001foreign welcome tonight to the Thursday December 22nd 2022 regular meeting for the Board of Education District can we please stand for and play um motion to open the meeting please second all right all in favor pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republicans thank you for coming out on this rainy night we're gonna jump right into the uh agenda and with that I will turn it over to superintendent Tony thank you presidential welcome everyone tonight happy holidays nice to see such a large amount of people here we have a lot to share with you this evening we're going to start with science teacher at Mahopac High School Jennifer Diegel and she's going to share some students with us who are going to talk about Project Lead the Way
002foreign [Music] Barksdale and I'm here to walk you through our engineering facilities that we have at my school if you look over here we have space for classroom and then over there we have our working space for engineering products [Music] fabrication and prototyping will take place as we go into this room our engineering working space will see these students are prototyping their designs for a follow-up project this project has the main goal of achieving maximum philosophy by their design of their nose cones and their fin shapes as we move on they will eventually select either a multitude of designs the one that will they'll choose to 3D model as their final prototype over there we've seen more students modeling over here that's the fins and once they're done with the 3D modeling process we will
003do allow you to do rocket fabrication of their prototypes as we can see these students over here during this time they are talking about their breathing model birthday models to be ready to be sent off to the 3D printers as you can see some of the plates are already in progress and they take a varying amount of time depending on size shape Destiny we also have our ways that cover over here we will be using to create to fabricate the things once they're done with the fabrication it's cause of a stop in which they'll actually be putting together the rocket or product of sunboard so over here you see the cafe in those terms of their fins and their designs and this is where they're going to be fully putting it together as we're moving
004back you'll also notice this large store and but as far as it opens up to connect both class into the engineered glass and over there there's the door and what it looks like opens and that's really it thank you for watching our video I hope you were impressed by our students and our school [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] president Tallulah members of the board and superintendentona thank you on behalf of several cohorts of engineering students for investing in our future to those to the to those of you who have not yet introduced myself my name is Daniel Walsh and I'm currently a sophomore in maypax PRT program your support of Project Lead the Way and project risk taker has put us on a look has put us on a pace to qualify for a four-year total
005of over 1 000 elective college credits from the Rochester Institute of Technology by the end of this school year please consider this our new stem Suite which we have just shown in both the tour in the video creates the opportunity to explore or plan high paying careers in engineering and Technical fields hundreds of our second graders have visited his dentist meet recently and they've been trying to gauge interest at a younger age laughs and I myself along with many of my fellow students have used the engineering suite for many of our very own projects as part of the project was take a program I have already fallen in love the opportunities provided by the program are seldom found elsewhere the PRT program is unique in that it combines engineering Algebra 2 and physics taking footing
006in lucrative stem fields to be led by three outstanding teachers and to be surrounded by like-minded students are opportunities not to be missed as a student I am particularly grateful to be part of the program with other motivated students we all get along well and there's a sense of camaraderie Among Us we work together in all three classes we study together and we earn our grades together Late Night Calls have surely been proven to be worth it as we all do well on the test the next day when our courses become difficult each student's motivation rubs off on the other we lift each other up and we all get through together I can surely say that I along with all the other project risk taker students are immensely grateful to be part of such a
007great program along with our best defense thank you everyone for being here and allow me to introduce our next speaker and member of the PRT program Danica parents foreign one of the reasons that our program is so amazing is because our classes are taught together instead of separated our teachers are willing to adjust their classes so that what we learned in one is further developed in other parts of the program we actually get to use what we learn we actually get to use all usually learn outside of the class that we learned for example someone can ask Mr Emery in algebra's second period when we're going to use trigonometry in the real world and we can cross the hall to the stem lab the music 3D bottle rockets and so many other projects I think
008this is very valuable because we're giving a deeper understanding information the interconnectedness of our courses is demonstrated by this notebook right here well it's technically my physics notebook its pages are filled with parts of what we've learned in physics in physics math and imaging in some the PRT program gives up the skills we need to analyze the world one math engineering physics problem at a time thank you [Applause] hi my name is my sophomore year happened to be an amazing year because of the program the first day of the program was very nerve-wracking for me because I felt like I wasn't smart enough to be in a room full of some of the smartest students in my grade however I quickly learned that I was one of those students at Mr crack and Bush and
009Mr Emery helped me realize that my first ever physics class was something I'll remember for the rest of my life quack the trick was that we had to blow up the balloon and hand it to him with our left hand otherwise it would get popped I genuinely enjoyed the year I spent in the program because it provided me with a great challenge that I originally wasn't ready to face halfway into the first quarter I knew that I would love being in the program and I did in physics we learned topics such as momentum circular motion projector emotion and energy and in Algebra 2 we learned topics that coincided with the topics we were learning in physics which really aided my studies the PRT program has taught me how to be confident in myself and in
010my ability as a student in staff thank you everyone next up we have James foreign from this program I learned many things in field of engineering as well as being as well as life left when the class enrollment came around for this year in the 2022 year uh a year a number of classes were recommended for the students in the PRP program last year in order to stay along the engineering path the recommended classes for me were civil engineering pre-calc 101 super and super chemistry all of which are the classes I'm currently enrolled for me I chose to follow these recommended courses because I'm looking to go into the field of Engineers materials and engineering or civil engineering here surprisingly there's a significant overlaps of physics with the super chemistry course the methods crack taught
