie burgers we have heard you and they will be there um you know we started the day with the pep rally going
101in which um the students lives then we go into the unified basketball game we had we hired originally our photographer that works with our teams not only did she decline payment she donated that money that we would have spent on her back to the unified basketball team to do something special for them so Amber yarder does amazing jobs and we have some professional photographs of that event in the girls lacrosse team thank you Andrew for coming and standing in the beginning of the rain unfortunately that then canceled the first of the Season car show we were expecting 200 Cars to be here it was going to be a great opportunity to showcase our facilities that also canceled baseball softball crack by tennis in the modified track program leaving us only with the JV girls lacrosse
102game JV boys lacrosse game and varsity lacrosse game but it was a fabulous day spent here from 12 to 8 and I just can't thank everybody enough especially my husband who just puts up with all of my crazy ideas so thank you very much for a great weekend thank you Samantha Hirsch please good evening I'm Samantha Hirsch I live in Golden's Bridge I have a first grader daughter at increased Miller um before I read what I'm going to read I just want to say again students are such a wonderful display of great that we're doing here I loved hearing from the unified basketball team and seeing the Joy on all the students faces and the way that they work together so nicely it's just really beautiful I was I did best buddies when I was
103in college and it was a transformative experience and I wish we had it in high school so it's just beautiful um and the robotic it was just it was amazing so thank you all I'm looking at all of you for fostering this like these opportunities for our students um so as I've shared here before I am running as a writing candidate for the Katonah lewisboro School District Board of Education many have inquired as to why I'm not on the official ballot and I'd like to explain when the petitions became available I picked up a packet read all the information started collecting signatures at the same time I was applying to a doctoral program that I had planned to start in the fall some have stated that I've waffled and took my time and the truth
104of the matter is I did take my time I wanted to ensure that I was making the best and most informed decision for my family and my community and that I could wholeheartedly dedicate my time to the klsd community I believe vehemently in the Democratic process and that voters should have a choice and exercise their right to choose a candidate they believe in so after many many conversations data collection thought and reflection I decided to run my vast and diverse professional experience in public education sets me apart from other candidates I have been tenured in three different districts teaching around 2 000 students during my time in the classroom as a special education math teacher in the Bronx a six through eight academic intervention support specialist at Mamaroneck an 11th and 12th grade math teacher
105in Bedford as an educator as a teacher I learned each one of my students strengths and needs to help them succeed I wrote and received multiple classroom grants aimed at improving students learning experiences I also supported my students outside the classroom I was a mentor for many it demonstrated my care and support of them by attending various events like sports games theater performances Art and Design shows concerts competitions science research symposiums and so on and something that I'm really proud of is that I started Lehman High School's first ever girls lacrosse team in the Bronx and I worked with the non-profit organization City lacks to provide all of my girls with equipment uniforms and transportation so that they could compete currently I serve as a liaison between the State education department and the region at
106large so I am up to date with the regulations and laws affecting our children and the best practices I serve on several Statewide Frameworks related to teaching and learning and support nearly 50 unique school districts in five counties giving me insight into what other districts are doing that works and what does not I know firsthand what other sorry what their struggles are what questions to ask and what information data are needed to make informed decisions to move this District forward as a seasoned educator my goal in running for the board is to ensure that every student receives a high quality education throughout my career I've remained deeply committed to providing inclusive education for all children I believe that education should be a transformative experience that empowers students to become lifelong Learners critical thinkers and responsible
107citizens and we saw evidence of that tonight and every time I come for a board meeting I see evidence of that when our students speak I also recognize that success looks different for each child and that a well-rounded education is essential for both academic and personal growth unfortunately some students May unintentionally miss out on the best learning outcomes for them which is why I'm dedicated to helping all students tap into their full potential my priorities center around creating a sustainable and Equitable learning environment that prioritizes diversity inclusion and social emotional learning for all students I believe that a well-integrated approach to social emotional learning with inclusive Concepts will lead to an environment that serves the needs of all students regardless of their background Identity or ability as a parent and educator I value the relationship
108between school and home and understand the importance of open communication Channels with the school in the district and the frustration that comes when those channels are lacking Samantha I apologize but I'm going to ask you to please try to um bring it to closure because we're over the three minutes thank you I'm sorry the timer went off and I assumed that you heard it please continue but thank you can I just say like one more sentence thank you as a parent and passionate and experienced educator I possess the unique qualifications that make me an ideal candidate to serve on the board my student-centered Approach dedication to inclusivity and well-rounded experience and expertise make me an ideal candidate I urge you to write my name Samantha Hirsch on the ballot thank you [Applause] thank you and
109next Erica Glick please that's really good good evening my name is Erica Glick I've been attending Board of Ed meetings for four years I've been advocating for a literacy committee and have been met with resistance rejection and most frustratingly inaction I'm the parent of two wonderful children who happen to be struggling readers struggling despite being intellectually capable struggling despite being read aloud to every night struggling despite growing up in a language-rich environment couldn't understand it I went to their teachers don't worry they said it will click it didn't click they just need to try harder they said they were trying harder than any other child I knew they were the only ones I was told there must be something I'm doing wrong or not following through with I tried to follow their advice but I
110also did my own research I shared my research about structured literacy the evidence in the science I followed the chain of command and unfortunately it became clear that Katona lewisboro didn't know what they didn't know once my children were enrolled in a different School their needs were met and they began to succeed so I became began advocating for improvements in Katonah lewisboro illiteracy committee a comprehensive inclusive reflective group of Administrators Educators and stakeholders that would engage earnestly look at the data improve outcomes be committed to Excellence after all aren't we a district that wants the best and wants to be committed to Excellence along this time in my journey I met so many people although I was told I was alone I wasn't and although I've been at these board meetings alone for many years
111I'm not tonight we share these stories I'm here tonight with people who have to wake their children up an extra hour early so they could squeeze in their tutoring session before school or they have to choose between play dates and after school tutoring sessions so they can learn the basic skill of reading I'm here with people whose bright children wake daily with tummy aches refusing to go to school because they feel like failures and with those who travel two hours on a bus just to receive an education I'm also with folks who have collectively paid millions of dollars for private school all the while continuing to pay their school taxes just so their child is afforded their basic right to learn to read I'm here tonight with folks who are paying the equivalent of a
112four-year college education for third grade but tonight you aren't just seeing me you're seeing all of us you'll be hearing us ask for a literacy committee this is a complex issue that requires a committed and comprehensive approach so that we can do better for all children it merits the consideration that a data-driven transparent and diverse Community Committee can bring this committee will prioritize facts not philosophies this committee will be tasked with Illuminating guiding questions to bring the board and administration so they can optimize their decisions moving forward so they can lead us to be the district where every child learns to read write and thrive I heard the timer so I will finish up here thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Addison Glick hi my name is I am in a sixth grade when
113I was in kindergarten in first grade my teacher tried to teach me to read by having me look at pictures guests and memorize sight words they blamed me when I didn't to learn that way they told me I wasn't trying hard enough I was trying harder than anyone else in my class they just didn't know what to do thankfully my parents didn't listen when the teachers called when the teachers called me lazy because I'm very smart I could read write spell and I can even write speeches in fact I wrote my first Board of Ed speech in 2021 and spoke at my first first Board of Ed meeting you told me you were listening and you promised me that you would do better are we doing better former literacy committee every child deserves a free
114and appropriate public education every child deserves to learn to read not just the ones who can afford it don't make anyone else go through what I had to go through help all the children thank you Charlie click good evening my name is Charlie Glick and I'm a fourth grader at the Windward School reading and writing instruction is very important and Katona Lewis where has a lot to learn first of all when students are at kick botona lewisboro reading shouldn't involve pictures and guessing furthermore writing should not be independent and they should be taught strategies such as quick outlines which is a tool I use to help me organize my thoughts to compose this speech there is no there's no doubt that the kind of instruction that teachers teach at the production that teachers at Windward
115use help all the children learn to be better readers for example dividing words into syllables is using to is useful to all students finally when word has helped many people become good readers and writers due to direct instruction in all subject areas the tone of Louis bro school has promised to do better have you done better yet [Applause] thank you Susan polos thank you I'm Susan polos I'm here as a community member thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm grateful to those who step up to serve at the same time I think we all benefit from really listening to the experiences of everyone I'm impressed by those who continue to advocate for a more responsive approach to reading instruction I do not believe that one size fits all my own children learn to read
