001gentlemen welcome to Thursday November 17 2022 it's a regular meeting of the Mahopac Board of Education can I get a motion to open the meeting please don't move can I get a second please and all in favor hi can we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance through the flag of the United States of America to The Republic foreign thank you very much this is a very busy very uh nice agenda today we have a lot of presentations and with that what I'm going to do is turn it over to our esteemed superintendent super superintendent thank you presidential welcome everyone good evening so we're going to start this evening with our science research program several students are here from Alpac high school so I would like to invite those students to the
002podium at this time and they'll share with us what they do in science research very exciting well good evening everybody is it on now there we go good evening everyone I'm Elizabeth Stevens I'm the teacher of science research at Main Place school and I just wanted to start out by thanking the board for inviting us here to speak tonight and specifically superintendent Tona really recognize and honor academic achievement for the students that are here tonight and the other kids in the program I know they really appreciate it so so thank you very much um so I thought the best way to understand the program is to bring students along to speak about it and give the student perspective but in a nutshell the science research program is what I consider to be like the Hidden
003Gem of the high school it's a very small program and the kids that are in the program are very motivated and passionate about a stem field they don't have to be the smartest and brightest kids just they come to this past they're they're passionate about something that they really want to have an experiential learning opportunity with so they'll spend two to three years in the program where they're first really just doing a deep dive into the field that they're interested in and figuring out what their specific research question would be um along the way I'm helping guide them and they're going to be reaching out to people in the field to do an authentic real world research project under the guidance of a scientist out in the field so so it's a really wonderful opportunity
004for high school kids here and I really encourage all of you to spread the word to consider it for the high school kids that are here and attention if you have younger siblings spreading the world at word as well um something I just wanted to highlight quickly is the kids do get college credit for taking this class up to six credits from Syracuse University and it's at a very substantial savings to take college courses while still in high school so just something to kind of think in the back of your head as you're listening to the students present so with that just thank you one more time to the board and I'm going to turn it over to our sophomore Dan Walsh foreign so thank you everybody I'm a first-year science research student and what
005first years do is they spend their time as Mrs Stevens said narrowing down their research question we take a deep dive to any field that we would be interested in conduct more research into that field try and reach a research question which we would like to answer and design an experiment which we would wish to complete and during that time we're also emailing mentors which are scientists or Engineers that would be able to help us and guide us along the way the year will culminate in US presenting our intended research at the Somers science fair and of course even as a first year that this course provides us unparalleled opportunities I have already nearly reached a very good research question I am trying to find a more efficient aircraft um I have already applied to
006internships at laboratories and I have been able to speak to engineers and I'm getting in contact with college professors namely at Binghamton so these opportunities are not only available for me but all first years and all people in science research and it truly is a great course foreign my name is Allie track I'm a third year senior here at mapac high school I'm going to talk to you about our year two and three that we experience here and then research program so the first part is our our second year is developing a research paper from our project that we made a question from and now we've conducted an analysis on and even going to competitions including jshs which is the Juniors science and sorry awesome and Humanity's Symposium and genius Olympiad and even westf which
007is a local competition as well as this we also prepared for a second research project within our third year that we will continue on to do you can either have the option to make a new project completely or continue it um as from your second year project also we do serve as peer mentors for the first year students these first-year students definitely rely on us for guidance sometimes when they when they don't want teacher feedback we always do enjoy giving feedback before we go to miss Stevens and we do enjoy supporting one another just to talk a little bit about me I am doing two research projects in the topic of Neuroscience and um in EMT longevity work and now I'm going to pass on the floor to Natalie [Applause] hi my name is Natalie
008Carrillo and I'm also a third year in the science research program my first I began my sophomore year and my first project was a survey in breast cancer reoccurrence and axillary lymph node removal and most recently this past summer I did a research program with the Kerry Institute and Marist College where I looked at different aquatic species to combat eutrophication so the science research program has definitely helped me grow and everyone who's taken the course they've grown greatly throughout their years it's definitely helped a lot with everyone's presentation skills and everyone gets to feel a lot more comfortable getting up in front of people and scientists speaking and we've also had a lot of recognition just this recognition from the previous school year most recently Megan Bloomer was published in the Journal of emerging investigators
009and last year Sydney mascal was a genius Olympiad finalist foreign but if you don't know me I'm Ava Ben ortwick I'm a third year in the science research program um my project has to deal with the topic of computer science and I'm basically uh creating code to help classify data the data I chose was space data um specifically exophonics all these projects might sound a little complicated but under the extremely helpful guidance of our advisor Miss Stevens and our school support it becomes a lot easier when you continue on with the course not to mention that this course helps supplement all the skills we already learned at mapac high school all from being a risk taker to being compassionate we have to do skills that may not seem typical to high schoolers which is things
010like networking and problem solving to the point where when other people's plans change that they impact your project um a good example is that this is my first project on completing and I've been in this program for three years because unfortunately my mentors um I haven't necessarily panned out as I thought they would but luckily and um successfully this year I'm completing a project and I'm going to compete um and it's super exciting because we basically get so much support and skills um that our school already provides and this course supplements Gia [Applause] hello my name is Gia Perillo I'm a junior and a second year in the program which means that um from the first years and first years I'm kind of in a mix where I'm making another project next year but I've
