001Thank you. And I'm now going to turn the meeting over to Doctor Mauricio for his superintendent's report. Good evening, members of our community. Parents who are here. Family members. Fellow students as well. And to our esteemed Board of Education President Valon. And equally and most importantly, tonight, our scholar athletes. And let's give our football team another big round of applause. And here they are pictured on the screen. They had a wonderful season. They've had wonderful seasons and we are so proud of you as a Board of Education and as a school community, and as an entire Peekskill community, for us to be here yet again, presenting to the board and to the public the Golden Ball. So another big round of applause. An amazing season that we had. And I'm reminded that the championships are
002very important. But I'm also reminded that part of the athletic program and the investment the Board of Education and the community has made in each and every one of you, is that we are helping you develop character. And your head coach speaks about that, and your coaches speak about that each and every practice, each and every game. That while we want to win, we want you to win in the game of life. We want you to develop the character that is required to win with humility and to lose with humility. To pick up a partner from an opposing team when they're down. And I've seen that game after game after game. I know football is a is a physical sport, but I've seen many of you pick up the other opposing team member and help
003them up on the way up. I've seen you give them an applause, a high five and a hug after the game was over, even though you won the game. And that's the kind of character that we want to make sure that you have. And that's what our coaches I know. I recognize them in a moment, but I want our coaches to stand up, starting with our head coach, Mr. Gardner. Let's have him stand up. And we have other coaches as well. Please stand on up. Let's give them a big round of applause. Mr. Do we know Mr. Oscar? We thank you and appreciate you. And, uh, Mr. Brown. Some of you may know he's a graduate himself, and he also plays sports as well for Peekskill. And it would not be a championship celebration without
004us. Welcome you and the community with a short parade over here. But equally important, without him, he. He emailed me at 4 a.m. and put the final touches on an amazing video highlighting this year's, uh, games. And let us also remember that you are undefeated in your league, uh, championship. Big round of applause and congratulations on an amazing season. And with that, Mr. Brown, if you can, uh, put on your video and Mrs. Reed will also, uh, set it up as well. This year. Outlook this season was to be disciplined, physical, competitive and intelligent in everything we do. We have the talent. It's about putting the pieces together and playing as one. November 2023. The Hudson Valley Football championship. It's the first time the Peekskill boys varsity football team has reached a tournament championship final
005since 1994, overcoming Tappan Zee in a dramatic win. The varsity football team brings home the gold to the city of Peekskill. So I'm going to. This is everything you ever wanted. One moment. Cancer. Just let slip. This was a sweaty sneeze. Week was the happiest moment on this sweater already. Mom's spaghetti. He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drive fast, but he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down. The whole crowd goes so loud he opens his mouth, but the words won't come out. It's shocking how everybody's talking out. The clock now turns to snap back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity. Oh, there goes rabbit. He's so mad. But he won't give up that easy. No he won't, but he knows it's all it's. Oh, yeah. What's so funny?