116somehow during the whole language movement as a librarian in a nearby District I supported the New York State Ela curriculum lit life Journeys and the TC reading workshop the pendulum swung back and forth dramatically and I could see that what worked well for some failed other children and that good teaching has to be open to the needs of the individual child I'm not a fan of Lucy Calkins for many reasons especially because TC packages classroom libraries which offer students more limited choices than a well-funded school library speaking of libraries I suppose that maker spaces seem like the shiny new new thing although I created a Makerspace in my Elementary library 10 years ago and I now work in a private school with a separate maker space but a clear commitment to literacy through four beautiful
117and well-resourced division libraries libraries with books and Librarians are foundational to education and critical to nurturing readers but I digress because I'm here to ask you to consider the members of our community who continue to come to the podium these people here the parents in the community have been asking over and over again to be invited to participate in committees to consider literacy others speak often to issues in special education as you ask us all to say yes to the budget and yes to your decisions I ask you to please say yes to these parents and welcome them into the work of the board finding a place for them and the committee says they ask for or ones that already exist diversity of thought and inclusion of people outside a closed Circle will go a
118long way to strengthening our schools and our community thank you thank you [Applause] thank you Penelope lemayer I'm sorry if I didn't pronounce that correct thank you for having me I did not hear a speech but um I'm just gonna speak from the heart um I am a parent of two children in this District a three-year-old and a kindergartner and I'm also a teacher and a reading specialist um we moved here a little under two years ago for the schools pretty much for the schools you know I heard they were fantastic and I have to say hearing um some of the students today I'm really excited for my students to come through and I can see all the wonderful things that are being provided however I am disappointed in the literacy program um my son
119loves school he loves going to school and for that I'm grateful and I'm grateful for some of the changes like the hegarty program that's come through with anemic awareness um however he's still coming home and telling me he's learning picture power and it just really it's it's very confusing now he's learning phonemic awareness he's learning foundations teaching phonics but then it's not reinforced um and so I really hope that we can continue on a path where we really look at research carefully and I can see how this literacy committee would be a great opportunity for that um and just really making sure that we're continuing to do what is best practice according to research um and so I hope that consider that thank you Meredith black hi my name is Meredith and I'm the parent
120of three children two at KES and one at Windward I've appeared before you many times over the last few years advocating for improved reading in our district Under The Firm belief that all students can learn to read I'm here tonight once again to request the earnest engagement with the community on substantive issues such as literacy special education and other curriculum concerns as an as an avid early neurotypical reader it is easy to overlook the opportunities Mastery of this single skill have created but as an example let's briefly discuss the impact reading has had on my own life because it's all too easy to overlook the impact this skill has on one's life's trajectory because I can read I was able to secure scholarships to both undergrad and graduate school because I can read I have
121successfully practiced law for over 20 years because I can read I can participate in local government and sit as a board member on the town of Bedford Zoning Board of Appeals because I can read I've been able to travel the world by myself booking airline tickets train tickets reading bus schedules scheduling hostels hotels and tours because I can read I've been able to travel throughout time thanks to authors like Plato Homer Shakespeare Jane Austen Laura Ingalls Wilder Mark Twain and John Steinbeck because I can read I've been able to advocate for my children and others because I can read my life and Community have been enriched while those are highlights of my own life I know there are reading impacts each and every one of us on a daily in Reading impacts us each on
122a daily basis every day we read articles blogs to keep us up on world events society and our passions we read signs as drivers recipes or menus to feed ourselves agreements for employment housing Vehicles research YouTube for our favorite videos we paid bills we read instructions for medications and we search the internet reading is not an extracurricular activity reading is a fundamental right which impacts everything we do and every opportunity we have and we as a school are not doing all we can to ensure our students and children are learning to read from the ELA test data we have from 2021-2022 of the over 1100 students that took the ELA exam in grades three through eight only 853 of those students were deemed proficient in ela for you those of you who are wondering that
12375 percent of our students only 75 percent of our students can read a grade level what about the remaining 296 students or 25 percent who took the test and were deemed not proficient or the 178 students that opted not to take the ELA test what opportunities are these children going to miss because they struggle to read klsd policy 200 States a student completing their education in our school system should have developed master of basic skills which includes communication by reading and writing 25 of our students in grades three through eight are not proficient they are not reading at grade level they are not developing Mastery of the fundamental skills of reading where science says 95 of all people can learn to read a district with such skill support and financial wherewithal must do better the
124board has this power to do better and hold the administration accountable to do better just look at policy 300 accountability one thousand community relations goals 1420 objections to curricula or instructional materials 1900 parent and family engagement 2260 advisory committees 4200 curricular management fulfill your obligations use your power to do better form a literacy Committee of stakeholders including parents teachers administrators literacy experts look at the data pin Point areas for improvement review what we're doing ask ourselves how students are being taught and where gaps are and where the opportunity for improvement exists look at the science and strive to do better lastly I would be remiss if I didn't highlight one other critical point A literacy committee is just the beginning under the policies I cited you as the Board of Education are accountable for the
125success of this district for the success of each student you set the bar and accountable for the actions of the administration you appoint you have the ability to direct action and make change where things such as the rights or needs of our students as a group or class are not being met in our district whether it be inadequate reading Services classroom safety or dignity or sufficiently challenging curriculum for advanced students do have the ability to act use the power you have to fulfill the responsibilities and promises you made to me to my children to our community when you chose to accept your seat on this board of education thank you thank you Adelaide black Patty black I live in Cantona but I am currently a sixth grade student at Windward I've spoken to you before
126but here I am again tonight to uh urge you to improve literacy instruction in our district reading it is a so in it entangled in everything that I do as a student reading did not become me easy to me I had to work really really hard to learn to read and it impacts how I felt it about myself and did the things I could do when I I when I was a struggling reader I felt stupid I felt alone when I was struggling when I was a struggling Raider I couldn't read it Percy Jackson Harry Potter or anything any other chapter book why not to read it change those feelings in a way no word nor hugs or encouragement could reading changed my life because I can read now I now I kind of do
127well in school in fact I achieved honor roll this semester because I can read I can message my friends and Chad even though they are located throughout New York State because I can read I can learn scripts and entertain my friends and family on stage because I can read I know I can do anything 95 of all people can learn to read that includes students with dyslexia and other disabilities other community our community has the desire skill finesse and ability to teach all students to learn let's make sure all students feel good about themselves and have a chance to succeed let's teach all students thank you [Music] [Applause] thank you Jay Black good evening everyone and I really appreciate the opportunity to get up here and speak tonight my name is Jay Black and as
128a parent of three students here in this community I'm here to encourage and advocate for the formation of a literacy committee heard from everyone else speaking tonight this is an incredibly important topic I encourage everyone here on the board of ed to educate yourselves about the importance of this topic you have an opportunity to form something that can tap into new tools resources and possible directions that can give more students in our community the opportunity to read now as Meredith had pointed out earlier a lot of great statistics facts and I'm not going to dive back into all of that to help Advocate and encourage and explain my position but the reality is is that when I start to look at those facts and I combine that with with slides tonight like the student enrollment
129something really profound came to mind and that is on a percentage basis we're talking about an entire school grade within our student body that just does not read at grade level so now I'm not going to sit here and point this out as issue this is an opportunity this is an opportunity to take ourselves to the next level and through something like a literacy committee that that can help create a path to get us there thank you thank you Lee cereski hi my name is Lee soresky and I'm here to tell you our family's personal story on how the Katonah lewisboro School District failed our daughter here is a photo of our daughter Remy on our first day of kindergarten at KES she had a twinkle in her eye and was ready to Take On
130The World now I want to talk about Remy's two-year Journey at Katonah Elementary School I was notified by her kindergarten teacher in January that she qualified for tier one small group instruction when I connected with her teacher she said oh she's young for her age and not to worry in April of her kindergarten year Remy was moved to tier two which gave her three 40-minute sessions a week yes only three a week to work on Reading Readiness and math skills in the email that I received from the teacher it said I know that Remy is going to love working with this teacher and we are sure that it will really boost her self-esteem when working with the whole class now this is a five-year-old we were talking about the teachers are already worried about her
131self-esteem due to the learning challenges that she is having in the classroom just a few months prior to receiving this email she was so excited to go to school like her big brother and all of a sudden her self-esteem was completely depleted let's skip ahead to first grade Remy is excited to start a new year at KES we hired a reading and math tutor that was going to come once a week because we knew that she needed some extra help this tutor did not specialize in Orton Gillingham because we didn't realize at the time that she needed this program remember at this point we just thought that she was young and that she was struggling a little with her reading as soon as school started I emailed her teacher to see what services she was