011us last year have have really helped in the in my in the chemistry course considering that especially considering that I have no chemistry background and the super chemistry is recommended to have a chemistry background in addition Mr Henry's math class has assisted in the calculations based directions in chemistry as well as the pre-felt curriculum the coordination of all the classes gave me an advanced knowledge of engineering next year I hope to continue pursuing engineering based classes which will help me prepare for an engineering major in college and hopefully save me some money in the future um so as a token of our gratitude for your service we'd like to thank you with a little gift and please know that you have an open invitation for business es and be confident that with your continuing to
012support our achievements will be far greater both here as Learners and in the world as contributors [Applause] thank you prior to the meeting the boarding some of the folks who were here to tour the lab and it incredibly it's incredibly uh impressive and obviously the students are even more impressive so I want to thank all the teachers who are in the program and thank the students for coming out tonight to present and I just love these parts of these meetings because it showcases showcases the the real power of this of the school and the district students that we can produce and I applaud you in your work and I wish you all the best you don't need love you guys are great but I wish you all the best okay so thank you continuing on
013that theme we're going to recognize some fall athletes and with that I will turn it back to uh Miss Tony foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you to our students and our science teachers that are here tonight uh the the future is Limitless what you share tonight hopefully sparked the interests of some of our future high school students the work that you've done with the second graders across the district is so appreciated so we can grow this program and at the amount of college credits that you will leave here with is incredibly impressive so congratulations so at this time we have athletic awards for our fall athletes so as I call your name if you can come up to get your Awards uh and then I think we'll have you line up right in front of the
014table here and we can take a group picture all right so uh Mia calderella all League all section cheerleading come on up Mia okay we'll give her her award at another time Alexis LeBlanc all leave all section cheerleading Until the End we'll recognize everyone at the same time Kiera McDowell all League all section cheerleading rila Greco all League all section cheerleading Juliana Greco All Leads all section cheerleaders Brett Ferguson all League cross country Marie canastro all League all section field hockey Maya O'Keefe all League field hockey Allison Rondo all lead field hockey Joey Gracia all League football he's playing basketball right now okay we'll see him at the next one uh Anthony Porco all League all section football Owen Ryan all League football and Tom jacobellis all the football Paul Booth Ollie soccer Manny Perez
015all League soccer and Colin Waring All Leads soccer Olivia Brady all League swimming Kiera profaro all League swimming Megan gregerty All Leads women Molly mcgurdy's fall league swimming Kaylee summersford all weeks winning and Michaela kunka all League swimming this is a test for the Lucia Lauren beaverman all league and all section volleyball Ileana Zito all League volleyball Piper clamor bull league and all section soccer Jessica stervin's all lead soccer Kayla tepin pagway all League Soccer and Katie Watts all the all section soccer congratulations to all of these students let's get the Miranda McClure foreign season is probably the hardest the longest season these student athletes are back here in August Well everybody's still on summer break putting in the time and effort for our school and our their teammates our coaches and our community and
016they do an amazing job I'd also like to add that for the second year in a row if that's actually 30 in a row since I've been here um every single one of our fall varsity teams have got the scholar athlete team award so not only okay now you range yourselves to old people in the back so that we don't have one long line and maybe like three and get a group shot to see how we do you guys are happy pictures foreign [Applause] thank you guys for representing our schools all your hard work and efforts and being a role models for our computer Generations because they truly look out for that congratulations and the celebration continues um so congratulations to all of our student athletes and now we're going to shift our attention to
017our staff members who have been in our district for 30 years so that's a huge accomplishment 30 years is a long time so we're happy to be able to honor the following people this evening Diane bins elementary teacher at Austin Road [Applause] Amy Carlin Elementary teacher at The Falls thank you Kathleen Harney fierstein Elementary teacher at Boston Road [Applause] Robin Clark Elementary teacher at Lakeview foreign bus driver cleaner from the Transportation Department [Applause] William J seclary Chief mechanic bus garage foreign truth temporary assistant supervisor transportation [Applause] Rose Krauss monitor at the high school [Applause] Anne-Marie Coniglio elementary teacher at Lakeview and Lynn Paulette elementary teacher at Austin Road [Applause] if you haven't make sure that they show you the beautiful word that they're receiving for their 30 years so thank you so much for your
018dedication to our school district and to the students Board of Education would you like to join our 30-year recipients for a photo sure we might need two rows for this as well foreign [Applause] congratulations thank you guys 30 years is a testament to endurance and loyalty and the Devotion to uh moving our kids along so I completely congratulations to you guys all the best um okay so let's keep uh can I have a quick second only because we recognize students we recognize faculty I'm going to step over here off the Deus and I want to recognize the school itself I'm not as the board member but I'm going to be as a representative from Toys for Tots okay uh and we have a plaque for the many many years of dedication that the school district
019has offered to Toys for Tots this goes across everyone in the facilities every one of our schools transportation today I was there picking up toys it's overwhelming the amount of support that our community gives a lot of it comes right through the schools it's the parents it's the students faculty teachers everybody coming together good cause thank you so much Merry Christmas we appreciate everything that you guys do this is for the entire School absolutely thank you all right thank you okay so um Move Along Communications I do not think we have any comments on the agenda now we're going to get into some of the more team of reports yes is that's okay are you on a list for residence comments okay all right okay we'll get you I think we got you on the
