001So. Okay. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Buenos dias. Buenos noches. Bienvenidos. Welcome, everyone, to our Board of Education meeting. It is the last Board of Education meeting of the 2526 school year. Let's give you all a big round of applause. And thank you for. To our trustees and board President Belen, for all of your dedication, volunteerism this year and commitment to our Peekskill Promise and to all of our students and their families and staff. So thank you again. Let's give our Board of Education around the applause and applause para la junta de Educacion. And I have a few updates, and we will conclude with celebration of some of our students. And then we will also have a special presentation from parents. And so very excited to see our parents here. Bienvenidos a nuestros padres. Let's
002give our parents a big round of applause. Gracias por estar aqui esta noche. And we were here for two from two of them shortly with administrators. And as our president shared, we will close the meeting with a moment of silence and reflection on Trammell and want to wish his family the condolences from our district. And we were able to support the family over the last two weeks and will continue to do so as well. I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate again our tenure recipients and our retirees. These are our teachers and teacher assistants who receive tenure in our school district. This is a very big commitment on behalf of the Board of Education and our district administrative team, and we were excited to see them. Thank you, Doctor Vilas Rodriguez, who capped
003all of our tenure, um, new tenure candidates. And they are part of the, um, the team. And they bring their superpower with them each and every day. And also to our retirees. We say thank you for their many of them, three decades plus of dedication to education, and many of whom had their entire career spent here in Peekskill City School District, serving our children and their families. Big round of applause for our ten candidates and our retirees. I'd like to take the opportunity to identify students that were honored at the seventh annual New ERA Creative Spaces Youth Celebration, and one is David Hoilett. He is one of our actors, and I don't know if David is here today. Okay. Uh, he is probably studying for his next play and or his next song recital that
004he will sing. And we also have, um, Ellen Morrell, who is one of our board ex-officio trustee members, and she was recognized as well. So congratulations and thank you to Rizwan Foxhall and to the entire NHS team. Thank you for your partnership and all that you do. And then that is our security greeter. Our security guard from the high school. Um, uh, Mr. Merriweather as well. I know him by Kiki. Uh, Mr. Merriweather. And he's a great, uh, long term person from Peekskill and also a great person at the high school that connects very well with our kids and supports them. Let's give him a round of applause as well. The prom was such an amazing opportunity. Uh, I want to really thank all of our families, staff and everyone who came together to wish
005them off and send them off to the prom. Board of trustees were there, as well as parents and also as trustees. Uh, many staff members came out. The whole community really comes out to celebrate. Uh, one of my daughter's, uh, friend's father said, wow. The Peekskill City School District even got horses and a and a buggy to pick up the students. And I said, we need a, you know, 250 of those. But we didn't do that. But some family member really got together and did something great. Let's give all of our seniors and those who attended a big round of applause, and they all look wonderful. And I heard they had a wonderful time at the prom. They do not want me there. And so I only wish them well as I see them off.
006We do have administrators that are here, so if our administrative team can stand up, let's give them a round of applause. I saw Doctor Ferris, our high school principal. Mario Oliveira Flores. Carmen Vargas is in the back. And at the last board meeting, I'm all always sharing so many details. I forgot to, um, introduce Doctor Kern Mojica as the interim incoming principal of the high school. Please stand up. Let's give him a round of applause. El nuevo principal de la Escuela Superior. Our next celebration. This is a busy month. I love the month of June. Um, every night, almost every night, there is something special, including Fridays and weekends happening. And, uh, the concerts that happen in all of our schools are amazing. This is the spring concert. Let's give all of our music teachers
007a big round of applause. They really ended the year off with wonderful concerts celebrating the musical talents of our students. I want to also congratulate our scholar athletes and they are scholars then athletes. And these are our students who play sports and were accepted to college to play that sport. And they signed on right here in this auditorium, uh, on senior signing day. And great to see some of our students being accepted and moving on to play the sport that they love, but also to pursue the academic careers as well as they move forward to secondary education upon graduating next Friday, I cannot believe. Next Friday. And so let's give our scholar athletes a big round of applause. Austin Goldberg and the team for making that happen. Uh, many celebrations. Another celebration happened at the
