001[Music] good evening call to order the regular meeting of the board of education for november 12 2021 i'd like to turn it over to dr christine art the principal who will introduce the central valley students that will lead us in the pledge to the flag good evening and welcome at this time i would please ask for kevin gin and noah espina to join us and you guys are so fast and speedy i didn't even see you come up awesome guys are we ready marge please stand 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 very much noah and kevin and this evening board members if you wouldn't mind indulging us for
002a few moments we are thrilled and honored to have the board of education meeting here tonight especially as we get to start off our season of attitude of gratitude and we get to do that with the board and a small way of us to be able to thank all of you for everything that you do for us we thought it would be nice just to highlight some of the arts you'll have some reads that you will see hanging for you made by our our teacher mrs kelly and some of our students and this evening we would like to highlight and introduce to you some of our students from our fourth grade band in our uh fifth fourth and fifth grade orchestras and chorus who will be performing for you this evening as a way of
003expressing our gratitude and with that i am going to turn it over to mrs jeanette russell who is the director of our chorus but before that if i could ask you to please we'll cut the yellow ribbons for you so you can join us in the audience is it possible that once we're done we turn one of the speakers because it's very difficult for us to hear i said they can't yeah we're goes down we're going down there if good evening everyone behind me are members of our fourth grade chorus a select a small select group and we would like to sing for you this evening a patriotic piece entitled this is my country [Music] is [Music] is is my country land of my choice this is [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] now huh good evening
004i'm michelle george i am the orchestra teacher at central valley and these are select members of the fifth grade orchestra we prepared this piece just for tonight and this is the first time they have ever performed for an audience so we're very excited [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] [Applause] yes people um all right good evening i'm mitchell i am the band teacher here at central valley with me are a select group of fifth grade band members um we will be performing for you a familiar food uh called stupid stream and appropriate and narrative starting off asian um and much like the fifth grade orchestra this is our very first time [Music] um oh [Music] is ah [Music] [Applause] so welcome to central valley this evening's board meeting and again we just wanted to take a
005moment to express our gratitude to the board of education and for all that you do and your continuous support of all of our children our families and our community so thank you very much and thank you for being here this evening [Applause] um we couldn't hear when she was speaking thank you very much to all the students for their pledge to the flag and for their amazing performances we really appreciate it before we continue on with the evening i just want to go ahead and give a couple of points of business um mr don beeler is not joining us this evening um and i will go ahead now with item number three the reading of our mission statement we are committed to academic achievement and success for all students in a safe environment in partnership
006with families and our community our mission is to promote confidence inspire a passion for learning and to prepare our students to become responsible global citizens may i have a motion to approve the revised agenda exactly thank you i will now turn it over to superintendent rodriguez for recognition of the 2020 recipients of the mid hudson school study council awards for excellence thank you mrs mccleary can you hear me can you see better okay the mid hudson study council is comprised of school districts among seven counties in the mid hudson region every school year we celebrate the mid hudson study council awards for excellence due to covid they had canceled the awards for the past two years so this year we've decided to honor them at our boe uh meetings honorees were selected from a long
007list of nominations this year we are proud to recognize two members of the monroe woodberry community as the recipients of the 2020 award for excellence our first honoree recipient is chris dilorenzo who's receiving this award for excellence in the area of school board service speaking on behalf of mr dilorenzo is laurie hawk thank you good evening i'm going to simply read the letter that i wrote in support of chris's nomination as the recipient of this award to whom it may concern i'm writing this letter in support of christopher delorenzo's nomination for the mid hudson school study council school board service award as our district's director of athletics i have had the fortunate opportunity to work with chris very closely over the last few years in his role as a board member mr delorenzo has been
008instrumental in leading our district through several major projects and undertakings the improvements in our district under his leadership are nothing short of short of remarkable his work in leading the policy committee and facilities committee has inspired our district in many ways this past year our district completed a capital project that involved the construction of three new turf fields on our main campus during this project mr d lorenzo was involved in every phase of our planning as a matter of fact it was he who initially suggested suggested a need for athletic facility upgrades i supported that i can emphatically state that this project would not have been possible if not for his persistence as the year-long project progressed chris played an integral role in overseeing the work and fostered collaboration among various departments in the district
009to ensure a successful completion his work ethic and attention to detail were evident in every step of the way i have admired his knowledge base and his passion for athletics and have learned a great deal from him during our work on the capital project what i appreciate most about chris dilorenzo is his ability to simultaneously scrutinize and support he holds district personnel to high standards but supports them in achieving all tasks he's a natural leader who truly cares about our students our district and our community as a whole for these reasons i believe chris is a deserving candidate for this award i think we can all agree that serving as a board member is a thankless volunteer position when you have board members who are willing to roll up their sleeves and get things done
010the way chris has they should be celebrated he has made our district a better place and for years to come our students will reap the benefits of his work thank you [Applause] as soon as mr d lorenzo gets here we will give him his award our next recipient is mary grace bouier speaking on her behalf is going to be dr villas good evening uh my name is parker vs um so here is the letter that i wrote on behalf of mary grace um dear nomination committee i'm writing this letter to nominate mary grace bouier for the 2020 awards for excellence in public personnel services she's a fabulous employee a huge asset to our school district and is so deserving for this award and recognition let me tell you a little bit about mary grace mary
011grace is a computer maintenance specialist in the technology department she is directly responsible for the statistics student management system she works very closely with all the schools to maintain records set student schedules and communicate with the families including some of the times that you get a call in the 4 30 in the morning there's no calls she is responsible for maintaining google applications for education for about 6 600 plus students and 1300 employees as well as the inventory control system for sixteen thousand plus devices in the district in my five years here the experience with the school district mary grace's knowledge of student management system and google apps for education is unparalleled she's a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of the her knowledge of student information system and she loves to share her knowledge with anyone