020list earlier all right thank you okay all right thank you for Resident comments okay thank you yeah we welcome people to come in and talk it's not easy and we always appreciate the people all right so let me go into the finance so again I say this almost every month is I do encourage people to review these reports they represent the info the inflow and the outflow literally every nickel that we spend in that you pick in so uh it is quite a lot of details but if you are you know want to look at what we're doing you can definitely see it there so I'm going to go one by one there is quite a bit this this month so um the way I'm going to do it is okay all right first one
021is the treasurer's report for September 2022 can I get a motion to approve so moved can I get a second any questions all in favor aye aye uh warrants September 2022 oh second second follow any questions all in favor aye aye the revenue status report September of 2022 motion to approved second please second any questions all in favor all right budget transfers September 2022 motion to approve so second second any questions all in favor aye treasurer's report October 2022 motion to approve ment second all in favor any questions all in favor aye warrants October of 2022 and a motion to approve so move second second questions all in favor I'll go to Revenue status report October 2022 motion to approve second second any questions all in favor aye budget transfers October 2022 motion to approve
022summer second second any questions all in favor aye and I think that's it okay now we're going to the minutes uh minutes for the 11 15 2022 work session motion to approve so move uh second second any questions all in favor aye minutes 11 17 2022 uh motion to approve so I'm a second second any questions all in favor okay thank you and now we move on to a uh the superintendent report I turn over to superintendent Tony thank you president so thank you again to our students and staff members who joined us this evening it was wonderful to recognize our student athletes as well as our 30-year veteran staff members and thank you again to our engineering students along with the science teachers who were here they provided us a terrific overview of our
023Project Lead the Way program and the engineering courses that we provide and these this program provides our students with such a great foundation in engineering and we look forward to seeing our students continue to thrive in this program and Beyond and I asked them to stay a couple of extra minutes because this was just in this week congratulations to our athletic director Stephen Luciana he was recognized by the national interest Scholastic athletic administrators Association as a certified athletic administrator this is a voluntary certification process that includes a thorough evaluation of his educational background experience and professional contributions as well as a rigorous comprehensive written examination we are so proud of Mr Luciano for attaining this level of professionalism thank you for all you hearing congratulations uh two years ago the district applied for what's called
024a dormitory authority of the state of New York grant for some playground and Technology upgrades we're happy to announce that we recently received notification that the grant was awarded awarded for a total of fifty thousand dollars and this grant will provide for some additional 3D printers here at the high school to go with those that we saw in our tour today a new sound system at the middle school a playground slide at Palmer Road learning lab furniture at Austin Road and some stage lighting at Lakeview so thank you to the state of New York for providing us with these uh valuable resources and assets to us I would also like to thank our music department staff and students for providing us with so much entertainment this month impressive is definitely an understatement our students shine
025during illusion and the many concerts and performances at a variety of venues that took place this month special thanks to our music staff for arranging these events to showcase our students Talent be sure to catch the latest edition of Spotlight on mayopak which focuses on our music department uh I just want to mention that earlier today I did send out a message that tomorrow we will be following a half day schedule uh because we are concerned about the dropping temperatures tomorrow uh in the early afternoon and we want to make sure everyone gets home safely so merry merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy Kwanzaa and happy New Year to everyone in the Mahopac Community I wish you a happy healthy and restful holiday and see you all in 2023 thank you I want to make one
026comment so on the dormitory the word from the state so a lot of times people don't understand I didn't understand until I was on the board you don't automatically get a you have to apply for Grants and you have to apply so she thanked the New York state but the real thanks is I think some of the people up here correct no you're not going to take all right whatever you're not going to take it all right so it's the office a team effort what I would have as a true leader right there so the the office the district office had to apply for all of these I'm really excited about this because one of the things that's listed there we had I'll tell you what it is the Middle School evidently needed a music
027music some additional music equipment and they were kind of begging us not begging us they were saying it's it's held up by tape and you know good thoughts so we I'm really happy that we're able to deliver this and it's not automatic you have to make it uh fill out a form and I'm sure they're not very easy to fill out so I just want to congratulate the team for bringing you're bringing a deliverable to the district so thank you very much for that yes thanks and and again I went to the Illusions concert and I was just blown away I blown away I think shame on me for not for not going earlier all right let's keep moving along um this is okay so uh our Tanner yeah okay we'll start with the committee
028reports let's start with uh we did have two uh postponed but we have the HR committee and the facility so vice president to you know why don't you take the HR community good evening everyone the HR committee met on number 13. at 5 30 at the district office uh president present we're a superintendent Tona assisted superintendent for HR Legato myself trustees Martin Martinez and masafra and the fruits of our labor for the evening it's a rather quick meeting we discussed tonight's HR agenda and we adjourned at 6 30. that's all right a facilities event also last Tuesday the 13th prior to the HR meeting uh in attendance was our new facilities director Tim Walsh which was great um Miss Tona Miss Howe um Mike Martin Fernando Ben um Tim gave us an update you know
029he's getting just a couple weeks into the district so he was able to you know kind of get to speak by a little bit went around and stuff was going on he did bring a couple of things to our attention or a couple little capital figure out there's some issues with the parapet wall here at the high school so we'll we'll dive into that he gave us an update we got an update on a capital project we're going to know about about an hour there um so on our next meeting we'll start to do some building assessments we'll get put into each building and kind of figure out what each building needs so going forward or not 60 million dollar Bond at least we can start to sort some of the stuff out before we