008middle school and also most recently at the high school. This is the honor society, uh, induction ceremony and really excited about the the work that our students are putting in each and every day to improve and to continue the academic success. And they are destined to greatness in high school, but also at the college collegiate level. And they're at the top of that game with commitment, character development and academic excellence as well. Let's give all of our inductees a big round of applause as well. And under Doctor Ferris's leadership in support of the board and Doctor Budai. We have continually added new honor societies. You see them? The flags listed there below. Um, over the last couple of years, we have grown tremendously in the number of honor societies, and we will continue to do
009so as well. This is just a wonderful night. I have never heard of a pre-K prom, uh, till a couple of years ago, but I know it now. And so does our community. And they come out, uh, in their gowns and you can see this young, uh, scholar over here in his pink suit with a bow tie with his mom and dad, and our kids have a ball at the ball. And so let's give, uh, Mrs. Russo the entire elementary pre-K team a big round of applause. Give them a round of applause for this wonderful prom. Maybe next year we'll have a horse and buggy carriage ride, and they will bring them to the prom. We also want to thank. We have Jan Carbo from our PTO. She's our president of our PTO. Jen, please
010stand. Let's give her a big round of applause in our Plaza para la Senora Calvo. Thank you for all your leadership and support. And we also have members of the, um, the school leadership teams as well, the PLT members, if any PLT members can stand. Please stand up. Let us recognize you. But let's give them all a big round of applause. This was part of the big end of the year celebration. Gracias. And, uh, they donate so much in time, energy and resources and funds. And this was a great event that happened at the high school to kick off and get our students ready for the Regents exams. So thank you again to our PTO and our plants and our administrators for making this partnership work. That's how it worked when parents and school leaders
011work together with staff. This was something I had no idea about. Again, our PTO supported this and this was Mrs. Sandra, our vice president, who is ending her vice presidency this year. But she really went out with a wonderful event. And miss Angel Flores and I were part of it. So the pitch to me was, could we have a race around the field and we'll throw powdered color colored powder at you as you run by, and then you wear a white shirt and we promise it'll come out. Um, I will say that I tested it. It did come out. Um, and it was an amazing day. The cloud cover stayed until we were done. And the kids and families, the staff members, all of our administrators who came out, staff members who came out. And
012thank you, PTO, for putting on this annual, first annual PTO color run. We'll do it again. And this was great. From pre-K all the way to the upper grades, families and kids were running around the entire track and having a wonderful experience. And then they got a tie dye looking shirt at the end of it. So let's give our PTO again, round of applause and say thank you. Speaking of our staff, if we have staff members in the audience, please stand up. We want to recognize you. I see our amazing physical education teacher in the back. This is Johnson. Yes. Thank you for representing. And her family as well. Uh, PTO officers want to say a very special thank you. As I mentioned, Mrs. Sandra Walton, uh, is no longer the vice president. She completed
013her term, but she's going to stay engaged in the PTO work each year. And then Yolanda Cruickshank was the treasurer. And so I want to give both of them a round of applause for their volunteerism and leadership. Say thank you. And we have two incoming PTO members who are joining us as well. They were recognized at the end of the year PTO meeting. that is Vice President elect Arianna Loayza and Treasurer elect Craig Stillwell. Let's give them a big round of applause. Peekskill always has wonderful community partners and parents coming out and saying, we want to do more. This is the Peekskill Racket Association. This was an event that was held at the middle school, where they had over 30 middle school students, and they were there to learn about tennis. And so the Peekskill
014Racket Association and collaboration with the city school district and the city of Peekskill will provide an opportunity, a club next year, starting in the fall, where seventh, eighth, ninth, seventh, eighth and ninth graders can be part of this. This will lead to a team that we're going to bring back to Peekskill. Some of you may remember the tennis team. Bless you. And so we're excited about bringing this this initiative back. They're part of the Saturday Program initiative. My daughter got a chance to do that. We opened up Woodside Elementary School so they could have a winner experience with parents and students, learning tennis and practicing their skills. Let's give Alex Smith. He's one of our parents and community members and leaders. A big round of applause for making this happen. And thank you for bringing
015it to Peekskill. And if you don't know, Alex Smith was played the piano for Lady Gaga on concerts when he toured the world with her. So thank you again, Alex. Multi-talented. If you can share some of that talent with us, we would greatly appreciate it. Uh, Uriah Hill had a wonderful day. Just grows each and every year. But Uriah Hill had fun in the Sunday, and you can see these great opportunities where our kids got to. And it was hot. Um, so I know we really appreciated this. Thank you again, Melissa Russo, Amanda Cardona, all of the staff and parents who are a part of this effort. Let's give our Uriah Hill team a big round of applause for bringing these wonderful. Exciting opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, the middle school also had an Honor