012who will listen in the past school year this is again this is right after covid in the past school year she her knowledge and experience have been invaluable as we face school closure in march and the need of one-to-one device distribution throughout the school district for our students mary grace created innovative solutions that allowed us to distribute these devices in a safe and a secure and a quick manner to say the meri grace is tenacious and dedicated is an understatement when pressured with the problem or challenge she will work non-stop to find the best solution whether it's the middle of the night or early in the morning she is able to combine her knowledge of the student management system with her experience in the school district to create the new ways of doing the things
013that has improved this tree and streamline the operations and improve the efficiency of the systems earlier this year mary grace asked if she could be part of the best practices handbook to maintain 6600 plus student chromebooks she jumped at the chance to do the research and her efforts not only has benefited the entire department in the district but also has set an example and inspire her co-workers to stay proactive in the job responsibilities although mary grace does not have the official designation in the as a supervisor in her title she has proven herself to be the go-to person for all the technology department team members and support staff she regularly volunteers to mentor summer interns and has taught the classes for the staff members and parents to help them in a various aspects of the
014student management system it is with a great pleasure that i respectfully submit this nomination for mary grace for 2020 awards for excellence in pupil personnel service mary grace congratulations [Applause] and then there's pictures outside this one morgue congratulations [Applause] thank you so much thank you for everything thank you so much no thank you [Laughter] [Applause] thank you very much we now have a presentation of the external audit report for the 2020-2021 school year which will be given to us by our external auditor brent napoleon of nugent and housler hmm [Music] good evening everyone uh my pleasure to be here tonight to to present the audit report uh that our firm produced for the district's financial statements for the year ended june 30 2021 i believe you all have a copy of the report in front
015of you was distributed before we've gone through this report with your audit committee in great detail tonight i'm really here to give you sort of a general overview of the district's finances and results of our audit so on page one of the the report is our audit report it's an unmodified opinion there are there are a few other reports uh in in the financial statements that are also unmodified opinions that means that in our opinion the financial statements are free of material misstatement that's really what you pay us to do to come in and give you these opinions so um so that's uh that's found on page one for the financial statements after the audit report there's management's discussion analysis uh that includes sort of an overview of um of the financial information for the
016district and also some of um you know management's uh thoughts you know things that they wanted to highlight so we'll touch on the things in that in the actual financial statements but that's there for uh you know for anyone to read if uh if they'd like so how did the year go that's what we really want to know right so page 21 shows the statement of revenues expenditures and changes in fund balance the the district for the year ended june 30 2021 overall for the entire district the total of the governmental funds excess of revenues over expenditures roughly two and a half million dollars the general fund had it a net increase in fund balance of about four million dollars primary reasons for that include the the district receiving a refund from their health insurance
017plan about 2.2 million and also receiving federal funding as part of the cares act which was about 1.2 million these are kind of one-off uh yeah things that you certainly can't count on again next year so uh the that four million dollars includes a you know a couple of you know fairly significant items there so those are things i'd highlight in the general fund the school lunch fund uh sort of in the middle of the page there excess of expenditures over revenue about 250 000 the school lunch fund in order to avoid having a negative fund balance receives some funding from the general fund which is not uncommon during times when the school lunch fund's performance isn't um you know where it kind of can't sustain itself and obviously uh you know the main reason
018for that the school lunch fund could not serve as many meals when the you know there are fewer students in attendance live and in person so traditionally at this district your school lunch fund has a little more revenue than expense and uh my understanding is the district expects that it'll can you know it'll get right back to that hopefully in this fiscal year when obviously you have more students you know attending in person and you know receiving their meals right there at the district the the capital projects fund uh includes about four million dollars that was borrowed to fund the turf and hvac project that was mentioned earlier uh the projects in the capital projects fund expenditure-wise are essentially complete we're soon the district expects to receive the funding for the smart schools bond act
019project but otherwise the the capital project fund the like i say the the projects are essentially done uh the the district also in the debt service fund there was a refunding or what most of us would think of as like a refinancing of of some debt this year about two million dollars that saves the taxpayers some interest on those borrowings so that's the most significant thing that happened during the year in the debt service fund any questions on the results of operations in the fund i'd be happy to take them all right then if we back up to page 19 on the fund financial statements that page kind of shows us where do we stand as of the end of the fiscal year so i'll kind of go fund by fund and the general fund
020as i mentioned the uh the fund balance increased about four million dollars the fund balance that is subject to the four percent tax limit the district is in compliance with that law uh the the amount that's subject to that limit is is under that that uh you know that ceiling that that they provide so always good to to to be in compliance with that law it's not to be taken for granted some schools do exceed it and some exceed it regularly so it's your credit that you're you know you as a district uh historically you really have held to trying to to stick to that law you you proved increases to reserves net about 6.6 million dollars during the year that's very important for maintaining a strong school district financially and you know having funds
021available to you know whether the storm you know who knows what that might be i guess we learned here recently we never know what's coming so it's always good to to know that uh the fund balance is there when unexpected things happen so again to your credit you're strengthening the financial position of the district by increasing reserves the school lunch fund as i mentioned there's about 120 000 of fund balance that really relates to the inventory but there's no unassigned fund balance because you know the school lunch fund did struggle this year but again hopefully that you know that rebounds here in the next fiscal year the capital projects fund shows a negative fund balance about 4.2 million dollars really more of a accounting thing than anything else can't recognize the revenue related to the
022smart schools bond act project until it's available so there's some revenue that um you know that again will come in uh when all the paperwork is filed and the state approves those payments um so not a cause for concern there when you see that negative fund balance it's um you know that eight is coming we the school district is is fine there and there's also about two million dollars of fund balance in the debt service fund which over the next five years or so i think the district plans to use that money to uh you know to to to fund the debt payments that are that are upcoming uh beyond the bonds that the districts has outstanding so those are your fund financial statements um also in the audit report a couple pages back we've
023got the government-wide financial statements you're you're basically required to report your finances on two different bases of accounting and that you know the other presentation includes long-term assets and liabilities on your balance sheet the two biggest uh things that really impact your results of operations and balance sheet there i would say are the district's share of the pension uh funds that the state has you're in a state where the pensions are funded very well so the live liability wise it's um you know you're you're good there but the the other post-employment benefits is the larger liability and every school district has this it's a significant liability because it's required to be recognized as people are earning their post retirement health benefits so that's a very significant liability uh you know it's required to be estimated
