001can i get a motion to open please trustee simone can i get a second second vice president savino all in favor please join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so good evening the hotel community uh this uh this is our uh our regular uh january uh january meeting which was postponed last week because of weather um but but fortunately we were able to reschedule for for tonight thank you i just want to thank also want to thank trustee simone and trustee martin for the excellent job that they and their highway department have been doing on keeping our roads uh clear and safe
002so thank you very much for having us [Applause] okay what we have we have is uh so we're going to go right into we've got a pretty nice a pretty nice uh agenda for this evening you'll find it very very very enlightening so what i'd like to do will be at light what i'd like to do right now is i'd like to turn it over to our illustrious superintendent of schools mr anthony de carlo for a presentation thank you president that's right now we're doing simon thank you president uh and good evening to everybody in attendance today and student support members uh i have the honor tonight of presenting a gentleman an administrator a friend a mentor a coach a true professional a caring individual a listener a collaborator a role model a second father
003to students and somebody who really cares deeply about the mayor pack central school district this person has demonstrated time in and again and again his passion for learning he was so widely instrumental in the development of our readers inviters workshop here in the mayo park central school district and those of you know four years ago we talked about a strategic roadmap and a plan and we talked about continuity of instruction at coruscara elementary schools so it didn't matter whether you were at austin road lakeview or former that our students k-5 we're going to get the same kind of high-quality rigorous education in reading writing and them this administrator didn't hesitate taking the lead came to us from new york city where he had done some of this work and he began coaching teachers not only
004in his school austin road but throughout the district he would lead work sessions professional development sessions and you can see by our fellow teachers and administrators that he had a passion and a desire just for that because he knows how important reading and writing is and how important that is to instill in students who are in elementary school the foundation for reading and writing takes place k to three and those years are so widely important and he never waned he would continue his own professional learning and his own professional development as an ap and and working at boston road people fell in love with the kids students the parents and then we were fortunate enough that um after mr garnier retired this individual mr gilligan stepped up and became the leader of western road and
005didn't skip a beat continued being that coach that mentor that friend that colleague that problem solver and somebody who just wore his passion on his sleeve i came to really understand his dedication the hours that this gentleman put into school before and after so very detail-oriented cared about everything going right whether it was academically for kids whether it was social emotionally for kids whether it was events before school or after school or a trump retreat or reconstituting the way that you know drop off a pickle has gone on for the last two years because whatever needed to be done mr gilligan did he did it with a smile he did it with collaboration passion and just to love as an educator mr gilligan will be very missed here at the mayo tech central school district
006in some ways we're heartbroken but in other ways we've been blessed to have that time with him here he is a true professional i know my cabinet i know his staff his teachers his parents and their kids are going to miss him with all their heart so on behalf of myself the board of education and the community of the mayor pac central school district mr gilligan we ask you to please come up i'm going to present you with this mr bill mr gilligan appreciation for all you've done for the manifest central schools sir come on [Applause] thank you mr carlo for that heartfelt speech to the administrative cabinet as my mind given the board i just want to thank you um this has certainly been the most difficult professional decision i've ever had to make
007in my right i was planning on being up here 20 years from now being able to retire but unfortunately like to exist in protocols but i can't thank you enough for the opportunity that you've given me to be able to work and be part of the austin world community it's an amazing group of teachers staff members students and parents and it has been an absolute joy to be able to work with them over these last six years and i've enjoyed every minute of coming to school mayopat before i came here i really didn't know much about it and now it's become my second home some might say it's my first home but i do it because i love it it's been a true passion of mine during my time here i want to thank mr
008bob meyer who will be coming and being able to replace me as principal in february someone that's retired familiar with the building i know the staff is very happy with that choice the building will be in great hands with him and also this is michelle clean who's our assistant principal i've had the great pleasure of being able to work with over this last year and a half hand in hand making decisions austin road will be fine moving forward these teachers are absolutely amazing the students are amazing and the building will be able to move forward i also want to be able to thank my fellow administrators the elementary admin team mrs pontillo mr chadwick he's a blessing it's been an amazing last two years that we've been here and it takes a strong team to
009be able to get through it the administrative team we have here the laughs we haven't been able to have the tough decisions we've been able to make can only do that with great people and it has stemmed from mr mcconnell's leadership the admin team that we have here to be able to get us to the position that we are and it's an absolute pleasure to say that i've worked i consider these people family now and no matter what my future holds they might not keep it in contact when i can't again thank you for the support um something that is extremely hard to do i still don't know what next friday is going to look like for me on my last day but it will certainly be an emotional day and when i say goodbye
010to this staff it would just be a goodbye to them but that's the one statement thank you so much again mr carl thank you [Applause] very very nice congratulations uh uh brian and thank you again for uh for everything that you've done for uh for the hope back central school district and of course the kids and the parents and staff over at the uh schools thank you for that um so we have uh so we have some uh some some housekeeping uh we have didn't have any comments on our agenda items so what i'll do is we'll go down and we'll go for a motion to approve the treasurer's report for november 2021 to motion please vice president savino second thank you trustee simone all in favor warrants a motion for the warrants for november
0112021 a motion to accept please trustee mcdonough second trustee ben delulo all in favor the revenue status report for november 2021 motion to accept as moved trustee martin with a very strenuous very deliberate endorsement uh can i get a second please budget transfers from november 2021 a motion to accept please second again sabino and trustee simone all in favor hi how about the uh regular meeting minutes for december 21st 2021 a motion to accept please solo trustees alone again second second mcdonough all in favor hi i'd like to go right now over to our illustrious superintendent mr anthony de carlo for his uh very informative superintendence report mr carl thank you very much um president and um as i'm sure you're all aware this opening is is pretty important dealing with what we've had to
012deal over the past week as has happened throughout the pandemic we get school officials continue to import positions of having to interpret sudden and sometimes last-minute changes to cover policies we all understand that this leads to frustration confusion for everyone that students parents educators and our staff we continue to lack the clarity of these issues as every as i have repeated since the start of their pandemic we are not lawyers we are not health experts or politicians yet we are constantly caught in the crosshairs there are many questions the public i know has regarding the mass mandate and the issues on monday with regards to the courts and the temporary of the mass being lifted i would like to recommend the following to the board of education as we move forward as a school district