016Society induction, but they also had their award ceremony as well. Thank you, Mr. Peters, Mrs. Belvedere and Mrs. Mendoza, and the entire team of teachers and staff who make this happen. Packed house from our families who came out. What a cheerful event. So let's give our middle school team around the applause and say thank you. Doctor Ferris. President Villon and I had the great opportunity to attend the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendent scholarship Dinner. Each year they award scholarships. The students don't know who is going to receive a scholarship. The valedictorian and saluted are part of the dinner from every school in 78 districts in Westchester County and across the river and up north. And our own Josh Molina won a $4,000 scholarship that night. That is a great dinner to go to. Let's
017give Josh a big round of applause. Josh is headed to Boston University to study mechanical engineering and Leonida Estévez. Our salutatorian is headed to Columbia University, so let's give them both a big round of applause. Yes! Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Two years ago, our salutatorian went to Columbia. She is headed to Princeton. Also an Ivy League university. Let's give her another round of applause. Where is she? Where's. I don't see her. Oh, there she is. Stand on up. You're going to an Ivy League school, and you're the. Yes, valedictorian. Thank you for being here to supporting your your classmates as well. Grade three moving up ceremony. Every school is having their moving up ceremonies. This is the one I got to be at as a dad. And so a wonderful moment to see our
018students shine. Thank all of our teachers and administrators for all that they do and great events. So let's give all of our principals and teachers a big round of applause for putting on these wonderful moving up ceremonies. There was Woodside. Take a look at their amazing event as well. And I'd want to get to the conclusion, which is also want to recognize the importance of Juneteenth. Uh, community, if you don't know about Juneteenth, it is something easy to find on the internet. Um, certainly we have activities that will be shared with our families, but we are lucky to be free. And there were people who waited two years, in particular slaves who were brought here not of their own will and waited two years, they didn't even know that they were free. And two years
019later, the message got to them in Texas and they learned about their freedom. And that is the celebration of Juneteenth. And each and every year it happens in not every state, but most states. And luckily, New York State celebrates that this Friday is celebration of Juneteenth. So don't just take it as a day off. Take it as an opportunity to learn. In my Friday letter, there will be resources for families for you to learn and, um, learn more about Juneteenth and its age. Appropriate by Doctor Daniels. A very important time in our history and in the time that we can never repeat. So our freedom is so important. So we want to thank everyone. It is a celebration. So let us celebrate. Let's give a round of applause to the city, the school district, everyone
020coming together to celebrate Juneteenth. A very important, momentous occasion. Thank you all for what you do. And the march will be on. Um, on the 20th. And so want to make sure that all of our families are able to go to that as well. And more information will be in my Friday letter of location and time. And that is happening this weekend as well. Uh, would like to congratulate Olivia. This is a new, uh, acknowledgment and a new opportunity for our students. And we're going to continue to move this forward. And I want to thank her mother, as well, who found this opportunity. This is the national Spanish exam. This is, um, an exam that's offered in the nation. She received a level four and a silver award, took this national exam, and, uh, we're
021so proud of her. Let's give her a big round of applause. She couldn't make it today. She has another event, but we will certainly celebrate her as we move forward. Senior Awards Night is June 23rd at the Paramount. Uh, next week and really looking forward to that event. A very important time where we celebrate the academic excellence and also give the scholarship announcements to all of our students and looking forward to having everyone at the Paramount at that event. And then June 25th. Next Friday we have Uriah Hill graduation at the High school Hillcrest moving up ceremony at the high school as well. Two ceremonies each. The the middle school will have their graduation at the Paramount. And then after that, we will just keep hydrating all day long and eating in between these wonderful
022ceremonies. And so I want to thank all of our team. It's going to be a busy week next week, but it's an exciting week where we celebrate all of our students and reminder June 25th and 26th is an early release date for pre-K to eight. High school is already taking assessments and our graduation next Friday, June 26th, 7 p.m. at the Westchester County Center. Really looking forward for that opportunity as well. And tonight we are also is, uh, Natalie Ortega here. She is here. Come on up. Uh, she has had a wonderful year. Celebrated many times. Yes. Come on over here. And, uh, she has her award, which she'll show off, uh, in just a moment. Uh, but I got to meet her at many of the event. She's on the dance team with Mrs.