024uh using actuaries and things so that's also included in the government-wide financial statements but those financial statements like i say precede these these fund statements um so that's the that's the general results of the the operations of the school for the year we also issue a management letter that would include any comments that we had about issues with internal controls things of that nature that report is clean this year so again you know credit to um to you and your staff your management uh you know the the business office everyone involved there that things went very well with the audit this year any questions that you have for me about the financials obviously there's pages and pages of footnote disclosures again we went through the financials in detail with your audit committee so i don't
025want to spend too much time on that stuff but i'd be happy to take any questions that you might have any specific questions i i will just note that the audit committee did meet privately um i say privately it's a public meeting but we have already met with the auditor so a lot of this was explained in detail to the audit committee so i do know that we had some questions that we had asked and answered there but i don't know if there's any other board members that had any additional questions from that or any follow-up from the audit members no i don't have anything all right thank you so much thank you for having me i really appreciate you um you know having us do you know perform the audit for you and um
026look forward to seeing you again next year thank you so much have a great night thank you next we will have our school board recognition so i want to begin by saying a big thank you to our young audience who sat through an audit report you were awesome you were attentive and i am so appreciative of that so with that i just want to speak a little bit about what today what this what today is every year we celebrate school board recognition week the members of our board of education are unpaid volunteers who spent countless hours helping to oversee the operations of our school district and so i will begin with reading the plot proclamation from our governor let me put my glasses on whereas each year school board recognition week is observed by more
027than 700 school boards in school districts throughout the empire state and whereas our state's public education system is designed to meet the educational needs of all children and to empower them to become competent productive contributors to society of an ever-changing world and whereas throughout more than a year of the coven 19 pandemic school boards have worked with school administrators and educators to help them navigate the unprecedented challenges restrictions and desperate effects of health crisis on our children's learning and whereas members of local school boards are dedicated to children learning and community and devote many hours to of service to elementary and secondary public education as they continually strive for improvement excellence and progress in education recognizing that all children can be successful learners especially when education is tailored to the individual needs of the child
028and whereas local school board members are strong advocates for public education and are responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the public's expectation to the district district by closely working with parents educational professionals and other community members and whereas the members of the new york state local school boards respond to the educational needs of the communities they serve and help ensure that at the solid foundation of school systems in doing so these leaders help strengthen our state's educational system and improve future prospects for our children and whereas during the week of october 18 through the 22nd special activities and programs will be held in communities across new york state in observance of school board recognition week and it is fitting to join in the acknowledgement the commitment and contributions
029of the members of the local school board now therefore i kathy hokel governor of the state of new york to hereby proclaim october 18 2020 2021 as school board recognition week so thank you [Applause] um i we always pick up a gift that we as a as a cabinet present our board so there's a little box in front of every board member and i just want to say this year we're presenting the board of education with a planter and a plant box with this year's logo together is a great way to grow we chose this gift as a token of our appreciation for the board's unwavering commitment to growth to the growth of our students and our school community so if you want to take a look at it there are real life plans and
030hopefully they have made it um all the way to this building uh and again they are our new district logo every year we have a logo and this year's logo is together is a great great way to grow it has a little little bottom to it it's maintenance free right it's not maintenance for those of us that do not have a green there's another piece to it at the bottom and so you need to water it much like what you do for our districts help order us to help us grow and with that i'm going to turn it over to dr hassler who will do the second portion you mrs rodriguez up next to recognize our board of education is our pta council and here representing the pta council is shannon chambers i saw her
031here right there dude let's keep everybody safe so i think mrs chambers is bringing up some familiar faces with her awesome good evening i'm shannon chambers i am the current secretary of the monroe woodbury uh pta council um i'm filling in for bernie vega who is quarantining tonight so that's a little bit of the disorganization here on behalf of the monroe woodbury pta council we want to thank you for all the time you have gifted our monroe woodbury families to say these past months and years have been difficult for those in education is an understatement however the monroe woodbury board of education members volunteers you all continue to show up like there was a direct deposit hitting your account bi-weekly at times you have been applauded and then immediately criticized during a period of ongoing
032uncertainty for all of us yet you continue to show up knowing you can do your best and still not make everyone happy the conversations and decision making have not been easy they've been around equity inclusion social emotional learning safety access rigorous academics trauma social justice representation professional development all of those conversations goal planning and meeting need to be recognized and thanked so tonight we thank you for the continuous work that affects the education of all monroe woodbury children and for supporting safe spaces for brave conversations to occur in our community please enjoy the following book reading and the mugs made with love by monroe woodbury high school student jillian devine we also donate the choose love formula frame for all 10 monroe woodbury buildings on your behalf and all the board members woke up to
033a surprise flamingo flock and the proceeds will be donated to the all-night grad party of 2022 and then you're going to see some familiar faces we are going to read from the book thank you amu so if we could um right into the microphone thank you almost on the corner of first street and long street on the very top floor amu was cooking a thick red stew in a big fat pot for a nice evening meal she seasoned and stirred it and took a small taste what delicious still amu said tonight's dinner will surely be the best i've ever had with that amu put down her spoon and went to read a book before supper as the thick red stew simmered on the stove its scrumptious scent wafted out the window and out the door
034down the hall toward the street and around the block until knock someone is at the door when alma opened it she saw a little boy little boy ammo exclaimed what brings you to my home thick red stew i was playing with my race car down the hall when i smelled the most delicious this smell of the little boy replied what is it still he saw that sound sounds yummy almo thought for a moment she was saving her stew for dinner but she had made quite a bit it would not hurt to share would you like some the little boy nodded and so almost spooned out some thick red stew from the big fat pot for her nice evening meal thank you amu the little boy said and went on his way with that almu closed