011already complete completed research um so the first year students are very interested and we have a variety of fields that we study in science research and everyone kind of picks what they're interested in so for first year students we have people interested in Neuroscience um and as Dan Walsh said engineering and then some of our second year projects and third year projects include a range from like environmental science to Neuroscience to psychology to more engineering and even to um exoplanets and coding my project is on the effects of social isolation due to the covid-19 pandemic on anxiety levels and Adolescence of various socioeconomics classes and I'm writing a research paper and I plan to present it um this year right that's it [Applause] okay so we hope you enjoyed this presentation and learned a lot
012more about science research it again is a smaller class as you can see some of my this is probably half my class in the school um it's super fun it's super exciting but it's also so beneficial as high schoolers to do a class that basically prepares you for college while allowing you to pick an independent research project of your choice so we want to thank the board of education for letting us present today and inform you guys a little bit more about science research and thank you guys for your support with this program um also we're always looking for volunteers and judges at some of our local competitions so if you were really interested in this program again push um that interest to other high schoolers and feel free to reach out to our advisor
013if you feel like you might want to be a judge for a science competition judging projects like ours so again thank you so thank you student science research students thank you Miss Stevens for uh doing such a nice job it's so evident how talented these students are not just in the area of science research but in communication and and uh it's very evident and you will truly go far and make us proud so thank you so much for being here this evening [Applause] and now we have some uh other students to recognize I'm going to go up to the podium so it's always wonderful when we're able to celebrate our students and in mayo Pac there truly is so much to celebrate and um each day that I walk through the buildings and and visit
014classrooms and see students in action I'm more and more impressed so tonight uh we're going to be recognizing two students who took the PSAT as 10th graders and did very very well and um the College Board recognizes students that are in the the top one percent two percent in the country on their PSAT scores so tonight I'd like to invite Isabella Valley up to the podium she's a national American foreign Ferguson to the podium she's a national marriage commended so I if any members of the board the board president vice president of the entire board we could stand in front and take a photo with these two young ladies I mean I don't know what value that has it thank you congratulations [Applause] foreign [Applause] yes if the board can can stay this is probably
015new for the board to do a group photo with our students but I think it's important for all of us to to celebrate together so now we have quite a few students in the audience who have achieved musical greatness so um as a former musician myself I know how hard it is to uh make it to the point where you're in All-State musician and um these are students who have taken an instrument or voice lessons for years and years they've been uh practicing solos at different levels where they can finally achieve the top level at level six and be one of the top students in the region or in the state and they'll be able to perform with their peers across the region or across the state and those concerts are absolutely amazing if you
016haven't seen them before so let's uh invite Cameron Dinsmore to the podium area Allstate and Conference Allstate musician he was also accepted at the New York State band director Association High School honor concert fans she cameras and now we have Rachel Berger area all food and Conference office and we have James bielcini and James is area Allstate Andrew Clark Area Office Lucas Lee area Allstate [Applause] Alexandra Lynch Barry Allstate Ella Atkinson area Allstate and Conference Allstate and David petruska area Allstate [Applause] all right so we'll get a photo so if we can have the students foreign [Applause] and he would have received an award if you could come down from just one last one left foreign [Applause] we look forward to seeing our students perform in the next month there's quite a few concerts coming
017up and uh best of luck to you to all of you in your uh performances in the area Allstate and the regional Allstate performances and thank you to the music teachers we saw I saw Mr McGregor here [Applause] oh Mr P is back there so president Derulo you ready for the next presentation let her just want to say really quickly I really enjoyed these parts of the agenda because it showcases and celebrates the students that we are working towards so so I know that superintendent Tony is planning on doing this as a meeting but they really really is awesome to see how the bright the best and the brightest are here in the impact all right thank you and go ahead [Applause] so Mr Trombley is our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and professional learning
018and he and I are here this evening to share with the Board of Education our results on the 3 8 Assessments in ela and math from the spring of 2022 as well as our Regents exams thank you Mr good evening to the members of the Board of Education and to our community members who are joining us as Miss Tony said we are going to present to you on the assessment results from the most recent New York State Testing program and the Regents examinations from last spring additionally we also want to review these results as one of the first metrics we're going to continue to look at to help inform the Strategic direction for the district in the in the next coming years our current strategic plan is coming to an end and Miss Tony is
019working with a number of different sets of data whether that be informal conversations formal conversations assessment reviews programmatic reviews all different types of data to help inform where we are going to guide the district over the next few years in the presentation of the presentation title is great and this is not a judgment or value statement this is more of a mindset towards continuous Improvement meaning that when it comes to educating students particularly here at Mahopac we as Educators have a duty to always continuously engage in a cycle of improvement to look for ways we can better serve our students and we can better design our programs we can better design our supports for those students so that is why we're calling this good to Great taking a look at a baseline of where we're
020starting and helping make informed decisions because that's what data does data allows us to make informed decisions to help guide those directions and we always want to link everything to our strategic plan and our current strategic plan has this student learning objective which this presentation aligns to and I want to talk a bit about using data and using test data to measure success if you think about a visit to a doctor's office not one test is going to determine their overall health which is actually pretty good news my most recent cholesterol results show that I'm practically a solid but luckily my doctor looks at other pieces of data to help make informed decisions about my treatment of care in a similar manner we as Educators look at all metrics of data to make informed decisions