023Johnson and her peers. She's always involved in many of the activities at the high school. And then I also got to meet her as well at the New York State Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents, where she received the scholarship. So let's give her a round of applause for that. And those of you who are into the artistic world and know about Emmys and Grammys, uh, those are the awards for adults who are performing on Broadway and other, um, Important venues, and there is a version called the Westchester County metros. And the metros are recognition of the talent of students from high schools. We have not had someone from Peekskill win a metro at least since I've been here. And at least as Laura can remember before I got here as well. And Natalie is
024Ortega is our first winner in recent times, but maybe ever. And we are really excited about this award opportunity that she had received at the event this, uh, this week. And so, uh, there's when can you show your star? Let's give her a round of applause. Yes. And this was, for once on this island, the play and all of her work that she did with choreography and with Mrs. Johnson, uh, she is videotaping in the back. Let's give her a round of applause. She's an amazing teacher. Gets our kids into numerous activities as well. So with that, I'm going to have you stand in the center. Doctor Ferris. Doctor Mojica aboard. If we can come down, we're going to recognize her. Take a picture. And while she walks up, let's give her another big cheer
025and a round of applause. Yes, yes. Yes, absolutely. I move at the pace. Oh. You're allowed. I am so sorry that I had you sit down, but we have two more board members that we are going to recognize. Sorry, I didn't think ahead. Um, we want to thank our ex-officio student board members. This is, uh, we have two individuals who have dedicated themselves to bring voice, uh, from our student body at the high school to the board table and the public dialog. Um, to Leah Martin. Let's give her a round of applause. And, Talia, we're going to have you stand up right in the center here. And I have two certificates that we're going to provide. And then we also have Ella morrell. Talia is going to college next year, and Ella morrell is going
026to stay with us. Yes. And she is going to stay with us one more year as a junior. So come join us in the center. Sorry, boy. Can you join us one more time? We're going to take a great picture with your one outgoing board member and one who is remaining. Just in, Talia is headed to an HBCU, Howard University. Yes. Excellent, excellent. Might as well do it now. Um, Ella, if you can come up, where's Ella? Yes. So you're going to give flowers to the outgoing board member who's going to Howard University. So you're going to give her flowers as a junior. And I have certificates for each. Never a shortage of Peekskill pride and a great way to end our board meeting for the year with celebrating our scholars and and then also
027tonight celebrating our parents as well. What you see here is a picture of our parents who are part of a Latino parent leadership, um, group. And they dedicated and volunteer their time, and we had staff members who were part of it. Carmen Vargas, Maria Oliva Flores, and our very own Mary Mendez battle as well. And they were part of a team developing their leadership skills. And they also connected with parents from Tarrytown as well. And so at this time, I'm going to call up Carmen Vargas to come forward. Oh, Melissa going first. Oh, Melissa, you going to go first. Okay. Uh, Melissa is going to actually go first. Uh, because she's going to share the technology that you have before you knock on uh, uh, plexiglass. Uh, that it will work. Um, and so this
028technology we use in our schools, and it was part of a pilot, and the thought was where we had multiple teachers in a classroom. Special ed teachers with a teacher, English as a second language, teachers with Gen Z teachers and teaching at the same time. And so I thought was what we could give them technology to kind of isolate the teacher's voice, and students can hear them better and be part of the lesson. And so we tried it that way. This technology actually came from our parent engagement technology where we translate to families as well. So tonight board, you will receive the presentation at that moment and when we're ready and we'll tell you to put them on and you'll hear it in English while our families here in Spanish. Um, and so we're excited
029about this opportunity to talk to us about it is, uh, Melissa McKinley Cruz, and she is our interim director of special education instruction. So let's give her a round of applause and welcome her up. Good evening. My name is Melissa McKinley Cruz. I am the interim director of special education instruction. I'm going to speak to you a little bit about listen, talk technology, which you have in front of you. Um, and it is a two way wireless communication transceivers. And essentially it's a headset attached to a system that allows you to have a presenter speak to everyone listening, and controls when one person may speak or when many people may speak at the same time. Um, this technology allows for noise cancellation and assists with high noise with a high noise environment. Um. Originally this
030was used in the district for parent engagement events. Um, and where a translator would be translating to parents in Spanish while someone was presenting the presentation in English. Um, then over the last couple of years, we've, um, transitioned into giving the technology to ICT teachers and NL teachers who use it with shared spaces. They use it when there's noise or another. Another lesson going on in the same classroom. It helps with noise cancellation, it helps with focusing and concentration with the students. And so the teachers and the students have been using it in those shared spaces and those environments. Tonight, our board members will have the opportunity to try these devices as my colleagues present, so that everyone can see it in practice. Thank you, Mrs. McKinley, for helping facilitate that board. This is a
031pilot. We are getting feedback from teachers. They gave us valuable feedback on how we might move forward and when. It makes the best sense to use it in our classrooms. And then tonight we're going to use it as part of our presentation. So I think I'm calling up mrs. Vargas next as she works with traffic control to make sure everything is working. Let's give Mrs. Vargas and Mrs. Flores a big round of applause. Mrs. Vargas, will you guide us when to put on our headphones and turning them on and getting us ready? You'll let us know when. Absolutely. Okay. So good evening, Doctor Mauricio. Good evening. Board president, trustees, colleagues, families and members of our community. My name is Carmen Vargas, and I am the proud director of multilingual learners and world languages. And with