035the door and went back to her book as she read her thick red stew scrumptious scent wafted out the window and out the door down the hall toward the street and around the block until knock knock someone was at the door when amu opened the door this time she saw a police officer miss police officer amu exclaimed what brings you to my home i was on duty down the street when i smelled the most delicious smell this police officer replied what is it thick red stew ah stew she said in her mouth water that sounds mighty tasty amu thought for a moment there's still enough to share would you like some the police officer nodded once again amu spooned out some thick red stew from the big fat pot for a nice evening meal thank
036you amu the officer said and went on our way and so for the second time amu closed the door and went back to her book sure enough as she read her thick red scrumptious scent wafted out the window and out the door down the hall toward the street and around the block until knocked knock knock again someone was at amu's door this time when she opened it she saw a hot dog vendor mr hock dog vendor almo exclaimed what brings you to my home i was selling my hot dogs down the block when i smelled the most delicious smell mr hot dog vendor replied what is it thick red stew oh stew the vendor licked his lips that sounds quite delectable so almou spooned out some thick red stew from the big fat pot for
037her nice evening meal thank you amu the hot dog vendor said and went on his way throughout the day people from all across the neighborhood knocked on amu's door she felt she fed a shop owner a cab driver a doctor an actor a lawyer a dancer a baker an artist a singer an athlete a bus driver a construction worker even the mayor stopped by and each time they knocked amu shared soon the sky darkened the street lights brightened and it was finally time for dinner but when amu opened her big fat pot of thick red stew for her nice evening meal it was empty i'm uh sniffled there goes the best dinner i ever had sorry in blue she sat at the table with her empty pot intel knock knock knock knock knock who could
038that be amu wondered when she opened her door she saw the little boy the police officer the hot dog vendor the shop owner the cab driver the doctor the actor the lawyer the dancer the baker why everyone she fed today was at her door i'm sorry everyone on me side my thick red stew is all gone i have nothing left to share the little boy tugs at amu's sleeve don't worry amu we are not here to ask we are here to give the police officer carried in a fresh salad the mayor entered with a roast chicken the baker brought a collection of sweet goodies even the little boy presented amu with something special in a shiny red envelope everyone who had knocked on amu's door that day squeezed inside her tiny apartment and together they
039ate danced and celebrated while amu's big fat pot of thick red stew was empty her heart was full of happiness and love the dinner was the best she had ever had thank you amu and thank you board of education thank you guys so much and for the audience that might not know the majority of the kids that are up here are some of the board members children so thank you so much for coordinating that that was really great thank you you should get a picture with their parents oh yes kids come up to take a photo with your parents i'm sorry you guys can be honorary board members for the evening michael come around this side so cute yeah maybe you guys go over there maybe that's easier my kids are at us per game
040[Laughter] oh so cute all right hang on i might have to do this you stand there you stay there can i get now she's over here i'm sorry she wants us to go in the front so they can't see us through our plexiglas we're making it difficult sorry we're gonna go around the front okay sorry just stay with me sorry guys they want us in the front because oh that's you i said evans [Music] questions that's sweet okay [Music] [Applause] i kept telling that kid that's your dad he's like that's not my dad [Laughter] thank god you don't send them home on the bus yeah that's true and we're gonna take a recess right we're taking oh no we're not we still have more good yep this summer the wreaths across america organization reached out
041to us to inquire about an opportunity to partner with the school district race across america is a not-for-profit organization that lays memorial wreaths on veterans graves across the country each year they lay wreaths on hundreds of thousands of graves in arlington national cemetery as well as hundreds of thousands of others across the country the reason why they reached out to us is because december 18th is national wreath laying day and the reese across america tractor-trailer convoy will be passing through monterey woodbury on december 14th on its way from its facility in harrington maine to arlington national cemetery in washington d.c we will be hosting a welcome event welcoming ceremony for the convoy on the afternoon of december 14th and we would like to invite the board to attend the ceremony as we celebrate the work
042of this organization and more importantly to recognize the service of our veterans additional information will be forthcoming to the community about this event on december 18th there will be a wreath-laying ceremony there will be replaying ceremonies across the country including one at the cemetery of the highlands which is right here in highland mills which has 755 veteran graves in acknowledgment of the board service each school has randomly selected a board of education member and purchased the wreath to be laid at the cemetery of the highlands on december 18th in addition they have selected a veteran of the armed forces to honor with their wreath and i will now call up individually the schools i will now call up representatives from the schools to individually speak more about their selections first up is the assistant principal
043from smith clove nicole cook i think thank you and good evening my name is nikki cook and i am the assistant principal of smith clove as dr hessler has already said but it's on my phone so i'm saying it on behalf of mr berger and the entire smith clove community we are happy to present a bag of some of our smith clover items as we're a fashion affectionately called to suzanne donahue her grandson was actually up here and was a former smith clover so we're really happy to present some of our favorite items [Applause] this evening and um when the wreaths are laid we are remembering john burke we are honoring his service to his country our country by sponsoring a wreath that will be placed on his grave through wreaths across america mr burke
044was actually the father of one of our reading teachers esteemed reading teacher adrian fuchs and it is for us a meaningful tribute to his service and we thank the entire board of education for everything that you do throughout the entire year to support us and the entire monroe woodbury community thank you [Applause] next up to speak on behalf of sapphire elementary is the principal caitlin caldwell good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board of education guests welcome it is my pleasure to speak to you on behalf of sapphire elementary school and we are excited to honor our former pta president parent of four sapphire alum and current board president stacy mccleary this year mrs mccleary has always brought joy to sapphire in whatever capacity and we are grateful for her support and support of the
045entire board especially during the past few years which have been unimaginable but we've gotten through them so i am excited to present this to you some more sapphire swag for your collection thank you mrs mccleary for everything [Applause] thank you the donation and wreath being laid at the veterans ceremony at the cemetery of the highlands will be done in honor of james horne jim horn who is a living veteran and um and a monroe woodbury central school district retiree who recently retired from monroe woodbury and from sapphire he was the custodian at sapphire for many many years is beloved we miss him he's enjoying his retirement with his wife jane in florida and we hope he comes back and visits us but we are very very honored for his service to our country and also
046to our community so in honor of our board and in honor of mr horn we will be donating and um having a a wreath laid in his honor [Applause] and up next representing north main is the principal mr coto and mr davis come on up and and help her good evening we are here tonight to celebrate the work of the monroe woodbury i feel like i'm talking backwards here i'm sorry i'm going to move this a little bit look at that we are here tonight to celebrate the work of the monterey board of education north main has the honor of recognizing the work of board member michael ciriello to make the night's presentation i would like to introduce juliette tucharello juliet is a fifth grader here at north main her father sergeant anthony tucciarello sergeant