013we have followed the requirements sent down from the state of new york as part of the requirements under the new york state law throughout the pandemic we have spent hours after hours in consultation with our school attorneys and our insurance company nicer to make sure that all decisions were in compliance with our fiduciary responsibility and our legal exposures not to mention the possible loss of state aid which for us would be approximately 31 million dollars for not following the appropriate mandates issued by the new york state education department and chancellor should the mass mandate be lifted we expect that our bus masking will continue as that's a part of a different statute i would recommend that the board of education will consult with ourselves and our medical director and subsequently based on those findings establish
014a protocol moving forward as of today student staff and guests must continue to mask in schools until the district communicates with you the mass requirement for public schools has changed please understand that should the mass spending heat lifted the district will need additional time to inform the community of these new procedures before enacting this will give families a necessary time to decide whether or not their children will continue to wear a mask in school and prepare their children for the shift in our procedures this will also give the mayor pac central school district time to review any pertinent information to ensure our actions are appropriate and our communication is accurate as we continue to prioritize the health and safety of our students staff and faculty we will continue to monitor the court decisions closely and
015communicate with you as soon as possible when information is shared with the district that addresses masking in our schools as we move forward a couple of great things have happened over the last couple of months and a half since we've been here you know we always talk about how do our students do after they graduate from opec high school how prepared were they well we have two princeton seniors and one oxford student who were named sac scholars which is a national prestigious award christian seniors and one of them is our own sydney hughes okay have been named recipients of the daniel m sachs class of 1960 graduating scholarship one of princeton university's highest awards hughes from mahopad new york has committed herself to addressing the kind of crisis in ways both large and small at
016princeton she is concentrating in chemical and biological engineering and pursuing certificates in sustaining energy and german she plans to use her saks global scholarship to spend two years at the technical university of munich germany working with one of the world's leading hydrogen fuel cell research teams she hopes to help tackle the challenges of developing cheaper more sustainable catalysts for use in fuel cells in the electrolysis process that produces hydrogen fuel her awards include tau beta phi national engineering society and the dupont senior thesis fellowship grant congratulations to sydney hughes we are so [Applause] next up we have senior wrestler angelo santro who won his 100th career match on december 4th of 2021 while competing at the asean tournament angelo is a four-year starter for the former hope and has been captain for three years during
017his freshman year angelo placed second at the section one championships which qualified him for the new york state high school federation state championships angelo finished in fifth place as a sophomore angelo won the section one championship in his weight class and once again completed in the new york state school association state championships unfortunately he had a short season during angelo's junior year due to cover now as a senior angelo has accumulated 132 career wins and has won every tournament he has been in this year his senior year angelo's ultimate goal is to win a state championship this season angelo congratulations [Applause] and this is from our um our drama department it is a great pleasure that i share the following about one of my impact central school district's best and brightest mates rajon class of
0182007 a successful actor in both film and television for some time now has his latest critically acclaimed film premiering on netflix this friday the film definition please is already receiving rave reviews i was fortunate enough to attend the east coast premiere of the film several weeks ago and i can honestly say that this is a work of art the test will be participating in a tweet along friday night at 8pm to celebrate the film and we'll be tweeting as well as watching it with him i urge you all to take a look at it on netflix again it is definition please by a hope graduate 2007 in teshrajan congratulations so what is really noteworthy as i am we are celebrating these individuals we're celebrating them throughout what makes a pack such a great school district
019whether it's academically whether it's in the sports whether it's on the stage and that's that's what makes us a great institution and a wonderful district and especially an incredible high school so i want to thank all of those individuals as the public knows um every day you're getting a report on our on our trends for covert and you know over the past couple of weeks thank god we are trending down and continue to trend down um and we are hopeful that that continues as we um move along um also what's important to understand is that i know this week meaning on saturday we are scheduled to have the awards for our virtual stem fair here as well as our wrestling tournament that we have every year but because of the weather conditions i'll be making
020an announcement tomorrow um as some of you know where they don't know what to predict they're saying it could be two inches they're saying it could be 20 inches but it's really important is the wind factor so tomorrow we'll be making some announcements based on what saturday will look like but it looks like some of these events will have to be postponed and rescheduled um i will also report that as mr gilligan said things are moving along we're having our concert this past week we had our eighth grade um and seventh grade uh van horse concerts here at the middle school they were well attended the kids did a great job um we'll have concerts next week here on the first sixth grade orchestra um also on the first seventh eighth grade orchestra and then
021abandoned chorus also here so um things are moving along we're excited a couple weeks ago we had our clue production by the drama club at the high schools you know we had full houses things went well the kids did an absolutely great job i want to thank miss velez and mr purr for their patience and understanding um and we talk about resilience board members i mean these these students you know um we're patient we had to make some changes based on code we had to make some changes based on some scheduling as we finished up some of the work the night i was happy to be there trustee mccracken was there um making some you know wonderful comments that intermission about introducing some of the graduates from maypac high school who have gone on to
022do drama and music at other schools so it really is a great celebration you know it's moving forward kids are excited about it um sports are continuing to go on um you know not getting a night out and um we want to just keep up coming to school you know doing the things that we are doing and hopefully as we get through the winter and get to the spring things will even get better so board trustees and president obama that's our report for tonight thank you thank you mr dicarlo and thank you again and your staff for all that all that you do and all that you've done through some very very difficult times um with that we'll go to committee reports we have one committee report it would be my report uh actually probably
023deborah's report but it's really through me it's our human resource report uh the fruits of that labor are uh are in tonight's uh consent agenda um we met uh two weeks ago uh just prior to the uh to the initial work session and uh i know that uh deborah uh and her staff have had their hands full with the uh with with copenhagen and the quarantine and getting the teachers and getting teacher aides and backfilling this and doing that uh also a big shout out to our uh uh to our uh to our people that are uh that are doing uh attendance and uh and doing the sub finder because they've really done a great job i think at one point i think we had and we had uh we've just been doing a great
024job keeping the school uh open and available and my congratulations to anthony and his staff and and all of our administrators and uh and staff great job um what i'd like to do right now is uh i'd like to motion to accept this evening's consent agenda gotta get a motion please uh vice president i i'm sorry this i have vice president sabino first can i get a second senior trustee lucy masapra all in favor aye okay so what i'd like to do right now uh just have something uh real quick before we get to the uh before we get to the public comments i see that we have uh see we have several individuals um that are uh that will want to come up and speak to us about the uh about the mask issue