032me joining me tonight is. Good evening everybody. My name is Maria Olivier Flores, and I am the very proud director of the 21st Century Extended Day program. Okay. So good evening again to the board members, superintendents and members of the Peekskill community. When I noticed at Todos Aqui, um, as we gather tonight to discuss this initiative, it is only fitting that we begin where we always do by grounding ourselves in our Peekskill promise. Specifically, we look at our pillar of building powerful parent, family and community partnerships. This initiative we're presenting tonight is not just a new program. It is a direct reflection of that promise. We know that education does not begin and end at the schoolhouse doors. Every parent that engages with us and invest in our vision adds another level of strength to
033our foundation. Our schools are at their strongest when they act as the heartbeat of the community and our students thrive when they are supported by a unified vision. At this time, I would like to hand it over to Miss Vargas, who would share a little bit more about the Latino Parent Leadership Institute. So tonight, we are proud to share the work of our Latino Parent Leadership Institute. This initiative was developed in collaboration with my colleague Maria Oliveira Flores and inspired by the work of the Tarrytown Union Free School District. About a year ago, Tarrytown invited us to attend their Latino Parent Institute conference, and Maria and I had the opportunity to bring a few of our parents. That experience helped us see the power of creating a similar structure here in Peekskill. And we said,
034let's go, we can do it. One that empowers Latino families through a culturally responsive and community center leadership model. The Parent Leadership Institute was created to build parents confidence, knowledge, and advocacy skills so they can take active leadership roles and create a lasting impact within our schools and community. I want to take a moment to thank the Board of Education, Doctor Mauricio, Doctor Aviles Rodriguez and Doctor Budai for believing in this work and helping us bring this vision to life. Throughout the year, we conducted monthly meetings with our parents community. Each session included a book study and a social emotional learning component that allowed parents to reflect on their own experiences, their role as leaders, and the powerful impact they have on their children's education. And now I'll return it to Miss Flores for the
035next slide. Thank you. Carmen. So, like Carmen said, over our recent sessions, we've covered the topics you see listed on the slides. I'm going to give you a couple of minutes or one minute just to look over, so you could see how comprehensive the discussions were. A major cornerstone of our time together was a book study on guitar solo. Para obtener éxito de padres para padres, or You're not Alone recipes for success. Stories of parents to parents. This incredible book was put together by a wonderful group of authors, including Sandra Avendano and edited by Letty Ramirez. We dove. We drove deep into the chapters to focus on two main areas first, navigating the school system and advocacy. We focus heavily on how to support our children by establishing structure at home, building early literacy, and
036truly bridging the gap between home and school. The second part of the book shifted towards physical, emotional, and social wellness. The section really highlights the power of parent leadership. It urges parents to find their voice, whether that means joining parent teacher committees, speaking up on topics that matter to them, or getting involved in community advocacy. What made these sessions so special was our ability to share our own challenges along with these ingredients for success. Our discussions were incredibly insightful and it was a privilege to hear, appreciate, and learn from all of our shared experiences. In our workshops, as you could see here, we made sure every single session kicked off with a mini presentation on how the school system operates. We directly aligned these lessons with the chapters that we are reading in your Not
037Alone. What you see here on this screen is a wonderful snapshot of that work. Our incredible parents, actively learning, sharing their stories and building the essential tools to be stronger advocates for their children. One of our absolute biggest goals for these sessions was making sure our families know that they're not doing this alone. To support that, we mapped out the exact resources available to them both right here in the district and in the wider community. On the district side, we highlighted to connect to adult education, school counseling services, and all the amazing services that we provide as a district. On the community side, we shared information on health care services, English classes and other um informative support systems in our community. By connecting all of these dots. We're giving parents the vital tools they need
038to support their child's wellbeing and education, both inside and outside the classroom. Now, one of the true highlights of these meetings was how we wrapped them up by anchoring everything, every session with the social emotional learning activity. To tell you a little bit more about this, I'm going to hand it over to Miss Vargas, who's going to talk about one of our activities. Thank you, Miss Flores. So as you heard, every activity in the institute was intentionally connected to the chapters we studied. One example was our school activity connected to the chapter La Primera Educacion, the first education. This chapter emphasizes that parents are their children's first teachers, and that their daily example helps shape their children's character, confidence and values. During this activity, parents decorated charcuterie boards as a symbol of the family space
039where they share food, conversation, love and guidance. As parents painted and designed their boards, they reflected on how their words, actions, and examples decorate or shape the home environment. The activity reinforced the message that every day, parents choose the words, gestures, and values that help their children grow with self-esteem, identity, and purpose. This experience connected SCL family reflection and parent leadership by honoring parents as powerful role models in their children's education, and in front of you is a little token of that activity. This is from our parents to each one of you, as a symbol of one of our activities that we did this year. So we were absolutely thrilled to invite some of our parents to attend the annual Nisava conference this year. By stepping into a statewide space, they were able to connect