006Now it's back to the beginning. You. Oh. Click on the. I used the moon to Japan, I never. I never. I was. Like, you know, I was pleased to meet. You. I'm going to go. Always aim for. You want to try me? But I need my squad. What? Is he crazy? Real. Part of the appeal. We've sat on the phone. No, no, no, I'll turn up. Turn his belly up. Now, everybody go in. Oh, no. Oh! Sample taken on the crazy and deep is turning up. Go go go. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Holy. This is where wanna my soul go? Back in the same room. The ground. I know that you only feel. Inside. I will. This have? For. Oh. Oh. Please. I mean. Hey. So we taught you how to be a
007man of character. You know what that coach said to me? He said you boys are class. Uh uh. Yeah. Uh. Oh. I guess I don't know. I know it's hard wired. We will have more than. This did not happen at 4 a.m., I guarantee you. But that's okay, because Doug Brown always does his very best. I feel like I watched a Hollywood movie about football. Let's give Doug Brown another big round of applause and say thank you. Yeah. You want to see the rest of it? All right. We're going to see the rest of it. If not, I'll tell you how it ends. While we are waiting and there'll be slides up in a second, I do want to take this moment and we'll do it again. But our cheerleaders cheer on the crowd. Uh,
008cheerleaders. Let's have our cheerleaders stand up. And for once, we're going to cheer you on. Thank you for keeping the energy going. And I love the new jackets because it was cold this year. And I love the new jackets that you have and the new outfits that you have. And it's important to have you at every single game. So big round applause again for our cheerleaders and Coach Turner. Who's that? Who's also their head coach. I also want to take this moment to say thank you, because it takes a whole village to make sure a team feels supported, and the fans that we have are, bar none, the best fans out there. So to our parents, to our fans, our community base, we thank you for being there. We thank you for all that you
009do. And I also want to share that, um. When we got here and I see Mr. McDonald from the Black Diamonds back then, he was he was a parent and he was also an advocate, and he brought students to this mic. And we sat there as a board of education, and they advocated for students to have a turf field with lights for night games, so that what you saw happen here would happen in Peekskill like they saw in other communities. They advocated for it, you voted for it and the board supported it. And we say, thank you, board. Thank you to the scholars, and thank you for bringing that to our attention, because we have, bar None, an amazing feel for our students and all of our teams have been able to access that as
010well. And so we say thank you. I also want to give a big thank you, because when we got here, uh, we also needed to improve on the the gear that we had, the helmets that we had, how our students looked, how we made sure that they had the equipment to be winners and champions. And that takes a board to support those efforts, takes our business officials where Cynthia and you may not stand up, you may not know her, but she approves all the things, the busses, everything that happens. And we thank you and your team for making that happen. Now that applause is okay, but she brings all the money to make it happen. Let's give another big round. There we go, there we go. So we thank you for all that you do.
011And it also takes a visionary leader to uplift, uh, athletic programs to make sure we have what we need every single game. Now, I know Cynthia doesn't always, uh, you know, happy about that, but every game we have something new. We have something for you to run out of that's blown up. We have new uniforms. Our, uh, cheerleaders got new coats. That happens because someone wants the best for you. And that's Austin Goldberg. Where's Austin Goldberg? Uh, athletic director. Stand on, uh, Boston. And while we wait for the video. Uh, we're going to do an audible and we're going to pull up Austin Goldberg because he has a big announcement. And this announcement actually came when Coach Gardner and our coaches and, uh, two captains came and sat in my office with, uh, um, Austin
012Goldberg, myself and Mr. Bedi and Doctor Farris on, on video. And they proposed something monumental for us, uh, for the next year. And with that, let's have Austin Goldberg. He's going to bring great news to us as a school community. Good evening everybody. So it's been seven seasons starting, uh, in spring of 2021. That's right. Back then, we were playing football in masks, um, opening up our turf field. So we've had seven seasons of Hudson Valley football. We've had, um, terrific players coming through. We've had close to ten football players playing at the collegiate level from 2021 to present. Um, and that we should clap for that for sure. So that's a testament to them being terrific student athletes. I'm going to talk a lot about our coaches shortly. Um, but we had terrific student
013advocates this year also. So after seven seasons in the Hudson Valley Football League fall of 2026, we will be entering section one football class A. Thank you again for, uh, coaches, athletic director. And most importantly, there are two captains that came and met with me. Please stand up where I captains. All right, there they are. Quarterback. And you got a lot of great video footage of them as well. But they proposed this. Uh, and what that means is the next time we win the championship, it'll be in the Syracuse Dome, and we're all headed up there the next time that happens. That's where we're headed. And Coach Gardner promised that that's going to happen when it does. But he promised. And that's what we're going to bring for our players. Looks like we have, uh,
014video back up. We'll just check check the sound. Right. Hey. Oh. This is. Oh oh. One. I. Oh. So this is what. It's the part where John Harwood looks like a supervisor. I'm so proud of these guys. I want to say two first things first. The first one looks like he's going. This one's for you. This one's for you. Everything's all right. August 18th. The brotherhood. The last, last pre-season. But this year they have banded together to turn it around. How nice. It seems to me they send the seniors off for a win. And we've been grinding since August 18th out at the summer camps. You know, put in the work. Yeah. There's conditioning running in hundreds. And that's. This means a lot. That's our word. This meant a lot to me to hear. And
015when I would have been, I was just happy I was able to go with my teammates, all my friends, my loved ones. But hopefully next year they come back in the same position that's. Another big round of applause for our championship team. Nine and zero in the league. Nine and one overall. All right, community. How proud of you are of our team. Let's give them another huge round of applause. Now that video, like I said, is a Hollywood video with a great ending at the end of the season. Excellent job. Another big round of applause for Doug Brown. Thank you so much. From that video community. Those of you who came out to the game, show your love. If you think our team can tackle you. Know you saw the video. Show your love. If
016you think our team can tackle. Our board members were cringing on some of those hits. Now, what I need you to do is show your love if they need to tackle those books. Now show your love, if you will. Jojo. Where's Jojo? I couldn't even talk the next day because I was cheering so hard. Is Jojo not here today? Where's. Oh, he had something to do. All right, let's give Jojo a big round of applause. Now show your love if you think our team is fast. Show your love. If you think they need to be running that fast to get to school on time every single day. Show your love. If you love our team because they're undefeated. Now show your love. If they need to be undefeated with them grades, winning every single time.