025um as mr gucarlo echoed uh with regards to the mask issue i mean that's you know we're aware that it's being reviewed currently right now it's in the board of appeals and that's empowered to make the decision importantly the minipec central school district will continue to have students in the district where mask until the matter is determined by the appeals court and will proceed necessary following that outcome so what i'd like to do right now bearing that in mind uh we'll start off with our uh we'll start off with our uh resident comments um so again just let's uh you know i'd like everybody that that's here uh that wants to have an opportunity to speak i want them to want them to speak we're certainly here we're we're with you and we're listening so
026uh what i'd like to do right now is is call over to our uh our assistant superintendent uh for um uh for uh for business who is actually subbing as our uh as our district clerk this evening his melody's uh under the weather and we wish melanie is speedy recovery as well so uh sandra would you mind calling the first the first person please hi daryl welcome good evening thank you for the opportunity to address the board my name is daryl berkowitz and i am a resident of mayopaq i am proud to say that my son is a graduate of maypac schools throughout his time in the mayhem schools he often visited the school library to borrow books of his choice he was fortunate in that he always found something he was interested in he
027was an average student who enjoyed sports and video games and for jake it was easy to find books that reflected his interests and with characters whom he could easily relate not all of our students are this fortunate and that is why i am here today i am here to represent and advocate for our students especially those who are typically underrepresented in addition to being a proud mancus resident i am also may of high high school's library media specialist i am certified by new york state and have a master's degree in library science in addition to a master's in childhood and special education i'm a middle school librarian also a new york state certified school library media specialist also has a master's in library science between us we have 23 years in school library and 11
028in classrooms we have been hired by the district because of this vast educational experience and expertise in my capacity as school librarian i am charged with advocating for my students and the very great responsibility of protecting my students freedom to read i take this role very seriously and will defend and advocate for this right until the end of time recent arguments for censoring some of the books in our libraries include that they are sexually explicit and contain sensitive topics that are not appropriate for the age group our libraries represent however the content found in these texts is reflective of members of our student population and alliance with school library association's statement that libraries have a responsibility to provide the opportunity for students to explore information safely and independently according to their first amendment rights the
029removal of library books on social political or moral grounds violates the student's first amendment right to pursue voluntary inquiry as decided in the supreme court case of board of education versus pico in 1982 i am a firm believer in a parent's right to guide their children their own children reading included i will always support any parent who makes a reading decision for their child it is crucial to remember though that while parents have the right to make these decisions for their children they don't have the right to make the decision for the children of others the attempt to censor age-appropriate books in our school libraries does just that the american library association's freedom to read statement includes the following it is the responsibility of publishers and librarians as guardians of the people's freedom to read
030to contest encroachments upon that freedom it also states there is no place in our society for efforts to coerce the taste of others the board has entrusted me a new york state certified school librarian to make these very important decisions for our students in making these decisions i know that there will be books on the shelves that may not appeal to all some books may include unpopular opinions controversial topics and information a reader doesn't agree with but we have to remember that these make the school library collection well-rounded but what's even more important and impressive is that our school life in our school library any student and i mean any student can find something that they can connect with we have books representative of authors and characters with various religious and cultural backgrounds family compositions
031gender and sex preferences and experiences and skin color in our school library the materials on our shelves tell every single person who walks through those doors that we do not discriminate that their thoughts and their feelings and their opinions matter that they are valued and that they will always find something your mayor hack librarians spend endless hours combing through their collections and their analyses to re-evaluate to identify holes and find books to fill them we use diversity audits to ensure that our students all of our students have books that are reflective of themselves libraries are windows into new worlds and mirrors of our own and it is an enormous responsibility of mine to make sure that all of my students see it that way and feel comfortable with our collection we make selections in accordance
032with board policy and consistent with american library association guidelines selection is a complicated multi-step process all certified librarians receive extensive training on how to choose the materials that are appropriate and meet the needs of the population they serve i sat in on a socratic seminar today in mrs hagedorn's english nine age class where the discussion was focused on trauma and the impacts that trauma can have on a person's life they relied very heavily on two books that they read a question was posed why do we read i leave you with the words of the community we serve our students we need to think we read to escape we read to learn we read to change patterns reading gives the reader something to relate to books teach lessons books address real life issues books help the
033readers see from varying perspectives removing books containing controversial topics and varying perspectives from our school library shelves is detrimental to the social emotional and academic growth of our students it tells our students that their thoughts their beliefs their preferences and their desires to learn don't matter thank you [Applause] thank you sandra diana hi diana welcome so i want to start by thanking you for your efforts um for keeping these kids in school i know it was hard but we all learned through this that the best place for these kids at school and we've all fought really hard for them and when we were finally able to go back to a five-day week i remember people saying why are you fighting so hard for this hybrid's okay but in our hearts we knew that it wasn't
034right for these kids the daily emails we get with coven numbers per school and per grade are great it's what should have happened all along we've been saying for a year why are we quarantining healthy kids it took case numbers so high that the state gave up threw in the tower with the most contagious bearing no we're not going to do it anymore but what do we see um we've seen over the past few weeks that the numbers do not reflect that quarantining healthy kids was ever a good idea we have two suiting cases today over six buildings over four thousand um students and we haven't been quarantining kids for two or three weeks deep down we knew this all along when the supreme court overturned volkl's mass mandate many schools said masking was optional
035i know they had every tract a day later but i felt even if it was just for a day or just for a few hours that you had the opportunity to stay as a district we stand for choice and that didn't happen [Applause] we've been villainized we've been called selfish we've been told what we have been doing is out of political motivation not for the love of our children we all want our kids to be safe they've done their part but there's a point in time where we say enough and take our rights as parents down i know in my heart i would fight for what i think is best for my kids no matter what anyone thinks and i speak for a lot of parents who don't want to speak up for fear of
036being judged so my question for you today is that if the mandate is overturned will you support choice i think every parent in this room whether they want to keep their masks on the kids or not they don't need a day to think about it they already know they already know but i want to make sure that those children who choose not to mask or not bully look down upon treated differently by students teachers staff and administration because i know as an adult we are bullied i walk into stores where masks aren't required and there's a knot in my stomach i'm not going to change my views i do not put my mask on but there's a nod in my stomach somebody's going to walk down that aisle and tell me they're all looking at