040with bilingual educators, learning experts, and other passionate families from all across New York. They attended specialized workshops on dual language learning and students rights, but more than anything, it showed them that their voices matter at a much larger scale. They left that conference feeling incredibly proud of their bilingual heritage and deeply empowered to advocate for our students. But the journey did not end there. The powerful experience inspired by our parents to actually develop their own workshop on college acquisition to share with others they met as a team, put in hours of practice, and ultimately presented their work in the Tarrytown Parent Education Conference on May 9th. The second picture there, when our parents took the stage for this workshop, it was standing room only. They received incredible accolades for their presentation and made deep meaning
041connections with families from nearby districts. They presented that information with pure passion and shared conviction, proving that we as parents and family are truly here to lift up and support one another. We want to take a moment right now to give a huge congratulations and special recognition to our amazing parents who are sitting here in the audience for Nuestro Padre Lideres. Para una vez. Their journey this year has been nothing short of inspiring. Think about it. Back in October, they joined us simply to participate in a book club, eager to learn and connect. By May, through their immense hard work and dedication, they stepped up to become the facilitators themselves, sharing valuable resources and guiding other families. Bravo to all of you. We want to say a massive bravo to them for their courage, their
042heart, and the drive to participate in this journey. And now I'm going to hand it over to Carmen for the certificates. And we will now move into the certificate presentation to recognize our parents. So at this time, we ask the board members to please put on your headphones. We will be speaking in Spanish to our parents, and this will also give everyone the opportunity to experience the translation devices that support communication and access to our families. Before we begin our presentation. We do have two parents that are going to speak tonight. So Buenas noches, querida madres. Hoy ustedes estan aqui porque queremos conocer su valentia. Su compromiso y su deseo de aprender para qué junto con la comunidad escolar. Podemos a paja mejor a nuestros ninos. Ustedes son mujeres lucha horas. An honor ver las
043aprender creature in poder arce. Sabemos qué todo lo qué hacen nace del amor Q por su hijos y el deseo de brinda. Mejor oportunidades. Esta noche. Queremos conocer sus Logronés sus dedication. Y el ejemplo tiempo de roso Q les Dan a sus familias gracias por confianza en este proceso por su voz y por converse en leaders dentro de nuestra comunidad escolar. Y ahora tenemos a dos madres Q desean compartir unas breves palabras primero a la senora Natalia Sanchez. Muy buenas noches a el grupo de Lydia's Como de padres del Distrito Escolar de Biscay. Una oportunidad invaluable. No solo a perdido conocer a otros padres. Qué forma parte de esta comunidad, sino también a tenido el privilege de compartir experiencias, conocimiento y sobre todo un espacio donde podemos reflexion sobre Como podemos impotence mucho la experiencia
044Como migrantes puede ser dificil en muchos sentido. Sin embargo, este espacio nos recuerda q existent oportunidades de crescimento no solo para nuestros hijos, sino también para nosotros Como padres Como lideres y Como comunidad. Aqui aprender nos vamos y no estamos solos en este camino. Quiero mi profundo viento al distrito escolar. ASI Como a la senora Flores a la Senora Vargas por facilitator este espacio, seguro y Significative para Los padres hispano antes de Peekskill. Gracias por crear nosotros y por abrir puertas Portales a nuestras familias a nuestra comunidad mil gracias. Vamos a nuestra mama Lilia Quezada. Miss Vargas as she makes her way up. Trustees on the side. If you raise the volume a top button here, you'll get the full effect of the noise canceling. And only here a translator who's in the back if
045you need. Buenas noches de autoridades maestros, companeros publico in general. Mi nombre es Lilia Quezada. Soy madre de dos Nina's ser parte del grupo del padres. Pasando de ser una madre. Reunions A compartir dentro del grupo. Encontrar confianza para compartir. Mi voz con Los demas y aprender me historia y miss perspectivas son importantes presented en una conferencia. Algo nunca imagina podria hacer, pero este grupo del apoyo y el animo para creer en mi misma el de padres me cuando Los padres estan informacoes, estamos apoyo dorados. Podemos marca una diferencia para nuestros hijos, nuestras escuelas y nuestra comunidad. Gracias. She makes me teary eyed all the time because you guys should have seen her. The first day that she came so very shy. No talking. And to see her developed into this leader. To touch us
046here. Gracias. And now we're going to call each of our parents up. So I don't know if you want to come. Yes. You have the trustees. If we can flank towards the sides and we'll have all the parents come in the center and we'll give them a certificate. They'll come to the center. We'll take one big group photo. Okay. Yes. If we can go down and we'll call them on. Natalia Sanchez bar. Alba. Quezada. Jenny. Chapa. Lilia. Quezada. Maria. Alexandra. Pinto. Tatiana. Pinto. Veronica. Ordonez. Sonia. Crispi. Maria. Amanda. Alexandra Ibarra. Maria menjivar. Okay, so before we take the picture, if you guys could give me one moment because I would just like to recognize somebody who did not want to be recognized. But definitely she deserves this moment. She's always working behind the scenes, and
047she's an integral part of the work that we do with our parent Latino parent leadership. I know she does not want to be here, but she was the one who recruited a lot of our parents. She was in every meeting and she is dedicated to this cause. I would like to call Carrie Mary Battle Mendez. And one last person that couldn't be here tonight because she has class. So Miss Yolanda Campos. She is our Uriah Hill pre-K teacher. She gave her volunteer time every month, and not only was she present, but she was the one who coordinated boards, put together and taught our SL lessons for every parent. So let's give it for Yolanda Campos, who is watching us from home tonight. Again. Thank you. Board of education. Doctor. Mauricio. Doctor Rodriguez and Doctor Budai.