021about student progress student growth and student achievement and also program changes and the direction of supports for those students so this is one piece of data that we use to help make those decisions it's an important piece of data in that it's standardized we can compare to others other districts other other results and take a look at where we are where we might need to go but it is one piece of data is one snapshot at a time in this particular case and no one student is a is is encapsulated or is comprised of just the assessment results but it is a tool that we use to to start having some conversations make some decisions I'm a recovering history teacher so I have to go through some chronological information as you can see here the
022history of the New York State assessments started in the late 1800s no changes were made at all until about the early 2000s and then we have a slurry of changes and I point that out in particular because when we look at data you tend to look at longitudinal Trends and we'll do that this evening but when you take a look at a number of changes to the New York State Testing program the 338 Assessments in particular you'll see that a lot of results over the most recent years can't be compared to five six years ago because there have been so many changes to the assessment programs themselves also want to point out that we are in the process of making Trend a transition to mandated computer-based testing for our three through eight assessments uh to
023put that in context we have a current deadline that all three through eight assessments will be delivered via the computer by 2026 however stay tuned because that may change because the original deadline was 2012. so there have been some changes to that I also want to point out that there are changes to New York State's approach to the use of Assessments and to the you and to how we measure what a graduation achieving the standard of graduation are because New York state has commissioned a blue ribbon commission to study the role of the Regents exams Pathways to graduations requirements to graduation so there is a lot of discussion conversation and examination of current practices that New York state may be looking to adjust or modify so stay tuned for that and without any other information
024for me I'll turn it over to miss Tona for a review of the current data thank you Mr Trombley so all of this data as Mr Trombley said it's a snapshot it's it's a moment in time and um it's important for us to take a look at where we've been as a district and what the most recent data shows we have had some gaps in the past few years due to coping we've had some years where these assessments were not offered at all where there's been changes to the assessments and modifications so we take a look at this data just to help us as a tool to help us learn where we need to go as a district so here you see the English Regents exam passing and Mastery rates for the last three most
025recent years 2018-19 and 2022 as well as the New York State passing rate and the Mastery rate so you can see we exceeded uh in 2022 the passing rate with a 93 passing as compared to the rest of New York State on average at 81 percent and our Mastery rate was just shy of the average Mastery rate in the state here you see our social studies Regents exams the global history exam which is offered in 10th Grade and the U.S history exam which is offered in 11th grade you can see that U.S history was not offered in 2022 there was a glitch in the state's uh test so they pulled the test from use for last spring and you could see our passing and Mastery rates here are our science Regents exams at the high
026school so living environment earth science chemistry and physics where there's no data for chemistry and physics there wasn't a large enough sample of students who took the test or it wasn't offered in 2022 so that uh we don't have that information there but you could see uh passing is at a 65 and Mastery is at 85. so we do have the opportunity to take a look at our Mastery rates in our Regents exams so that we can challenge our students to achieve a score higher than an 85. in the middle school we offer living environment to some students in eighth grade it's considered an accelerated program so you can see that each year all of the eighth grade students who take living environment have passed that exam and you can see the percentages there of
027the students who have achieved Mastery at 85 percent here's the high school math Regents exams so algebra geometry and algebra 2. keep in mind that at the algebra of in the high school there is a large portion of students who go into the high school and go right to Geometry and at the middle school these are the students that took algebra in eighth grade 100 of them passed the Regents exam where in 2022 45 of them achieved mastery now we're taking a look at our high school or actually it's our district graduation rate um very happy with the graduation right here we anticipate approximately 96 for our graduation rate uh from the 2022 students that graduated this is a four-year graduation rate as some students need additional time to reach graduation and so the state
028does offer a five-year and a six year graduation rate so now we'll take a look at the grades three through eight Ela and math assessments So This Is the participation rate in the most recent year last spring compared to New York State so you can see our the participation rate mail pack is quite less than the rest of the state the average of the state so the ELA and the math exams in grades three through eight are scored on uh four levels of performance students who achieve a level four are excelling in their standards a level three they are proficient level two they are partially proficient but they're still on track to meet New York State High School graduation requirements and 11 a level one student is below uh proficiency so this is a snapshot
029of all of the three eight assessments together you could see where mail pack is at we're on Ela we're just slightly above the New York State average in and in math we're also slightly above the New York State average so these are the last four years when the ELA was offered in breeds three through five keep in mind that it's hard to compare one year to the next because in those four years there were three different test formats so the state does change the formatting of the test on a regular basis in some cases it was in response to coven and here's grades six through eight in ela and here's grades three through five for math and grades six through eight for math so next steps there's always room for growth and we will continue
030to take a look at data this type of data formative assessment data at the classroom level and the building level to to help us understand what our students need so that we can provide them with the best education the most rigorous education so that they can leave our school district as successful as possible will continue to provide professional development for our staff for our teachers especially in the new Next Generation standards so that they're most prepared to meet the needs of our students and develop rigorous content we will look at our Regents exams especially the Mastery levels and take a deep dive to understand what else can we do to bring our students to that Mastery level we've already started to have conversations just today we met with our entire administrative team and we reviewed