030get there so thank you thank you okay so there was also a meeting of the advocacy the ad hoc advocacy advocacy committee uh trustee McCracken cannot be here tonight as I like to I don't tease him because I think he actually is doing it but he's in Albany and there's an emergency session uh trying to get a pay raise for our legislators and uh he's he has to be in attendance so he's very sorry he couldn't make it he sent me the minutes and then we'll do some new business with the IHOP Committee in a minute so the minutes of the meeting um December 12th was the meeting started at 5 30. and attending where Tanner were cracking the chair Miss Tona the superintendent I think Jonathan you were there as well virtually no I
031wasn't here all right so okay uh the discussion in QA the purpose of the advocacy committee issues and concerns some of which discussed discussed with school safety violence drugs mandates uh mask and vaccine religious exemption pullbacks he mandates homeschooling laws state and federal laws Library education and unfunded mandates on school districts a community community members will be appointed to the committee in about a minute and the next the next meeting agenda items will be training session of the training session of the New York senate.gov okay they're going to training session for their website discussion issues and concern that affect education and focusing on key issues for 2023 advocacy campaigns and looking forward to the New York state budget process so I think and I've definitely made this clear to trustee you know hopefully get the
032next minute but the the fact that we can advocate for our budget needs is incredibly important so that and that locks up that meeting so that's done okay so new business is just the ad hoc committee so I think there's I thought I saw one or two folks that are our community are there so I'm going to read the uh I think we have to the resolution yes all right so here we go I'm going to read it up I'm gonna go really quick here because whereas the Board of Education of the Mahopac Central School District established an advocacy ad hoc committee to support the board and assessing the impact of existing and proposed legislation as well as emerging federal state and local guidance on a variety of issues affecting the district including health and
033safety concerns such as covid and whereas pursuant to policy 2260 interested community members will be appointed board will be appointed or to the ad hoc committee therefore we give a resolve upon recommendation of the Idaho committee the Board of Education hereby appoints the following community members to the board of ed as ad hoc committee I'm going to destroy your name so I apologize Daniella I'm Daniela olchak uh Jake thank you Joaquin excuse me Moda Jr Candice deglon Jerome Mitchell Aaron O'Brien Melissa Reardon Don Kelly Mike mongan Elizabeth Swanson Ryan Beckwith Maggie Trainor and Christopher Harrigan uh so all in favor sorry promotion to uh motion to approve these second please second any questions all in favor thank you guys for volunteering to see so many people yeah okay now we move on to additional new
034business this this is the uh the library books um what I'm going to do here is I'm going to read the the uh the resolution and we are going to vote going to do when I add a favor in favor not in favor and let me read first we're going to do each book there's two books up for review we have a recommendation from the superintendent one is Looking for Alaska the one until the second one is the hate you give I'm going to go and to one it's one by one I will take a vote and we'll see if it approves there are six of us tonight we need five pass either way whereas the book Looking for Alaska by John Green is deemed a challenge book whereas a district curriculum book committee can
035be reviewed and provided a recommendation for them for the book to stay in circulation at the Mahopac High School library to the superintendent of schools and at topan October 20th 2022 be it resolved upon the recommendation of superintendent of schools the book Looking for Alaska by John Green will remain in circulation in the in the Mahopac High School library if you further resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education approves the process of the superintendent of schools providing that apparent up a student in grades 9 to 12 that do not wish for their student to borrow this book May notify the building principal or librarian in writing and an alert will be placed on the student's account to notify the librarian during book checkout to notify the librarian during book checkout
036excuse me so can I get a motion to approve please so second second all in favor let's get a are there any Nays I'm voting against not because um I don't like the book and I think right okay thank you next one whereas the book The hate you give by Angie Thomas is deemed a challenge book whereas a district curriculum book committee can be reviewed and provided a recommendation for the book to stay in circulation at the Mayo packages school middle school and high school library to the superintendent of schools on October 20th 2022 be it resolved upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves that the book The hate you give by Angie Thomas remain in circulation in the Mahopac High School library and circulation the Mahopac Middle School
037library and the eighth grade reads section where students in grades 6 and 7 must have a parental permission to borrow this book we have further resolve upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education approves the process of the superintendent of schools providing that a parent of a student in grades 8 to 12 that do not wish for this student to borrow this book be notified that the building principal or librarian in writing an alert will be placed on the student's account to notify the librarian during the checkout they have a motion to approve and I got a second anybody have any questions okay let's do the same way so Mike let's just go down yes yes yes hey okay thank you um all right I think we're done with that thank you
038everybody next is all right so we're going to do public comments in a second and I just want to go over some some rules all right we're good all right consent agenda again the reason for the I say this every month but the consent agenda is designed to cover a lot of routine business that's right the consent agenda is designed to is it designed to do a lot of routine business approval contracts I go I go through step by step at the work session it's it's all here take a look at it and if you have any questions afterwards but that's what it's that's why it's it's uh it's there so can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda so it's almost a second please any questions all in favor aye and now
039we go to all right so now we're going to uh the public comment um just just in general rules the total Theory you cannot exceed 30 minutes we ask both speakers to adhere to pause 1512 is on our website and some of the highlights is you have to maintain the public decorum we try to run a civil meeting and everyone is a professional and should behave in a polite and professional manner uh respect the three-minute time that a lot you know you're gonna make you know make this speech you're talking to us you have to address us the Board address me the president Awards conduct yourself in a civil manner of C language reliable statements threats of violence statements of advocating racial religious or other forms of prejudice will not be tolerated inflammatory inappropriate or