132going to receive because they had already said the previous year that she needed extra help I was told that benchmarking was taking place and that would she have an update sometime in October he would think they would be ready to help the students that were struggling the previous year on day one but that was not the case by now Remy was starting to show many signs of anxiety I recently looked back at all the emails that I sent to her teacher about how Remy was nervous about this and nervous about that towards the end of the November her teacher recommended a formal educational evaluation we'd done it was not until March yes March of the following year that we had an IEP meeting and she was put into a bucket of learning disability so what
133does that mean for her future teacher and what services was our district going to provide to a child that was Desperately Seeking to learn but didn't have the tools being provided to her the short answer is not very much and especially not the type of program she was going to need to succeed I asked the school psychologist at Remy had dyslexia and was told that they are not able to answer this question and that it was too early to diagnose which I found out is completely not true a lot left so I'm gonna just skip ahead [Music] um the summer went by second grade was about to begin I made sure that we had a reading specialist lined up to tutor Remy once a week a week before school started the specialist evaluated her the
134next day we met and she said Remy is such a sweet girl and I can tell that she wants more than anything in the world to learn how to read but she is reading at a kindergarten level and she emulates the students that I teach every day at Winward very smart hard-working kids that want to learn but have the disability blocking their ability to learn the way are just and we needed a language-based curriculum long story short I'm gonna read just when I told Remy that she's going to Winward we made the decision to send her to a school that knew how to teach our daughter the way she needed to learn she would be surrounded by other vibrant children that learned the way she does she was no longer going to feel dumb and
135embarrassed of who she is not only is she going to have to leave all of her friends at KES by switching schools she was also going to have to repeat first grade they brought her back to first grade and take a long bus ride down to White Plains every day where she didn't know anyone we'll never forget the morning where we asked her to come into our room because we have said some exciting news to share of course we had to make it sound super positive to a six-year-old told her that she had been accepted to this special school that teaches children whose brain works in similar ways to hers we have never to this day heard her cry the way that she did that morning the high-pitched sound that came out of her absolutely
136it was heartbreaking kept saying why why why am I that dumb it's not fair no I'm not going there these questions and statements went on for months and even still occur every now and then my question to our district is why won't you even evaluate other ways to teach your students how to read the program at the windward schools uses would enable all children to learn how to read it isn't just for students with language-based learning disabilities what will it take for you to acknowledge that there is a huge issue with our reading program and things need to change my hope is that no other family will have to experience what we have been through and that no other child has to feel the pain has caused her [Applause] thank you Allison need not a
137good speaker my name's Dr Allison need I'm a local pediatrician and I'm an advocate for children it's what I've dedicated my life to do and I've always felt passionate about literacy even before I had my own children when I worked in the Bronx I got a grant to bring an amazing program to my clinic there called reach out and read Because pediatricians all over the country know how important early reading is and how critical literacy is as Meredith explained to everything it's the foundation of everything and I probably was also passionate about this topic because I have a language-based learning disability and back in the 70s the science wasn't there I was a very smart young girl and I was put in front of a slide projector where they flashed words in front of me
138like phrases and then they would flash them faster and faster and faster to try to get me to read faster and faster and faster it was ridiculous but there are ridiculous things that are still happening now in our amazing district with our amazing teachers we also moved here because of the schools we are not from this area and as a professional and personally I know that the experience of these kids it goes beyond just learning how to read there's a huge impact on Mental Health that you've already heard so while my daughter has very fond memories of her time at KES which I am so grateful for she does not remember that every week in fifth grade she was crying every week this is like those I think there are a lot of people in
139this room that actually know her she's a very happy person and she was Mrs Patterson who is one of the most amazing teachers just would call it I just don't understand why Ainsley's crying and not once or twice and in sixth grade literally a week after she started at the Windward School the crying stopped just stopped like what is that and so I know that for people first of all I know there's not one person in this room that does not believe literacy is important I know that and I uh I but when your child has not struggled and you have not struggled and you live in this district with these amazing teachers and you think like how could there be a problem but there is and today from my patients parents I know that
140about their teaching they're using the queuing method they're using picture power this is not just ineffective it is detrimental and I just Echo everything that everyone has said just please understand that this is such an important issue my children are are doing great and they're not in elementary school and but I am here and I've not been at these meetings but I feel now that I have to come and tell my story and my daughter's Story please if you could just help one child not experience what she went through please this is so important and we can do something about this we can we have an amazing District you are all dedicated please understand that this is an important issue and it needs to improve thank you Julie Creech hi thank you um it actually
141pains me to be here because my son would have been in the sixth grade in the Middle School he had to leave the district um by the fourth in fourth grade he started at Eagle Hill he didn't know how to read um he did learn how to read at Eagle Hill so my husband and I um and our two boys we moved here for the schools in the community we love this town but by the time my son like I said entered the third grade in 2018 and 19 we noticed there was a big problem with literacy his reading and writing level was below average he couldn't read he was guessing words not decoding why why was our kids so stressed his self-esteem was plummeting so in 2020 we had no other choice we pulled
142him out of the district um we pay thirty thousand dollars in taxes the tuition is 71 000 dollars I mean thank you Grandpa because we would not be able to do this but guess what his entire path in life has changed why like with a literacy committee we can we can unpack this why do children have to leave the district to learn to read it makes no sense at all so I just really really really really really really for the kids who are struggling every day like my son please just form this committee for them thank you Jacqueline Klein Novick hi I'm Jacqueline Klein Novick speech language pathologist reading specialist special education teacher and Community member I want to talk about firstly the need for communication I am disappointed and frustrated about the lack of
143response from the boa Boe the community on important issues last year I asked about our District's behavior management training repeatedly and receive no response until being told to look through the hundreds of entries on our district website to find out this information spoke repeatedly about forming a literacy committee to serve all children there was no response until months later in the form of no we will not be doing that I don't expect or a back and forth during these public sessions I see how that could be unproductive however there absolutely needs to be a forum to address the questions and concerns of community members dialogue is healthy and can foster understanding and needed change and change is good as one of several Professionals in the private sector I have worked with a constant flow of
144Katona lewisboro kids for the past 25 years I'm private Orton Gillingham tutor and reading provider as well as a speech and language pathologist I see kids at 7 30 a.m and 7 30 pm this is income for me but I would rather it not be this way some facts I related last year I told you that 50 to 60 District kids receive reading tutoring through just one tutoring Network alone I told you that 23 Katonah lewisboro kids get on a bus every morning to go to Windward I don't even know about the other schools including Eagle Hill I related that about 20 percent of all kids have dyslexia to varying extents and that evidence-based instruction according to the science of reading is needed by dyslexia kids and extremely effective for all kids producing kids that
145are competent and efficient readers and spellers I also said that our district has added some good programs foundations and hegarty for example however it is all about how we use it how we do what we do how do we identify kids at all grades how much time are we devoting daily how is the instruction implemented and supervised how are we how and are we teaching kids to read after third grade that matters these are all valid questions and all have gone unanswered we have had Parents stand up here and relate their frustrations and deep concerns we have even had kids who are attending Woodward here even tonight to relate their desire to learn to read in District and stand up here and speak last year that's happened Mr selesnik after that particular public session last
146year when kids were up here you address those kids and the audience stating that yes we can do better we will do better what happened the ELA is the test that the district relies on to measure our success our score is 75 percent and to point to the score as a measure of success for all children is very misleading this does not represent the abilities of all kale kids the district kids at Windward Eagle Hill do not take this test many of our struggling readers and districts in District decide understandably opt out so conveniently and more important to know many of our struggling readers and writers who would likely bring down our Ela scores are not part of the testing sample also it's not acceptable to say there are other districts that do the same
147so it's okay it's not okay actually many districts have taken or are now taking steps to reassess their curriculum our neighbors in Bedford have formed a literacy committee we need a literacy committee made up of In-House and out-of-house experts to review and discuss improvements fresh ideas dialogue we need communication and responsiveness on this issue and many other issues that are important to our community it is amazing what incredible accomplishments can be achieved when people are willing to have a dialogue thank you Leah marciante foreign Ty I'm a mom of three two of my daughters are currently at increased Miller in fifth and third grades and another will be at increased Mailer in about three years night Moon this book probably looks familiar to any of you who have children it's been a staple in most