017Graduating on time, going on to college. Because in the end, these are games you will remember for the rest of your life. But we will remember you for the rest of your life of being scholar athletes. And that's what we want. You got three quarters ahead of you and we need you to win undefeated this year. Cross that stage and graduate another big round of applause for them. Lastly thank you coaches. Now the big round of applause. Amazing pictures of our coaches here. Congratulations, Craig and Joseph. They were named Hudson Valley Football League. Joseph walk with Craig Jacobs. Craig. Go ahead, stand up. I know, Joe, Joe's not here. Big round of applause for. Now I can't see that far, but I know there's a great award that you just won. You tell me what
018it is. Offensive and defensive plays of the year. Another big round of applause. Thank you again to our fans. Let's applaud them. Uh, cheerleaders. Not the big round of applause. Thank you for bringing it. Every single game. And there was when they, uh, met with, uh, our team for this, uh, section one. And we are looking forward to heading up to Syracuse. Cynthia, put the money away. We're going to need one of the nice busses with the bathroom in it and the heat and the TVs. We're going to make our way up there when we get there. And with that, I'm going to say a very big thank you again to our entire athletic team, to our Board of Education, for all that you do for our athletic programs. Remember, you are the role model
019for those who come behind you, and they watch what you do each and every day. So live up to Peekskill Pride. We are proud of you. At this time we're going to take a picture. And this is every time we have an athletic, uh, championship. We're going to take a picture. Laura is going to head up there if we need to turn the lights on. Uh, Mr. Brown or Miss Reed. Thank you. And at this time, we're going to have the board turn towards Laura. And, Laura, you want us to pull up the screen? Yeah. Uh, we're going to turn this off. Yep yep yep. Okay. And now we need our, um, football team to stand up, and we need our cheerleaders as well. We need to see you. So come on front. We got
020some spaces here. Let's bring up our football team. Oh, stand up cheerleaders. Come on front. Coach Garten, if you could stand up with your kids. Eldest. Where's Janet? Okay. Got. Join a. You make it okay. Let's give Doctor Ferris at every game Cheering our students on. Amazing principal. Thank you for being here today. Yes. And we have one more board member who's our eighth board member forever. And that's Michael Simpkins. Where's he at. Let's bring up Michael Simpkins. Come on up front. Oh, yeah. And where is the doctor who keeps us safe and healthy? Let's bring doc up. Bring up some of that ice. You can take much. That's the moldy. Now, along with the way. Everybody knows the price. All right. At this time, we're going to take a recess. That you're welcome to
021stay for the rest of the meeting. But I know you got class tomorrow. Studying. Thank you again, everyone. We're going to take a quick recess. Thank you. Oh I did. Yeah. No, I don't think you are. There we go. Thank you. Doug is getting so many accolades, he forgot to turn on the mic. Okay, President Villano, we ready to continue? Okay. All right. Great. We have another exciting presentation uh, tonight. And, uh, very important topic. Last board meeting. We had a lot of dialog as a, as a, as a school community, as a board of education, um, just on technology and seeing where, um, uh, artificial intelligence is headed in our district across the country and, uh, in other school districts as well. We want to make sure that we are, um, keeping up to
022pace as best we can because we really, as we um, Mrs. McDonnell and I went to a session, uh, last week, Thursday evening session. And the topic, the keynote speakers, both of them were speaking about artificial intelligence and policies and how school districts are, uh, reacting and trying to get ahead as best they can. But one of the critical aspects that they talked about was, um, or 2 or 3 of the critical aspects. One is we have to maintain humanity and make sure that our children are in front of teachers. They have counselors, they have administrators that care about them and that know them in a way that no technology can. And that was one of the most resounding things. I heard that, uh, that evening. The second thing I heard was that, uh, artificial