047cinderella for whom mr ciriello is honoring with a wreath across america juliet tonight we are showing our appreciation to the monroe woodbury board of education north main has the privilege of recognizing in particular mr cerriello we have purchased a wreath and michael ceriello's name to honor the military service my father anthony tucharello has made for his country volunteers are the unrecognized heroes of our country thank you for all we do since we are honoring the unsung heroes in our life on in our lives we would i would like to read a short poem written by my great grandfather from mine to jerusalem upon returning home from world war ii a copy of this poem along with the north main fleece are gifts from north main to mr cereal the world i want are carmine to
048trello it must be simple it must be free it must be peace loving to satisfy me it must not be tyrants as we have today for it must be as pure as a summer's fresh high no more bombs no more guns no more blood being spilled from the mother's sins no more having to kiss your children away for when they come back they'll be home to stay no more spending your holidays and more no more wishing he was home instead of at war a peaceful world need not have wars for if it does what are we fighting for there should be no war it's a foolish thing horror and death is all we bring and what does anyone gain from it not a damn thing not a single thing so all of it is a
049waste of time you lose your loved ones yours and mine i prefer a peaceful world where you don't have to say god protect him so you may live another day this is the world that i'm looking for not just me but many more if it's simple if it's free if it's peace loving it'll satisfy me thank you julian take a picture [Applause] uh our next school is pine tree and here representing pine tree is the principal mr brian judys okay all right good job all right so thank you so much you can remove the mask so i can talk um thank you so much board of education superintendent rodriguez cabinet um we are so thrilled on behalf of pine tree to thank the entire board for all you do during a pandemic nonetheless and everything
050that you guys do to help shape and drive or district it is uh really impressive all you do and it's all volunteer work and so please know on behalf of us at pine tree how much we appreciate and i brought some really special second graders here we have zoe evans and her sister amelia right we have callan tiarella and we have declan shea and we have logan gelat they are here to help us recognize jamel evans for his efforts on being on the board so they have some special pine tree gifts for you and uh you guys want to help me out well you can all hand oh he's got that's going to be little kids [Laughter] come on out guys so we have a lot of little little gifts from pine tree and we
051thank you for everything you've done i think this is your first uh board of ed appreciation night right yes it is very nice i'm hoping i'm hoping we're doing okay in addition uh you know pine tree the our family has donated a wreath to wreaths across america as all the buildings have we have donated our wreath in honor of eugene sullivan united states navy he was a soldier during vietnam war and he recently passed away sadly and his family was so impressed with all the efforts of our school and our specifically our patriot club going to stuart airport to root on the veterans going to d.c on the honor flight marching in parades and doing all the wonderful things we do with the valentine's day card campaign that gets sent overseas eugene sullivan's family donated
052a a a seat or a swing for our playground for special needs students and a very nice donation and so in honor of eugene sullivan that is who our wreath is dedicated for so thank you jamal for everything you do and thank you all board members for all you do for us we really appreciate it so on behalf of mr martin and myself congratulations to everybody thank you for all you do [Applause] all right great thank you and our next building is central valley elementary and once again i'd like to welcome up dr christine earl the principal good evening once again thank you all so much for all that you do for all of our families our children and our community this evening we would like to offer an extra thanks to mrs don tabar
053she was the board member who was randomly selected for us and in addition to the swag mrs tabra we do also have a wreath of gratitude for you that's attached to the bag but we hope you'll display it proudly somewhere and our friends who are helping me today are sahara nichols and shawn durante sean sahara would you like to turn and hand the bag to mrs taubert awesome and we would like to also dedicate a wreath in honor of charles bakula also known as charlie around the community charlie was a veteran in the u.s air force he was also a member of the orange county commander of the american legion he was also a member of the veteran foreign wars post 1573 is the past president and paul harris fellow of monroe woodbury rotary he
054was part of the orange chapter of score counselors to america's ball business mentor and he has so many other accomplishments but to us in the community he's probably known for the work that he does with the rotary to help all of our families in need have warm winter clothing and coats in the winter and he's one of our volunteers that helps at breakfast with santa and spends many hours talking and speaking with our families so the wreath will be dedicated in his honor thank you for all that you do [Applause] and our next school is the middle school and here representing the middle school is ms gina dudgeon the assistant principal and miss amanda collins also assistant principal good evening the middle school would like to thank the board of education members but specifically tonight
055we'd like to thank mr anthony anderson for his service to our community we are honoring him with a donation to wreaths across america the veteran we chose to memorialize with this gift is stephen m nicoley was a veteran of the united states army serving in the army's 82nd airborne division he served his country from 1997-2000 stephen was a long-time orange county volunteer who dedicated himself to causes benefiting local military personnel and their families shortly after the events of 9 11 stephen took it upon himself to establish an organization called honoring american troops where he created and sent care packages to troops overseas stephen had an unparalleled love and passion for veterans and this led him to found the hudson valley honor flight a hub of the national honor flight network the mission of the hudson
056valley honor flight is to ensure that every world war ii veteran has the opportunity to be honored for their service to our country this program flies multiple times a year out of both stuart and westchester airports transporting our veterans so that they may tour the very war monuments in washington dc that honor their service to date nearly 2 000 veterans have benefited from his work in addition stephen was a member and commander of american legion post 158 and he had received the lenny rifkin patriotic american award both stephen and his good work for our veterans will long be remembered in orange county and we are proud to honor him here tonight thank you for your service mr anderson [Applause] the second person the middle school would like to thank tonight for their service is sergey
057kaufman in honor of him we are honoring major paul volky tonight paul was not only a monroe would be graduate but he was also a classmate of mine in high school in high school paul was a member of the national honor society participated in our interact club and ran cross country and winter track after we graduated high school paul went on to attend and graduate from west point paul spent 14 years in service to his country during his time in the army paul was awarded the bronze star for his bravery a purple heart for injuries received in combat and the afghanistan campaign medal paul served two tours in iraq and was on his second deployment in afghanistan when he was killed there he is survived by his wife tracy who is his high school sweetheart
058and his two sons paul lived his entire life serving others for this we honor him tonight thank you [Applause] uh our final school this evening is the high school and here representing the high school is the principal mr john cassidy thank you dr hassler this evening i have two members from our athletic club to present the high school portion of tonight's recognition ethan myers moella tetanare ethan is a treasurer and moala is the director of public public relations ethan good evening on behalf of the high school students and staff we would like to thank you all for you for what you do for our district we appreciate the many hours of hard work you put in to the support and success of us all mr beehler and mr israeli we have purchased reads in your