031this data and now the next steps are for them to bring the data back to their buildings and have these conversations these conversations are not easy we're not at 100 across the board no one is so it's very easy to say we have room to grow and with the sunset of the last strategic plan I've been charged I knew that as I came into the district it's time to look at a new strategic plan so this is just one piece of the data that we'll look at input from our staff our administrators our Board of Education parents students the entire Community what do we need in our district so that we can bring our students to continued greatness so that in the next five years we can look back and say wow we're doing even
032better than we were before so all of these things are this is just a piece of the puzzle so the the test data is informative and it will help us understand what we need to do to do the best that we possibly can thank you thank you this is the focus on the academics that is important in terms of driving success for students into the entire District and if you don't measure something you don't know if you're getting to where you want to be so these are some of the measurements some of the tools that are being used so I commend Miss Tony and Mr Tomlin presentation and I look forward to the inclusion of how we're going to get better in the Strategic plan so thank you again okay so we're going to get
033into some of the more routine parts of the Met of it of the beginning of the agenda uh there is a communication section and this is a section that typically is not used so tonight we actually have somebody here so this is the comments on agenda items and with that I believe we have uh Kate Bellantoni is okay thanks Kate hi my name is Kate Bellantoni and I'm here to talk about the books and the vote that's gonna happen although not my current career I come from a background in crisis management planning I look at every angle of a potential situation and work to remove the chances of an instant occurring through proper policy I like the Middle School's current procedure with six and seventh graders needing permission to check out books currently in the
0348th grade read section however with no flaw to the librarian there are loopholes in this procedure that cannot be controlled unless a set policy is implemented for example as we learned on Tuesday 10 to 13 year olds can still look at books published for 14 and above inside the Library without any kind of permission further we still don't know if the online system can set digital access to be only 8th grade and up to allow these middle school children 10 11 12 and 13 year olds to have access to a book with 300 uses of s-h-i-t chance of F the police and the confusion of good cops versus bad cops because they're just too young to understand this book is not acceptable for our school Lakeland Pleasantville White Plains a bunch of other surrounding districts
035agree too because it's not in their middle school either I personally do not believe this book should be in any school setting because of how much vulgarity is in it but to find a middle ground it should have very least be moved to the high school only here all kids all kids will be a Publisher's recommended age taking away that loophole and they'll have the appropriate maturity level to process this type of book correctly the way the publisher wants it to be if you do choose tonight to vote to keep it in the Middle School I just I don't think you can accurately vote on it until a set policy is implemented to combat these loopholes and take care of them successfully thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you all right so now we're going to
036move on to the finance section there's this sort of routine business to uh a point to go through each one for procedural purposes please wait till I finish the uh request for the motion all right so or the first one a warrants this is a motion to accept the warrants for August of 2022 can I have a motion please all in favor aye Item B and I have a motion to accept the appropriation status July 22 to through the August 2022 excuse me a motion to accept so move it all in favor aye thank you so we'll see Revenue a motion to accept Revenue July 2022 through August of 2022 can I get a motion all in favor aye letter D can I get a motion to accept the budget transfer of August 2022 so
037moved second please second all in favor all right okay all right now we're going to move on to the acceptance of the minutes same same thing can I get a motion to accept the work session minutes of September 20th 2022. second please all in favor little letter B in that section of the minutes regular uh you know motion to regular to accept the regular meeting minutes September 22 2022 the year 2022. so moved second all in favor letter C can I get a motion to accept the work session minutes of October 18th 2022. all in favor all right and I get the letter D can I get a motion to accept the regular board minutes board meeting minutes of October 20th 2022. second it's all in favor aye all right very good thank you all
038right with that we are going to move to uh the superintendent's report and I turn it over to superintendent somehow thank you presidential so tonight was truly a celebration of several of our students and their amazing accomplishments I would also like to congratulate the new inductees of Lou Alpha Theta our high school math Honor Society as they were inducted last night as our full Sports have recently completed I look forward to celebrating those student athletes who are recognized for being top in their Sports at our December board meeting our winter sports are now underway at the high school and modified will begin after Thanksgiving we look forward to an exciting season go pack so uh with the holiday season upon us we do have some concerts coming up that will be enjoyable such as our
039Middle School chorus concert on December 6th High School Illusions they were practicing as you were coming in they sound amazing they'll be performing on December 8th 9th and 10th Austin Road and Lakeview have concerts on the 12th the Middle School orchestra on the 13th former road on the 14th Middle School band on the 15th and the high school winter recital will be here on December 19th and a reminder that our annual Toys for Tots Drive is underway new unwrapped toys are being collected at each of our schools as Thanksgiving is a week away we have so much for which to be thankful as demonstrated this evening we have wonderful and talented mail pack students they excel in so many areas and exhibit kindness and respect the mayopath community is made up of individuals families and
040businesses who strive to support our students and each other the faculty and staff of the Mahopac Central School District continues to impress me every day with their dedication and attention to the success and well-being of our students and the Board of Education truly has the best interest of our students in the Forefront with each and every decision that they make I am grateful for the support that they provide to all of us Happy Thanksgiving to all enjoy the time with your family and friends [Applause] okay so next is our committee reports so I need to talk out to people but just to let people know who aren't paying attention to the money show what we do here there is a meeting on Tuesday which is the work session and then there's a meeting tonight we