037you oh you're selfish but we need to make sure that these kids are not discriminated against when they are able to take these masks off thank you hi dawn welcome hi i have a son in high school and i have a nephew and nieces at bulmer actions speak louder than words that's a pretty common phrase wouldn't you agree you want to know why you're caught in the crosshairs let's discuss your actions of this week as soon as the hearing i'm sorry as soon as hearing that the mass mandates were unconstitutional and unenforceable on monday evening other districts immediately reached out to their community and their parents for mass optional what did maypeck do you couldn't even send a message before the high school students got on the bus then your message was that you were
038still going to enforce the mass mandate the new york supreme court ruled in unconstituted sorry the new york state supreme court ruled it unconstitutional and unenforceable and you decided to sorry ignore it a new common core definition of court rulings or do you just believe you are above the law oh jeez is that what you're saying over here i heard you dawn when students tried try to enforce their constitutional rights they were threatened with not being able to attend class or school without a mass these students want to participate in school and you are denying them that your actions on tuesday led students to have to try to stand up for their own liberty bullying students into doing something deemed unconstitutional is downright immoral on your heart what is the consequence of you breaking may
039have code of conduct now let's talk about the email reply referencing 5519a a civil practice law and rules seriously was that a joke was that the best your legal counsel could come up with it's despicable you showed us that you are not acting in the best interest of children i thought maybe before this meeting that you stood up for what is that you were afraid that if you stood up for what was right you would lose your job but you just told us it was the loss of 31 million dollars let's talk about another action when the announcement of the stay being put in place came out about 4 30 5 o'clock we received a text promptly at 6 19 p.m tell us telling us about this day why didn't you wait until 6 53
040am the following morning you had an opportunity no strike that you have an obligation to show our children the difference between right and wrong and you failed from the start of this pandemic the focus has been on the elderly and compromised as the most vulnerable i'm standing here to tell you today that's wrong parents who are the most vulnerable our children you don't need to be a parent to know this you just have to be a decent human being remember before the pandemic when we were in the grocery store and we smiled at each other that's being a decent human being stop the nonsense that the children are riddled with coping and that they're going to spread it like wildfire just stop let children reach children coped is not going away it is here to
041stay we need to push forward these children are being ignored they are being deprived of crucial social development not learning everyday social cues they're getting sores around their face troubled act with acne they are getting headaches from oxygen deprivation but the part that troubles me the most is that it is affecting their mental health so whatever decision is made on the current mass mandate know that these parents and those that weren't able to make it tonight are going to continue to push the parental choice because it is the right thing to do for our children and we will hold you accountable for the actions past present and going forward [Applause] felicia welcome alicia thank you good evening the whole pack school board hi my name is alicia stardanser before i delve into what i will
042be speaking about tonight i would like to give a land acknowledgement mahot schools is seated on their ancestral homelands of my people who walk into your confederacy i follow the ways of the wolf plan i am mobbing or indian including the main subcharge nakim and suminoy i am proud to be native american i am here tonight on the behalf of the town of carmel historical society as a current board member and the secretary everyone at the town of crime historical society would like to extend a helping hand to the school district in providing research sessions with students field trips volunteer internships and more the town of carmel historical society would love to help each and every student learn the local history by providing hands-on experience and living history events we look forward to partnering with
043the mohotak central school district very soon on another note i would like to say one more thing in regards to the indian mascot i want everyone to know it's not a mascot the proper term is a logo or imagery imagery this debate over this issue is not new it's been happening for many years now even since before my grandfather was born my family who has been in this area since before the 1600s are proud of this imagery that you use at the hopack central school district when someone dresses up as a native mascot that is different and is offensive my family never left this area and we still practice our native beliefs traditions customs and values to this day i am speaking today on the behalf of my family one native does not speak for
044all natives the logo and the indian name of the mahotak schools my family implemented back in the day so as long as we are here on creator's birth my family it will not be eradicated i would like to close with this statement don't judge one's way life if you haven't walked in their shoes be kind and be respectful it really isn't that hard educate native american history the good the bad and do not eradicate before you comment on social media or speak to someone let your words pass through free gates is it true is it necessary and is it kind thank you for your time and for listening to me speak tonight on the behalf of the town of carmel historical society my family and my ancestors i spoke tonight not because i was ever
045invited into this conversation in the first place but because i wanted to tell my ancestors truth thank you anishinga [Applause] uh alicia just a quick update so that you understand um this the uh they're in session right now and there is a bill that is being discussed i'm sure you know to do away with logos and mascots and mascots that represent indians so it'll be very interesting to see what the state decides to do so thank you for your passion your discussion i i have had this discussion over and over again it's an indian name it is who we have become to your point you know there's things and i agree with you about education and the like but it is it's something that may be out of our control i don't know but i
046will let you know it is being discussed as senior man byrne called me yesterday to let me know that it was to being discussed in committee up there um and the state is possibly looking away looking to do away with it as a part of a law so i just share that with the community it's up there it's being discussed it's beyond our control and thank you very much for your eloquence for coming up explaining your passion i knew a gentleman by the name of greg amato okay and and uh and mr motto had a passion like you have and that poor gentleman if you were alive right now he'd be up here with you giving you the history and telling you a little bit about it so thank you very much i appreciate it
047i know he would be very very proud of you young lady yes well thank you very much you'll be very proud thank you again [Applause] all right good evening so i didn't write anything out i wrote notes my daughter was going to get up and talking she felt a little nervous but i said you hear everyone clapping these are our friends we've known most of you for two years so i wanted to make a statement and my editor you know as my wife said you need to follow with a statement right i'll make it with with examples so i'm going to start with what i was going to end with for two years i've been listening to so social emotional well-being from most of you i don't want to hear those words out of any
048of your mouths ever again okay what's went on to lunch i gave you two months to fix the lunch situation what was she gonna tell you when she come up here lunch is cold when they get it and i think two months ago i challenge you all to eat as fast as they have to eat has anyone taken me up on that crickets thank you all right why aren't we having lunch in the cafeteria 400 kids can have lunch in the cafeteria probably this size in new york city no mass ever winning eating one shot you can't get 25 kids to sit in a classroom and eat a classroom 25 kids kids can play sports together but you have to split gym up you have to have gym in the cafeteria and gym in the