059name to honor colonel christopher holscheck retired and colonel specialist philip romanenski during his distinguished 30-year military career colonel holscheck served in germany bosnia croatia hungary kuwait iraq and liberia having performed civil affairs support at army joint interagency and multinational levels with orders to the second armored cavalry regiment in germany in the 1980s he served as a civil military operations and public affairs officer dramatically boosting relations among diverse focus groups and initiating the application of civil military and information operations concepts in 1993 he joined the 304th civil affairs brigade and served the tour of duty as a civil affairs plans officer for the 21st theater army area command in germany where he helped plan and coordinate exit and execute numerous multinational civil military logistic exercises oversaw reserve component affairs integration and contributed to complaint campaign planning
060for upcoming operations in the balkans he then deployed in support of operation joint endeavor with one of the first civil affairs teams as a theater support team's plan support teams plans and civil information officer in 1998 colonel hoshick assumed command of the 304th civil affairs brigade headquarters and headquarters company developing and applying innovative methods and techniques to manage mobilization and deployment readiness training and administration in civil affairs support of theater level joint interagency peace humanitarian relief and information operations in europe the middle east and africa he then deployed to the j9 cimic directed of headquarters kfor as a civil military cooperation liaison officer to the u.n mission in kosovo spearheading nato u.n civil military cooperation there kanohoshek recently collaborated collaborated with the high school to create a service fair on january 7th 1968 during a
061combat operation four kilometers northwest of lai key air airfield in bin duong province sp4 philip rumininski was killed by a shrapnel from a hostile booby trap mr ruminiski graduated from monroe woodbury high school in 1964. we also have a gift bag for you mr buehler and mr esrati thank you for all you do for our school district and our community [Applause] awesome thank you good job it wasn't that loud i i think mrs mccleary needs a picture and i think mrs donahue also needs a picture am i correct in that okay so you have to come back up and mrs donahue you also need to come back up because we can get a picture of you so i need mrs reagan and mrs caldwell to come back up thank you all right on behalf of
062the entire monterey berry community thank you so much for your service we appreciate it tremendously thank you very much for all the presentations we really do appreciate it we're going to take a brief 10 minute recess and we will be back in session after that can you run out there and tell him we've got to start [Music] oh [Music] good evening we're returning to regular business there was no board business that was conducted during our break moving on with our agenda we are on item number nine which is questions or comments from interested citizens we will start this evening with jacqueline lanao who will be speaking on her behalf about covid school buildings i will just remind as you come down to the podium the podium is down here to my left you will have
063three minutes to speak at which time miss patucci will notify us that your time has expired and please just remember that we will respond to your comments at our next board meeting in the month of december jacqueline lanao is she not here anymore okay cynthia walsh who is speaking on behalf of herself in regards to safety good evening my name is cynthia walsh and my daughter is a student in the monroe-woodbury school district i'm here to tell you about an incident that happened to my daughter last week and this is why i'm bringing out the um about safety i'm sorry can i just ask that you speak into the microphone a little more because i'm having difficulty hearing you sure thank you during recess my daughter and her two friends were eating lunch when two
064boys sat next to her both of the boys and the girls started telling each other to move to another table one of the boys took my daughter's lunch bag and tried to run away with it and the other boy pour all his lunch all over the girls tables and he left a few minutes later about five to six girls approached my daughter and her two friends they started asking loudly on their faces if they believe in black lives matter my daughter did not responded but kept eating the group of girls kept yelling and asking them the question my daughter's two friends felt intimidated and said yes since my daughter did not answer they insisted and kept yelling at her so my daughter said i believe all lives matter because of this answer my daughter was
065being called a racist by the group of girls where they were also chanting blm blm my daughter was so upset she started tearing up and crying the security guy then then came and asked my daughter to go inside this behavior is unacceptable this is bullying and an act of racism towards my child she's only 11 years old i'm here to tell to let the parents know what's going on in the school this is one of three incidents that happened last week alone i personally do not feel my daughter is saving this school i also want to tell you that i don't blame the children about this incident i do think the parents and the school have a lot to do with the kids behavior i can only comment in the school but i know morocco
066barry is teaching equity and not equality what do you guys think was going to happen you're promoting books in the school from authors like abraham abraham x candy that instead of teaching kids that we should treat each other equally and with respect he teaches about white privilege let me read a quote from abraham x candy the only remedy to racist or discrimination is anti-racist discrimination the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination this is the type of mentality and beliefs that these authors have in u.s schools are giving our children to read this to me is poison to our children i also want to add that one of my daughter's teachers commented about an article that he read and he was commenting on how nowadays
067white people are privileged this is coming from one of the teachers at the monroe with barry my family and i believe what mother luther king said we judge people not by the color or the skin but the content of the character i did hear back from the assistant principal about this incident and i want to thank her for trying to rectify the situation i hope the girls involved in this incident are held accountable for their actions i also want to encourage the school to do a better job on bringing the kids together analyze whether you guys are teaching and see if it's truly helping our children come together in unity instead of teaching them to be divided so do the right thing and look into that i hope things can change more well with barry
068for now i'm considering withdrawing my child and homeschooling her until i know and i feel that this this school is safe again i'm gonna thank you i will just leave with a comment i hope you guys can next time maybe tell us how can the school be safe for children thank you [Applause] our next speaker is holly mom she is speaking in regards to the unrest within the school and she is speaking on behalf of herself yes there's comments if they were printed we could just get a copy of them sometimes it's been a little bit hard to hear up here and uh if if you didn't mind sharing what you had written down if you were reading from a you know your prepared notes if you can share them with us i'd be really
069appreciate it thank you so any of the speakers this evening if you would like please go ahead and you can email what you've said tonight it is on video but if you'd like please have it written down and you can email it to ms vitucci and she will make certain that it gets to all of us board members um go ahead thank you my name is holly mom i'd like to also address the unrest our children faced during the school hours my daughter was a ghost for halloween and she wore her costume during recess with the rest of her friends during recess she was attacked by two separate groups of black children about 10 minutes apart in the second attack four to five black boys cornered her against defense and one of them physically assaulted