041also have committee meetings so what we do tonight is do a a recap sort of a Top Line recap the minutes of those meetings are posted in the website on the on the district website so if you want to listen to the some of the material here you can say well I've had to catch this or I didn't catch that people and so on if the topic is executive top executive material meaning it's related to jobs and salaries and Personnel it will not show up in those minutes but I encourage folks to look in those and if they have questions going forward and you can see that so with that I know we had a couple of meetings earlier in the month I think the first one we're going to take on is uh Finance
042not picking we're going to uh go through his Finance with that I'd like to turn it over to trustee Jonathan Schneider Jonathan can you take us through the the meeting please yeah absolutely it's my pleasure too I we apologize that that will meet Monday night so we did hold our meeting um the SE Monday night November 14th at 7 pm the location was at the this members that were present for the committee will myself as the chair um trustee Mustafa and trustee uh delula as well we also had superintendent Tona and interim assistant superintendent of business how we were present there were no others that were present at the time the item agendas that we had discussed were first the draft budget calendar the committee had reviewed the superintendent's updated draft timeline for the budget
043meetings we had discussed the cabinets process of budgeting through little budget requests and reviews the finance committee will be receiving first reactive budget presentations when it is practical and we will continue to update if there are any changes that go forward secondly reviewed um the tax levy limit formula we reviewed how the formula incorporates different aspects of Statistics in order to come together with what our formula is and how and every time that a business we'll be reviewing that before with our budget presentation well thank you thank you we then moved on to our final audit reports that we've received these were the independent audit reports from an outside audit agency this was our first year that we had worked with this auditing firm we have discussed three items in particular the first was funding
044deficits that had totaled approximately thirty thousand dollars that was for the Lakeview water project um we also had discussed unspecified projects that totaled approximately 190 um and these were from again on specified projects that were in the audit report but there was no timeline for that the board will be taking corrective action in accordance with the recommended action plan which should include budget transfers and modifications and this will also correct this deficiency as well to address this matters on the property um the second item that we have discussed was the district has an additional 870 000 in the Food Services fund this is approximately five hundred and twenty two thousand dollars over the recommended level so we are going to be following the recommendations of spending down that excess and that is already underway with
045the increase quality of food selection that has been implemented um this school year under the direction of both the superintendent as well as interim assistant superintendent so thank you for those and I look forward to my cafeteria tour um and finally we had discussed unnecessary special purpose funds that we had continued to maintain on our books there were 27 inactive accounts that are totaled approximately twenty nine thousand dollars of funds recommendation is that we'll be closing These funds and um we'll be following that recommendation as well finally we reviewed all these Financial reports we had reviewed Financial reports for the month and the board forwarded them or I'm sorry the board is now reviewed and has approved today at our next meeting we plan on having a presentation from both the superintendent as well as
046the intern superintendent of business that will review and present the use of the grant expenditures um that our committee will be able to review and then the board presentation will be presented in its entirety in December so again that'll be a review of the grants and expenditures that we have had over recent years especially um and then we may have an update on district-owned real estate if available at that time we closed the meeting at 8 51 PM our next committee meeting is scheduled for December 15th at 6 pm at the district office and that is um the final part of the minutes for the finance committee for the November meeting of 2022. thank you Jonathan for the extremely thorough report I really appreciate it and I think the public should realize how much detail
047is in there and again I welcome in I encourage folks to take a look at that next are the HR committee the human resource committee and facilities and I'm September because vice president Adam Savino is going to cover both good evening everyone uh the HR committee met on Wednesday November 9th at 6 15 p.m at the district office president were superintendent Tona myself trustees uh Martinez and Mustafa we discussed what is listed on tonight's consent agenda under HR um again this is one of the topics that presidential spoke about is confidential but the majority of it is on the tonight's uh HR agenda we adjourned that 7 30. previous to that meeting on November 9th the facilities committee met at 4 15 we started uh we met at Lakeview Elementary School myself along with superintendentana
048interim assistant superintendent how trustee Martinez interim director of facilities John Russell project manager Joe pifer and our soon-to-be facilities director Tim Walsh the pro as we discussed was last month we started our tours of all the buildings we've we've been through the high school and middle school and the fall school this past month we were at this month we were at uh Lakeview Austin and Fulmer discussing the current work that's going on as well as the work that's going to be coming up over the summer and uh possibly the future projects um down the road we we began at 4 4 15 and we conclude our meeting at Austin Road at 5 45. okay thank you we did not have a policy meeting we have those every other month and we did not have an
049ad hoc committee meeting but I'm going to give trustee McCracken before for a brief sort of pitch commercial for that committee which I was lucky enough to chair last year so uh Tanner go ahead wonderful thank you Mr President so the ad hoc advocacy committee is ad hoc in nature because it's actually a board committee that Inc board members and members of the community it's whatever the board describes it to be so we actually reached a year since it was created and we actually accomplished a lot during the legislative session up in Albany for the state senate and State Assembly legislative session so what we do is we discuss issues that impact our school district and education on a whole at the local state and federal level so this could be legislation or policy impacting
050education of the district this could be Federal funding State funding all sorts of stuff so we discuss those issues as a committee and we recommend to the full board stances to take on those certain issues so we did two plans last year one was calling for local control after over two years of mandates and regulations related from the state level and then during the budget session at we actually outlined budget priorities that we added Advocates just giving me a pack a voice in what is very much a controlling political environment currently in our state and Country related to education so the pitch is you can join if you want on our district website under the district clerk or excuse me under the Board of Education tab under the committee tab you'll find our committee page