049gym maybe that's why we can't use the cafeteria for lunch for the kids to spread out and eat together why can't the kids socialize during their recess when they're not eating when they have to sit there for 20 minutes 15 minutes whatever it is watching the other kids eat they have to think hey that's it my kids don't know how to play with other kids are you kidding me social emotional well-being right when a parent's gonna be allowed back in the school i know we have we have a uh the um concerts i'll step foot in in the middle school again for a concert on tuesday i'm happy i can't bring something in for my kids for their birthday to share with their class i can't come in oh yeah that's right it's cold out
050i have to stand outside to pick my kids up so are you gonna make all of us freeze this winter because i can't walk inside the building are you kidding me why are we still using one staircase up and one staircase down like was mentioned earlier you send out the facts every day about the coving cases right the boogie man's gone let the kids be back you saw two kids today right come on what are you doing here we need to stop bringing the chromebooks back and forth okay do you want to send chromebooks back and forth i get it do you know what it's 2022 pick a form is it a chromebook or is it a textbook pick one the next thing is is at what point we can we get some i'll give
051you that we do get some but at what point are we going to start getting answers here while we're all here in front of you and not i'll send you an email later on sometimes you listen mr carley you are good with giving ads i will give you that you do give answers but there are plenty of times where we don't get answers it may take a couple weeks to get an email we may have to respond back with another email and then sometimes you gotta give me a call no but in writing if you stand by what you say put it in writing or are you too afraid to put things in writing because we will hold it against you because with the last two years we've have everything you rather say voice by
052by voice not sometimes not acceptable we need to move on social emotional well-being you're screwing my kids up man and it's not just you it's this country but you guys are affecting my family it needs to change and we need let's find out what happens tomorrow morning like diana said i don't even need to wait my kids go to school but i'm gonna ask what about it done you're gonna have to finish the sentence i'm sure you'll have everyone answered whichever way he goes thank you daniela [Applause] hi everyone thank you um many of you know me and many of you don't i have two daughters at lakeview i have a kindergartner and a second grader and to kind of piggyback on a lot of whatever big thing is social emotional health trying to get
053things back to normal i have amazing teachers at art school i am blessed that my girls have who i want to say are always the most caring sweet loving teachers that i could ask for and mrs pontillo is cream of the prep i'm not going to go on about the masks most of you again know how i feel i'm pro-choice i'm part of the committee actually since i'm going to go into that um i'm wondering if we heard anything back from where the letters have gone have we gotten anything back from the governor or any of the assemblymen our county executive have we got any responses back that's one question so i sent out the letters to the committee as far as i know we have not gotten any response from the folks that we
054sent it though so we sent that i believe it was around christmas time maybe the 23rd of december so it's about a month ago i mean if if whatever is appropriate to find out we'll probably follow up and i'm not quite okay good um so yeah i just wanted we got in the responses again i stand by our schools our choice our voice so again choice is what we're asking for and with that i'm asking if it's possible for our grades k through two to begin learning normally the way they should in groups they need their reading rugs back they need their tables back our kindergartners are not supposed to be learning in desks and not socializing i know for a fact that brewster and lakeland already have their reading rugs and their tables back
055and they're having circle time and they're learning the way they should so my question is when can we start to at least bring some normalcy back i know that we're back in five days that's great my kids struggled again with the social mental health issues so being in school five days is key for me however now we need to start moving forward i don't want to keep hearing we're moving backwards i want to know when the younger grades can start learning the way they'll retain the information properly they're not going to retain the weight third grader a fourth grader or fifth grader personal the little ones need to interact they need to see smiles they need they need nurturing it's not just school so they need to have fun and bringing back our reading rug
056the tables to me is gonna get that going um so that was another one and again i hate to be the dead horse here but again you know i'm pro-choice you choose to be vaccinated that's on you you choose to wear your mask that's on you i divulge the information i was vaccinated but i do not wear a mask anywhere but literally in this building um we have had barely any positive cases in watching the the statistics come through and i want to know which i know you've already kind of touched upon the stance on between the mass mandate based on tomorrow's decision like jack and diana had spoken if you know you're going to master your child you're going to end up masking your child if you don't want to ask your child there's
057already a bunch of parents that know that they're not a domestic child so we just want to know that you have our back that's part of the committee that we're on and we're going to deal with other issues moving forward but we just want to know that you hear us and we're ready to support whatever decision you make as long as it's right [Applause] chris [Applause] chris welcome how's it going can you hear me all right my name is chris harrigan uh my son's in sixth grade uh here in the middle school i just i don't know if we touched about i got in a little late we had some uh basketball practice runway but uh for the for the new people uh tonight i did want to put out that the board has we've
058formed a man back advocacy committee comprised of board members and members of the community parents and we are working on some of these topics that we're discussing and things as they come up obviously coping mandates and things like that are uh top priority but there's other things uh like we always say we would like to get to education every night to discuss matters of education but i just wanted to put that out and i'm very thankful that that's taking place uh when we talk to other people in other districts they they don't we say we have an advocacy committee they kind of look at us like oh what's that so i do thank you for that um so my comments tonight are going to be directed to the board uh mr de carlo uh while
059they may be harsh i truly appreciate that you are all seated here tonight okay you uh you are here but the people would like to see here are not uh we'd love to see the district is the district's legal council here because we'd love to see them here they're not here so we'd love to see them the people that make these decisions uh that are affect the whole community we would love to to get some feedback from them uh we'd also like to see a representative from the may impact teachers association is anyone here tonight from the mayo effect teachers association awesome all right thank you awesome awesome um because we do have a lot of concerns that we'd like to bring back to the teachers this is great to see thank you so much
060um so i wanted to share the results of a survey conducted by the putnam county department of health in late october i don't know if i shared them with the board but i can email that but parents it's important to know almost 800 people or over 800 people completed this that represented a total of 1 150 children when asked when the covet vaccine becomes available for children 5 to 11 years old will you be interested in getting a child vaccinated 52 percent of respondents said that they would not get their child vaccinated so these are this people in the community has a tremendous support and after this past december i imagine even more parents would say no to that i myself personally conducted a survey last fall of 300 parents 330 parents in just may
061effect district alone and i had asked them multiple questions one of them uh that i had asked would you know what would you do if the covet vaccine was mandated for your child 13 said they would leave the state entirely i didn't ask what state uh probably part of it uh and another 32 percent stated that they would homeschool or seek some other private option i know i brought this up before but i think that represents a very uh it's a big deal for our our district if we're going to lose uh this many students all right so again i guess my whole feeling is of disappointment and i'm constantly hearing from members of the board that uh you've lived in mayo pack for 35 years or lived here my whole life or i went