070her while the others called her the kkk and a white supremacist it was all caught on school cameras we made a police report my daughter ended up with a neck injury the police department handed the investigation over to mr maciano and i haven't heard back from him since i've reached out two times since the investigation has been handed over to him her injuries were not severe enough for the police to do anything further about it but i'm here tonight because my daughter's racial attack is not an isolated incident as the parent before me said there's been three other attacks on white children during school hours and it's getting out of hand and this is just in the last couple of weeks this is becoming a common place during school hours what's being done how is
071this allowed to happen the division the division that's happening is unfolding on the school grounds it's being recorded on camera and i think the ramifications of the identity politics the ramifications meaning the white children being attacked during recess and in the lunchroom need to be played on repeats in the student in the in the teacher's lounge they need to see what they're doing they're not doing good our children are entering a war zone my student my t my daughter is an a student and i hope that she stays that way i hope that she keeps getting her a's it's become physical and dangerous to be in your school district if you're white i'm going to close with after leaving the police station after she made her victims report she said to me you know mom
072i don't hate them i'm sad and i'm disappointed she's 13. so i'm proud of her and i hope that we can make change without losing federal money thank you for your time thank you [Applause] our next speaker is janet stells she was she's going to address the board in regards to cse and she's speaking on behalf of herself hello good evening i'm just going to get right down to it obviously we don't have a lot of time shifting gears for a moment to a comment that a woman who spoke after me at a previous board meeting who said something i thought deserved to be revisited we actually didn't agree on most things but she said something that really struck a chord with me and i felt deserved to be acknowledged what she said was children
073of color look up and they see someone who looks like them in a position of authority and influence and it becomes an inspiration it becomes attainable she proceeded to say that we need more black teachers more black people in positions of authority and influence not only in our district in our town our community and in our country and i can speak for myself and for a lot of the people that are sitting here today that we would all be in agreement with that so it kind of begs the question we agree on that but how do we make that happen when you look at that black people make up 13 of the us population so the number of people in positions of authority and influence would correlate directly with that which begs the question how
074do we increase the black population in the country and the reason i'm bringing this up is because of this whole white privilege systemic racism narrative that's constantly being pushed in our school some teachers not all there's some amazing teachers i say it all the time a lot of very good teachers who have come to me and are in confidence and they're very unhappy with the way things are going with what happened to the two girls that spoke earlier and their children there is an absolute out of control spiraling out of control with the culture and the school a school that i went to for most of my life that most of my family went to and it's really heartbreaking so back to the original point in that increasing the black population if we want an
075equal and i believe i think a lot of us in equal uh the front have representation how do you increase the black population what's a good way to do that perhaps they might revisit representing some of that in our health classes instead of you know the comprehensive sexuality education which is all about condoms and sex and partners and everything that's much more graphic than most young children need to be exposed to and certainly from a school standpoint for those of us who want it great maybe make that an elective instead of forcing it on everybody else who doesn't agree with that narrative either but basically looking back to what's the best way to increase the population have more representation it directly correlates what part of the program is devoted to encouraging healthy moral growth of
076the black population or indigenous or by population what does the curriculum look like for that to encourage that kind of growth that doesn't exclude socioeconomics cultural or other issues that might be affecting those populations because those deserve absolute attention some examples of lessons plans would be great thank you thank you [Applause] our next speaker is jaisa napolitano she's speaking on sel and school culture good evening board it's jason napolitano but don't worry sorry it's been going on for years it's fine um so i'm new to the district and by new i mean my family moved here in 2018 we coordinated that so that my now 10 year old could enter pine tree right on time associate assimilate not be the new girl so now she's in fifth grade and she's thriving we love it here
077as you can see i have a one-year-old running around and it has allowed me to become more involved in the community because now i'm not at work but as you can see it has its limitations because if it weren't for my one-year-old i'd be working and maybe i could make more of these meetings so i'm doing the best i can to join in all of this culture that's happening there's so many changes not only in the school district but in society in general so i'm trying to i'm playing catch-up i've joined the leadership committee at pine tree i'm looking forward to joining when also she becomes a middle schooler i'm on the equity task force so i'm trying to be involved and i have some points to say some observations so as a mother i
078have primary functions everything else is secondary my primary function is to do the best that i can at home with my children and my husband i support my husband so he can continue to feel supported and work 80 hours a week so that i don't have to and i'm doing the best i can with my children to facilitate your job when they're in school in my opinion institutions like education have a primary function and that is education that's what you go to school for that's what you get your master's degrees in social workers go to school and get their master's degrees in that and psychologists go to school and get their master's degrees in those and those are all professionals that deserve respect so i find it a little conflicting that we're putting so much
079on our teachers because what's happening is that now we're overwhelming these education experts with social emotional learning and psychology and things like that so i've seen our grades and just a quick side note have we reviewed because this is one of the first meet this is my second meeting have we reviewed the report card of like proficiency and things like that and our grades not because i'm going to get into it just because i have it here i don't want to go into something if you guys have already revisited that i have 20 19 20 20 in front of me have you guys reviewed that like you did the budget maybe you have yes and that's typically a presentation that dr hassler gives us at some point during the school year okay so i'm looking
080over it just to let you know and we're at about equal we have 30 below 30 proficient and 30 average something like that so it does get into though if we're going to talk about race the inequalities in that and they do reflect that hispanics and blacks have lower than that and i'm pleased just going to finish up one more thought thank you one more thought if we're gonna have brave conversations it's one of the the topics going around now those brave conversations are conversations it's not us parents stand here month to month and speak and then there's not a formal response so i'm happy to submit my questions i became involved because in july there were 30 questions i didn't read the questions but i do know that they have not been formally answered
081i answered that last month that i read our response to that how i have not seen it okay our meetings are on video so i did read a response to that so you can go back to look at it if you have any further questions for this evening you're welcome to email them to ms patucci and she will let them like give them to all of us as the board and then we will collectively decide whether or not we are responding to them some of them are usually responded to by the superintendent and then we have decided that which i will reiterate here that we were not responding to those 30 questions that were given to us over the summer and that's not a conversation that's not a conversation if we're going to tout brave