051and there's a link to click to submit a form if you want to join the committee or show your interest so and if you get confused you can always email me or someone who's always great to email sorry to throw it on the spot here but Melvin Morocco our district clerk if you're ever confused at anything board of education related she is a fantastic resource so sure she'll Point everyone in the right direction uh so yeah so if you're interested would love to see your interest via the form and what we'll do is in December we'll have an initial meeting and then we'll I'm sure December board meeting we will establish our our set committee and then going forward we're going to talk about what to do because the state legislature will be convening in
052January and we're going to have a new Congress as well so a lot to discuss and a lot to advocate for for our kids our students and our residents thank you Mr President thank you Tanner I appreciate it and I encourage folks who uh who are interested in this I think if Tanner didn't mention I'll just amplify it Financial implication of what this is decided in Albany is tremendous and any way we can influence the folks that we have put into office is valuable and I think that's in a really important the budget is in 125 123 million dollar uh range this year and it will go up next year is just just the way it's not it's not going to it will likely go up however the way to impact the aid that we
053get from all of a is through these advocacies other districts have it and they're only focused on finances and I think it's incredibly competitive I can tell you I had a conversation I was able to have a conversation with um the two Senator and the supplement in our district and they listen to you because it's an election year and Kevin Burns office listened and uh Senator thank you Pete harkham was actually on the line and he was sitting there taking notes and paying attention because he knew that it's important though so it's not a it's not just throwing dusting away it's important Wade Tanner and I have worked last year was was great and were you able to I think we made a difference so uh any interest in that please let us know okay
054with that um so Jonathan just mentioned this is new business okay we have a couple of items here he just mentioned the corrective action plan on the uh from the audit so what I'm going to do is read the resolution and then just ask for a motion to accept the resolution um here we go resolve upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the corrective action plan for the June 30th 2022 annual audit and authorizes is that it be submitted to the New York State education department can I get a motion to accept that resolution second please second all in favor aye all right terrific so now we move on to the letter B uh the letter b and letter C are the library books which has gotten quite a
055bit of attention over the last few weeks and over a few months [Music] new business B did it change okay so library books is Looking for Alaska and uh the hate you give all right we have some additional information that has come uh folks on the board want to have additional discussions so uh some of you may have come for this issue and I appreciate that and you know you want to talk to us I'll find that's fine we're going to table this discussion until the next working session in December I don't have the date in front of me but it's the first it's the the it's December 20th and you can come to this session and you can listen I know this is a very hot button issue and we're taking this extremely seriously
056uh we have a policy in place we have a a committee that has done its work and has sent us a recommendation so I'm not going to go over through everything that superintendent Tony talked about um on Tuesday but I will tell you we have we have a very detailed policy on how contested books are supposed to be handling and we're following the letter of the policy and as a board that's what we do we develop policy and we follow the rules we have rules like any other organization so we take this very seriously it's not being dismissed if anybody's thinking well you're we're doing something in public that's not true everything is about this has been opened and quite honestly if you paid attention to Tuesday's meeting you can see we had a very
057very robust discussion uh and we covered a lot of Silence so we are going to table so what that means is we're going to move we're not going to talk about it now we're not going to vote on it I don't know what Kate is we're not going to vote on it tonight so it likely is going to be a discussion on the 20th of December okay does anybody have any comments on the board just go ahead I want to get the mic on um no so thank you Mr President I definitely appreciate it um I think that the discussion is is there and I think as it was a state night um we're working very diligently to ensure that we're not restricting anything and we are trying to ensure that we are still allowing
058um as much thought into the procedure of the books to be obtained so uh the comments greatly appreciated they're they're definitely being listened to and this board I commend for having this open discussion and continue to talk about it next month so thank you all right thanks Jonathan all right bye yes sir and my comments thank you yeah so I think the balance that we have to strike is how do we keep libraries in public learning protect the First Amendment rights but also give parents their inherent right to the upbringing of their children that's why my proposal was to take all challenge books and just require parental permission I thought we had a good discussion on the work session I didn't know sustained table till a minute before the meeting so out of principle of
059bad governance I will be voting now but I do look forward note to table and I do look forward to the discussion in December okay that's it on that can I move to a vote to table uh the uh items seven b and 7c no I'm gonna do it perfect a motion to vote to a motion to table item oh 7B and 7c to December 20th 2022. second okay all in favor all right okay we talked about the consent agenda the consent agenda the purpose of the consent agenda is to put into very put in things that would take an ordinary amount of time to discuss and and I again encourage people to read it is building all the uh Personnel decisions are included in that as well as some just routine contract work and
060other things and that's where where you can um you know where you can where you can see what again the but for example the budget calendar is being approved that Jonathan was talking about in his Financial Group okay all right so can I get a motion to uh approve the consent to Gentle let me just read that right a second there we go yeah I got it all in favor aye aye all right moving along all right so now we are up to Residence comments as anybody uh Marie thank you it was really nice to see everyone today my daughter actually participated when she was in high school in the science research project so I know it's really important that it was really nice to see the edge adults participating so um my comments were
061are on I guess two things one is on the book and another is on sort of the budget but this is the book The hate you give and I mean I read it covered and um my main feeling about the book that everybody's talking about who was his access to and things like that but my concept is it's basically a social activism book and I'm not sure why it's in the in the school public library it basically if you when you go through it in the back she summarizes things like it's a story of how racism is everywhere how rules are just disproportionately impact um non-way racial groups have skin color hair texture impact people how cops are racist I mean this is a school library this is not a public library and I I