023intelligence. We're not even sure where it's headed. It is progressing so rapidly that we're not even sure that one year, five years, ten years from now where we are headed. But what we do know is that we talked a lot about safeguards. And one of those aspects, uh, with safeguarding, um, our students is also safeguarding their personal identifiable information, the PII. And so Jenny's, uh, make sure with her team to make sure that we are in compliance with education law today, I want to thank the state for making sure that that we had those practices in law that require companies that work with us to engage in certain things that help keep, uh, students information, um, critically important, but also safeguarded, as you see here on the screen. And she'll talk about a little bit
024more. And so thank you, Janice, for all that you do. I know we don't have the big crowd and we'll get a video one day for you as well. But let's give her a round of applause, because what she does is bring technology into our classrooms. She brings innovation into our classrooms, and we're ahead of the game during Covid that. I said, Janice, can we get thousands of computers to our students within a few months so that they had computers and Wi-Fi in their homes, and you did that? We never forgot that. And we thank you for all that you do. And you also put state of the art Promethean boards in every single one of our classrooms, too. In some of our classrooms where we have students with different abilities as well. And so
025for all of that, we say thank you. And lastly, thank you for protecting our students and our, uh, district. And so with that, I'll turn it over to you. Another big round of applause for Jenny's. Yes. Sorry. I'm coming after that wonderful celebration. But this is really important, so I appreciate you giving me the time to present. Um, teachers don't always like this part of, uh, technology when they ask for new software. And I'm like, I gotta check and make sure the privacy's set up correctly. So I'm just going to tell you a little bit about what we do in district. And as Doctor Mauricio said, what the law says. So, um, as Doctor Mauricio said, it's education law two D and it is New York State has designed it to help us to help
026to make sure districts protect student data and, um, their privacy. So the law was in and acted in 2014. However, it got stronger with the regulation from the commissioner in 2020. And this law clear sets clear expectations for how education agencies and our vendors, which are third party contractors, must handle personally, personally identifiable information. So the key provisions for this law is, first of all, data protection obligations. So every district, every Boces has to safeguard the student data with robust administrative, technical, technical and physical security measures. Then, as Doctor Mauricio said, the third party contractors are also supposed to make sure that they are following ed Law two D and they must sign a data privacy agreement with the district, saying that they're training their staff to to manage the data, as well as that
027they're putting the data in secure places and encrypting the information. Then parents and students have rights to their data, so parents and students can ask to find out what data is actually being shared with these companies. And they can also file a complaint if they think their data is being breached. And the companies are also responsible for letting the districts know that if there's a data breach and the districts are responsible for letting the families know if any data has been breached. So what is PII? The student's name. The name of the parents or other family members. The address of the student and their family. Um, also personal identifiers such as the student's social security. So we do not put Social security numbers in our student management system. So there's no way, even if we
028are breached, that they would have access to student information. Um, the Social Security number, um, the student number and also biometric record. So biometric records, some schools used to do this. You could scan your face for them to recognize you as you got into the school. We do not ever scan students faces to recognize them, nor do we do fingerprints. But that is what a biometric record is. Other indirect identifiers are the student's date of birth and the place of birth. We do not provide place of birth to any of our vendors ever. So I did mention the parent Bill of rights. It is on our website under parents as well as on the technology website. It is a document that outlines the rights of the parents regarding their students data and security. So within
029this document, the district ensures that the student data is protected. It also ensures that the data will not be sold or used for any marketing. Also, the parents may access, as I said, and review their data. And the district. There is a adherence to the 60 day breach information requirement. The vendor requirements. As I said earlier, the vendor must sign the data privacy agreement, and within that agreement, they are saying that they are encrypting our data at rest and in transit. That means any time our data is being transferred, it must be encrypted. The data is also the vendors also to store our data in a secure data center, as well as maintain strong security controls around that data. And again, as I've said, they must notify the district if there is any breach of