082conversations we had a need to be in our conversation with many of you that are sitting in this audience okay i'm sorry i was not there i'm not okay i was like i'm not associated mrs mccleary i'm not associated with any groups i'm just here i came a long way with a one-year-old to be here just to tell you a brave conversation is a conversation okay in order to prevent us from me from coming back and you guys hearing you guys have better things to do other things to move on to instead of hearing the same questions over and over if somebody asks you a question and you have a formal response then it's easier for you to say please refer to such and such date and such and such a document if you have
083specific questions this evening that are not the questions that were from the 30 questions previously feel free to email them to miss fitucci and she will give them to all of us thank you thank you i'm here just to say just to point out like i said an observation i'm new to being a participant that's my observation to just move things easier for you guys and easier for us great thank you all thank you very much our next speaker is tom lipola on choose love [Applause] thank you good evening i'll be quick um tomal paula very long time resident all my children graduated from the school so a general question on a specific program here in monroe woodbury choose love and although it's the brand name but the brand is the product so can the
084owner of that brand explain to the board and the taxpayer who defines love and please i will not nor should the board or will the monroe woodbury taxpayer accept love is love or any other cliche as that's relativistic and not consistent with objective truth which has always been the gold standard for a well-rounded education thank you thank you [Applause] our next speaker is eileen collopy who will be speaking on morals good evening i'd like to start as well by saying that i'm where there are many great teachers in the school district board members um administration as well so i when i say monroe woodbury i'm not meeting everybody to take this personally what i'm speaking on tonight is basically not just as a parent as a mom but more so as a religious education teacher
085in monroe i've been doing this for years so we've been sharing students so to speak all over the age ranges and such but i have a problem a big problem lately in my classroom i teach for about an hour and a half a week my students are with you guys for about 40 hours a week they're here for an education and that's what they should be getting that's it the rest be left to the parents the parents can decide where they want their kids to learn their morals where they want them and what they want them to learn psychologically and morally that shouldn't be here it doesn't have any place here and it's really messing with my students and on their behalf i wanted to bring up a few things as some of the other
086mothers said they don't feel safe here lately they feel a lot of hatred a lot of division if they speak up for something morally that they think is right they're now haters it's just a bad scene going on and i don't like hearing from my students or their parents that this is going on and i see it from other parents as well you know i was just thinking if i was in my classroom teaching math and science while their the parents are paying for them to learn morals i'd get in trouble these parents would be speaking up going you're supposed to be teaching faith and morals why aren't you leave it to that here stick with the subject stick with education that's all as taxpayers we want you to do there's too much moral stuff
087there's too much psychological stuff lately and it's damaging to the children and there are some teachers as janet mentioned who have come to us who are feeling the same way it's it's not a good atmosphere lately and just briefly i want to mention about the veterans day i was happy to see all these children saying you know the pledge and singing and being patriotic this evening but that's not what i'm hearing what i'm hearing is that there were four children in one homeroom in one week that decided that they were the opposite gender and that doesn't to me sound like a child who's having an issue or having some gender confusion or something and need some help it sounds like hey this is the cool thing to do right now and these same four children
088also are sitting down for the pledge of allegiance and i'm wearing this code for a reason my father would be rolling in his grave to hear the children who he came from ireland and became he was drafted and he's in the army before he was even a citizen and how many others fought for our country and for our freedoms and here these kids are sitting down for the pledge of allegiance excuse me for the pledge of allegiance that's that's awful tonight i was happy to hear you say please stand these kids have to be told stand up these people fought for this country they fought for your freedoms and you think you can just sit down and do what you want i don't think so something's gone wrong from i was in school that's not
089how we were raised please thank education thank you [Applause] the next speaker is matthew leface he'll be speaking about racism in schools on behalf of himself good evening i was going to give you his hypotheticals but if you're telling me you can't answer questions till december i'm just going to come out and tell you what happened last year during remote learning a teacher in the middle school was telling children about the color of their skin matters not to use specific items on the computer because of the color of it and after the principal was notified the buck stopped there he knew 100 percent that this actually happened credibility was 100 accurate and that was it i'll tell you in detail on the google classrooms there's options on the computer to use i'm sure you might
090be familiar with it there's a little hand there that comes up if the kids have a question they press it their hand comes up and gives a wave right so the teacher knows that the kids might have a question she specifically told the students not to use that option because the color of the hand was white just like every other option that's on the google classroom whether it was the pointer the cursor or anything else that just happened to be the color the kids probably could even change it if they wanted to might have been an option but for the next three days she kept saying this until the student started telling the teacher get over it it's just a hand please stop you're causing problems in the class this is coming from the students
091in text messages to the teacher her name is mrs wickholm in the middle school i'm i'm sorry sir we're not going to address a few well i just did you have a personnel issue i just thought it's not a personality no and to the superintendent so it was thank you elsie was notified and so was the middle school principal he knew 100 that that was true and he spoke to her about it and then he came back to me on a phone conversation and had said that's not the issue that didn't happen and i said do i need to get the students involved and the parents involved who know about this okay i'm going to ask you again that you're contacting me as much as you want and i'm going to respectfully decline okay well
092your time is up for sure we're not going to continue the conversation any longer this afternoon is asking that you have to answer to him sir he then went back to the teacher and the next day she told the students it was okay to use you're gonna be asked to be removed sir and we're gonna ask for mrs wickholm to be removed okay thank you have a great night absolutely thank you sir you're welcome thank you [Applause] thank you very much this evening that will conclude public speaking are there any follow-ups to comments please i do not want to have to have everybody removed thank you is there any updates why sir frank please mr squante so that we can continue the meeting thank you we're gonna have this thank you we're gonna leave is
093there any update on questions or comments from previous meeting at our last um board meeting we did have a parent who asked about the um face mandate and the the no sir thank you the public comment portion is the public comment portion of the meeting has concluded we are moving on with the agenda we don't need to we don't need to we don't have to give the money that is absolutely not the case thank you the public comment portion of this meeting i will adjourn the entire meeting so the public portion of this meeting has concluded thank you enough we're going to take a brief recess good evening the recess is now over there was no board business concluded but based on the behavior of this evening's meeting the meeting is now concluded thank you
094have a good night you