062think it's a place for everything I think we should be concentrating and one of the other issues is that the books apparently aren't even actively read They're read by 46 out of 9449 students and meanwhile you know it's purchased by a librarian I don't know their political you know feelings or anything but um it creates ways in the community because the parents are upset it causes challenges it has to be reviewed by the committee then it has to be reviewed by the superintendent that has to be reviewed by the school it takes a lot of wasted effort for this book hating our students I mean I looked at those results um the basic you know Reading Writing mathematics history that's who should be teaching our kids we shouldn't have books in here that are teaching
063them you know um if you're white they're um you know they're racist and that's what these the SE books do so that's my my concern I mean I know everybody's talking about procedures and policies but you know public libraries are the place for this school libraries are not the place for this and um that's my my comments on that um the other point I just wanted to make I know that um we're talking about budgets at this time and um I think it's important at this time when we look about budgets I mean you see what's going on in the economy companies are cutting everywhere I know um uh president zalila said oh yeah the costs are going up everything's got to go up and I know there are contract increases and things like that
064but there's always waste there is always some way to try to find money I mean I don't know how we're going to spend down the food money I don't know what that means but we have an extra a couple of hundred thousand dollars in the excess food budget I don't know what that means that we have to spend spend on that money we have to spend it for food I mean okay I'm sorry so um okay but I mean I think that I've worked in business for years I know there's always stuff there's always stuff I know when we didn't pass the budget didn't pass a miraculous that we came up with a couple hundred thousand dollars which I think probably could have been taken out of the original budget but it wasn't so I
065want I want the board they represent the community I want them to go to the Departments I want to say sharpen your pencil look at everything you need to try to save money and and you know because the community is hurting and I think it's important to say oh yeah just gonna get another increase I don't think it's right I'm sorry I just want you know we instead of talking about it after the budget's here let's talk about at the beginning when you can really make a difference so that's it thank you Marie anybody else Candice devolon hello everyone thank you for letting me speak tonight the shocking disappointing and even a bit comical in its Ridiculousness they were discussing book Banning in the year 2022. ah sorry I'm a horrible public speaker I thought
066we would be have flying cars by now trying to dismantle instead of trying to dismantle the progressive progress that we have made this seems a sentiment from a bygone error conveyed spirit thoughts and the perspective of their characters the books in question are not textbooks or part of any curriculum they're just books and I imagine are sitting very lonely and undisturbed on the Shelf in the library unfortunately technology is seen to that books May cover many topics because life has a vast number of different experiences and the experiences of others are different from your own this is why not Banning books is so important books are meant to share perspectives whether we agree with them or not when we discuss Banning it is a slippery slope that once started can easily spin out of control
067as people have a multitude of different opinions about different topics I believe that everyone is entitled to be heard but a good conversation does not start with Hysteria I understand that parents are upset but wouldn't it be better to have discussions instead of creating a false narrative and painting community members that disagree with you as perverts rumors and pedophiles foreign group of books being targeted for bands are books by people of color it is baffling to me that you would try to marginalize and downplay these experience through book Banning unfortunately the American Experience for people of color can be very different from your own and one way to try to understand that experience is through books this world is made up of a different people of different people from cultures and backgrounds that have unique
068histories and stories bucking out those voices shows a tremendous lack of respect for what other people have endured and has no place in our school our library should be a reflection of diversity not just a background but of thought and we should not attempt to homogenize them it is my understanding that the majority of the individuals seeking these bans belong to a group called Liberty Ma Liberty's moms is not an organic movement it was started in Florida not New York and it is well funded by conservatives ah their narrative whether they realize it or not it's pulling straight from homophobic and racist campaigns of the Civil Rights era and Beyond taking this group of well-meaning moms and putting them in alignment with more nefarious hate groups Liberty means the state of being free within Society
069from oppressive restrictions imposed by Authority on one's way of life Behavior or political reviews the name seems ironic given the current request that want to share their children from the outside world are free to do so but not in a public school setting private schools and home schools may be options for people that don't believe Public Schools right for them the answer is not to ban voices different from your own our children and our community have been through enough in past years we don't need to go through a contrived witch hut founded and Prejudice and manufactured fear of the other I hope we can start solution oriented Community conversations instead of letting our school become fodder for the extreme let's cause du jour thank you for your time thank you good evening everyone thank you
070for giving me this opportunity to speak I want to discuss the books a fair statement so whenever one enters a healthy debate one must know and understand the motivation and the goals of the individuals they are debating as is fashionable again the goal of some in its Community is a restriction of access to literature their motivation so they believe is to prevent students from Reading literature which these community members deem offensive or inappropriate as a parent I understand the need to protect a child from harm and danger so I will not ascribe any nefarious intent to these to those advancing this agenda in this community but as a student of History I know all too well that their motivation is misguided and based on a racist intolerant homophobic Playbook that predates many in this room
071now over the last 10 years there has been a lot of progress in publishing of more diverse books and content by authors who represent a diversity of thought a lot of this literature reflects the experience experiences of people of color and the LBD lgbtq community what I do find Curious is the direct causation of the increase in diverse literature and a call for book Banning of the books being banned nationally 40 of them have a protagonist or prominent secondary character of color 41 percent have an lgbtq plus theme and 21 address race to racism let's be clear this is not about protecting students or children it's about fear fear of the other this movement of misguided motivated community members wishes to ban books is not organic it is yet another well-funded approach to try to