062to my back high school and i constantly hear something to that refrain to that effect and what we want to know here tonight as parents is you know when will you get involved on behalf of the town will it be when parents pull their kids out over the vaccine well is that what we're going to see like a true active involvement or when people move out of the state and then at that point it's too late all right we want to return to normal we don't want quarantines we don't want tests we don't want masks we know that schools have to follow certain guidelines but these guidelines are beginning to run counter to the health well-being and education of our children all right at some point this is the the greatest disruption to our children's
063education to the education system in the united states that we'll probably ever see in our lifetime and i guess we just want to see an involvement that would equal that from the school [Applause] and lastly i know we we've touched on it but and i know it's not a question and answer format but the members of this community need to know how our board feels about masking and we are asking for the board to put this matter to a vote board elections are coming up and we need to know where the board members stand if we don't hear how the current board members feel about this issue then we are going to assume that you wholeheartedly agree with albany in this matter and then we will vote accordingly [Applause] i would be remiss if i
064didn't make the following comedy sure and and i know some of you were in the audience six months ago when i talked six months ago about a matrix i called up senator harper i called up the senate member okay six months ago now all of a sudden everybody wants a matrix and letters are being written on behalf of you know lower hudson council and everything else like that so that's important to understand because at the end of the day to me it's hurtful it's very hurtful because i happen to agree with a lot of what's being said on one person on one person okay that's ridiculed constantly on social media that's maligned that things are said about okay and i understand what you and a lot of the other people are saying but at the
065end of the day okay these are the individuals who make these decisions and to your point just like you challenge this whole entire board every single person is up this year in the state of new york okay so now is the time they're all up there now what are you doing about it i understand your angst and your anxiety i truly do i really do i get it but at the end of the day we have to have the people who make those decisions ultimately accountable because at the end of the day that's what it's all about and i get it i understand you mr harrington you and i have sat down and had those conversations personally over the summer okay but that's the important piece to this they're all up there now they're having
066these conversations right and you know what the ruling says right the ruling is that the governor never had the authority so now the conversation should be had with these senators and with the assembly what are you going to do if it gets sent to you we can't do that they have to do that so i just mentioned that because a lot of this we are together but now we have that opportunity like you said to be proactive to have those conversations now so i thank you i know your passion i get it but i just wanted to share with you because a lot of what you're saying i clearly understand and i am to the best of my ability trying to do what i can so thank you for listening i appreciate it all right
067thank you yeah you know chris just just remember that the ad hoc committee okay which were which were all the this board supported a resolution okay asking in fact begging for control from the state and it was sent to all the assembly it was sent it was sent up to the governor's office and all the assembly and the and the uh and our state senators so i i don't think it's a i think you know where the board where the board stands because we adopted it you know we adopted the statement and sent it and sent it forward so i think that we've been i think we're right there and we're close the pressure's on so i have a question regarding no jack jack just hold on one second please just sit down thank you
068jeff i'm sorry yeah but but that's all i wanted to say is that is that we have a statement that went up there and uh and and to anthony's point this is time it's the it's pressure time it's time to put the pressure on the uh on the assembly it's andy's point everybody's up for election well you know that's it make your make your voices heard i know i'm going to i'll tell you that yeah i guess you know more of a global sense of the school like now that we're two years in and we still have kids eating on the ground and we have kids that can't take that mask off for a speech you know i i just expected as a as someone who's not a teacher you know teachers to be up
069in arms over this as well it before at an earlier point i can't believe that we're two years into this i would think this is really effective teachers profession and expect them to be you know outraged at what's going on and and i guess i'm just disappointed that it's taking pleasure okay yeah thank you i do appreciate the work that the board chris i appreciate that thanks okay christina here we go christina how are you i'm the mother of two little boys who attend boston middle school i have nothing but positive thoughts and feelings about austin school they're magnificent um however an incident happened obviously you guys are well aware it's been touched several times this evening of the rule they came out uh tuesday morning i did i was one of the parents that
070decided to bring my children to school on mass that morning however they were denied access to be put into the school because of the fact they were unmasked reason being um because like i said the supreme court came out and stated that we they were lifting the mass mandate and of course i took them to school that morning with the intentions of them having an education that morning i was very disappointed at the fact that the turnaround matter was that they were not able to come in i am anti i'm not anti-mass i'm nothing but pro-choice um documentation was made that day i did call the police enforcement um however nothing with the current events and everything that was taking place nothing could have been done i just did my recording and did the right
071thing as a parent my boys mean everything to me i would go above and beyond for them um teaching them to stand up for their rights because that day they had rights and the fact that i had to turn around with my seven-year-old my ten-year-old very disappointed and not understanding as to why since they had a right because yes as a mom and as a parent i don't baby my children i talk to them like adults i teach them what their rights are i teach them what to stand up for themselves and that's what we did that day i proudly went home and i taught my children at home with no shame and you know what my boy said to me that evening thank you mom and ten years from now they're gonna thank me
072even more because their parents stood up and put up for their rights [Applause] smiling and being able to read people's mouths and their teachers as they speak to them and read to them we need normalcy we don't need this anymore [Applause] hi val welcome hi thank you good evening parents and community members teachers board of education and administrators so i came here tonight with something prepared to say and i'm hearing a lot of anger and frustration and rightfully so and one of the one of the speakers tonight asked how teachers felt about all of this that's going on and i can't speak for all teachers but i can speak for myself i've been in the district for 26 years um i started april 1st of 1996 so short of a couple of a couple of
073a couple months short of 26 years and i came out tonight to want to say thank you to the board of ed because on april 1st of 1996 i felt like i was the luckiest person in the world to get a job as a teacher in manhattan and i still feel the same today i feel very lucky and i have the best job in the world i am also frustrated because i am a parent of two teenagers and while we don't live in in mayopaq my kids go to public school and they have been masked just like all of your kids and i have been masked and i cannot smile at my students and that is terrible it's terrible that i can't read my student's facial expression so to say that i am frustrated is
074an understatement but i believe that most of us are frustrated beyond belief as teachers as administrators we go to meetings now even though our meetings are in person and we still look at each other through these maps like it's it's crazy like this is not normal there's nothing normal about communicating with people without being able to read facial expressions so it is frustrating it makes i think most of us very angry as parents and as educators and um you can feel that tension i think that's an understatement today that you can all feel that in this room tonight and i know mr dicarlo and we're to bed this so i want to acknowledge that we have been through a lot and again i think that's an understatement in addition to navigating the usual ups and