030data. The staff responsibilities. The staff must follow the Acceptable Use policy as well as the data privacy policy, but the staff is only to use district approved software and applications. I do have measures that are in on our network that will show me of software that I have not approved is being used, and then I usually reach out to the teachers that we can block it. Um, the staff also is to report any suspect, suspected breach of data, and they are to complete an annual cybersecurity training. That is all I was presenting this evening. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Ginny said. Just wanted you to, um, reiterate or clarify. Uh, we don't collect Social Security information at all, you know, not for any. Not on documents forms electronically. No. No,
031we do not. And thank you for the, uh, presentation on, uh, education law today. And thank you again for continuing the work to safeguard. I know we're going to continue to make sure that all of our information is is protected, including our financial information. Uh, you may have received, um, emails that we'll we'll try to get you to click on something. And we appreciate all the, the, um, uh, uh, information that you put in place, but also the strategies as well. And I know you've worked very hard with the auditors, uh, who did a, um, audit of our school district as well to show, uh, where we can improve. And you've moved in those areas, but also the great things we already have in place. And so very important for us, um, as this is
032a space where hackers and a variety of different, um, individuals who want to do, uh, things are looking at a variety of different companies and organizations. And so thank you for putting in the safeguards that we have, you know. Thank you. Does anyone on the board have any questions for the presentation? I just have a quick question. Um. Should the federal government, for example, inquire about any of this information? Do we? Like what is the protocol or what, um, are the steps that the school could take in that scenario or if or we don't have to know. So if we do have a breach the same way that, um, we are to share with the community, there is a form that we have to complete and send to New York State telling them that there
033was a breach and what possible, um, data was shared. As you may be aware, there were over 800 districts that had, um, illuminate. And so we've been through that experience where there was some data we shared with families and we also shared with New York State. But there's no, uh, sorry. I just wanted to to clarify, um, just for for security reasons, for personal reasons, um, just to make sure that, you know, are we obligated to give the federal government this information? Should they ask for it? Are you cert meaning the students information, or if we have a breach? Yes. Yeah. Like the students information? Um, yeah. Personal? Yes. Not personally identifiable. Usually when the federal government, they will ask for certain, um, information. But it is not connected to a student. It would be
034aggregate. We have, uh, 20 black boys in our district, but it's never how what the name of the students are for the federal government or their their address or anything like that? No. Thank you. You're welcome. So, um, I know, um, uh, my company, what they what we do. And I'm not sure if you can do this or not, but, uh, I know you've heard of Ninja go. And so Ninja was like a three, 2 or 3 minute, um, um, like minute episode that basically, uh, test us on the different cyber attacks and so forth that go on. Um, and um, their, their recent cyber attacks. So it kind of keeps us abreast of kind of like what to look out for. Um, and, and I'm not saying we can do that or so forth,
035but that would be a way that we can also protect us internally, um, from us clicking on something that we probably shouldn't have clicked on and so forth. But those are really, uh, we do send out, excuse me, we do send out phishing, um, campaigns where we send out several fake emails and see if people click on them. If someone does click on it, they do have to watch a video and take a test. So yes, we do do that. And then I just wanted to ask, with, um, our data storage and with our subcontractors in the contract that we signed. Do we allow them to keep the data for X amount of time? No. Within the contract, it does say if we, um, end our contract with them, that they must delete it immediately.