072prevent the impending demographic change in this great nation I say to everyone in this room Change Is Not a Bad Thing and we should not be afraid of it especially when it leads to an inclusive society that values all and not just a few to this end books for young people should serve as both mirrors and windows to reflect and represent children and people in our society and world this helps young people to see themselves and feel valued the mirror and provides opportunity to learn about the experiences of people who are different than they are the window so I implore you do not stop students from learning and understanding themselves and more importantly understanding the other thank you very much [Applause] [Music] oh my apologies I inadvertently have to read this from my phone also
073need to wear glasses all those years of reading dangerous books so no education happens without exposure to new white new ideas nor can it happen without discovery and regarding the books that were on the agenda that we've decided to table nobody's trying to change or indoctrinate by putting a book in a school library these are not books that teachers are forcing down throats and saying you read this right now they're on a shelf for 46 kids to check out those 46 kids should have the right to check that out libraries give students access to works of all kinds in educational environment there's not enough time to cover everything in a classroom so one function of a school library exists for that purpose to extend the learning Beyond a classroom in a school building it's a
074place that gives students such an opportunity for Discovery and discourse in the literary realm just like a science research program might give students a chance for Discovery in the science room removing books from the library because you don't like what they say not only violates the Supreme Court ruling Pico versus Island Trees Board of Education it removes the opportunity for civil conversations in a school building there's no point in trying to reason with the book banners some of whom may be on the school board but it seems to me the solution is simple if you don't want your kids to read the book then you tell your kids not to read the book and if your kid doesn't want to listen to you that's on you you're the parent it's really easy say something like
075hey Timmy you can't read the hate you give because I don't think it's appropriate problem solved be a parent to your own child but when you ban the book you remove the opportunity for people who might actually want to have a civil conversation about it with their kids book banners do not get to decide how others get the parent if they don't want their kids to read because they might read about some very scary ideas then their kids can stay out of the library in 1822 Jewish poet heinrichine wrote and this was in a book so be careful might hurt somebody where they burn books they will in the end burn human beings what do you suppose happened to his book in 1933 and I don't think this comparison is that far off because when
076you remove the opportunity for civil discourse there's not much decency left and I can tell you that because so when people were speaking before me I heard the snickering I heard the scoffing I heard the commentary so those of you who want to have a civil discussion about this I'm free but if you're going to scoff and you're going to turn your nose up up at it and you're going to say no take it out I don't want my kid to see it don't talk to me there's no talking to you thank you [Applause] to all in attendance this evening I want to thank you in advance for your time and I will be brief my subject is the reading books that has already made its way so graciously or will be me will be
077in the very near future since it was stated that students are utilizing the library well let's change that maybe teachers can start using these books as Mentor texts I truly think we should have the best of both worlds I think we should unite in the form of art and literature and have a combined hands on demonstration bringing out the content of these books how you might ask well through interactive play with both the drama and the literature the literature teams this will be a great way to really bring out the content and the characters to life just as it would play out in the real world so let's come together and then let's make this these graphically clever and I do say clearly clever pieces shine let's give attention to them as they go forth
078how you might ask we can actually turn this into a play we can take a book okay like The Mists and fury foreign we could have the kids put come together and like maybe a book club I can volunteer to run it and work with the drama teacher and we can make this come into life motion to recess Library so why can't I the kids are reading it and I say listen motion to come out of recess second sorry all in favor I thank all the speakers to come up it's not easy to come up with the podium and talk about these issues so I thank you to our rules about what you could say and I'll say and cannot be provocative and you cannot isolation I understand the point Melissa was trying to make
079but you we are in a business meeting and it's going out to the public okay and we try to give everybody the opportunity to speak and we don't want people to take advantage of that so I really do appreciate and we welcome anybody to come out and talk you have opportunity to talk to Miss Tona God bless her that she does that in the morning and in the right before this meeting if you want it I know most of the folks who are who are you know actors in this who have spoken and I unless I know you so I don't want to make it appear that we're trying to shut anything off because we're not right we've tabled it and we're going to talk about it more all right we take this job really
080seriously more seriously that you can attend all right so before I close I'm going to take a a uh an Indulgence it's a personal Indulgence of being the president okay besides besides the the honor all right final thoughts but before I do that Jonathan I'm going to give you 15 seconds 15 seconds uh Toys for Tots you saw coming in um the school is always great supporters holiday season is here think about those a little bit less fortunate thank you so much for all your donations back to you Mr President all right thank you final thoughts as we celebrate Thanksgiving with our family and friends let us reflect on all the people and things we are thankful for I'm thankful to be able to work with my fellow trustees our new superintendent and the community
081if I agree or I don't disagree I think the fact that you show up and you talk and you want to be participating I think that's terrific I'm also mindful at this moment of reflection that there are many more things that unite us than divide us namely those kids that talked at the beginning of the meeting and our kids my kids my son who's at the middle school and your kids who are in the school or your grandkids or your nieces and nephews we're bound we're balances Bound by them the students of this district and that is what we should always always be focused on as we work together okay with that before we close the meeting out on behalf of the board of ed I wish you a happy healthy and safe Thanksgiving and
082we'll see you in December uh motion to close the meeting second all in favor good night and we'll see you soon