048For making this possible. And now I turn it to Doctor Mauricio. Thank you. Yes, yes. Felicidade is by this and want to just say Mrs. Vargas. Cabrera mendez. Battle. Um. And Maria Oliva Flores, uh, Yolanda Campos, who couldn't join us tonight. Um, and I want to thank. Let's give Tarrytown Doctor Sanchez and their team a big round of applause for including us in this effort. So the team came to me and said, can we apply for a grant so that we can host it here, uh, next year? And so we are certainly going to do that and reach out to our partners in Tarrytown and maybe Ossining and bring their families together. And so thank you for your leadership. Gracias a nuestros padres. Uh, thank you to our parents. Um, what I found is you
049gave voice to those who needed voice. You gave courage to those who needed courage. You gave opportunity when opportunity may not always be there in a moment where as a nation, this is not happening in every school community. This opportunity for parents to be uplifted for who they are in the language that they speak, from the culture from where they come and be embraced as members of this community does not happen everywhere, and it doesn't happen by accident. This is intentional work. This is volunteerism and this is heart centered leadership. Thank you to the three of you. Thank you to our parents. We appreciate you all. Another big, huge round of applause. But I know it's our fathers. And our our PTO president, Mrs. Carbo and I the PTO president. We talked about how can
050we merge our leadership team in our PTO, acknowledging that we may not always have the opportunity to bring those who speak a different language to those who may not raise their hand to be leaders in that context. But how do we bridge the gap, bring them together. And so moving forward, we are going to create an opportunity under the leadership of our president to bring our parents together and create co leadership with our families and continue this work into other communities in our district, which may not be part of the daily dialog that happens. Thank you, board, for supporting this work. Um, as I mentioned, there are other spaces where this would not be supported and encouraged, and I'm glad and so proud to be superintendent in a place where our leadership team can do
051so with courage, support and the effort that they have. And it takes your leadership to make it happen. So thank you everyone. Another round of applause for our leadership team. Thank you. And with that, I turn it back over to our president. Thank you all so much for that presentation and for being here tonight, and for all the work you did with the parent leadership organizations and getting involved. Um, our community only thrives when our students and our parents are engaged, and it means so much to reach out to further communities who might not have felt as engaged before. So I'm really thankful that the district has found ways to reach out to the families that may not have felt part before and make them a part of our system. So thank you so much.