036And this contract is a yearly signed contract. Miss villain. Just read this weekend. Um. Uh, Letitia James, our attorney general, along with, uh, a couple others, they want a $5.2 million settlement with, uh, illuminate the company. Um, and part of that was and also required by law is that, uh, when the, uh, the school district organization is no longer as part of their, uh, contract, they have to delete that information. And part of what they did was keep it in the cloud. And so, um, that made it susceptible. And so now by law, they can no longer do that. And this was a large, uh, suit, um, as well. And, um, you know, state was part of that. And then Mr., uh, Jenkins, we have just looked in our, um, Mr. Lewis, make sure every
037year that our staff take, uh, numerous trainings, uh, online and one of, uh, one of the informations that they take on is related to data privacy for, for our students and for our organization as well. So they do that every single year. And he does that with every new employee as well. And so we make sure that similar to what you have in your company, that our students, uh, our staff are, um, taking this, uh, as part of their, their, uh, collection of trainings that they must take. Any other questions? Thank you to. Thank you. That concludes our superintendent's update. And I turn it back over to President Villa. Perfect. Thank you. Um, we're going to move on to the hearing of the citizens. The Peekskill Board of Education desires and values the input from
038our entire school community. For those who wish to address the board, please sign in and state your name, city or town of residence. For the record, please keep your remarks to three minutes and remarks and discussions of district personnel are prohibited. Although we do not engage in dialog, we are listening. Please leave your contact information for prompt follow up from the board, president or superintendent. Do we have anyone wishing to be heard? Please. Indeed, everyone. Hello. Good evening. Danny. And first we. Hi, my name is Joshua Jones. I'm the representative for Black Diamonds and Gold Pixel High School. I'm a fourth grade. Um, I'm. I'm up here today to address the concern for bussing in our district. As someone who lives on the borderlines of Peekskill and Cortland, it's very hard for me and my
039family to make it on time to school every single day. Because my mother used to sacrifice like, time for work. She has a drop later where I see, like, job clyne's things like that, and I feel bad for or other days I have to walk my siblings to school, even though it ends up like I became like late to school or stuff like that. Um, so I'm just asking, like before we like allocate more resources to our school, adding another layer to our building or renovating our school even more and making it better district. I just ask that we give the student a means to get there, that's all. Thank you. Keep writing her. Good night. My name is Aaron Reed. I'm a member of the Black Diamonds. Um, my concern was, uh, the restriction
040of YouTube on Chromebooks since, uh, you know, um, there's times when I've actually needed, like, an example of, uh, the thing I was trying to do, like the work. And, you know, since we can't have our phones anymore in class because of the online stuff, uh, um, you know, uh. Since it was, you know, restricting everything, and the new law prohibits you from using your phone so you can, like, you know, search up anything, uh, you know, get the answers and whatnot. I was wondering if you could, like, at least limited to, like, you know, what you can search up and type of thing, uh, as you guys did before, but, like, um, allow us to, like, you know, use it to some extent, uh, to do our research and stuff because there's only like
041a few resources that we can use on the Chromebooks. Uh, because a lot of other sites that we use, uh, you can only go so far. And so against that type of thing, that was a thank you. So just for clarity purposes, you wanted to use. You said the phones. You too. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I think you were speaking of the Chromebooks. You wanted to have access from your Chromebook to YouTube. Okay. I could be speaking. So, David. Keep me, keep me in check. Um, but wasn't YouTube? One of the issues was that they weren't signing off. Google wasn't signing off on the law. We just discussed and education part of law two D and that's the reason that it's restricted for students, not because we don't want them to have a resource for
042research, because we all definitely see the benefit to things like YouTube videos teaching us. And we, um, there's different styles of learning and we appreciate all of that. But if the company isn't willing to sign off to protect our students data, we don't want to give them access to our students. Um, and that's one of our ways that we've been trying to protect students. And if the ability to search videos is something that we need, um, I think that it's a good idea that we continue to search for companies that would meet the legal requirements to protect our students. Um, so they have access. And if you're saying that something we don't have, I would love for us to pursue that avenue. But I do know that Google with some of their tools, including, um,