148homes like ours that believe in the importance of literacy and how important critical if not important it is to read to children at a very early age the words in Goodnight Moon are basic there is typically one brief sentence per page it doesn't take long for anyone in fact to memorize all of the words from cover to cover for those of you on this Boe with Children of your own and I imagine it is a fair number of you I'd like to ask you how you would feel if one of your children was nearing the end of third grade and Goodnight Moon is the only book they ever wanted to read it's only because they've memorized a word good night Moon I would imagine that you'd feel just as confused concerned and worried as my
149husband and I do when my husband and I were looking at homes at a home to purchase back in 2017 our number one criteria was quality of schools in our research and in speaking with Brokers Katona kept popping up over and over again and I will share that our now fifth grade daughter has done just fine here in fact she's excelled her academics are strong she was an active and enthusiastic reader by the end of kindergarten so what has gone wrong or differently with our second daughter now in third grade in this District it was during her hybrid Zoom year in first grade that I had the opportunity to be brought into her classroom from our dining room table I noticed over and over again that she would raise her hand on zooms but she'd
150get overlooked I gave the teacher the benefit of the doubt the first several times it happened thinking she just didn't see my daughter's hand raised but it happened again and again and again teacher would only call on the children who could read my daughter couldn't read like her peers but her challenges weren't stopping her from Raising her hand to try What stopped her was that only that only the kids who could read and could keep the zoom flowing were the ones who were getting called on why couldn't my daughter read in first grade why was she struggling so much why did she write B's as D's and pronounce the word saw as was at the time our media and everyone around us was saying all kids are behind right now due to covid give it
151time she's going to be okay although we were not happy about her being in the hybrid model of Zoom School my husband and I chalked it up to covet just like everyone else we were also told that what she was doing was sort of age appropriate he believed the experts when my daughter entered second grade we were now back to being in in-person school five days a week within weeks of the school year starting her second grade teacher called me one day expressing concerns about her academics she suggested that we get a full evaluation done on our daughter ASAP what this was the first teacher in three years three years in this District to express concern about our daughter's reading and writing skills it's unacceptable that three years went by and not a single teacher
152picked up on her struggles which were made abundantly clear to her second grade teacher within weeks of the school year starting in April of 2022 last April two months before the end of second grade my husband and I were told that our daughter qualified for an IEP for reading and writing nearly an entire school year later he would begin receiving services in conjunction with her IEP we immediately immediately hired a private tutor to support her on weekends I've been told that teachers here are reluctant to suggest a tutor because it will make the school district look bad after a few months of working together our tutor shared that she was seeing signs of dyslexia with our daughter my husband and I immediately asked how we could best support her if this was the case and
153she mentioned the name of a school in White Plains that I know you're all too familiar with not only did we have very little understanding of Dyslexia neither my husband and I or I had never heard of this school called Windward I immediately started researching all things dyslexia along with all things Windward when I called this Katona lewisboro special services department the next morning to inquire about our having our daughter assessed for dyslexia I was told the district will not diagnose dyslexia diagnose dyslexia especially because a dyslexic brain requires different instruction than a non-dyslexic brain I've since learned that one in five people have dyslexia this means that by my calculation roughly 600 children in this school district have dyslexia those children require different types of instruction than their non-dyslexic peers 600 children in the
154Katonah lewisboro School District is not willing to diagnose dyslexia how are we possibly able to teach them research out of Yale shows that dyslexic children who don't receive the support they need for their learning differences experience a drastic decline in self-esteem by third grade my daughter has been made fun of multiple times this year for not being able to read the most recent incident happening on her bus when she was unable to read a pierced shirt shirt said skate as in skateboarder just said skate and she read it as hat she got off the bus crying that day because the kids on the bus all started laughing at her and chanting that she could not read because Katona lewisboro special services told us that you don't diagnose dyslexia six weeks ago my husband and I
155hired an outside specialist to assess her for dyslexia are private tutor's suspicions were confirmed our daughter has dyslexia we should not have had to pay a hefty amount for an outside specialist to tell us this while we are Beyond grateful her second grade teacher raised concerns and through that we were able to secure an IEP it's unacceptable that four years have gone by in this District watching her our daughter struggle to read and write about a single person suggesting she may be dyslexic our daughter will be leaving increased Miller the end of this year to attend Windward in September my call to action is that every single teacher in this District have mandatory training to identify the signs of dyslexia early and to bring those concerns to the child's caregivers as early as possible no
156parent should have to wait until the end of third grade and learn from a private tutor that their child is dyslexic according to Yale the Yale Center for dyslexia third grade is actually considered late to get a diagnosis by then undiagnosed dyslexia has crippled a child's self-confidence children and families of this District need this Boe and our superintendent to begin addressing the unique needs of every single child with dyslexia with the same rigor that this Boe has addressed other issues such as electric buses and the school mascot all children deserve to be reading Beyond good night Moon by third grade thank you Stephen shenfeld please my name is Steve shenfeld I'm a 24-year district resident very proud of all my neighbors at the April 13th board meetings superintendents must correct mischaracterizations and misrepresentations when we
157hear them so I have come tonight to ask the superintendent and the board to stop misleading the community when it comes to the data surrounding remediation of students with language-based learning disabilities but many have come before me tonight and shared much of that data I'll give you some personal data 300 000 US dollars after taxes that's what I paid to send my daughter to Windward which saved her life she now is a student at University on Dean's List regularly um thanks all right and thanks to some of the tutors that are here as well here's some more data Millions probably 20 we could we could calculate we could spitball probably 15 to 20 million spent by parents in this community to send their students to schools like Windward and Eagle Hill Etc over the last
158few decades as long as I've resided here we've heard tonight we're still in this calendar year in this school year sending more than a couple of dozen kids to Winward in Eagle Hill and here's another data point for you zero dollars that's what it would cost to create a literacy committee all right zero why why are we refusing to this committee when I watched the board meeting from the 13th my head just exploded I mean what what do we what data will be uncovered about the failings of this District as it relates to the education of children with language-based learning disabilities and we know we learn more from our failures than our successes how can we improve what are we afraid of on April 13th the superintendent also mentioned uh measuring ourselves against other similar
159districts I did some research Chappaqua sends busloads of kids to these schools however districts like Bedford and Pleasantville which were mentioned earlier are taking positive steps to improve their curriculum why aren't we looking at them why and then and then in right in front of our faces is Windward there's the formula and it's relevant to kids that don't have disabilities why continue to ignore why not be Progressive imagine if this community was the uh you know the The Shining Light On The Hill of Westchester County where we could educate these students our home prices would go through the roof okay we'd be a destination you know why not okay why can't you why dozens of residents are spending more than seventy thousand dollars a year okay that's that's an Ivy League education or actually it's
160probably a state school now in other states if you if you live here you have to send them out of state um so in addition to the 119 million dollar budget let's say at a zero dollar line item uh for a literacy committee thank you [Applause] thank you Holly lavender please I um I will keep this short I'm Holly lavender um I've been living in Katona for 15 years I have two children 13 and nine um while a there have been a variety of people here this evening who may be familiar faces to this board I am here to show representation as part of the special education body that you do not see I have spent a better part of the past seven years politely asking the right questions lobbying for my daughter and needing
161to educate myself on the education system to ensure that my daughter has the same learning opportunities as mainstream children in this District [Music] I spent the entire year last year asking for her to be put in a skills-based support group that was recommended as part of her as part of her IEP that was never accommodated I was told by special services Representatives that I shouldn't be working this hard to identify the needs of my daughter and her accommodations I was and I still am in agreement with this statement and I'm here tonight because I and other parents shouldn't have to work this hard to get support for our children my oldest is currently attending private school she's at Windward where she is thriving but it is not without trade-offs I am a single full-time working
162parent with virtually no other financial support trying to hold down a house and all of the associated costs to both keep my children with their friends in this Beloved Community and pay the extremely costly private education my intentions are that my daughter returned to the Katona lewisboro School District at some point with her friends that she truly misses I am asking the board to Institute A literacy committee so that I and others do not have to work this hard to get the educational resources necessary for children in this District I and others shouldn't have to make additional trade-offs like potentially selling my home and moving away from a wonderful Community just so my children have a better chance of educational success [Applause] thank you Andrea Jaffe please um my name is Andrea Jaffe and we
163we love our community in town we um we moved here 11 years ago for the beautiful town and amazing schools we have a 12 year old son who now goes to Winward we've spent over three hundred thousand on school and tutors um since fourth grade because our son wasn't learning how to read at Katonah Elementary School I'm I'm a public school person um my sister is a teacher for over 20 years my father is a principal for over 35 years and I know how hard teachers and administrators work and care um my husband and I are both dyslexic and went to public school in New York City and Long Island and we learned how to read and went on to graduate school because we were taught and Orton Gillingham approach um a phonics based approach