040out of order personal attacks of criticism of any person connected with addiction cannot be permitted and you should also taking into account the people in their own so with that uh we're going to welcome up our resident comments and Adam has the list okay first we have uh Thomas vitello okay move on to Jennifer colomonaco thanks for coming thank you president delullo superintendent Tony and board appreciate the opportunity to speak um so this the issues of course that you just voted on issues that you're not talking about tonight regards to mascot there's a lot of change being asked kind of of this community right now and I just kind of wanted to say a few things about change as we consider these votes I know these votes aren't easy I don't appreciate the deliberation that
041you're undertaking here um nobody likes change obviously the mascot issue is invoking a lot of concern people are uncomfortable with it um you know usually when there's a change or put Upon Us perhaps that we didn't seek out we grumbled eventually we adapt um and you know think about ways in which people are are asked to change their identities women when they get married often change their names they have to give up kind of the identity of who they were and embrace the new identity and I'm sure and eventually they adapt the Washington commanders have certainly adapted to their new name uh doing quite well from what I understand and so even though it caused a lot of consternation to have to go through that process we adapt that's the lesson that we teach our
042children to be resilient to adapt to change and I think that if you can comment upon all of us to think about what the change is being asked for why is the reason we are being asked to change it's not just for no good reason we've learned we evolved the world is evolving around us and it's up to us to evolve with it um we have an opportunity to fix something that at the time perhaps nobody intentionally did to cause harm but it has been shown to cause harm and so as we think about our options um we have to think about that there's an opportunity here to do better than opportunity to be better there's a mentor that I have um a man who is served in government who served in business and who
043advises leaders and he has a mantra about how we deal with change he said there's three ways we deal with change we fight it and die we accept it and survive or we can lead it and prosper and I think in this opportunity we have an opportunity to leave change we have an opportunity to redefine um you know who we are in this community to address wrongs I understand from the work session that there hasn't been a decision seems to be their husband better decision and there are options in front of us and frankly either option would be changed in this community right there's an option to change the logo the name the sweatshirts the gym firm that's obviously changed people have strong opinions people are going to be sad people are going to go
044through that the other option however is is certainly one to explore but that's also changed because to actually learn about and acknowledge the plight of the native people who live here would challenge us to accept things that oftentimes people don't want to hear about and don't want to acknowledge the part that people have played and why those people were displaced from their land and we are in a community right now where there are challenges to books and and conversations about things like slavery and things like oppression so the opportunity to ask our community to change and be willing to have these conversations is not insignificant so I would say either way we're going to have to ask people to change and so we should just see that as an opportunity to show our children how
045to be resilient how to change how to evolve and so I appreciate the process I appreciate those who have strong feelings and I just encourage you to think about the opportunity to do the right thing thank you very much a fabulous point about change and fight or die and I highly you got to be thinking immediately about the book who moved my cheeks everybody should read it it's perfect for yourself all right who's next uh next up we have uh Ralph Eric Price thank you for coming thank you superintendent uh president Awards board members uh thank you for this opportunity I also want to address the issue of the mascot and a more of a practical term at this point because uh the ruling that has come down that precipitates there's a ruling by the
046New York state supreme court it wasn't by the governor it wasn't by the legislature it was report that made the ruling this was 21 years of making ruling on the Cambridge Central School District mascot and uh this is where we're at right now regardless of people's feelings about the mascot I know people have their own feelings about the mascot because it's been with us for such a long time but right now your job as the board have to come forward with a going for what to do when presented with this New York State Department of Education has come forward and they are basically not being active in this but proactive responding to the Court ruling so when you look back on the mascot you've got to realize that we have either a choice of embracing
047the change over time we have like a three year period to do this one year to get the process going and two more years to do it the issue of money comes into play because of this because if we were to fight this in court it could potentially cost the school district half a million dollars while I know the changes are going to cost money but uniforms change you were speaking on Tuesday about how the field is going to be torn up and going to have to change anyway so these kind of things over the course of three years a lot of things end up being changed letterheads uniforms the whole team changes well the students are changed all the coaches eventually change so we have to consider the monetary costs of waters also one
048other thing that I heard in the discussion on Tuesday was we've been talking about uh the mascot change for many years and the issue that came out that I that struck me was people don't even know the Americans that were here they don't even know Chief Niam they don't know anything about that and there's been a lot of lip service about oh but we're honoring the Native Americans that were here and some of them that are still here but the thing the thing I haven't seen in all the years I've been here 29 years my both of my children went through the schools I haven't seen anything with curriculum with plaques the teaching with anything that honors the Native Americans uh the mascot at certain points was an atrocity and I'm glad we've gotten away
049from that because they actually had them in plain Indian garbs not native garbs to this area doing scalping routines are on the field and I'm glad we've at least move forward from that but you know there's always been this lip service of how where we should be honoring our Native Americans and that NASCAR is a way to do it I think there are better ways to do it thank you all right thank you [Applause] good evening thanks for letting me speak tonight I thought there would be a discussion on a book policy in general but I I didn't know it was just going to be a boat on one or two books um I like many parents are in favor of a policy that takes a parent's input into consideration before the children can access