075downs of life in general the past two years of comed has brought us to our wits end this global pandemic has forced us to do things that are not normal so that eventually we can get back to normal unfortunately we know that many of the things that we have had to do and that really as the board has acknowledged our hands have been tied many of the things that we have had to do to get back to normal have created problems of their own especially for our kids as many parents have acknowledged tonight youth mental health is suffering and these struggles have increased significantly across the country our surgeon general dr vivek murthy recently issued an advisory declaring youth mental health as an urgent public health crisis as parents and as educators this crisis may
076feel like one more thing that is beyond our control and i don't know about the board and our administrative prominent and parents but i have been feeling out of control we have lost control over our everyday existence and doing things normally there was a time early on in the pandemic if you remember when we were bringing our groceries in from the supermarket and leaving them outside to disinfect because we had no idea what was going on it's just we didn't know so we did what we thought we had to do so this crisis again is one more thing that is making us feel out of control so what can we do to get some control back perhaps we're looking more closely at ourselves our community and our schools we hear some things that sound threatening
077to our physical or emotional safety we may see things that contradict what we've been taught or what we believe to be right we love our kids and that is clear from the words we're hearing tonight and we don't want them to be exposed to anything more that can hurt them and the feeling now i think from a lot of us a lot of people educators and board members and administrators is that at what point are we harming right with all of this stuff that we've had to do to be normal um versus coping right there's so i think it is important to acknowledge that right now as a district as teachers and as parents we are all doing the best that we can as a parent as a as and as an educator i have
078been asked by friends and family members about some of the classroom lessons materials and books that have created a great deal of national controversy in recent months and i know that this is not part of the masking and the coverage pandemic but i think it all ties together it feels like when we are looking to gain control of something that is out of our control we grasp for things that are within our reach the board of ed is here we can talk to you we can come to see you in person and we can ask for your help even if something is not in your control but it's what we are doing so in my sense and i guess teaching health is what really puts me in in the crossroads of this i'm seeing a
079connection so throughout this phobic pandemic we are hearing about fears and we are hearing about anxiety about other things going on in the world that impact our youth and our communities we may be fearful of some of the things we're hearing about the materials used in class the books the lessons and activities and i would like to share my thoughts on this as a parent and as an educator here for 26 years as a school system i see it as our primary mission to provide the highest quality learning experience possible for every student and while each student is unique we know that for all students the most powerful and memorable learning experiences are those that connect with a child's experiences and emotions in other words students sitting in a classroom must feel that the lesson
080relates to them it was explained to me once this way our classrooms contain both mirrors and windows students must see themselves reflected in our classroom libraries word problems posters art and music they must also be able to see the world outside of their own they must learn about the experiences of others that are unlike them not to create ill will not because they are being taught to be like them or because they are being taught to not like themselves but because they can only develop the skills of critical thinking empathy and compassion if they are exposed to the genuine experiences of others with enough windows and mirrors we are able to give our students the gift of learning and i cannot imagine being able to provide this gift without the classroom books materials and resources
081created through the lived experiences of diverse human beings life black and brown straight gay and transgender christian jewish buddhist muslim and many many more thank you mr de carlo along with the entire administrative team and the board of education because you have invested in this you have invested in social emotional learning diversity equity equity and inclusion education despite the fact that some of these topics have received ill attention in the media your commitment to the professionals that are working very hard and entrusted to make sure that we have the resources that we need to reach all students especially those that have been marginalized and left out in the past is visible and it is felt and it matters to us our students and community deserve nothing less and i am grateful for this opportunity to
082advocate on their behalf and i can't wait for the masks to be gone i just have to say i don't know anyone who likes you thank you [Applause] hi melissa welcome so good evening everyone um i know mr dicarlo have received my emails um there were a few things that i wanted to touch upon and i know many parents have already one was a question that i didn't get answered from a while back which was if the school board the mayor pack school board is on the national board association i never got an answer to that um so i'm still waiting on that and now second this is really concerning me to the point that i'm disgusted i don't have a child in elementary school here but i'm going to mention that there are children
083in former road elementary school and austin road elementary school that are being forced to sit on the floor to eat lunch in the hallway if you're worried about covet you're not worried about the germs of all of the shoes that are are walking up and down and they're sitting there eating their lunch i mean that is just i i cannot tell you how angry that makes me they're eating lunch on a floor in a hallway just to divide because you can't have so many kids maybe high school is filled the cafeteria is filled with kids that's child abuse that is a child abuse and i'm going to tell you why it's child abuse because if one of those children came to school and told their teacher i have to eat my dinner on the floor
084because i'm not allowed to sit with the rest of the family [Applause] abs would be called for a child not being able to sit with a large family and there and you know it would be done i work in the school system it would be done same thing that the children should not be sitting on a floor in austin road i'm not sure about the other school and in former roads sitting to eat lunch in whatever few minutes that they have when i heard that what for more than one parent i was appalled i was so so upset because i just can't get over that it's inhumane it's actually inhumane that you're making children sit on the floor like you're putting them like like a dog my dog gets to sit on a sofa and
085you have children sitting on a floor eating lunch that's inhumane the prisoners in prison in jail get treated better than that that has to stop like that has to be put out tonight to the principles that is not to happen that cannot happen if i fear that it happens tomorrow then i don't know what i have to do to report child abuse in the school because that is child abuse that is it is inhumane there's no other words for it and it has to stop i i really i'm going to be getting the text and the calls to see and the children better not be sitting on the floor eating like like an animal that's my first point second i'm not gonna go into the mask we've heard all we heard from a teacher about
086the mask we heard from all of the parents you know where i stand on it one thing i do have to say though is that we had control on tuesday there was a court order by the supreme court and we had the control we had the right that was the law then this is a mandate that is on right now not a law there is bills or whatever that need to be passed it's not a war on tuesday you had students being brought to the office you had students um getting phone calls home stating oh well you know we don't want kids to get in trouble they didn't need you had 36 school districts throughout new york state 36 school districts mostly in long island and you even had some neighboring westchester schools that made