164to re to reading um in our Public Schools we have a problem here when there's a when there's a full bus that goes to Windward every day it's okay to have a problem um it's okay to try things and and it's okay when things don't work and sometimes we have to rethink things I'm a therapist and often I have to rethink um approaches that I've taken to therapy because they didn't work and um I think that makes me a better therapist um so I'm here to encourage and advocate for a literacy A literacy committee to figure out why so many of our kids here are having trouble learning to read and to improve our reading outcomes here thank you Cynthia Braun please hello and my name is Cynthia Braun um I am a parent of
165an 18 year old and a 21 year old um who've gone through district schools my 18 year old is graduating John Jay High School this year and I'm also a pediatrician by training and uh Katonah resident for the last 17 years um and I didn't really prepare a statement I've been at this Podium before speaking to you about my son's story and how difficult it was for him to learn to read when he was in ninth grade we finally attained Services through in through his ninth grade IEP to give him some organ Gillingham instruction with the Wilson program but you know he was in ninth grade so he now reads much better but it took a long time to get where we're at now and I do I'm listening to all the stories of the
166parents speaking to day and thinking about how I was here probably five years ago telling Devin's story along with a lot of other parents who were talking about the difficulties that their children were having in learning how to read and how we weren't receiving phonics based instruction and how you know this whole language approach of guessing by looking at pictures and looking at the context was I was reassured many in many times by Devin's teachers that this was a really effective approach and it just we should give it time but I'm listening to other parents stories and I feel terribly that we weren't more effective years ago because these parents are talking about their kids who are not only not reading and going out of District to get appropriate instruction at the at severe cost
167you know or high cost to themselves but also to their kids you know it's not just failing to learn to read but it's the emotional impact it's the emotion the self-esteem problems that that result and it's heartbreaking to listen to everybody's stories and I applaud every parent here for Having the courage to come and talk about it because it's not easy so again I'm a pediatrician by training and I look at science and when work we look at what's working and what's not I support the creation of a literacy committee because around the country there's a lot going on with reading um the science of reading a couple weeks ago front page article the New York Times the kids can't read the Revolt that is taking on the education establishment Fed Up parents civil rights
168activists newly awakened Educators and lawmakers are crusading for the science of reading in this room where a room is full of parents and Educators and community members who are crusading for the science of reading we need a reading we need a reading literacy committee established here so we can look at the science our children are often told and my child was ed student still is when we are when we go to our individual IEPs it's individualized we're not allowed to see everything in Broad picture we don't see the forest for the trees because we as parents with each individual child and my timer went off but when we look individually we can't see the full picture we have an Ela assessment that shows that we have about 25 percent of students who are not achieving
169Proficiency in reading that may not be an ideal assessment I had a pleasure of talking to Alana schneier last weekend we happened to talk about this she said it's not an ideal assessment if it's not an ideal assessment we need an assessment we need to look at this problem we need to see the entire problem and the big picture of it instead of just saying each individual child will be remediated individually and not seeing that we have a more systemic issue that we can address with changes in curriculum and getting rid of picture power please it's not working it's embarrassing we shouldn't be doing that it's it's beyond Beyond ignoring the science with that okay thank you very much for listening [Applause] thank you Celeste Crosby please I'm Celeste Crosby I have two daughters they're
170both in college now um thank you for the opportunity and thank you for all the work you do on behalf of our children I'm here to urge you to form a literacy committee I'm holding an email that I sent to the board and uh superintendent sales Nick three years ago and not much has changed in three years so I'm just gonna read it again um so both of my daughters uh attended uh Katona Lewisburg schools all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade they were both raised the same way with same parents in the same house with lots of reading literally from infancy both girls are intelligent hard-working students my husband and I both have graduate degrees you would think this would be a recipe for smooth and easy learning and this was indeed the
171case with my older daughter she learned to read just as if by osmosis she was a strong reader from an early age reading Harry Potter in first grade she never had an issue um being unaware of reading curriculum you know but trusting that the district was using proven methods I just you know wrongly assumed her reading success was due to her intelligence in fact she was just one of the lucky ones because I had a radically different experience with my equally intelligent younger daughter in first grade no and on was and saw hot and top were the same word to her she wrote from right to left she opened books backwards with the spine on the right she could not differentiate between a d and a b when I requested meetings with her teacher her
172first grade teacher at Katonah Elementary School about what I perceived to be her reading issues I was told it was developmental since she had an October birthday and she was one of the youngest in her grade this despite the fact that socially emotionally and physically she was Advanced for her age I repeatedly pleaded for her to see the reading specialist at the school but I was told she didn't qualify I believe my daughter compensated by correctly memorizing and guessing words and she fooled the teachers into thinking she was actually reading finally in the spring of first grade with my daughter making no progress at all I gave up on the school and sent her to a private reading teacher she saw this teacher twice a week for about three years at considerable expense to my
173family I actually pulled my daughter out of music class at school so she could see the reading teacher who had limited availability due to the high demand in our community I was criticized for pulling her out of music by the school but I knew it was the right decision for my daughter the private reading teacher used the structured literacy approach specifically the Orton Gillingham method she made slow and steady progress and eventually caught up with her peers just a brief example of why the reading extra instruction offered at Katona lewisboro did not work in first grade she brought home a just right book that she was expected to read it contained the word birthday as the private reading teacher explained my daughter could not have been expected to read birthday for the following reasons it
174contained a b and she could not distinguish between a b and a d it has an R controlled bowel her um it has a combination sound th it has two syllables it has a silent y she had not been taught any of those things none and yet she was assigned this book it was a recipe for frustration and tears the whole experience was unnecessarily traumatic and expensive for my family my daughter would cry and say that she was stupid I thought maybe it was my fault that I had made some kind of terrible parenting mistake desperate to do everything I could for her I had her evaluated by a private psychologist he said all she needed was more effective reading instruction years later she is strong academically however she does not read for pleasure at
175all ever she never developed a love of reading and I blamed that on the early trauma and frustration of not being able to read I am certain that if it hadn't been for the expertise of the private reading teacher I hired using structured literacy in Orton Gillingham my daughter would not be the strongest strong student she is today I hope you will form a literacy committee so that other families do not have to go through what mine went through we got through relatively unscathed but only because I rejected the school's assessment that my daughter didn't need remedial reading instruction also we had the financial resources to hire an incredibly highly effective private reading teacher not every family is so lucky thank you very much [Music] [Applause] thank you Jessica Atkinson please hi my name is
176Jessica Atkinson I'm here tonight because I have not found the literacy program through Katonah lewisboro School District to work for either of my children my fourth grader is an Avid Reader but he came into kindergarten reading where our current literacy program has failed him is actually in writing the lack of structure does not work for the type of learner that he is my current second grader was classified learning disabled by The District in 2021. later we learned that she is dyslexic and she is no longer in District she had received Services through the district in preschool as well as during kindergarten and first grade we elected to tutor her privately during kindergarten and first grade as well after four years of services through our district the programs put in place to help her ultimately failed
177her she did not want to attend school she was excuse me she was depressed and the confidence that she once embodied was completely stripped out of her her last year her school also passed her to second grade when she was reading on a kindergarten level and nobody brought up to us that she was reading on a kindergarten level if you know about second grade you know that students should no longer be learning to read but instead they should be reading to learn it would have been catastrophic for her to stay in this situation at her current school where literacy is taught based on the science of reading she thrives and she is so proud of all the work that she is doing she has gone back to being the spunky excited confident little girl that
178she was before the end of first grade and she really really is reading we've learned so much over this last year she is in a study where her brain is being monitored by the windward Institute it's fascinating to learn that children with language-based learning disabilities Thrive with heavy phonics instruction that said it is most effective in K-2 the disappointing piece of this is that many families don't learn that their child has a language-based learning disability until grades three through five or even later as we've heard tonight we have a friend whose child just started sixth grade at John Jay Middle School this year and they only now learn that their child has a language-based learning disability it's harder to correct this later and this child could have had an easier time if in his K
179through two years it was a more phonics based approach as for our daughter we look forward to her returning to our district one day and when she does she will be armed with the tools to succeed in Katonah Lewis bro and ultimately in life all kids should have access to this type of foundation not just us who are affording this huge price tag former literacy committee reading and writing is important it's a civil right we are spending so much time on diversity equity and inclusion in our schools it was so nice to see the Unified sports team earlier tonight I believe this is also an equity issue [Applause] thank you Rachel kirth please hi everyone my name is Rachel Kurth um I don't have a prepared speech or prepared remark so I'll just speak from