043YouTube can be, um, very hesitant to sign off on New York education laws. Mhm. Yes. Um, actually Google itself has signed off, but there are what is called core educational parts of it, and YouTube is not parts, so they will not take responsibility. So they said the district's had to turn off any non-core parts of YouTube that students were using. So parts of Google that students were using. And Mr. Bedi, if we can, uh, work with, uh, Doctor Ferris and our, um, librarians, uh, through Boces, we get databases that are research driven, um, and, uh, give our students, you know, a plethora of access to different data based sources in science and math and global history and different, um, aspects of education. So let's make sure we get that information out to our students in
044a, in a way that has hyperlinks, uh, easy to log on and, um, any kind of passwords they might need. Um, but, uh, thanks to both seasoned. I know Mr. Simpkins, uh, is on the Boces board. Uh, they have traditionally provided those databases, uh, to us, and, uh, many of them are considerable as well. So we do get funding back, uh, when we purchase those and the support to use them. So we don't want to just give access to something. We need to teach you how to use it. YouTube is something kids use from the time they're in business, but they may not use, uh, uh, research driven, searchable tools. So that's a great use of librarians and teachers. And the less, uh, aspect with that, um, is to make sure that they learn proper
045citation. Uh, so the source that they are, um, retrieving the information on and so that they are citing that source, uh, properly as well. Thanks. So I know board. Um, we don't have discussion around community comment. We're really happy to hear community comment, but we don't do back. We really try hard not to do back and forth. So we don't have a precedent. But I'm addressing the board here, just saying that some items have come up that I think are really good for future discussion. And we have discussed in the past maybe just wanting to see the financials on different types of needed bussing. Um, just at least to know what our trade offs are. Um, and to, you know, get that input of those, you know, people who are having situations where little kids
046are having to walk a long distance or, um, or high schoolers maybe having to walk their siblings and getting here late. And, um, you know, I can definitely I know we've all for those who've been on a long time, it's, um, it is a big trade off. And the bus companies are very expensive and getting more expensive every year. Um, but, uh, it's it's also an ongoing issue in the community, and we're aware of it. And I definitely think it might just be time for us to at least I just at least want to know what we're looking at. Sure. Can I follow up with a question real quick? Um, I guess I'm curious. Does the city ever have some sort of avenue where we can partner with them so that we can get a
047student card for students who might live on the outskirts or closest to, you know, the bordering communities. Um, to help alleviate some of that, I'm just curious. Do you have something like that? So we, um, we had spoken with the county, uh, to see if we can get increase. Um, I think it's called the beeline service here. Um, and we made that formal request from them as well. Uh, they, I know they look at it demographically and where where the busses are, um, most needed, but I think, uh, maybe even a partnership in in how we request that we have a county legislators, uh, former board member as well, who is always lends open ear to our, uh, needs as well. And so I can follow up with him and, and would love to even
048connect with our students to be part of that as well. Thank you for coming and speaking with us. Um, we hope to hear from you again. Every meeting. Um. Um, but we'll move on now. So old business. Is there any old business? No. Any new business? Okay. Policy readings. We have our first reading on the ballot on the following policy is policy number 1120, uh, school district records and regulations. School districts are now required to notify employees whenever the district is responding to a request for their disciplinary records pursuant to a foil. And we also have our first reading on policy 9170, which is the Meals and Refreshment and Regulation. Are there any questions or comments? No. Okay. Excepting of minutes. Any questions or comments on the minutes? May I please have a motion to
049accept the minutes for business meeting of October 21st, 2025. Business Meeting work Session November 4th, 2025. So moved by Frank and second by Christina. All in favor? Hi. Any nays? Any abstention. Consent agenda. Do we have any comments, questions or thoughts on the consent agenda? I just have one question on the, um, consent agenda. Um, for the special services. Um, you know how we had that, folks regionalization meeting in September? I was wondering if there was any updates because I know what is going to take some time about, like the bussing situation, because we have a few schools that are going to need bussing. So if there was any further movement on that. Yes. Thank. Uh thank you. Um, board member Washington, we actually just spoke about that at our last, uh, countywide superintendents, um,