052Does anyone on the board have any comments, questions or thoughts before we move on? Yeah, yeah. Just earlier we mentioned during pride, um, our, our board officers, our student board officers, and I just wanted to let the board know that, um, I was at the Westchester Putnam School Board Association dinner the other night, and I was so pleasantly surprised. Thank you to Mary and to Mr. Brown. They created a video, and our students were in the video being featured for all of Westchester Putnam School boards to hear from them, and just made me so proud. So, so nice to see them. Um, and the other thing I wanted to say is that our staff who come to the prom really turned out in style, looked amazing, and I think just made the night even that
053much more special. Great. We're going to move on to the hearing of this. Oh, you have one more thing. Okay. Um, thank you for that. Uh, prelude. Uh, um, member McDonald. Uh, we actually have the video, and we were going to close. You know, a wise person said, uh, to us as as school leaders begin with children and and with children. And so we're going to end tonight with a short video of our two, um, amazing ex-officio board members. Thank you for Kamari for bringing that. And I was so glad that it was showcased at the regional meeting. So I'll turn it over to Janice and then we'll turn it back. Uh uh, maybe President Vellani, we could do a quick recess, let everyone, uh, take their pictures, and, uh, do you want to open
054it up? So if anyone wants to stay, that's just our next order of business. Um, but if after the video, people need to go, need to eat, need to get their children to bed and everything else, that's absolutely fine as well. Yes. See, bothers are getting on la Junta aqui en el podium pueden queda en un memento para hablar con la junta también. Gracias. Hi everyone. I'm Talia morin, a graduating senior here at Peekskill City School District. And I'll be heading to Harvard University for the ball, and I am one of her first student board members in this district. Hi everyone, I'm Ellen Morrell. I'm a junior at Peekskill High School, and I am also one of the first student board members here at Peekskill School City School District. What we really wanted to emphasize
055was just how impactful this position has been to us. I know that we've been able to coordinate with programs at our school, such as the Superintendents Youth Advisory Council, to make a true change in our school. This year, we were able to advocate for two new AP class classes, so now we have AP environmental and AP psychology. I would also like to highlight the members of our board for truly encouraging us to embody this role in full effect, and just stepping outside of our comfort zone, always being there to educate us on something we might be unfamiliar about. And truly, I don't think this experience could have been as great as it is without them and their Encouragement. So thank you. Thank you. Bye, everyone. Bye. At this time we will take a recess. Those
056who wish to speak to the board. Public session. You can certainly stay. Uh. If not. Have a wonderful evening, and thank you all for coming out. Is everyone ready to come on back? Okay. Senior. Senioritis. Yes, exactly. That's right. She knew who to ask. You passed. All right, everyone, thank you. Um, we'll move on to the hearing of the citizens. So we encourage anyone to come out and come speak. But there's no one here tonight. So if you're watching at home and you feel like joining us one evening, we do do this at every meeting. So we welcome you to come on out. Um. Moving on. Old business. Is there any old business? New business. Any new business policy readings? We have no new policy readings at this time. Accepting of the minutes. Are there
057any questions or comments? No. Okay. May I please have a motion to accept the minutes for business meeting? May 19th, 2026. Business meeting work Session June 2nd, 2026. So moved. Moved by Brown. Seconded by Christina. All in favor? Aye. Any nays and any abstentions. Okay. Um, may I please have a motion to add? Rebecca Rodriguez, Alvarez. Rodriguez, Ellen Hackett and Jamal Lewis. Retroactive longevity stipends to the personnel agenda. And Carmen Mendez battles work agreement to the consent agenda moved by Brown. Second by Frank. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstentions? Okay. The consent agenda. Any comments, questions or thoughts? May I please have a motion to approve consent agenda items ten A through 13 B. So moved. Moved by Angel and second by Branwen. All in favor? Aye. Any nays, any abstentions, any committee
058reports or further comments. I did want to commend the superintendent and the principal. He mentioned we were at the dinner for the Hudson. What is it? The lower Hudson. Something of superintendents, um, honoring the students. And that was the same night of the tragic fire in town. And as soon as they got word that there was a fire in town, the two of them rushed to their phones to figure out where it was. Find out if there was any of our students that were impacted. Make phone calls to different school leaders to try to figure out if there was anything that was needed for our district. And as soon as they heard that one of our families for an out of district student was impacted. Um, we had taken a school bus there. So David
059hopped on the school bus, made him take him back to Peekskill, and got right into action to handle everything while the principal, um, Jennifer, stayed with the students to keep them calm and enjoying the evening. And then the bus came back and took everyone back to Peekskill, but the two of them just left their dinners, got up from the table, left the meeting, found cell service, and made sure that they were there for that. So that's the type of school officials that we have. And I'm extremely proud to live in a town where our community wraps around when people are in need. So I want to thank both of them. Thank you. Uh, if there are no further comments, uh, can I please have a motion to adjourn the meeting in memory of Trammell Taylor?
060Moved by Angel. Second. Second by Frank. All in favor? Aye. Any nays? Any abstentions. Trammell. Taylor. Whereas Trammell brought joy, brought joy to everyone who met him and had the pleasure to work with him. Whereas Trammell was a Peekskill resident, and while his time here was brief, he made a lasting impact on our district staff. And whereas Trammell attended the Westchester School for Special Children. Trammell enjoyed sports, music and learning. And Whereas, Trammell loved his family and was revered by everyone who knew him. Therefore, be it resolved that Trammell spirit will live on and always be remembered as a Peekskill City School District student. June 16th, 2026. Good evening everyone.