180the heart um I have a daughter who is in kindergarten um at Katonah Elementary School and another daughter who's three and a half who will be going to kindergarten in a couple of years and like many other people you've heard from tonight my family moved to Katona in large part because of the schools and what a fantastic reputation they had and we simply trusted that the Great Schools in Katona would be teaching our children the most Cutting Edge state of the art best curricula that would be based in science and give them the best possible education and at a very basic level teaching our children to read I never really doubted for a second that a great Public School System might not be doing that effectively I only recently was alerted to the issue of
181this literacy program not being based in the science of reading um and from people in the community who I learned about it from I was suggested that I listened to this podcast sold a story that some of you may have heard of um have any of you listened to this podcast have you heard it I I listened to it and I was shocked I mean I was floored by everything I was learning and everything I was hearing and I came in with no knowledge of really anything frankly I was naive and just sort of figured okay we're in a good school system they're gonna be teaching our kids to read and they're going to be doing everything right and I listened to this and I just thought wow how could anyone hear about these issues
182and not question the the use of you know the cueing and guessing system I mean I like laughed out loud when I heard they're teaching kids just to guess from the picture like that's not teaching someone to read but apparently that that's what they're doing in all these schools across our country um and you know these level books from fountas and pinell I just I don't know how anybody could listen to that podcast and not want to know more and not want to delve deeper to know um if the Katonah Lewis Borough School Systems reading curriculum is harming our children that was the part that really got me that some of these tools that are being taught in this Lucy Calkins and fountas and panel program are actually potentially damaging to children and causing long-term
183damage to their brains um so you know I don't know why and this is my first board meeting I'm really new to this issue I don't know why I'm hearing from all these parents that they've been here before going back five years before you're years three years talking to the board about this and just asking for a committee to be formed to explore this issue further and being met with rejection and being told no it doesn't seem like a very big ask that we should have a committee that explores our curriculum looks at the data looks at what's out there and tries to understand what the best approaches to teaching kids how to read all kids because it is a civil right and is an equity issue that all children should have the right to
184learn to read so I urge the school board to form this literacy committee to probe this issue further and just to continue on a path where we're looking at the data looking at the science and just making sure we're doing what's best for all the children in our district thank you [Applause] thank you Elizabeth McGoldrick please or my contacts tonight so I didn't have to do the glasses thing so my name is Elizabeth McGoldrick I am a resident here I'm a parent I am a reading specialist which is why I want to talk to you about reading and some things some important data points we're talking a lot about data so here are some things I can tell you that are true number one reading is really complex we think of it as one thing
185you read in actuality is extremely complicated it's made up of many many different uh sort of skills that are increasingly become increasingly automatic and reuse them increasingly more strategically over time so even though we are we can't help but read like you don't want to read that headline you don't want to read that billboard and yet you can't not right because you are skilled readers so we're a little bit uh blind to how hard it can be if you to learn to read another thing is that um well the previous previous speaker mentioned the idea of switching from learning to read to reading to learn now you're so you want the idea that you at some point in elementary school um I would put it a little higher and say more third fourth grade where
186that happens but maybe I don't know things are moving faster these days so um but at some point it switches you're not learning to read you really have mastered enough that now you're gaining information and that that's you know an important uh phase but it happens kind of far along and so and that's sort of when one of the things that's been brought up or this idea these the state test scores because that's when we take the state test scores and are they a good number are they not a good number are they valid are they what do they mean and I think that there's a lot to unpack there but what I really want this this whole literacy committee thing is to talk about well it's like but we have a lot of stuff
187before that to explore and to better understand Dr rifkin's not here this evening but he'll be very familiar that when you go to the doctor and you have uh you hurt your elbow they take your blood pressure and they take your temperature and they weigh you because those are your Vital Signs right and they're indicators of basic health and those those are available to us in the world of reading in kindergarten in first grade there are measures that are objective there are measures that we can that are quick you know they're they're not invasive they're not lengthy um and most importantly they're not subjective and they they give us a trajectory they let us know how we're doing and how we want to act now when someone's very young to affect their future if something
188is important as reading another thing I can tell you about reading is that it is possible for about 95 of children to learn to read so a lot of this is happening this evening this suffering feels very unnecessary it feels very possible for us to be um helping more children learn to read more effectively and using their time differently here's what I don't know well let me tell you one more thing I do know is that it's also possible because at the at the school that I work at which is not Windward but it does start with a W it's a water side um is a school where our children learn to read all of them learn to read and there's not a special ed school it is a school that is um it's an
189independent school but it serves families not only regardless of financial need but because of financial need and the associated lack of Education opportunities that are often associated with that and they all learn to read here's what I don't know but I can't tell you is that I don't know if we're hitting those Marks here I don't know and so far I haven't had any I've met with a number of you you're lovely people I appreciate what you're doing I understand it's a volunteer position I understand it is not easy it takes a lot of time but there is opportunity here for us to come together for us to use this incredible Community we have passion we have heart we have really good brains let's use the numbers that we have let's ask questions let's form
190a literacy committee let's engage earnestly let's improve outcomes and let's do better together thank you thank you Meg Rogers please it's very late and you've heard a lot from the community and I've been listening as well and um last week was my son's last day at klsd I pulled him out in seventh grade after five years in Special Ed and still not able to read write and spell he's dyslexic he's dysgraphic those two words have never appeared in a single IEP document or notes from the school district I did not get contacted by the superintendent of special ed never spoke until I withdrew my child these families are the tip of the iceberg there are so many children struggling to read and write in this District whether they have learning differences or peers of my
191son who had critical foundational reading and writing years happened during covid they're under mental health pressures there's a lot of bullying going on in the school we haven't even talked about that tonight but I want as a business person to bring us back to the agenda of this meeting which was the budget and the Board of Education vote it was curious that the legal line in the budget wasn't summarized here tonight last budget I think it was upwards of could be wrong so half million how many lawsuits are coming towards the school or reimbursement hearings for families who are struggling to now pay for special ed as a taxpayer who's now also going to be paying for private school my son's going to Fusion because Windward is full I take issue with the amount of
192money I want to unpack those line items what law firms are on retainer how many hearings are happening where is the legal money going that is taxpayer money and some of that money I have to believe could be spent hiring more special ed teachers I love sports I was an athlete for many years as a taxpayer I would like that money going towards education versus more coaches maybe shabby or countertops our kids are suffering they are not learning the fundamentals in a way that leaves them whole and emotionally stable and kind the trickle-down of what's Happening is resulting in kids teasing each other for not being able to read we heard that story tonight my own son coming home devastated and quite honestly we call it self-esteem but I know plenty of kids in this
193District who are now in therapy including my own child School tutors therapists trying to support kids who want to learn and my son I'm so proud of him he competes at a national level in the Arts he is in the plays and the musicals in the school system and he did not want to miss out on that but he wants to read and write and spell his spelling is the same as it was in second grade here and we were told over and over again he's fine he doesn't like to read he's resisting reading he's resisting writing his IEP has him with an accommodation to work on computer because of his dysgraphia and the teacher wrote a note in his IEP report that it's pointless to have him work on a computer because his spelling
194is so bad spell check can't even tell what he intended to write and yet he was meeting the goals and all of these parents that have IEPs know that meeting the goals is not meeting the goals so when we look at the budget we need to think about where are we spending the money and how could we be spending it better what is the priority here what is the priority of our Board of Ed and I was delighted to hear two candidates talk about literacy thank you thank you don't ever vote for Board of Ed member who doesn't put literacy in education in children's mental health and well-being first that's it thank you thank you Matthew Golia my the last on the list I didn't intend to be but uh my name is Matthew Golia
195I moved here six years ago immediately after my um two-year-old son was diagnosed with autism I didn't move here largely because of the schools I moved here solely because of the schools and the reputation um but I'm not here to talk about autism today I'm here to talk about reading um something that I don't know much about I don't really know the difference between Caulkins and Hagerty or teachers college and science of reading but I trust The Librarians and the reading Specialists I trust the teachers and the pediatricians I trust The Advocates and the speech language pathologists most of all I trust the mothers of the dyslexic the mothers and fathers of the dyslexic kids um because as the father of an autistic kid I know that you have to become an expert in whatever
196condition um your child has and I also trust the dyslexic kids and adults who also spoke on their own behalf I also look around and I can read the writing on the wall big news New York City is reviewing their reading program and they're moving more toward a phonics-based approach we have a neighboring District that has formed a literacy committee um and they've also are working on establishing a reading curriculum based on the science of reading um we don't copy what other neighboring districts do but it's a good bellweather check um the same way We compare ourselves with Ela proficiency rates um I've heard from people that we we score in the 60s or 70 tile or percentages I I don't know let's call it 80 that still implies that one in five is not