050meeting. And so we did submit and thank you for board approving that. One of the areas is to, uh, see how we can collectively work together as school districts. We may have 1 or 2 students headed down county. Our neighboring district has 1 or 2 students. The next district on the way there has 1 or 2 students. And so, uh, what we end up doing is all three of us are sending a bus to the same location, same school, and, uh, we could collaborate and split the cost, save costs, save emissions, and also save time, uh, for, for, uh, all of our bus runs so that we can reallocate those back to the district for field trips and things of that nature. So the plan is moving forward. Um, and that's one of the key
051areas that, uh, thank you again to the board, uh, for supporting that. That's one of the key areas that we signed up to be a partner with other communities. If there are no further questions. Can I have a motion to approve consent agenda items ten A through 13 a similar move by Brown one seven. Second by Amy. All in favor? Any nays? Any abstention. Are there any committee reports or comments? I just want to talk about the conference, uh, that we went to. Um, I thought it was, um. Um, great that we had a chance again to get together as a board. Uh, but also just hear what's going around, um, the different, um, districts. Um, and, um, what's interesting is. Um, you know, you never know how you're doing as a district until you
052hear what other other districts are doing. And, you know, some, some things we have been doing for years now. And sometimes we, um, hold a, a, um, um, session on, on something that we're doing here. But I just want to say that the community is, you know, we're lucky, um, to have, um, somebody, uh, that is a visionary where he brings back to his team, um, the things that he's hearing in the community, but also hearing from us and, um, and, and, you know, Doctor Russo does a great job of of having an open air to a lot of things, a lot of concerns that we have. And, you know, he's brought a lot of things to our district that I just want to say sometimes, you know, he probably doesn't hear it enough, but
053just want to just say thank you, um, for being that leader and being, uh, and your team for following your lead and, um, just making sure that Peekskill is getting the best of what what we deserve. Right. And so and that comes from when you're talking about security, you're talking about our capital projects. Um, all those things kind of make us, you know, the district that we are, and we keep moving in that right direction. So again, every time I go to these conferences, I'm thinking I'm going to hear something new and different. And a lot of times we're already doing a lot of those things. So just just want to say thank you. Thank you. And this team right here. Uh, they make it happen. And so, uh, and also this team right here.
054Uh, U7, uh, board members, those of the past as well. If it wasn't for the collaboration, uh, the the unity and doing what's best for kids, um, and having people that work day in, day out, weekends, evening hours, uh, supporting our students as if they were their own. So thank you, team. And thank you, team. Just as a committee report. That reminds me, we, uh, have since our last meeting, I think had our, um, PTO meeting. Right. And, um, it was fantastic. And thank you so much to the staff who came actually, that. No, we have had a meeting since then because they came to the meeting. Then they came to the board. But it was a great meeting. Lots of really, uh, involved parents and really caring staff. So thank you. And with everything
055going on, um, I don't want anyone to forget that there was also a hurricane in the, um, Caribbean. So in Peekskill, there's also going to be a, uh, relief drive, um, in response to Hurricane Melissa. So that'll be on Saturdays. Uh, uh, November 22nd by the red door or inside the red door. I'm not sure what the name of the organization is, but you can find the information online. The Peekskill Herald did a piece on it, and then, uh, um, fliers also going around Facebook. Um, and if you just Google, um, the support drive, it'll, it'll come up. So if you want to give support to that as well. And then, um, I'm sure we're going to hear a lot more about drives happening, um, as Christmas time approaches. So just keep an ear out
056if you want to help members of our community in different ways, we will do what we can to share that information as well. Um, if there are there any other comments I could just share? Uh, one of our student, uh, board representatives is also leading an effort as well. And she was under the weather today and couldn't make it. But, uh, we'll certainly get a report out from her as well who want to join in that effort as a school district? Um, to support, uh, our fellow, uh, brothers and sisters in Jamaica. And also, um, Janice, really just want to share with the board. She's very humble. Um, but she went on, uh, took some time off and actually went to teach teachers in Jamaica how to use their interactive display boards that we have
057and took that information to them. And they are now using that as well. And so. Your reach is far. And thank you for all that you do. If there is no further comments, I would like to adjourn the public session of the meeting to I. Um. It's a yeah. So to an executive session for a personnel matter. Can I get a motion moved by Brannan? Second by Frank. All in favor? Aye. Any needs? Any abstentions? Good night, everyone. Thank you for coming.