050certain titles in our school catalogs there are certain books that are or were available in our schools that are erotic or in some cases pornographic in nature these are not appropriate for a school library one parent read a few lines from one of these books at the last being it was apparently so inappropriate that the board shut off our microphone and ended the meeting the passage from the book was deemed salacious and unfit for a business meeting full of adults but apparently it's perfectly fine reading material for middle and high schoolers speaking of our students let's cite the technology use policy on the website here it states for students quote do not access use transmit copy or create material that is offensive obscene pornographic stolen or illegal copies of copyrighted Works end quote the district
051is requiring our students to follow this policy there are inherent filters on our computers students are not allowed to wear clothing with offensive slogans on it however all of this can just be circumvented if you just move that into the library and then magically it's all acceptable that makes no sense whatsoever and it apparently goes against our policy as well I don't want to get the weeds over individual books all right I would like to trust my school to make these decisions to not include certain titles that are just plain inappropriate and I know this question is not going to be answered tonight but as for the board if you're not aware and for the community out there I'm not sure how closely our schools work with the American Library Association the Ala or the
052American Association of school libraries I know it's it could be a very in-depth so I'm not expecting an answer here but I did want to highlight some of those organizations guiding principles all right so this is from the Ala this is a group that sponsors National band Book week which Mahopac High School does participate in um so in regards to labeling things in the school library or in libraries in general for the Ala restricting access to library materials based on age or grade level does not respect the individual needs interests and abilities of patrons and violates the library Bill of Rights end quote also for the from the Ala under frequently asked questions is it prejudicial to describe violent and sexual contact content for example what including contains mild violence on a bibliographic record of
053a graphic novel violate the library Bill of Rights quote no one person should take responsibility for judging what is offensive such voluntary labeling and bibliographic records and catalogs violates the library Bill of Rights again I don't know how closely our school is following the Ala but the American Association of school libraries their statement on labeling things quote a label that describes material as controversial or warns readers of mature themes is an example of a label that contains a value judgment since what is defined as controversial varies widely from person to person instead school librarians should support each learner's right to make determinations about content end quote again I'm not sure how much our school district is following us and I have about 30 seconds left but you're actually over by 30 but just try to
054wrap it up yeah so um I don't know how closely our district is related to this these organizations but I would start questioning their expertise if they can't concede that any material might be questionable or objectionable for children thank you for your comments uh and lastly just have one last thing all right for the staff and board members that are opposed to this obscene material being accessible to our children I do commend you for standing up for parental rights and common decency for those that wish to allow obscene materials in our schools at CMC the one or two things has taken place um we're witnessing just pure cowardice that is people may personally disagree with the materials all right but they are afraid that will they be seen as book banners or being anti-diversity or
055two they purposely want children exposed to this obscene material so yes thank you all right thank you all right next we have John McDermott thanks for coming thank you for your service thank you uh thank you to support for allowing me the chance to speak parents have to use okay so I wasn't planning on speaking you can judge that by my haircut I have a Marine Corps kernel that cuts my hair who's been uh that's doing a good job lately so he's been punished so I want to thank folks and just introduced myself so Sean McDermott um 27 years active duty in the Navy and moved here in 2018. so again I want to thank the board because last month myself and roughly 40 veterans and supporters came to the meeting and we discussed the
056veteran tax exemption and what's before the board is to match what the county is already doing for property tax and the article that went in the Mahopac news I think summed it up better than I can so I'll just try to hit it briefly but um it basically said that a fifty five hundred thousand dollar house Community a non-veter is already supporting your veterans in the community by paying an extra three dollars a month know what this would do and change that from three dollars to ten so for the price of a Starbucks coffee you could be supporting the veterans in your community and I think you have the opportunity to vote for that in a timely fashion that would make it applicable to this up here coming tax and the better thing is God
057forbid you read the community wrong and that they don't want to pay the extra seven dollars a month a Starbucks coffee and Iran you also have the exact same car right back where it was you're the threat of the school board making a mistake or reading the community wrong is pretty low considering we're talking about seven dollars a month so I appreciate your time thank you very much I'm not going to go back and forth on on the finances and the calculus and the analysis that we did I'm not sure those numbers are accurate we have presented numbers in the past and we will continue as we said last on Tuesday we will continue to look at it we were where the topic is not off the table it's still on the table we're continuing
058with you I just don't particularly agree with that analysis that you just laid out uh I I think it's not accurate so um but I appreciate your comments thank you for your service and I'm not going to tell you to get a haircut you look fine so I I can just add to that it was approximately a hundred and two dollars more a year out of five hundred thousand dollar home that would be the increase to go to the Town and County level thank you superintendent okay who's next uh next we have Marie Frankel great thank you superintendent thank you for it um so I'm here to talk about um with this few things um so good news travels fast the bad news travels faster already I noticed The Journal News was covering the mayor
059Pax already agreed to only an emptor a capital actor called the field is being replaced New York State education department states that our Indian mascot is a willful violation of the dignity for all students act signed into law in 2009 effective 2012. I failed to see how the name Indians on our logo of an end with a steer through an impacts the theory of students to Mahopac School District it creates the hostile environment and creates emotional harm to our children that we had complaints about this or is it just pressure from those outside the school district who did not pay our taxes to object to the overall concept to strip all history from the schools um other than the discussion of this issue which does create a lot of distraction for our staff to educate