087it optional and they were sent out an email the night before stating it is optional until we see what happens next we did not join 36 other school districts it could have been more but i think i counted about 36. we did have that right we had the right the children had the right that mother when her two children had that right to sit in class that day that was a supreme court order there was no excuse for that i'm i'm sorry i heard what you said but i i i'm sorry it is it's it's scary to think that what happens tomorrow i'm not that hopeful trust me i'm not not in this corrupt just judicial system right now but what happens on friday if they say hey the decision is upheld it's optional and
088the board event is going to come down and say oh no no no oh gosh no and then what are you going to do you're going to state again you're going to state it again and say oh we have to wait for directives no it's a court order we had one day to let our kids be free that leads to parents not being still allowed in the building i requested an in-person meeting about an incident it's not honored and that's that's getting ridiculous already that parent and i'm not saying that you can't you know have a limit to like you know 100 parents coming in and out a day but there's a matter what happened to where we used to sit down when there's an incident with a child bullying and stuff i can't even
089go into into a school anymore i have to wait outside and it has to stop we have to get back to to normalcy um then the last thing i do want and this came up i was offended i was really offended by something today we parents are not censoring topics that are in school libraries we are making sure that they are appropriate and they are not explicit we were portrayed today as though we are discriminating against certain groups that we are not i came up here in the last meeting if they listened and i spoke on behalf of what my son had stated in the lgbt community okay and i stated it for the whole mayor pack to hear it is not saying that a topic can't be discussed but what is in these books
090are explicit the words the language the sexual um encounters that the children are reading about that is inappropriate that should not belong in a school it's not the topic there's not a parent in here that's telling their kid oh you don't read that book that's about a lgbt person no that's not what it is it's what's in it it's what's in it thank goodness that we didn't have that book that comic book with those explicit um photos if that what is what what was in carmel that was taken off if that was here if if my kid or one of the kids would have went into school like in elementary school like fifth sixth seventh grade and brought it in you would have been calling us and said they have a sexual explicit material on
091them and they're showing that others you have to think and turn the tables around because that's what would have happened if that comic book would have been brought in by a sixth grader showing it around the school would have called and said oh they're sharing you know sexually explicit stuff this is not you know appropriate to bring to school it's the same thing it's not the topics we're not telling any child that they can't read certain things if something is isn't a certain however she said it you know 14 years in plus and it's risky a parent a guardian should be able to approve a child to take it out that's what we're asking for that it shouldn't just be able no child should just be able to go pick up a book showing things
092such as um i i can't even say it because i i'm too embarrassed to even i wouldn't even speak like that to my kid i wouldn't even talk with my friends like what i read in these books that are up there and that's what we're talking about it's not about the freedom it's not about that they the thing is that they're speaking on behalf of other communities that they know nothing about i have a child at home part of that community i showed him what was in those books i showed it to his friends they're 26 years old they were appalled they said they would they never seen that in their life they transgender friend they're in my house whatever they were shocked so i want to just leave you with one quote and this
093is by elie wiesel he's a famous author some of you may know silence encourages the tormentor never the tormented [Applause] [Music] um my name is davio gugay i am a resident of mayopaq and also a social worker at the high school welcome everyone um i wanted to um kind of even though falmouth is a tough act to follow to echo her sentiments about the frustration you know that we can clearly all feel uh you know i share that frustration i too very much look forward to when we can get back to normalcy it's been really hard for all of us big and small and i can say that you know i'm there for your kids those of you who have kids in high school and these kids will be in the high school god willing
094i'm still there happy to still be there and be there for the kids um and to help them to be able to manage these things that life throws at us whether it's you know at us as a community as a whole or individual's native place that is why i am there and that is what i will continue to do so i am really proud to be here tonight to just say a few words about the quality education of both academic and social emotional that we offer our impact community and the goal of that education is to prepare our students as we always talk about about to prepare our students for college to prepare our students for career and to prepare our students to be global citizens meaning an awareness and an understanding of the wider
095world and a key component to that readiness is compassion none of this is possible without including the voices and experiences of individuals and groups who have for a long time been marginalized or left out there has been recent attention as we've been speaking about in our nation to the movement to exclude certain voices and experience from books and lessons in school we would be shortchanging our children by excluding these voices and experiences from a 2020 nea article quote a good book can help you understand what it is like for people who don't share your race religion sexual orientation or socioeconomic status diverse books teach empathy and quote that is what we mean by windows as we've been talking about when we talk about mirrors we mean what a black teacher said in the same article
096about what were called reluctant readers when he went to school hope this was not by accident it was unintentional but it was structural and the only books available to us didn't have us in them when students see themselves reflected in the books they read and the history they learn it is personally validating and academically engaging and it's more for example as one author puts it removing books and lessons about lgbtq experience can be like cutting a lifeline for you i don't know how many people are aware but 42 of lgbtq communities have seriously considered suicide in the past year i will end with a quote i am working for a world in which diversity is seen as a source of celebration rather than a cause for alarm and that is attributed to tony morrison thank
097you [Applause] catherine thank you catherine welcome hi thank you my name is kate bellantoni i wasn't planning on speaking tonight but given the comment from our library media specialist i do feel the need to say that i had a very pleasant conversation with each principal today regarding my concerns about the books and library it was very it was a very nice conversation rather than getting defensive i do believe that if all parties work together we will be able to make some system changes that will make everyone happy i'd like to add they actually complimented the media specialist today in the meeting i stated that i was really happy to see some books like genderqueer and lawn boy not in our library and that we're doing an okay job and with some tweaks i think we
098could do better and be great and lastly because i i guess i wasn't clear back in december when i came here to talk i want to reiterate that i care about all children and all of their needs with age-appropriate books and dara if i get a chance i look forward to bouncing ideas off each other thank you i want to thank i know how difficult it is you've heard me say this before how difficult it is to to get up there and speak uh speak up in front of the well the audience and of course addressing the the superintendent of the school board so thank you very much it takes a lot of courage and the board and i certainly and the superintendent support staff certainly appreciate that uh and everything that uh and for
099being here and thank you for that very much um so what we're gonna do right now is we've got some um we're gonna go into a motion to go into executive session uh we have so what i'd like to do right now is wish everybody uh again you know listen we're at the i think we're at the i think we're at the finish line um i'd like to think that so what i'd like to do right now is i'd like to motion to go into executive session can i get a motion please thank you michael martin can i get a second please second second all in favor all right thank you very much everyone please stay safe