197proficient um so why are we not forming a literacy committee my concern is that some of you on the board and perhaps Administration don't like the leaders of this group and that's why you're digging in your heels another concern is that you fear admitting you were mistaken I'm here to tell you everyone makes mistakes according to my wife I'm making mistakes multiple times a day but you can write this mistake and get us back on track and you will be forgiven at least form a literacy committee um one one last thing the last time I was here and I addressed this board was exactly one year ago when I gave my candidate speech um and I'd like to Echo something I said then um thank you to all the candidates running um competition is a
198good thing um I've watched all the candidate uh q a forums and I want to thank them all for making both special education and literacy front and center issues two years ago three years ago special education wasn't even mentioned in those in those forums um last year I was a main campaign issue for at least half the candidates um you can spin it any way you like but this is not a vocal minority thank you thank you Vinnie Caputo please thank you hi my name is Vinnie I am a bonus mom to three kids here um I have one in each school I'm also a co-chair I coach baseball I coach flag football I volunteer with what anybody needs I'm also a pediatric emergency room nurse um my two oldest are both in special education
199here my is going to be a junior in high school is no longer going to have special education services next year she's doing very well um my middle daughter and middle school she's about to go into the high school she's been struggling since we moved up here a couple years ago um her teachers and everybody have been great here um putting in countless hours and tips and trying to help us but it's the same thing over and over again with her she tries her hardest she doesn't get it she gets frustrated um I am really worried about our youngest he's in KES and I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong if I'm failing if I'm letting down all three of them just the middle one if I'm not paying attention close enough to the youngest
200or if I'm missing something I'm not an expert in any of this I don't understand all the complexities of reading and writing I save lives for a living but I do know that if I had a child in front of me and I was doing the same treatment that works for a majority of my patients and it wasn't working for this one child I couldn't stand there and just be like well it's good enough and not do anything about it I'd have to change what I'm doing it doesn't mean that I'm harming all the other kids that it does work for I have no problem if my kids learn a different way and that's okay I myself am neurodivergent I learn a different way and that's okay but uh it's heartbreaking to hear all these
201other people who bust their kids and and are going through all these struggles and I I just really encourage you guys to have a literacy committee and talk about this and if that was your child and they were in front of me what would you want me to do for them thank you [Music] thank you is anybody else waiting to speak who didn't have a chance to sign up we're happy to have you come and introduce yourself at the podium if not I'll close the public comment period okay I'm going to close the public comment period we thank you all very much for talking with us um please know that although we're not engaging in a back and forth we do have opportunity in just a moment for some more dialogue and we have opportunity
202to revisit issues at Future meetings and um so please you know we ask for your patience for just a few more minutes while we make our way through our consent agenda um so this brings us to 14.01 which is the consent agenda as was mentioned earlier we have a couple of policies on the agenda we have an opportunity to vote on a resolution to work toward the goal that was articulated by the sustainability committee at our last meeting um I'm happy to move the consent agenda oh I'm sorry I was looking at 14 but you're right it begins all the way up at 12. thank you it begins at 12. thank you yeah thank you um so I'll move the consent agenda and I see Elon and nodding thank you for seconding is there any
203discussion questions okay if not let's vote all in favor please say aye aye aye 6-0 and this brings us to word dialogue and discussion we do want to begin by thanking so many members of the community for introducing themselves tonight for talking with us tonight it's just yet another reminder of what an incredible Community this is what an incredibly well educated articulate um committed to education Community we live in a huge responsibility to represent each and every one of you all of us take seriously what you've shared with us we appreciate your willingness and your courage in sharing your children's if experiences and your own personal family experiences in some cases and in most cases or in other cases your professional review and perspective um I think one thing that I'm learning in this experience
204is that although we talk frequently about other forums for back and forth and for discussion and many of us have attended those forums throughout the course of the year um for whatever reason we're not reaching families who continue or who Anew are coming to the board of education to share information that we as members of the board really aren't in a position to respond to directly or to solve a particular family's issue I think this is an opportunity to think a little bit about how we can reach families differently or invite families into a conversation where you know we show up at a superintendent's coffee and we hear from residents about their concerns different concerns than the concerns that we heard tonight and and having attended three out of three superintendents coffees I can tell
205you this issue this matter has not arisen and so I think we have to ask ourselves why why are families coming to the Board of Education Why is the chain of command so to speak either not working for these families or they aren't for whatever reason I'm able to reach satisfaction or a feeling of having been heard or for those families who are not in District anymore you know perhaps they never think to come to superintendent's coffees because their kids are at Windward I don't know the reasons but I think we have to think differently or perhaps you know ask you Andrew to help us to think about moving this outside of the Board of Education Forum you know we can't continue to have our meetings go to 11 o'clock at night in this manner
206um members of our community parents um you know I think I think there has to be some opportunity for a back and forth and it's not going to be here and that's not going to be satisfying tonight but there is a disconnect whereby you know you're making yourself available in the morning in the evenings your you know your your forums are are sometimes well attended other times not but this isn't the issue that we're hearing about there and yet it keeps coming back to the board so I I do I do just want to start with that and please invite the administration to you know share any thoughts that you may be having at this juncture turn it over to my board colleagues for any additional comments or other topics for that matter um thanks
207forger and thank you to all of our community members for coming um we really appreciate it we really appreciate the candle with which you share difficult stories about personal lives um many of you have some of you have come repeatedly some of you were here for the first time tonight some of you referenced many many referenced moving here for the reputation of the schools um many of you reference to other districts that send children to private schools um I think it's you know none of us who work well I can't say I'll speak for myself I don't work in a public school because I don't believe I believe passionately in public schools and have dedicated my life to Public Schools and I think there's an awful lot we can do extremely well and we work
208very hard at it and clearly there are aspects of public schooling that are very complicated and I've said before and I've I've heard the words used a little bit out of context we're always working to do better always and when I you know I we've there were a lot of references to state test scores tonight which we I understand and some said that those tests are an imperfect measure we agree with that we don't like to talk about state test scores all that much we've done it sometimes in response I have some of the data here in front of me tonight um and even that data is complicated across New York State 31 percent of students show as proficient and the ELA scores 31 percent in New York state those are the numbers uh those
209numbers however go back to 2009 it was 77 to 86 percent that we're showing proficient and I think I think it is I've heard some recently saying this is a set this is a separate point for the composition tonight but I think it's important to make also because I think there are reasons and we heard some say they moved here for the reputation of the district there are reasons to be very proud of the work the district is doing and for the many families that are here that celebrate the work the kids are doing I think it's a disservice to say test results are going down uh if you look at if you go back and I want to spend a moment on this and then come back to some of the other points uh
210in 2009 results again on these Ela tests not a measure of reading necessarily but on the ELA results 95 to 96 percent were testing proficient in 2009 across New York State 77 to 86 percent testing proficient this is an Ela and math then the state changed the tests and the state tells school districts don't compare to year to year because we changed the tests so a year later the 95 96 percent of klsd had dropped to 79 to 83 percent when the test changed across New York State 77 to 86 fell to 53 to 61 that's largely the same students in grades three through eight being tested a year later but the proficiency rates fail dramatically it happened even more dramatically from 2012 to 2013. this was around the time when the country was talking
211a lot about common core learning standards and States you know concluded change the tests and at that time 2012 John lewisboro was provision 84 to 89 percent 2013 those numbers fell to 63 to 64 percent across New York state in 2012 55 to 64 and that's when the numbers fell to 31 percent across New York State proficiency and when I said 31 before my mistake it's in 2013 that the number was 31 but I wanted to point out how dramatically those numbers fell when the state changed the test scores again the same students largely the same students being tested one year to the next and this is none of this is to say I think I I really want to show none of this is to say we're not always trying to do better not
212holding this up to say we can't do better but I also caution when we look at old test numbers and we look at new test numbers and we say the district's results are falling we have to be careful about that relative to the state relative to Westchester County this district has actually improved over time it hasn't fallen if you look at those raw numbers that I just mentioned you can say the numbers are lower than they were 10 years ago but if you look at where we are relative it's not the case again when none of that's to say we can't do better we are trying to do better we've made changes in the last couple years we've we've spoken at length about the changes that we've made here at this table we've had lengthy