060our students in the basis of Education namely Reading Writing Math Science History so our students can be competitive and successful which I noted today was great to see the PRP the PRT student s do today um in addition to this I noticed that also there were government officials who want to cut off Federal food to schools who don't allow boys in girls bathrooms I'm not sure where they may attack position is on could be another issue that we're going to have to deal with spending resources on challenge books that are read by a very small percentage why are these books even I read that Heather Brookwood was a historian called the terms Indians inaccurate because when it comes to describing Native Americans or indigenous people it was drive when Christopher Columbus arrived and thought he
061was in the East Indies instead of the Caribbean so why is this term really offensive I found images of a lot of casinos I don't know I have them here many of the casinos are okay with with some variations of the Native American logos I guess it's okay to use it for commercial use that benefits those those groups um even the land of Lake symbol has fallen victim to this pressure to a new Pharma logo because the butter Maiden was depicted as a sex object and the symbol is misogynist as well as racist um that quote is obvious that pretty soon everything will soon be objected by by anyone parallel Lobby to object it the same was true with the long-standing the engine logo which is now Pearl Milling if you do change our team
062how long will it be before we have to refer to change any other inferences to Native Americans in our little Meridian DMV removed from every textbook what if the new logo is objective to some other lobbying group maybe to save the world society um as an aside I just wanted to mention that I did look at the law and it does say that in summary paragraph S2 that it should provide grants from Grants for funds appropriated for this purpose to Local School District to assist them in implementing the guidelines set forth in the section I know that the powerful threat of cutting state aid to our children is a powerful threat and I bet that the members of our Congress originally when they voted for the bill never expected to be used in such a
063hard-handed way but that's today's reality so hopefully as the change is decided on it won't impact our budget which actually is pretty large to begin with thank you appreciate your comments [Applause] we got it thanks we have Kate bellanton good evening although I'm absolutely disappointed I'm not I'm not the least bit surprised with how the challenge book vote um played out tonight I had signed up hoping to get my talking points in before the vote not that it totally would have mattered but if I fumble on you know my talking points that is why um so I was going to ask before you made your boat to again just consider the books recommended by the publisher kids 14 and above because of the vulgarity and mature themes and have them be moved to the high
064school in tonight's vote that was the hate you get what you guys agree to uh passed through 10 to Young 14 year olds shouldn't have access to this book uh again the one with 90 uses of feck chance of expertise and more importantly beyond the vulgarity the complex understanding of good cops versus Bad Cops which the publisher has a recommended age on for because children of a certain age will not be able to understand that the way the publisher and the writer wanted to be I understand that procedure has now been thoroughly reviewed but there are still loopholes and you're simply choosing not to do anything about it I was hoping you'd be able to clarify something that was spoken about on Tuesday's work session because I could have completely misunderstood from what I got
065it was stated that parental permission policy along with any other policy change could not be established unless the books were voted down is this accurate because if so this just seems so backwards to me why wouldn't you instead create a policy that allows each of you to comfortably vote Yes doing so would remove a lot of the hesitancy that I saw in a lot of board member spaces on Tuesday because inside you knew that keeping this book where it is isn't 100 correct so can you just clarify because that knife really could have misunderstood are you done already well I have one more point but I'll come back okay so basically by keeping books recommended by the publisher for 14 and above in the Middle School library it is now at the hands of concerned
066parents like myself to vet what's going in the database year after year these reviews and challenges have been exhausting for everyone they've taken up way too much time too much resources too much effort it's just ridiculous we can all agree on that but by voting to keep mature books meant for high schoolers in the Middle School it's just going to bring on more annual challenges this is just it's never it's going to be a never-ending cycle especially with the direction that New York State tends to go in and it's just going there faster and faster and then my last question is because um I know you had said you needed five votes I just want to confirm is that the same as if all board members were in attendance because I know Miss mustafra and
067Mr McCracken had a book concerned I do not believe their vote would have been yesterday night right so the way it works are you done all right so the way it works with the vote is we were originally a body of nine people so to get a boat you need five right five to approve something right so regardless of your number five okay so if wait wait so we only had it we only have eight now because Mr Simone resigned and we only had six in attendance regardless of who's here you still need five okay okay so even if your supposition is right it's still we had five votes here so that that's how it folks that's how it works in terms of the other question that you had was regarding the just just reminding
068for just what was it just one thing with those votes as it goes on record do Mr McCracken's and Miss mustafa's vote ever go on record if they're not here they don't okay that's fine I mean they they were Tanner was at Mr McCracken was at the beginning mrsoffer was not his comments of public record because he was there and you actually heard this mustafa's I understand so in terms of your point was about the Middle School library no so my point was oh the policy so you so right now so the policy we have a very this this policy is the linear and it's laid out line by line by line so it was extremely well thought out you cannot change that policy or any of you can't change a policy in the middle
069of implementing it it we have to go by this we do have a policy committee but it's this the policy that we were that where we were we were using was specific to challenge books so you can't change it as metform now could we change the policy going forward I guess we could but the challenge book policy is thus is is there then there's another policies related to go ahead if I can ask you you mentioned the meeting the other night you and you referenced the part of it would have to be voted down right there was one point where Tanner had mentioned I'm sorry Mr McCracken had mentioned parental permission and that's just one of them there are other ones and yeah now it makes so that was specific to the app whereas he
070couldn't propose a uh an amended version without this one being voted out so if it was approved um then it would he would not be able to make it more it would have to be defeated then he could propose his event nothing to do so I know my time I know my time is up I just asked that maybe that be looked at again because it just seems backwards to me well every member up here can vote Yes even with Mr McCarthy and Mr soccer here if the correct policy is adjusted so I just feel like it's a little backwards that's not policy that's actually reported procedure I'm sorry that's part of rock and roll so that's that was where that and your the question about the number of board members in order to hold
071a public meeting in five you have to have at least five or five members before so that's that's just curiosity all right thank you so much thank you appreciate your comments [Applause] next we have Marsha Waldman hi um foreign [Music] we have to face change in our lives and of course change has come more rapidly as we progress into the 21st century and things that were once acceptable to us are no longer acceptable and things that were not acceptable in the past are acceptable in that people have more personal freedoms for example and that's widely acceptable in the past a great deal of racism was acceptable people said then that we would just never say to that people did sense that we would never do today people saw if you're from this ethnic background I
072will not employ you you're not welcome in this restaurant you uh you you can't have a position of respect in the community we've gotten past that but we're stuck on this concept today it's not that the word Indian is about but wouldn't we accept any other ethnic group being the mascot for our team now mascots aren't people they're caricatures that's why most mascots are support are in in sports are things like animals or abstract Concepts imagine if you had chosen any other ethnic group and made that a mascot what happens when it becomes a joke a caricature what happens when the other team makes derogatory comments based on your mascot we should honor Native American people and ask Rob said we should teach more about the true history of our community but it's time for
073us to stop dodging us and one of the other concerns I have is I I've taught in the past and I've been in different school districts because I've been staffed in all of us the reputation of our school the reputation of our community is damaged when we are perceived as a racist School a basis Community because when even our professional teams are changing their names we claim to this let's not point to the Past let's move forward with something that we can be proud of instead of embarrassed by thank you thank you [Applause] Alyssa good evening everyone so I know many of you know who I am already and it's amazing how people like me are attacked calling me inside this calling me and type that while my child an adult child that I have
074is transgender and she's a conservative and she was booted out of groups Buddhists out of roots that claim they support her because she does not share the same views of indoctrinating our children she's 27 years old and Ultra conservative but that fell on deaf ears they blasted her on social media who asked at her put her all around all part of the Democracy party group on social media just because she does not align with your beliefs of indoctrination now I always have been taught to forge ahead and be the voice in what I believe in I just never thought that my voice would been silenced so quickly on something that I still firmly believe on and what I believe it's common sense has nothing to do with anything else but basic common sense we all
075know what this is about we all know what is heading our way but we pretend as though this is not happening now these reading materials that were all phrased and voted yes on except for one warning a certain policy in place which I do agree with that does not align with the mayapak school mission statement at all those materials do not align I do not need to repeat I do not need to State what the mission statement is it's all in line for everyone to see it does not align so I think we should propose a change to that mission statement because does not go hand in hand and we know that there are guidelines it's like another person spoke of internet in schools right kids can't just access pornography they cannot access certain um
076websites but they can go into a school library and ask and a same thing that you're saying no to online so yes there are guidelines okay 18 to vote 21 to purchase and consume alcohol those material those things are readily available for kids they find ways to get them does it make it right but then it's a drink when they're not supposed to I'm going to um just say so I have asked this many times what is the actual purpose of providing children which sucked with really such graphic sexual content in a book okay thank you very much and make sure that you remember that our children we are the parents we do not co-parent with the government at all thank you very much appreciate your comments thank everybody for coming up it's not easy
077to stand at that microphone all right um I'm gonna excuse me all right go ahead although uh our district clerk couldn't be with us tonight I want to thank her for making sure everything was in order for tonight's meeting um she's not here but everything is everything is looking for us so Melody I know you're watching thank you very much for keeping us safe keep getting things organized and uh helping us well prepared for our meeting yeah I mean we had the appreciation for a couple of I think was two months ago and uh we should have uh Melody larocca appreciation day too so we'll try to figure that out all right I'm going to take uh executive privilege here I'm just going to say a couple of seasonal Awards here hopefully I think that
078should take under 50 seconds I tell myself so during the holiday season everyone reflects on different things religious beliefs Traditions friends and family gift giving and my favorite is food I think that we all these are all important and should be celebrated I also try to think about all the blessings we have you know our families in our community and even in the nation I also try to think about um how lucky we are to be in a community that cares so much the passion you can see in any of our meetings regardless of what side you're on because we care about the kids I think that's incredibly important and everybody can have that commonality about um caring for our kids so if you're digging into a if the other thing I want to say
079it is the strength and resilience in our community that is unequal and I'm really proud of that I've been here I'm not I wasn't born here and it wasn't raised here but I've been here for almost almost 300 years and I could see that so when you're digging into your seven vicious or your Latka salmon brisket or any other lovely delicious think about the blessings that you have and living in this great town of the great neighbors that you have because we're all trying to do the right thing for our children so on behalf of the board bed I just want to wish you a happy and healthy holidays please keep safe this bad weather coming be safe and stay healthy so with that I want to make a motion as for a motion to
080go into executive session to discuss a legal matter so moved second please second any questions all in favor aye good night everybody be safe and happy holidays