213presentations about it none of that takes away the pain that families Express tonight none of that changes our experience of listening to that none of that changes the fact that we would want nothing more than to do and and more certainly want nothing more to do the best we can for every single student and still when I talk about other districts and wheel and we work regionally and we talk to colleagues in other districts and as we heard with so much appreciation folks talk excuse me talk about the teachers uh who they think so highly of here and we think highly about counterparts in other districts and regionally we talk about these things and all of these all of this Collective thinking and yes there are others bad food has formed recently the literacy Committee
214of the districts put committees together in the past several years and we look and see where they've landed and they haven't landed in very different places and where we are today they just haven't so we feel a responsibility to make sure we're always continually we are continually thinking and learning and listening um we're happy to engage in conversation with our community I think I think we do a disservice to say it's simple and I don't know that folks said that tonight um but I think sometimes it's implied that it's simple but I think the public schools around New York state that all want to do the best they can if it was simple we wouldn't be seeing the results that we're seeing we're fortunate that our results and controllers power are substantially better than the
215results across the state and we don't say that to say we're done or we think you know we sit still because of that we're continually striving to do better and we've made changes recently as a result of that and we'll keep doing that I've said before um and I'll say again here yes I've listened to Soul the story the podcast a number of us have listened to it um we think a lot about and we read I've read the New York Times article also many New York Times articles but also the journals from around the country and the um the the talk about science of reading uh I've said it before it does unfortunately create and it seems to want to be an adversarial relationship at times when in fact so much of the understanding
216that we talk about with our colleagues regionally is shared in terms of and it was referenced earlier the complex process of reading that involves many different components it was reference to the podium tonight and those were those were those uh components there isn't that much disagreement on what those components are yes there's been some some thinking recently about uh how to emphasize different aspects and we've made some of those changes and you heard some of those diagnostic measurements or about yet kids of the youngest grades those are some of the very changes that we've made in order to have more diagnostic tools available to us so um you know we're not going to respond tonight I've made a lot of notes listening to the folks talking tonight we believe in being very thoughtful here and
217in listening um and I appreciate you all coming out tonight and sharing this with us we're not going to announce I don't think there's anything I can say that's going to have you all cheering tonight I appreciate that you applaud for one another the microphone and I think that's really gracious and we appreciate that and I know that it's really hard to come out and I thank you for doing that um I think it would be a disservice to try to say something tonight that's going to generate Applause in the audience but you you know what I can say is we will continue thinking about it we'll continue wanting to engage with you um and we'll continue working with all of our regional partners who are all many of whom are hearing very similar stories
218who have the same who are motivated in the same ways with the same desires to do the best they possibly can for all students we'll keep working towards that end thank you um I don't want to step in if other board members are waiting to say something I had a couple of other thoughts that I would like to share before we wrap up I know it's very late no I'm not switching topics on this topic you know I think one of the things we heard tonight that was asked or or asserted maybe is a better characterization is um you know what has changed why was I here a few years ago and and things haven't changed I think is what was asserted and I think we we actually believe that I don't want to say
219we believe that when I say differently we've had presentations at this very table helping us to understand what has changed but I guess that a different question that we could ask and this is something to think about for next year as this year comes to a close but would be to better answer the questions how as our experts our educational leaders how do you measure the impact of the changes how do you know and measure what's working well we have modified our program we have implemented new resources we have offered a lot of professional learning and maybe this is a conversation that could be had either whether it's appropriate for a board conversation or a learning Cafe or you know some opportunity to help members of our community to see some of the work that
220we do see when we tour our buildings when we're in classrooms when we have opportunities to talk with building leadership and again that's not going to necessarily address any particular families concerns or worries or help their particular child but it it would be at least an effort to help members of our community who entrust us to entrust you our chief Educators and and the literacy experts in our buildings to understand how we're measuring the effectiveness of what we're doing and even how we're progress monitoring our students you know obviously that's happening day to day in every building every classroom but that's not the kind of thing that the board of education is you know routinely apprised on it's not really in the purview of the Board of Education but if there is an opportunity to
221do more learning publicly or in a forum outside of the Board of Education meeting and that can be something if the Board of Education chooses to tie you know we have modified our board goal incrementally each year this year I think the incremental change was about word presence out in the community coming out of covid and wanting to take advantage of opportunities to really experience and better understand the experiences of members of our community thus our presence at superintendent's coffees where you know these this is not the topic but here we are and we've been here before and again I would advise us to try to you know shift this out of the boardroom and into other avenues of helping families feel they understand what's happening and that they can ask questions and um and
222request information you know that's sort of um something else I heard tonight you know what has changed or nothing has changed helping people to understand what has changed and how we evaluate the impact of what's changing um I certainly do need to be on behalf of all of us that this isn't about liking anyone we respect all of you we view it as responsibility to represent all of you and your children and certainly the governance level at any level of our school district decisions are not made based on you know interpersonal feelings for individuals we respect you we appreciate that you came and spoke with us again some of you we've heard from some of you are new to us and and we thank you it's courageous I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to
223be doing with your Thursday night either not that we don't want to be doing we do want to be doing this but maybe not quite to 11 um but we will and we have and we will continue to so I thank you and I don't know whether there's any other topics comments Elana were you waiting to say something yeah I'm still together please go ahead I think um I think I'm I'm sort of sitting with like Marjorie I think you summed up a lot of the questions really well and the idea of like where there can be other dialogue um I think I'm sitting with this I think there's a couple different questions that I'm hearing and I think the one is like where can we have a discussion about this where do we know
224and the questions you asked about we've made these changes what's the impact of them is a great question um I think what I'm sitting with that feels a little bit hard is I I've certainly seen varied literacy approaches for my own children and then touring the schools and there are also stories of students who are it's not working for and and I'm not sure what those numbers are we've heard different accounts of it and we certainly heard um very heartbreaking stories about that and the impact that it has on students and I know that it nobody in the district wants that that is certainly not the intention of anybody they know that everybody's very dedicated to making sure that students are lifelong Learners and confident and all those types of things and yet these are
225sort of stories that exist and I think that the question that comes up and I don't know that is like is there a pattern here is there some is there is there a problem um are these isolated stories you know that that question I'm sitting with that um and another question that kind of is is there is like how do we how does the district think about dyslexia and how is it addressed in the district or is it something that we just don't address in the district right like we there may be things that are outside of the purview of the district I don't know but that's kind of a question that I um came out of this thinking about and um another I guess the other question I had at the end of it
226was sort of what I wrote it down so I'm trying to find it here um what what would good literacy outcomes look like for everybody I'm sort of curious what the committee would think what what the district would Define that as kind of both of like what how would we know that we are serving every student to the best of our abilities and making sure that if we can't serve them that they're getting an equal and you know Fair education which we're legally obligated to do but what what does that look like is it every student you know I I think that question like is it every student getting that we're at 100 on the ELA testing I think that's not that's I'm sort of throwing that out it's like a red herring I don't
227think that's what it is I don't think the illit test is just about that but what what would that look like and what is it that we're striving for what's the picture of kind of where we'd like to be going with literacy where do we see those holes and I'm hearing some desire for more of that transparent discussion I know we certainly talk about all the changes we've made but is there a way to have a picture that's that kind of describes the whole the universe of our students and maybe that's not possible because there is something that's so individualized about learning and as we heard many different stories and experiences so I'm just sort of sitting with those questions I don't know exactly they don't need to be answered right now but just kind
228of how really how to balance the very real and heartbreaking experiences that have been brought here and the fact that the school district is doing a lot of different things and there are still people that are feeling ill-served and so how does that kind of all go together thank you we can also you know revisit this at the next board meeting we we do have a practice of revisiting things after the fact so I don't want individuals to feel you have to speak right now this isn't the only time to discuss this if there isn't anything further I'm going to move us on okay thank you very much so this brings us to 18.01 Future meetings and as was mentioned sustainability is meeting tomorrow morning 8 15 in the morning Saturday thank you so much
229Kim for hosting a special voter registration from 9am to 3 P.M in the district office conference room the annual budget vote in election is Tuesday May 16th polls open at 6 a.m and close at 9pm uh the board will meet on Thursday May 18th 7 30 pm here in the library policy committee will meet on Friday May 26th at 9 A.M in the district office conference room and Wednesday May 31st Finance his meeting at 7 pm if I didn't miss anything then would somebody like to make a motion to adjourn thank you Rory seconded by Catherine all in favor please say aye aye aye 6-0 thank you so much everybody